Take Me Home, Country Roads

zztush · Mar 9, 2017

I think many people love this song and sing it with their ukulele. Recently we talked this song even in the context of protect song in a thread. This song is one of my favorite song and I often sing it with my soprano. I sing it on the key of C like this.

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Original key is A (red circle in the figure below). But it is too high for me. I can not sing it key of G either.

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Here is a very good video on Yutube (See below) by John Denver and Johnny Cash.

This version is played on key of B, which is even higher than original A.
John Denver's guitar is key of A on capo 2 = key of B
Johnny Cash's guitar is key of G on capo 4 = key of B
John Denver sings key of B (red circle in the figure above).
Johnny Cash sings key of B (green circle).
See the difference between red and green circles. They sing on one octave difference. And Johnny Cash's B (green) is just next to my C (yellow). Key of A is too high for me. But John Denver can sing it on B too. I think not many male can sing it on A or G.

DownUpDave · Mar 10, 2017

This was one the the first songs I memorized. I grew up in the 70s, so John Denver was very popular with my crowd.

A few years ago I brought my uke along for the first time on our annual big group camping trip. There are usually 25 or more people sharing 6 camp sites. When I pulled out a uke some people kinda smirked, but I played this song first and got everyone singing along, they loved it........and the sound of the uke. One guy said it sounded like a small guitar, what they didn't realize was it was a tenor in low G. I played and we sang for hours that afternoon while we BBQed spare ribs over an open fire. I always bring at least 2 or 3 ukes every year now.

Sorry for the thread jack but that song brings back some good memories.

SoloRule · Mar 10, 2017

70's favourite!
Those guitars look big and scary!

zztush · Mar 10, 2017

Hi, Dave! Thank you for sharing your experience. As our age is same, it is definitely our 70's favorite.

Hi, Brenda! Yes, guitars are like furniture. Tenor is much suitable for campfire than my soprano or guitalele.

jollyboy · Mar 10, 2017

I'm more of a Leaving On A Jetplane fan - a song which is very easy to play in C on a GCEA tuned uke or in G on a bari

SoloRule · Mar 11, 2017

jollyboy said:
I'm more of a Leaving On A Jetplane fan - a song which is very easy to play in C on a GCEA tuned uke or in G on a bari

Peter Paul and Mary or John Denver ??? I played that in elementary school. It was a very very popular folk song

Nickie · Mar 11, 2017

That is certainly one of the finest country and western songs I've ever heard. I think it puts today's "country music" to shame. We do it in every country n western jam session!

jollyboy · Mar 11, 2017

SoloRule said:
Peter Paul and Mary or John Denver ??? I played that in elementary school. It was a very very popular folk song

JD all the way for me

kkimura · Mar 11, 2017

West of Colorado and California you get to; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uiCkiyTGM6E

hikaru · Mar 11, 2017

I actually learned the song from one of my favorite Studio Ghibli movies "Mimi wo Sumaseba". Love it!

kkimura · Mar 11, 2017

Amazing, that when you travel far enough West, you find the Far East.

Thank you, Hikaru!

southcoastukes · Mar 13, 2017

The John Denver original never stuck in my mind as much as a version by Toots that came out shortly after. This was a big song down south and is still played and covered all the time down there today. If you want to play it with a little different rhythm, here you go.

Be warned! If you really love the original song, don't listen to this version. Great as that original is, once you hear this rendition, you may never be able to go back:

DownUpDave · Mar 13, 2017

southcoastukes said:
The John Denver original never stuck in my mind as much as a version by Toots that came out shortly after. This was a big song down south and is still played and covered all the time down there today. If you want to play it with a little different rhythm, here you go.

Be warned! If you really love the original song, don't listen to this version. Great as that original is, once you hear this rendition, you may never be able to go back:

Well Dirk you did it to me........I'll never be able to listen to John Denvers version again without thinking of Jamaica every time now

. Thanks much for sharing I had not heard that version before, very cool.

Tootler · Mar 18, 2017

zztush said:
Key of A is too high for me. But John Denver can sing it on B too. I think not many male can sing it on A or G.

I normally sing it in G which is a comfortable key for me for a lot of songs. I'm not struggling in G so I reckon I could manage A too but B might just be a step too far. I'll have to give it a try sometime. G on the Baritone makes it very easy to play.

zztush · Mar 18, 2017

Hi, Tootler!

I can not sing "I belong West Virginia...." on G.

Tootler · Mar 18, 2017

I wasn't contesting your being unable to sing it in G, after all it's your voice and you know what you are capable of, but the second part of your statement that not many males can sing it in G and as a male, I can sing it in G. Maybe what I should have said is that it depends on the range of your voice. I sing tenor in a choir and I can normally sing the soprano parts as well as they are in the same range as my voice only an octave higher (of course, I would be singing them an octave lower than the sopranos). I don't have the range of some tenors as my limit is A above the stave and some tenors can get C above the stave. I think operatic tenors are expected to be able to sing a top C. I suspect all the tenors in our choir could sing country roads in G as we all have similar ranges.

If John Denver could sing Country Roads in B, presumably to suit Johnny Cash, then it is likely he was able to hit a top C as well. Depending on the lower end of his voice it's possible he could have sung it in G but we'll never know.

Take Me Home, Country Roads

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