Clawhammer Tune and Tab of the Week: “Carol of the Bells”

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.

Like I said yesterday, the chain of events that resulted in yesterday’s holiday video extravaganza all started innocently enough with a little request for a clawhammer arrangement of “Carol of the Bells”.

With that now out of my system (much to my future teenage daughter’s embarrassment), it’s time to get back to the business of Tune of the Week.

As is the case with several of the holiday classics, this tune offers us an opportunity to play out of G minor tuning. All that’s required to get there from standard G is just to tune the 2nd string down a half step to B flat. And it gives us a chance to get some reps in playing in 3/4 time signature.

I’ve made some slight modifications to the structure of the song in order to make it a bit more suitable as a solo banjo arrangement.

Carol of the Bells

gDGBbD 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.