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Hi everyone, I'm on banjo this week. I hope you'll enjoy playing these. (In previous video jams, these songs were recorded on guitar and mandolin.) Beginner Jam: Bury Me Beneath The Willow - G (108 bpm) I'll Fly Away - G (110) Buffalo Gals - A (112) Beginner Bluegrass Jam 5/15/2021 / Jason Homey - YouTube Happy Pickin', Jason Chord Progressions:
Bury Me Beneath The Willow 1144 1155 1144 1511 I'll Fly Away 1111 4411 1111 1511 Buffalo Gals 1151 (x8 for a complete AABB break)
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Hi everyone, Here are some more songs I recorded with mandolin that I hope you'll enjoy jamming with me on. Beginner Jam: Bury Me Beneath The Willow - G (108 bpm) I'll Fly Away - G (110) Buffalo Gals - A (112) Beginner Bluegrass Jam 2/6/2021 / Jason Homey - YouTube Happy Pickin', Jason Chord Progressions: Bury Me Beneath The Willow 1144 1155 1144 1511 I'll Fly Away 1111 4411 1111 1511 Buffalo Gals 1151 (x8 for a complete AABB break) Hi, here are a few more songs to jam along with. Happy Pickin'. Buffalo Gals - A Bury Me Beneath The Willow - G Columbus Stockade Blues - G https://youtu.be/6cTrZwAUANs Keep safe and well. Jason Hi, The song of the week is 'Bury Me Beneath The Willow' in the key of G. Recorded by the Carter Family in 1927 (under the title 'Bury Me Under The Weeping Willow Tree'), and then by the Monroe Brothers (Bill Monroe and his older brother Charlie) in 1937 as 'Weeping Willow Tree', 'Bury Me Beneath The Willow' has gone on to become one of the most common of Bluegrass standards. Recordings Alison Krauss - key of E https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzA68Ohwke4 The Stanley Brothers - sharper than the key of F#, but flatter than the key of G https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohRY7WNqGJY Ricky Skaggs & Tony Rice - key of G https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHUSKENZsHA The Carter Family - key of B https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCniFuHlPG0 The Monroe Brothers - key of F https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRxz4OQ4yzc Arrangement Of the recorded versions of Bury Me Beneath The Willow given here, the Alison Krauss recording is the only one that starts with a full-length intro break. The half-length intro breaks played on the Stanley Brothers and Monroe Brothers recordings consist of the second half of a full-length break. When I have kicked the song off at the beginner jam, I have always played a full-length intro break (16 measures, plus often 1 or 2 additional measures added on to the end of the break before starting to sing the first verse), and I have usually expected others who kick the song off to do the same, as this tends to work better at the jams than any of the other options for starting the song. Apart from the intro break on the Monroe Brothers recording, all the breaks on the Alison Krauss, Carter Family, and Monroe Brothers recordings are full-length breaks, but the two breaks after the intro break on the Alison Krauss recording are split between two different instruments. The first half of the break after the first chorus is played on the banjo, while the second half is played on the fiddle. The break after the second chorus is split between the guitar and the mandolin. The quarter-length breaks after the first and second choruses on the Skaggs & Rice recordings consist of the last line of a full-length break. Such short one-line breaks are called 'turnarounds'. With very few exceptions, I do not favor the use of turnarounds at the jams, since they severely limit the amount of 'break-playing time' within a song. On all the recordings given here except for the Stanley Brothers recording, the first verse is sung before the first chorus. When arranging songs at the jams, I sometimes sing the first chorus of a song before singing the first verse, but when I do this, it is for the purpose of creating one more spot within the song for breaks to be played than what would otherwise be there. Thus, the beginning of the arrangement would be: Break, Chorus, Break, Verse 1, Chorus.... This differs from the arrangement on the Stanley Brothers recording: Break, Chorus, Verse 1, Chorus.... Progression The chord progression for Bury Me Beneath The Willow (on all the recordings given here except for the Monroe Brothers' version) is the most common of all progressions in Bluegrass: 1144 1155 1144 1511 (Prog. V7 on the Basic