Classic-Banjo
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Home Sweet Home with variations - Herbert J Ellis
Home Sweet Home, written by Henry Bishop, is one of the world's most enduring and well-known melodies. It has also been a favourite with banjoists ever since the minstrel era, with arrangements composed and played by Frank B. Converse, Alfred A. Farland, Herbert J. Ellis, S. E. Turner, or Earl Scruggs. Sets of variations on melodies such as this one were extremely popular with audiences at the time and were therefore a staple of Classic banjo playing. This set of variations is probably one of the best of its kind, as it is neither too simple nor too difficult. It follows the following structure:
- Intro w/cadenza (semi-improvised fancy ornaments)
- Theme
- Rolling/arpeggio variation
- "Brilliant" variation (with fast, fancy ornaments)
- Tremolo variation
- Thimble variation (down-picking with a metal thimble pick)
Views: 186
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Comment by thereallyniceman on April 18, 2013 at 7:18
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I think that I am beginning to believe in reincarnation, Mr Farland. :-)
How on earth do you play those runs up the fretboard so quickly and more importantly.. so cleanly?
I have never really liked "Variations" on tunes but I cannot help but be impressed by your performance Mike !!
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Comment by marc dalmasso on April 18, 2013 at 8:29
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fantastic , Mike ; could you link it to CB France ?; thx
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Comment by Trapdoor2 on April 18, 2013 at 15:02
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Excellent! Back in 2006, I was fortunate enough to see Bill Evans do one of these (I forget whose arrangement but it was from the 1880's). As I recall, it included variations in different styles, Polka, March, Mazurka, etc. It was a very cool thing to see.
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Comment by Jody Stecher on April 18, 2013 at 15:05
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About Variations , Home Sweet Home, (and Bill Evans) see my latest post.
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Comment by Mike Moss on April 18, 2013 at 15:09
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Cheers Ian! However I think Farland lacked something which is essential for a banjoist... a sense of humour! What's banjo playing without a bit of self-deprecation, eh? ;-) I also think variations are a bit boring but non-initiates love them. Furthermore it also gives you a workout in several styles of playing!
@Marc I think Bill plays the Frank Converse variations from the 1886 book. I had a look at them and they looked good too, but the combination of A notation and the very odd typeset FBC uses is too much for me!
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I haven't looked at the Converse version in a good long while...lots of crazy stuff there. I'm not sure my TAB program can handle all the lunacy therein.
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Comment by German David Patarroyo on April 20, 2013 at 4:23
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I personally liked it the Tremolo variation...I liked the mood :)
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