Ralph Stanley’s “How Mountain Girls Can Love” Solo

This lesson is part of the course Bluegrass Banjo with Bill Evans.

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Learn to make your banjo drive the band or play sweet melodies, with solos to well-known songs and tunes, backup techniques, and more.

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Blue Ridge Cabin Home

In this lesson, you’ll start adding roll patterns to the melody of “Blue Ridge Cabin Home.” Every melody has a rhythm and when Earl Scruggs was working out his breaks, he tried to keep the melody’s rhythm intact as he added the roll patterns, letting the melody dictate what kind of roll to use. Bill shows you some ideas for choosing rolls. For example, if you have a melody note that’s held out for a long time you can try a forward roll, and when the melody notes are closer together you can try an alternating thumb roll or a forward reverse roll. Bill walks you through an entire solo here, with embellishments and fill-in licks.

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Ralph Stanley’s “How Mountain Girls Can Love” Solo

The great bluegrass singer and banjo player Ralph Stanley passed away this summer (read Bill’s tribute to Ralph here). In this lesson you’ll learn Ralph’s solo on the Stanley Brothers classic “How Mountain Girls Can Love,” recorded in 1962. You can see the Stanley Brothers play and sing it here. Bill plays the solo through slowly and talks about Ralph’s use of the forward roll, relying heavily on his index finger, which often plays the melody on the fourth string. Then Bill takes the solo apart, phrase by phrase. He also shows you a couple of Ralph’s signature licks, an ending lick and a fill-in lick with a tenth-fret choke. Bill finishes off by playing and singing “How Mountain Girls Can Love” with Scott Nygaard.

"How Mountain Girls Can Love" (Available to subscribers)

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← Alan Munde Interview, Part 2

Next Lesson

Doug’s Tune →

Previous Lesson

← Alan Munde Interview, Part 2

Next Lesson

Doug’s Tune →

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