Bradbury Book 2

[Jody Stecher]

Having played through the entire first volume I now have turned my attention to volume 2. I found the first book to be excellent instructional material sequenced in such a way as to give the student a gentle prod to improve at the same time as building confidence in using what was learned on earlier pages. The downside was occasionally vague instructions and a few badly constructed sentences.  

Will volume 1 be similar?  I expect the music will get harder to play. 

The Norwegian Folk Dance and its preparatory exercise introduces new rhythms and fingerings. The piece is fun to play and  relentlessly jolly and therefore does not remind me of Norwegians. 

The second page of The Sailor's Refrain is  Darling Nellie Gray. Once again the title is a bad fit to the music. The musical arrangement is excellent and not as hard to play as it is to read. There are some tricky position changes. The arrangement and fingering instructions provide the means to play these changes with confidence.

[Jody Stecher]

Pages 40 through 43

Can there be too much of a good thing? Too much of the "diddly-bump" triplet followed by a quarter note that Bradbury is fond of?  "Hilo/Hawaiian Quickstep" sets out to find out. My tentative finding is that there is not too much of it here but certainly enough.  It might be worth pointing out that this is the identical figure brought about by different technical means that is ubiquitous in American southern old-time banjo "clawhammer" playing and which has come to be known, unfortunately, as "The Galax Lick". It is not particularly characteristic of banjo style in and around Galax, Virginia and not everyone agrees that this is what the term was meant to refer to but since it often is I thought it worth mentioning here.

Hilo is easier to read and to play than Ballad in Eb, a page earlier, was.  I found that the dynamic markings were critical in bringing out the flavor of what might otherwise sound a bit mechanical.

Page 42 presents finger stretching exercises. Some of the same intervals can be obtained in easier ways but I can imagine contexts where these stretches could come in handy. 

In the middle of the page an alternate fingering is given for one of the measures in the first exercise.  I had already discovered the alternative way and preferred it but then I was perplexed by Bradbury's comment that the fingering in the score is preferred by most players "considering good intonation".  I think he means clarity rather than pitch, as C natural on fret 8 of the first string will sound at the same pitch no matter which left hand finger is doing the work.

Page 43 presents finger stretches in the context of stretching conventional positions. At the top of the page is a fun exercise in "Melodic Running Arpeggios".  There is no explanation as to what this means. Running vs walking or swimming?  Melodic vs rhythmic?  I don't know. I discerned no melody that I could hum. But it sounded good when I played it.

[Joel Hooks]

Ah yes, Hilo March.  This is a nice reflection of the often overlooked but immensely popular Hawaiian music of Bradbury's youth.  I write "often overlooked" because it is.  After listening to scads of 78 records of Hawaiian music from the teens and 20s, I'd say that the large influence on Bluegrass is very evident, yet rarely if ever mentioned by bluegrass historians.  It also had a large impact on popular music in general and is generally accepted to be the source of "slide guitar" playing found in blues. I write "generally" because there are the usual perpetuators of folk narratives that will deny the influence of popular music on "folk music", not sure why this continues. 

But I digress. 

Hilo March is one of those pieces (really a medley) that was published in 1916 and most likely originates around that year of publication.  I went down the rabbit hole on this one at one point as there are some dubious claims around this piece regarding its history.

One claim is that it is the school song of the University of Hawaii at Hilo.  This claim comes from Mel Bay's Hawaiian Uke Songbook by Ken Eidson & Ross Cherednik.  This little footnote seems to have been made up by the authors as any later reference, even from some reputable sources, all point back to this book.

Finding myself in a citation echo chamber, I picked up the phone and called UH at Hilo.  They did not know what I was talking about, their school song is Pulelo Haʻaheo written by Kauanoe Kamanā, Kalena Silva, and William H. Wilson.  Eventually I was transferred to someone in the music department who confirmed that "Hilo March" is not or was not adopted as UH at Hilo's school song. 

There is also the claim that it was composed by Joseph Kapeau Aeʻa in 1881 with a story that goes along with this.  This is also very unlikely. 

At any rate, it is a nice medley and there are plenty of "period" recordings of it available on the Internet Archive. 

I have a recording of Bradbury playing it with his usual arrangement of multiple regular banjos (that you have to learn to listen around).

