BB Bowness - Day 6 of the 12 days of Licksmas (featuring Tray Wellington)

AND the other banjo players playing this lick!

[dougmiller]

Thanks special bright lady. How did you learn all these things about music

[jpachter]

A tough lick to get your head around, but I love where you placed it in Farewell Blues!

[pickngrimace]

The first part of the lick works well in Farewell Blues, and the second half is sort of OK because the whole tone scale fits over an Eb augmented chord, which is in the song (but not in the "right place"). The song goes from D to Eb, while the second half of the lick goes from Ebaug to D7, so the order of the lick's implied harmony is the opposite of what happens in Farewell Blues. I don't think the second half of the lick works that well over a D dominant chord, but with a slight modification (moving it up a half step to turn it into a D whole tone scale) it would work well. This mod could be played like this:

strings and frets: / 3-7, 2-5, 1-4, 5-6, 2-11, 1-10, 5-12, , 1-10 / 2-11, 3-13, 2-7, 3-9, 1-0, 3-5, 2-0, 4-7 / 3-0 (which starting at the 2-7 is the same as the original lick), then you have the notes being part of a D whole tone scale, which fits better with the D dominant chord (unless you are deliberately wanting to get the sound of a Db whole tone scale played against a D chord - which will of course "shock" more trad minded players). Playing a D whole tone scale over a D chord might be accepted even though it wasn't done in trad bluegrass banjo either.