Lessons:Banjo: Randy Lynn Rag
posted by dasspunk on May 22nd, 2007

By Sean Ray

Randy Lynn Rag is all about the forward roll. It can be quite a challenge but it’s a great tune. How J.D. Crowe plays it as fast as he does is beyond comprehension.

For those of you that are unfamiliar with the tune it requires Keith Tuners. Set the G tuner for G to F# and set the B tuner for B to C. Other than that it’s pretty self explanatory. Tab for this tune can be found in the Earl Scruggs Book.

Click image to play
QuickTime 7 required.

For download info & playback options refer to this article

posted in Banjo, Lessons |

3 Responses to “Lessons:Banjo: Randy Lynn Rag”


den
May 22nd, 2007 at 1:59 pm

I believe they are called Scruggs Tuners
He invented them way before Bill Keith even played the banjo

den
May 23rd, 2007 at 3:40 pm

Keith tuners are a brand name. The scruggs tuners I use are made by schaller. I think there are several other brands so you don’t have to have Keith tuners to play Randy Lynn Rag. Earl made his own!

secretstate
June 4th, 2007 at 7:00 am

You are partially correct there Den.
Keith Tuners Are in fact a brand of D-tuner built for the banjo. Scruggs does not manufacture D-tuners and the Schaller tuners you speak of are in fact cheap knock-offs of Keith tuners.

Earl Scruggs is no doubt synonymous with these tuners and banjo D-tuning in general however he fashioned his own tuners, commonly called “Cam” tuners, and had nothing to do with the actual Keith design short of inspiration of course.

Here is an interview with Bill Keith that should clear up any confusion one might have regarding Banjo D-tuners a.k.a. Keith, Scruggs, Cam, etc….Tuners.


Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.