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Student Member Questions / Answers from Ross Nickerson

Take it Easy Banjo Tab Question

Question

I'm wanting to learn the tab to "take it easy". It's hard for me to hear the song in the tab. Is this played from the very beginning of the song or is it the solo piece towards the end of the song. What speed should this be played in.
Thanks
Paula

My Response

Hi Paula,

There really isn't much of a tune to it, it in reality is just fast Scruggs style picking over the chord changes of the song, the double time picking in the background works good in the song, but it does not have a real tune to it, or one that you would recognize as the song, Take it Easy when its played by itself.

The lesson to learn here is that, your goal should be to learn good Scruggs style technique and how to play fast and then you can fill in your own backup and interpretation in the background of songs like these.

I hope this makes some sense.

My DVD Playing by Ear and Learning the Chords explains a lot of how this all works. When you are a banjo player you play things that work over chord changes most of the time, and the melody when you can too, but you always at least keeping track of and playing things that work over the chords to the song.

You'll need to learn the chords to take it easy first if you haven't yet, then try to pick along with at least a simple roll and the correct chord, do that for a long time till you can keep up, then try to learn some of the licks and things Bernie Leyden played behind the vocals from the tab.

 

Thanks again,
Sincerely,
Ross Nickerson
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