The Frank C. Bradbury Methods

[Joel Hooks]

Following up on Jody's question about the different editions of Bradbury.

In 1926, Frank Bradbury published his first method book for regular banjo;

Bradbury Modern Method for the Banjo (Fingerstyle C Notation).  This is in the public domain and the copy was provided for me to scan by Marc Smith.

Bradbury also published a method for Plectrum which I do not have. (Does anyone have this?  I'll pay shipping both ways to scan it).

This is a great method, one of the best "period" methods in C notation, IMO.  When Marc first sent it to me, I found it intimidating.  Since then, I have worked through every page and find it excellent, but not quite as good as his later book(s).  The reason is that the later book is better graded with a more gradual introduction of skills and info. 

Nearly 50 years later, Bradbury retires from running the mailroom of an insurance company. In retirement he finishes up his second method, published by Mel Bay in 1967.

The Mel Bay Banjo Method (5 String) was published in two volumes. Volume one is pink, volume two is blue.  This seems to have been Mel Bay's scheme, he did this multi volume thing with his Modern Method for (plectrum) Guitar.  He put out a fantastic method for "Classic Guitar" (yep, that is "classic" not "classical") in 5 volumes... um, just kidding, actually three. (Volume one said "complete if 5 volumes" but it turned out that 3 was enough.) But seriously, if you want to learn fingerstyle Spanish guitar, this is a great method.

Back to the subject:

Both volumes are easy to find on ebay.  As of this post they go for around $5-$10 each plus shipping of about the same price.  Sometimes you can find them listed together.  And every now and then a lot is listed that also includes Walter Kaye Bauer's Jigs and Reels book (which I also recommend).

Each volume is 64 pages.

In 1992, Mel Bay reissued this method, combining the two volumes into one.  When they did this, they added a new title page and also messed with the order of the first few pages.  The results is that every subsequent page is one off (page 24 in Volume 1 is now page 25 in the combined version).  This now requires a page turn for any two page etude, exercise or musical number.

That is, until page 66.  I guess as they were setting the book, this is where someone said "ah, dang it, we messed up" and added a blank page that says "This page has been inserted to avoid awkward page turns".  I'm guessing that they did not really care about this book when they republished it.  They also, for some reason, put one of Bob Flesher's banjos on the cover with wire strings.

Mel Bay currently offers an "e book" version on their website for $20.  I bought this to have on my ipad and discovered it is just a scan (and not a great one) of the 1992 combined version... but they fixed the page order (meaning, if you print this the pages, front to back, are correctly ordered, with that blank page 66 removed).

Had I known this was just a scan, I would have scanned my originals and saved the $20.

I am just finishing up writing out a complete index of the Mel Bay method and will post to this discussion after I make sure it is correct. 

I have also been working on tracking down all of the source material that Bradbury ripped off for this later book.  It has been a fun exercise in detective work and had me doing some constant sight-reading.  I've tracked down most of the pieces and this list will be published in the 5 Stringer fairly soon.

[Richard William Ineson]

Yikes indeed! When you get to this stage of making the banjo as difficult to play as possible, you may as well have pages of instruction devoted to playing the banjo whilst standing on your head, drinking a pint of beer and smoking a cigar, at the same time. What is the point? Why not just enjoy playing  a few tunes that bring pleasure to all without all this nonsense about taking the player and the instrument to their limit?

Jody Stecher said:

Thanks!  And Yikes!  The only way I can get my thumb to do anything but flop around chaotically is to brace the ring finger perpendicularly on the vellum and wobble the thumb nearly parallel to the bracing finger.  That leaves the index and middle to make chords as the little 4th finger is now midair. I tried the suggested song and found it strange playing the entire melody on 14 frets of one string, although I know sitarists do this.  The results were so unsatisfactory that I got slightly better results playing tremolo with my index finger and plucking the chords with the 4th finger of the LEFT hand. 

