Songs · Banjo · Intermediate
Durang’s Hornpipe
Attributed to Mr. Hoffmaster, John Durang’s violin teacher (about 1785); long since a traditional fiddle tune · Hornpipe written for the American dancer John Durang (1768–1822), first printed in 1814; an old-time favorite in the South
Banjo · old-timeclawhammerD major4/4 time16 barsdouble C tuningcapo at fret 2
Arranged: Teddy Rook Book: clawhammer in double C tuning with a capo at the 2nd fret (a D A D E), sounding in D with the fiddle; bars 7–8 and the B part an octave below the fiddle.
Capo at fret 2. Clamp the capo just behind fret 2. The tab and the chord names count from the capo, as if it were the nut: play the shapes as written and everything sounds 2 half steps higher. Raise the short 5th string by the same amount (most players use a little spike or a 5th-string capo).
Loading the music…
About this piece
One of the oldest American fiddle tunes with a known story: Durang’s violin teacher wrote it for him around 1785, early in his career as a dancer, and it has been played for dancing ever since. With a capo at the 2nd fret, double C tuning becomes a D A D E (raise the 5th string to A, or use a spike), and the A part falls right under the clawhammer hand: strike the melody, and the 5th string answers with the tune’s own A between strikes. The tab and chord names are counted from the capo. In the B part the thumb drops to the inside strings for the notes between the beats.
What it practices
- double C with a capo (a D A D E)
- double thumbing
- drop-thumb on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th strings
- hammer-ons and pull-offs
- playing up to the 10th fret
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 “Durang’s Hornpipe” in Cole’s 1000 Fiddle Tunes (the 1940 reissue of Ryan’s Mammoth Collection, 1883), as transcribed in ABC by Bob Puckette at MIT’s abc collection (trillian.mit.edu). The fiddle’s sixteenth notes are our eighth notes; bars 7–8 and the whole B part are an octave lower than the fiddle, and the pickups are left out. Every note of that version is in our tab at its time. The tune’s story is from Wikipedia’s article on John Durang and IMSLP’s page for the tune; chords are ours.
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.