free banjo tabs – Page 30

Clawhammer Song (and Tab) of the Week: “Crawdad Hole”

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Let’s go crawdad hunting!

This week’s song, Crawdad Hole, with its appeal to ears of all ages, is always a crowd favorite. It’s also a great song to tackle if you’re just getting started playing and singing – just 16 bars long, perfectly suited to standard G tuning with a minimum of fretting hand maneuvering needed.

Plus, learn this one and you’ll get a bonus song, as “Froggy Went A Courtin'” uses the exact same melody. It’s a 2-for-1!

Crawdad Hole

gDGBD tuning, Brainjo level 3

crawdad hole clawhammer banjo tab part 1

crawdad hole clawhammer banjo tab part 2

Notes on the Tab

In the tab above, you’ll note I’ve tabbed out both a “lead break” (something to play in between verses) and the “vocal backup” (what I play while I’m 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

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.

Learn More About Breakthrough Banjo

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

View the Brainjo Course Catalog

Clawhammer Tune and Tab of the Week: “Star Wars”

Click here to subscribe to the tune of the week (if you’re not already a subscriber) and get a new tune every Friday, plus tabs to all the ones to date.

Question: Is it possible to love an art form born of humble beginnings, one that evokes a primal longing for a simpler time, a time free of the distractions of modern technology, an art form that presents in full relief the best of human ingenuity and artistic expression in the face of limited means, and beloved by just a tiny (but rabid!) fragment of the total populace WHILE SIMULTANEOUSLY loving an artistic creation of popular appeal that utilizes the very latest advances in digital technology?

Answer: Absolutely!

Personally, I’m a fan of the best in human creativity and artistic expression, regardless of the form that it takes.

And Star Wars is no exception.

Unlike those parts of modern culture we could do without, the carefully engineered, dastardly appeals to our impulse for instant gratification designed to ensnare us in a loop of ever increasing consumption, Star Wars taps into something deeper.

It’s a classic story, the framework for which is likely wired into our DNA, told in a way that showcases just how much we’ve accomplished as a species through the power of our collective intellect.

Put another way, I really, really like Star Wars. It was the mythology of my childhood, after all.

Play the first 3 notes of the theme song, and I’m all in.

And even if you yourself aren’t a fan, I imagine there’s a child or grandchild in your life who is. Based on my own kids’ reaction to my rendition, this is likely to be the most well received banjo tune you’ll ever play for them.

Also, if you’re wondering why Storm Troopers might hate the banjo (watch the video to the end if you don’t know what I’m referring to), I think Pete Seeger’s banjo head sums it up nicely:

Star Wars Theme

gCGCD tuning, Brainjo level 3-4

Notes on the Tab

Being a tune well outside the traditional clawhammer banjo repertoire (!), there are rhythms here you may not be accustomed to playing. Though I’ve done my best to represent them in the tab, the best thing to do is to get them in your head by listening to the tune, then consulting the tab.

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 of the Week tunes are now available as part of the Breakthrough Banjo course. Learn more about it here.

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

View the Brainjo Course Catalog

Clawhammer Song of the Week: “GumTree Canoe”

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 seems only fitting that the 2nd installment in the Song of the Week brings us a number made popular by the late, great John Hartford, one of the most celebrated singing banjoists of all time.

Though Hartford played plenty of his own original compositions, GumTree Canoe (first published in 1847) is one he resurrected from the minstrel era (check out his performance of it here and try not to grin from ear to ear). It’s a wonderful melody, and one that you may find tests the limits of your vocal range!

The song also affords us the opportunity to practice playing in 3:4, or waltz (“one two three, one two three,..”) time. If you don’t have much experience playing in waltz time clawhammer style, I think songs are a great way to get your feet wet.

You’ll note that I’m joined on this one by my lovely daughter Jules. One of my selfish reasons for splintering off the Song of the Week series was so that we’d have more excuses to make music together. So more of this combination to follow!

GumTree Canoe

gDGBD tuning, Brainjo level 3

Notes on the Tab

In the tab above, you’ll note I’ve tabbed out both a “lead break” (something to play in between verses) and the “vocal backup” (what I play while I’m 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”

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.

