All Blog Posts (280)

I posted a video of some tunes I will present in a small breakout group at AEBG. I'll have TAB there. These present interesting banjo opportunities, as does much of the book. They lay well, are pretty simple, and include many things that make the banjo fun....playing up high, pulls and slurs, double notes, Hammers and Strikes.

Buckley1868%20and%20Converse%201872.pdf

Tutor%20Track%20Sheet.pdf

Here are the tunes on the CDs

Does anyone know weather there would have been Banjos with steel strings during the Civil War Period.

I will take my answers off the air...thank you.

Nick

Wes....thanks for sending the tune I tried it. What surrounds it.......?

I was talking to Mark Weems today and we both wondered whether we  had possibly missed some announcement about registration for AEBG.  I know when the dates are, but by this time of the year in the past, I had already registered.  Anyone have info on this?

Anyone going to AEBG that wants to try something a little different? Perhaps a duet with nice arranged parts? The Dobson "New System for the Banjo " has a few.

Voting is still open over on the Hangout. Go over there and help one of our guys win a Bell.

I wonder why this tune gets skipped over. I do not see many people do it.

http://bluegrassnation.org/link_type/the-difference-between-bluegrass-old-time-and-celtic-bands-now-finally-explained/…

The whole thing about thumb strings developed from a discussion about repertoire and styles of Early Banjo. I hope someone wants to jump back in and discuss music. 

Hi. Just built, with the generous help of a luthier friend, a gourd banjo similar to the one in the 1790 painting The Old Plantation.

Got me wondering, do we know how they would have been tuned at the time? I have the 3 and a half strings…

Special on this Early Banjo book CD pack. It contains the essential material in tab from the 19th Century instructional books on how to play Stroke Style banjo. Enhance your current skills...or try something brand new. It covers the moves, and does not…

What a great night. It is like..."The Saturday Evening Post"...ha ha

Almost like getting a live concert from around the country.

I love all the new music.....different twists everyone has.

And out of nowhere comes NOAH CLINE with a strong triple.

Go man! Sounds fabulous.

The more I study and play this material, the more I realize....that repertoire expands so far beyond the first books. While they give us insight as to what the source material was, and how things were arranged....we should never be limited to those books. If that genre had lasted longer...there could have been dozens upon dozens of books. It is open to any vocal piece or linear music you can fit onto the instrument.

This resource continues to blow me away, with it's adaptability to the banjo. It's not just playing the notes from these pages, but creating some nice things within. You can make some cool things by thinking out the pulls and open string phrases. It becomes unique then. I'll post an example of a new find. I just sit down for pleasure every day and find another. With about 400 in each book, and 4 volumes.....I will not run dry for a LONG time. Not all keepers, but some are.

What would YOU do??

If you get a piece of fiddle music in F? Which note do you reference as the thumb string?

I revisited this one from the Rice book of 1858. It is so deceptive...try it and see where the beat falls. It seems to turn back around on you, depending upon where you place the beat. One of the coolest and overlooked songs.

I was intrigued by the cover displayed of the above tune. Does anyone have a copy of the score?..many thanks, Steve, Malvern, England.