Chords for The Battle Hymn of the Republic Banjo Lesson!

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[Em] _ _ _ [C] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [F] _ _ _
_ _ [C] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [Em] _ _ _ [Am] _
_ _ [D] _ _ _ [G] _ _ [C] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ [F] _
_ _ _ _ [C] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [Em] _ _
_ _ _ _ [G] _ _ _ _
_ _ [C] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [F] _ _ _ [C] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[G] _ _ _ _ [Am] _ _ _ [G] _
_ _ _ _ [C] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [F] _ _ [C] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [Em] _ _ _ [Am] _ _
_ [G] _ _ _ _ _ [C] _ _
_ _ _ _ [G] _ _ _ _
_ [C] _ _ _ _ _ _ [Em] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Howdy, welcome to BanjoBenClark.com.
I am Banjo Ben, your host here on the website to teach you how to play guitar.
Man, this is Banjo Week.
We're going to learn two cool solos to battle him with a republic, but we're going to do
it in the key of C, out of the C position.
We don't have a different tuning, we're just playing out of the C position.
[G] That presents a couple of unique challenges that we'll talk about.
But I've been getting hammered for patriotic song requests because we're getting close
to Independence Day.
And this particular tune came up a couple of different times on Facebook and email,
so I thought it would be a fun one to teach.
It says, His truth is marching on.
Glory, glory, hallelujah.
You know, that's the thing about truth.
It marches on whether you want it to or not.
It doesn't need your permission to march on.
It's just true.
Now if you're watching this on Facebook or YouTube, here in a moment I'll ask you to
come over to [C] the website, BanjoBenClark.com.
You can join as a Go Pick member, have access to this lesson and hundreds of other ones.
You get to tab exactly as I played it, the two different solos.
And I have three different speeds of rhythm track _ MP3s that you can jam along with.
Let's not waste any more time, let's jump right into this one.
Battle him in the republic.
We're going to do this one on the banjo in the key of C.
We're going to learn two different solos.
The first one is [G] going to be what I'll call a straight ahead melody solo, even though
it's more of an intermediate _ level to play.
And then we're going to move on into an advanced solo that gets a lot of fun.
I think this song was almost written with this banjo in mind.
Now we're going to do this in the key of C, but we're not going to do any kind of special tuning.
We're still in our standard G [D] tuning.
We're not going to tune that fourth string down, but we are [C] going to be playing out of
a C position.
[E] This is really good practice, y'all.
It's fun to do.
We're going to be using our pinky a lot.
And since we're in C [C] major, we're going to be playing that C [F] chord a lot, the F chord,
[G] and then our G chord.
But I'll also have some other substitute chords that I'm using in my particular version.
Let's go ahead and throw up the first line tab for this straight ahead melody.
A couple things I'll call your attention to.
We have our lyrics down there beneath the notes to help you keep track of where you are.
I don't want you getting lost.
And also beneath each one of those notes, we have our pickhand indications in the little circle.
So T would stand for thumb, which is going to primarily play these bottom three strings.
_ [B] Index is going to primarily [D] play the second.
And middle is going to primarily, or all [F#] the time, play the first string in this particular version.
Now, _ in the original, it would be what I would call a syncopated or a swinging melody.
You know, if you hum it to yourself, you know what I'm talking about.
Dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun.
And it's written in 4-4, most of the places that you'll find it.
But there's these dotted 16th notes hanging out to give it that galloping feel.
What we're going to do is straighten that out with this basic melody.
We're going to take all of those weighted, swinging melody notes and we're going to give
them equal value.
[G] So instead of this sound, _
_ _ _ _ [Em] _ _ _ [G] _
we're doing this. _ _ _ _ _
[Em] _ _ [G] _ _ _ _ [B] _
[N] Okay?
Giving them more straight ahead.
And then what we're going to do is sometimes _ present the melody note a little sooner or
a little later than what we're expecting to give it a little bit of [C] variance.
Most of the rolls that we're going to play with this are going to be square rolls _ and
[G] then also our forward reverse.
_ Now we're going to start off with these [E] two little pickup notes.
And you don't have to get in a C position to play them.
You can if you'd like.
But one thing that you're going to have to practice is being in this C position, which
is second fret down here.
