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After many years, I've developed a few "outs" for when I got lost in melodic. But they only work in G and not all the time.
When I mess up Whiskey Before Breakfast or St. Anne's Reel at the jam (both in D) I have no choice but to stop, wait for a spot I recognize, and resume.
I base my melodic playing first in the melody and the chords.
I've never thought of scales when playing a tune.
I try and fill the notes around the melody with notes from the associated chords.
quote:
Originally posted by gordo1100Hi all,
Melodic playing is a style. It has quirks and nuances like Scruggs, old-time, etc. As such, I recommend starting with the closest related thing to Scruggs Style: fiddle tunes: sing them to get them in your ear, learn by a tab to see how the fingering and specific melody works. Fiddle tunes are relevant to your bluegrass jams, so you can utilize them if you pick the right ones/people in your area know them. Playing them will also help you build an understanding of the song and the neck. Learn a couple, and see what little fragments you can steal for other purposes. Once you've learned a couple, then go to scales if you want to see other ways to connect those fragments and/or build dexterity and fluidity.
I find it's easier to visualize the fretboard in scales AFTER you've applied them. Furthermore, not many tunes use scales in their exact context. They may use snippets, but it's rare to see a whole scale in a tune laid out explicitly. They're tools to understand, but not music themselves.
Final tip: make sure you can play all chords (eg; all inversions of G, Em, Bb, etc) up the neck. Seeing where certain notes are in chord shapes and on different positions for the neck will build a much better melodic toolkit than just running scales.
As with Scruggs style melodic playing has repeating ways of getting where it's going.
The way the keys of D and A are handled (quite often without a capo) simply become new habits.
As with most things learning to navigate melodically is an acquired skill.
I initially wanted to learn to play melodically because of the number of fiddle players that live nearby.
Then I found that melodic playing opened up playing with other forms of music.
I went to an open mike last night at the Camden American Legion and played Black Diamond and Caravan.
Sat in with a couple of other folks on tunes I hadn't heard before and had a very enjoyable evening.
I like playing a mixture of Scruggs and melodic within the same tune.
It's all just playing the banjo to me.
I second the suggestion of the Janet Davis book on melodic playing being a great place to start. Also, work on learning melodic scales for G,C & D (and 1,4 & 5 in other keys as well) since fiddle tunes contain lots of scale fragments.
Learn Bill Keith's Devil’s Dream. Here's a tab and a video and there are plenty more learning tools on-line. If you do have Janet Davis's book and CD You Can Teach Yourself Banjo, there's a great lesson on page 87. This tune showed me the concept of melodic playing using fret positions, strings and fingerings to allow 3-finger picking to be most efficient.
Edited by - JanetB on 02/20/2025 07:41:35
Thank you for the Video Janet, that's the version I tabbed out many years ago. I think that Bill never played with more force and speed as he did when He was with Bill Monroe. I'll post it sometime soon...I'm really happy I got to know Bill and study with him in exchange for teaching in my Fretted Instruments School many years ago for no charge....Jack
Edited by - Jack Baker on 02/20/2025 09:45:19
there are usually a couple of ways to hit the same note clusters --what happens before and after and what needs to be the emphasis-- can change which place i pick--I ask no agreement though
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