Melodic style: "The Devil's Dream"

- Now we're gonna move into a whole other arena of endeavor.…And we're gonna start talking about the…so-called melodic style.…That's what it's called.…I'm not sure if it's the most accurate name for it,…but that's what it's called.…And it's a way of playing that's completely…divorced from Scruggs style, it's just a whole other thing,…it's a three-finger style.…And it was made popular by Bill Keith,…who was living in Boston, Massachusetts in the early 60s,…and started fooling around with the fiddle tune…called "Devil's Dream", which goes like this.…

(moderate banjo music)…It has a whole different sound,…a completely different sound,…and it doesn't use any of these licks.…

And it's based on scales.…(tuning banjo)…So instead of having a chordally based style…as you do when you have Scruggs style,…where you might do something like "You Are My Sunshine",…just to use that as another example.…(playing and singing)…See, you have all these extraneous, not extraneous notes…but these filler notes, if you will…that have nothing to do with the melody.…