Clawhammer Tune and Tab of the Week: “Year of Jubilo + Jubilation Rag”

“Year of Jubilo” has long been one of my favorite tunes to play (not sure how it’s escaped inclusion in the Tune of the Week for this long!), and it’s one I’ve been playing since my early days of banjo.

Yet, oftentimes while playing it, I’d want to insert a majored 2nd chord (the E major in this case) into that 5th measure and transform the tune into a rag of sorts. It may not surprise you, given my affinity for syncopation, that I’ve long been a huge fan of Ragtime.

So one day I did insert that major 2nd, and another tune fell out of the banjo, one I later dubbed “Jubilation Rag.”

“Year of Jubilo,” aka “Kingdom Coming” (Year of Jubilo could be considered the “fiddle tune” name for this song) , was written by Henry Clay Work (who has several American classics to his name). Written in 1862, the words to it are sung from the perspective of slaves who are imagining their impending freedom, and the fate that may become of their masters once the Union soldiers arrive.

So I like the story these two tunes together tell. Year of Jubilo, a song that celebrates the emancipation of blacks in the American south, leads into a tune that celebrates a genre of music that I not only love dearly, but that likely would’ve never existed were it not for that aforementioned emancipation.

Time to get jubilating!

Year of Jubilo

aDADE tuning, Brainjo level 3

Jubilation Rag

aDADE tuning, Brainjo level 3-4

Notes on the tab:

Notes in parentheses are “skip” notes. To learn more about these, check out my [free] video lesson on the subject.

For more on reading tabs in general, check out my complete guide on reading banjo tabs.