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| Online Banjo Lessons, First Episode https://www.creekdontrise.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=55 |
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| Author: | paulrace [ Fri May 08, 2015 4:48 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Online Banjo Lessons, First Episode |
Working on a lesson about standard banjo tuning, otherwise known as "C tuning" today. Trying to find songs suitable for a banjo solo in C tuning is complicated by HOW MANY FOLK SONGS start on the "fifth" below the tonic. "Amazing Grace" "Jesse James" "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean," and about a thousand more. I want to use songs that don't descend below the tonic so I can use more-or-less root position chords instead of going way up the neck. (These lessons are for beginners, after all). Here is the long list of candidates for tabbing example solos for in C: Sweet Betsy from Pike Scarborough Fair Wayfaring Stranger All My Trials The Bear Went Over the Mountain Casey Jones Momma Don't 'Low Roll in my Sweet Baby's Arms When the Saints Go Marching In John Brown's Body O Susanna Go Tell Aunt Rhody One More River (Chorus at least) This Old Man Wearin' of the Green, Rising of the Moon? I can see where a number of them would require the old dodge of fretting strings one an two on the fifth fret so you can play melody on the fourth fret of the fourth string while still playing something that fits with a C chord. Although if you stick to pure three-finger picking, you might could get around that on a few of them. We'll see. Any comments? Suggestions? If you're not signed in as a contributor to this forum, you can still get ahold of me here: http://www.creekdontrise.com/contact.htm |
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| Author: | paulrace [ Mon May 18, 2015 6:33 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Online Banjo Lessons, First Episode |
I've completed a draft of a lesson on Standard Tuning (called "C tuning" today). Up until about 1970, most of the banjos you heard on non-Bluegrass record albums or on the radio were tuned in C tuning (DBGCG, starting from the string closest to your toes and going upward). In fact, the banjo superstars of Folk Revival movement tended to keep their banjos in C tuning even when they were playing songs in G. It's really easy to play a G song in C tuning, but it's nearly impossible to play a C song in G tuning. If you want to play with other musicians who don't share 100% the same repertoire and tastes in music, you'll find C tuning very handy. For more information, check out the article: http://creekdontrise.com/tabs_instr/ban ... ing_09.htm With any luck, I'll be following this up with an article on Raised 5th tuning (DBGDA), which makes playing 3-chorder in D and A a "piece of cake." Please contact me if you have any questions or complaints . . . . http://www.creekdontrise.com/contact.htm |
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| Author: | paulrace [ Thu May 28, 2015 3:16 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Online Banjo Lessons, First Episode |
Our first draft of the lesson on Raised 5th tuning (DBGDa) is posted: http://creekdontrise.com/tabs_instr/ban ... ing_10.htm It shows five different ways of accompanying or soloing on the "Wreck of the Old 57" in the key of D, a favorite key of guitar players for that song. It also includes tips for accompanying songs in the key of A. Yes, I know you can play in those keys by using a capo and retuning one or two strings. But there are distinct advantages to being able to do it without a capo. (You still have to retune one string.) Several of my lessons are more likely to take a month than a week to get through, and this is one of them. But if you get all the way through the lessons up to this point, you'll be able to figure out most other folks' tabs, so you'll have all kinds of chances to learn on your own. You'll also be able to play in most guitar players' most favorite keys (except for E, which we'll address later), which may give you the chance to join in jams or "pickup" ensembles that other banjo players can't do The lessons we hope to add in the future will include one on minor keys and on on playing in different strange keys (like Eb) when you need to. That said, we need to take a break before we finish this series. And inevitably, when I come back to this lesson, I will find SOME critical or stupid error that I overlooked the last time I proofread it. Please contact me if you have any questions or complaints . . . . http://www.creekdontrise.com/contact.htm |
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| Author: | paulrace [ Wed Jun 10, 2015 12:15 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Online Banjo Lessons, First Episode |
Here's the draft of our lesson on playing in goofy keys, using a capo and maybe a retuned 5th string. http://creekdontrise.com/tabs_instr/ban ... ing_11.htm The one lesson I still plan to do for sure is on minor keys. The more I think about these lessons, the more I think I will go back and retitle them using the term "Folk Banjo." Some folks, to be sure, think that their way is the only way to play "Folk Banjo." But Folk encompasses a whole lot of styles, including early bluegrass, and these articles are meant to be the "gateway" to those styles. If you have a better idea, or any other input, please contact me at: http://www.creekdontrise.com/contact.htm |
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| Author: | paulrace [ Thu Jun 11, 2015 12:52 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Online Banjo Lessons, First Episode |
Here's another update. I have renamed my lessons "Beginning Five-String Folk Banjo," because too many people were confused that I didn't stick to showing just one "correct" style of playing. Five-string banjo has been around a lot longer than Bluegrass, even a lot longer than Clawhammer. Those styles and many more are all part of the "Folk idiom," though. We DO explain how many of our examples could be played with Bluegrass, Clawhammer, and other specific techniques, but our goal is to get you acquainted with the 5-string banjo in general before sending you off down any particular path. In other words, I have attached the "Folk" moniker to the title to avoid any readers thinking that this tutorial is targeted specifically to one narrow style or genre. Let the reader beware - he or she may be exposed to basic information that other materials don't even acknowledge exists. As always, if you have questions, comments, complaints, etc., please log in and post your responses, or simply use our feedback page at: http://www.creekdontrise.com/contact.htm Or if you're ready to get started, go to Lesso 1 at: http://creekdontrise.com/tabs_instr/ban ... ing_01.htm |
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| Author: | paulrace [ Mon Jun 15, 2015 7:39 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Online Banjo Lessons, First Episode |
Added Lesson 12, introduction to minor keys: http://creekdontrise.com/tabs_instr/ban ... ing_12.htm Most Bluegrass banjo solos are in major keys, but if you go back to Appalachia a century ago, you'd discover that minor keys (and modal keys, which can sound minor to our ears) were just as popular. This article uses DBGDa tuning to present one tune in Am and one in Dm. Enjoy. |
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| Author: | paulrace [ Tue Jun 30, 2015 7:46 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Online Banjo Lessons, First Episode |
Added Lesson 13: Arpeggios and Celtic Styles. The point is not to make you into an Irish banjo player - that would take a whole different set of tutorials and probably another banjo. The point is to help you recognize Celtic styles when you hear them and to be able to perform a reasonable imitation when you're asked to do so at the last minute. http://creekdontrise.com/tabs_instr/ban ... ing_13.htm Just added Lesson #14, discussing modal keys and the ways some folks harmonize them. Or not. http://creekdontrise.com/tabs_instr/ban ... ing_14.htm This is my last lesson for a while - by now, if you've gone through these in sequence and picked up half of what is in there you're ready for some more rigorous training by now. On the other hand, if I get a lot of reader questions about some other specific topic, I'll consider adding it. Best of luck, all. Please let me know how it's going! http://www.creekdontrise.com/contact.htm Paul |
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| Author: | paulrace [ Sat Jul 04, 2015 10:32 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Online Banjo Lessons, First Episode |
Just added a simple key-of-G, G-tuning arrangement of an Old Joe Clark solo to lesson 14. http://creekdontrise.com/tabs_instr/ban ... ing_14.htm Please let me know if you have any suggestions, additions, corrections, etc. to anything you see in these tutorials. http://www.creekdontrise.com/contact.htm Paul |
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