I received an email from a fellow in Switzerland asking for the chords to King of the Fairies. I seem to recall giving them to someone else on-line who asked for them. Before I ask my friend, Peter, who probably winged it at the time, to write them out again, does anyone reading this have them? Peter and I did a duet that’s posted on clips. He plays bouzouki on it.
Tony
a fellow in Switzerland? Wasn’t me, which other swissie here is lurking in the dark?
I don’t know the standard way of writing them out but I’ll assume my shorthand is intelligible. Big B refers to bar, little b to beat and I indicate only where the chords change. If I don’t indicate a beat then the chord changes on beat 1.
A: B1 Em; B2, b3 G; B3 Em; B4 D; B5 Em; B6, b3 G; B7 Em; B7, b3 D; B8 Em, Repeat.
B: B1 Em; B2 G; B2, b3 Em; B4 D; B5 Em; B6 G; B6, b3 Em, B7, b3 D; B8 Em; B9 G; B9, b3 D; B10 Em; B10, b3 D; B11 Em; B11, b3 G; B12 D; B12, b3 Em; B14 G; B14, b3 Em; B15, b3 D; B16 Em
I’m the one who told him to e-mail you, Tony.
I 'd like to have the chords myself, but all the versions I’ve found online just don’t sound quite right.
Hopefully Peter will come through for us if nobody else has the right chords.
It would be great if someone posted that.
I can’t vouch for the chords I gave; I simply transcribed them from the Cathal McConnell whistle tutor. If you think they’re wrong, tell me where. I’ll get out a guitar and see if I can come up with something better.
This is a tune I play on melody instruments but I have never tried to accompany it.
Actually Carol Skinner has harmonised this tune so maybe she can suggest some improvements if the version I transcribed is wrong.
I was at work when I responded to this post, Wombat… I haven’t tried out the chords you suggested yet.
I wasn’t suggesting that anyone’s chords are necessarily wrong, including the ones I’ve found via web searches… just that none of the versions I’ve tried so far seemed to be quite right.
If you transcribed them from the Cathal McConnell whistle tutor, it’s a fair bet that they’re right.
Now that I’m at home, I’m going to dust off my guitar and try them out!
Sorry if I sounded grumpy Gary. That’s just a very tedious way of writing out something that takes about thirty seconds with pen and sheet music.
The McConnell is on Homespun which is a very high quality instruction series so it probably stands a better chance of being right than the web sources. That said, he might not have compiled or carefully checked the sheet music himself but, as far as melody goes, I’ve found the transcriptions pretty accurate, overlooking a bit of missing ornamentation of course.
I’ll actually ask Carol about it since she’s worked on harmonising this tune and produced a setting which some very good and high profile Irish musicians have had a lot of fun with.
Tony, I would really love to see the notation for the duet. I love King of The Fairies and would be able to play it with my daughter. I can also e-mail a scan of the version we play which has the chords with it as a bit map I think or a jpeg. I don’t know how to upload a page.
I just listened to the Version on the site and it is slightly different to the version I have. I like yours better. I’ve just tried to type in the chords like Wombat but can’t make sense of them.
Here’s (roughly) what I usually use. Each chord is for two beats except in the measures marked with <—. In those measure, the C and the D are on one beat each.
/em em / bm C / em A7/ D Bm/
/em C / G D/ em D/ C D em / ←
/em em/ C em / em em/ D Bm/
/em em / C am / G D / C D em/<–
/G D/ em G/ D A7 /D D/ em em/Em C /em B7/ em em/
Carol
Cool…now I just need to learn a chord…any chord…and I might be able to play something on my guitar! 
I love that tune and spent a while last year listening to the version on “Feet of Flames” and writing down every note so I could play along with the CD. I just don’t seem able to get the play-by-ear thing down. Now that I have it written down, I can play along with it and it’s quite fun. I’d love to hear what it sounds like with guitar!
My version has C#'s D#'s Am6’s B7ths Cmaj7’s Bm7 so could be hard on the fingering.
I sent along the abc’s from the post above. This was the reply, so, all’s well. Thanks,
Tony
This is great and very usefull to me.
Many thanks to all involved friends.
Have a good time with your music.
Dieter
Amar, do you know this guy?
Here are the chords I like to use. They didn’t come out of any book, I just put them together. Enjoy!
Sandy
King Of The Fairies
A part) Em G/Em Em D/Bm7
Em G Em/C Em
Em G/Em Em D/Bm7
Em G Em/C Em
B part) Em Em Em D
Em Em/C Em/D Em
G/D Em/D G/Em G/C
Em Em Em/C Em