April 2013 Blog Posts (10)

47 % today....perfect for skin banjos.

https://soundcloud.com/dusttodigital/joe-bussards-country-3

For those of you unfamiliar with Joe, he is one of the world's premier collectors early country, blues and jazz of 78's. He's also the subject of the Australian Documentary "Desperate Man Blues". I've known Joe for many years, and actually played in a band with him for a while, he's quite a character and a great resource Here's the play list : Taylor's…

I am learning the tune "Cotton Pod Walk Around" in Tim's Early Banjo Book

I am carefully listening to it and trying to play along.

It seems to me that the last two notes in the first full measure

do not match what I hear on the cd. Assuming the cd is correct

then the last two notes of that measure appear to be reversed.

I have carefully checked this using my slow down software and it

confirms what I feel when I attempt to play it.

Would…

 we know this community is small,,, but I wonder how many people never register ,,, but still use the site...

The reason Im wondering is ,, I thought of making a super easy note by note vid of a super easy tune like Calabash Dance,,  it can be as easy as 3 fingered notes and the open ones of course. 

but I don't know if it would be of any help,,, to me its easier than the first tune I learned juba.....  

per Tims post remembering..... I remember the wknd 2 yrs ago when I…

I wish we had that Facebook feature here....it would be a cool way to acknowledge a post without adding comments. Maybe it's in there somewhere...?

 I asked about how to get tips,, well I got some , not a lot 38.00. but paid for gas.    I got to play a lot of tunes,, best part was playing with the kids. I had 3 sets of wooden spoons{homemade attached at end} and my homemade tambo... there were a lot of times I had them all in use. 4 kids playing along.  coal black rose was the easiest to play to .  Fun to see how some kids had natural timing, some didn't.  many pics taken and some kids came back to play more.  Git up in de morning was…

I just put up a tab for a tune to share that I discovered this morning. It should be played fast, but I found the melody and the way it layed on the banjo to be completely mezmerising and engaging when played slowly and loosely. Although I recorded it this morning, I feel like am just starting to tap into it...being able to play it different each time by altering the phrases. A very free and creative feeling

Funny....doesn't feel like 707, does it?

I used to live in Bills house in Baltimore many years ago, he had some fine instruments then and has continued collecting over the years. Here is his online gallery, I hope you enjoy!

http://www.billsbanjos.com/

I'm trying to get the right hand movements to work on

one of the triplets on the STRIKES from the Rice Book

The area i'm needing help with is labeled FIFTH EXAMPLE: A TRIPLE

the one I need an explanation on is the last one. (102 021 sequence)

starting on an inside string is... I believe its called an "alternate string pull off)

I'd appreciate someone telling me which fingers are the best choice to use 

for the first two notes so that the…