Fiddlewidget

I Saw the Light-- Sliding another chord up to 3rd Position

The tune:
I Saw the Light was written by Hank Williams Sr.

The lick:
This is another sliding double stop--a G chord in this case,and instead of sliding up and right back down to first position like in Dear Old Dixie, you get to hang out in third position a bit and noodle around the melody. The lick we want doesn't occur until the 7th measure of the song, so I'll write out the first 8 measures in music notation.

This might not be exactly the way it was first written, but I have heard a lot of people sing it something close to this way, and you probably have, too.



The first part of the 7th measure--where the singer hits the word "praise", and holds it--- is where the slide occurs. the last half of the measure is where you can hang out in third position and noodle around with the melody, instead of sliding immediately back down into first position.

That's just the way the intonation comes easier to me- I stay in third position on the 7th measure ("Prai--se the Lo-ord"), and then in the eighth measure I'm back down in 1st position on the open A string ("I saw the light")

Getting out of higher positions seems to work better for me if I can find a spot where I have an open string. If you're a better player than me, which is entirely likely, maybe you can be a little more agile in this regard.

Playing it this way is the easiest way for me to keep it in tune. You could slide that double stop back down to first position on "Lo--ord", but that just seems to introduce another way to mess up the intonation without really adding anything to the sound.

So, what's happening this time? The slide move is exactly the same as in Dear Old Dixie, except the double stop (chord) is different.
Instead of a C chord, this time you're moving a G chord up to third position.

So if you just move your fingerng for the Dear Old Dixie move up one string (to the right, as you look at the Fiddlewidget diagram), that puts you in a G chord

A standard-tuned fiddle is in fifths, so you can move any note or double stop fingering position to the right one string, and youre automatically going to be a fifth higher. You don't need to really think about it.

I'll try to tab this move, and show the Fiddlewidget screenshots that illustrate it a little better.

Here's the same Fiddlewidget diagram of the G major double stop you are sliding up, with the double stop notes circled in yellow

1st position double stop (left) slides up to 3rd position (right), just like in Dear Old Dixie.