Thursday, January 2, 2014

Amarillo by Morning

Alright here's an easy one to get us started. This is a must have in your arsenal if you are playing in a working country band. Written by Terry Stafford and Paul Fraser, it was first released in 1973. Since then several other artists have recorded a version of this song, most notably George Strait in 1983. This is from George Strait's version.

Intro/Between Verses










Verse 1&2/Chorus




 








Verse 3/Chorus (Key change up one whole step)





 








Outtro

Notes

Alright, that is pretty much the song in a nutshell. Let the quarter notes sustain and taper off. (Just listen to the recording and imitate it.) Take note of the key change after the second chorus. The song modulates up a whole step. (In this case from the key of D to the key of E.) The form of the song is as follows:
Section A - Intro
Section B - Verse/Chorus 1
Section C - Repeat Section A
Section D - Repeat Section B
Section E - Repeat Section A without the repeat and the last measure modulating for the key change
Section F - Verse/Chorus 3
Section G - Outtro 



In case you need to play this in a different key here's the Chord Changes:

Intro I iii IV V
Verse1 & 2/ Chorus I iii IV I I iii IV V IV V I V IV I V IV
Verse 3/Chorus (Key changed one whole step up) I iii IV I I iii IV V7 IV V7 I V7 IV I V7 IV
Outtro I iii IV V I

The You Tube video 



I hope you enjoy learning this Classic Country chart. I do have this in a pdf cheat sheet that can be printed out. If you would like it just drop me a line at my e-mail address.

Bill D.

 



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