Flatt & Scruggs Mercury Sessions Backup Licks DVD Banjo Lesson
with Tom Adams
$35.00 (see shipping details)
Video lesson with tab PDF, TablEdit TEF, and descriptive notes for 20 songs.
From 1948 to 1950, Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs & the Foggy Mountain Boys recorded 28 sides for Mercury Records, including three banjo instrumentals and five songs where Earl Scruggs played guitar.
This lesson focuses on Scruggs' banjo backup for the 20 vocal numbers recorded during these Mercury sessions.
Watch the 2-minute Overview
What You Get:
-
75-minute video
- 80-page PDF with banjo tab of specific backup licks, lyrics, and an outline of the backup and the song's arrangement
- TablEdit TEF for each of the 20 songs
20 Flatt & Scruggs Songs
Down The Road
Roll In My Sweet Baby's Arms
We'll Meet Again Sweetheart
My Cabin In Caroline
Baby Blue Eyes
Bouquet In Heaven
Why Don't You Tell Me So?
I'll Never Shed Another Tear
No Mother Or Dad
Is It Too Late Now?
My Little Girl In Tennessee
I'll Never Love Another
Doin' My Time
Cora Is Gone
Pain In My Heart
Back To The Cross
Old Salty Dog Blues
Take Me In A Lifeboat
Will The Roses Bloom
I'll Just Pretend
Available in 2 Formats:
Disc or Digital Download
$35.00
Get the DVD shipped to you
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For other destinations
Email Tom: adams.tom [ AT ] comcast [ DOT ] net
Buy the Digital Download
This online version is the same video lesson as presented on the disc.
The video lesson covers more than 70 examples of Earl Scruggs' backup from short licks that span just a couple of measures to entire sections of backup for a fiddle break or a vocal verse. Both down-the-neck and up-the-neck examples of backup are included in this video lesson.
Tom will describe the lick that's coming up and tell you where to find the lick in the tab and where to hear the lick on the original Flatt & Scruggs recording. Then he'll play the lick.
The combination of being able to check the song's arrangement and what to listen for in the banjo backup, along with the tab and the video demo make it easy to learn both the shorter classic Scruggs licks from the Mercury sessions as well as to get an understanding of the rolling down the neck backup on mostly open strings and the rolling up the neck backup that uses the three basic chord shapes F, D, and Barre.
Comments from our customers
Up to now I've learned a number of breaks and knew I was missing 85% of the songs if I wanted to do something other than vamp behind the music. With your tabs, I can clearly see and understand all of what Earl's banjo had to offer in support of the song instead of leading the song. — RT, California
This stuff is gold. — RM, New Jersey
I've been listening a lot to the Mercury recordings. What Earl does sounds simple, but it's hard for me to get. I appreciate all the work you put into this project. — JE, Georgia
I would like to thank you for your commitment to and talent for teaching banjo. — BR, California
Learn at your own pace
Build your collection of backup licks
With so many examples included in this 75-minute video, you can start by selecting one or two of your favorite licks.
Start to add those licks into songs at jams.
As you become more and more comfortable and familiar with these first couple of licks, return to the Mercury Sessions DVD to explore more backup licks.
In songs you already know, listen for places to start playing these Scruggs backup licks. You may find that a lick that Earl Scruggs played on
Down The Road or Cabin In Caroline fits perfectly into several non-Flatt & Scruggs songs on your current list of jamming favorites.