Dueling Banjos - Melodic Étude

Here is a great arrangement of the breakdown section of Dueling Banjos, for the banjo, in the melodic style. The "breakdown" is the solo section when the instrumental really gets "cooking". This particular arrangement is an étude, which is a fancy french word for study. Études are short musical pieces designed to help you study a technique or musical device. In this case you are studying the melodic scale and how it is used over the simple chord changes in the breakdown section of Dueling Banjos.

When soling, you will often solo with notes from a single key, for example in the key of G you might only use the G scale even though the chords change from G to C and D. This works because all those chords have notes form the G scale. However, you can also take an approach that many jazz musicians take. This approach is known as the soloing over the "key of the moment". The chord being played can define the key. So, here you will use the melodic scale that corresponds to each chord that's being played. When it's a G chord, you'll use a G scale. When a C chord is happening you'll use a C scale and so on. This is an interesting approach and can unlock new worlds of sound. It's also a great study in the melodic style because you'll be working with several different scales!

So, while this is a great study, regular scale practice is also important and recommended. For that, check out our "Roadmap" to better Learn Melodic Banjo. There, you'll find video lessons to introduce you to the melodic style, along with the scales, workouts, and other tunes that are foundational repertoire for the melodic style. The melodic workouts are great technique builders. Add those to your favorites and work with them regularly.

There are a ton of licks to explore. Check those out to see how you can easily incorporate scale patterns, and other scale types to get new sounds. A lot of these are borrowed from the melodic workouts. These patterns are very common in fiddle tunes like Blackberry Blossom, Whiskey Before Breakfast, and others.

Explore more Dueling Banjos Banjo Tabs:

From the Top!, Breakdown and Ending, Phrase by Phrase, Scruggs Style - Basic, Melodic Étude - Basic