TOTW next week or so

[Tim Twiss]

Alabama Joe was fun to gain a little insight and some different perspectives. How about next something that is contrasted in 2 books.....like Phil Rice Excelsior Jig from Rice and Jim Crow Jig from Buckley? Same tune, but treated differently rhythmically. One is straight and one has the dotted figure. The interpretation of dotted eight / sixteenth would be interesting, as well as finger possibilities.

[Leonidas (Lee) Jones]

Great! I work on Excelsior Jig, but hadn't got to comparing it with Buckley. I'll take a look at that tomorrow, between rounds of snow shoveling.

[Paul Draper]

Nice. Those tunes should get the thumb a-work in'.

[Tim Twiss]

What do you think? Try these, or something a little easier?

[Tom Taggart]

They may be a little intimidating for some of us newbies, but I will try anything.  I had a lot of fun learning Alabama Joe.  Still is a little rough but I enjoyed the trip.

[Leonidas (Lee) Jones]

Maybe alternate more challenging tunes with more beginner accesible tunes. Give us the tings we can use now, and point out possible future directions.

[Tim Twiss]

Maybe one more simple one.....possibly one with the extension of thought and technique of Alabama Joe. Something we could all play in a week, maybe revisit the Rice pull.

[Leonidas (Lee) Jones]

That would be great from my standpoint, since that's going to be a main focus for me over the next week.

[Tim Twiss]

How about "Devil's Dream" from  Rice? This one utilizes many interesting techniques. It is, after all, a fiddle tune so we can examine how a banjo arrangement is birthed from another source. We can look at the original fiddle tune, as well as it's treatment in later publications like Dobson. Can we can on Wes to play it too?

[Leonidas (Lee) Jones]

I work on that, but I wouldn't call it "simple". It would be a good one to discuss though I feel in no way ready to record it. As a future thought, I was going to suggest Old Johnny Boker from Briggs, which also comes up in very similar form, though minus the Rice pull-offs, as Joe Sweeney's Jig in Buckley.

[Tim Twiss]

That might be good. There is a reference in Rice for that song. It shows the use of a pull as opposed to a nail glide across 3 strings. This will certainly be a good topic. Plus, there is Joe Sweeney Jig in the Buckley book 1860. The words are cool too......based on a lot of factual landmarks.

Shall we?

[Leonidas (Lee) Jones]

Ah, I'd forgotten about the Rice book version. Sounds like a plan from here!

[Tim Twiss]

Ok, well we have Briggs, Rice, as well as the sheet music here"

http://levysheetmusic.mse.jhu.edu/catalog/levy:020.012

Let's go have some fun with this one

Carlin speaks of it in his book too.