Sugar Hill - Clawhammer

This version of Sugar Hill is in double C tuning(gCGCD). You can use your capo at the second fret to play in the key of D. The arrangement here is based on the playing of Phoebe Sanders. Check her out on youtube. She has a great channel and plays a lot of different Appalachian instruments.She plays this with an A minor chord, but a lot of players go to an F chord at the same place. Check out the licks for some great variation options.

There's a few tricky clawhammer banjo tricks here. It begins with a "skip". Basically it's a "bum-ditty" without the "dit". Use the focus feature to listen to measure 1 repeatedly to thoroughly understand the timing, then try playing slowly by yourself. When you start to get comfortable with it try playing slowly in Tunefox with the focus feature.

There's a lot of drop thumb. You need to be comfortable with that. Again the focus feature is your friend here. The last and maybe the most tricky maneuver is the Galax lick/brush. It's marked in the banjo tablature with double index and says brush above it, then you'll play the 5th string twice immediately after as part of the melody. Use the focus feature on measures 6 & 7 to nail this. You can also create your own exercise: just do the brush and play the 5th string. Do that repeatedly for some great focused practice.

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#clawhammer banjo tab