Chords for Wildwood Flower on Banjo–Using Your Pinky!

[A] _ [G] Bum-ba-dum!
_ _ [E] _
[F] _ [C] _ _ _ [A] _ [G] _ _ [C] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [B] _ [G] _
_ [C] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [F] _ _ [C] _ _ Bum _
_ [G] _ _ [C] _ _ _ _ _
_ -ba-da-dum!
Howdy, welcome to Banjo Ben Clark.
I'm Banjo Ben, your host and your favorite website to learn how to play the banjo and also the guitar and mandolin.
This week
we're learning a very basic version [Eb] to Wildwood Flower on the [G] banjo.
It's in the key of C, but we're in standard G tuning
so there's no capos.
That means we have to play out of the key of C and
very often what happens when we do that is we have to use our pinky a lot, especially down on the on the low D
string on that fourth string.
And so a lot of people have trouble with that.
So I've built a version here that concentrates on how to use that pinky and to get it more comfortable.
So a couple purposes here.
One is to learn a version of the song and two is to get more familiar with that pinky.
Now if you're watching on Facebook or YouTube, here in a moment
I'll ask you to come over to my favorite website, BanjoBenClark.com.
You can join as a Gold Pick member and see hundreds of videos as well as download
hundreds of tabs and mp3s.
For this particular lesson, I have the PDF and the TEFF file tab
exactly as I just played it.
And then I've got four different mp3s for you to download.
[F] Up to speed, the same speed that I played it, then 10 beats slower and 10 beats slower than that.
And I also played it [Ab] twice through so you have plenty of time to practice along with it.
And the rhythm tracks work great for
practicing with mandolin and guitar as well.
Alright, so let's dive into
Wildwood Flower and the Key of C.
We're going to learn a basic version of Wildwood Flower on the banjo in the key of C
but we're going to be in standard G [G] tuning and we're not using a capo.
So that means that we're going to have to play out of a C
[N] position and what that forces you to do a lot whenever you're playing out of C position,
it forces you to have to use your pinky in an independent manner.
So that's our dual purpose for this lesson, not only to learn a version of Wildwood Flower,
but also to get more proficient at using our pinky, particularly on this low D string.
Okay, that's what we're doing today.
So let's go ahead and throw the tab up there.
You'll notice as with all my banjo tabs,
I have the right hand fingerings beneath each one of the notes.
So the [D] T in a circle would be thumb, [G] one would stand for index, two would stand for [D] middle.
And this is a very basic version.
We're going to use a lot of what's called square rolls or mixed rolls.
And that just simply means that we start with our thumb,
we'll [Bm] play an index finger, [G] play another thumb, and then our middle.
And we do that on [Ab] all different sorts of string combinations.
But if you [G] use that pattern,
_ [D] that's called a mixed roll or a square roll.
And I talk more about that in my rolls lesson here on the website.
Now, I want you to get started out of a basic C position.
We're going to spend a lot of time there because we are in the key of C.
So that means on our first string, we're playing the second fret [Am] [C] with our ring finger.
On our second string, [Db] we're going to play the first fret with our [C] index.
The [G] third string will be open and then we're going to play our second fret of our fourth [C] string with our middle finger.
So that's a C chord there.
We're going to get there.
[G] Now, as you'll notice in the first line of the tab,
there's a couple [Fm] notes that have a red box around them.
That just notates the notes that we're going to use our pinky to [G] fret.
Primarily, like I said,
we're going to do it down on the low fourth string there.
So we come in trying to find that Wildwood Flower melody, which sounds [E] like this [F] basically.
[G] _ [Dm] _ [E] _ [F] _ [D] OK, that's how it starts.
So we're going to kick in on the third beat of the first measure, playing that second fret [G] on that fourth [E] string.
Then we're going to, without raising any [F] fingers, fret the third fret on that low fourth string with our pinky.
Now, the trick to playing with our pinky like this is that it needs to be curved [N] and we need to play with the tip of it.
We're going to be tempted to flatten it out.
What happens is you'll touch other strings whenever you try to do that.
So you need to try to play with your tip.
And this this is going to take a little while if your muscles aren't used to doing it.
That's the purpose of this lesson.
And we're going to reach and just grab that fourth string with our pinky.
Try our [G] best not to let it touch that G string [E] there.
OK.
[F] _ [E] _ [F] _ [F] _ [E] _ [F] Now you can lift it as we go into measure two [G] and we're going to play one of those mixed rolls.
We're going to keep our C position down.
It's going to start on the third string, then to the [C] second string, fifth string, first string. _
_ _ _ And then we're going to have two quarter notes to end measure two.
[A] And we're going to take our middle finger and raise it up from the second fret of that fourth string to the second fret of the third string.
[Am] That's just to grab that melody note.
OK, so [C] measures one and two together sound like this.
[F] _ [C] _ _ _ [Am] _
_ _ [F] _ [C] _ [Am] Now, [D] when we get to measure three, you're [G] going to go back to your regular C position.
So that just means we lower our middle finger back down.
We're going to play another mixed roll, this time with a little [C] different strings. _ _
_ And then we're going to bring that pinky in again for that third fret.
Try to keep it [F] clean.
[E] Then a lift.
[Bm] And then we're going to come open for our fourth measure because it's over a G chord.
We don't need any frets down.
We're going to do that same mixed roll, but not fretting anything.
_ [G] _ _ And then use our middle finger to fret the [A] second fret of the G string.
[B] And then our second string.
So let's just [E] play measures one through four slowly
and then just keep in mind that here on the west side, I have a whole other video
that where I play the whole thing very, very slowly from start to finish,
even slower than we'll do it here, as well as all the practice MP3s.
_ [F] _ [C] _ _ [Am] _ _ [C] _
_ [F] _ [E] _ [G] _ _ _ [Bm] Good.
[D] Now, the melody technically would go down to a C.
_ Of course, we don't have that note in our standard G tuning.
That's below our [Bb] lowest note that we can play.
So what we're going to do and what's a common thing to do on the banjo
when that happens is just climb up and catch the note that's an octave above.
[A] So we're [B] going to climb up [Am] to this C note, measure [C] five.
OK, now we're going to get back and measure five to that full C position. _ _ _
_ _ _ [B] _ [G] _ _ [C] _ _