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Banjo Lessons for the Adult Beginner

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Clawhammer Song and Tab of the Week: “What Does the Deep Sea Say?”

Click on the button below to get the PDF download for this tab delivered to you, and get 2 new tunes and tabs sent to you every week!

Click Here To Get The Tab


(REMINDER: The “2 Finger Thumb Lead for the Clawhammer Banjoist” Workshop will be held Wed., Jan 30 at 6pm EST in the new Brainjo Virtual Classroom. Click here to learn more and register.)

In the YouTube comments for this song, Clayton S. writes “for some reason I always like these deceptive songs that conceal sad lyrics with bouncy, happy tunes!”

I must say, I too have a special fondness for that curious juxtaposition, which seems to have been commonplace at one time in history.

It’s not one you hear much anymore, though, as thematic and musical congruency have become the norm.

Here, that incongruency seems to be reinforcing a contrasting message. On the one hand, it’s a lament of intense suffering over a departed loved one, as our protagonist has lost her sailor at sea.

On the other, it’s an acknowledgment that, in spite of the self centered narrative that inflates our own sense of importance, we’re still just the tiniest cog in the natural order. That, no matter what dramas unfold in the human world, the sea continues to “roll on its merry way.”

In times of grief, it helps to feel connected to something larger and unchanging.

Anyhow, that’s one way to intepret the happy/sad fusion.

On other hand, maybe folks just got a kick out of it!

Ultimately, the interpretation is in the mind of the beholder.


(NOTE: For those considering acquiring a Brainjo banjo, the banjo played in this video is a “Hobart” model. Click here if you’d like to learn more, or claim one in the next batch.)


What Does the Deep Sea Say?

gCGCD tuning, Brainjo level 3

what does the deep sea say clawhammer banjo tab part 1

what does the deep sea say clawhammer banjo tab part 2

Notes on the Tab

In this arrangement, I’ve tabbed out the part I play in the banjo “solo,” as well as the vocal backup I play on the banjo while singing.

Notes in parentheses are “skip” notes – to learn more about skips and syncopated skips, check out my video lesson on the subject.

For more on reading tabs in general, check out this complete guide to reading banjo tabs.

PRIOR SONG OF THE WEEK EPISODES

  • Episode 1: “Ain’t Gonna Work Tomorrow”
  • Episode 2: “Gumtree Canoe”
  • Episode 3: “Crawdad Hole”
  • Episode 4: “Oh Susanna”
  • Episode 5: “Freight Train”
  • Episode 6: “Grandfather’s Clock”
  • Episode 7: “Hop High Lulu”
  • Episode 8: “Been All Around This World”
  • Episode 9: “I’ll Fly Away”
  • Episode 10: “Leaving Home”
  • Episode 11: “Poor Orphan Child”
  • Episode 12: “Mr. Tambourine Man”
  • Episode 13: “Swanee River”
  • Episode 14: “Big Sciota”
  • Episode 15: “Roll In My Sweet Baby’s Arms”
  • Episode 16: “Darling Corey”
  • Episode 17: “Battle Hymn of the Republic”
  • Episode 18: “America the Beautiful”
  • Episode 19: “Bury Me Beneath the Willow”
  • Episode 20: “Way Out There”
  • Episode 21: “New Slang”
  • Episode 22: “I Saw the Light”
  • Episode 23: “Amazing Grace”
  • Episode 24: “Blowin’ in the Wind”
  • Episode 25: “Yankee Doodle”
  • Episode 26: “Budapest”
  • Episode 27: “Wildwood Flower”
  • Episode 28: “Paradise”
  • Episode 29: “Mountain Dew”
  • Episode 30: “Blue Tail Fly”
  • Episode 31: “Otto Wood”
  • Episode 32: “Down on the Corner”
  • Episode 33: “City of New Orleans”
  • Episode 34: “Big Rock Candy Mountains”
  • Episode 35: “Come to the Bower”
  • Episode 36: “Old Kentucky Home”
  • Episode 37: “Long Journey Home”
  • Episode 38: “Dixie”
  • Episode 39: “Hard Times”
  • Episode 40: “Corrina Corrina”
  • Episode 41: “She’ll Be Coming Round the Mountain”
  • Episode 42: “Johnson Boys”
  • Episode 43: “Bad Moon Rising”
  • Episode 44: “Reuben’s Train”
  • Episode 45: “Let the Mermaid’s Flirt With Me”
  • Episode 46: “Rocky Top”
  • Episode 47: “Groundhog”
  • Episode 48: “Lazy John”
  • Episode 49: “The Gambler”
  • Episode 50: “8 More Miles To Louisville”
  • Episode 51: “Who’ll Stop the Rain”
  • Episode 52: “Pretty Polly”
  • Episode 53: “You Are My Sunshine”
  • Episode 54: “Old Molly Hare”
  • Episode 55: “The Miller’s Will”
  • Episode 56: “Walking Cane”
  • Episode 57: “Feast Here Tonight”
  • Episode 58 “Let Me Fall”
  • Episode 59: “Little Birdie”
  • Episode 60: “Train on the Island”
  • Episode 61: “Handsome Molly”
  • Episode 62: “Willie Moore”
  • Episode 63: “Tom Cat Blues”
  • Episode 64: “Big Eyed Rabbit”
  • Episode 65: “Jimmy Sutton”

