There are a number of fiddle tunes that pay tribute to one Liza Jane or another. This version of “Little Liza Jane” comes from the eastern Kentucky fiddler J.P. Fraley (1923–2011), who played it in the key of A major. I’ve arranged it in G, capoed up two frets to sound in A, so you can jam along with fiddlers.
“Little Liza Jane” has the same AABB form as most fiddle tunes. This arrangement shows how you can vary the melody subtly to add nuances and solve some picking problems. For example, in bar 4, slide up to the E on string 2, fret 5, and repeat it along with the open high E—a technique borrowed from fiddlers, who often reinforce a melody note played on an open string by sliding into the same pitch fingered on an adjacent string.
In measure 2, the picking is a little awkward because you have to keep jumping back to a lower string with an upstroke. This won’t really be a problem at slower tempos, but can be tricky at faster speeds. The repeat of the A section shows a convenient workaround. At the end of measure 9, play the third-fret D with your first finger, and the following E with your third finger, rather than on the open first string, allowing you to avoid the awkward back-pick.
This arrangement is excerpted from Scott Nygaard’s Fiddle Tunes and Folk Songs, available at store.acousticguitar.com.
This article originally appeared in the May/June 2023 issue of Acoustic Guitar magazine.
Scott Nygaard
Grammy-winning guitarist Scott Nygaard has decades of teaching, performing, and recording experience. He is a former editor of Acoustic Guitar magazine and the author of Fiddle Tunes and Folk Songs.
