Working on a lesson about standard banjo tuning, otherwise known as "C tuning" today.
Trying to find songs suitable for a banjo solo in C tuning is complicated by HOW MANY FOLK SONGS start on the "fifth" below the tonic. "Amazing Grace" "Jesse James" "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean," and about a thousand more.
I want to use songs that don't descend below the tonic so I can use more-or-less root position chords instead of going way up the neck. (These lessons are for beginners, after all). Here is the long list of candidates for tabbing example solos for in C:
Sweet Betsy from Pike
Scarborough Fair
Wayfaring Stranger
All My Trials
The Bear Went Over the Mountain
Casey Jones
Momma Don't 'Low
Roll in my Sweet Baby's Arms
When the Saints Go Marching In
John Brown's Body
O Susanna
Go Tell Aunt Rhody
One More River (Chorus at least)
This Old Man
Wearin' of the Green, Rising of the Moon?
I can see where a number of them would require the old dodge of fretting strings one an two on the fifth fret so you can play melody on the fourth fret of the fourth string while still playing something that fits with a C chord. Although if you stick to pure three-finger picking, you might could get around that on a few of them. We'll see.
Any comments? Suggestions? If you're not signed in as a contributor to this forum, you can still get ahold of me here:
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