Level 2 arrangements and video demos for the Tune (and Song!) of the Week tunes are now available as part of the Breakthrough Banjo course.

Click here for a current list of all the clawhammer songs and tunes currently available inside of The Vault

Learn More About Breakthrough Banjo

 

About the Author
Josh Turknett is founder and lead brain hacker at Brainjo Productions
 

View the Brainjo Course Catalog

brainjo larger musical mind

Clawhammer Tune of the Week: “Shuffle About”

Click on the button below to get the PDF download for this tab delivered to you, and get 2 new tunes and tabs sent to you every week!

Click Here To Get The Tab

(NOTE: I’ll be teaching a live, step by step “tab walk-through” for this tune and “Colored Aristocracy” for Breakthrough Banjo members on Jan. 14. Click here to learn more, and see the full schedule.)

Most songs grow on you.

Our fondness increases for them the more we listen. It may grow even more if they attach themselves by circumstance to beloved memories.

The same is often true of people. If we consider our closest friends, our fondness for them likely grew over time as well.

Love at first sight is a rare thing. But once in a great while, it happens.

Such was the case the first time I heard the tune “Shuffle About,” off Sheesham and Lotus’s album “Five Miles from Town” (which contains many other gems). And I’m sure that instant liking was in no small part to their exceptional rendering of it.

Still, it’s a relatively rare phenomenon.

You may have had a similar experience in a jam – you hear a dozen or so tunes you’ve never heard before, but one in particular makes you stop and say “what was the name of that again?”

“Shuffle About” is a tune with loads of personality, infused with an infectious, joyful spirit that I’m sure is part of its instant appeal.

It’s also a rare fiddle tune where the name doesn’t seem to be arbitrarily chosen – as if the mission of its composer was to produce a bounce in the listener’s step, to drive him or her to “shuffle about” (unfortunately, I can find scant information regarding its origins).

So happy shuffling!


(NOTE: For those considering acquiring a Brainjo banjo, the banjo played in this video is a “Hobart” model. Click here if you’d like to learn more, or claim one in the next batch.)


 “Shuffle About”

aDADE tuning, Brainjo level 3-4

Shuffle About clawhammer banjo tab

Notes on the Tab

Notes in parentheses are “skip” notes. To learn more about these, check out my video lesson on the subject.

For more on reading tabs in general, check out this complete guide to reading banjo tabs.

[RELATED: Level 2 arrangements and video demos for the Tune (and Song!) of the Week tunes are now available as part of the Breakthrough Banjo course. Learn more about it here.

