Horace Weston

[Austin]

Can we discuss Horace Weston's home sweet home concert variations for a second? How is half of that even possible? 

[Byron Thomas]

It's playable, you can hear if you run it through Musescore. Var 2 requires some interpretation, but the rest is manageable. It's a beautiful melody. 

[Joel Hooks]

Do you mean the cadenza in the opening?  Pretty standard for HSH varied to have cadenzas. 

[Austin]

Yeah that's the one. I just don't know how a person would go about playing it. I just didn't know if it was an engraving error or something

[Jody Stecher]

How is it possible?

Short answer: step by step.

Long answer:

First by reading it through a few times without banjo in hand and getting the sense of the phrases. There is a shape and pattern that makes sense.  Then if one has not already thoroughly practiced chromatic scales as part of one's foundation, one practices these sequences of consecutive half steps (consecutive frets) until these movements are automatic and coherent. And there is a right way and a wrong way to practice this. The right way is slowly and with attention to what fingers (of both hands) are being used. The wrong way is in a chaotic or random way, hoping the hands will sort it out by themselves.  That will happen around the same time the monkey with the typewriter composes the works of Shakespeare.  Then, with the knowledge (in both mind and hands) of where to find the notes and how to play them, one begins to practice the troublesome phrases  until they sound not-too-terribly-bad.   And then practices the whole piece. Eventually it becomes playable and pleasant to hear.