Click Here To Get The Tab

Sometimes when adapting a song for clawhammer style, everything works out perfectly. Other times, modifications to the original are in order to maximize its potential on the five.

For example, you could play “Battle Hymn of the Republic” in its original 4:4 time signature, as I’ve done in the first part of the video. There, four beats is the fewest number we can use to convey the right note emphasis  “ONE two three four ONE two three four.” Formal and stately, with gravitas befitting a patriotic anthem.

In my opinion, however, clawhammer shines best with a recurring two beat emphasis (ONE two ONE tw0). And if we transform the rhythm of the original into a recurring two beat pattern (creating what might be termed a “double time” feel), we end up with what I play in the remainder of the video.

For whatever reason (perhaps it’s because we are bipedal creatures?), recurring two beat units are more apt to set our feet moving than recurring four beat units.

But don’t let the math intimidate you – listening to the video, your ears will easily discern the difference.

Battle Hymn of the Republic

gCGCD 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”
• 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”

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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 To Get The Tab

This banjo playing business just never gets old.

Last week, banjoist and master didgeridoo craftsman Kurosh Showghi suggested “Darling Corey” as a potential future Song of the Week installment.

As it turns out, it was already on my list of songs to add, though somehow I’d never really attempted to tackle it previously. A little digging turned up B.F. Shelton as the original source (though titled “Cora” there, but I think most everyone has since agreed that “Corey” rolls off the tongue a little easier) and gCGCC, or “triple C”, as the traditional tuning.

Now, on paper, triple C looks moderately absurd. Only Gs and Cs? And two strings tuned to the same exact pitch?

You’d think there’d be no way that would work.

You’d be so wrong.

Not only is it not absurd, it sounds magnificent, bathing your ears in a wash of droning banjo bliss. There may not be a better tune for showcasing all that is great about the banjo.

And to top it all off, it’s about whiskey making. And somebody gets buried.

Speaking of whiskey making, the stills pictured behind me in the video in all their glistening copper glory are from American Spirit Whiskey here in my hometown of Atlanta, GA. They were designed by ASW’s whiskey maker Justin Manglitz, who as you may know is also my Georgia Jay mate.

Unlike Darling Corey, he can safely operate this stillhouse in broad daylight. Thank you 21st Amendment.

And if Justin’s whiskey making talent is half as good as his fiddling, those stills will soon be distilling some of the finest brown liquor in the land.

 

About the Arrangement

I make quite a few rhythmic embellishments in this arrangement, primarily through a mix of skip notes, drop thumbs, and delayed hammer ons. I’ve tried to capture these in the tablature, but it will certainly help to listen to the video to understand how it should sound.

Or use this as a launching point and make it your own (it also might be good to start with the simpler vocal backup arrangement, which could easily double as a solo)! There’s a lot of room to play around with this one.

Darling Corey

gCGCC tuning, Brainjo level 3-4

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”
• 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”

---

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 To Get The Tab

The Clawhammer Banjoist’s Guide to Crashing a Bluegrass Jam:

1. Learn some bluegrass standards (like this week’s song!)
2. Follow bluegrass jam etiquette. Play sparse-ish, chord based backup (or play nothing at all) while the other instruments are playing, and while the singer is singing. Then play your banjo solo “break” when it’s your turn.
3. Nod head vigorously from side to side should you choose to not take the aforementioned solo.
4. Act like you belong.

It’s a little bit – or a lot bit – absurd that the worlds of bluegrass and old-time music, and the banjo styles that are commonly associated with them, so seldom collide.

The two genres are about as close as two genres can be, so much so that they’re entirely indistinguishable to the casual observer, even in spite of attempts to educate said observer on the finer points of their subtle distinctions.

Because of this peculiar predicament, you’re far more likely to hear clawhammer banjo in an old-time jam, and fingerstyle banjo in a bluegrass jam.

But there’s no reason this should be so, the occasional prickly “purist’s” point of view notwithstanding.

So if you’re a clawhammer enthusiast, fear not the bluegrass jam. Yes, the protocol is slightly different, but otherwise there’s no reason you shouldn’t feel right at home. More than likely, your co-jammers will embrace the refreshing change of pace.

I’ve been known to play 3 finger banjo in an old time jam, and clawhammer in a bluegrass jam, and have lived to tell about it. It usually works out great, especially if there are other banjoists already filling out the traditional role.

Songs, like this week’s classic, popularized by Flatt and Scruggs, are also more common in bluegrass circles. And there will be many more selections from the Song of the Week that double as bluegrass fare (along with prior selections “Ain’t Gonna Work Tomorrow,” “Grandfather’s Clock,” and “I’ll Fly Away”).

Roll In My Sweet Baby’s Arms

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”
• 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”

---

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.