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CODY KIMMEL: Hi. My name is Cody Kimmel, and I'm the lead singer of the band Eliot Fitzgerald,
and I'm here with the Expert Village to teach you how to write a folk song. Now let's talk
about the chord structure of the verses whereas with--for example like in alternative style,
with the rock style or with the pop style, you're going to want to basically develop
a chord structure and work your melody around that. However, with folk, you do want to do
that to a certain degree; however, the actual chord structure and the chords you use really
have to depend on the story you're telling, the mood that you're trying to set for the
story you're telling, and the way the lyrics fit together. You really want your chords
to work for that. You can have a very intricate and involved chord structure or you can have
a very simple. Fortunately, for this one and for your sake, this one is going to be a simple
chord structure. It's going to just start out with the I to IV back to I, V, vi back
to I. It's going to go back and forth with that. Now the way that I developed that is
by developing the story, and like I'll say in every single video clip for this, it is
very important to make sure that the preeminent part of a folk song is to tell the story for
the sake of the moral so whatever you have to bend, whatever you have to change, whether
that's your chord structure or anything like that, you want to do that. Now, the typical
chords to use just as the template, just as in any other songs, the strong chords you
use are your I, IV, vi, and V.