pollkatz banjo page

Tabulature for Scruggs-style 5-string banjo

Arranged for banjo by me: tab text tune today

Alice's Restaurant (Arlo Guthrie) *.TEF *.HTM MIDI 05/10/08

Anything Goes (Cole Porter) *.TEF *.HTM MIDI 10/06/07

Brown-Eyed Handsome Man (Chuck Berry) *.TEF *.HTM MIDI 10/06/07

Deep River Blues (Doc Watson) *.TEF *.HTM MIDI 12/03/07

Friend of the Devil (Garcia-Hunter) *.TEF *.HTM MIDI 11/24/07

I've Just Seen a Face (Lennon-McCartney) *.TEF *.HTM MIDI 10/06/07

Just Because (Shelton-Robin) *.TEF *.HTM MIDI 10/10/07

(as recorded by Elvis, 1954)

Last Train to Clarksville (Boyce-Hart) *.TEF *.HTM MIDI 12/02/07

Lazarus Banjo (James Henry Fillmore) *.TEF *.HTM MIDI 10/13/07

(adapted from his "Lassus Trombone", 1915)

Lodi (John Fogerty) *.TEF *.HTM MIDI 11/09/07

Oh, Boy (Buddy Holly) *.TEF *.HTM MIDI 12/14/07

Route 66 (Bobby Troup) *.TEF *.HTM MIDI 10/06/07

(as by the Rolling Stones, 1965)

simpler version *.TEF *.HTM

Take It Easy (The Eagles) *.TEF *.HTM MIDI 12/18/07

Yankee Doodle (traditional)(melody only) *.TEF *.HTM 10/12/07

(General U.S. Grant: "I know two tunes. One is 'Yankee Doodle.' The other one isn't.")

Arranged for banjo by somebody else but tabbed and/or simplified by me:

Linus & Lucy (Peanuts TV Theme)

(Vince Guaraldi; arr. Mike Iverson) *.TEF *.HTM MIDI 10/07/07

(11/09/07. Just to make your day: WLIT in Chicago has decided that Linus & Lucy is a Christmas song)

Nola (author unk; arr. Bill Keith, bass by me) *.TEF MIDI 10/06/07

You can get a free TablEdit viewer for reading *.tef files here.

You can also buy a copy of TablEdit. But beware -- it's addictive!

For some reason, I've been getting direct hits from Paul Krugman's blog. So, I'm

returning the favor. Whatever your politics, do read Krugman. He's one of the only columnists who knows what he's talking about.

banjo sites:

ezfolk.com

banjohangout.org

banjo basics

harmonica sites:

harmonicaclub.com

skip landt

harptabs.com

I got my first banjo a couple of years ago, picked at it on-and-off with some "teach yourself" books (highly recommended: Bluegrass Banjo for the Complete Ignoramus), gradually ran out of verve. Then last spring (2007) my enthusiasm perked up when I took some classes at Chicago's venerated Old Town School of Folk Music. I don't think I'll ever be a great performer but I can't stop working on arrangements.

I can play (sort of) all these arrangements. Any novice with eight or ten months experience and more stick-to-it-ive-ness than I have (no difficult feat) should be able to play them.

Blasphemous confession: I often get bored by bluegrass music. It's too repetitive. But I love to play Scruggs-style bluegrass banjo. My project here is to adapt songs I like into the Scruggs idiom. Who knows? Maybe rock-n-roll banjo is the NEXT BIG THING!!

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