Brushing the strings

[Mike Moss]

Lately I've been working a lot on my tremolo and tremolo-related techniques. I'm still hopeless at finger tremolo (I can keep it smooth for a few bars but then my finger becomes fatigued and it falls apart) but now I've run into a technique which I had never seen before called "brushing the strings" in a solo. I looked it up and found it described in Joe Morley's tutor and in the Grimshaw tutor.

Joe's description is extremely vague:

So, I'm brushing the strings, but at which speed? How should it sound?

The Grimshaw tutor says it's a form of tremolo, so I assume it should be relatively fast:

Furthermore, in practice, I don't understand how I'm supposed to do it. For my forearm to rest near the tailpiece, I need the banjo to be almost horizontal, which makes fretting the strings very difficult, and the instrument is completely out of balance in that position (especially due to the truss rod) and tends to fall forwards.

Does anyone know how this effect should be accomplished?

[Sylvia]

Hi Ruth Ellen, Lovely to hear one of the other women members posting.

   I only got as far as taking grade 3 in classical guitar, and failed it :(  just absolutely froze on the day , fingers wouldn't work etc.   however still went for lessons, then when we moved to our new location I decided not to continue with guitar  lessons,did Recorder and Saxaphone instead, but the last piece I was working on was Recuerdos. I agree that there is plenty of music to play without  tremolo, however I do keep on having a go as it is just something I would like to master.

How did you find playing banjo after guitar ?  I found the 5th string quite awkward at first, kept on wanting to go to the " g " on the first string.   Must admit also to being a bit lazy and I tend to go for the easier banjo pieces.  I play banjo as I did classical guitar,upstroke, but flesh instead of nail, have tried hitting the strings with the outside of the nail but just cannot get away with it. 

 Dare I say "Hope to hear from you soon."

Sylvia

 

 

 

 

 

[Ruth Ellen Cooper]

Sylvia said:

Hi Ruth Ellen, Lovely to hear one of the other women members posting.

   I only got as far as taking grade 3 in classical guitar, and failed it :(  just absolutely froze on the day , fingers wouldn't work etc.   however still went for lessons, then when we moved to our new location I decided not to continue with guitar  lessons,did Recorder and Saxaphone instead, but the last piece I was working on was Recuerdos. I agree that there is plenty of music to play without  tremolo, however I do keep on having a go as it is just something I would like to master.

How did you find playing banjo after guitar ?  I found the 5th string quite awkward at first, kept on wanting to go to the " g " on the first string.   Must admit also to being a bit lazy and I tend to go for the easier banjo pieces.  I play banjo as I did classical guitar,upstroke, but flesh instead of nail, have tried hitting the strings with the outside of the nail but just cannot get away with it. 

 Dare I say "Hope to hear from you soon."

Sylvia

 

 

 

 

 

So Sylvia are you in England? I know a lot of people on this site are. I figured that from the way you said you got to grade 3. Americans don't usually describe it that way.  I spent a year at the University of Hull so I know a little about the grade system for instruments.  What you're describing sounds like what we called "jurys" at university here in the US.  I started out as a voice major so I had a jury at the end of the semester.  I had to sing for all the voice teachers.  That did not go well.  Fortunately my teacher gave me a better grade in spite of the other teachers.  So I decided to switch to classical guitar as my major, especially when I found out voice majors had to sing opera!  There was only one teacher for guitar so our jury was just playing for all the other guitar students.  Not so bad since we all knew each other from Guitar Ensemble.  And our teacher said since he heard us play every week in our lessons he already knew what grade to give us.  I give Recuerdos a little practice once in awhile, maybe some day I will learn it.

I did a little recorder in the Early Music Ensemble while at university, but I wasn't very good.  I didn't know then that I have asthma, probably why I didn't do so well with voice either.  I think sax would be VERY hard.  I wouldn't have the breathing for it.

I  have had the same problems with banjo although after a year I am beginning to get used to it.  It was hard to adjust to having a high string on the bottom.  How are you tuning your banjo?  Do you play from tablature or written music?  I started out with the standard the banjo came with gDGBD.  I downloaded tabs from on-line sites but they seemed to be wrong or I couldn't figure which were the melody notes.  I was searching for classical music to play on the banjo and found the classic banjo website.  I downloaded Joe Morley's Tutor from there.  So then I tuned the low string to C instead of D and started to work on his exercises.  I've only worked on a few exercises so far but it has really helped me get the feel of where the notes are on the banjo.

