Banjo Tab From Bela Fleck's Drive Album Review

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(More customer reviews)What this book lacks in production values it more than makes up in the completeness and accuracy of the banjo tablature, which I assume was written by Bela Fleck himself. As the brief one-page introduction says, "The music ranges from intermediate to very advanced. . . .Some of these pieces require some work, so don't be discouraged if it takes a while."
After that, it's all tab.
What's eye-opening is how easy some of the best-sounding passages actually are -- once you get used to certain fingerings that might not be part of what you usually do. For example, you'll see frequent use of middle finger on second string -- as the ending point of forward roll, in the middle of forward-backward roll, and especially as the starting point for backward roll. Be prepared to go as many as 15 measures at a time (maybe more) without touching the fifth string. And know that four of the tunes are in alternate tunings. Of course, there's way more to Bela's playing than that. But I'm not at all qualified to explain the intricacies.
Yes, it takes a lot of practice to play any entire tune cleanly and at tempo. And I'm not there yet. But these transcriptions of the solos from a 1988 progressive bluegrass-oriented CD provide tremendous insight into the foundation of Bela Fleck's approach to five-string banjo.
And that's really my main point. With this book as a companion to the CD -- and I urge you to have recordings of the tunes so you'll know what they're supposed to sound like -- an intermediate banjo player can pick up licks, phrases and some important right and left hand technique that they can add to their own set of skills. That's not going to turn you into Bela Fleck. But it can help you be the best banjo player you can be.

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