Songs · Banjo · Intermediate
Arkansas Traveler
Traditional (American); credited to Sanford C. Faulkner of Arkansas · Fiddle tune, first published in 1847; played across the South ever since
Banjo · bluegrassthree-finger rollsG major4/4 time16 barsopen G tuning
Arranged: Teddy Rook Book: three-finger (Scruggs-style) banjo in G, moved from the fiddle’s D; most of the B part is an octave lower than the fiddle plays it.
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About this piece
A famous old fiddle tune, tied to a comic story of a lost traveler and a backwoods fiddler. The A part uses the alternating-thumb roll (T I T M) with the melody on the thumb; the B part runs down the scale with pull-offs on the 3rd and 2nd strings. In bar 7 the open 5th string plays the high G of the melody.
What it practices
- alternating-thumb roll
- melody inside rolls
- pull-offs and a hammer-on
- the 5th string as a melody note
- G, C, D and D7
Chords in this song
Each link opens the chord finder with more ways to play that chord.
Where the notes come from
Melody checked note by note against “Arkansas Traveller” in Ryan’s Mammoth Collection (Boston, 1883; reissued as Cole’s 1000 Fiddle Tunes), as transcribed in ABC by John Chambers at MIT (trillian.mit.edu). Moved from D to G; the fiddle’s sixteenth notes are our eighth notes. The note on every beat matches that version (on the beat or an eighth after it); between the beats we keep most of the tune and fill the rest with roll notes. The pickup is left out. History from Wikipedia.
How to practice with it
- Listen first. Press Play and follow along. The note being played lights up in the tab, in the notation and on the fretboard, and the chord being played lights up in the row of chord diagrams.
- Learn the chords. Press each diagram to hear it, then practice changing between them slowly.
- Slow it down. Use − and + to set the tempo. 60% is a good place to start; the notes keep their pitch.
- Loop the hard part. Under More…, turn on Loop, pick the bars, and play them a few times in a row. Count-in gives you a bar of clicks before it starts.
Click a bar in the music to start from there. Space plays and pauses. Left-handed? Turn on the left-handed view: the chord diagrams and the fretboard are mirrored to match your instrument. Tab reads the same either way: the top line is always the first (highest) string.