{title: Four Strong Winds}
{artist: Ian Tyson}
{album: Four Strong Winds (1963)}
{key: D}
{tempo: 90}
{difficulty: beginner}
{tags: canadiana,ian-tyson,duet,prairie}
{video: youtube:lnqqiEeSa5k}
{credit: Ian & Sylvia - 'Four Strong Winds' (Vanguard, 1963 - the first recording). Written by Ian Tyson.}

{c: Voted greatest Canadian song of all time by CBC listeners (2005). Written by Ian Tyson in 20 minutes, 1961, in a Greenwich Village apartment.}
{c: Originally a duet (Ian & Sylvia). Works beautifully as a M/F harmony — melody on top, third below.}
{c: Lyrics copyright Slick Fork Music. Chord skeleton below. Full lyrics widely available; original recording is the gold standard.}

{c: ===== STRUCTURE =====}
{c: Verse → Chorus → Verse → Chorus → Verse → Chorus → Final chorus}

{c: ===== VERSE PROGRESSION (in D) =====}
[D]________ [G]________ [A]________ [D]________
[D]________ [G]________ [A]________ [D]________
[Bm]________ [G]________ [A]________ [D]________
[D]________ [G]________ [A]________ [D]________

{c: ===== CHORUS PROGRESSION =====}
{c: "Four strong winds that blow lonely / seven seas that run high"}
[D]________ [G]________ [A]________ [D]________
[D]________ [G]________ [A]________ [D]________
[Bm]________ [G]________ [A]________ [D]________
[D]________ [A]________ [D]________

{c: ===== PERFORMANCE NOTES =====}
{c: Strum: gentle 6/8 lilt or steady 4/4 with light boom-chuck. Don't crowd the vocal.}
{c: Tempo: SLOW. This is a song about loneliness and prairie distance. Resist the urge to rush.}
{c: Capo 2 puts it in C-shapes (easier on the voice for some).}
{c: Capo 4 puts it in B♭-shapes (Neil Young's recording uses this register).}

{c: ===== DUET ARRANGEMENT =====}
{c: Verse 1: melody alone (one voice).}
{c: Chorus 1: add harmony — third below the melody on the long notes.}
{c: Verse 2: switch lead voice if you want, or trade lines.}
{c: Choruses 2 and 3: full harmony throughout.}
{c: Final chorus: pull back to one voice on the last line for emotional release.}

{c: ===== WHY THIS SONG =====}
{c: It's the song every Canadian folk musician learns. Neil Young covered it. Johnny Cash covered it. Bob Dylan called it one of his favourite songs. The chord progression is dead simple — it's the melody and the lyric that do the work. If you can sing this with your partner, harmonies clean, in tune, slow tempo holding — you've arrived.}