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These ten traditional Christmas songs are great for learning the clawhammer banjo style, and these are songs that never go out of
style. Thousands of people have benefited from Richard Hefner’s simple style of teaching, beginning with the melody and progressing through three additional
levels of increasing difficulty.
You can listen to sample MP3s (HiFi streaming only) from this collection by clicking on the highlighted song names in the MP3 list
below.
Each of the ten songs includes four different arrangements: Melody, Level 1, Level 2, and Level 3, so there are a total of
40 tablatures in the collection.
The Melody
arrangement is just the simple melody of the song. This is the framework onto which the other three levels are built. You can use the melody arrangements to just learn the tunes, or as you progress you might find them helpful in creating your own arrangements.
Level 1
includes just the basic “bum ditty” clawhammer strum along with the chords. Beginners can just stick with the Level 1 arrangements for as long as they need to until they are ready to progress at their own pace. There are 10 songs in this collection and all of them contain 4 different arrangements (Melody, Level 1, Level 2, and Level 3), so if you are a beginner you can learn any or all of the Level 1 arrangements, which are all easy to play.
Level 2 adds slurred notes -- hammer-ons, pull-offs, and slides -- to what has already been learned in first level. This adds
some nice variety to your playing, and seeing how they were added to the Level 1 arrangements will help you when you want to learn to arrange songs yourself.
Level 3 adds the drop thumb technique, which adds another dimension to the clawhammer style and allows you to play some notes
that were unattainable at the earlier levels.
You can find some simple tutorials on the clawhammer style on the following page:
http://www.ezfolk.com/banjo/Tutorials/tutorials.html
 All of the ezFolk tablatures are in the popular TablEdit format. TablEdit is a powerful program
that allows you to create tablature for almost any instrument. TEFview is a free program
distributed by the author of TablEdit that will allow anyone to use TablEdit files without the
need to purchase the TablEdit program. Later if you decide you would like the full capabilities of TablEdit program
to create your own tab arrangements, we recommend it highly.
The free TEFview program will allow you to...
- View the ezFolk tablatures as well as other songs that are available on the internet in TablEdit file format on
your computer screen.
- Hear the songs the way the author intended to have them heard, at any speed. Loop sections of songs, or
even entire songs so that you can get the most out of your practice time.
- Print the songs out so that you can have them handy in your gig bag, instrument case, or even in a binder
for easy reference when you are away from your computer.
Click here to download TEFview now!
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