Richard William Ineson said:

It's a long time ago Jody, at the time I was pleased to see the Ms. and Hunter's handwriting, a connection with a really great banjoist from the past. The only other things I have seen like this are a Hunter Ms. of a banjo tune written whilst he was staying at Emery's Hotel in Brighton in the winter of 1903 and another unpublished complete solo, the name of which escapes me at the moment. As to the thumb tremolo, we didn't take it very seriously, but the instructions, as I recall, were to place the right forearm firmly on the rim of the banjo and arch the right hand over the strings, bringing the thumb into contact with the fourth string whilst moving it to and fro as rapidly as possible, and then playing the accompanying chords with the right hand fingers on the treble strings. We gave it half hearted try but did not pursue the technique. The tune used for this exercise was, I think 'Poor Old Joe'.

Jody Stecher said:

Do you remember the technique and can you describe it?  Is this tremolo by the thumb alone with no participation by the index finger?

Richard William Ineson said:

One aspect of banjo technique which, as far as I am aware, has never been covered in any banjo method is thumb tremolo on the fourth string with accompanying chords played on the treble strings. A fellow banjo enthusiast in the UK, discovered Hunter's unpublished treatise (two or three hand written pages) on this technique, inside a copy of one of Hunter's compositions, some years ago. We conjectured that it had been intended  to be included in Hunter's instruction book, but was probably rejected by the publisher as ' a step too far' and the cost of printing this material could not be justified, bearing in mind the limited appeal of this very difficult technique, to a very few potential customers.

[Byron Thomas]

The point of doing this is to please the audience. People are always going to enjoy well executed novelty playing. While not quite touching on "playing the banjo whilst standing on your head, drinking a pint of beer and smoking a cigar, at the same time" there was a treatise published on trick banjo playing. It must have been enough of a trend to warrant a publication. That doesn't mean that one can't still enjoy the simplicity of playing Sunflower Dance. But I guess there comes a day in every banjoist life where they wake up and decide that juggling 3 banjo's while playing a song, playing two banjos at the same time, or even twirling the banjo like Macon and Leroy Troy is a worthwhile endeavor. Check out this harmonica trick playing method (How To Play Blues On The Harmonica Also Amusing Harmonica Novelty E...)

[Richard William Ineson]

I agree that for a small proportion of the banjo playing population, 'trick' playing, juggling banjos, tap dancing whilst playing a banjo, even setting them on fire during your performance is essential if you are to have any prospects of making a living from playing the banjo. However, the small numbers of people in an audience who would appreciate the dedication and the many hours of work required to perform a convincing thumb tremelo, with self accompaniment, version of 'Poor Old Joe' are going to be very small indeed. The average person would be unlikely to appreciate the miracle that was taking place before their eyes  and most  would be unable to see the thumb becoming a mere blur as it reached maximum tremelo velocity. No, I cannot see the point. As regards public performance of this feat, I remember Alf Lane (who was employed at the Metropolitan Music Hall where Mays and Hunter performed) commenting, in a letter to the B.M.G. magazine, sometime in the 1960s I think, about being invited, along with other banjo enthusiasts, into M&H's dressing room to witness Hunter performing 'The Mocking Bird', pitched in the key of Ab using artificial harmonics, whilst accompanying himself, which is probably as difficult as the thumb tremelo stunt. Whether or not Hunter did the artificial harmonic performance on stage is another matter, I have never seen a report of him doing so and I assume that he reserved this for audiences composed of banjo enthusiasts, who would appreciate the complexity, challenge, and near impossibility, performance wise, of the arrangement, but I could be wrong. 

Byron Thomas said:

The point of doing this is to please the audience. People are always going to enjoy well executed novelty playing. While not quite touching on "playing the banjo whilst standing on your head, drinking a pint of beer and smoking a cigar, at the same time" there was a treatise published on trick banjo playing. It must have been enough of a trend to warrant a publication. That doesn't mean that one can't still enjoy the simplicity of playing Sunflower Dance. But I guess there comes a day in every banjoist life where they wake up and decide that juggling 3 banjo's while playing a song, playing two banjos at the same time, or even twirling the banjo like Macon and Leroy Troy is a worthwhile endeavor. Check out this harmonica trick playing method (How To Play Blues On The Harmonica Also Amusing Harmonica Novelty E...)

