Western Swing

Hey everybody,
Anybody know some basic western swing chord progressions? I'm trying to learn Jimmy Bryant stuff, and have learned some tunes by ear, but it's hard to see where some of the runs and licks are coming from because I don't know the chord progressions. It's really hard to hear that rythym section on those old recordings. Any body know some common ones? Thanks!

A lot of the tunes are simple I IV V progressions, but like all Swing tunes, having cycles of dominant seventh chords is commonplace. And so, in the key of C progressions like C A7 D7 G7 are common, as is C D7 G7 C. You also sometimes see C E7 A7 D7 G7 C. A lot of times the bridge will go to the relative minor, Am in the key of C, and as part of that Am E7 Am, or E7 Am is common. The tune Right or Wrong has cycles of dominant seventh chords and is a good tune to study. Also, a lot of what you are hearing as different chords may be a static chord with a moving bass line, ie C/C C/B C/A C/G.

You could also watch Leon's excellent video lessons on Western Swing. They show a lot of what's going on. http://www.youtube.com/user/ljgaustin#p/u

the night rider is pretty straightforward, its like the changes to Viper. I will try to write it out later, as I'm pretty slow at it

A lot of the tunes are simple I IV V progressions, but like all Swing tunes, having cycles of dominant seventh chords is commonplace. And so, in the key of C progressions like C A7 D7 G7 are common, as is C D7 G7 C. You also sometimes see C E7 A7 D7 G7 C. A lot of times the bridge will go to the relative minor, Am in the key of C, and as part of that Am E7 Am, or E7 Am is common. The tune Right or Wrong has cycles of dominant seventh chords and is a good tune to study. Also, a lot of what you are hearing as different chords may be a static chord with a moving bass line, ie C/C C/B C/A C/G.

Thanks Leon, you are a huge asset to this forum.

Thanks to you I have made it to the bridge in Crazy. It took me a couple weeks since I had to take a break from a strained index finger. The walk-up was killing me. :oops:

I love those chords. :mrgreen:

I've always used the "lazy" mans way to sounding swinggy...I just play 6th chords instead of standard major chords. It also helps to play in a choppy motion...upstokes sound pretty good.:wink:

i've learned from leon that the whole "6th chords for western swing" thing isn't really true, but i still like a maj.6 for the I chord, but then, i like my western swing on the more jazzy, jimmie rivers and the cherokees side.

Big A-men to Leons lessons.Been playin for over 60 years but still learned a lot from Leon.Many thanks my friend..

Shucks, you guys. Thank you.

Ok, I can't live up to leon's contributions, but let's try to write out the night rider:

Bb|Gm7|C|F7 (x2)
Bb|D|Eb|Ebdim|F|Bb
Bb7|Eb7|Ab7|Db|G|Cm7|F7 (this is the bridge and turnaround)
I just use chromatic 5th chords to do the long walkdown before the return to the chorus

I hope that this makes sense.

Thanks everyone for all the great responses!

Does anyone else have any Speedy West/Jimmy Bryant tunes they'd like to post the chord progression to? :) Thanks guys!

P.S. Awesome lessons Leon! And thanks for the progression to Night Rider dijos!