I am curious about the status of copyright on the Grimshaw tutor and the exercises book.

In the US works that were published pre 1923 are now in public domain.  For works published after 1923 and before 1978 there is a convoluted set of rules that involve renewing the copyright, death of the author, etc., that is almost impossible to search and find if a work is in the Public Domain.

I have slowly been working through all the C notation tutors and I find the Grimshaw book to be the best.  Ignoring his weird recommendation to use a wire first, his explanations are clear to a modern reader and the musical exercises are enjoyable.

He is to the point without being too to the point (a problem with earlier books).

To my question.  I do not know the first publication date of this book but for some reason I get the impression that it was in the 1930s.  In the US that falls into that gray area of it could be in public domain or it could still be owned property.

I do know that it was still in print into the early 1960s+.

So, is it in the public domain?

The same question for the How to Excel book.  While I think it is nice evening "light reading" I think that for a beginner that time could be spent learning solos and not wasted on endless exercises.

I am not asking about the new edition that includes tab under the notation.

I hope I don't offend when I say that I find that tab under notation a wasted attempt at modernizing.  I don't look at the tab portion so it just doubles the page count of the music.  When I was still a tab reader I would not have looked at the notation portion and would have made the same complaint.  It seems to me that splitting the tab and notation would have been a better idea, tab then notation on their own pages.

There was a Lansing tutor publish by Whitmark that did this with A and C notations.  It worked okay but again, most would have been using one or the other and it was a waste of space.

Why the rant?  Because if Grimshaw's book is held in current copyright then I will not recommend it as one could not get a legal copy that is not cluttered up with tab.

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*Maybe* it's better to leave it grey. Both original Grimshaw books are downloadable and so is Mike Moss's introduction to reading staff notation for banjo.  Yes, "How To Excel" is not for beginners.

As I understand the Copyright Law in the UK:

Up until 1999 the copyright of an original musical composition and written works was up until the end of the year, 50 years after the death of the composer. From 1999 this was extended to 70 years after the death of the composer.

Publisher's  rights last for 25 years.

As Grimshaw died in 1947 his works have been out of copyright as from the end of 2013. The New Clifford Essex Music  Co. "The Banjo and how to play it" is based on Grimshaw's work but completely re-written and is copyright. Original notation scores are not copyright unless they have been re-arranged by CE Music, but ALL their TABs ARE copyright.

Joel.. why not just ignore the TABs in the CE Book? It is a very good tutor and explains a great deal more than Grimshaw did in the original tutor.

Thanks Ian!  That is what I what hoping for.

RE: TAB-- I don't know what my deal is with it.  I don't like that a two page piece gets spread over four but that is with solos.  I understand that if they stand a chance of selling a copy that it would be exclusively because of the TAB.  I guess it is because of that I think they should just have TAB only.  These are just my opinions and I think all banjoists should by the new CE's publications.

Thinking about it a little more, I feel like I held myself back when I first started playing classic (and stroke style) banjo by using TABs and needing a translation (or translator) for the notation.  When I made the decision to learn notes I found it to be pretty darn easy.  It made so much more sense to me than play by number that I felt like the industry of popular music teaching (punk guitar, Mel Bay chord chart books) that I grew up with had deceived me.  They had convinced me that notation was difficult and only for "classical scholars," not for popular fretted instruments.

I was disappointed in myself for being afraid of notation.

Don't take this the wrong way, the play by number system evidently works so well that it is now the default form of fretted instrument music writing.  Cleary it is a superior system over notation otherwise is would not have become the industry standard. (Of course one could say the same thing about wire strings on banjos and we know that to not be true!)

My take on the UK copyright issue is same as Ian's...at least that's what I've read. I try to stay away from posting TAB of works that are being published by CE. When someone asks me for TAB, I will generally do a search of their site first and base my decision on that search. I try to support anyone who is CB friendly!

While I'm a TAB reader, I do see Joel's point...re: waste of space. However, many TABs do not carry the rhythmic values of the notes (or are obscure). In those cases, having the notation run along with the TAB is valuable (when I was learning from Earl Scruggs' book, my pilot offshore, a trained organist, would 'sing' the rhythms for me when I couldn't figure out the TAB. He was reading the notation above the TAB I was trying to play). A lot of modernization has occurred over the past 20 yrs and good TAB can now carry all the data that Notation does. The problem is, few TAB writers take the time/effort to use all the bells and whistles available.

The current default for TAB is very basic and usually requires the reader to have heard the tune or have some familiarity with it. Unfortunately, there is no common/accepted standard for writing TAB (like notation has, mostly). I wish there was! 

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