Just Like Aunt Bertha Used to Make it

Well, maybe with another 40 years of practice!
After watching Aunt Bertha I realised she was playing this in G, but I've only ever found tab for Soldiers Joy in C or Double C. So I sat down with a pad and paper and two banjos, one in Double C and one in G and had a go at transposing it. It's the first time I've ever done this, so it took a while. I first started playing the melody note for note on the G tuned banjo, but this isn't right. So I worked out the notes for it in C and then moved them all up 4 steps and the notes are now in G. That's not quite the end of it as it's taken a bit of slight re-arranging to get a similar feel in G. The C tuning is so much lower that you don't quite get the same deep bass notes, but instead you get a much brighter rolling feel like Aunt Bertha gets. In G its also possible to play a version of the melody with fewer hammer-ons etc make it much simpler to learn.

I haven't been able to find any tab for Soldier's Joy in G so if I get chance I'll try and tab out my simplified version.


The double C version though gives you more range to play the melody in at least two different ways within the first 5 frets and it has that cranky old time feel too.