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Click to get the tablatures and gif
files The mando tab is
uploaded
5th february
2002
Salt Creek: A Tab for
Mandolin
Salt Creek is an old modal fiddle tune, Salt River, which Bill Monroe turned into a bluegrass instrumental. As such it has become one of the classics of bluegrass, essential to every jam session. Everyone plays Salt Creek a bit differently - the tablature here is my own version. The first part is more or less melodic, while the second part improvises with Monroe-style licks, syncopated double stops and blues scales. You can download the tab in MusEdit format and play it back through your soundcard. You will need the MusEdit Viewer program available from http://www.btinternet.com/~john.baldry/mando/tablist.html#musedit The tab can also be viewed without the program at http://www.btinternet.com/~john.baldry/mando/tabgif/saltcrk/saltcrk.html Salt Creek is generally played at quite a brisk pace, e.g. half note = 144 bpm. A particular attraction of this tune is the chord sequence, featuring the flat VII chord (G in the key of A major). I recommend learning the chords first, as the structure of the melody will then make more sense. A word about (and for) banjo players. They may want to play Salt Creek in G in a jam session, having learned it from tab in G tuning. Mandolin and fiddle players have to be more savvy about keys - Salt Creek is a "key of A" fiddle tune. So tell the banjo players to capo at the 2nd fret. [ Yes! Ed. ] This also applies to Bill Cheatham, Old Joe Clark and all the other traditional fiddle tunes in A. There must be hundreds of recordings of Salt Creek. Three classic tracks can be found on the following CDs:
Bill Keith plays the archetypal banjo arrangement of Salt Creek on the Bill Monroe recording, while Doc Watson's is the essential guitar version. Bill Monroe's mandolin break is beautifully stated, a model of efficiency and elegance. As Alan Munde reminds us, Salt Creek is a real festival favourite, so do yourself a favour for next summer and learn it!
John Baldry, Crawley, Sussex. Read about John
This mando tab is written for NWBN in the MusEdit program. You will need
to download and install the free MusEdit Viewer from
http://www.btinternet.com/~john.baldry/mando/musedit/meview_z.exe There is also a free demo version of the full MusEdit program downloadable from http://www.musedit.com/med/Download.htm MusEdit allows more display options than TabRite, which makes it more mando-friendly (e.g. I can now put in grace notes and tremolo). Unfortunately MusEdit is written for PC only, so I have also set up the tab in .gif format at http://www.btinternet.com/~john.baldry/mando/tabgif/keepon/keepon.html , where it can be viewed on any platform.
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Chris Athey, Ashburn, Virginia, USA.
Hear Chris play banjo on his
NWBN MP3/Real
Audio page
|
Arranged by John Baldry
Chris and daughter Jessica Mae (8) playing