Learn More About Breakthrough Banjo

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

View the Brainjo Course Catalog

Clawhammer Song of the Week: “Ain’t Gonna Work Tomorrow”

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

“Oh, I ain’t gonna work tomorrow,

And I ain’t gonna work next day”

How could you not love a song with a refrain like that? Not a fair fight, really.

And a worthy song to kick off the brand new “Song of the Week” series!

Why a Song of the Week series, you ask?

One, because many fans of the Tune of the Week have asked for more singing videos. And while I do sing with some of the tune of the week tunes, there’s still a large body of tunes (music without voice) left to play.

Two, because I’m on a personal mission to get more folks singing with their banjos. For the old timers, singing with the banjo was commonplace.

Then the geetar came into fashion and messed it all up. So it’s high time we filled the world back up with singing banjoists, and my hope is this series will inspire others to do likewise, and provide ideas for ways to go about it.

Believe it or not, my initial reason for learning clawhammer style was because I thought it was well suited for vocal backup. Yet, once I learned it, I found it challenging to locate any singing role models to steal from (things have gotten easier these days, a trend I hope will continue!).

So, you can now expect two new videos (along with accompanying tabs) from me each week, one solo banjo tune, one with banjo and voice. And, if you’re a subscriber of the tune of the week newsletter, I’ll send you the tabs as well (click on the button below to get today’s tab and become a subscriber (it’s free)):

Click Here to Get the Tab

And, if you’re interested in more on singing and playing, including how to go about deciding what to play while you sing (and learning how to do it!), I have an entire learning module dedicated to it inside of the Breakthrough Banjo course.

There you’ll also find The Vault, an ever expanding archive of tabs and video demos for songs, with arrangements targeted at multiple skill levels (all videos in the Song of the Week series are pulled from here). Click here to learn more about Breakthrough Banjo and The Vault –>

Ain’t Gonna Work Tomorrow

gCGBD tuning, Brainjo level 3

aint gonna work tomorrow clawhammer banjo tab part 1

Notes on the Tab

In the tab above, you’ll note I’ve tabbed out both a “lead break” (something to play in between verses) and the “vocal backup” (what I play while I’m 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.

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.

Learn More About Breakthrough Banjo

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

View the Brainjo Course Catalog

Clawhammer Tune and Tab of the Week: “Arkansas Traveler”

Click here to subscribe to the tune of the week (if you’re not already a subscriber) and get a new tune every Friday, plus tabs to all the ones to date.

So many elements of our culture we inherit without ever knowing their origin story. After all, a lot has happened in the 2.5 million years of human life that occurred before each of us plopped into this world.

Take the Arkansas Traveler. I (and I imagine many other Americans) had known this melody (first as the “bumblebee song”) for some time without ever knowing its backstory, which you can read more about here.

The short version: a weary Traveler gets lost in rural Arkansas and comes across a Squatter, who humorously evades his repeated inquiries for directions.

The classic performance version of this tune presents it as a mix of music and comedy, alternating witty banter between the Traveler and the Squatter (whose evasive replies are typically clever plays on words) with musical verses. It’s a classic example of “old time” humor.

Click here to listen to the New Lost City Ramblers do their version of it.

As the story goes, the Squatter repeatedly frustrates the Traveler with his evasive (but humorous) responses to the Traveler’s question, until the Traveler ultimately surprises him by playing through the heretofore elusive B part of the tune (referred to in this case as “the turn” of the tune). The Squatter is so delighted he invites the Traveler into his home.

The first picture in the video depicts the initial encounter, the second the joyous celebration that ensues when the Traveler plays through “the turn”.

In jams, of course, it’s just about the music. Arkansas Traveler has become a classic fiddle tune (and part of the “old time top 20“) in the key of D. Idiosyncratic versions abound, and many a fiddler can be identified by his or her particular rendition.

My version here sticks close to the classic melody, and the arrangement certainly leans more to the “melodic” style.

Arkansas Traveler

aDADE tuning, Brainjo level 4

Arkansas Traveler clawhammer banjo tab part 1

Arkansas Traveler clawhammer banjo tab part 2

Notes on the Tab

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.

Level 2 arrangements and video demos for the Tune of the Week tunes are now available as part of the Breakthrough Banjo course. Learn more about it here.

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