Progressions handout.) Here's a short list of standard bluegrass songs that use this same progression: Wreck Of The Old '97 I'll Still Write Your Name In The Sand I'm On My Way Back To The Old Home Your Love Is Like A Flower Y'all Come A Memory Of You Down Where The River Bends Lost And I'll Never Find A Way Come Back Darlin' Why Did You Wander If I Should Wander Back Tonight I'm Waiting To Hear You Call Me Darling Ain't Nobody Gonna Miss Me When I'm Gone Road To Columbus Hold Whatcha Got True Life Blues Blue Moon Of Kentucky (verse) Black Mountain Rag (C-Part) Flint Hill Special (A & B Parts) Rose Of Old Kentucky (verse) Tiny Broken Heart (verse) Little Annie (verse) White Dove (verse) In the key of G: 1=G, 4=C, and 5=D The G chord is made up of the notes: G, B, and D. The C chord is made up of the notes: C, E, and G. The D chord is made up of the notes: D, F#, and A. Together, these 7 notes make up the G major scale, and the melody of Bury Me Beneath The Willow makes use of all of them. Melody In ascending order of pitch, the melody notes for Bury Me Beneath The Willow are: sol la ti do re mi fa sol la 5 6 7 1 2 3 4 5 6 Key of G: D E F# G A B C D E Key of A: E F# G# A B C# D E F# Key of Bb: F G A Bb C D Eb F G Key of B: F# G# A# B C# D# E F# G# Key of C: G A B C D E F G A Key of D: A B C# D E F# G A B Key of E: B C# D# E F# G# A B C# Key of F: C D E F G A Bb C D Of the recordings given here, the melody as sung on the Stanley Brothers' recording comes the closest to the version of the melody given on the attached melody sheets. The Carter Family use essentially the same choice of melody notes, but their timing and phrasing differs in several spots. On the three other recordings, the main melody note in measure 3 of lines 1 and 3 is the 2nd note of the Major Scale (an A note when in the key of G) rather than the 1st note of the Major Scale (a G note when in the key of G). Pickups into Breaks When played in the key of G, the first melody note of the first full measure of the verses and chorus is the D note above the G note that the melody ends on. When this is the case, the most effective pick up notes to use to kick off the song are the B, C, and C# notes immediately below that D note. Use of this series of notes is equally effective on all the bluegrass lead instruments. Give it a try. Start by finding the B note on your instrument, and then ascend in half steps (on a fretted instrument, this means you will not skip over any frets) until you reach the D note, playing the B, C, and C# notes as quarter notes, and be sure to place a heavy accent on that D note, since it is the first note of the first full measure of the song. I have included this pickup phrase on the attached melody sheets. Transposed to each of the 7 other keys that we play in at the jam, the notes become: Key Pickup Notes Leading to: A C# D D# E note Bb D Eb E F note B D# E E# F# note C E F F# G note D F# G G# A note E G# A A# B note F A Bb B C note The note named as E# in the context of the key of B pickups is the same note as the note that is in most other contexts is named as F. Other songs on the current main list and additional songs list for the jam for which this same 3-note pick-up measure will work effectively, for the same reasons that it works so well for Bury Me Beneath The Willow include: 'Foggy Mountain Top', 'Gathering Flowers From The Hillside', 'Lonesome Road Blues', 'Wreck Of The Old '97', 'Come Back Darling', 'I'm On My Way Back To The Old Home', and 'On And On'. In all these songs, the first melody note in the first full measure of the song is a perfect 5th higher than the root note. (The D above G when in the key of G, the E above A when in the key of A, the F above Bb when in the key of Bb, etc.) Lyrics The lyrics I use for the chorus are the same as those on the Stanley Brothers recording, except that I usually omit their first syllable ('Oh' on the first chorus, 'Then' on the subsequent choruses): Bury me beneath the willow, Under the weeping willow tree; So he may know where I am sleeping, And perhaps he'll weep for me. The words written in bold are those that differ from one or more of the other recorded versions given here. On the Alison Krauss and Stanley Brothers recordings, there are two verses: Alison Krauss: Verse 1: Tonight I'm sad, my heart is lonely.... Verse 2: Tomorrow was our wedding day.... Stanley Brothers: Verse 1: My heart is sad and I'm in sorrow.... Verse 2: Tomorrow was to be our wedding.... On the Skaggs & Rice and Monroe Brothers recordings, there are three verses: Skaggs & Rice: 1. My heart is sad and I am lonely.... 