Newly Discovered Converse Book

[Joel Hooks]

Hi all,

Bob Winans put a new FBC book on my radar.  He remembered that he saw it at the Boston Public Library.

A nice phone call to the music department had me talking with the Curator of Music Metro Voloshin.  He found the book and cataloged it for us.

I had my local library put in for a loan.  That triggered a PDF to be made.  And oh joy!  It may be had by all here...

http://archive.org/details/230easypiecesfor00conv

I've not played with it yet other than thumbing through it.

Thanks to Bob, Metro and Pat Payer at the Lawrence Library in Pepperell for making this available.

[Ian Bell]

Wow. Thanks for the link, Joel. There's definitely some fun to be had going through this one. 9/8 slip jigs on the banjo - why not? Not to mention Gilbert & Sullivan. A couple of others that that caught my eye were "How To Be A Masher" and "Dude, Dude Dude" - a phrase I've heard uttered by my son on occasion.

[Joel Hooks]

Your welcome!  All for the greater good of the banjo.  We are close to having all of Converse's published books.

Now to get that manuscript (I know where some is...).

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/loc.music.sm1883.23807/default.html

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/loc.natlib.ihas.100009086/default...

[Tim Twiss]

Nice find, and thanks for the effort of making this available. I found great joy in seeing "Mechanic's Jig"...I just knew "Bird on a Wing" should be in the banjo canon.

[John Masciale]

This is a great find.  Now, has anybody seen the 1860 Converse?  I've seen descriptions of it, but have never found a copy.  I'm not making this up!

[Tim Twiss]

I've never even heard a hint of it.

[Greg Adams]

Thanks Joel! Whoo hooo! 

[Carl Anderton]

Pg 46--the Whole Hog or None controversy is solved.  Key of A wins.

[Tim Twiss]

Cheers to this book. What a great balance of the styles in there. It has guitar style, banjo style, and some of the fiddle tunes. They all seem to have some continuity so far as the range of difficulty. I'm glad to see these styles were included together. This is a really good collection. It is a chance to see other arrangements of things ( Johnny Boker for example ).....good for comparison while forming opinions on how things were played.

[John Masciale]

Wow, now that I've had a chance to look through this it is really pretty awesome.  As a CW reenactor there is lots of music in here appropriate prior to 1865.  I love some of the variations over the other instructors.

[Carl Anderton]

Spot on, Johnny boy.  Check out the fresh and tasty stroke-style licks for the reenactor favorite "Old King Crow" on page 53...!

John Masciale said:

Wow, now that I've had a chance to look through this it is really pretty awesome.  As a CW reenactor there is lots of music in here appropriate prior to 1865.  I love some of the variations over the other instructors.

[Carl Anderton]

Oh shoot, I didn't even notice "Ree Row My True Love" on that same page which of course is the ever popular "Gwine Ober De Mountain."  This is so cool.

It is absolutely intoxicating to finger thru a newly discovered tutor, especially one like this that's so playable and has so many familiar tunes.  I'm all aswoon ;^P

[Tim Twiss]

Never any doubt 'bout that one.
 
Carl Anderton said:

Pg 46--the Whole Hog or None controversy is solved.  Key of A wins.