Trade Wind Vamp

About this piece

A practice tune of our own for the island strum. Its last four bars are a vamp: D7, G7, C, the little chord turn that Hawaiian musicians play to end a song or to fill the space between verses. Learn those four bars until your hand finds D7 and G7 without looking; you’ll meet the same turn in many songs. The tune itself uses only chord tones, so you can pick it while a friend strums.

What it practices

• the island strum
• the D7–G7–C vamp
• C, F, D7 and G7
• ending on a strummed chord

Chords in this song

C · F · D7 · G7

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

Where the notes come from

Our own tune, written for this course (no outside source). The chords around it are the common ones of the key of C; the D7–G7–C turn is the vamp described in our chapter on Hawaiian song style.

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.