For enthusiasts of early banjo

Hobsons Jig

c. 1860

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Comment by Scott Johnson on October 2, 2013 at 8:40pm: Great tune, It seems that a couple of us are working on this one. Thanks for posting a new video for this one.

Comment by Strumelia on October 3, 2013 at 8:00am: Hobson's Jig has so much going on in it that is fascinating to me, in both its quirky melody and snappy rhythm. I'm one of the folks working on it that Scott mentions, but I have a feeling it'll be a long process. ;) Luckily I'm fine with that concept. lol It's a great skill honing challenge.

Tim, you play it nice and crisply.

Comment by Strumelia on October 3, 2013 at 8:06am: For the benefit of others, I'll mention this- Tim posted a small but significant note (it helped me to play it more smoothly, anyway) about handling the slightly awkward 3rd and 4th measures of Hobson's.

See these two links for the photo and explanation: http://minstrelbanjo.ning.com/photo/hobson-1

http://minstrelbanjo.ning.com/forum/topics/fingerings-1

Comment by Paul Draper on October 3, 2013 at 10:42am: Hmm.. very interesting. I've never thought of playing it that way. I've always played F F T T: http://minstrelbanjo.ning.com/video/hobson-s-jig-briggs-corn-shucki...

Comment by Strumelia on October 3, 2013 at 11:06am: Paul, I have to do a comparison. Do you mean finger-finger-thumb-thumb? I saw that in her video, Mara handles that awkward-fingering part by sort of inverting/changing the notes and making it a hammer-on instead...maybe that's why she calls it 'warped'- :D it sounds different with the changed notes there, but has a cool sound to it, a different feel to the tune that way.

When starting out to play Hobson's, I found (like many folks, apparently) it was hard for me to do that particular phrase smoothly, but since I am familiar with left hand plucking already, I then gave Tim's suggestion a try. It too seemed hard at first because of needing to keep one finger on the other string on while plucking with a 'weaker' finger, but after about 100 times through it came more easily and indeed sounds and plays smoother for me. I'll stick with doing it that way now.

Comment by Paul Draper on October 3, 2013 at 11:17am: Yes, finger-finger-thumb-thumb.

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