Click here for a current list of all the clawhammer songs and tunes currently available inside of The Vault

Learn More About Breakthrough Banjo

About the Author
Josh Turknett is founder and lead brain hacker at Brainjo Productions

View the Brainjo Course Catalog

The Case for 2 Fingers (or 2 finger thumb lead…)

LIVE BANJO WORKSHOPS
WHAT: An Introduction to 2 Finger “Thumb Lead” Banjo (LIVE WORKSHOP)

WHEN: Wednesday, Jan. 30 at 6pm

WHERE: The Brainjo Virtual Classroom (you will be sent details on how to access after registration)

HOW: Click here to REGISTER

WHO: Anyone interested in giving 2-finger thumb lead style a test drive.

WHY: See the explanation below!

Why Try 2-Finger Thumb Lead?

There are so many great ways to make music on a 5-string banjo. Pick up, pick down. Use two fingers. Or three. Play with picks. Or play with bare fingers. And so on.

I personally love exploring all of those sounds. Not only do new techniques open up new doors of musical expression, but they always lead to new ideas and skills that can transfer elsewhere.

For the banjoist who already plays clawhammer style, you have a body of material that can be readily adapted for 2 finger, breathing new life and interest into tunes you already play (more on how to do this in the workshop).

For those new to the banjo altogether, and wanting to learn fingerstyle, it is the ideal technique to learn first, forming a foundation that will serve you throughout your playing days (rather than jumping straight into 3 finger Scruggs style, a path fraught with potential peril).

What’s more, with just some simple techniques under your belt, you play some pretty impressive stuff.

In other words, you can start playing great music in less time with this style, and it will make you a better 3 finger banjoist (whether you wish to play bluegrass, old time, country, etc.) should you choose to tackle that at some point.

Win-win.

Here’s a few examples of 2-finger thumb lead style to help whet your appetite:

Pretty Polly (played clawhammer, 3, and 2 finger style):

 

 

A 2 finger medley played on the gourd banjo:

 

 

 

Clawhammer Song and Tab of the Week: “Jimmy Sutton!”

Click on the button below to get the PDF download for this tab delivered to you, and get 2 new tunes and tabs sent to you every week!

Click Here To Get The Tab

(REMINDER: The “Secrets of Playing Clawhammer Banjo Up the Neck” Workshop will be held Mon., Jan 22 at 2pm EST in the new Brainjo Virtual Classroom. Click here to learn more, and see what workshops are up next.)

Ready for a rousing start to the new year?!

One of my favorite cuts off of the first Georgia Jays album was Jimmy Sutton. It’d always been one of my favorites to play, but playing it alongside Justin’s driving fiddle and perfectly matched vocals elevated it to a higher plane.

And to top it all off I get to bleat like a sheep?! Heaven on earth.

So, for this Tune of the Week installment of “Jimmy Sutton,” I thought I’d change things up. The inspiration for this version comes by way of Dan Gellert, a man whose affinity for syncopation seems to rival my own.

The tuning for this one is dGDF#A on the gourd banjo, which is the equivalent to gCGBD on the banjo, aka “drop C” tuning, aka “Charlie Poole” tuning, aka “minstrel tuning,” aka “the tuning with too many alternate names to keep straight.”

(RELATED: I recently did a one-hour workshop on getting started playing gourd and fretless in the Brainjo Virtual Classroom, which is now in the course archive. Click here to sign up for Breakthrough Banjo to access it).

I’ll be doing a live “tab-walkthrough” tutorial of this song in the Brainjo Virtual Classroom on January 7 for Breakthrough Banjo members. I’ll show you around this tuning, both on the gourd and a modern banjo, and take you step-by-step through all those syncopated maneuverings.

Click here to check out the schedule of upcoming tab-walkthrough tutorials and other workshops.


(NOTE: For those considering acquiring a Brainjo banjo, the banjo played in this video is a “Hobart” model. Click here if you’d like to learn more, or claim one in the next batch.)


