1. Tunefox.com
  2. Banjo songs
  3. Little Maggie

Little Maggie banjo tabs

Back
  • Tablatures
    Banjo Little Maggie tab

    Scruggs Style

    The Stanley Brothers

    • Difficulty
    • Key
      G
    • Tempo
      120 bpm
    • Tuning
      gDGBD

    This version of Little Maggie is based both on the Scruggs style arrangement and the Marc Pruett version on Ricky Skaggs's "Bluegrass Rules" record.

    Learn
  • Melodic Style

    The Stanley Brothers

    • Difficulty
    • Key
      G
    • Tempo
      120 bpm
    • Tuning
      gDGBD

    This melodic style version of Little Maggie features a few chromatic licks mixed into the Scruggs style arrangement.

    Learn
  • Backup

    The Stanley Brothers

    • Difficulty
    • Key
      G
    • Tempo
      120 bpm
    • Tuning
      gDGBD

    This arrangement of Little Maggie gives you lots of ideas for Scruggs style down-the-neck backup to keep things interesting when playing behind a vocalist.

    Learn

More about Little Maggie

The tale of a man's love for a woman who drank and hopped from suitor to suitor, "Little Maggie," originated from the background of "Black Blues" music, which developed in Appalachia before the recording industry had existed. It came along with songs such as "Hustling Gamblers" and "Darling Corey." Grayson and Whittier's guitar/fiddle pair released their first version of "Little Maggie" around 1928. Upon Carter's death in 1966, subsequently releasing "Little Maggie" with his Clinch Mountain Boys, Dr. Stanley began his solo career, and the album appears to be a staple among bluegrass pickers around the world. It was produced by hundreds of groups whose original introduction to the collection was the edition of Dr. Stanley. Dr. Stanley's accessible version with the verse: "Little Maggie" belongs to the "Darling Cory / Corey" group of "Black Blues" songs like "Country Blues / Hustling Gamblers" contained in the late 1800's Appalachian area. In his commentary to the Revenant reissue of Boggs' full early recordings, Barry O'Connell claims that this "Lyric and Tune Group" "has been around in the southern mountains for more than a century." He went on to say: "The tunes family probably emerged in the late 19th century and belongs to the group of white blues ballads that then formed."

Here are 3 killer arrangements of Little Maggie for you to share with friends at your next jam. The Scruggs style arrangement will get you started learning slides, hammer-ons, and pull-offs. Once you’re feeling confident with that try your luck with the Melodic style solo, which will teach you how to play the melody for Little Maggie using up the neck scales. Finally, the Backup arrangement... will show you how to play this song with others and sound like a pro doing it. There are many Scruggs, melodic and bluesy licks in these three banjo Little Maggie 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 Little Maggie 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. Using backing tracks for practice should be an essential part of every musician’s routine. With Tunefox, you can practice Little Maggie as fast or as slow as you want and mix the volume of the tracks with the instrument to your liking. There’s also a metronome so you can always feel the pulse of the song with or without the band track playing along. Once you’ve settled on an arrangement of Little Maggie 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.

Little Maggie lyrics

Yonder stands Little Maggie
With a dram glass in her hand
She's drinkin' away her troubles, oh lord
And courtin' another man Marching down to the station
Cash in my hand
Going away for to leave you
Going to some far-off land Pretty flowers were made for bl...e were made to be mine How can I ever stand it
Just to see them pretty blue eyes
Shining like the diamonds
The diamonds in the sky