Mumford & Sons – The Cave: Banjo part arranged for guitar

I was learning to play this song on the guitar last week and thought it’d be cool to learn the banjo part as well. Since I don’t have a banjo, I googled around a bit to see if anyone had made a tab of the banjo part for guitar. I couldn’t find any, so I decided to make my own.

I used this banjo tab by Happy Banjo Dude as a starting point for translating it to guitar. Also check out his video to get a feel for the rhythm of the picking. This is the result.

Tuning: Open D (D A D F# A D)
Capo 2

    RIFF A
D ||---------0--0----0----0--0----|
A ||------------------------------|
F#||--1h-3--------3------------3--|
D ||-------0------------0---------|
A ||------------------------------|
D ||------------------------------|

    RIFF B
D ||---------0--0----4----0--0----|
A ||------------------------------|
F#||--1h-3--------3------------3--|
D ||-------0------------0---------|
A ||------------------------------|
D ||------------------------------|

    RIFF C
D ||----------0--0----0--|
A ||---------------------|
F#||--1h-3---------3-----|
D ||-------0-------------|
A ||---------------------|
D ||---------------------|

    RIFF D
D ||---------0----------------0---------|
A ||--7---------7------7---------7------|
F#||------7--------7-------7--------7---|
D ||------------------------------------|
A ||------------------------------------|
D ||------------------------------------|

    RIFF E
D ||--0--|
A ||--0--|
F#||--0--|
D ||--0--|
A ||-----|
D ||-----|

    RIFF F
D ||---------0----------------0---------|
A ||--12--------12-----12--------12-----|
F#||------12-------12------12-------12--|
D ||------------------------------------|
A ||------------------------------------|
D ||------------------------------------|

    RIFF G
D ||-------0------------0-------|
A ||--10------10---9-------9----|
F#||-----10-----10----8------8--|
D ||----------------------------|
A ||----------------------------|
D ||----------------------------|

Instrumental after Chorus 1
A B A B
A B A C

Verse 2 (banjo comes in for just the second half of the verse)
A B A B
A B A A

Chorus 2
A B A B B D
A B A B B D D E

Instrumental / Last Chorus
A B A B B D
F G F G G D
A B A B B D
F G F G G D D E