Beautiful Dreamer - Banjo Tab and Sheet Music

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- Title(s): Beautiful Dreamer
- Composer: Stephen Foster
- Category: American Folk Songs, Stephen Foster
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Lesson
Rhythm
This piece is in 9/8, which is a less-common time signature. There are quite a few long notes in the melody, so make sure you count to keep track of where you are to avoid any rhythmic problems. Keep track of eighth notes by counting one two three, two two three, three two three.
Phrasing
There are numerous places in the melody where notes are repeated twice in a row. An example occurs in measure 3 (shown below):

These repeated notes can sound somewhat mechanical if not phrased properly. Phrasing the melody in groups of three can help overcome this problem. The example below shows measure 3 with slurs to indicate the phrasing. Shorten the last note of each group of three to achieve the effect. You only need to shorten these notes slighly. All repeated notes occur on fretted notes, so you can shorten the notes simply by releasing pressure on the string enough to prevent it from continuing to vibrate.
