Chords for Train in the Rain by Bruce Cockburn Lesson 1

_ _ _ _ _ _ I'm here to talk about a great song by the name of Train in the Rain by Bruce Coburn,
a pretty underrated Canadian guitar player who's probably one of the best in trade when
it comes to acoustic fingerstyle playing.
Certainly the album Speechless was a big influence on me and it really inspired me to get into fingerstyle guitar.
I was asked to do a lesson on Train in the Rain.
Somebody commented on my video, the only person who commented on my video.
So if you want to see the full version of Train in the Rain played by me, you can go
and just type in Train in the Rain, Corned, which is C-O-R-N-E-I-I-D.
I'll post a link as well.
Yeah, so the lesson is pretty simple.
I'm not going to go through it in detail.
What I will say is that it's drop D tuning, so it's D, A, D, G, B, E, capo to the second
fret, which raises the whole thing up, obviously, so that instead of when you play this, that's
an E [A] chord, but it's in the D formation.
_ I will probably throughout this try to refer to it as, I'll probably refer to this as an
E note [E] most of the time, because it is an E note, _ [B] _ but it is [E] a D shaped chord.
So just taking that finger off, play it.
[N] Quick lesson on how you're going to play this with your right hand.
You're going to need to use finger picks, fingernails, or if you're really good and you
don't need fingernails, [A] you can just go like that, but I find it needs the strings so much
so you don't get clear crystal sound.
I prefer a thumb pick.
[F#] Some people have that wonderful bent bass player thumb that they can use.
I don't have that, just not in the genes.
You can also grow your thumb nail, which really looks hideous.
I mean, I've already [B] heard it's kind of disgusting, so I figured _ it's sort of out of the question.
[N] Beyond that, yeah, I mean, really just designate your fingers to particular spots, and you've
got to sort of form a rigorous pattern.
So for instance, if I designate my three fingers to these three strings, I don't then want
to start using my index finger to go up to this string unless all of the fingers are
being transferred up.
So for instance, [E] like in the beginning of the tune, it's _
[A] _ _ [E] _ _ _ [N] very critical that each one
of your fingers stay on its designated place.
You start breaking that rule and you're going to get yourself into a world of problems.
So okay, [E] _ _ [A] _ _ [Em] _
_ _ _ _ _ [A] _ _ [E] _
_ _ _ [A] that's the intro to the song.
It sounds [D#] like a train.
Got your [E] thumb thumping away on that low E string, and your fingers are just going_ _ _
That's the chords. _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ That's [A] sort of your rhythm, but of course we're finger picking it, so it sounds like [E] this.
[A] _ _ [E] _ _ _ _ _ [A] _
[E] _ _ _ It's slower.
_ _ [A] _
_ [Em] _ _ _ _ _ _ [A] _
_ _ [E] _ _ _ _ _ _
[A] _ _ [E] _ _ _ So [B] maybe a good way to start off with it is [E] to just get that rhythm in your head. _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ Once you sort of have that rhythm, then you can start thinking [N] about your fingers.
I would actually_
The other thing you can do, which will help you a lot, go to fretplay.com and find Bruce
Coburn's tab there.
It's free on the internet.
It's a very accurate transcription.
You type in train in the rain tab into Google, it'll be one of the first, if not the first,
to pop up.
Also, there's a program called the Amazing Slow Downer.
What it does is it allows you to change the pitch of your guitar without changing the
tempo of the song, and likewise to change the tempo of the song without changing the pitch.
So what it means is you can play Bruce Coburn's song as an MP3 in this little player, _ change
the tempo so it's at half speed, but the pitch will stay the same.
So unlike guys who used to learn songs on records by slowing down the record, but of
course then the pitch was lower as well and it caused all kinds of difficulties.
Here you just take your little slider, drop the tempo to half, and you can play it at half speed.
That is a wonderful way to learn complex guitar lines, especially from guys like Bruce Coburn
who are so advanced at playing. _
That program costs $50.
Type Amazing Slow Downer into Google, pop up.
I'd recommend buying it.
I use it all the time, especially since I'm in a cover band, so I have to learn a lot
of songs by players [E] that are considerably better than me.
Okay, so at any rate, that's the first part.
I'll _ [Em] _
_ _ _ _ _ [A] _ _ [Em] _
_ _ do [F#] it a bit slower if I can.
I find the slower I go, the harder it is to play.
I mean, the tempo is maybe _ _ _ _ _ _
[B] not quite that [A] fast, but when you slow it down, it's [D#] funny
how it gets harder to play sometimes.
At [E] any rate, _
[A] _ _ [Em] _ _ _ _ _ _
[A] _ _ [E] _ _ _ _ _ _
[A] _ _ [E] _ _ _ [F#] just like a train.
All