Clawhammer Core Repertoire Series, Special Edition: “God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman”

  

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The Fridays are Blackened, the Mondays are Cyber-ed, and the Eggs have been Nogged.

Yes, the holiday season is officially in full swing.

Which means it’s that time of year when you can bust out your holiday repertoire! And there’s nothing better for rousing up the spirit of the season than some tunes played on the 5-string.

So, naturally, for this Special Edition of the Clawhammer Core Repertoire Series, we’re learning a thematically appropriate tune, and one of my favorite Christmas Carols: “God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman.”

I’ve always been especially fond of this tune. It’s minor sound can be a welcome departure from the otherwise major-y tones that tend to dominate the Christmas Carol canon.

On the banjo, it also affords us an opportunity to use a nifty tuning that we don’t see too often, but one that’s great for rendering minor numbers. And, all it takes to get there is one simple change on the 2nd string.

Step 1: Know Thy Melody

I imagine most of you are quite familiar with how this one goes. With fiddle tunes, we’re typically listening for the core melody that’s being embellished by the fiddle.

In this case, the core melody is simply what’s sung along with the words. Here’s how it sounds sung in the key of G minor (which we’ll be playing in):

Step 2: Find the Melody Notes

Once you’ve got it in your head, let’s find those melody notes on your banjo. Before you do, get your banjo into “G minor” tuning (gDGBbD). To get there from standard G (gDGBD), simply lower the 2nd string down a half step.

Here’s how the melody sounds on the banjo, naked and pre-clawhammerized:

And here are those notes in tab:

God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman

gDGBbD tuning, Melody Notes

Step 3: Clawhammerify It

Let’s now take that melody and make it sound like a bonafide banjo tune. You’ll note that this tune consists mostly of a string of quarter notes (in 4/4 time). In this case, the most straightforward way to clawhammerize it is to add a thumb on the 5th string after each of those melody notes, which will produce a “ditty-ditty” rhythm throughout most of the tune. Whenever there’s a melody note that occupies more than a 1/4 note, we’ll add a “ditty” strum to fill the space.

Here’s what that looks like in tab:

God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman

gDGBbD, Basic Arrangement

And here’s what that initial version sounds like:

Now we’ve got a perfectly respectable clawhammer and nice sounding version of this holiday classic!

Step 4: Embellish To Taste

Let’s see if we can add a little holiday spice. What I’ve decided to do in my souped up version (demonstrated above) is to syncopate many of those melody notes, moving them from a down or upbeat to an offbeat. Which means that many of those notes now are being played by the fingers of the fretting hand or thumb (as opposed to notes on the down and up beats, which are the domain of the picking finger), either as a hammer on, pull off, or drop thumb. I also slide into those melody notes a few times.

The result, in my opinion, is a version that swings a lot more, but really isn’t too much more difficult to play (especially if you’re familiar with the added techniques).

Here’s what that version looks like in tab:

God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman

gDGBbD tuning, Brainjo level 3