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Frosty Morning banjo tabs

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  • Tablatures
    Banjo Frosty Morning tab

    Scruggs Style

    Béla Fleck

    This is Bela Fleck's interpretation of the traditional tune, "Frosty Morning." It's not too technical, and includes the tasteful introduction!

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  • Melodic Style

    Béla Fleck

    This melodic variation of Frosty Morning is an example of how to play the melody up-the-neck and it's a continuation of Bela's solo on this tune. Super fun!

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  • Backup

    Béla Fleck

    This is based on Bela's backup playing on his record "Crossing the Tracks." Watch out for the G major chord in the 5th measure!

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More about Frosty Morning

"Frosty Morning" sounds like the old frontier's classic fiddle tune, but other versions can't be cited elsewhere (sometimes called "Cold Frosty Morning"). Henry Reed performed it twice, and both times he started it with the high strain, demonstrating the fiddler's preference in the Upper South to begin their tunes with the loftier strain, often at or near the top of the range of the song. He appeared to conflate the high pressure with other songs in both sets of "Frosty Morning"— on this case, with the tune's high strain mentioned elsewhere in this series under the name "Betsy", and once with the low strain of "West Virginia Gals", which he had just performed. He started with another song, the "Breakdown in A" on another occasion (AFS 13037a16), then conflated it with "Frosty Night".

On Tunefox you’ll find 3 different tabs for Frosty Morning. 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 Frosty Morning 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.

Use the Tunefox Lick Switcher to explore improvisation and creativity inside the Frosty Morning tablatures. The Lick Switcher will allow you to create your own arrangement using pre-built licks that are handmade by professional musicians. To use the Lick Switcher, click on the text above specific measures that says "Original Measure" and select between a variety of new licks for that measure. You'll find that there are different style licks such as Scruggs, Melodic, Jazz, and more. At the bottom of your page you'll also find a button that says "Shuffle Licks." Click this button and watch the licks randomly shuffle throughout the song.

There are a number of fantastic learning tools in Tunefox to help you memorize, learn by ear, and improve your speed. These special features are found in the "Tools" menu at the bottom right of your screen. The "Hide Notes" tool will hide a number of the notes in the tab so you can use your ears to learn parts of the melody of the Frosty Morning. Next, try out the "Memory Train" tool, which will hide more and more notes each time the song or measure loops. This will help get you off of the tab you’ve been working with so you can play it by memory. The "Speed Up" feature gradually speeds up the song so you can hone your technique and challenge yourself to go faster.

Use the Tunefox backing tracks to practice the solo you’re working on or improvising over the chord changes for Frosty Morning. The backing tracks are recorded samples of real instruments to help simulate practicing with an actual band. You can adjust the volume of the instrument, band, and metronome to your liking.

Once you’ve settled on an arrangement of Frosty Morning 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.