Some simple tabs
Having picked through the usual Cripple Creek and Buffalo Gals beginners tabs, I ran out of anything simple but interesting to work on next.
Then I found out it isn't difficult to work out your own versions of tunes using Tabwin and fiddle with them until you have something that sounds OK.
These are the ones I am working on at the moment. I will post more as they come up.
(And as I learn to play all the way through without dropping the banjo)
Note: Tabwin (TABrite for Windows) doesn't handle dynamics very well so it is a bit mechanical.
Its also a bit buggy but it has the big advantage of being free.
The TABrite authors, Al and Duane Langston, no longer have their website. and have made the TABrite program free to the music community
| Tune | Tab | Midi | Live |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Keeper | TABrite | Midi file | Wav file |
| Shady Grove | TABrite | Midi file | Wav file |
| John Peel | TABrite | Midi file | |
| All Around my Hat | TABrite | Midi file | Wav file |
| Scotland the Brave (the banjo has a suprisingly similar tonal character to the pipes) | TABrite | Midi file | Wav file |
| Redwing | TABrite | Midi file | Wav file |
Getting a little better
|
- Try some finerpicking style. Here is Wildwood Flower based loosely on the Carter family version and played Scruggs style. The mp3 file is the tune played on my first homemade banjo (with only a couple of stumbles). Here is the Tabwin file I've written out the fingering I use for this, which might help. The third bar is played I M T M I T I M rather than a more 'standard' roll sequence T M T M I T I M. That makes it fractionally easier because otherwise the thumb has to swing right across from top string to bottom
In bar 14, which looks like this |
