Snowtime Chords revisited

[David Hess]

There was a previous post last year on the Song Snowtime which is my favorite James Taylor song by far as it has so much chord transition and depth. A previous forum topic in 2015 covered this a little bit and I wanted to bring it back up because I did not agree with it fully.
Snowtime is played with the Capo at the first fret, not the 2nd fret and when he transitions to a higher key he moves the capo up to the third fret, not the 4th fret.
So you would begin the song with the Capo at the first fret as I observed when he plays the song at Rockefeller Center and he actually moves the capo to the 3rd position near the end of the song when the song moves to the higher key for the last portion of the song.
When I first heard the song, I realized that this song was not going to be an easy one so I asked my long time guitar instructor to work with me on it and so here it goes.
Capo at first position. D D/C# G/B A7Sus G A7 D F#7/C# BM BM/A G F#m Em9 Em9addPinkyat5 frets from capo (This is the Oleana opening bass movement mainly played with the four notes of each chord shape)
The song then moves to A C#M D E7 FDim7 F#m11 E7/G# A (played up the neck at 7th fret from the capo) to C for 6 beats D/F# G Em9
The same thing is played again except he plays G G at the end
The next transition moves to
E A B7 C# M D d2/F# he plays this 3 times
Then E A B7 C#m D D2/F# Ddim7/F# EM
Back to the A C#m D E7 pattern
Back to the E A B7 C#m but on the last time thru you do this
E A B7 C# M then play the opening Oleana part again up to the F#m then you can either move the Capo up to the 3rd fret or simply play the chords in the position they are played with the Capo at 1st position which we found much easier to play.
These would be
B D#M E F#7 GDim7 E/G# F#/A B D#M D E A C#7
Finish with F# maj B C#7 D#m E/E2/EDim7/F#7 over and over and over (or this would just be with the capo at the 3rd fret with the pattern you played earlier that was like
E A B7 C#M D D2/F# Ddim7/F# Em

I hope to write it out in music format with some chord drawings to make it much easier.
This would be a great song for James to cover in his lessons because it moves a lot and is a wonderful structure with the bass notes. Love the song and the lyrics.

[kayo]

Thanks for your inspirational chords on this one, although there is nothing such as 2the best song ever” Snow Time feels a lot like that to me.
I’ll upload a sheet I just did after starting with your chords to which I added a few changes and some of the licks I’m hearing and/or some I’ll be playing

Have a good day, all the bass-t from kayo

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