Chords to San Francisco

bemak

Hi all,

this is my first time posting here. Hopefully someone can help me out.

Basically I'm learning the guitar as a surprise for someone. The surprise being that I'll play their favourite song.

The song in question is San Francisco by Ted Hawkins. I know there are chords for this song by McClean etc but this is the version I want to play. Trying to get it exactly.

If anyone can help me out with what they think the chords are that'd be too good to be true.

I'd say for a seasoned guitarist it's a very handy song but for a beginner it's hard to figure out the chords!

Thanks for any help

B

Kettleson

I might be wrong but Ted Hawkins used open tuning for most if not all of his songs. Ie: the strings were tuned to play E major. He therefore just used his index finger and thumb to move up and down the neck to get major chords.

I haven't studied his technique too much so he might have used different chord shapes based on that tuning. That's why he had a particular sound to his playing. And most of his songs seem to only use 2 chords.

I'm not familiar with that particular Hawkins song, but I'll have a listen and see if I can work it out for you later this evening.

Bring It On Home Daddy is one of my all time favs.

Kettleson

http://youtu.be/XjfBb9YYbjw

Have a look at this Ted playing live. Note open tuning and use of capo. That's how he gets his sound.

It should be easy enough to replicate if your re-tune your guitar to open tuning.

Again I'm not sure, but he might have tuned the open E, down to a D and tuned the whole guitar to that ie: D or C Major open.

A lot of his songs use only 2 or 3 chords.

You'll find different tuning styles used by other artists. Traditional Irish guitar player mostly use the DADGAD tuning, Ie: E string tuned down to a D, A stays same, D stays same, G same, B tuned to an A and, bottom E tuned down to a D.

Edit: I think the tuning he uses is C open.

Kettleson

This is pure bliss....2 chords...

good luck the song!

http://youtu.be/koUDlqdM9xE

Kettleson

Ted Hawkins used Vestapol "C" open tuning.

Have a look at this video, it explains the concept.

http://youtu.be/2TPn6ZVKlwE

bemak

Kettleson wrote: »

Ted Hawkins used Vestapol "C" open tuning.

Have a look at this video, it explains the concept.

http://youtu.be/2TPn6ZVKlwE

Kettleson, thanks for the education! That is interesting that he only uses 2-3 simple chords for his song. Very effective

Thanks again for your help!

Kettleson

No worries, pass it on . Hope it goes well for ya!!