bart_brush says:
7/12/2015 10:45:26 AM

I can't suggest many embellishments, because I pretty much play simply, with a thumb lead. This is a traditional style and song, not a fiddle tune or bluegrass.
Here's how I play Pastures of Plenty: I use standard G tuning, but the song is in a minor key, so I use the E minor chord on the 1st and 4th phrase of each verse, and the open G chord on the 2nd and 3rd phrases.
I've mentioned the chords, but I'm not really "chording," I'm playing the melody out of those positions, which gives a background harmony to the music.
The E minor chord is made by fretting the 1st and 4th strings at the 2nd fret, but the melody starts on the 4th string open, so I just left off that left hand finger (I use 2nd finger) and play the open D ("It's...") with my right thumb.
Then I put my finger back down and play the second note E ("...a..."). The third note is G on the open 3rd string, and the fourth note is A at the 2nd fret of the 3rd string ("...might--y...").
I'm holding down the E minor chord throughout the 1st phrase ("It's a mighty long row that my poor hands have hoed"), and to get that fourth note, I move my left hand second finger momentarily from the 4th string 2nd fret to the 3rd string 2nd fret. And so on.
With the right hand, I'll sometimes add a single fill-in note played by my index finger on the 1st string. That works well between the first and second notes, and between the second and third notes. When you get to the word "might----y", there's an extra beat between those third and fourth notes, so I use either a pinch, a bum-diddy, or a bum-a-diddy with my right thumb and index.
The only other embellishments I use are hammers, pulls and slides; and sometimes I'll drop my right index down to an inside string to get a melody or fill-in note.
One more thing. When the melody goes high, I get those notes farther up the neck on the 2nd string, still using my right thumb lead. I don't switch to the 1st string. This allows me to keep working the 1st string with my right index for fill-ins (pinches, bum-diddies, and bum-a-diddies). Sometimes make exceptions.

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