Chords for Three Bluegrass Banjo Styles Explained with Noam Pikelny | Reverb Interview
Tempo:
128.9 bpm
Chords used:
G
D
C
E
Gm
Tuning:Standard Tuning (EADGBE)Capo:+0fret
Start Jamming...
[G] [E] [Bb]
[Am] [C] [G]
[Am]
[D] [G] [E]
[Am] [D] The real tectonic shift in the plates of the banjo happened when Earl Scruggs kind of codified
the three [G]-finger Scruggs style approach of playing.
It's almost like elemental.
When you hear Earl Scruggs play the banjo, it's what the banjo is supposed to sound like.
The Scruggs style is more of a rolling style where you have a lot of open drone strings
and melody notes that are interspersed with open drone strings of a roll.
A lot of times he'll be playing a vocal melody where the melody is moving more slowly but
the picking pattern is fast.
[C]
[G] [C]
[G]
That's not a Scruggs arrangement.
That's just kind of the general approach.
That's how Scruggs was doing it.
He wrote classic instrumentals that weren't based on vocal melodies that still used that
style, a lot of them with great speed.
[C] [E] [G]
[D] You had guys like Bill Keith and Bobby Thompson who came along playing in what has become
known as a melodic style where they're trying to match the notes of a fiddle.
They would play a melody like Whiskey Before Breakfast, like that [G] [A]
[D] [G]
[D] idea, where you're kind
of playing note for note what the fiddle would be playing versus [Gm]
[D] more of a Scruggs approach
for that kind of melody would probably be like
[G]
[E] [D]
[G] [D] [Gm] Bill Keith really became the most famous practitioner of that style and people really hadn't heard
the banjo sound so different since the last time that Earl Scruggs kind of came out onto the scene.
Around the same time, a guy named Don Reno, who was another master banjo player, was working
on kind of a more guitaristic style on the banjo and that kind of planted the seed for
what is known as the single string style, which is essentially thumb index, thumb index
back and forth to simulate the up and down motion of a flat pix.
[G]
And a lot of people started expanding upon that to use that technique not just for playing
riffs, but for actually playing melodies.
Tony Trischka really made a lot of inroads in that and that style of single string was
really came into blossom with Baylef Lex playing.
He figured out a way to play single string, to play melodies and to improvise.
That kind of was the bridge as far as getting more legato sounds out of the banjo.
You could improvise with the instrument being a little bit more mellow and with less of
a defined attack.
Just an example [D] of playing single string, that song Whiskey Before Breakfast that you
heard is melodic,
[G] [D] Earl Scruggs.
[G] [E] You could play single string like a guitar player, [G] [D]
not being a single string style, but
that once kind of the floodgates were open for that, the single string became an amazing
springboard for improvising.
[G]
[A] [Bm]
[G] [D] People have asked me, well, what are you, are you playing a single string there or is
that melodic there or is that Scruggs style?
And I had the luxury of learning the banjo with these incredible kind of textbook examples
of these three styles.
When I came up, there was already Earl Scruggs and J.D. Crow.
We had Bill Keith and Alan Mundy playing melodic style and then people like Baylef Lex, Tony
Trischka, Alison Brown playing single string.
I've been playing those three styles enough that I've been trying to find ways to blur
the lines and kind of make them flow in and out [G] of each other so it's not necessarily one distance.
[C] [G]
[Gm]
[C]
[Gm] [G]
[C]
[G]
[Am] [C] [G]
[Am]
[D] [G] [E]
[Am] [D] The real tectonic shift in the plates of the banjo happened when Earl Scruggs kind of codified
the three [G]-finger Scruggs style approach of playing.
It's almost like elemental.
When you hear Earl Scruggs play the banjo, it's what the banjo is supposed to sound like.
The Scruggs style is more of a rolling style where you have a lot of open drone strings
and melody notes that are interspersed with open drone strings of a roll.
A lot of times he'll be playing a vocal melody where the melody is moving more slowly but
the picking pattern is fast.
[C]
[G] [C]
[G]
That's not a Scruggs arrangement.
That's just kind of the general approach.
That's how Scruggs was doing it.
He wrote classic instrumentals that weren't based on vocal melodies that still used that
style, a lot of them with great speed.
[C] [E] [G]
[D] You had guys like Bill Keith and Bobby Thompson who came along playing in what has become
known as a melodic style where they're trying to match the notes of a fiddle.
They would play a melody like Whiskey Before Breakfast, like that [G] [A]
[D] [G]
[D] idea, where you're kind
of playing note for note what the fiddle would be playing versus [Gm]
[D] more of a Scruggs approach
for that kind of melody would probably be like
[G]
[E] [D]
[G] [D] [Gm] Bill Keith really became the most famous practitioner of that style and people really hadn't heard
the banjo sound so different since the last time that Earl Scruggs kind of came out onto the scene.
