One of the Foggy Mt. Boys classic
early tunes is Before I Met You,
showcasing split banjo-fiddle
breaks in waltz time. It is one of those
songs that banjo players are “required” to
know, as sooner or later it will come up in a
jam session. Thanks to Shanachie and their
DVD releases of early Flatt & Scruggs TV
shows, we now get to see the boys pick it
in their prime.
Watching these early video clips is
fascinating not just to see the band as a
whole, but to watch the fingering of the
musicians as they do their thing. Lester’s
guitar work, Paul Warren’s fiddling, and
of course Earl’s banjo picking. This tune
is from a 1956 recording, and will contain
a few surprises to banjo players who strive
to “get things right.”
For years I have been talking about fretting D chords by spanning the index
and ring fingers from the 2nd to 4th fret,
and using this “one finger per fret level”
approach to all left-hand work in general.
Indeed, most professional pickers do this
as well. In other words, when holding a
4th-fret D chord, any string that might
need to get fretted at the 2nd fret gets held
by the index finger, any string fretted at
the 3rd fret gets held by the middle, and
the 4th fret is likewise handled by the ring.
Always. Really always? Well, not here.
Watch Earl walk into the D chord. He
has just slid his middle finger up to the 5th
fret of the 4th string (keeping it there to let
the note ring). When he plays the “4” in
measure six, he simply backs his middle
finger down one fret to grab it, then moves
his whole stance to grab a D7 with his
middle finger on the 2nd fret of the 3rd
string and his index finger holding the 1st
fret of the second string. In the measure
that follows, he never even picks the 2nd
string at all, but keeps it fretted just the
same.
This move may be a bit of a surprise
for veteran players who have been playing
it like I described earlier, and in fact I’ve
seen Earl do it the “one finger per fret
level” approach many times in more recent
years, so what we can see by watching
these videos is how Earl evolved over the
years.
Once you get to the fiddle backup, just
keep your index and middle fingers on the
1st & 2nd string, and use the pinky to grab
the 14s. Slide both fingers down to the 10th
fret where indicated, and now the pinky
easily grabs the 12. This is pretty much
the way we have always played these high
“noodling” runs during backup, so nothing
here will be a shocker.
Get yourself a fiddle player, a singer,
and you’ve got what it takes to do a
complete version of this classic tune. See
you next time...
3/4 time. G tuning: gDGBD, Banjo as played by Earl Scruggs. Tab by Bob Piekiel,
Recorded Source: Shanachie SH 617, “Classic Bluegrass from 1956–1962:
The Best of the Flatt & Scruggs TV Show” DVD. Written by C. Seitz, C. Lewis and E. Rader
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