Music Education

Learning Banjo - How to Play By Ear

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Example Eleven: Boil Them Cabbage Down in G with the third string slide

Or we could put the two licks together . . .

Example Twelve: Boil Them Cabbage Down in G with two licks

The really amazing thing here is that in spite of everything we're doing the song is still coming across as Boil Them Cabbage Down. In other words, you can do an awful lot to a song without losing the melody.

You also want to be aware that less usually is more. Don't start going ape with this stuff. Use these ideas for seasonings rather than the main course.

Spend some time playing some simple folk songs and start messing with things to see how you can spice you your back up playing. It'll do wonders for your lead playing later on.

Now for most of this workshop I have been sticking to G and C and I'm sure that some of you are getting ready to write me asking, "what about D or A?"

Well, a lot of what you already know can be easily applied to the D and A chord forms- and if that seems to difficult at first you can always use a capo.

The easiest way to understand how a capo works is to go back and take a look at the chromatic scale.

Now your banjo is tuned to open G, so let's lay out the chromatic scale starting with G:

The fretboard (on your banjo or any other fretted instrument) is laid out in half steps just like the chromatic scale. That means if the banjo is tunes to open G and you lay your finger across all four strings at the first fret you get a G# or Ab chord.