Essential Scruggs Learning Path

Cripple Creek

Learn your slides, pull-offs, and hammer-ons

Cripple Creek is a must-learn Scruggs style beginner banjo tune because it teaches how to play slides, hammer-ons, pull-offs, and pinches. We recommend you learn the slurs one at a time. For exampl...

Worried Man Blues

A popular jam tune with I, IV, and V chords.

Worried Man Blues is a great tune to learn after Cripple Creek because of it's inherent repetition. It combines forward rolls, forward/backwards rolls, and crisp slides and pull-offs to challenge y...

Mountain Dew

Accenting Melody Notes

This song comes naturally after Worried Man Blues because it starts with a very similar melody. We're specifically going to look at the kick off to this song, which starts out with an open 4th stri...

FreeCumberland Gap - A Section

Learning about repetition

Cumberland Gap is such a great beginner tune for many reasons but in this lesson, we're going to focus on one important aspect of bluegrass music - repetition. If you can see and hear the groupings...

Cumberland Gap - B Section

Scruggs's go-to up the neck position

Cumberland Gap is another essential tune for you to learn when studying bluegrass banjo. In this mini lesson, we're going to look at the most difficult passage of Cumberland Gap - the B Section, wh...

Fireball Mail

Developing your slurs

The popular banjo tune Fireball Mail is a great place to enhance the way that you play slurs. For example, the first slide in the tune happening at the first full measure is from the 2nd fret to th...

Salty Dog Blues - Melody

Get started with the melody

Forward rolls make up the bulk of this down-the-neck break for Salty Dog. Isolate each measure in the tab and practice slowly to grasp the transitions between the chord changes.

Salty Dog Blues- Backup

Switching chords in the same location on the neck

The backup for Salty Dog Blues is a perfect opportunity to practice switching chords while vamping because the chords aren't as common as your standard bluegrass I, IV, and V song. Check out the vi...