Wabash Cannonball banjo tabs
Back-
Tablatures
Scruggs Style
This song is a must-know jam song that has been covered by all sorts of people. Enjoy this down-the-neck arrangement of Wabash Cannonball with some fun licks thrown in!
Learn -
Melodic Style
An advanced arrangement of Wabash Cannonball that starts out down the neck and brings you up the neck with some fancy melodic runs.
Learn -
Backup Style
This arrangement of Wabash Cannonball demonstrates how you can switch between vamping and rolling down the neck.
Learn
More about Wabash Cannonball
"The Great Rock Island Route," otherwise called "Wabash Cannonball," is an American folklore melody that depicts the picturesque excellence and quandaries of the Wabash Cannonball Express as it traveled on the Great Rock Island train route. Over numerous years, this prominent tune has stayed unaltered, while the sections have been refreshed by melody specialists. In 1882, sheet music titled "The Great Rock Island Route" was credited to J. A. Roff. A revised form by William Kindt showed up in 1904 under the title "Wabash Cannon Ball." The Carter Family made one of the main chronicles of the melody in 1929. However, it was not published until 1932. Another prevalent variant was recorded by Roy Acuff in 1936. The Acuff adaptation is one of the less than 40 untouched singles to have sold up to more than 10 million physical duplicates around the world. The Wabash Cannonball is a marked melody of the Indiana State University Marching Sycamores and the Purdue All-American Marching Band as the ISU and Purdue grounds are neighboring the Mighty Wabash River. It is additionally connected with the Stephen F. Austin State University Lumberjack Marching Band, the Kansas State University Marching Band, the Texas Tech University Goin' Band from Raiderland, and the University of Texas Longhorn Band. It was additionally utilized as the signature tune by USS Wabash.
Learn 3 different versions of Wabash Cannonball, 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 m...elody for Wabash Cannonball 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. In every Tunefox tablature arrangement you'll find measures where you can switch out licks to see different options to use for your improvisation. This feature is called the Lick Switcher. How do you find the Lick Switcher? Look for text that says "Original Measure" over different measures in the Wabash Cannonball tab you are learning and click on that text. It'll open up the Lick Switcher where you can select a substitute measure for that spot in the song. You'll find that there are different styles of licks like Scruggs, Melodic, Bluesy, and more. Want to see a completely different version of this song? Click on "Shuffle Licks" on the bottom of tool panel to randomly shuffle the licks in the song. You'll also find some useful tools which will help you to learn how to play Wabash Cannonball 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 arrangement of Wabash Cannonball for banjo features real-sounding backing tracks. Use these backing tracks to polish up the solo you’re working on. You can mix the banjo, band, and metronome up or down so that you have several options for your practice. Once you’ve settled on an arrangement of Wabash Cannonball 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.
Wabash Cannonball lyrics
From the great Atlantic Ocean to the wide Pacific shore
From the queen of flowin' mountains to the southland by the shore
She's mighty tall and handsome and known quite well by all
She's the mighty combination of the Wabash cannonball
CHO:
Listen to the jingle, the rumb... the mighty rush of the engine, hear the lonesome hobo's squall
While traveling through the jungle on the Wabash cannonball
She came down from Birmingham one cold December day.
As she rolled into the station you could hear all the people say
There's a girl from Tennessee, she's long and she's tall
She came down from Birmingham on the Wabash cannonball
CHO
Here's to Daddy Claxton, may his name forever stand
And always be remembered in the courts of Alabam
His earthly race is over and as the curtains round him fall
We'll carry him home to victory on the Wabash cannonball
CHO
IÃve rode the I.C. Limited also the Royal Blue
And I have travelled many a mile on mail train number two
IÃve rode those highball trains from coast to coast thatÃs all
And I have found no equal to the Wabash Cannonball.