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

Good giggly wiggly, I’m glad that’s behind us!

At long last, for those of us in the states, the election has finally passed, and I think we could all use a musical catharsis.

Perhaps a tune about fox chasin’!

Tennessee Mountain Fox Chase, suggested by Breakthrough Banjo member Cory S., was first recorded in 1927 by “Vance’s Tennessee Breakdowners” (and initially dubbed Washington County Fox Chase). Not only is it a delightfully rollickin’ tune, but it also sounds extra sweet in open C tuning, so it provides an opportunity to add to that repertoire. After all, if you’re gonna go through the anxiety of cranking up that 1st string, you might as well stay there a while!

You’ll note that it’s a crooked tune to boot, meaning it doesn’t conform to the usual even measured template of a fiddle tune, perhaps to evoke the chaos of huntin’ foxes. So keep your ears peeled for some extra beats, and give your brain a bit of extra time to wrap itself around its meandering structure.

And be sure to make those dogs bark loud in the B part!

Now go forth and release some pent-up energy…and the hounds!

Tennessee Mountain Fox Chase

gCGCE tuning, Brainjo level 3-4

 

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.

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 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

Edden. Burl. Sherman. Lee. Maggie. Currence.

Many of you steeped in the lore of the old-time tradition will recognize those as names of members of the Hammons family of West Virginia, a multi-generational group from the mountains of West Virginia who’s musical tradition has been the subject of books, documentaries, and TV shows.

They’re responsible for a number of outstanding fiddle tunes, including today’s selection “Three Forks of Cheat,” which comes from the playing of Burl Hammons.

Most of their tunes were composed for solo performance, typically on the fiddle. And many of them have the haunting, eccentric, and idiosyncratic character you might expect of music that hails from the remote reaches of Appalachia, where the composition is unconstrained by the considerations of group jamming.

You’ll be pleased to discover two things about this tune:

1. It sounds great on solo banjo.
2. It sounds great played at a easy, comfortable pace.

— And thanks to Breakthrough Banjo member John M. for suggesting this fine tune! —

Three Forks of Cheat

aEAC#E tuning, Brainjo level 3

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.

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 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

I must admit, I’ve put off recording this week’s song as a Tune of the Week installment.

Not because I don’t like it. On the contrary.

I put it off because I love it almost too much. Why?

Because, for me, it encapsulates everything I love about traditional southern mountain banjo music. Or maybe just music period.

First of all, it was composed by one of my heroes, the legendary Fred Cockerham of Round Peak, NC. And unlike much of the repertoire spawned from that tradition, this one was composed as a banjo tune.

It’s also in one of the less encountered “alternate tunings.” And it shows perfectly why those tunings exist – sure, you can play it in another tuning, but it’s just not the same.

It’s also loose structurally. There’s space in between the phrases that’s yours to do as you wish with. Space to play whatever you want, as long or as short as you’d like. There’s no rush to get on with it. Just stay in the moment, and play what seems natural.

Thematically, it covers the classic ground of longing and unrequited love.

And even though the melancholy and heartbreak is palpable in both its lyrics and musical aesthetic, I could play it endlessly (it’s rumored that Fred would play it over and over as well). I think there’s something profound about the human condition wrapped up in all of that, which may explain why the song feels so sacred.

The Tuning

As mentioned, this song uses one of the banjo’s “alternate” tunings (since there is not really a primary tuning for banjo, I feel compelled to always place alternate in quotes…). The tuning here is typically referred to as f#BEAD, though here’s it’s raised up a whole step to g#C#F#BE (you can either tune directly or use a capo at the 2nd fret), putting the result in the key of E.

You may hear this referred to by some “Cumberland Gap tuning.” However, given that there are other tunings that go by that name, and given the rabbit hole that it is the “naming-of-tunings-by-a-particular-tune” convention, I’d caution against using that terminology for the sake of clarity.

It’s a tuning that lends itself well to aimless noodling, and so you may want to spend a bit of time messing around with it once you’re there. To help frame your noodles, it’s useful to know the 3 primary chord fingerings (the I, IV, and V, which in this case are E Maj, A Maj, and B Maj). Here are the positions for those:

I’m also currently testing out a few setup configurations for the “Roscoe” model of “the Brainjo,” which has the plunkiest tone of the 3 offerings. For this recording, I’m using a set of LaBella nylon strings (“classical” set).

(RELATED: For more information on the three various configurations of “the Brainjo,” learn the Brainjo’s origin story, and to pre-order one of your very own, click here.)

This suggest something different than just that we seek happiness and avoid sadness. I seems that this says something profound about the human condition.

Little Satchel

g#C#F#BE tuning, Brainjo level 3-4

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.

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 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

It’s quite possible that, were it not for Bill Monroe, I’d have never found the banjo.

Horrors.

For those that don’t know the backstory, back in 1939, Monroe formed the band the “Blue Grass Boys.” His vision was to create a more commercially viable form of southern mountain music. Kentucky, where Monroe was from, is known as the “bluegrass state.”

But it wasn’t until Bill connected with now legendary banjoist Earl Scruggs and his iconic banjo picking that things really took off, and the style we all know as “bluegrass” took full form.

Earl’s driving and syncopated banjo style also fueled a banjo renaissance, the momentum of which has carried into present day.

Those bluegrass banjo sounds were the ones that, growing up, first stoked my interest (which would ultimately turn to infatuation) in the instrument.

Bill Monroe penned a number of original tunes that are a now fixtures in the bluegrass canon, and “Big Sandy River” is one of those.

It was recently requested by Breakthrough Banjo member Caroline M. I’m pretty sure I’d played it previously Scruggs style, but had yet to tackle it clawhammer. Worked out just fine (as most traditional bluegrass tunes do)!

In most renditions of this tune (including ones played by Bill himself), the melody for the A part is typically played with relatively minimal variation, while the B part is more or less a chord progression over which the player adds his or her own interpretations.

So feel free to interpretate!

Big Sandy River

aEAC#E tuning, Brainjo level 3-4

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.

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 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

In the filing cabinet of my mind, this week’s tune, Greasy String, is categorized as the gritter (greasier?) version of “Cripple Creek.”

No, the two tunes aren’t the same, but the similarities are there, especially in the B part, and in the fact that they’re both “half length” fiddle tunes. Speaking of the fiddle, it’s presumed that the title refers to a fiddle string that’s been properly lubricated (sometimes via the application of the grease in one’s own hair).

Greasy String was also one of the cuts off the Georgia Jays’ Round Peak, Georgia album, and it features some especially fine fiddling, and some equally fine singing by my bandmate Justin Manglitz, each with a healthy dose of satisfying grit.

(RELATED: the Facebookers in the audience can keep track of the latest Georgia Jay happenings by liking our page there.)

As I did with Sally Ann recently, I’ve included that track here for your listening enjoyment, along with the fiddle backup tracks that are part of the Banjo Players Edition (which includes the entire album, 40 fiddle backup tracks, and a book of banjo tabs for all the tunes – click here to check it out.)

Greasy String – album cut: 

Greasy String – full speed fiddle track: 

Greasy String – slower speed fiddle track: 

Greasy String

aEAC#E tuning, Brainjo level 3-4

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.

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.