Songs · Banjo · Intermediate
Arkansas Traveler (clawhammer)
Traditional (American); credited to Sanford C. Faulkner of Arkansas · Fiddle tune, first published in 1847; played across the South ever since
Banjo · old-timeclawhammerC major4/4 time16 barsdouble C tuning
Arranged: Teddy Rook Book: basic clawhammer in double C tuning, one melody note on every beat (moved from D to C); bar 7 and most of the B part an octave below the fiddle.
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About this piece
The same tune as our three-finger Arkansas Traveler, played the old-time way. Every half bar is one bum-ditty: strike the melody note on the beat, then brush down on the next beat (the brush always contains that beat’s melody note) and catch the 5th string with your thumb. It is a good bridge from Boil Them Cabbage Down to the busier clawhammer tunes. To play in D with a fiddler, capo at the 2nd fret and raise the 5th string to A.
What it practices
- bum-ditty all the way through
- melody notes inside the brush
- double C tuning
- C, F and G chords
Chords in this song
Each link opens the chord finder with more ways to play that chord.
Where the notes come from
Melody checked 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 down a step to C. We keep the note that falls on each beat (every one of them is in our tab, struck or inside the brush) and leave out the quick notes between beats. 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.