L.W. Konigsberg’s Clawhammer Banjo Tabs

The tabs were written in Tabledit. If you don’t have said software you can download a free viewer/printer from http://www.tabledit.com/tefview/. The tabs are also available as *.pdf files (see http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html to download Adobe Acrobat Reader).

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Some conventions:

Time signatures:

With some notable exceptions (jigs and maybe some waltzes to come) I’ve used “cut-time” for the tablatures. This is 2/2 time, so there are two beats per measure and each beat is equal to a half note. There’s a lot of variation out there as to what time signatures are used by other people (2/2, 2/4, or 4/4), but I can’t bring myself to say that there are four beats per measure (as in 4/4), because I don’t tap my foot that many times per measure. If the 2/2 symbol makes you uncomfortable the simplest thing to do is ignore it and live in a 4/4 world (just remember to tap your foot twice as fast as I would).

Left and Right hands:

By and large I’ve not entered much as far as the right hand is concerned. Once you get “comfortable” with clawhammer you’ll find you will know whether to be picking with your thumb or your index finger (sorry middle finger pickers). I always try to mark hammers and pull-offs, but Tabledit doesn’t have specific symbols for “alternate string pull-off” (a.k.a., “off-string pull-off”) or “hammers” for strings that haven’t been hit with the thumb or index finger. I’ve entered these occurrences as “grace-notes” so they sound a bit funky in the MIDI but should be easy enough to figure out from the tablature. As an example, here’s the very beginning of “Ned Kendall’s Hornpipe”:

The pick-up notes are played with the index finger and then a hammer, as are the first two eighth notes in the first measure. The next two eighth notes are played with the index (0 on the 3^rd string) and thumb (5 on the 4^th string), then the index finger is used to play a double grace-note on the 4^th string and a pull-off to get the open 4^th string. Now we have the last two eighth notes to play. The penultimate (that means next to last) note is played with the index, which means that the very last eighth note has to be played either by following through with the index finger or by plucking the open 3^rd string with a left hand finger. In minstrel banjo following through with the index finger would be a pretty common approach, but in clawhammer most would use an “alternate string pull-off.”

Here’s an example of an “alternate string hammer” from the fourth measure of “Western Gem”:

The first eighth is played with the index, but then the second is a hammer onto the 1^st string at the third fret (without having previously “plucked” the string). The fingering for the last four eighth notes is shown because that pattern is a bit unusual.

Tied Notes:

Tabledit has a rather particular way of showing tied notes, which is to show the “stem and flag” for the note but not the note itself, as in this example from the beginning of “Gray Cat on a Tennessee Farm”:

This time I’ve marked the right hand. Note that there’s no “drop-thumbing” here in that the thumb only plucks the 5^th string. The rhythm in the first measure is basically a classic “bum-ditty” followed by a “bum--ty” (the “dit” isn’t played, and in any event the first “dit” is none too classic because it is a single string instead of a brush, and the last "ty" in the first measure is played with the index finger on the first string instead of the thumb on the fifth…but, oh well).

Organization and Links

Tunes are organized by tunings (not necessarily the key, as for some strange reason I play Miss McCloud’s Reel out of A-modal tuning, even though it comes out in the key of G, where it should be). If the tune name has a link then that will take you to the hi bitrate recording at: http://www.ezFolk.com . Some tunes are in medleys, so that’s usually noted after the tune name.

A (eC#EAE)

Gray Eagle (*.tef) (*.pdf)

A (aEAC#E)

Dew Drop Hornpipe (*.tef) (*.pdf)

Bobbing for Eels (*.tef) (*.pdf)

A modal (aEADE)

Chicago Reel (Congress Reel first) (*.tef) (*.pdf)

B-flat (fDA#DF)

President Grant’s Hornpipe (*.tef) (*.pdf)

B-flat (fA#FA#D)

Done Gone (*.tef) (*.pdf)

B (f#F#BD#F#)