Wes Corbett: “Big Sciota”

Our Contemporary Bluegrass Banjo instructor plays a festival jam favorite.

The old-time tune “Big Sciota” comes from West Virginia fiddler Burl Hammons, and when Russ Barenberg, Jerry Douglas, and Edgar Meyer recorded the tune for their album Skip, Hop, and Wobble in the early 1990s, it became a bluegrass jam favorite.

Wes Corbett teaches the tune in his Contemporary Bluegrass Banjo course on Peghead Nation, and he plays it melodic style with some tricky rolls on the inside strings, as you see and hear in this video.

Wes joined the Sam Bush Band in early 2020, and is now back on tour with Sam for some summer festivals. He also plays in his long-running duo with hammer dulcimer master Simon Chrisman, and with his own band, and he recently released his first solo album, Cascade, which highlights his prodigious composition skills, and includes some of roots music’s finest players, including Sierra Hull, Paul Kowert, Alex Hargreaves, Casey Campbell, and Critter Elderidge (who also produced the album). So Wes is a busy guy!

In Contemporary Bluegrass Banjo with Wes Corbett, Wes teaches intermediate-to-advanced players the style of three-finger banjo used by Béla Fleck, Noam Pikelny, Ron Block, and others. With lessons on single-string and melodic style, fingerboard theory, improvisation, and more.

 Get your first month FREE (or $20 off an annual subscription) when you sign up now with promo code WesLand at checkout.

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