Next?

[thereallynicelady]

The practice for the ‘new’ piece is now underway and OH is in the study working out fingering and playing short phrases over and over again. It takes only a short while for him to choose what to play and then it’s all systems go to master the music. I was wondering how  members here go about choosing their ‘next’ piece. Do you flick through the music you have already, do you arrange your own, do you adapt a piece you’ve heard or do you raid the music here on Classic Banjo Ning? How do you practice? Do you shut yourselves away for hours on end or set yourself a practice time and stick to it? New members, (hello and welcome), did you join to take advantage of the music library, what pieces are you playing at the moment? I really like to see German David’s contributions to the site as he masters the playing of his banjo by practising his exercises and tunes. Please share your 'current' practice piece or tune.

[marc dalmasso]

i wish to play  melodic tunes ; never mind if they come from the CB  ' repertoire or from the piano ' repertoire or anything else

[thereallyniceman]

It is very interesting to hear how people practise and what they like to play. I prefer lively, brash foot tappers rather than slow melodic, but Classic banjo is such a versatile style that there are no restrictions!

 

Hey Marc S., did I hear the words “video it”? That would be great as we have not seen one from you for a while.

 

Jody’s method is particularly interesting as I too am not a good sight reader and start very slowly working through a score until it is “under my fingers” and then take an age fiddling around with different ways to finger the piece until it feels easy for me. I agree with Jody that many of the original scores are NOT notated correctly when it comes to which finger and often which fret position to be playing at.  I tried the “Interesting Titled” approach too, but often found the only interesting thing was the title.. Frank Lawes’  Pandemonium Rag springs to mind… it was rubbish  ;-)

 

One big mistake that I have fallen in to is practising, ad nauseam, one piece until I “get it” and ignoring all others. The result is a reasonable performance on one piece and a pile of others that I have either forgotten completely or make a real hash of!

 

I really wish I could site read banjo scores fluently and quickly, but I don’t think that it will happen, but take my advice and do what Jody says…keep a few on the go at one time and then you will have a repertoire rather than one goodie that you (and the wife) are fed up with.

 

I have ventured into Mike’s territory of attempting transcriptions of pieces not heard (or seldom heard) on the banjo, but have chosen ones that have often recorded on other instruments, such as Ragtime pieces. It is hard work and time consuming, but good fun, actually producing your own “banjo arrangement” and as Mike says lets you express the piece your way, while still being able to chose interpretations that you like from other’s performances.

 

German seems to be doing it correctly with much practice of exercises to get the fingers used to flowing naturally across the strings and working on pieces within his abilities. We have all attempted to play pieces that are too difficult and become disheartened by the end result, only to come back when more experienced and found it much easier to play… PRACTICE, PRACTICE AND MORE PRACTICE… there is no way of escaping it, just enjoy it!

 

Shawn mentions that he too does arrangements and he sent me Tom Turpin’s HARLEM RAG in Tablature form for all you notation strugglers !  I have added this to the MUSIC LIBRARY.. thanks Shawn. 

Shawn, Becky Schneider is a member on here and has posted a few times in the past…give her a nudge for us and get her to say hello again!

 

Shawn sent an MP3 of the Tablature and you can hit the play button on the LIBRARY entry to hear it , but he has a problem with the “Banjo Voice” in his music software so it ended up as some hybrid guitar sound.. but it sounds good… I just love Ragtime!

 

HARLEM RAG

[marc dalmasso]

of course DS  DeLisle beeing not Rouget DeLisle here :

http://classic-banjo.ning.com/video/st-louis-tickle-1