John’s tune “Salt Spring” is another one of his “banjo-like” tunes, a relatively simple melody that imitates the sound of frailing banjo. It’s in the key of A, and the melody notes are mostly played on the second and third strings. Between melody notes, John plays a drone on the open E (and sometimes open A) string, which, along with his use of hammer-ons and slides, creates a banjo-like quality. John gets you started with a short exercise in which you play melody quarter notes played with a downstroke on the A string followed by two eighth notes (down-up) on the E string. Then he starts showing you the melody to “Salt Spring” phrase by phrase, beginning with the B part, because it features that banjo-like rhythm. After showing you both parts, John suggests other songs and tunes you could try the “frailing” technique on.
