https://banjobenclark.com/lessons/down-to-the-river-to-pray-mandolin-intermediate
I had never really played this song, but the other day I just sat down and these solos just came out. We’ll learn four mandolin solos in singable D that work well in a band situation or solo. Enjoy!
Thank you, thank you! I’ve been hoping you would teach this one. My big plans for the weekend have changed for the better. 
Very nice arrangement!
Don’t you think the 2/4 is at the first three notes of measure 8, 17, and last two notes of measure 18. that’s when you do that “backstep” and kick in anew the location of the chord changes reflect this as well … the place where you have the on 2/4 time doesn’t seem to change the flow at that point. but the flow is stuttered at those other three points when i count it off that way the timing seems to make sense better. I don’t know. I’m just trying to get the feel of it.
Ok I think what I’m trying to say is simply there are three places where what would be a normal 4 count pause between melody/ lyric lines is cut in half to start the beginning of the next 4/4 measure early that’s where a 2/4 measure is inserted. It diesnt change what you have tabbed, just the layout of the measures.
I thought about this and arrived with the 2/4 measure where I have it after playing/counting it for a while. I decided to keep all the measures 4/4 in the chorus for simplicity, though I’d agree there are probably two 2/4 measures there. I also agree that you could change it without consequence to the tabbed notes. Thanks for the feedback!
Is the no Mandolin back-up track designed for just two of the 4 solos?
Yep, since the arrangement is so custom, it’s the same backup I used for the performance but without the mandolin. Thanks!
Thank you Banjo Ben for that slow down button! 
I’m so excited that i might actually be able to play this beautiful arrangement!
Can we get a lesson for this song on the banjo?
@BanjoBen A quick question. (I’m the mandolin player in this inquiry)
I was playing along with some friends at work. We are all beginners and no formal music knowledge. I have learned enough from banjo ben to know that the guitar would need to capo the 7th fret to play in the key of D. And then I decided to try the nashville number system and see what it would be in the key of G.
So first question, did i do this right? It seemed to sound right. He was able to play the chords circled without a capo and be playing in the key of D with me. So that was cool to see how that works on real time. If it’s right.
Question 2. In the highlighted area it didn’t seem to sound right with the guitar playing the D C G . Mostly only the C sounded off. Can anyone explain why that is if I did all the number system stuff right?
Super cool to see everything start to click slowly over time of being a gold pick member.
Thanks for posting a question because somehow I missed this arrangement. It might have come at a busy time and I just never got back to it. This looks like a fun arrangement!
A quick look at the transposing and it looks right to me. That said, I’d view it as a perfect excuse to introduce your friend to drop-D tuning.
It’s a fun one. A little bit of a challenge for me as the build a break moves a long at my level but its coming along fine. I’ve enjoyed it.
Great questions and great job digging into this theory! If you’re playing it in the key of D, the guitar player would simply need to play the chords that are listed on the tab: D, G, and A.
If you were to transpose to play it in G, your solo would change, of course, but also the chords would change to G, C, & D. So you were right with your numbers and figuring out what the chords would be in G, but there’s no need to do that if you’re keeping the song in D.
Just have him play the chords that were originally written on the tab. Good stuff!
Im glad the video from cabin camp was on here to be super helpful for understanding this thing or at least being able to understand what’s going on. Thanks for the help @BanjoBen . One more question:
If the guitar player wanted to play with this song in the key of D with out using the capo, would that be completely different chords than what’s on my paper and my transposition. How would i transpose that? Is that sort of an advance music theory thing? What is the term for that? I understand I wouldn’t be able to keep the same chord shapes, but not much more.
Hey James, if he wants to play in the key of D without a capo, all he has to do is play the same chords written on your sheet. He’ll be playing out of “D position”.
(D position without a capo is simply the key of D. If he were to capo 1, it would be Eb; capo 2 E; capo 3 F; and so on and so forth. He is making a D chord his 1, a G chord his 4, and an A chord his 5.)
What you did on your paper is find 1, 4, and 5 chords in the key of G. In other words, you said, “if I play this song but I wanna make G my 1 chord, what are my 4 and 5 chords?”
