CantSing - Posted - 02/06/2026:  13:20:39

Trying to work on learning banjo. Came up with this arrangement of Ripple by Grateful Dead. gDGBD. I had seen a member here post a version with tabs, but I wanted to try to come up with it on my own. I mostly learned the melody by ear, but I did cheat and use a Mike's Mandolin printout my friend had to check that I was getting melody right since it had standard notation.



I've attached a recording. Please excuse my guitar and mandolin playing. After I do the banjo part, I have a part in there with mandolin since I want to eventually practice backing up the mandolin using the two-finger banjo. I tried playing backup on the banjo a few times but was not liking how repetitive it sounded, so it is just the mandolin playing the simple melody for now with guitar playing boomchuk roots and fifths.



The system I am roughly sticking to for thumb lead is:



Melody

1. Use thumb for any onbeat melody

2. Use hammer-on, pull-off or slide for any offbeat melody notes

3. Use index for offbeat melody if you can't figure out #2 or maybe you just want to do it. I don't do it in this arrangement.



Accompaniment/Drone

4. Use thumb for "on beat" drone if there is no melody (usually)

5. Pinch with thumb and index on 5th and 1st string on the on-beat (sometimes)

6. Use index for "off beat" drone on 1st string.



On the "&2&" and "&4&," I keep automatically doing the same thing for accompaniment/drone and it sounds annoying to me pretty quickly. Any suggestions for how can I mix that up? Am I just playing it too loud? Is that just how thumb-lead should sound?



Perhaps off-topic, but my guitar backup sounds too repetitive for my liking as well. It's just roots and fifths. Any tips on mixing it up?



Apologies if I'm not posting correctly or breaking any rules. This is my first post.



Any other tips or recommendations on the playing and arrangement would be most welcome!

Edited by - CantSing on 02/06/2026 13:31:13

Ripple

 

TheLastWord - Posted - 02/06/2026:  14:06:26

Sounds good!!