A Breakdown of Foggy Mountain Breakdown – Banjo

If you’re looking for the “Foggy Mountain Breakdown” TAB, sorry, you’re at the wrong place.  You don’t need me for that, just go buy the black Earl Scruggs book:

However, what I will do is show you how to think about “Foggy Mountain Breakdown” so you can learn it faster and truly understand it. It will help you hear and feel the chord changes if you’re having trouble with that. This is all stuff the books don’t teach you.

Foggy Mountain Breakdown Chords

What I’m presenting below is the chord chart for “Foggy Mountain Breakdown.” However, understand, this is NOT the way it was played by Earl Scruggs. It is the way it’s played at 99% of the jams you’ll attend.

Understand that music changes over time and there are hosts of songs you’ll hear today that don’t sound exactly like the original.

Earl Scruggs Foggy Mountain Breakdown Backup?

When he played backup to the song, he played THREE BARS of E minor. People argue about this over and over; however, there exists video evidence of it across half a century of playing. Visit this Foggy Mountain Breakdown with guest Steve Martin. This is how he does it in the black & white videos from the 50’s as well. Note, this has no bearing on the melody/lead part you play.

The original recording is kind of a mess in some regards. Lester Flatt is playing an E MAJOR chord. The Bass player is playing two bars of E minor and three bars at other times. This probably all contributed to why there is confusion as to how it’s really supposed to be played.

I caution you against doing it this way because almost no one does it this way now.

Foggy Mountain Breakdown Form

Before looking too much at the form to Foggy Mountain Breakdown, I suggest familiarizing yourself with the 12 bar blues form.  My video breakdown of the 12 bar blues.  Foggy Mountain Breakdown is a longer form, but derivative of this 12 bar form.

Deriving the Foggy Mountain Breakdown Form:

If you take the 12 bar blues form and repeat the second line, you get this 16 bar blues form:

G G G G 

C C G G 

C C G G 

D D G G 

**Turns out, these are the exact same chords as “Lonesome Road Blues” that Earl Scruggs recorded

Take this 16 bar blues and substitute each C chord with an E minor.  That’s “Foggy Mountain breakdown” as played today and in the chart above. I call “Foggy Mountain Breakdown” a modified 16-bar blues.

Why is this important? 

Because with a foundation in the 12 bar blues form, you’ll see how all of these songs are just extensions of this basic American form (Lonesome Road Blues, Bugle Call Rag, Foggy Mountain Breakdown, Shucking the Corn, Foggy Mountain Special…all of these songs are related to the basic 12 bar blues form….some are 12 bars, some are 16 bars).

In addition, if you come at it from a 12 bar blues, you’ll notice the grouping of two measures together. Yes, the first line is four bars of G. However, listen to Foggy Mountain Special (a 12 bar blues). Notice how it is a two bar phrase that repeats (the four bars are grouped 2+2). The blues has this innate two bar phrasing going on with it.

Grouping in two’s informs how you should remember and feel the chord changes.  Rather than counting 12 measures, you learn how to feel packets of two bars at a time. Therefore, the form really becomes:

G G , Em-G,  Em-G,  D-G (Easier to remember).  Both lines two and three are the same as well.  Knowing this, you have even less to ‘memorize .’

Understanding the form will help you keep your place in the song and get lost less.

The TAG Roll in Foggy Mountain Breakdown

Another thing you need to know is the TAG Roll.  I discussed this in my “Four essential Rolls” article.  However, here is the roll pattern if you need a reminder:

3 531341 Or 31531341….other variations exist

Using the chord chart above, look at the TAB in the Earl Scruggs book.  You are going to see that the TAG roll makes up the following measures: 

Measures 4, 7, 8, 11, 12, and 15 

The TAG roll is 6 out of 16 measures of Foggy Mountain Breakdown. (37.5% of the tune is tag rolls!). Therefore, if you can do the tag roll, you’ve knocked out a large portion of this tune.

Are there any further patterns to notice with the TAG Roll?

Notice that the TAG roll is the 3rd measure of lines 2, 3, and 4. If you went through my online beginner banjo class, you’d know that the TAG roll tends to follow chords that aren’t G. It comes right after the Eminor and right after the D chord. If I could sum this up into words it’s

CHORD TAG Roll…………CHORD TAG Roll

Being aware of these concepts will help you memorize and learn the structure of tunes much better than simply memorizing them without seeing any patterns.

Before learning ANY song, always look for the patterns first. In most good tunes, there is a good bit of repetition. Most Scruggs-style instruments are derivative of the 12 or 16 bar blues forms.

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