What are people practicing?

[Jody Stecher]

It's been a while since I learned a new classic Banjo Solo. Instead I've been reviewing my existing repertoire, and seeing if there are some left or right hand changes I can make that will make the music sound better. Right now I'm working on the Fred Van Eps piece "Rag Pickings".  What are others practicing? 

[IAN SALTER]

Whilst you've got the Ashborn out, have a look at 'Goodwood Breakdown' on the penultimate page of Walter Howard's Banjo Tutor. It's in the tutor books section on here. The instruction is to use RH Thumb and 1st finger, but doesn't specify how. I'm out of practice with stroke style and so I always pinch with + and 1. I think it's another little, hidden gem of a tune, along with the other two breakdowns in the book, Brighton and Ascot.

Note: I've just seen that 'Good Old Times Jig' is "For the Thimble" which suggests to me that the instruction for 'Goodwood' is pinch and not stroke style.

[IAN SALTER]

Marc, I've just had a quick read through Buckley's New Banjo Method and think that the tune you can't recall could be 'Campbell's Jig' on page 24. 

[Trapdoor2]

Ian, I've never played "Campbell's Jig" (that I can recall). I'll have to dig out my old Stroke notebook and see what I was playing back in 2006...

I looked at "Goodwood" and it is almost certainly Stroke (at least that's how I would play it). Many tutors mixed them up without notice. There are a couple in Buckley (as I recall) that are very difficult in Stroke Style but easy-peasy in fingerstyle...not mentioned though.

I tend to be lazy. If the piece is good but the style doesn't suit me, I'll switch it up. Like the triplets in "Excelsior Sand Dance", I'd switch to fingerstyle just for those few measures.

[Jody Stecher]

That's not lazy. That's intelligent.  Techniques are there to serve the music, or  to serve the player who is in service of the music. The player should not be a slave to a technique.  Mixing techniques is a sign of intelligence and resourcefulness. 

Trapdoor2 said:

I tend to be lazy. If the piece is good but the style doesn't suit me, I'll switch it up. Like the triplets in "Excelsior Sand Dance", I'd switch to fingerstyle just for those few measures.

[IAN SALTER]

I didn't actually play 'Campbell's Jig', but it seems to a have a similar rhythmic structure to the B part in the sand dance. It will be interesting to rediscover the tune. 

I started on the banjo only playing stroke style, but haven't done very much of it for years. I've retained enough to be able to stroke out the tunes I've mentioned, but they all work better for me in guitar style.

I think 'adaptable' better describes it than 'lazy'.

[Jody Stecher]

Exactly.

IAN SALTER said:

I think 'adaptable' better describes it than 'lazy'.

[Evan Crisman]

Cupid's Victory, a waltz by A.J. Weidt. It's not the most complicated piece, but I'm also not the most advanced player. But it certainly sounds nice and has been a good one piece to focus on rhythm, dynamics, and tempo. 

[Trapdoor2]

I've been playing Cupid's Victory for years. Lots of opportunities for emotive playing. Dynamics, tempo, etc. Fun to play as well...I  like Weidt.

Evan Crisman said:

Cupid's Victory, a waltz by A.J. Weidt. It's not the most complicated piece, but I'm also not the most advanced player. But it certainly sounds nice and has been a good one piece to focus on rhythm, dynamics, and tempo. 

[Richard William Ineson]

I haven't done any serious practicing for some years (see my videos) and I don't think that it has made much difference.  I went to the B.M.G. weekend at Halsway Manor a couple of years ago, Aaron Jonah Lewis was doing the banjo workshop. I was pleased to hear that he does a lot of the same kind of practicing as myself - just holding the banjo and twanging the open strings; he calls it 'the Zen of the banjo' my wife calls it 'infuriating'. Having come to terms with the realisation that I cannot really play the banjo any more, I am happy to just play the easy bits from various tunes as they come into my head. I'm currently playing (don't laugh) 'The Harp That Once Through Tara's Halls' from Hunter's 'Erin' a 'Fantasia on Irish Airs', Joe Morley's 'Vaudeville', Frank Lawes' 'Hot Frets', 'Rag Pickings' arr. Van Eps. I also stumble through things like Gregory's L'Infanta, Eno's ' Glenside March', 'Nola', 'The Maple Leaf Rag', 'The Stars and Stripes for Ever' and then things from my busking days, 'When You're Smiling', 'Robert E Lee', 'Baby Face', 'I'll See You in my Dreams' etc. Yesterday, I woke up with 'Ma! He's Making Eyes at Me' running through my head, a tune which I've never played before so I decided that rather then paint the shed as I had intended to do, I would sit down and find the best key in which to play this song on my banjo (when I pick a key for one of these old songs I try to get all of the melody notes on the first string) which turned out to be F Major, I played this through a few times and I think that I will be able to murder this one quite satisfactorily, along with a lot of others, the next time some fool asks me to play my banjo for them. Practicing can be very daunting if you are too self critical, George Morris always said 'If you're going to play a bum note, play it loud enough so that everybody can hear it', sound advice, in my book. The main thing is to play as loudly as possible, no dabbing away at the strings, just give it the full treatment, nobody notices bum notes really. When I was busking (plectrum banjo) some years ago I would occasionally forget, mid tune, which tune I was playing, I would just run my left hand up and down the fingerboard in a tremoloed Gilssando until I remembered what the tune was. Nobody ever noticed. I aim to get about 6-7 notes out of ten right, some people aren't quite as fussy as me

[Jody Stecher]

I agree. In speech a mumbled mispronounced word is more noticeable for the mumbling than the pronunciation. The world is a better place without banjo mumbling.  

Richard William Ineson said:

George Morris always said 'If you're going to play a bum note, play it loud enough so that everybody can hear it', sound advice, in my book. 

[Richard William Ineson]

GM was a bit of a drinker, somebody once asked him how he managed to play the banjo when he'd taken a few sharpener's on board, he said, "If you're want to play the banjo when you're drunk, you have to practice when you're drunk"

[Joel Hooks]

Every now and then I revisit the Bradbury Method from page one and run through the entire book.  I've been doing that lately, but this time I have added his earlier 1926 method in tandem.  You'd think I would have the 1967 memorized by now, but I seem to find something new every time I work through it. 

If anyone wants to sit down at the rally next month and play some of the Bradbury Method, I'd be thrilled to be part of that.

That, and the usual stack of "regulars" for the ABF Rally.