Banjo · Chapter 15 of 23
Hymns and Slow Tunes
Slow tunes are where your rolls learn to sing. Southern hymn tunes, with their long notes and simple chords, are perfect for it.
Bluegrass bands have always played hymns, and many old-time musicians grew up singing tunes like these in church. Their melodies move slowly, so you have time to think about every note, and their long notes show off a roll’s ringing sound.
The melody on the thumb
In How Firm a Foundation, most melody notes are low: the open 4th string (D), the 4th string at the 2nd fret (E), the open 3rd string (G) and the 3rd string at the 2nd fret (A). Those belong to the thumb. The index and middle finger play the open 2nd and 1st strings around them, so the tune rings out underneath a halo of open strings.
Listen to the first phrase: the thumb plays D, E, G, E, G on the beats, and every other note is filler.
How Firm a Foundation
The whole hymn, with a pinch on the final note. The chords are only G, C and D. Learn it four bars at a time; the second half repeats much of the first.
Three beats to a bar
Many hymns and old songs are in 3/4 time, three beats to a bar, like a waltz. Rolls still use eighth notes, so a bar holds six of them: a forward roll and a half, or T I M T I M. Our Amazing Grace is in 3/4: try it once Foundation feels comfortable.
You’ve finished the beginner chapters. You can tune, read tab, hold G, C, D and D7, play four rolls, play the bum-ditty, and use hammer-ons, pull-offs and slides. The intermediate chapters add drop-thumb, other tunings, the capo, more chords, the upper neck and fiddle tunes.
Check each one as you learn it.
- My thumb plays the melody notes on the 4th and 3rd strings, a little louder.
- I can play How Firm a Foundation from start to finish.
- I can feel three beats to the bar in a 3/4 roll.
Remember
- When the melody is low, the thumb plays it, and I and M fill in above.
- Make the melody notes louder than the roll notes.
- In 3/4, a bar of eighth-note rolls has six notes.