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  3. Limehouse Blues

Limehouse Blues banjo tabs

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  • Tablatures

    Scruggs Style

    Philip Braham

    The chord changes may be intimidating, but if you have your basic rolls and Scruggs riffs down, give this one a try. It is so much fun to play!

    Learn
  • Melodic Style

    Philip Braham

    This Jazz tune can be found at a lot of high level bluegrass jams. Don Reno brought it into our world, along with Django fans. This arrangement has straight melody followed by perpetual melodic runs. It gives great contrast while staying true to the foundational melody.

    Learn
  • Single String Style

    Philip Braham

    This arrangement is just the foundational melody. If you are going to play any tune you need to know it. Whether it's a bluegrass, fiddle, or jazz tune, the melody is what the chords are built around. Check out the lick switcher to make this tune come alive-after you get the basic melody down.

    Learn

More about Limehouse Blues

"Limehouse Blues" is a hit song authored by Douglas Furber (lyrics) and Philip Braham (music) in London. Recruited to replace an ailing Beatrice Lillie in A to Z, Gertrude Lawrence was reassigned the "Limehouse Blues" number that Lawrence stilld when she made her Broadway debut in André Charlot's Revue in 1924: Lawrence's Broadway performance of the "Limehouse Blues" number proved to be a "Showstopper", making her a Broadway star: "' Limehouse Blues ' quickly became iconic. For his 2015 album release Runnin's Wild Songs and Scandals of the Roaring '20s 2015 album release, Mark Nadler recorded "Limehouse Blues" in conjunction with "Limehouse Nights." "Limehouse Blues" gave its name to a portion of the 1946 film Ziegfeld Follies starring Fred Astaire and Lucille Bremer, both in the Oriental style: the story of a coolie trying to get a fan to give to a beautiful woman who caught his attention, framing a fantasy dance sequence between Astaire and Bremer scored in the tune of "Limehouse Blues." The 1999 film Sweet and Lowdown - written and directed by Woody Allen like Alice - premieres a version of 'Limehouse Blues' performed by Howard Alden and the Dick Hyman Group: the number is entitled 'Limehouse Blues/Mystery Pacific' as Alden acts as a prelude to 'Limehouse Blues' as the train imitation that opens the Django Reinhardt composition 'Mystery Pacific.'"

Here on Tunefox you’ll find 3 versions of Limehouse Blues for banjo. The Scruggs style tablature will teach you how to play slides, hammer-ons and pull-offs. In the melodic arrangement of Limehouse Blues, you’ll learn some fancy up-the-neck melodic work. The third variation of this song is a Single-string arrangement.

There are many Scruggs, melodic and bluesy licks in these three banjo Limehouse Blues 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.

Tunefox also features useful tools that will help you learn this arrangement of Limehouse Blues. 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.

Use the Tunefox backing tracks to practice the solo you’re working on or improvising over the chord changes for Limehouse Blues. 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.

Members can export their arrangements into PDF, allowing them to print and bring them to their next jam session.