Pike County Breakdown is a Bill Monroe tune that Earl Scruggs made popular. It has a single string lick that can be a little tricky but it’s an essential part of the melody. I use my thumb and index finger to play this lick though you could use thumb and middle or even incorporate a forward roll. The Chord structure is similar to Old Joe Clark and is played out of the G position with the capo at the 2nd fret. This tune tends to get butchered at jams since there are countless ways to play the backup. When in doubt play the tonic and avoid heavy accents.

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 13th, 2008 at 3:53 pm and is filed under Banjo, Movies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.