Turkey in the Straw - Bluegrass Banjo Lessons

Welcome to OnlineLessonVideos.com. My name is Will. Today’s lesson is “Turkey in the Straw” played in the key of G. The form for this tune is usually A, A, B, B. This is a good song to play for your kids as they are growing up for an introduction of bluegrass music. Why don’t you put out your tablature and we’ll get started.

Let’s take a look at measure one. The first two pick up notes in measure one are B, B, and A note and these notes are located on the ninth fret of the first string and the A note is located at the tenth fret on the second string. Now, these are the two pick up notes for the tune. Measure two is going to start with an open G string and F# at the seventh fret, second string back to an open G up to an A which is on the seventh fret, first string back to its open G on the fifth and then with your backward roll and those notes respectively are D, B, and C.

So let’s just play that little sequence of notes slowly for you. What you want to keep in mind when you're playing melodic style banjoes especially when you’re learning to play it in this style is that you want as much to know its operation as possible so that everything’s not ringing into each other all the notes like they generally do when you play a banjo. So, try this. Play this first note, pick up, play the A note and then go through the sequence. Once you get done playing that note, just lift off and keep going, one more time.

Let’s move on to measure three.