_ [G] _
[C] Open, first, second.
Being [F] able to play that, but also grabbing the third fret down here with your pinky.
Practice doing that without muting any of the other [D] strings. _
_ _ Because we're going to need that.
So [E] these two little pickup notes, we're going to come in on the second beat, [F] _ second and third fret.
And then I want you to [C] immediately go into your C position.
And we're going to do two square rolls, or two mixed rolls, in a row. _ _ _ _
_ At the second mixed roll, [D] measure two there, we're going to come down and play this pinky
[G] on the third fret.
So that measure two sounds [C] like this.
_ _ _ _ [F] _
_ [G] So the melody is going_ _ _ _
_ [E] _ As we get into measure three, pretty simple.
[C] _
_ _ [A] _ _ [G] _ _ Another thing that I want [E] to point out as we play this is we're going to be hanging
out in the C position a lot, but be lifting one finger or another as we go through it.
So that's going to be something new for you perhaps that you've never done.
But gaining control over those individual fingers.
So as we get into measure four, quarter note, [C] then a forward roll.
_ And then just release [G] that ring finger to expose that open first string.
And then come back down for [C] measure five.
Another forward roll.
[Em] And then _ release your index finger to expose that open second string.
Let me play this first line for you, and then we'll play it much slower later on in the [E] lesson.
_ _ _ [C] _ _ _ _
[E] _ _ [C] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [Em] I will encourage you to try to accent those melody notes as you're playing.
[C] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ [Em]
Otherwise it will just drown all together.
As we go into measure six, we're going to go into our F position.
[F] So, three, two, one, three.
_ _ _ Another square roll. _
_ Then a forward [B] roll, releasing our first finger.
[F] _ _ [G] And our melody note [F#] is there on that open B string.
_ [C] _ [G] Trampling out [Em] the_
So the word the is going to be represented by that open second string.
And we're bringing [A] it to the ear a little quicker than what you're expecting it.
[G] _ _ _ _ _ [C] _
Try to accent it if you can.
Measure seven, another forward roll.
_ [C] _ _ _ [G] Back to a C position.
But you only have to do partial here because we're going to be using this middle finger
on a couple different strings to grab the melody notes.
Sounds like this.
[Am] _ _ [C] _ _ _ _
_ [Em] _ _ _ _ [F] _ A whole line.
_ _ _ [Dm] _ _ [C] _ _
_ _ [Am] _ _ _ _ [C] _ _
_ _ [Em] _ _ [D] _ Remember, we're going to do it super slow later on.
So we keep going.
We're back into some repetitive stuff.
So measure 10 and 11 is exactly like measures two and three, as I spit all over you.
[C] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[Em] _ Here in measure 12, we have another chord that we're going to introduce here.
We're going to do an E chord.
That doesn't really affect us a lot as we're doing the melody.
But the rhythm track is going to sound a little different.
But we're just going to play that second fret by itself. _ _
[G] _ And do some forward [Em] rolls. _ _
Terrible [C] swift sword.
We'll [G] land there in our partial C position measure 13,
which [Am] also happens to be part of our A minor [C] chord. _ _ _ _ _ _
This whole line. _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [Em] _ _ _ _
_ [C] _ _ [G] _ _ [C] _ I will also mention that you may be tempted to play that third fret
by just sliding up your middle finger.
_ _ That's fine if you can [G] do it.
Whenever I try to do that a lot, I'll happen to maybe try to slide my ring finger too.
And I don't want to do that.
Measure 14, we're going to a D minor. _ _ _
And then just [C] some pinches.
[G] _ _ [C] Then we have finished our verse. _ _ _ _
[G] And what I will mention about this song is the verse and the chorus,
they have different lyrics, right?
But the melody is very, very similar.
So the verse is going_ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ And the chorus is going to go_ _ _ _ _ _
_ [D] _ So it doesn't have quite as much movement,
_ which is hard to distinguish whenever you're playing on banjo
because it's full of movement as we pick these different strings.
But we're going to try our best.
Let's take a look at the chorus now.
[C] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ [A] _
_ _ _ _ [C] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [Bm] _ _
_ _ [Am] _ _ [A] _ _ _ [G] _
_ [C] _ _ _ _ _ _ _