Songs · Banjo · Intermediate
Soldier’s Joy (three-finger rolls)
Traditional (Scottish, then American) · Reel or country dance, printed in Britain from the late 1700s; an old-time standard in the American South
Banjo · bluegrassthree-finger rollsD major4/4 time16 barsopen G tuning
Arranged: Teddy Rook Book: three-finger banjo in open G tuning, played in D with D and A chord shapes, an octave below the fiddle.
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About this piece
Soldier’s Joy again, now in bluegrass style. You stay in open G tuning and play in D, with the D shape (0 2 3 4) and the A shape (a barre at the 2nd fret) under the left hand. The A part is an alternating-thumb roll with the thumb on the melody; the B part moves to the top strings, with pull-offs for the quick notes. Compare it with our clawhammer version in open D tuning: same tune, two ways.
What it practices
- playing in D in open G tuning
- alternating-thumb roll
- pinches
- pull-offs in the B part
- the D and A chord shapes
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 “The Soldier’s Joy; or, Milanese Contre Dance” in Köhler’s Violin Repository, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1885), as transcribed in ABC by John Chambers at MIT (trillian.mit.edu); the book is on archive.org. Played an octave lower, starting on the downbeat. The note on every beat matches that version (on the beat or an eighth after it); between the beats we keep many of the tune’s notes and fill the rest with roll notes.
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.