# Music by Genre > Bluegrass, Newgrass, Country, Gospel Variants >  G run tab

## Canister

I can't seem to get the run quite right by ear. Can someone point me to a tab for it?
Tanks!

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## Jim Broyles

You mean the famous guitar G run used by Lester Flatt and Jimmy Martin? Do you want the same run tabbed for mandolin? Try singing or scatting it over and over until you have it firmly imprinted on your brain, then pick up your instrument and sound it out. It's one of the most basic licks there is.

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## Canister

Yes that's the one. I seem to have the notes but still am having trouble making it right. I guess I'll just keep at it. Your right of course, it's basic but it's my bug-a-boo for some reason.

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## woodwizard

Try This for fun

(G) Run                                                      & (G) run a little higher up the neck

E ____________________     E ___________________________
A ____________________     A ________ 5 7 5 ___(10)_______
D ________0 2 0__5_____     D 5__7 8 9 ___________________
G 0__2 3 4_____________     G ___________________________

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Bigtuna, 

JLewis

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## swampstomper

> I seem to have the notes but still am having trouble making it right.


You're not the only one. Not every bluegrass guitarist can nail it. Lester and Jimmy had different versions, Del has his own take on it. The notes are one thing, the timing, attack, slides are another. Some guitarists play it with rest-strokes (when going from string to the next highest string, don't use D/U but just keep the D/D after a brief rest), others D/U. Some pick every note, some use slides or hammer-ons. Lester (following Charlie Monroe) used a thumb pick.

In short, fool around till you get the sound you like.

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## Jim Broyles

In "Earl's Breakdown", Lester's "G Run" consists of only the two notes E-G during the D-tuner parts. Del often uses F-G for the last two notes. The G run in "Uncle Pen " doesn't start on a G. Many variations.

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## Canister

Thanks guys! I think your right. It's my timing. I'll keep listening and working on it. 
Woodwizard that's interesting.

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## tree

> In "Earl's Breakdown", Lester's "G Run" consists of only the two notes E-G during the D-tuner parts. Del often uses F-G for the last two notes. The G run in "Uncle Pen " doesn't start on a G. Many variations.


Indeed.  One of my all-time favorites is in Tony's version of Freeborn Man, right after he sings "Well I got me a Martin guitar" . . .

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## AlanN

Yeah, Rony Tice idealized the G run, and it always was worth waiting for to see/hear him zing it at the end. He has a few flavors of it.

Funny, to take the pure G run (guitar lick) and apply it to mandolin, well...it certainly _can_ be done, but to my ears, sounds a bit hokey, or something.

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## tree

> Funny, to take the pure G run (guitar lick) and apply it to mandolin, well...it certainly _can_ be done, but to my ears, sounds a bit hokey, or something.


We're on the same page there.  But, to reach that conclusion I had to do it myself, and there is some value in going there and then deciding you don't really like it.  

I *do* like a minimized, 2 - note pulloff that's probably not close enough to the "pure" version to even be recognized as a G - run.   :Grin:

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## Dan Johnson

yeah the thing the G run does won't be the same on the mandolin because of the rhythmic drive that is usually provided by the guitar or maybe the bass when you land real hard on that 1... won't sound quite right on the mandolin because there's no sustain... not that it's not a good thing to learn, because it's basically just pentatonic stuff that always sounds good anyways... it just won't really do what the G run does on a guitar, i.e. send the song into the next verse...

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## AlanN

On one of the BGxx series things, a later one, the bunch does a tune called G Runs and Scruggs Licks, or something like that. Having a bit of fun with it, they make a number out of the litany of tags/endings/G runs. I need to go back and listen again, but I don't think the mandolin (Wayne?) does the G run, per se.

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## mando-tech

> You're not the only one. Not every bluegrass guitarist can nail it. Lester and Jimmy had different versions, Del has his own take on it. The notes are one thing, the timing, attack, slides are another. Some guitarists play it with rest-strokes (when going from string to the next highest string, don't use D/U but just keep the D/D after a brief rest), others D/U. Some pick every note, some use slides or hammer-ons. Lester (following Charlie Monroe) used a thumb pick.
> 
> In short, fool around till you get the sound you like.


Although Jimmy and Lester, both had great G run/licks, to me, their's get somewhat monotonous.  Charlie Waller had a better one,...one that was NOT monotonous! ...and then even better,....-the person who had the all-time best G run/lick was my hero,...-RED ALLEN!   The secret to making a superlative G lick is to dwell on  the 3rd note in the line up, A string open is the 1st note,..-A string 1st fret is 2nd note, then slurred to 2nd fret on A string,...that' the one you hold a little bit longer.   Try it, this is what Red Allen does, and its sooooo GREAT!!

