This semester I’m teaching two classes of 5-string banjo for Ivy Tech-Bloomington, and my students are doing so well that I decided to up the ante for them a bit. I mean, why just learn how to pick Cripple Creek when you can go whole-hog and learn Foggy Mountain Breakdown? So I tweaked up a handout for them, and I got to thinking there might be a banjo picker or two out here that would like to cop the TAB for the tune. It’s basic banjo TAB, and in case you don’t know, T stands for Thumb, I for Index and M for Middle (referring to the fingers used to pick the strings). The tune incorporates 2 of the 3 fundamental fretting slurs used in banjo (slides and hammer-ons, but no pull-offs).
So tune up your ‘jos and give it a whirl:
NOTE: I had to crunch the image just a tad to make it fit on this page, but if you right-click on the image and open it in a new window, it can be expanded back to default size for easier viewing and/or printing.