I also have photos of his manuscript (that I took while Eli was distracted), not the best but I will post shortly.  The version in the method is abridged.  

[Joel Hooks]

[Jody Stecher]

1) The influence of Hawaiian music on bluegrass music  is certainly real . For example, the  prototype for the Bluegrass-ic Emblematic, bluegrass anthem The Kentucky Waltz is a Hawaiian song. I heard the record and there's little doubt in my mind where Bill Monroe got the idea for his melody. It was "Pua Lilia," 

Bluegrass historians tend to be like other niche music historians. They forget to pull back their view from close examination to take in the wider picture of the times and places.  

2) I see that the Bradbury manuscript is of Bickford's arrangement. I have a copy of mandolin tutor written by "Zahr" himself. It is excellent.  He teaches right hand techniques I have never seen in print anywhere else. 

3) I wonder why Bradbury, in both book and manuscript calls it Hilo (and a quickstep)  rather than Hilo March. A way around paying royalties?

Joel Hooks said:

Ah yes, Hilo March.  This is a nice reflection of the often overlooked but immensely popular Hawaiian music of Bradbury's youth.  I write "often overlooked" because it is.  After listening to scads of 78 records of Hawaiian music from the teens and 20s, I'd say that the large influence on Bluegrass is very evident, yet rarely if ever mentioned by bluegrass historians.  It also had a large impact on popular music in general and is generally accepted to be the source of "slide guitar" playing found in blues. I write "generally" because there are the usual perpetuators of folk narratives that will deny the influence of popular music on "folk music", not sure why this continues. 

But I digress. 

Hilo March is one of those pieces (really a medley) that was published in 1916 and most likely originates around that year of publication.  I went down the rabbit hole on this one at one point as there are some dubious claims around this piece regarding its history.

One claim is that it is the school song of the University of Hawaii at Hilo.  This claim comes from Mel Bay's Hawaiian Uke Songbook by Ken Eidson & Ross Cherednik.  This little footnote seems to have been made up by the authors as any later reference, even from some reputable sources, all point back to this book.

Finding myself in a citation echo chamber, I picked up the phone and called UH at Hilo.  They did not know what I was talking about, their school song is Pulelo Haʻaheo written by Kauanoe Kamanā, Kalena Silva, and William H. Wilson.  Eventually I was transferred to someone in the music department who confirmed that "Hilo March" is not or was not adopted as UH at Hilo's school song. 

There is also the claim that it was composed by Joseph Kapeau Aeʻa in 1881 with a story that goes along with this.  This is also very unlikely. 

At any rate, it is a nice medley and there are plenty of "period" recordings of it available on the Internet Archive. 

I have a recording of Bradbury playing it with his usual arrangement of multiple regular banjos (that you have to learn to listen around).

I also have photos of his manuscript (that I took while Eli was distracted), not the best but I will post shortly.  The version in the method is abridged.  

[Jody Stecher]

Pages 44 through 47

Page 44 discusses how to move from one chord to another using inversions that share notes and fingering. Also contrary movement between the notes of neighboring chords is demonstrated. The advisability of using the nearest positions when changing chords is stressed. I agree that this is best for smoothness.  I do have a quibble as smoothness is not always desirable. That this is a  typical approach to chord accompaniment in the classic banjo genre is indisputable but it is not the only option for all types of music whether using banjo or other instruments.

The next three pages take up diminished seventh chords. One might get the impression that the discussion and examples are exhaustive but actually something is missing and I wonder why.  On page 45 it is implied that only three string inversions of the three examples given are playable on the banjo if we wish to keep the minor thirds in ascending order. (Pages 47 clearly demonstrates how four string versions are easily played if one tone is moved an octave lower).

Here's what is missing:

G# dim 7 can be played in a 4 string version  (low to high) at fret 8, 10, 0, 0  

C# dim 7 can be played by adding the open 5th string to the 3 string version that is presented.

B# dim 7 can be played in a 4 string version (low to high) at frets 11, 10, 9, 0

These are valuable pages in spite of this omission.  

In studying these pages the brains of  beginners will be burdened at first if they have not already thought through how diminished chords work and how the same position can have 4 different names and identities.  This is Just How It Is, and not the fault of Bradbury.  The matter could have been discussed in a different way but he does a good job presenting and explaining it and especially in showing how these chords are typically used.