Fireball Mail
With
Avram SiegelLearn 'Fireball Mail', the Roy Acuff tune bluegrass players often take as an instrumental, pulling together the forward rolls and a handy one-beat tag on the banjo.
What's in the course
33 lessons (1h 35m) · 1 free
Lesson transcript
Music Lesson: "Fireball Mail"
This next song uses the forward rolls and those forward roll concepts.
Overview
We just talked about the melody. This song is called Fireball Mail. It's a Roy Acuff song, but in bluegrass, a lot of times, people just play it as an instrumental.
Melody
The melody goes like this:
We could even add some rhythm to it. There were a couple of places in there where the melody left us with a space right there. The last melody note goes where a pinch would go, so we're left without something to do in that space.
Tag
There's actually something that works really well for that. It's a short tag that takes up one beat. It would sound like this:
- There's another one.
So that happens twice in that song, and you can try playing it with that.
Learning the Song
Now, let's learn the song with all the forward rolls and other rolls. We'll start with a slow version.
Notes on Forward Rolls
Little things you might want to note about how the forward roll works with this melody:
- There's the melody.
- There's the forward roll.
You can hear the beat change here:
- Fingers: thumb, 1, 2.
So the beats go thumb, 1, 2, and then the roll changes up. This happens a few times in this song. The same thing occurs again here.
33 lessons
1h 35m of structured video lessons
Advanced video features
Slow down, loop a passage, follow along
Mobile, tablet & desktop
Practise wherever you are
100% satisfaction guarantee
30-day money-back guarantee
Meet your guru
Meet your guru
Avram Siegel is a banjo player and a mainstay of the California bluegrass scene. He has played with the Kathy Kallick Band and True Blue, among many others, and has taught for decades - his step-by-step method has turned out some of the state's most respected young players. In his courses he breaks down three-finger Scruggs rolls, backup and melodic playing so you can build clean timing and tone at your own pace.