2. She told me that she dearly loved me.... 3. Tomorrow was our wedding day.... Monroe Brothers: 1. My heart is sad and I am lonely.... 2. He told me that he dearly loved me.... 3. Tomorrow was our wedding day.... On The Carter Family recording there are four verses: 1. My heart is sad and I'm in sorrow.... 2. They told me that he did not love me.... 3. Tomorrow was our wedding day.... 4. Oh, bury me under the violets blue.... At the jam, I usually sing three verses: 1. My heart is sad and I'm in sorrow.... 2. He told me that he dearly loved me.... 3. Tomorrow was to be our wedding.... Occasionally I have added a fourth verse that is similar to the Carter Family's fourth verse, but begins instead with: 'Place on my grave a snow white lily'. Fill-in Licks Just like in a recent previous song of the week,'I'll Fly Away', the third measure of lines 2 and 4 of each verse and chorus of Bury Me Beneath The Willow has only one syllable in it, which is sung at the beginning of the measure. And, the measure that follows begins with a rest. During these kinds of 'dead spaces' within the melody of a song, it is very common for a fill-in lick to be played on one or more of the instruments. In I'll Fly Away both of the dead spaces occur during '1' chord measures; however, in Bury Me Beneath The Willow, the first dead space occurs during the '5' chord measures at the end of line 2. So, in the attachments I have included a chart of simple G chord (the 1 chord when in the key of G) and D chord (the 5 chord when in the key of G) fill-in licks for guitar, banjo, fiddle, and mandolin. The D fill-ins are intended for measure 3 through to the first quarter of measure 4 of line 2 of the progression, and the G fill-ins are intended for measure 3 through to the first quarter of measure 4 of line 4 of the progression. These G licks are also good to use in measures 3 to 4 of line 4 of your breaks. The D licks given for fiddle and mandolin will work in measures 3 to 4 of line 2 in fiddle and mandolin breaks, but the D licks given for banjo and guitar are not well suited for use in banjo and guitar breaks. On the attached chart of fill-in licks, notes in parentheses are not really part of the fill-in lick proper and may be omitted if they are inconvenient to get into from what you were doing immediately before the fill-in measures begin. For instance, if you are playing chop chords on the fiddle or mandolin right up to the point where the fill-in measure starts, you may wish to substitute a quarter note rest in place of the quarter note in parentheses that occurs at the beginning of the fill-in lick measure. Likewise, the notes you play in a fiddle or mandolin break in measure 2 of line 2 may lead you more naturally to play an A note at the beginning of the next measure rather than a D note, for the A note is the melody note. When this happens, just substitute the A note in place of the D note in the D fill-in lick shown in parentheses on the chart. For additional G fill-in licks for each of the instruments, refer back to the attachments in the song of the week write-up for I'll Fly Away. https://www.idahobluegrassassociation.org/jasons-beginner-jam-blog-2019---2020/category/ill-fly-away Song List 19 songs were played at the jam on Thursday: 15 from the main list, and 2 from the additional songs list: Angeline The Baker - D Blue Ridge Cabin Home - A Buffalo Gals - A Bury Me Beneath The Willow - D Cripple Creek - A Down The Road - A I'll Fly Away - G Lonesome Road Blues - G Long Journey Home - A Mountain Dew - A Old Joe Clark - A Soldier's Joy - D Sweetheart, You Done Me Wrong - C Wreck Of The Old '97 - D Amazing Grace - G Little Liza Jane - A Nine Pound Hammer - B Shortnin' Bread - G Turkey In The Straw - G Happy Pickin', Jason Bury Me Beneath The Willow - banjo tab Download File Bury Me Beneath The Willow - guitar tab Download File Bury Me Beneath The Willow - mandolin tab Download File Bury Me Beneath The Willow - melody in G Download File G & D Chord Fill-in Licks Download File Hi, The song of the week is 'Bury Me Beneath The Willow' in the key of G. Recorded by the Carter Family in 1927 (under the title 'Bury Me Under The Weeping Willow Tree'), and then by the Monroe Brothers (Bill Monroe and his older brother Charlie) in 1937 as 'Weeping Willow Tree', 'Bury Me Beneath The Willow' has gone on to become one of the most common of Bluegrass standards. Recordings