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Tenor guitars and banjos, while not the most common accompaniment instrument for old-time fiddling in Missouri, did appear from time to time when I was younger and playing around Boone County. Guy Craighead (Fulton, Callaway County) went all over mid-Missouri with his little tenor guitar. He'd show up at fiddle contests, dances and jam sessions. The guitar he played was built by fiddler and luthier Jimmy Gilmore (Jefferson City, Cole County). Also, there was an old fellow, a friend of Taylor McBaine's, named Herb Thornton (Columbia, Boone County) who played a mean and loud lick on the tenor banjo.
Tenor guitar has been used in Western Swing and in Texas-style fiddle accompaniment for several decades. Most folks have heard that great parking lot tape of Benny and Jerry Thomasson (available on Voyager Records) on which Jerry runs the neck of that little thing like the proverbial rat on a rafter. He's all over it.
It's my opinion that if you're not "running the chords" on a tenor guitar you might as well be strokin' your uke out in Wicky-Wacky land or resort to some other lower musical form like "box-beatin' and monkey junk," for instance.
For anyone interested I've provided some changes which can used to accompany Missouri, Texas, Swing and a variety of other styles of fiddling. These are meant as a general guideline and to provide you with the chord shapes needed in each key. You still have to use your ear and figure out exactly where the changes should come and if a certain change is appropriate or not. Sensitivity to the style of music being played is important, as always. That's a principle I've always tried to live by----sensitivity to other musical styles.
I'm assuming that your tenor guitar is tuned in fifths and from the skinny string on down is A-D-G-C. Now look, there will be none of this sissy tuning where you tune it like the top four strings of a standard guitar. Just forget that!
Hoe-downs
Hoe-down in C | Hoe-down in G | Hoe-down in D | Hoe-down in A
Hoe-down in E | Hoe-down in F | Hoe-down in Bb | Hoe-down in Eb
Waltzes
Westphalia | Over the Waves
Other
Beaumont Rag | Black & White Rag | Ragtime Annie | Allentown Polka | Clarinet Polka
How to tell a tenor guitar from other odd instruments
Look for Tenor Guitars on e-bay | Look for Tenor Guitars at Elderly Instruments
L. Ron Hubbard and his Tenor Guitar!? | Convert a Tenor to a Six-String---Don't do it!!
Join the Tenor Guitar Registry | Evergreen Mountain Tenor Guitar