Persian Lamb Rag (1908) Percy Wenrich.

[Steve Harrison]

Following a comment by Jody mentioning Bob Roberts playing this on tenor banjo, I've come up with this arrangement for classic banjo.

As you would expect, as it's written by Percy Wenrich, it's a good tune but maybe not in the same league as 'Smiler'.

The front cover shows the picture of a sheep having what appears to be pepper blown up its nose. I'm completely at a loss as to the reason for this and I can only surmise that it must be some ancient American Masonic ritual, the origins and purpose of which is known only to the Grand Poobah and his acolytes! 

The score and midi are in the library....Steve.

[Steve Harrison]

Hi Shawn, I wonder how many more arrangements there are out there? I haven't had a chance to listen to the Osman recording yet, I presume he's playing it in G as per the two sets of Tab? The original piano score is in Bb/Eb, I moved it up to C to make it easier to arrange and play.

Did you write out the tab straight from the recording? If so well done, I have great difficulty in writing tunes down by ear. I think it was probably the way I was taught. When I first had music lessons over 50 years ago, playing by ear was frowned upon and my music teacher insisted I played only what was written down. I suppose any thoughts I had of playing by ear was 'trained' out of me. It doesn't help these days that I wear hearing aids in both ears!....Steve.

Shawn McSweeny said:

Hi Marc

That's a fine sounding arrangement but looking at presentations I had to pol

the tab, it's almost all in the upper register, quite difficult for mere mortals like myself. Back in 1908, the Banjo King set it an octave lower and it is still a challenge.  Attached (hopefully) is my manuscript tab transcription from Ossman's recorded  performance.

[Shawn McSweeny]

Hi Steve

The Ossman performance and my arrangement are indeed in G. While Ossman could reputedly play in any key, he tended to transpose piano scores into banjo friendly keys such as C, G and F.  My source recording was particularly clear and remained so when the tempo was digitally reduced (while retaining pitch) to facilitate transcription.  Luckily I never took music lessons, but learned largely by listening/transcribing from records. I work through a piece a few notes at a time, banjo in hand, and play back the notes to see I've got them right. It can be slow going but when treated as if solving a puzzle, it is a little less tedious. I have a couple of other Ossman transcriptions around that I will post at some point. ... Shawn

[thereallyniceman]

I'm with Shawn here.

My musical theory is virtually nil! I transcribe from the original recording "By Ear" too. I find that doing that way gives a better representation of how it was actually being played. I do as Shawn and slow down the recordings (I use "Amazing Slow Downer" software to slooooooow down so that the individual notes can be heard), and then attempt to play them along with the slowed down recording. 

Steve often changes key in his transcriptions, but I prefer the score in the same pitch as Ossman, Van Eps etc played. This way, when I can gain a bit of speed, I can play along with the MP3, though often slightly behind, the masters!

I occasionally  have to change Steve's chosen key back to that of the recordings... I guess this is the curse of only playing by ear.

Worse than that, my sight reading skills are abysmal too and I am a memoriser of scores. This is great until I forget and then I have to struggle through the score to re-learn it. I regret not having formal music lessons, but maybe then I would have been "programmed" not to learn by ear.  I think I will stick to listening to the recordings though.. it is a slog, but good fun to "Play along a Van Eps"  :-)

[Shawn McSweeny]

Hi Ian

At least you transcribe directly to dot notation. In my case, a tab comes first, from which dot notation is produced if needed by others.

Memorization is essential for a piece to flow smoothly.  I have yet to meet a player who can read a piece, even much practiced, and render it as smoothly and freely as when it is fully memorized. Perhaps the biggest shortcoming is that one can't look at the music and the left hand at the same time. Only a small number of players have full, error-free fingerboard command without looking at least occasionally. 

Retaining an expanding repertoire of memorized pieces becomes progressively more difficult, as one has to allocate more and more  time to daily practice, just to retain them. I have heard that the pros, such as Bill Bowen, would have about 70 pieces in their repertoire at any given time. And back in those days, if one said he practiced eight hours a day, the reply would be, "Only eight? Why so little?"

[Trapdoor2]

I Tab directly from the dots (original banjo arrangements, I'm not clever enough to arrange from piano scores). If fingering is shown, I use it, otherwise I will default to the way I learned...and sometimes find I've taken an awkward path when I actually try to play the piece. I try to actually play thru a given TAB before posting it to the net or sending it out to someone...sort out the fingering kinks, etc. Sometimes that works, sometimes not!

I found the orignal "Persian Lamb Rag" dots this morning, the arrangement is by Walter Jacobs, a well known arranger and publisher of banjo music. It was published in A notation and my TAB and MIDI were 'raised' to C. Yah, it is almost all upper register.

I simply don't have the brain cells to store more than a few pieces at a time...and I've gotten lazy too. If I don't play a tune regularly, it simply slips away.

[Steve Harrison]

Hi Marc, I don't think it's a matter of being particularly clever to arrange from a piano score. Having the software that does all the difficult bits for you is the trick. I've used Finale PrintMusic since 2002 and although it's not the best on the market, it's reasonably priced and good value for money. As the saying goes, the best software is the software you know best.

I always begin by printing out the piano score and numbering all the bars in pencil otherwise it's very easy to get lost. I  try and get hold of a midi or recording and read through the score whilst it's playing to fix the tune in my head. I then sketch out a basic single note arrangement and use the software to fill in the gaps and add the chords gradually building it up in 'layers'. When I'm reasonably happy with the result, I start adding the position numbers and that usually results in a fair degree of alteration and fine tuning.

Before I send it to Ian for posting, I play through it several times to make sure it all works on the banjo and to make any final alterations.

I would welcome any feedback and suggestions for improvements or alterations......Steve.

[Trapdoor2]

Well, Steve, it appears that we use very similar methods. My worst problem has always been trying to figure out the chords that are the structure of the tune. I can usually get the melody but I'm lost working out the basic chord structure of the more complex tunes.

I've studied music, taken classes at the local university, taken online courses, worked with musicians...and I still feel about as smart as a bag of hammers when I have to take apart a piece of music.

I do find that the MIDI playback is crucial to the process. My ears tell me instantly when something isn't right. Quite a number of these old sheets have printing errors in them.

Fortunately, I've got thousands of banjo arrangements available. No real need to go searching for non-banjo stuff. Besides, we've got you to lead us down the ragtime path!