Song Help Request Dueling Banjos for 2 ukes

[Ukin’ Cellist]

Hello all! The only thing my ukin’ partner wants for his birthday is for me to figure out how to play dueling banjos together on our two ukes. I have searched to the best of my ability to find music/tabs for the two parts on two instruments, but I’m finding only versions of two parts on one uke. Does anyone have any guidance for me? I’m willing to purchase the music if necessary; just don’t know where to find it. Many Thanks!!

 

[man0a]

Ultimate Guitar has some ukulele tabs. https://tabs.ultimate-guitar.com/tab/misc-soundtrack/deliverance-dueling-banjos-ukulele-1911051

 

[Oldscruggsfan]

@Ukin’ Cellist - IMHO all you really need to know is that the breakdown (fastest) portion is a somewhat basic C progression, but then my background is 5-string banjo. Until your post, it never occurred to me to work it out on the uke, but it certainly should have come to mind since my son does it on the fiddle.

 

[Poul Hansen]

@Ukin’ Cellist - IMHO all you really need to know is that the breakdown (fastest) portion is a somewhat basic C progression, but then my background is 5-string banjo. Until your post, it never occurred to me to work it out on the uke, but it certainly should have come to mind since my son does it on the fiddle.

Do you have fiddle tabs?

 

[Ukin’ Cellist]

Ultimate Guitar has some ukulele tabs. https://tabs.ultimate-guitar.com/tab/misc-soundtrack/deliverance-dueling-banjos-ukulele-1911051

Thank you! I will check this out!

 

[Ukin’ Cellist]

Do you have fiddle tabs?

No, I don’t have fiddle tabs. I am a classically trained cellist who has managed to find my way around the uke reading music with chords written in and/or tabs, but not well versed in improvising and/or figuring out how to play more than the chords and any riffs that happen to be written out, or that our keyboardist plays for me first to get it in my ear. It’s a whole new world for me to be playing music without having all the notes I’m supposed to play right in front of me on the sheet music! I am now learning the bass uke, which has increased my understanding of chord structure, etc.

Thanks for responding! I am having lots of fun stumbling through this all!

 

[captain-janeway]

Found this one for high and low g ukes

 

[Oldscruggsfan]

Do you have fiddle tabs?

Unfortunately, no. Son plays solely by ear, which he learned from a very talented local bluegrass fiddler whose classroom was the "slide out" portion of an old moldy motor coach / RV. If you have a blank tab page that you can email to me, I'll do my best to write out the uke fingerings by hand but can't promise quick turn-time.

 

[Poul Hansen]

Unfortunately, no. Son plays solely by ear, which he learned from a very talented local bluegrass fiddler whose classroom was the "slide out" portion of an old moldy motor coach / RV. If you have a blank tab page that you can email to me, I'll do my best to write out the uke fingerings by hand but can't promise quick turn-time.

Thank you but I wanted the violin tabs for playing my mandolin. I might be able to find them somewhere.

 

[robinboyd]

This may have an obvious answer, but why not just take the tabs for 1 uke and separate out the two parts?

 

[Mike $]

I also come from the world of the 5 string banjo. Dueling Banjos by Eric Weissberg, which appeared in the Deliverance film was actually a guitar and banjo duel. The original tune was called Feuding Banjos, with the same melody and the same theme...two instruments trading licks. You should listen to the Arthur Smith / Don Reno version of the song to get an idea of how two banjos and a rhythm section play it. Then listen to how Eric Weissberg arranged it for guitar and banjo. After the initial introduction of the themes, you will notice that while one guy is soloing, the other is always playing backup. Now, the solo, or melody, goes by pretty quickly at first...a measure or two, then it's time for the other instrument. So, it might sound pretty good if you do that too. Also, another thing you will notice in the Arthur Smith / Don Reno version is when they strum chords, they are playing different inversions of the same chord, one is playing a lower version than the other guy who is doing a higher inversion of said chords. That would be another good thing to put into your ukulele arrangement. I would say another thing to do to make a convincing arrangement is for one guy to strum and play some single string while the other plays arpeggios, in imitation of the 5 string banjo. Good luck.

 

[Oldscruggsfan]

Thank you but I wanted the violin tabs for playing my mandolin. I might be able to find them somewhere.

Poul - I apologize for the late response but a few minutes ago I may have stumbled across your resource for Dueling Banjo violin tabs. Try: https://www.slippery-hill.com/
If all else fails, contact GA banjo virtuoso Jody Hughes through his webpage. He offers multiple violin resources.

