Grandfather's Clock banjo tabs

More about Grandfather's Clock

"Grandfather's Clock" is a song written by the author of "Marching Across Georgia" Henry Clay Work in 1876. It is a staple for British brass bands and colliery bands and is popular in the bluegrass category as well. Male choruses, such as the Robert Shaw Chorale, also sang it. The Oxford English Dictionary says that for a longcase clock, the song was the source of the term "grandfather clock." Harry Macdonough and the Haydn Quartet (then known as the "Edison Quartet") played the earliest known performance of this song in 1905. The album told from a grandchild, is about the clock of his grandmother. On the morning of the grandfather's conception, the watch is bought and works perfectly for 90 years, demanding only that it is wound at the end of each week. Yet the clock seems to understand eerily the good and bad things in the life of the grandfather–as it sounds 24 chimes when the grandfather takes his wife into his home, and before his death, it seems an unsettling warning that the community knows as indicating that the grandfather is the near end and gathers by his side. The clock stops unexpectedly after the grandfather dies, and never operates again.

Learn 3 different versions of Grandfather's Clock, which are all shown on this page. We recommend that you get started with the Scruggs style version, where you’ll learn basic roll pattern and left hand articulations like slides, hammer-ons, and pull-offs. Next, move on to the Melodic arrangement to learn how to play the melody for Grandfather's Clock using scales and up the next positions. Lastly, you can check out the Backup arrangement, which shows you how to play behind others while they are soloing.

There are many Scruggs, melodic and bluesy licks in these three banjo Grandfather's Clock tablatures, which can be used to personalize each arrangement into your liking. To change measure into different arrangement, just click on the "Original Measure" text above the measure and select a different lick. You can also click the "Shuffle licks" button at the bottom of the page to randomly change all of the licks in the tablature and create a wholly unique arrangement of this song.

You'll also find some useful tools which will help you to learn how to play Grandfather's Clock on banjo. For example, you can use the "Hide Notes" feature, which will hide some notes for you so you can learn parts of the melody by ear. The "Memory train" tool will progressively hide notes each time you play through a section or the entirety of a song. Take your speed to the next level with the "Speed Up" feature. This tool will automatically increase playback speed each time you loop the song.

Each Tunefox banjo Grandfather's Clock 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.

When you’ve finished creating your arrangement of Grandfather's Clock, export your song arrangement to PDF file. This feature is for members of Tunefox, only.