Aaron Jaxon teaches two versions of the fiddle tune Cherokee Shuffle: a basic melody and an advanced variation with chromaticism and licks. He explains chord shapes relative to a capo and plays along with backing tracks.
Today I'm going to be showing you two different ways of playing the classic fiddle tune Cherokee Shuffle. Hey there, it is Aaron Jaxon coming to you today, and I want to welcome you to part 2 of a 20-part series that I'm doing around essential fiddle tunes for flatpicking guitar. And so today we're going to be jumping into one of my all-time favorites. This is an old tune called Cherokee Shuffle. I have always loved playing this tune, and I'm excited to share it with you today. As is the case with all of these fiddle tunes here, I'm going to show you a real basic melody version of it, and then I'm going to show you one that's a little bit more advanced where I take a little bit of liberty with the melody in key places. Down below in the video description, I've linked to a couple of my favorite recordings of this tune, so be sure and check those out. And remember, you can get the tabs for this lesson down in the video description and in the top pinned comment. Okay, so let's jump in here. So I want to start off with just a real basic melody version to Cherokee Shuffle. So I'm going to play that along with the backing track, and also what I'm going to do is I'm going to put the chords up here on on the screen. Now I am going to do the chords relative to the capo. I'll be putting G, E minor, C, and D, even though these chords are technically A, E minor, D, and E here. But we're mostly going to play this tune out of A, and we'll play it with the capo on the 2nd fret out of our G, C, D, and E minor shapes. Okay, and every chord that you see up here on the screen will get 2 beats. So real quick, let me play the basic melody along with a backing track, and I'll put the chords up on the screen. That'll sound like this. All right, so let's jump in and learn this basic melody version to the A part of Cherokee Shuffle. That's gonna go like this: 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and And then we just play that exact same thing again. Okay, so you got to remember with these tunes, some people, depending on who it is, will play these a little different. But from all of the versions that I've heard, that's That's about as close to the kind of the original melody as I can get here for flatpicking guitar on the A part here. So now let's jump into the B part, and that's going to go like this.
1 and 2 and 3 and 4.
And we'll play that again. Okay, so when different people are playing this tune, it's, it's pretty agreed on, like this first part, but then the second part, people might play it a little bit different. They might play it like You know, I'm going off of, um, off of the version that Aubrey Haney recorded that I've got linked down below, which is a great recording, and he plays it pretty much the way I'm playing. Okay, so that's a great way to do it there. But I mean, just, just be aware that when you hear other people play it, they might approach parts of this tune a little bit different. But anyway, that's the basic A part and the B part, like the basic melody here to Cherokee Shuffle. So one more time, let me play that basic, um, A and B part melody to Cherokee Shuffle with a backing that'll sound like this. So let's take a little bit of liberty with it here. Let's do a little bit more of an advanced version. Let me go ahead and play that for you up to tempo. All right, so A part to this, uh, second version of Cherokee Shuffle will go like this.
Okay.
So we're not abandoning the melody, but we're playing around with it just a little bit here. So we're doing that instead of just— we're adding a little bit of chromaticism there. Okay, and then for this next phrase So same deal there, we're adding a little chromaticism, and then I'm ending with this almost kind of like Dickie Betts, Allman Brothers sounding thing, you know. Okay, so, and we're doing that instead of just— so we're playing around with it just a little bit there. All right, and then after that, I'm going to take this melody up an octave, and we're going to do— okay, so we've come up there, and again, that's just— that's the straight melody an octave up. But then after that, I'm going to come down here, and I'm going to throw in some licks. Okay, so we're playing the melody in key places, then taking a little bit of liberty with it, then coming back and playing the melody, then playing a couple of licks. I like to think— I call it sometimes, I call it melody lick ping pong, which is a great thing to, you know, think about when you're coming up with new versions of playing these tunes here. So one more time, let me go through the A part to the second version. In a Cherokee shuffle, and we'll do— Okay, so now that we've got a second way of playing the A part, let's, let's Let's get another version of the B part here, okay?
And so we're gonna come into the B part, we're gonna do—
Okay, so I'm kind of doing the same deal there. We're playing the melody a little bit and then we're playing a lick after that. So the straight melody, and then after that melody, lick, melody, which is a fun thing to do with these fiddle tunes. It shows that you know the tune, you know the rules, but you're dancing around with it a little bit, which is really exciting for the listener. Okay, so that was kind of the first half of this second part, uh, or the So that was the first— so that was kind of the first half to the second version of this B part here. And then after that, we're going to— okay, and then Okay, so again, throwing a couple of licks in there, throwing a couple of phrases, but then ending back on the melody, which is a really fun thing to do whenever you're coming up with new versions of playing these fiddle tunes. So one more time, that second version of Cherokee Shuffle. Let me play that with a backing track up to tempo. Okay, again, this is absolutely one of my all-time favorite tunes. It's a jam session classic. You can pretty much go anywhere and people will know this tune here. So again, check out some of the recordings that I've got down below. I think you'll really enjoy those, and I really hope this will be a great tune that you can add to your flatpicking repertoire. Remember, you can get the tabs for this lesson down in the video description and in the top pinned comment. As always, I want to thank you for hanging out, and I'll see you next time.
