Also known as “cross-picking”, the Melodic Style of banjo picking is widely attributed to Bobby Thompson and (later) Bill Keith, who played a strong role in developing the style. Larry McNeeley (who replaced John Hartford on the old Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour back in the 70s) was also a major innovator in the Melodic Style. And today, of course, many banjo pickers utilize the fundamentals outlined in this article to add that unique flowing cascade of notes to their playing. Similar approaches to melodic development are practiced on the guitar, as well, with the late great Jerry Reed being a great proponent of the style.
This article is just an introduction to the principles of the Melodic Style for 5-string banjo. There are many great instructional books and videos available that go into the style in detail.
The Melodic Style of banjo playing takes a different approach than Scruggs Style, which is based on rolling chords with melody notes intermittently mixed in with the chords. In the Melodic Style, every note is considered a melody note, so the idea is to play just the melody of a tune, keeping chord tones to a minimum. This style works very well for Irish melodies, or any tune with a quick succession of notes.
There are a few basic rules we try to follow when playing Melodic Style:
1) A note on one string should be immediately followed by a note on a different string. In other words, try not to play two or more notes in a row on one string, but rather continuously jump from one string to another as the melody unfolds. This allows the three picking fingers to play linear melody lines using standard roll technique.
2) Whenever possible, use open strings to play notes. In standard G-tuning, this means the low G, B, D and high G notes should be played as open strings (3rd, 2nd, 1st and 5th strings). Depending on the melody, this can greatly simplify what the fretting hand must do to get the tune across.
3) Try to grab small 2 or 3-string clusters of notes (similar to how we would play chords), and linger as long as possible on these clusters of fretted notes mixed with open string notes to create a more legato (flowing) sound. In other words, we want the notes to overlap as possible to reduce the staccato effect of the banjo’s timbre.
In the G major scale TAB’d below, there are two note clusters that we play much as we would a chord. One is played on the 3rd and 4th strings, the other one on the 2nd and 1st strings:
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For an example of Melodic Style, here’s a video by John Rosen playing the fine old Irish tune, Whiskey Before Breakfast:
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© 2010 Jeff Foster. All Rights Reserved.