Question on Whistling Rufus

[David Gillespie]

Ian or other members,

I just heard tonight, for the first time, Ians part 1 of Whistling Rufus! Wow! I love it! Where can I find your notation that you reference in the video? I found Kerry Mills Notation on the Music Library. Do you also have any tablature of the piece by chance? What a song! I hope I can learn it on my 1896 SS Stewart!

Thanks for all you do. From South Carolina, USA,

David Gillespie

[Jody Stecher]

Assuming you are talking about Ian's video on YouTube, this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNFPIanV1pM

the notation is right there in the video.  

[David Gillespie]

I saw that but it wasn't clear if that was Ians or not, and I wonder is there a printable version? Thanks Jody

[Jody Stecher]

I expect ian will reply by and by.  Meanwhile check out this Olly Oakley recording of WW

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7Joy3yPFjw

David Gillespie said:

I saw that but it wasn't clear if that was Ians or not, and I wonder is there a printable version? Thanks Jody

[David Gillespie]

Wow such great melody! Thank you!

[thereallyniceman]

Hi David,

Yes a great tune indeed. I recorded this ages ago at about the time I ended up in hospital, so the other parts of the score never got done. (I must have forgotten all about them!)

Here is the score from the video:

attached is a TAB version done by Marc Smith

[Joel Hooks]

The CE published version does not contain all of the parts, it is missing the 4th part.

There is a decent, but not perfect, arrangement that was done by Eli Kaufman that contains all 4 parts.  It may be found on the American Banjo Fraternity website under Group Numbers.

[Trapdoor2]

Here's the Tab, all 4 parts. I'm in SC too...down in Myrtle Beach.

I'm not a fan of the 4th part. It is per the original but to me it sounds 'tacked on' to fill space. That might be because I played the CE version a lot before discovering the 4th part.

[David Gillespie]

Thank you very much Mr Hooks!

David G

Joel Hooks said:

The CE published version does not contain all of the parts, it is missing the 4th part.

There is a decent, but not perfect, arrangement that was done by Eli Kaufman that contains all 4 parts.  It may be found on the American Banjo Fraternity website under Group Numbers.

[David Gillespie]

Wow this is pure gold, thank you kindly!

David G

Trapdoor2 said:

Here's the Tab, all 4 parts. I'm in SC too...down in Myrtle Beach.

I'm not a fan of the 4th part. It is per the original but to me it sounds 'tacked on' to fill space. That might be because I played the CE version a lot before discovering the 4th part.

[Richard William Ineson]

Here's another version of the Trio, arranged by Joe Morley, in the style of Vess Ossman. Essex discontinued publishing this extra section because he never heard anybody play it. Essex mentioned that when Ossman played Whistling Rufus at one of the London concerts in 1903, a gentleman in the audience became so excited that he threw his hat in the air and lost it.

Trapdoor2 said:

Here's the Tab, all 4 parts. I'm in SC too...down in Myrtle Beach.

I'm ntrioot a fan of the 4th part. It is per the original but to me it sounds 'tacked on' to fill space. That might be because I played the CE version a lot before discovering the 4th part.

[Jody Stecher]

Wow. I can see why nobody played it. I just tried. The first hurdle is in the second bar. As the melody moves up the frets of the bass string we are told to play A natural with third finger in between PB and 10 PB. It doesn't seem humanly possible to get to the 10PB from the A when played at normal speed. I got around it by delaying the 10 PB to the second half of the measure.  For the first half I played the following F major chord: A on fret 9 with the index, and strings 3,2 and 1 all at fret 10. I tried this barring with the 2nd finger, barring with the 3rd, and playing strings 3,2 and 1 with fingers 2, 3 and 4. This last way was the most comfortable. No matter how I formed the chord, locating the melody note (A) in the context of a chord rather than an isolated single pitch allowed me to play at speed. 

The next barrier was in measure 5.  Here I had the opposite problem. If I played the measure with all four fingers on the fretboard my 4th finger kept touching the higher strings, which muted them. I got around that by removing the 4th finger immediately after playing G and not returning it until needed in the second half of the measure,

I wonder why this variation is labeled "Rag-time Trio".  It is not more raggy than the first two parts of the tune. It's the usual third part melody accompanied by a "bunk-a-chink-a" rhythm.

At any rate, thank you Richard for posting this. I like how it sounds. I'll learn to play it. Now *someone* will play it.

Richard William Ineson said:

Here's another version of the Trio, arranged by Joe Morley, in the style of Vess Ossman. Essex discontinued publishing this extra section because he never heard anybody play it. Essex mentioned that when Ossman played Whistling Rufus at one of the London concerts in 1903, a gentleman in the audience became so excited that he threw his hat in the air and lost it.

Trapdoor2 said:

Here's the Tab, all 4 parts. I'm in SC too...down in Myrtle Beach.

I'm ntrioot a fan of the 4th part. It is per the original but to me it sounds 'tacked on' to fill space. That might be because I played the CE version a lot before discovering the 4th part.

[Joel Hooks]

Ossman playing this: (also the 4th part).

https://archive.org/details/VessLOssman/VessLOssman-WhistlingRufus.mp3