[Mike]

Sorry I had to remove the lead part because it’s a copyrighted song.

You’re not able to copyright chords (backup) so that’s why I was able to leave that section of the lesson up.

Thanks for your understanding.

– Mike

[Mike]

Yes, you’re hammering on the 4th string while playing the open 3rd string with your right hand.

It takes a little practice to get the coordination down but you’ll get it.

Check out this lesson it will give you some exercises to practice:

Understanding The Rhythm Of Slides, Hammer-Ons And Pull-Offs

• This reply was modified 3 years, 6 months ago by Mike.

[Mike]

Sorry, I missed it.

Yes, this would be more of an advanced beginner arrangement.

If you have any other questions let me know.

– Mike

[Mike]

The banjo track is included so you can hear how the arrangement sounds at different speeds. The middle section of the practice tracks doesn’t have the banjo lead.

But I can send you completely banjo-less tracks. Check your email. Thanks.

– Mike

[Mike]

When you’re first starting out I’d just stick to playing the G pentatonic scale over all the chords.

As you get more comfortable. You can start switching between scales as the chord changes.

More importantly would be highlighting the chord tones of each chord regardless of what scale you’re playing. So for a G, C D progression you’d have (G,B,D) (C,E,G) and (D, F#, A).

Playing the chord tones as the chords change will help spell out the changes and add another depth to your soloing.

[Mike]

Awesome. Glad it was helpful!

Yes it’s easy to get too focused on playing leads and not spending time on learning the basic melody and backup. I’ve struggled with this in the past.

Learning the basic melody and backup builds a solid foundation which you can then build on when you learn the lead.

Keep picking.

– Mike

[Mike]

Thanks for the question.

Unfortunately I had to remove the lead part of the lesson because it’s copyrighted. You can’t copyright backup/chords so I was able to leave that part of the lesson up.

Thanks for your understanding. Keep picking.

Best,
Mike

[Mike]

Good question.

There’s not an easy way to just look at a tab you’ve never heard and know the melody for sure. It’s helpful to listen to the song to get a sense of the melody and then look at the tab.

A lot of times the melody will be the fretted notes and the open strings will be an extra part of the rolls but not always.

For this particular song the melody is mainly on the 1st and 2nd strings for measures 1-14 and then goes down to the 3rd and 4th strings for 15-21.

If you have any other questions let me know. Keep picking.

Best,
Mike

[Mike]

You’re adding one new finger at a time. You’ll want to practice keeping your other fingers down until you move to the next string.

This will help your fingers stretch out and will help you not build the habit of unnecessarily lifting your fingers up after playing each note.

If you have any other questions let me know.

– Mike

[Mike]

Sorry I don’t have a tab for the exact backup I played cause it wouldn’t ever be played the same way twice.

I go over a bunch of the techniques I used in the backup video though.

Did you check that out?

Which part is giving you trouble?

Mike

[Mike]

Most people use two metal fingerpicks and a plastic thumbpick. That’s what I’d recommend to start.

I use dunlop .025 fingerpicks and I’d check out a golden gate plastic thumbpick.

That should get you started until you figure out exactly what your preference is.

Best,
Mike

[Mike]

If you’re trying to learn clawhammer banjo yes, you can play without picks.

If you’re trying to learn 3 finger bluegrass style banjo picks are absolutely necessary.

You simply won’t be able to get the speed, consistency and tone from your fingernails. They’re not at the right angle, made out of the correct material or the right length.

It may feel like you’re taking a shortcut skipping learning how to use the picks but you’re just building habits that you’ll have to unlearn later on.

The picks feel weird for everyone at first but it’s critical you learn how to use them if you want to play bluegrass style.

If you have any other questions let me know. Keep picking.

Best,
Mike

• This reply was modified 3 years, 9 months ago by Mike.

[Mike]

You can click the “gear” icon in the bottom right hand corner of the video and adjust the speed if you want to slow the video down.

Or you can let me know timestamp the roll occurs at and I can help out.

In the up-the-neck backup section I’m mainly using the F shape moveable chord. The major and minor version.

You can check out this lesson that has a tab if you’re not familiar with that chord shape:

Chord Theory (Part One)

If you have any other questions let me know.

– Mike

[Mike]

No, they do an extra vocal turnaround at the beginning so it’d be at 20 seconds in.

They also do their version in F so you’d have to retune your banjo down a whole step.

Good luck.

Mike

• This reply was modified 3 years, 11 months ago by Mike.

[Mike]

Sorry for the delay in response.

Are you talking about when the song is starting?

The practice tracks count 1, 2, 3, 4 twice before the rhythm comes in.

You’d play the pickup on the second 2, 3 and 4.

So listen for 1, 2, 3, 4, 1 and then start playing the pickup notes.

If you’re still having trouble can you post a video? It’d be easier to help after hearing you play it to see what’s happening.

– Mike

[Author]

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