Hi,
The song of the week is 'In The Pines' in the key of G. 
 
'In The Pines' is in 3/4 time (a.k.a. 'waltz time': 3 beats per measure: guitar rhythm: boom-chuck-chuck), and is usually played at a slow tempo. 
 
The chord progression is:
 
1141
1511
 
In the key of G: 1=G; 4=C; 5=D
 
Like the melodies for 'Boil The Cabbage Down', and 'When The Saints Go Marching In', the melody for 'In The Pines' - at least the way I usually sing it - uses only the first 5 notes of the major scale. In the key of G, these notes are, from lowest to highest: G, A, B, C, and D. However, 'In The Pines' lends itself well to being played with more of a 'lonesome' or 'bluesy' feel to it than what would seem to be implied by the notes that the melody consists of. So, in both my backup playing and in my breaks, I tend to make a lot of use of b3 and b7 notes. In the key of G, those notes are Bb and F respectively. 
 
For instance, when playing a melody-based break for the song, I will tend to substitute Bb notes in place of some of the B notes, and in my fillin licks - both in my breaks and in my backup playing - I will tend to use F notes in spots where I would much more often use E notes instead. Many of my fillin licks, and other licks that I might use in a break when I am not attempting to stick close to the melody, will consist solely of the notes that make up the minor pentatonic scale. The G minor pentatonic scale consists of the notes: G, Bb, C, D, and F. 
 
To get a feel for how one might get started in doing this for a melody-based break for 'In The Pines', I have included in the attachments, in addition to the melody as I tend to sing it (which consists of just G, A, B, C, and D notes), a modified 'melody' that adds 3 additional notes into the mix: Bb, C#, and F. When I am really going for a 'bluesy' feel in a break or in a fillin lick for 'In The Pines', I will make frequent use of the C#/Db note as a passing note between C and D notes, whether ascending: C, C#, D, or descending: D, Db, C. If you choose to make use of this note, be careful about how long you linger on it, for it clashes severely with all three of the chords in the song.
 
The 'modified melody' in the attachments is only a basic example of how one might go about making use of the three extra notes to give a lonesome or bluesy sound to one's breaks. There are many more ways in which one might make use of these notes in one's breaks (and also in one's backup playing), so I suggest experimenting with these notes a bit. You might, for instance, take some licks you already know, and try modifying them in various ways to include one or more of these notes in them. In doing this, you might find it helpful to listen closely to the Boone Creek version of 'In The Pines' - see the link below - to use as a point of reference for the kind of 'sound' or 'feel' to aim for.
 
Due to its slow tempo, you might find that playing 'In The Pines' at the jam affords you with a good opportunity to try to get more 8th notes - and even 8th note triplets (see the explanation below if you are not sure what 8th note triplets are) - into your breaks than what you otherwise tend to play. You might also like to use the song as an opportunity to work on improvising (i.e., making up a break on the fly), since the slow tempo allows one a bit more time to think about which note or combination of notes one might like to play next.
 
For banjo players using the melody sheet as a guide for creating a break: for successive 8th notes in the melody, or in fillin licks, there is no need to avoid picking the same string two or more times in a row with the same finger: the song is played slowly enough to allow one to be able to play smoothly even while temporarily breaking away from typical banjo picking patterns in cases where doing so ends up being a more straightforward and simpler option.
 
For those who are relatively new to reading music, I would like to point out that there are a couple of symbols on the melody sheets attached here that you will not see often on the melody sheets for the song of the week.
 
The first one, at the top of the pages, consists of a pair of 8th notes followed by an equals sign followed by three 8th notes of which the first two are tied together and the numeral '3' occurs above the three 8th notes. This means that whenever you see a pair of 8th notes in the written music, the first of the two notes is held twice as long as the second one, but together, they take up the same amount of time in the measure as what two 'ordinary' (evenly spaced) 8th notes take up. To get the feel for this, sing (or play) the melody along with the sung choruses on the youtube link provided below, making sure that your 8th notes line up with the vocal phrasing. 
 
The numeral '3' which is placed below the staff under the group of three 8th notes in the second to last measure of the 'modified melody' indicates a triplet. Each note of an 8th note triplet lasts one-third the length of a quarter note; so, together, these three notes last the same amount of time as a single quarter note.
 
The symbol placed before the 2nd note of the 2nd complete measure of the modified melody in the first attachment (and which also occurs in the second to last measure of the modified melody in the same attachment) is called a 'natural' sign, and simply means that you play a natural note (in this case, an F note) in place of the note that is indicated by the key signature (in this case, an F# note). When a natural sign occurs before a note, it temporarily overrides the key signature (just as when a sharp sign or a flat sign occurs before a note); both that note and all subsequent notes within the same measure that are written on the same line or space on the staff become naturals, unless a flat or a sharp sign occurs before a subsequent note written on the same line or space.  After the measure ends, the key signature goes back into full effect. 
 
