"You Can't Take the Sky From Me" Banjo Tab

A banjo player who wants to remain nameless for fear of the Alliance asserting copyright protection over something they never bothered to publish wanted to play the a certain cancelled science fiction show's theme convincingly on the 5-string banjo. In late 2014, he stumbled across an old fan site on which a fellow mentioned he had transcribed the solo. (We would gladly give that fellow credit, too, except we're afraid we will put the Alliance on his trail as well.)

When the banjo player downloaded the hand-scrawled version, he found that it was written in C (the key used in the theme). However, the banjo player prefers to play this song in D. In his research, he also came to the following conclusions:

  • The guitar is playing in D, but it's tuned a step down, so that it sounds in the key of C.

  • The banjo on the recording may not be a five-string banjo - the drone string never sounds. Which means that the banjo solo could be played on a 4 or 6-string banjo just as easily. To play the whole violin solo on banjo would require either transposition, a 6-string banjo, or a four-string banjo (tuned an octave down from mandolin).

  • Other folks interpret the chords and time signatures a little differently. So if you think the chords or anything else in the following resources are wrong, feel free to play and/or sing the song however you want.

The banjo player started by entering the song note by note into Cakewalk Sonar, starting with the key of the original transcription (C). Then he transposed it to D and published both versions as PDFs and mp3s for other folks who might want to try playing them. He also saved a .mid version of each version so folks with sequencer software could transpose to other keys if they wanted.

Making it Work on 5-String

Then he tried to figure out how to play the song on banjo. He wanted to work in as many of the parts from the "lead" as possible, but still make it sound like a legitimate banjo part. One problem was that several of the notes in the lead are lower than the lowest note on a five-string. He could have put everything up an octave, but that would made some of the other parts too high. So the first compromise was to transpose those really low phrases up an octave and leave the rest.

Then he inserted a banjo roll (picking pattern) that used DBGDA tuning (the high string is tuned up a whole step), maintaining the phrases from the instrumental solo as much as possible.

Chords Used (Or Implied)

He also decided that since the song's key signature is ambiguous, "D no 3rd" works better than a true D chord or D minor chord for most of the song. (It's also easier to play). Unfortunately Sonar's chord symbol library only allows for 6-string diagrams - an inexcusable oversight for those who want to use the software to write banjo or mandolin instructions.

So we're publishing the chord charts for the chords he used in the D version of this song. (If you want to play this on 5-string banjo in C you're own your own.)

Note: If you use the tabulature note-by-note, you won't actually be playing the whole chords on most measures, so don't get hung up on the fact that the chord charts show more strings being fretted than you may actually be playing on any given beat. On the other hand, if you want to strum through the song a few times before you attack the tab itself, you'll appreciate having the whole chord diagram.

The 5-string banjo chords used in the tabulature for the banjo part in D.

Notes about the tab:

  • This tab is for advanced players. It will require both "hammering on" and "pulling off" in several places where two sixteenth notes are played consecutively on the same string.

    • When you need to play a note, then a higher note on the same string, you "hammer on." That is, you play the first note, then you fret the higher note hard.

    • When you need to play a note, then a lower note on the same string, you "pull off." That is, you finger both notes (if the second note is not open). Then you play the top note, and when it's time for the second note to sound, you pull the left finger that makes that note away with enough force to "pluck" the string (or at least allow it to keep vibrating).

  • There's a trill on the last two beats of measure 3. It may sound bad in the sound bytes, but the banjo player left it in to give you an idea of what is supposed to be there.

What's In the Resource?

To download the following files rather than playing or opening them, please right-click on the file name and select "Save Target As."

The files included in this this resource include:

Conclusion

The zip file version of this includes the hints and all the files in about 2 meg. So please feel free to download the whole thing and use the bits you can. Also, the banjo player who put this together in the first place has given his permission to repost this anywhere appropriate. He figures that if it's posted about a thousand different places, it'll be harder for the Alliance (or their Magistrates) to keep track of.

By the way, this permission does NOT apply to the rest of the text or graphics of any sites this may wind up on. It also doesn't give you permission to claim authorship or charge for making these files available.