Grimshaw Notation Anomaly

[Jody Stecher]

I am puzzled by a measure in a Grimshaw exercise in which the pitches and the indicated left hand fingering are at odds.  The book is The Banjo And How To Play It. The exercise is #6. In my book (orange cover) it is entitled "Repeated Notes On The Fourth String".  In the version in the  Banjo Tutor Books section of this website it is entitled "Fourth String Vamp. "

The measure(s) in question are the first and the ninth. In my copy the notation says to play C sharp and D sharp together with the index finger. The implication is a two string barre across a fret. But at fret 1 this produces C natural and D sharp and at fret 2 we get C sharp and E natural.  In the tutor page version only the C is sharpened. That is easily gotten at fret 2 while leaving the first string open. But the notation prescribes playing the D natural with the first finger. If the open strings are tuned to b and d this cannot be done. 

Does anyone know what Emile Grimshaw actually intended here?

[Joel Hooks]

Exercise 7?

C and D# together would be a barre at the first fret.  I don't see where you are getting the C#?

[Jody Stecher]

I think that you are pointing in the right direction:  C natural and D sharp must be  what was intended. But that is not what was printed in either version. In the 'vamp' version C looks to me like  the sharpened note. I enlarged the page as far as possible and that's how it looks to me. 

Joel Hooks said:

Exercise 7?

C and D# together would be a barre at the first fret.  I don't see where you are getting the C#?

[Jody Stecher]

Mystery solved. When I looked at the page in my book using a Agfa Lupe magnifier the single sharp sign (intended for d) dispersed into two sharp signs, one above the other. But I have now scanned and enlarged the page and seen that way there is only one sharp: d. 

[Trapdoor2]

Old eyeballs and fuzzy print = weirdness. I just got thru the MS of Morely's "Aviators Parade" and I had to wear my super-magnifier headset just to get it keyed in...and then I listened to the playback to find errors 'cause I could neither confirm nor deny some of the scribble.