Around the same time, a guy named Don Reno, who was another master banjo player, was working
on kind of a more guitaristic style on the banjo and that kind of planted the seed for
what is known as the single string style, which is essentially thumb index, thumb index
back and forth to simulate the up and down motion of a flat pix.
[G]
And a lot of people started expanding upon that to use that technique not just for playing
riffs, but for actually playing melodies.
Tony Trischka really made a lot of inroads in that and that style of single string was
really came into blossom with Baylef Lex playing.
He figured out a way to play single string, to play melodies and to improvise.
That kind of was the bridge as far as getting more legato sounds out of the banjo.
You could improvise with the instrument being a little bit more mellow and with less of
a defined attack.
Just an example [D] of playing single string, that song Whiskey Before Breakfast that you
heard is melodic,
[G] [D] Earl Scruggs.
[G] [E] You could play single string like a guitar player, [G] [D]
not being a single string style, but
that once kind of the floodgates were open for that, the single string became an amazing
springboard for improvising.
[G]
[A] [Bm]
[G] [D] People have asked me, well, what are you, are you playing a single string there or is
that melodic there or is that Scruggs style?
And I had the luxury of learning the banjo with these incredible kind of textbook examples
of these three styles.
When I came up, there was already Earl Scruggs and J.D. Crow.
We had Bill Keith and Alan Mundy playing melodic style and then people like Baylef Lex, Tony
Trischka, Alison Brown playing single string.
I've been playing those three styles enough that I've been trying to find ways to blur
the lines and kind of make them flow in and out [G] of each other so it's not necessarily one distance.
[C] [G]
[Gm]
[C]
[Gm] [G]
[C]
[G]
Key:
G
D
C
E
Gm
G
D
C
[G] _ _ _ _ [E] _ _ _ [Bb] _
_ [Am] _ [C] _ _ [G] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [Am] _ _ _ _ _
[D] _ [G] _ _ _ _ [E] _ _ _
_ _ _ [Am] _ [D] _ _ The real tectonic shift in the plates of the banjo happened when Earl Scruggs kind of codified
the three [G]-finger Scruggs style approach of playing.
It's almost like elemental.
When you hear Earl Scruggs play the banjo, it's what the banjo is supposed to sound like.
The Scruggs style is more of a rolling style where you have a lot of open drone strings
_ and melody notes that are interspersed with open drone strings of a roll.
A lot of times he'll be playing a vocal melody where the melody is moving more slowly but
the picking pattern is fast. _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [C] _ _
_ [G] _ _ _ _ _ _ [C] _
_ _ _ [G] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _
That's not a Scruggs arrangement.
That's just kind of the general approach.
That's how Scruggs was doing it.
He wrote classic instrumentals that weren't based on vocal melodies that still used that
style, a lot of them with great speed.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [C] _ [E] _ _ [G] _
_ _ _ [D] You had guys like Bill Keith and Bobby Thompson who came along playing in what has become
known as a melodic style where they're trying to match the notes of a fiddle.
They would play a melody like Whiskey Before Breakfast, like _ that [G] _ _ [A] _ _
_ [D] _ _ [G] _ _ _ _ _
_ [D] _ _ idea, where you're kind
of playing note for note what the fiddle would be playing versus _ [Gm] _
_ _ _ _ _ [D] more of a Scruggs approach
for that kind of melody would probably be like_
_ _ [G] _
_ [E] _ _ [D] _ _ _ _ _
[G] _ _ [D] _ [Gm] Bill Keith really became the most famous practitioner of that style and people really hadn't heard
the banjo sound so different since the last time that Earl Scruggs kind of came out onto the scene.
Around the same time, a guy named Don Reno, who was another master banjo player, was working
on kind of a more guitaristic style on the banjo and that kind of planted the seed for
what is known as the single string style, which is essentially thumb index, thumb index
back and forth to simulate the up and down motion of a flat pix.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[G] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
And a lot of people started expanding upon that to use that technique not just for playing
riffs, but for actually playing melodies.
Tony Trischka really made a lot of inroads in that and that style of single string was
really came into blossom with Baylef Lex playing.
He figured out a way to play single string, to play melodies and to improvise.
That kind of was the bridge as far as getting more legato sounds out of the banjo.
You could improvise with the instrument being a little bit more mellow and with less of
a defined attack.
Just an example [D] of playing single string, that song Whiskey Before Breakfast that you
heard is melodic, _ _ _
_ [G] _ _ [D] Earl Scruggs. _ _
_ [G] _ _ [E] _ You could play single string like a guitar player, _ _ [G] _ _ _ [D] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ not being a single string style, but
that once kind of the floodgates were open for that, the single string became an amazing
springboard for improvising.
