Night Herd Waltz

About this piece

Cowboys on the old cattle trails took turns riding slowly around the herd at night, and they sang to keep the cattle calm. Many of their songs were slow waltzes like this one. Strum it with the waltz pattern: the thumb or pick plays the bass note of the chord on beat 1, then two light down strums. Then pick the tune, which never leaves the top three strings.

What it practices

• 3/4 time
• bass, strum, strum
• G, C, D7 and G7 chords
• a tune on the top three strings

Chords in this song

G · C · D7 · G7

Each link opens the chord finder with more ways to play that chord.

Where the notes come from

Original composition by Teddy Rook Book for this course (no source needed); the bass-strum waltz accompaniment is traditional.

How to practice with it

1. Listen first. Press Play and follow along. The note being played lights up in the tab, in the notation and on the fretboard, and the chord being played lights up in the row of chord diagrams.
2. Learn the chords. Press each diagram to hear it, then practice changing between them slowly, before you add the strum pattern under the tab.
3. Slow it down. Use − and + to set the tempo. 60% is a good place to start; the notes keep their pitch.
4. One part at a time. Choose Tab only to hear the tune alone, or the other part alone, then put them together.
5. Loop the hard part. Under More…, turn on Loop, pick the bars, and play them a few times in a row. Count-in gives you a bar of clicks before it starts.

Click a bar in the music to start from there. Space plays and pauses. Left-handed? Turn on the left-handed view: the chord diagrams and the fretboard are mirrored to match your instrument. Tab reads the same either way: the top line is always the first (highest) string.