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## swampstomper

> Although Jimmy and Lester, both had great G run/licks, to me, their's get somewhat monotonous.  Charlie Waller had a better one,...one that was NOT monotonous! ...and then even better,....-the person who had the all-time best G run/lick was my hero,...-RED ALLEN!   The secret to making a superlative G lick is to dwell on  the 3rd note in the line up, A string open is the 1st note,..-A string 1st fret is 2nd note, then slurred to 2nd fret on A string,...that' the one you hold a little bit longer.   Try it, this is what Red Allen does, and its sooooo GREAT!!


Agree, Red was rock solid. I was just listening to his work on Bluegrass Holiday (JD Crowe, 1968), the backup guitar is just ... there! Train 45, Black Jack, and especially in the songs like Philadelphia Lawyer.

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## AlanN

Another great Red thing he was on is The Kitchen Tapes. Just guitar and mandolin, you can really hear/feel the groove (even with the crying baby...wonder who that was?) One tune on there is just Red, singing with his D-28...where he goes "Aw shucks, guitar" before the tag. Love that.

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## ralph johansson

The G run is a somewhat dogeared cliche in Bluegrass - really, there is so much more you can do on the guitar. It's a bass run
and there's no bass on amdnolin - the highest note of the run is the lowest note on the mandolin. So, instead of trying to play guitar on the mando the relevant question is what to play against the G run.  Listen, experiment.

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## AlanN

Actually, in the G run, the ending G note on guitar (open string 4) is one octave above the lowest G mandolin pitch. There is nothing like a well-placed and executed G run, sparse or not, always forceful. It gets my hackles up and spurs me on to greater heights.

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## AlanN

> Actually, in the G run, the ending G note on guitar (open string 4) is one octave above the lowest G mandolin pitch. There is nothing like a well-placed and executed G run, sparse or not, always forceful. It gets my hackles up and spurs me on to greater heights.


Make that open string 3 (G).

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## tree

> There is nothing like a well-placed and executed G run, sparse or not, always forceful. It gets my hackles up and spurs me on to greater heights.


Agreed.  

It's also nice sometimes to pound the root chord on that last note, on the 3rd beat (instead of normal 2 and 4) in conjunction with the end of the G run.  

I appreciate the occasion change of emphasis to a single downbeat every now and then instead of the backbeat.  It's a nice way to add emphasis to the start of a verse or chorus, sometimes to add emphasis to a particular lyric.  Cold Sheets of Rain comes to mind, (Clay Jones's version).

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## Jim Yates

Quote Originally Posted by AlanN View Post
Actually, in the G run, the ending G note on guitar (open string 4) is one octave above the lowest G mandolin pitch. There is nothing like a well-placed and executed G run, sparse or not, always forceful. It gets my hackles up and spurs me on to greater heights.



> Make that open string 3 (G).


Check out the third string of your guitar with the 4th string of your mandolin and I think you'll find that they are the same octave.

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## Willie Poole

On some songs (mostly Jimmy Martind songs) when my band plays them I play the G run along with the guitar player at the end of the song, sort of like a harmony style and sometimes I run it backwards while he does it forward....My favorite guitar run is the way Red Smiley did the D run...Of course it helps to have a 1937 Martin herringbone guitar or one that sounds a lot like it....

   Any runs that are played on guitar can be played on a mandolin also, it just takes a little practice, which I have had plenty of through the years....

     Willie

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## Jim Broyles

> Make that open string 3 (G).


It's still wrong. The open G on a guit is the same s the low G on a mandolin.

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## mando-tech

> Although Jimmy and Lester, both had great G run/licks, to me, their's get somewhat monotonous.  Charlie Waller had a better one,...one that was NOT monotonous! ...and then even better,....-the person who had the all-time best G run/lick was my hero,...-RED ALLEN!   The secret to making a superlative G lick is to dwell on  the 3rd note in the line up, A string open is the 1st note,..-A string 1st fret is 2nd note, then slurred to 2nd fret on A string,...that' the one you hold a little bit longer.   Try it, this is what Red Allen does, and its sooooo GREAT!!


...let me amend what I said...(too bad , the creaters of this forum won't allow editing or deleting,)...so what I should have said inre to a GREAT G-run/lick;--the dwell should be on the FIRST note instead of the third. as I mistakenly said.  When I got home from the library I grabbed the guitar, and soon saw I had made a mistake.  -This is what makes Red Allen's G lick sound soooo much better!

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## ralph johansson

> On some songs (mostly Jimmy Martind songs) when my band plays them I play the G run along with the guitar player at the end of the song, sort of like a harmony style and sometimes I run it backwards while he does it forward....My favorite guitar run is the way Red Smiley did the D run...Of course it helps to have a 1937 Martin herringbone guitar or one that sounds a lot like it....
> 
>    Any runs that are played on guitar can be played on a mandolin also, it just takes a little practice, which I have had plenty of through the years....
> 
>      Willie


What kind of practice will extend the range of the mandolin downwards by a minor tenth?

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