Alison Krauss - key of E https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzA68Ohwke4 The Stanley Brothers - sharper than the key of F#, but flatter than the key of G https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohRY7WNqGJY Ricky Skaggs & Tony Rice - key of G https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHUSKENZsHA The Carter Family - key of B https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCniFuHlPG0 The Monroe Brothers - key of F https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRxz4OQ4yzc Arrangement Of the recorded versions of Bury Me Beneath The Willow given here, the Alison Krauss recording is the only one that starts with a full-length intro break. The half-length intro breaks played on the Stanley Brothers and Monroe Brothers recordings consist of the second half of a full-length break. When I have kicked the song off at the beginner jam, I have always played a full-length intro break (16 measures, plus often 1 or 2 additional measures added on to the end of the break before starting to sing the first verse), and I have usually expected others who kick the song off to do the same, as this tends to work better at the jams than any of the other options for starting the song. Apart from the intro break on the Monroe Brothers recording, all the breaks on the Alison Krauss, Carter Family, and Monroe Brothers recordings are full-length breaks, but the two breaks after the intro break on the Alison Krauss recording are split between two different instruments. The first half of the break after the first chorus is played on the banjo, while the second half is played on the fiddle. The break after the second chorus is split between the guitar and the mandolin. The quarter-length breaks after the first and second choruses on the Skaggs & Rice recordings consist of the last line of a full-length break. Such short one-line breaks are called 'turnarounds'. With very few exceptions, I do not favor the use of turnarounds at the jams, since they severely limit the amount of 'break-playing time' within a song. On all the recordings given here except for the Stanley Brothers recording, the first verse is sung before the first chorus. When arranging songs at the jams, I sometimes sing the first chorus of a song before singing the first verse, but when I do this, it is for the purpose of creating one more spot within the song for breaks to be played than what would otherwise be there. Thus, the beginning of the arrangement would be: Break, Chorus, Break, Verse 1, Chorus.... This differs from the arrangement on the Stanley Brothers recording: Break, Chorus, Verse 1, Chorus.... Progression The chord progression for Bury Me Beneath The Willow (on all the recordings given here except for the Monroe Brothers' version) is the most common of all progressions in Bluegrass: 1144 1155 1144 1511 (Prog. V7 on the Basic Progressions handout.) Here's a short list of standard bluegrass songs that use this same progression: Wreck Of The Old '97 I'll Still Write Your Name In The Sand I'm On My Way Back To The Old Home Your Love Is Like A Flower Y'all Come A Memory Of You Down Where The River Bends Lost And I'll Never Find A Way Come Back Darlin' Why Did You Wander If I Should Wander Back Tonight I'm Waiting To Hear You Call Me Darling Ain't Nobody Gonna Miss Me When I'm Gone Road To Columbus Hold Whatcha Got True Life Blues Blue Moon Of Kentucky (verse) Black Mountain Rag (C-Part) Flint Hill Special (A & B Parts) Rose Of Old Kentucky (verse) Tiny Broken Heart (verse) Little Annie (verse) White Dove (verse) In the key of G: 1=G, 4=C, and 5=D The G chord is made up of the notes: G, B, and D. The C chord is made up of the notes: C, E, and G. The D chord is made up of the notes: D, F#, and A. Together, these 7 notes make up the G major scale, and the melody of Bury Me Beneath The Willow makes use of all of them. Melody In ascending order of pitch, the melody notes for Bury Me Beneath The Willow are: sol la ti do re mi fa sol la 5 6 7 1 2 3 4 5 6 Key of G: D E F# G A B C D E Key of A: E F# G# A B C# D E F# Key of Bb: F G A Bb C D Eb F G Key of B: F# G# A# B C# D# E F# G# Key of C: G A B C D E F G A Key of D: A B C# D E F# G A B Key of E: B C# D# E F# G# A B C# Key of F: C D E F G A Bb C D Of the recordings given here, the melody as sung on the Stanley Brothers' recording comes the closest to the version of the melody given on the attached melody sheets. The Carter Family use essentially the same choice