Rail Road Polka.wmv

Comment by Tim Twiss on May 8, 2012 at 8:33pm

By the way, relating to the discussion about "hybrid" playing, this has a little bit of it. Not by any particular instruction, but by what helped me play a passage. I needed to use fingerstyle for that arpeggio right before the high repeated notes....and those notes also. I use 2 strings for it. Not sure what other guys are doing on this tune. I almost think it was made to be played fingerstyle entirely.

Comment by Jack L. Whaley on April 8, 2013 at 11:27am

Tim,

 Is this tune same or related to the "Erie Railroad Poka" found in 1851 piano forte literature as part of Levy Collection at Johns Hopkins https://jscholarship.library.jhu.edu/handle/1774.2/16214? I just can't read and hear a score in my head.

Comment by Tim Twiss on April 8, 2013 at 1:57pm

I glanced at the score in your link, and did not see any related material.

Good eye, however.

Comment by Jack L. Whaley on April 8, 2013 at 3:19pm

Thanks Tim. Oh, and I went to your website and looked at score in the Buckley. The melodic rhythm didn't even look close. I couldn't find any posted video or audio for "Erie Railroad Polka."

As an aside, Bryant Henderson, also on site,  and I have been looking for Civil War era Railroad tunes. There hard to find.  I note that Buckley has a tune about a city Railroad conductor on page 45.

Comment by Andy Chase on April 4, 2014 at 8:40pm

Tim, can I ask how what your right hand usually does during the 4th and 7th measures?  The ones that go:

and

It looks and sounds like you're striking a lot of those notes as opposed to using hammer-ons/pull-offs, but I'll be darned if I can find a pattern that doesn't feel awkward.  Pull-offs kind of work but sound muddy.

I'm doing OK just dragging across all four strings then thumbing the 5th string going into those arpeggios, but those high triplets are a bear.  It mostly works as a stroke style tune but to play it exactly as written you'd definitely have to use multiple right hand fingers in a few places.

Comment by Tim Twiss on April 4, 2014 at 9:20pm

I am using a straight hammer stroke there.

Comment by Andy Chase on April 5, 2014 at 11:58am

I was afraid you were going to say that! I need to work on my right hand technique.

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