Yellow Converse

[Tim Twiss]

Some of us have the "Little Yellow" Converse book. I assume that more folks have the Joe Weidlich Converse book in TAB. Anyway, I'm into this book right now, and find this to be very good for beginning to intermediate playing...all tunes of which are worthy of sticking into the repertoire. There is way more continuity in this book than any other, with some thread throughout that makes positioning, fingering, and styling familiar from one tune to the next. No "curve balls" in this book. You get a taste of those type of tunes in 6/8 time, as well as solid Stroke play. Which came first...this or the Green One? I would assume this one did. I hope someone is enjoying the versions I'm posting. I do them more for a diary of the songs than creating entertaining segues and arrangements. The videos are 99% true to the written page...100% unless I screwed something up. Let me know.  

[Joel Hooks]

Yes a beginners page.

There are beginners pages in the beginning of Converse's yellow (pages 13-15), page 12 has the tuning. The "Green Book" has good instructions as well, with scales etc..

Read, try, ask questions. The descriptions given in the tutors are very clear.

If by tuning you mean pitch, Briggs' is in common use in the hobby, though I feel like we should be in "A."

What more needs to be said on the subject?

[Tim Twiss]

I'm certain there is a little more to say, or at least put together in a different way. A beginner might not even have one of these books.

deuceswilde said:

Yes a beginners page.

There are beginners pages in the beginning of Converse's yellow (pages 13-15), page 12 has the tuning. The "Green Book" has good instructions as well, with scales etc..

Read, try, ask questions. The descriptions given in the tutors are very clear.

If by tuning you mean pitch, Briggs' is in common use in the hobby, though I feel like we should be in "A."

What more needs to be said on the subject?

[Paul Certo]

Here's a list of the books frequently mentioned in discussions here, and a few sources to locate them. I first saw the Briggs 1855 book in a Dixie Gunworks Catalogue close to 20 years ago. I ordered it, but it was out of stock, and they weren't sure if it would be reprinted. I eventually got it from Elderly Music in Lansing, Mi. about a year ago.
http://www.elderly.com/books/cats/236.htm I guess it's been reprinted a number of times since the original date. Bob Flesher's books are available from his web site, http://www.drhorsehair.com/ Elderly also has reprints of BUCKLEY'S NEW BANJO METHOD, originally printed in 1860 , and
FRANK CONVERSE'S BANJO WITHOUT A MASTER originally published in 1865, PHIL RICE'S CORRECT METHOD FOR THE BANJO: WITH OR WITHOUT A MASTER, 1858. There are also a couple of modern books by Joseph Weidlich, THE EARLY MINSTREL BANJO - TECHNIQUE AND REPERTOIRE, and
MORE MINSTREL BANJO - FRANK CONVERSE'S BANJO INSTRUCTOR - PERFORMANCE NOTES AND TRANSCRIPTIONS This second features modern tab transcriptions from the Converse book above. For tab users, the original 19th century books don't have tab, only standard music notation. If you don't read music, Joseph Weidlich's or the Dr. Horsehair books may be a better first choice. Or, learn to read standard music. It can't be too hard, or I wouldn't have been able to do it. Somehow, there's something special about a book that came from the era, even in a reprint. But maybe that's just me.
Paul