Westpahilia Waltz - Chords?

Hi folks,

I've always loved the Westphalia Waltz, and love to play the melody parts on my Tele.

I am thinking about trying this out when sitting in with a band for an old style Country Music Showcase - kind of like a very organized jam session.

I normally just play the melody on this, so I want your opinion on chords, since they have keys and pedal steel who will probably be doing some of the melody work as well.

I've played it before where it was just G and D, with a D7 occasionally thrown in.

But I've also played it like this:

Part A
G--|Bm--|Em--|Bm--
G--|E--|Am--|D--
D--|Am--|D--|D--
D--|D--|G--|G--

Part B
G--|Bm--|Em--|Bm--
G--|G--|Am--|Am/D--
Am--|Am/G#--|C--|D--
D--|D--|G--|G--


I know it will of course depend on how this band plays it, but just curious as to how others do it. Do you do it the simple, 2 chord way or thee more involved way? I like the sound of the extra chords, but are there other variations that you folks use? Or is there a variation of the basic 2 chord way with some extra vamp chords thrown in?

Cheers,
Doug

Me and my dad play that one...if I remember right on the verse it was like GMaj,Bmin,Emin back to Gmaj ending on Aminor. then it likes bounces back from Dmaj to Amin back to D resolving on Gmaj on the first pass of the chorus..then it like goes thru this whole cycle again but on the chorus I like play the d to Amin like twice..

We don't put an E maj in it..not saying that you couldn't or that this way is right or anything..it's just what I play to his fiddle melody..my dad's bad about reinterpreting songs and who doesn't.
But he does do a beautiful version of this one..

Doug - I think they you have it with the G Bm Em etc is about the our fiddle club guitarist plays it. I use, for the same effect. G GM7 G6 as internal voices. I saw a documentary recently about the tune, which many attribute to Cotton Collins, but is actually a Czech tune.

Thanks Leon. I know it's primarily a fiddle tune (I've played it a bunch with EJ Hopkins), but I thought it might be interesting to do it on guitar, maybe trade some back and forth with a pedal steel.

I've been thinking about doing another TDPRI jam, maybe we can get you to play some fiddle this time :lol:

Cheers,
Doug

Every tab or chord chart that I see of that tune has chords which I do not hear on any of the versions you can watch on YouTube.
This is what most of the versions are doing:

(One measure per chord)
||: G Gmaj7/F# Em D G G#dim Am D
D D D D D Daug G G :||

||: G Gmaj7 Em D G G#dim Am D
Am AmMaj7/G# Am7/G D9/F# D Daug G G :||

Thanks jbmando

I'll play around with your version and see what I come up with

Cheers,
Doug

I read this because there's a town called Westphalia about 5 minutes from where I grew up, and it has about 200 people in it (if that) and I'm never heard the word "Westphalia" in any other context. Cool. I'm gonna have to look up this song.

The reference is to Westphalia, TX

Just type Westphalia Waltz into YouTube and you'll get a ton of them

Here's a nice old time version of it

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Cheers,
Doug