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Hi, The song of the week is 'My Home's Across The Blue Ridge Mountains' in the key of G. Progression The chord progression is: 1111 5511 1111 5511 This is 'Prog. W5' on the 'Basic Chord Progressions' handout. Notice that the second half of the progression is identical to the first half of the progression. Therefore, there are really only 2 lines (8 measures) to memorize. You should not need to look at a written copy of the progression while playing the song at the jam. Take a glance at the progression before the song starts, and just remember that every second line starts with 2 measures of the 5 chord. All other measures in the progression are 1's. Be prepared, however, to add an extra measure or two of the 1 chord to the last line of the progression for a break that occurs right before the singing starts up again, and the progression starts again from the beginning. This is common in bluegrass arrangements of songs - the Flatt and Scruggs version of the song in the youtube link given below has examples of this. Each of the 3 breaks on the recording are played as: 1111 5511 1111 55111 In the key of G: 1=G; 5=D. The G chord consists of the notes G, B, and D. The D chord consists of the notes D, F#, and A. Flatt & Scruggs - key of G https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNapvXhcNS8 Melody From listening to the song in the version given here and/or from looking at the attached melody sheets, notice that the melody of the song has only 5 notes in it. In ascending order of pitch, these are: E, G, A, B, and D. (Note: to make the melody slightly more interesting, the banjo, in its intro break lowers the G note in measures 3 and 11 to the D below the E note that is the lowest note in the vocal melody; the dobro break which occurs in the song after the second chorus does this same thing in measure 3, but not in measure 11.) Make it a point to remember this sequence of notes, and be sure that you can locate them on your instrument: D E G A B D. There are many songs that, when played in the key of G, have this same range of notes (lowest note D, highest note the D an octave higher) and have no other notes than G's, A's, B's, D's, and E's. Songs like this on the beginner jam song lists include 'Foggy Mountain Top', 'Will The Circle Be Unbroken', 'Amazing Grace', Long Journey Home' and 'Handsome Molly'. Notice also that in the melody for 'My Home's Across The Blue Ridge Mountains', the only notes that are dwelt on for half a measure or more are notes that make up the chord being played at the time: G, B, or D notes during G chord measures, and A notes during D chord measures. It is because of those A notes at the beginning of lines 2 and 4, that a chord change occurs at the beginning of those lines, for the A note is not part of the G chord. It is typical, in the key of G, for a D chord to be played when the melody of a song dwells on an A note, for of the 1, 4, and 5 chords for the key of G, namely, G, C, and D, the D chord is the only one that contains an A note. Breaks Observe that in the breaks on the recording, the measures that have only one or two melody notes in them sometimes have what sound like extra 'melody' notes added to them in addition to the many filler notes that are placed around the melody, whereas the measures that have 4 melody notes in them often have one or two of these notes deleted from them, and when not deleted, they sometimes get displaced within the measure. For a slow-moving melody, as this song has, it will not work well to play for your break only what you see written on the attached melody sheets. In order to maintain good control of the rhythm, tempo, and feel of the song during your break, so that everyone who is playing backup during your break can be following you rather than the other way around, your break needs to consist mostly of eighth notes and quarter notes, not half notes and whole notes. If you don't know what other notes would work to put around the melody, then for lack of anything else to do, keep to the melody notes, but - on guitar, mandolin, and fiddle - change half notes to a quarter note followed by two eighth notes, and for whole notes, do this twice: i.e., quarter, eighth, eighth, quarter, eighth, eighth. To see what this rhythm looks like when written out, refer to the 'guitar break' in the attachment. I have not included a 'fiddle break' sheet or a 'mandolin break' sheet in the attachments, because the 'guitar break' tab suffices to show for the sake of all 3 of these instruments what the rhythm is that is being applied here to the melody. The banjo is a different story (repeating the same note several times in a row doesn't work very well when playing with finger picks), so I have included a 'banjo break' sheet in the attachments. This is a very basic break (a lot more is going on in Earl Scruggs' intro break on the recording than in the banjo break given in the attachments) which is given here to demonstrate how one can take one roll pattern (in this case, the alternating thumb roll) and place it around the melody, turning quarter notes into a pair of eighth notes, half notes into a series of four eighth notes, etc. To avoid the monotony that results from playing nothing but eighth notes in one's break, I have substituted for the roll in a few places a single quarter note followed by a quarter note double stop (called a 'pinch' on the banjo). On the break sheets, I have also included a pickup measure for each of the 4 instruments. You will need to use these, or something like them, in order to kick off the song effectively on your instrument without having to count into the song. Remember these three notes: d, g, a. These will work well as pickups for nearly any song in the key of G in which the first complete measure of the melody starts with a B note while a G chord is being played. Lyrics The lyrics of 'My Home's Across The Blue Ridge Mountains' are quite repetitive and easy to memorize. For this reason, this is one of the songs I recommend learning to sing to those who wish to lead a song at the jam, but do not have much experience doing so. Other songs on the beginner jam song lists that are fairly easy to memorize include: Mama Don't Allow, New River Train, Hand Me Down My Walking Cane, Lonesome Road Blues, Long Journey Home, This Little Light Of Mine, Take This Hammer, and Worried Man Blues. For most of these songs, you need not know any more than 3 verses (in addition to the chorus for the songs that do have a chorus) in order to be ready to sing and play a complete arrangement of them at the jam. Notice that in the Flatt & Scruggs version of 'My Home's Across The Blue Ridge Mountains' there are only 3 verses sung (plus the chorus), yet, if you were to look online for lyric sheets for the song, you would come across some other verses for the song in addition to these 3. Happy Pickin', Jason
1 Comment
John Andrus
8/17/2021 05:06:12 am
Wonderful beginner instruction to this classic old song. Thanks for putting it together and sharing. Leave a Reply. |
Jason's Beginner Jam Blog 2017 - 2018
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