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St. Anne's Reel banjo tabs

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  • Tablatures

    Scruggs Style

    Traditional

    St. Anne, patron saint of lost causes...Perfect for banjo players! Just kidding:) This is a fun, somewhat impressionistic Scruggs adaptation of this tune. It doesn't capture the melody exactly(common in Scruggs playing) but once you start putting it all together the melody washes over you and the listener just the same. We're also using open strings and playing slightly up the neck out of open D in a way that Earl did not. However, the right hand, and the styling of the licks is very true to Scruggs. This one will open up your mind to some new possibilities playing out of open D. Enjoy :)

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  • Melodic Style

    Traditional

    A beautiful melody, chord progression, and a bit of a challenge. Take it slow and strive for a beautiful tone, especially when learning and playing slow. That's the perfect time to work on tone production and other nuanced facets of banjo playing. Ideally, you should be able to make this sound good at 30 or 130 beats per minute. Speed isn't everything!

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  • Single String Style

    Traditional

    Single string allows us to capture fiddle tune melodies very accurately. Where melodic style will sometimes run into phrases that would need to be retooled to fit in the picking style, single string gives us the freedom to play like a flat-picker. Still, melodic style can allow you to play complex passages that would normally require a lot of shifting or fret-hand movement. We've combined a bit of both in this arrangement, and there are even more goodies in the lick switcher. Watch out for the lick in measure six. It's beautiful, but a bit of a fret hand challenge. However, like all challenges it is less difficult at slower speeds. If ever you get frustrated: SLOW THINGS DOWN. Make the learning process easy on yourself. And make a beautiful, joyful noise.

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More about St. Anne's Reel

What do most old tunes have in common? Their authors are unknown. You would have to be older than the great grandmother of Queen Elizabeth yet still be alive in this age to know and tell who authored most old tunes that we all enjoy. Since everyone from the time the author of this tune existed is long dead and gone, the author's identity is unknown. This, however, isn't the only thing unknown about this song, as the supposed facts like its origin, etc. are somewhat based on speculations. For example, the St Anne's reel is said to have originated from French Canada because of the St. Anne's Bay in Nova Scotia. Furthermore, since Catholics were the major settlers in French Canada, it is believed that it was titled after the mother of Mary, St Anne, who might have been the author's favorite St. Over time, it has grown to become the most popular Canadian tune among fiddlers in the lower 48. Titled Le Reel de Sainte-Anne in French, the Quebecois fiddler, Joseph Allard (John Carignan's teacher), is responsible for the tune's popularity. As a matter of fact, Joseph was born close to the basilica built in honor of St Anne, the grandmother of Jesus. Although the biblical canon never mentioned St Anne, she first appeared in 2nd Century Christian writings referred to by Jesuits as "apocryphal literature." Around the 13th century, the French were the first western Europeans to venerate St Anne. Four centuries later, the French entered the new world with their unwavering devotion to St Anne.

On Tunefox you’ll find 3 different tabs for St. Anne's Reel. 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 St. Anne's Reel up the neck using major and pentatonic scales. And finally, the Single-string arrangement.

Each Tunefox arrangement teaches you how to create your own solos by using a feature called the Lick Switcher. The Lick Switcher features different style licks such as Scruggs, Melodic, or Bluesy and you can swap out measures in St. Anne's Reel to learn about improvisation and creating arrangements. To use the Lick Switcher, click on the text "Original Measure" above certain measures in the song. Then select the lick you'd like to insert into the song. You can also click on "Shuffle Licks" at the bottom of the page to see a fully new version of the tablature.

You'll also find some useful tools which will help you to learn how to play St. Anne's Reel 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 St. Anne's Reel 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.

Members can also export all of their banjo St. Anne's Reel arrangements into PDF files.