Music Lesson: Rolling in My Sweet Baby's Arms

Alright, let's do another song. This one is actually a traditional bluegrass song: Rolling in My Sweet Baby's Arms.

Basic Melody

The basic melody is like this:

• I played the basic melody with just a little bit of rhythm in there.
• Let's talk about that melody a little bit.

Try playing it through and doing some different rhythm things with the basic melody.

Techniques to Use

• We have used our around the world roll with a slide before, and that works really well for this melody.
• Notice the last line of Billum Cabbage Down. Our first song used that same little melody fragment: walking from the second string to the third string.
• This pattern worked great for that.

Melody Fragment

• That note dropping down to the third string works for that melody fragment.
• This technique works wonderfully!

We can play the first part of this song using that technique. We could even throw some gallops in there if we wanted. So that covers just the first half of the song. I just wanted to go through that as a basic melody idea.

Adding Elements

Let's add one element and see if we can still hear the melody while we're playing this:

• Instead of just playing straight, we'll add a pull-off in there.

Playing with the Pull-Off

Now, here's where the melody goes. We will add the pull-off:

• So, just in those two phrases, practice that with the pull-off.
• I'll do it a little slower so you can still hear the melody while playing all these notes.

In those two phrases, try playing that and keep hearing the melody.

A Common Challenge

All the students I've had have a hard time hearing the melody once they start playing all the fancy notes, even though the melody is still in there. So, it's a good exercise to practice hearing that while you're playing.

Classic Version of the Song

Now, let's learn the typical way this song is played. This is such an old song, and really, the melody is sung in more than one way:

• Some people would play the melody starting on the third string (the G).
• It can be played both ways.

The way we've been discussing is as follows:

• You will even find that people sing the verses and choruses of this song in both ways.

In the old recordings, this song was played on the banjo with this note. This is what we're going to learn.

Classic Lick

There's a classic lick that ends up being used for this song. Because it is such a traditional song, it ended up getting stylized.

• Earl Scruggs recorded this in some early recordings, and it went like this:

"That's the first little section."

Notice how the melody may have changed just a little bit:

• Instead of just playing it straightforward, it did something more like this.

But it captures the basic melody and turns into a really, really good lick that can be used for a lot of things. Sometimes, it's even used as an intro.

Complete Tune

So here's how the whole tune goes:

• There it is.

Slower Version

Now let's do a slower version:

• There you have it: Rolling in My Sweet Baby's Arms, a real classic!