Jimmy Sutton

gCGBD tuning (dGDF#A on the gourd), Brainjo level 3-4

clawhammer banjo tab for jimmy sutton

Notes on the Tab

In this arrangement, I’ve tabbed out the part I play in the banjo “solo,” as well as the vocal backup I play on the banjo while singing.

Notes in parentheses are “skip” notes – to learn more about skips and syncopated skips, check out my video lesson on the subject.

For more on reading tabs in general, check out this complete guide to reading banjo tabs.

PRIOR SONG OF THE WEEK EPISODES

  • Episode 1: “Ain’t Gonna Work Tomorrow”
  • Episode 2: “Gumtree Canoe”
  • Episode 3: “Crawdad Hole”
  • Episode 4: “Oh Susanna”
  • Episode 5: “Freight Train”
  • Episode 6: “Grandfather’s Clock”
  • Episode 7: “Hop High Lulu”
  • Episode 8: “Been All Around This World”
  • Episode 9: “I’ll Fly Away”
  • Episode 10: “Leaving Home”
  • Episode 11: “Poor Orphan Child”
  • Episode 12: “Mr. Tambourine Man”
  • Episode 13: “Swanee River”
  • Episode 14: “Big Sciota”
  • Episode 15: “Roll In My Sweet Baby’s Arms”
  • Episode 16: “Darling Corey”
  • Episode 17: “Battle Hymn of the Republic”
  • Episode 18: “America the Beautiful”
  • Episode 19: “Bury Me Beneath the Willow”
  • Episode 20: “Way Out There”
  • Episode 21: “New Slang”
  • Episode 22: “I Saw the Light”
  • Episode 23: “Amazing Grace”
  • Episode 24: “Blowin’ in the Wind”
  • Episode 25: “Yankee Doodle”
  • Episode 26: “Budapest”
  • Episode 27: “Wildwood Flower”
  • Episode 28: “Paradise”
  • Episode 29: “Mountain Dew”
  • Episode 30: “Blue Tail Fly”
  • Episode 31: “Otto Wood”
  • Episode 32: “Down on the Corner”
  • Episode 33: “City of New Orleans”
  • Episode 34: “Big Rock Candy Mountains”
  • Episode 35: “Come to the Bower”
  • Episode 36: “Old Kentucky Home”
  • Episode 37: “Long Journey Home”
  • Episode 38: “Dixie”
  • Episode 39: “Hard Times”
  • Episode 40: “Corrina Corrina”
  • Episode 41: “She’ll Be Coming Round the Mountain”
  • Episode 42: “Johnson Boys”
  • Episode 43: “Bad Moon Rising”
  • Episode 44: “Reuben’s Train”
  • Episode 45: “Let the Mermaid’s Flirt With Me”
  • Episode 46: “Rocky Top”
  • Episode 47: “Groundhog”
  • Episode 48: “Lazy John”
  • Episode 49: “The Gambler”
  • Episode 50: “8 More Miles To Louisville”
  • Episode 51: “Who’ll Stop the Rain”
  • Episode 52: “Pretty Polly”
  • Episode 53: “You Are My Sunshine”
  • Episode 54: “Old Molly Hare”
  • Episode 55: “The Miller’s Will”
  • Episode 56: “Walking Cane”
  • Episode 57: “Feast Here Tonight”
  • Episode 58 “Let Me Fall”
  • Episode 59: “Little Birdie”
  • Episode 60: “Train on the Island”
  • Episode 61: “Handsome Molly”
  • Episode 62: “Willie Moore”
  • Episode 63: “Tom Cat Blues”
  • Episode 64: “Big Eyed Rabbit”

Level 2 arrangements and video demos for the Tune (and Song!) of the Week tunes are now available as part of the Breakthrough Banjo course.

Click here for a current list of all the clawhammer songs and tunes currently available inside of The Vault

Learn More About Breakthrough Banjo

 

About the Author
Josh Turknett is founder and lead brain hacker at Brainjo Productions
 

View the Brainjo Course Catalog


brainjo larger musical mind

Feliz Navidad!

Feliz Navidad from the von Turknett Family Singers!

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