Rocky Top banjo tabs
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Tablatures
Scruggs Style
A classic bluegrass song as performed by The Osborne Brothers. This arrangement of Rocky Top features the solo break. For the rest of the song, check out the backup version!
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Melody
Start with the melody - that's what Sonny Osborne says. Learning to play the melody and "play the syllables" is very important when learning a tune. It helps with memory, understanding timing, phrasing and more. Bonus points if you sing words while playing. That will help your memory and improve your musicality even more. This melody follows the verse lyrics. In jams and bands, it is usually most common for the instrumentalists to play their solos using the verse melody and chords. When you are trying to learn to play lead, this is the most important place to start. Check out the licks to use some simple 3 finger style banjo tricks to add flair and fun to your arrangement. The licks feature pinches, fill-ins(bum-ditty), and basic rolls that are based around the melody.
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Melodic Style
This melodic version of Rocky Top is a solo arrangement over the verse chords. Check out the backup version to learn how to play behind the chorus chords!
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Backup Style
This backup version of Rocky Top gives you lots to work with for the entire version of the song - Verse and Chorus. Make sure you swap out licks to hear alternate backup licks!
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More about Rocky Top
"Rocky Top" is an American country and bluegrass tune written in 1967 by Felice and Boudreaux Bryant and first released later that same year by the Osborne Brothers. The song's bluegrass version of the Osborne Brothers in 1967 hit No 1. The music was officially adopted in 1982 as the fifth state song in Tennessee.17 On the United States Charts of the nation. 33 On the United States Country charts and the 1970 edition of Lynn Anderson stood at No. "Rocky Top" was synonymous with U.S. college athletics with the University of Tennessee's Tennessee Volunteers (UT), whose Southland Band Pride has been performing a marching band version of the tune at one of the school's sporting events since the early 1970s. At the moment, the Bryant's collaborated on a series of slow-tempo songs for a show for Archie Campbell and Chet Atkins at the Gatlinburg Inn in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. The song, which is the lamentation of a city dweller over the loss of a simpler and freer existence in the Tennessee hills, is one of the ten official state songs of Tennessee and has been recorded since its publication by dozens of artists from multiple musical genres around the world. While the track became a favorite of the Osborne Brothers concerts in the late 1960s, until the early 1970s, when the cover by Lynn Anderson hit number seventeen on the Billboard Country Top 100, the single did not reach mass popularity.
Here on Tunefox you’ll find 3 versions of Rocky Top for banjo. The Scruggs style tablature will teach you how to play slides, hammer-ons and pull-offs. In the melodic arrangement of Rocky Top, you’ll learn some fancy up-the-neck melodic work. The third variation of this song is a forward roll based-backup arrangement. Use the Tunefox Lick Switcher to explore improvisation and creativity inside the Rocky Top 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 Lic...ks." Click this button and watch the licks randomly shuffle throughout the song. Tunefox also features useful tools that will help you learn this arrangement of Rocky Top. 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. Each Tunefox banjo Rocky Top 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. Once you’ve settled on an arrangement of Rocky Top 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.
Rocky Top lyrics
Wish that I was on ol' Rocky Top
Down in the Tennessee hills
Ain't no smoggy smoke on Rocky Top
Ain't no telephone bills
Once I had a girl on Rocky Top
Half bear, other half cat
Wild as a mink, but sweet as soda pop
I still dream about that
Rocky Top, you'...e, Rocky Top, Tennessee
Once two strangers climbed ol' Rocky Top
Looking for a moonshine still
Strangers ain't come down from Rocky Top
Reckon they never will
Corn won't grow at all on Rocky Top
Dirt's too rocky by far
That's why all the folks on Rocky Top
Get their corn from a jar
* Refrain
I've had years of crimped up city life
Trapped like a duck in a pen
All I know is it's a pity life
Can't be simple again
* Refrain