_ [G] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [A] _ [Bm] _ _ _
_ _ _ [G] _ _ [D] People have asked me, well, what are you, are you playing a single string there or is
that melodic there or is that Scruggs style?
And I had the luxury of learning the banjo with these incredible kind of textbook examples
of these three styles.
When I came up, there was already Earl Scruggs and J.D. Crow.
We had Bill Keith and Alan Mundy playing melodic style and then people like Baylef Lex, Tony
Trischka, Alison Brown playing single string.
I've been playing those three styles enough that I've been trying to find ways to blur
the lines and kind of make them flow in and out [G] of each other so it's not necessarily one distance. _
_ _ [C] _ _ _ _ [G] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [Gm] _ _ _ _ _ _
[C] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [Gm] _ _ _ _ [G] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [C] _ _ _ _
_ [G] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [Am] _ [C] _ _ [G] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [Am] _ _ _ _ _
[D] _ [G] _ _ _ _ [E] _ _ _
_ _ _ [Am] _ [D] _ _ The real tectonic shift in the plates of the banjo happened when Earl Scruggs kind of codified
the three [G]-finger Scruggs style approach of playing.
It's almost like elemental.
When you hear Earl Scruggs play the banjo, it's what the banjo is supposed to sound like.
The Scruggs style is more of a rolling style where you have a lot of open drone strings
_ and melody notes that are interspersed with open drone strings of a roll.
A lot of times he'll be playing a vocal melody where the melody is moving more slowly but
the picking pattern is fast. _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [C] _ _
_ [G] _ _ _ _ _ _ [C] _
_ _ _ [G] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _
That's not a Scruggs arrangement.
That's just kind of the general approach.
That's how Scruggs was doing it.
He wrote classic instrumentals that weren't based on vocal melodies that still used that
style, a lot of them with great speed.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [C] _ [E] _ _ [G] _
_ _ _ [D] You had guys like Bill Keith and Bobby Thompson who came along playing in what has become
known as a melodic style where they're trying to match the notes of a fiddle.
They would play a melody like Whiskey Before Breakfast, like _ that [G] _ _ [A] _ _
_ [D] _ _ [G] _ _ _ _ _
_ [D] _ _ idea, where you're kind
of playing note for note what the fiddle would be playing versus _ [Gm] _
_ _ _ _ _ [D] more of a Scruggs approach
for that kind of melody would probably be like_
_ _ [G] _
_ [E] _ _ [D] _ _ _ _ _
[G] _ _ [D] _ [Gm] Bill Keith really became the most famous practitioner of that style and people really hadn't heard
the banjo sound so different since the last time that Earl Scruggs kind of came out onto the scene.
Around the same time, a guy named Don Reno, who was another master banjo player, was working
on kind of a more guitaristic style on the banjo and that kind of planted the seed for
what is known as the single string style, which is essentially thumb index, thumb index
back and forth to simulate the up and down motion of a flat pix.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[G] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
And a lot of people started expanding upon that to use that technique not just for playing
riffs, but for actually playing melodies.
Tony Trischka really made a lot of inroads in that and that style of single string was
really came into blossom with Baylef Lex playing.
He figured out a way to play single string, to play melodies and to improvise.
That kind of was the bridge as far as getting more legato sounds out of the banjo.
You could improvise with the instrument being a little bit more mellow and with less of
a defined attack.
Just an example [D] of playing single string, that song Whiskey Before Breakfast that you
heard is melodic, _ _ _
_ [G] _ _ [D] Earl Scruggs. _ _
_ [G] _ _ [E] _ You could play single string like a guitar player, _ _ [G] _ _ _ [D] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ not being a single string style, but
that once kind of the floodgates were open for that, the single string became an amazing
springboard for improvising.
_ [G] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [A] _ [Bm] _ _ _
_ _ _ [G] _ _ [D] People have asked me, well, what are you, are you playing a single string there or is
that melodic there or is that Scruggs style?
And I had the luxury of learning the banjo with these incredible kind of textbook examples
of these three styles.
When I came up, there was already Earl Scruggs and J.D. Crow.
We had Bill Keith and Alan Mundy playing melodic style and then people like Baylef Lex, Tony
Trischka, Alison Brown playing single string.
I've been playing those three styles enough that I've been trying to find ways to blur
the lines and kind of make them flow in and out [G] of each other so it's not necessarily one distance. _
_ _ [C] _ _ _ _ [G] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [Gm] _ _ _ _ _ _
[C] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [Gm] _ _ _ _ [G] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [C] _ _ _ _
_ [G] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _