We got a lot of great players already in this group and a lot of them play by ear so if ya want to learn this is the place

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A modernized "Study on Earl" plan-- one roll at a time

From Dave Magram on 3/12/2013 2:42:46 PM

(Here's something I posted on the BHO Scruggs-style forum not too long ago, that you might find useful. It is basically how I learn licks from recordings today-- to add a little flavor to our band's performances.)

When asked how to learn to play bluegrass banjo, JD Crowe once famously advised, “Just study on Earl.” Below is a modernized “Study on Earl Plan”.

After you can “nail” Earl’s timing, accentuation, and drive as described below, you can apply the exact same process to “study on JD, or Ralph” (or anyone else).

The modernized “Study on Earl” Plan

Any simple tune will do to begin the “Study on Earl” plan, such as “Cripple Creek”,  “Reuben”, or a slow “Foggy Mountain Breakdown”.  FMB is a bit easier in some ways because it is mostly forward rolls, so let’s assume you start with FMB (although the choice is entirely up to you). Or better yet, pick out a slower F&S song (with words) to help you focus on the melody.  My "breakthrough" song eons ago was "Poor Ellen Smith" on F&S: Folksongs of Our Land, now available on CD as:

Folk Songs of Our Land / Hard Travelin' by Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs

This CD contains 24 great songs (including “Poor Ellen Smith”), mostly played at slow or medium tempos. These albums were great to learn from—lots of Earl’s great backup, too. Available from Amazon for less than $10!

1. For “Foggy Mountain Breakdown”, make sure you have the original F&S recording on Mercury Records: Flatt &Scruggs: Complete Mercury Recordings or Flatt &Scruggs: Complete Mercury Sessions (28 of the greatest bluegrass tracks ever for less than $10).

2. Get the correct tablature for “Foggy Mountain Breakdown”—from the Earl Scruggs book or wherever. Or, if you want to get good at learning by ear, skip the tablature, and dive in. If you feel you need the tab to get you started, that's okay. But try to stop using it as soon as you can.

3. Obtain a music slowdown software tool. Some people use Audacity (free), some like “Amazing Slowdowner” or other similar tools.

4. The original “Foggy Mountain Breakdown” was recorded at around 160 bpm. Using your slowdown software, slow it down to 60 or 70 bpm-- or slower--whatever you can easily keep up with.

5. Play along with Earl’s first solo in this tune for just the first three-note roll in Measure #1. Some slowdown programs allow you to “loop” a section—use that feature for just that first roll and slow it down. 

Try to capture Earl’s timing, accentuation, and drive in that one roll. Repeat until your playing and Earl’s sound like one banjo. This may take minutes, or hours—or longer. Keep at it—you need to “become one with Earl”. If you can capture Earl’s timing, accentuation, and drive in one roll, then learn the second roll in measure 1. Once you have done that, loop the first roll and the second roll together and repeat the process with both rolls in the measure. You are well on your way to “sounding like Earl”. You just need to do it for some more measures.:-) You will find that the more you do this, the less time it takes.

It would be a good idea to record your “duet with Earl” with a cassette recorder or a digital recorder—aim one mic at your banjo and the other mic at your sound system. If you are right in synch with Earl when you listen back to your recording, you are making good progress.

6. Repeat Step 5 for the second measure. Once you have “nailed” Measure 2, now “loop” the newly-learned measure and the previous measure together. Work on those two measures until your playing and Earl’s playing sound like one banjo.

7. Repeat Step 5 and Step 6 for the third measure. Repeat until you have worked your way through Earl’s first solo. This may take hours, days or weeks, but if you can capture Earl’s timing, accentuation, and drive for one entire solo, you are well on your way to “sounding like Earl”. You’ll just need to do it for some more solos. Try learning more of Earl’s other solos in FMB to learn how he creates variations— or begin learning a new tune.

8. For your second tune, I’d suggest “Cripple Creek” or “Reuben” because they contain more of Earl’s famous “forward-reverse” combinations and “backwards” rolls, respectively. Again, learn it one roll or measure at a time until you “become one with Earl”.

Watch Earl play on as many video-clips or DVDS as you can. You will notice more nuances.

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The more time you spend listening to, and playing along with Earl Scruggs, the more intensely you are burning Earl’s timing, accentuation, and drive into your brain—far more important than learning Earl’s solos note-for-note. Although Earl himself rarely played his solos exactly the same way every time, he always played his solos with impeccable timing, accentuation, and drive.

- Dave

4 Comments
	rfrizzle2 says: 3/14/2013 7:50:08 AM Hi Dave What Earl Scruggs Book should you get if you want the tab or songs you are talking about? Thank you Rich Freeze
Dave Magram says: 3/14/2013 1:22:16 PM Hi Rich, I bought "Earl Scruggs & the Five String Banjo" when it came out in 1968. I already had figured out how to play Scruggs-style by ear, and just wanted to have anything that involved Earl. I've heard that the new (2005?) edition is more accurate than the original, but I don't own it. If you really want to learn by ear, why not first try this plan without any tablature at all? The current music slowdown software tools are designed for this purpose-- and they are way better than slowing down phonograph records! :-) - Dave
	From Greylock to Bean Blossom says: 8/24/2013 7:57:40 PM Dave, as usual I am going to take your advice as it always seems to coincide with the masters. up to now I have been mostly playing and learning breaks to songs. But I want to try to learn some of Earls instrumentals. If memory is correct Sonny Osborne said his advice to his great banjo playing nephew Wynn was to take the Foggy Mt. album and learn to play everything that was on it! My question to you is to ask if you can explain some of the song structure regarding these instrumentals. I once heard someone talking about these songs following a repeating pattern of Parts A&B but did not really understand it. if there is such a pattern I think it might help my learning of the songs. hope this makes sense. Thanks for all you have done for us on the hangout. ken
Dave Magram says: 8/25/2013 1:59:29 PM Hi Ken, Thanks for your kind words, and I’m glad to hear that you’ve found my suggestions helpful. I don’t believe you can ever go wrong studying Earl Scruggs’ playing—it is the way so many great players learned bluegrass banjo—Ralph Stanley, Sonny Osborne, JD Crowe, Allen Shelton, and many more. As I recall, Wynn Osborne was already playing pretty good banjo when Uncle Sonny advised him to learn everything on the great Foggy Mountain Banjo album. I’d suggest first learning to play the melodies of songs with words—I’ve always found that melodies are easier to remember if you know the words to at least a verse and a chorus. :-) Earl Scruggs once said that he always tried “to play the words”, and I believe that this focus is one of the things that made Earl’s playing so distinctive. Earl came up with key “licks” and bluesy embellishments that emulated the way the vocalist sang the song. This is why I recommend learning songs such as “Poor Ellen Smith”, “All the Good Times Are Past”, any of the vocal material from the Mercury recording sessions, etc.—because most of bluegrass is about vocal songs. Most of the material on Foggy Mountain Banjo is tune-oriented, as opposed to bluegrass-oriented. That said, the good news is that even though they are not bluegrass songs, nearly every cut on Foggy Mountain Banjo does have words (except of course “Groundspeed” and “Bugle Call Rag”). I recall, when I was a teenager learning bluegrass banjo, going to the library to look up the words to dance tunes such as “Sally Ann”, “Cumberland Gap”, etc. (Now it’s easier-- I’m sure all of these lyrics are available on the Web.) The AABB structure comes from traditional square dance tunes. Here’s a succinct description from the Wikipedia topic “Traditional Square Dance”: “Since the 19th century, much of the square dance repertoire has been derived from jigs (in 6/8 time) and reels (in 2/4 time) from Scotland and Ireland. …The structure of many traditional dance tunes follows an "AABB" pattern, with two distinct strains played twice each. The "A part" and "B part" are typically each 8 measures (16 downbeats) in length, making one playing of the tune 32 measures (64 downbeats).” So the dance tunes on Foggy Mountain Banjo such as “Sally Ann”, “Cumberland Gap”, etc. are in AABB structure, with 8 measures in each A or B part-- a total of 32 measures. Several of the cuts on Foggy Mountain Banjo were originally vocal songs-- such as “Fireball Mail” and “John Henry”-- and most have either an AA or AB structure, with 8 measures in each A or B part. -Dave
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