of melody notes, but their timing and phrasing differs in several spots. On the three other recordings, the main melody note in measure 3 of lines 1 and 3 is the 2nd note of the Major Scale (an A note when in the key of G) rather than the 1st note of the Major Scale (a G note when in the key of G). Pickups into Breaks When played in the key of G, the first melody note of the first full measure of the verses and chorus is the D note above the G note that the melody ends on. When this is the case, the most effective pick up notes to use to kick off the song are the B, C, and C# notes immediately below that D note. Use of this series of notes is equally effective on all the bluegrass lead instruments. Give it a try. Start by finding the B note on your instrument, and then ascend in half steps (on a fretted instrument, this means you will not skip over any frets) until you reach the D note, playing the B, C, and C# notes as quarter notes, and be sure to place a heavy accent on that D note, since it is the first note of the first full measure of the song. I have included this pickup phrase on the attached melody sheets. Transposed to each of the 7 other keys that we play in at the jam, the notes become: Key Pickup Notes Leading to: A C# D D# E note Bb D Eb E F note B D# E E# F# note C E F F# G note D F# G G# A note E G# A A# B note F A Bb B C note The note named as E# in the context of the key of B pickups is the same note as the note that is in most other contexts is named as F. Other songs on the current main list and additional songs list for the jam for which this same 3-note pick-up measure will work effectively, for the same reasons that it works so well for Bury Me Beneath The Willow include: 'Foggy Mountain Top', 'Gathering Flowers From The Hillside', 'Come Back Darling', 'Let Me Be Your Friend', and 'Lonesome Road Blues'. In all these songs, the first melody note in the first full measure of the song is a perfect 5th higher than the root note. (The D above G when in the key of G, the E above A when in the key of A, the F above Bb when in the key of Bb, etc.) Lyrics The lyrics I use for the chorus are the same as those on the Stanley Brothers recording, except that I usually omit their first syllable ('Oh' on the first chorus, 'Then' on the subsequent choruses): Bury me beneath the willow, Under the weeping willow tree; So he may know where I am sleeping, And perhaps he'll weep for me. The words written in bold are those that differ from one or more of the other recorded versions given here. On the Alison Krauss and Stanley Brothers recordings, there are two verses: Alison Krauss: Verse 1: Tonight I'm sad, my heart is lonely.... Verse 2: Tomorrow was our wedding day.... Stanley Brothers: Verse 1: My heart is sad and I'm in sorrow.... Verse 2: Tomorrow was to be our wedding.... On the Skaggs & Rice and Monroe Brothers recordings, there are three verses: Skaggs & Rice: 1. My heart is sad and I am lonely.... 2. She told me that she dearly loved me.... 3. Tomorrow was our wedding day.... Monroe Brothers: 1. My heart is sad and I am lonely.... 2. He told me that he dearly loved me.... 3. Tomorrow was our wedding day.... On The Carter Family recording there are four verses: 1. My heart is sad and I'm in sorrow.... 2. They told me that he did not love me.... 3. Tomorrow was our wedding day.... 4. Oh, bury me under the violets blue.... At the jam, I usually sing three verses: 1. My heart is sad and I'm in sorrow.... 2. He told me that he dearly loved me.... 3. Tomorrow was to be our wedding.... Occasionally I have added a fourth verse that is similar to the Carter Family's fourth verse, but begins instead with: 'Place on my grave a snow white lily'. Fill-in Licks Just like in the previous song of the week,'I'll Fly Away', the third measure of lines 2 and 4 of each verse and chorus of Bury Me Beneath The Willow has only one syllable in it, which is sung at the beginning of the measure. And, the measure that follows begins with a rest. During these kinds of 'dead spaces' within the melody of a song, it is very common for a fill-in lick to be played on one or more of the instruments. In I'll Fly Away both of the dead spaces occur during '1' chord measures; however, in Bury Me Beneath The Willow, the first dead space occurs during the '5' chord measures at the end of line 2. So, in the attachments I have included a chart of simple G chord (the 1 chord when in the key of G) and D chord (the 5 chord when in the key of G) fill-in licks