Devil's Dream banjo tabs
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Tablatures
Scruggs Style
This Scruggs arrangement of Devil's Dream shows you how to play different roll patterns to accent the melody notes you hear in the melodic style version.
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Melodic Style
This is the song Bill Keith first perfected his new style of playing with. He took scales and scale patterns using open strings to invent a wholly new sound on the banjo.
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More about Devil's Dream
Even though 'The Devil's Dream' has had some appearance in the south, it is famously rendered as a northern tune. The fiddle tune doesn't really have any known origins, but that hasn't stopped it from been played as a jig or reel from around 1834 in England. Scottish reel has the tile as "The De' il Among the Tailors" and this version was composed in 1790 as it appeared in Kerr's collection. The first time that the song was seen in America is in the music manuscript of musician M.E. Earners on August, 22nd 1859. It was also cited by Lettie Osbourn (New York Folklore Quarterly), as commonly played in orange county new york. Kenner Kartchner had something to say about how knowing how o play the tune can make it possible for you to be accepted ion the Arizona fiddler clan with ease. There were some rumors about the sing, and some were even as extreme as saying it was a song composed by the devil himself. It was recorded early around the 1940s by Ozarks Mountain fiddlers and musicologist/folklorist Vance Randolph for the Library of Congress. Also, in 1951, malvin Artley had a dissertation on the west Virginia county fiddler.
On Tunefox you’ll find 3 different tabs for Devil's Dream. Each of these tabs will teach you how to play the this tune in a different way. The Scruggs style tablature will show you how to play left hand slurs, otherwise known as hammer-ons, slides, and pull-offs. The Melodic style arrangement of will show you how to play Devil's Dream up the neck using major and pentatonic scales. And finally, the Backup arrangement will teach you how to play the backup for this song, which is essential for jam sessions.
Each Tunefox arrangement teaches you how to create your own solos by using a feature called the Lick Switcher. The Lick Switcher features different style licks such as Scruggs, Melodic, or Bluesy and you can swap out measures in Devil's Dream to learn about improvisation and creating arrangements. To use the Lick Switcher, click on the text "Original Measure" above certain measures in the song. Then select the lick you'd like to insert into the song. You can also click on "Shuffle Licks" at the bottom of the page to see a fully new version of the tablature.
Tunefox also features useful tools that will help you learn this arrangement of Devil's Dream. If you select the "Tools" option in the bottom bar you’ll see "Hide Notes", "Memory Train", and "Speed Up" features. Hide notes will help you train your ears by hiding some of the notes on the page for you to figure out as opposed to looking at the tab. "Memory Train" will help you retain the melody of the song by gradually hiding notes so you can rely on your ears more for memorization. Finally, the "Speed Up" tool will automatically increase the playback speed each time a measure or the song loops.
Each Tunefox banjo Devil's Dream tab contains real-sounding backing tracks. These backing tracks allow you to practice the arrangement you’re learning with with an entire band and you can change volume of the band, banjo and metronome to suit your liking.
Once you’ve settled on an arrangement of Devil's Dream using the Lick Switcher, export your arrangement to a PDF file so you can print it out and take it with you. This is a member-only feature.