Seaside Medley for Classic Fingerstyle Banjo

A medley of tunes played on a Clifford Essex Special wood - hoop open backed banjo. No finger picks on nylon strings. Sound quality is not so good as I was u...

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Comment by thereallyniceman on May 24, 2011 at 15:37

I uploaded this as a lesson to us all.. Don't play too fast and don't play pieces that are too hard!

It is a fun piece for classic style, but a challenge.

I was also busy trying to get stared out by the video monster so found it difficult to concentrate :-)

Comment by Trapdoor2 on May 24, 2011 at 17:31

Awesome, Ian. Very well done, even with a few minor gaffes; a challenge indeed! It is always somewhat of a shock to hear your attack, I know you have fingertips of steel but what a great sharp sound you get.

That seems to be a stock CS medley group, he performs something very close to that on one of the CDs I have. The tunes are switched around a bit in his version but very close. I don't suppose you're willing to part with the dots?

Comment by Sylvia on May 24, 2011 at 20:05
It seems like a fun piece to play.   Where is your good lady though?
Comment by Mike Moss on May 24, 2011 at 20:10

Wow... some really rapid shifts up and down the neck there, as well as some very clean single-string runs. That CE wood hoop Special has a great tone. Thanks for sharing!

Comment by Steve Harrison on May 25, 2011 at 8:25
A great performance...do you have the dots?
Comment by thereallyniceman on May 25, 2011 at 9:53

You are all toooo kind.  It is a fun piece. Sorry I don't have the dots, it was a good dose of working out and remembering how it went and adding my own variations. It is a bit of a finger twister too. Well spotted Mike, the notes are all over the place so you have to expect the odd fluff with all the jumps  :-)

 

Sylvia, I had sent the wife out to work. Somebody has to keep me in new banjos :-)

... and there isn't a piano score either.

We are working on a couple with piano parts...  so watch this space !

Comment by Ray Jones on May 25, 2011 at 10:15
Hi Ian.   I just enjoyed listening to your Seaside Selection.     I thought that the cherry on the cake was your yellow bow tie.    A nice touch and good to see that you are keeping up standards of dress. 
Comment by Steve Harrison on May 25, 2011 at 18:10
It's a great piece of arranging and playing....despite my best efforts, if I try to anchor my pinky to the velum as you do and try to play, I just can't get my fingers to work properly. I think this is probably due to the rather large size of my hands.
Comment by thereallyniceman on May 26, 2011 at 17:03

Steve, It is not compulsory to anchor the pinky !  William J Ball didn't, and he wasn't bad :-)

It is just the way I was taught. I find that the newer or trickier the piece is, the harder I press on the vellum. I am almost pushing through on Cupid's Arrow!  On the easy bits I hardly press on at all.  

 

I find that the finger makes my hand more stable. I have tried just floating the hand and it is useless for me.  What ever works for you, I guess !

Comment by Mike Moss on May 26, 2011 at 17:49

I also tried floating the hand (mainly because my main goal, at the moment, is to sound like Bill!) but it's no good, I lose most of the strength which I usually get by anchoring on the vellum, and the result is a bit awkward. The floating hand is a lot better for playing strong bass notes, since I try to put all of the weight of my hand into the thumb in order to get a strong, percussive downstroke on the fourth string.

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