That's how I found this site.  I was wondering when Morley's Tutor was pubished, and in my search up came "The Very Nice Man" on YouTube playing Georgia Medley.  It was great to find there are other people who want to play serious classical music on the banjo, most people just think it's a hillbilly instrument.

Hope to hear from you soon. 

[Richard William Ineson]

They do not describe the process very well, what you have to do is this - place the palm of the right hand, parallel to and above the strings,just above the bridge; the right forearm should lie along the line of the strings and the right elbow should be adjacent to the rim of the banjo, somewhere near the tailpiece, (where it should rest lightly), depending on the length of your limbs. Lower the right hand 1st, or 1st and 2nd  fingers (using the tips only) onto the strings, whilst also moving the hand rapidly to and fro, and also whilst keeping the palm flat and parallel to the strings. This should produce a very pleasing pianissimo tremolo effect, not suitable for playing in noisy bars, but it is perfectly legal to do this in the privacy of your own home.

[Mike Moss]

Hi Richard,

thank you! I have managed to play the last bars of "Home, Sweet Home" according to your instructions, I just couldn't figure it out from Morley's and Grimshaw's descriptions of the technique.

[Sylvia]

Hi Ruth Ellen, I will reply on your home page to the above post as we are getting away from " Brushing Strings " 

Ruth Ellen Cooper said:

Sylvia said:

Hi Ruth Ellen, Lovely to hear one of the other women members posting.

   I only got as far as taking grade 3 in classical guitar, and failed it :(  just absolutely froze on the day , fingers wouldn't work etc.   however still went for lessons, then when we moved to our new location I decided not to continue with guitar  lessons,did Recorder and Saxaphone instead, but the last piece I was working on was Recuerdos. I agree that there is plenty of music to play without  tremolo, however I do keep on having a go as it is just something I would like to master.

How did you find playing banjo after guitar ?  I found the 5th string quite awkward at first, kept on wanting to go to the " g " on the first string.   Must admit also to being a bit lazy and I tend to go for the easier banjo pieces.  I play banjo as I did classical guitar,upstroke, but flesh instead of nail, have tried hitting the strings with the outside of the nail but just cannot get away with it. 

 Dare I say "Hope to hear from you soon."

Sylvia

 

 

 

 

 

So Sylvia are you in England? I know a lot of people on this site are. I figured that from the way you said you got to grade 3. Americans don't usually describe it that way.  I spent a year at the University of Hull so I know a little about the grade system for instruments.  What you're describing sounds like what we called "jurys" at university here in the US.  I started out as a voice major so I had a jury at the end of the semester.  I had to sing for all the voice teachers.  That did not go well.  Fortunately my teacher gave me a better grade in spite of the other teachers.  So I decided to switch to classical guitar as my major, especially when I found out voice majors had to sing opera!  There was only one teacher for guitar so our jury was just playing for all the other guitar students.  Not so bad since we all knew each other from Guitar Ensemble.  And our teacher said since he heard us play every week in our lessons he already knew what grade to give us.  I give Recuerdos a little practice once in awhile, maybe some day I will learn it.

I did a little recorder in the Early Music Ensemble while at university, but I wasn't very good.  I didn't know then that I have asthma, probably why I didn't do so well with voice either.  I think sax would be VERY hard.  I wouldn't have the breathing for it.

I  have had the same problems with banjo although after a year I am beginning to get used to it.  It was hard to adjust to having a high string on the bottom.  How are you tuning your banjo?  Do you play from tablature or written music?  I started out with the standard the banjo came with gDGBD.  I downloaded tabs from on-line sites but they seemed to be wrong or I couldn't figure which were the melody notes.  I was searching for classical music to play on the banjo and found the classic banjo website.  I downloaded Joe Morley's Tutor from there.  So then I tuned the low string to C instead of D and started to work on his exercises.  I've only worked on a few exercises so far but it has really helped me get the feel of where the notes are on the banjo.

That's how I found this site.  I was wondering when Morley's Tutor was pubished, and in my search up came "The Very Nice Man" on YouTube playing Georgia Medley.  It was great to find there are other people who want to play serious classical music on the banjo, most people just think it's a hillbilly instrument.

Hope to hear from you soon.