Converse 1872

[Tim Twiss]

I went into the 1872 book by Frank Converse (The Banjo and How To Play It"  tonight and found a few more I had not done. This book is a combination of Fingerstyle and Stroke Style. Consider the date of this work when thinking about that. He gives clear dinstinction between the two, but in at least one song, the styles are integrated, and instructed clearly to do so. The book has several easy, but nice tunes. This is also the book when "Grape Vine Reel" jumps out of the blue and smacks you in the ass. It is (or at least was) still available from Cogumbas in the UK.

[Rob MacKillop]

Yes, an interesting book, but certainly not the first to have both styles in one piece. Tim will know this, but check out Yankee Doodle from Buckley, from as early as 1860. It tells us to 'Pick the first 16 bars' and 'Strike this part' (another 16 bars). Interestingly, the 'strike' part consists of the most cliched riffing between the fifth and first strings. There are many pieces in this book which - as written - must be played fingerstyle. So, although Converse is quite rightly cited as the first to discuss guitar style in print, Buckley seems to have been the first to really notate guitar style pieces, and combining guitar technique with stroke style in one piece. Of course, as the book was published in 1860, it is very likely that Buckley, if not others, was combining the two techniques in the 1850s.

[Tim Twiss]

What I thought was interesting was the equal weight that both styles carried in the book. Wasn't Stroke on the way out by then?