In The Pines - Bill Monroe - key of F
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_UkluxB7gc
 
Boone Creek (Ricky Skaggs on lead vocal) - key of B: this is my favourite recorded version of 'In The Pines': notice that the chorus is shorter than on the previous version: this is the way (i.e., with the 'woo-woo-woos' mimicking the sound of the wind omitted) that both Kathy and I both sing the song.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kjiRfqFhUM
 
Peter Rowan - key of E
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKh8XjgoQfc
 
Happy Pickin',
Jason

Hi,
The song of the week is 'In The Pines' in the key of E.
 
The chord progression is:
 
1141
1511
1141
1511
 
(This is the same as if one were to play the last 2 lines twice of the verses or choruses of many other songs, including Foggy Mountain Top, Amazing Grace, All The Good Times Are Past And Gone, Swing Low Sweet Chariot, Cotton Fields, and Little Cabin Home On The Hill.)
 
In the key of E: 1=E; 4=A; 5=B
The E chord consists of the notes: E G# B
The A chord consists of the notes: A C# E
The B chord consists of the notes: B D# F#
 
Together, these 7 notes (E F# G# A B C# D#) make up the E major scale.
 
Since it is always a viable option - even if not usually the best option when playing bluegrass - to play the '5' chord in the song as a 7th chord, guitar players playing through this progression may wish to play a B7 chord instead of a B for the '5' chord measures. Because playing a B chord on guitar requires using a bar chord, and bluegrass guitarists have a tendency to avoid bar chords when possible, playing a B7 in this context is much more common amongst bluegrass guitarists than playing a B.
 
For banjo players I recommend placing the capo on the 2nd fret and spiking/capoing the 5th string at the 9th fret. The fingerings then become just as if one were playing in the key of D: 1=D; 4=G; 5=A. Many guitar players will probably wish to capo to the 2nd fret also. Capoing to the 4th fret, and then playing as if in C (1=C, 4=F; 5=G) is also an option for banjo and guitar players for playing in the key of E, and works well on many songs, but not so well for 'In The Pines': the main reason being that the song favours the use of additional
notes in breaks and backup licks that do not belong to the E major scale which
tend to be more awkward to play in combination with the notes of the major scale when working out of 'C' instead of 'D' or 'E'. These additional notes give a 'bluesy' quality to the song which suits the 'lonesome' subject matter of the lyrics
quite well. (To see which notes these are and where they are located on your instrument when playing in the key of E, see the melody sheet and the sheet music to tab conversion chart attached to this email.)
 
An additional reason for avoiding capoing to the 4th fret to play In The Pines in E, is that the 'C' chord shape as played within the first three frets on guitar and as played within the first 2 frets on banjo tends to detract from the bluesy feel that the song lends itself so well to, and has a greater potential than what either the 'D' or the 'E' chord shapes that occur within the first 3 frets of guitar or
banjo do to clash noticeably with some of additional notes being played by other instruments that give the song a bluesy flavour.
 
For those who are relatively new to reading music, I would like to point out that there are a couple of symbols on the melody sheet attached here that you will not see often on the melody sheets for the song of the week.
 
The first one, at the top of the page, consists of a pair of 8th notes followed by an equals sign followed by three 8th notes of which the first two are tied together and the numeral '3' occurs above the three 8th notes. This means that whenever you see a pair of 8th notes in the written music, the first of the two notes is held twice as long as the second one, but together, they take up the same amount of time in the measure as what two 'ordinary' (evenly spaced) 8th notes take up. To get the feel for this, sing (or play) the melody along with the sung choruses on the youtube link provided below, making sure that your 8th notes line up with the vocal phrasing. 
 
The second symbol that you will not often see on the song of the week melody sheets occurs in the pickup measure before the second note, and in 4 other measures as well, in the 'modified melody'. This is called a 'natural' sign, and simply means that you play a natural note (e.g., G) in place of the note that is indicated by the key signature (e.g., G#). When a natural sign occurs before a note, it temporarily overrides the key signature (just as when a sharp sign or a flat sign occurs before a note); both that note and all subsequent notes within the same measure that are written on the same line or space become naturals, unless a flat or a sharp sign occurs before a subsequent note written on the same line.  After the measure ends, the key signature goes back into full effect.  If you aren't sure that you understand this correctly, don't concern yourself too much with it, for I have written the letter names of the notes below each of the notes occurring in the 'modified melody', so you may use those to help you read the music correctly.
 
In The Pines - Bill Monroe - key of F
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_UkluxB7gc
 
Peter Rowan - key of E
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKh8XjgoQfc
 
Boone Creek (Ricky Skaggs on lead vocal) - key of B
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kjiRfqFhUM
 
Happy Pickin',
Jason