Blackberry Blossom: Trad, Arranged for Guitar in G major
By Chris Moreton

"Blackers" is the essential tool in any flat-pickers jam-session survival kit. as well as being a very beautiful piece in it’s own right. It was made famous by banjo virtuoso Bill Keith. Tony Rice does a stunning version on his Tony Rice Unit album Manzanita (Rounder Records 0092). Norman Blake also presents a lovely arrangement of it as the title track on one of his Rounder albums (see also, e.g., Doc Watson and Friends, The Essential Doc Watson, Vanguard CD 45/46, 1963). The tab shows two ‘A’ parts (one low register, one high register) and likewise two ‘B’ parts. You can ‘mix and match’ these as you wish, provided that you play two ‘A’ parts followed by two ‘B’ parts (e.g. Low A, low A, low B, high B).

Some pointers on the trickier bits:

For the pull-offs (P) in the 5th bar: place ring finger at the 4th fret position and the index finger at the 2nd fret, both at the same time. The first pull-off is done with the ring finger and the next one with the index finger. Play the ‘down’ stroke then pluck the ring finger off the string, thus making another quick note. Immediately lift the index finger off the string in readiness for the ‘up’ stroke. Keep the picking direction in the sequence: d-p-u-d-p-u. The quick sequence of three notes is known as a triplet and gets ‘three notes for the price of two’. But if you really get stuck or don’t like them then replace the 5th bar by 1st bar instead.

For the high parts use the ring or little finger for the 8th, the middle for the 7th and the index for the 5th fret positions. The open first string notes allow time to return to the lower positions.

Chris Moreton, Guitarist Magazine Guitar Champion 1996, Usk

John Hardy is a ballad that is often sung in sessions and the words can be found in any standard bluegrass (or folk) source-book. The banjoist would, of course, play quiet backup during the verses to give the singer a chance, but might be called upon to play an instrumental break between verses. The tab below is at an intermediate level and would serve as a solo break. But please feel free to experiment and change it around as you wish - nothing is set in concrete!

There are several interesting things about this song. For example, although it is in the key of G major, the verse starts off on the chord of C major. Unlike most regular bluegrass songs there is no chorus. Also, unlike the vast majority of bluegrass tunes and songs, which have 16 bars, this one has 20 measures! John Henry is another example having 20 bars to the verse.

Most fiddle tunes which banjoists play have an ‘A’ part and a ‘B’ part, both of which are usually played twice through. However this tune has only the one 20-bar part, so as a solo break it would only be played once through by each instrumentalist. Despite this I’ve put a repeat on to show how you could lead back from the end of the tune into the beginning. You could go through the 1st repeat as many times as you like before dropping through into the 2nd repeat bar to finish off. The Tab is shown on page 19 (January, 1997)

Eric Pollit , Rochdale .

This progression is intended as an exercise to help develop speed in the index-finger-lead forward roll. This roll is much favoured by Ralph Stanley and helps to give his music the drive he is noted for. All the bars use forward rolls except for bars 4 and 16, which are ‘rhythm patterns’ and bar 15, which is a ‘thumb-in-out’ roll. Bar 10 provides a good ‘walk’ progression from G major into C major. Note that, apart from the thumb in bar 15, only the index finger changes strings.

This progression will fit lots of songs - Roll in my Sweet Baby’s Arms and New River Train are two that come to mind.

You should practise the roll in bar 1 until you can repeat it non-stop at a steady speed without pause - play it through about a dozen times to get the idea.

Eric Pollit, Rochdale.

Updated 23rd Jan 1999