 

[emba]

Is this what you are looking for?

 

[UkeSlacker]

Search Glass ball slack key dueling banjos by ukulele boyz on YouTube. Those guys are sloppy though.

 

[Another Ukulele]

As I lay here in bed, I’m trying to remember exactly, but the chorus is a riff on 12 bar blues. Semi scales.
1, 2, 3, 4, 3, 2, 1
for the first ten bars

I I I I
IV IV I I
V V I IV I I IV I

1. 1. 1. 1
4. 4. 1. 1
5. 5. 1-4-1. 1-4-1

something like that. cat is back in, time to go back to sleep

 

[AZChris]

So...has anyone successfully worked this out to where it sounds good with 2 ukes? The link Emba put up there has all the pieces but I think would sound sparce in sections without background accompaniment. On the surface it seems like it would be a fun uke/banjolele duet but I am wondering if it sounds too treble lacking the alternating bass of guitar. Anyone worked it out yet?

 

[Oldscruggsfan]

So...has anyone successfully worked this out to where it sounds good with 2 ukes? The link Emba put up there has all the pieces but I think would sound sparce in sections without background accompaniment. On the surface it seems like it would be a fun uke/banjolele duet but I am wondering if it sounds too treble lacking the alternating bass of guitar. Anyone worked it out yet?

It could be done with 2 sopranos but ought to be a sop and a tenor or better yet a sop and a bari. When you increase the tempo past the first 2 swaps of Yankee Doodle runs, the lower-note instrument should be strumming / vamping as the other picks its part, and vice-versa. The C-D-G ending breakdown should be all about a finger-picked soprano (tuned high-G, IMHO, but remember that I'm partial to a 5-string banjo). I haven't worked on it b/c I got so sick of the tune when picking banjo over the past 40 years, LOL but am (no offense to you) feeling compelled to do so.

 

[Oldscruggsfan]

It could be done with 2 sopranos but ought to be a sop and a tenor or better yet a sop and a bari. When you increase the tempo past the first 2 swaps of Yankee Doodle runs, the lower-note instrument should be strumming / vamping as the other picks its part, and vice-versa. The C-D-G ending breakdown should be all about a finger-picked soprano (tuned high-G, IMHO, but remember that I'm partial to a 5-string banjo). I haven't worked on it b/c I got so sick of the tune when picking banjo over the past 40 years, LOL but am (no offense to you) feeling compelled to do so.

Here's my cover of Sweet Georgia Brown. Relevance to this thread is that IMHO, even as rough as this version is, it's a decent example of a tune often played as a "dueling duet" with steadily increasing tempo that sounds decent as a High-g soprano solo.

As a side note, I plan to use SGB as a warm-up exercise in the future, and should have done so far longer before taping this cover
If I were given a choice between picking SGB and DB, SGB would always win.

 

[AZChris]

It could be done with 2 sopranos but ought to be a sop and a tenor or better yet a sop and a bari. When you increase the tempo past the first 2 swaps of Yankee Doodle runs, the lower-note instrument should be strumming / vamping as the other picks its part, and vice-versa. The C-D-G ending breakdown should be all about a finger-picked soprano (tuned high-G, IMHO, but remember that I'm partial to a 5-string banjo). I haven't worked on it b/c I got so sick of the tune when picking banjo over the past 40 years, LOL but am (no offense to you) feeling compelled to do so.

I've thought about trying it but I'm not smooth at banjo style picking. I still might try it out of curiosity. I've played the guitar part a million times. I have a buddy who is a banjo player that has the same reaction to Dueling Banjos that you do. That one and the theme to Beverly Hillbillies are the ones that people expect banjo players to play. I salute you for being able to play banjo. I have bought and then given up on multiple banjos over the years.

 

[AZChris]

Here's my cover of Sweet Georgia Brown. Relevance to this thread is that IMHO, even as rough as this version is, it's a decent example of a tune often played as a "dueling duet" with steadily increasing tempo that sounds decent as a High-g soprano solo.

As a side note, I plan to use SGB as a warm-up exercise in the future, and should have done so far longer before taping this cover
If I were given a choice between picking SGB and DB, SGB would always win.

Nice. My favorite duet version of this is by Scotty Anderson and Bob Saxton. I can only play the chords to it but would like to figure out the melody. It's a great tune.