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Banjo tablatures for Worried Man Blues

The Carter Family

Recomended level: Beginner

Tags: #medium-tempo, #folk music, #old time

Start with the melody. This one takes out tough rhythms of the vocal melody in favor of basic, repeating patterns. This will hopefully allow beginners to pick it up quickly. There’s a lot of licks that add in rolls, pinches and other embellishments, but they are all relatively easy. So don't be afraid to check those out! The syllabic melody is more accurate to how the song is sung. In this one we “play the syllables”. It’s the secret of many pro players and something that will help your musicality grow by leaps and bounds if you will work on it. Practice singing or speaking the words, in time, as you play the notes on your banjo. There’s a massive amount of Scruggs and single string licks here. So many that you can create entirely new arrangements. The licks are a bit more “legit”. They’re tougher than the ones found in the simple melody.



The Earl Scruggs: Kickoff is a transcription of his playing from the Flatt and Scruggs album, “Songs of the Famous Carter Family”. Check out the timing on this one. It’s not how you’ll hear it at a lot of jams and it’s different from our other arrangements. They play it how the Carter family played it. They leave out an entire phrase when compared to other standard arrangements.

  • Banjo Worried Man Blues Melody

    Melody

    This is a very simplified melody. It leaves out pickup notes, and uses a simple rhythm, but still follows the melodic arc of the original. Strive for even timing. When practicing, p...

    Banjo Worried Man Blues Melody
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  • Banjo Worried Man Blues Melody - Syllabic

    Melody - Syllabic

    This melody is just like how you would sing it. Here, we are "playing the syllables" that means we pick a note for a syllable in each word. Some of those come pretty quick, so this...

    Banjo Worried Man Blues Melody - Syllabic
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  • Banjo Worried Man Blues Rolling Backup

    Rolling Backup

    The rolling backup here features a great repeating pattern that a lot of pro players use. The cool part about this is we're able to use the exact same pattern over a G and C chord an...

    Banjo Worried Man Blues Rolling Backup
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  • Banjo Worried Man Blues Vamping

    Vamping

    Here we are using a root shape and changing to the first inversion shape each measure. This gives us a sound that doesn't get stagnant and we end up with some nice transitions that s...

    Banjo Worried Man Blues Vamping
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  • Banjo Worried Man Blues Scruggs Style

    Scruggs Style

    This is a beginner-intermediate arrangement of Worried Man Blues teaching both forward rolls and forward backwards rolls. Make sure your slides and pull-offs are nice and crisp.

    Banjo Worried Man Blues Scruggs Style
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  • Banjo Worried Man Blues Earl Scruggs: Kickoff

    Earl Scruggs: Kickoff

    This arrangement is a note for note transcription of Earl Scruggs' banjo playing. If you've played the other versions we have for this tune, you'll notice this one is a bit shorter....

    Banjo Worried Man Blues Earl Scruggs: Kickoff
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  • Banjo Worried Man Blues Melodic Style

    Melodic Style

    This arrangement of Worried Man Blues has all sorts of great melodic style licks. There's even a bit of single string in there!

    Banjo Worried Man Blues Melodic Style
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  • Banjo Worried Man Blues Backup

    Backup

    This arrangement of Worried Man Blues is fantastic for backing up a vocalist. It features tons of great Scruggs licks and demonstrates how to fill in-between vocal phrasing.

    Banjo Worried Man Blues Backup
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