Oh Shenandoah (Tab)
Loads of people have covered Oh Shenandoah, but the Tom Waits and Keith Richards version is the one I’m most familiar with.
I’ve arranged it three different ways. In order of easiest to trickiest. I’d recommend using this version as a springboard for your own. You can mix and match sections and add your own ideas.
Intro: Just a short intro to establish the harmony.
Verse 1: A very simple way of playing it. There are a few grace notes and an Fmaj7 chord in bar 6. But that’s as fancy as it gets.
Verse 2: This verse harmonises the melody. It’s starts using thirds. Then switches to using a pedal at the end of bar 15 (around the open g-string and A-string, 7th fret). Then, bars 16-17 switch to sixths. After that, it goes back to using thirds.
Verse 3: This one throws around all sorts of curlicues and filigree. There’s a lot of jumping up and down the fretboard and rapid hammer-ons and pull-offs. By far the hardest section, but still not too bad. You can add more frills here if you like. Or pare it back and make it more tasteful.
