Rob Murch has sent me a video, and not a sign of him!

[thereallyniceman]

Our friend, Rob Murch, has sent me a link to a video made by Michelle Holding,  one of Rob's pupils.

Michelle certainly has made excellent progress as she has only been playing for just over two years.

This is a superb bit of "real" live playing, including the odd wobbler, but who cares. You can see the musicality oozing out from her playing !!!!  Nice banjo, nice tone and a delight to watch!

ENCORE !!!!!!    and 5*****  from me.  I am sure that Emile would be proud of you :-)

I see that you are a member on here Michelle, so I do hope that you will post more videos and join in the discussion fun.

[Trapdoor2]

Ooops. Sorry about that Joel. I got sidetracked.

Glad you got it cheap! Is it in the Archive yet?

Did I ask about Baur's "Modern Gems For The Banjo"? Anyone seen that one?

[Joel Hooks]

Not a problem.  It is not up yet.  I got it in the mail a day before the rally and I am just now getting around to scanning stuff.  I am surprised how thick it is-- about 130 pages.  I recognize some of the pieces in it from other books and also single sheets.  Clearly there is some recycling of plates involved.  There looks to be a lot of stuff I have not seen and could be new to the book.  There is a good chunk of Mikado pieces (it would be fun to go through all the books and try to put together music for the entire operetta. 

No, but I am asking now!  I have not seen that one.  Baur is always interesting in his selections.

Another that I have not located is "Coes Coos" by George Coes and published by Gatcomb.  I only know about it from ads in the Gazette. 

I am not sure where to start with A to C.  The last couple of days I have been playing a Fred Bacon pieces titled "At a Husking Bee."  It is a medley of fiddle tunes with in imitation of a violin tuning at the beginning.  It got me thinking that there are not much of the two part pieces in C and I should start to transpose and put together a collection of them.

"Hooks' Mammoth Collection of Fiddle Tunes for Banjo" -- I might make zeros of dollars!   Since it would be derivative I'd likely just toss it up on the Archive.

[Trapdoor2]

I did a couple of short pieces from the Dobson National last night. "The Haunted House" and "Jumbo Jig". "Jumbo Jig" is in C and uses a scordatura that drops the G# down to G (eAEGB). Typical fun dotted jig... I haven't actually played it yet, so no idea why Dobson chose to drop the 2nd string a semi-tone.
There are a couple of pieces by Hulse in the National that I may go for. Gotta get Stars and Stripes done first (got first two strains in last night)...

[Jody Stecher]

Thanks for calling attention to the Jumbo Jig. I found it online in George Dobson's World Banjo Guide. I like it!

http://contentdm6.hamilton.edu/cdm/pageflip/collection/spe-ban/id/1...

The lowered 2nd string of Jumbo Jig facilitates  easy fingering. Bearing in mind that this is notated in modified A tuning  (e A E G B), the opening arpeggios and all that follows can now be played from simple chord positions and painless fingering.  First is a C major ascending/descending arpeggio. CEGcecGE). This can now be done with only two fingers on the fingerboard. C is at fret 3 of the bass string and its upper octave is at fret 1 on the first string.  E and G are open and so is the high e.  The next measure is B F G e d is played from a G7 position. All but the e (the open 5th string) are part of the chord.  In this case 2 strings are open (5 and 2) and three are fingered, comfortably. 

Trapdoor2 said:

I did a couple of short pieces from the Dobson National last night. "The Haunted House" and "Jumbo Jig". "Jumbo Jig" is in C and uses a scordatura that drops the G# down to G (eAEGB). Typical fun dotted jig... I haven't actually played it yet, so no idea why Dobson chose to drop the 2nd string a semi-tone.
There are a couple of pieces by Hulse in the National that I may go for. Gotta get Stars and Stripes done first (got first two strains in last night)...

[Trapdoor2]

These guys re-used tunes a lot! Odd that there is no tuning change suggested (or given) in the World Guide. Thanks for the link to it, I have hard copy buried here somewhere but...so much easier via PDF. I should have a pile of music to send in to Ian for upload by the end of this week. Miz Diane's out in Phoenix, so I'll be howling and yowling with the banjo at full tilt...for at least one night. ;-)

[Joel Hooks]

This "Jumbo Jig" is one of only a very few examples of scordatura other than bass elevated that can be found in the classic banjo era.

The others that I can think of are Bag Pipes Imitation (Converse, Morley), Sebastopol (published by SSS), American Jig (Bohee), and Lon Morris's Jig (Buckley).

[Trapdoor2]

Yah, that's what drew my attention to it. Cool piece, not difficult...fun!

[Jody Stecher]

Is your transcription in A notation or C notation?

Trapdoor2 said:

Yah, that's what drew my attention to it. Cool piece, not difficult...fun!

[Trapdoor2]

Yes. ;-)

It is in the computer, just a click or two makes it in any notation you would like.

Jody Stecher said:

Is your transcription in A notation or C notation?

Trapdoor2 said:

Yah, that's what drew my attention to it. Cool piece, not difficult...fun!

[Jody Stecher]

Fantastic. Thank you, Marc!  I can read A notation if I concentrate hard but C is easier for me, even when tuned low. (Public Service announcement : Marc has attached both tab and staff notation for C tuning. I missed it the first time I read his post. Scroll down a bit, you'll find it).

Trapdoor2 said:

Yes. ;-)

It is in the computer, just a click or two makes it in any notation you would like.

Jody Stecher said:

Is your transcription in A notation or C notation?

Trapdoor2 said:

Yah, that's what drew my attention to it. Cool piece, not difficult...fun!