for guitar, banjo, fiddle, and mandolin. The D fill-ins are intended for measure 3 through to the first quarter of measure 4 of line 2 of the progression, and the G fill-ins are intended for measure 3 through to the first quarter of measure 4 of line 4 of the progression. These G licks are also good to use in measures 3 to 4 of line 4 of your breaks. The D licks given for fiddle and mandolin will work in measures 3 to 4 of line 2 in fiddle and mandolin breaks, but the D licks given for banjo and guitar are not well suited for use in banjo and guitar breaks. On the attached chart of fill-in licks, notes in parentheses are not really part of the fill-in lick proper and may be omitted if they are inconvenient to get into from what you were doing immediately before the fill-in measures begin. For instance, if you are playing chop chords on the fiddle or mandolin right up to the point where the fill-in measure starts, you may wish to substitute a quarter note rest in place of the quarter note in parentheses that occurs at the beginning of the fill-in lick measure. Likewise, the notes you play in a fiddle or mandolin break in measure 2 of line 2 may lead you more naturally to play an A note at the beginning of the next measure rather than a D note, for the A note is the melody note. When this happens, just substitute the A note in place of the D note in the D fill-in lick shown in parentheses on the chart. For additional G fill-in licks for each of the instruments, refer back to the attachments in the song of the week write-up for I'll Fly Away. The Additional Songs List In the very first song of the week write-up for the new beginner jam (the song of the week write-up for Boil The Cabbage Down): I said: "To help give a clearer idea of what kinds of songs will tend to work well at the beginner jam in its initial phase, I have attached here, in addition to the Main List, another list of songs titled 'Additional Songs'. "On this list, there are a number of songs that are more associated with genres of music other than bluegrass, but which lend themselves well to being played as bluegrass songs, and most of these are well-known both inside and outside of bluegrass circles. I have also included some songs on the additional songs list that are virtually unknown outside bluegrass circles for those who might prefer to take the approach of finding specifically bluegrass songs appropriate to introduce into the new beginner jam rather than songs already familiar from other genres. But most of the songs on the list fall somewhere between these two ends of the spectrum." Here are some recordings to listen to of a few of the 'specifically bluegrass songs' that are on the additional songs list: Come Back Darling Flatt & Scruggs - key of G https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAr8M-zD3-w I'll Still Write Your Name In The Sand Mac Wiseman - key of Db (C#) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5Eo0VE310s Your Love Is Like A Flower The Bluegrass Album Band - key of B https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuXW-w3808w These three songs use the same chord progression as Bury Me Beneath The Willow, and have simple highly predictable melodies. If you like one of these songs, I encourage you to introduce it into the jam during the second half of the evening. Or, if in listening to these songs this leads you to be reminded of some other song that you already know, then you may very well have thereby discovered a song not on the list that would be just as appropriate to introduce into the beginner jam as the songs that are on the list. Song List 17 songs were played at the jam on Thursday: 13 from the main list, 2 from the additional songs list, and 2 that are on neither list: Blue Ridge Cabin Home - A Boil The Cabbage Down - A Buffalo Gals - A Bury Me Beneath The Willow - G Cripple Creek - A Foggy Mountain Top - G Gathering Flowers From The Hillside - G I'll Fly Away - G Little Birdie - Bb My Home's Across The Blue Ridge Mountains - C Nine Pound Hammer - A Shortnin' Bread - G Will The Circle Be Unbroken - G Angeline The Baker - D Light At The River - A Hand Me Down My Walking Cane - G Leaning On The Everlasting Arms - C Happy Pickin', Jason
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Jason's Beginner Jam Blog 2019 - 2021Weekly on Thursdays 
Songs regularly called at Bluegrass Jams and links from Jason's "Song of the Week" emails. (from Renee)
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