[Austin]

Farland did it in his recording of carnival of Venice

Joel Hooks said:

The 1926 Bradbury method covers orthodox waggle tremolo, the 1967 method does not even mention it.

I've read accounts of Horace Weston doing the thumb tremolo thing, but that was the only one.  Interesting about Hunter.

The nice thing about the world we live in today is that "publishing" things is no trouble at all.  One could simply scan such documents and upload them here or on the Internet Archive. 

Or they could just sit on them with the very high chance that when they pass the documents will go right to the dump.

Richard William Ineson said:

One aspect of banjo technique which, as far as I am aware, has never been covered in any banjo method is thumb tremolo on the fourth string with accompanying chords played on the treble strings. A fellow banjo enthusiast in the UK, discovered Hunter's unpublished treatise (two or three hand written pages) on this technique, inside a copy of one of Hunter's compositions, some years ago. We conjectured that it had been intended  to be included in Hunter's instruction book, but was probably rejected by the publisher as ' a step too far' and the cost of printing this material could not be justified, bearing in mind the limited appeal of this very difficult technique, to a very few potential customers.

[Austin]

Fireworks are fun. 

Richard William Ineson said:

Yikes indeed! When you get to this stage of making the banjo as difficult to play as possible, you may as well have pages of instruction devoted to playing the banjo whilst standing on your head, drinking a pint of beer and smoking a cigar, at the same time. What is the point? Why not just enjoy playing  a few tunes that bring pleasure to all without all this nonsense about taking the player and the instrument to their limit?

Jody Stecher said:

Thanks!  And Yikes!  The only way I can get my thumb to do anything but flop around chaotically is to brace the ring finger perpendicularly on the vellum and wobble the thumb nearly parallel to the bracing finger.  That leaves the index and middle to make chords as the little 4th finger is now midair. I tried the suggested song and found it strange playing the entire melody on 14 frets of one string, although I know sitarists do this.  The results were so unsatisfactory that I got slightly better results playing tremolo with my index finger and plucking the chords with the 4th finger of the LEFT hand. 

Richard William Ineson said:

It's a long time ago Jody, at the time I was pleased to see the Ms. and Hunter's handwriting, a connection with a really great banjoist from the past. The only other things I have seen like this are a Hunter Ms. of a banjo tune written whilst he was staying at Emery's Hotel in Brighton in the winter of 1903 and another unpublished complete solo, the name of which escapes me at the moment. As to the thumb tremolo, we didn't take it very seriously, but the instructions, as I recall, were to place the right forearm firmly on the rim of the banjo and arch the right hand over the strings, bringing the thumb into contact with the fourth string whilst moving it to and fro as rapidly as possible, and then playing the accompanying chords with the right hand fingers on the treble strings. We gave it half hearted try but did not pursue the technique. The tune used for this exercise was, I think 'Poor Old Joe'.

Jody Stecher said:

Do you remember the technique and can you describe it?  Is this tremolo by the thumb alone with no participation by the index finger?

Richard William Ineson said:

One aspect of banjo technique which, as far as I am aware, has never been covered in any banjo method is thumb tremolo on the fourth string with accompanying chords played on the treble strings. A fellow banjo enthusiast in the UK, discovered Hunter's unpublished treatise (two or three hand written pages) on this technique, inside a copy of one of Hunter's compositions, some years ago. We conjectured that it had been intended  to be included in Hunter's instruction book, but was probably rejected by the publisher as ' a step too far' and the cost of printing this material could not be justified, bearing in mind the limited appeal of this very difficult technique, to a very few potential customers.

[Joel Hooks]

Austin, Farland’s recordings were made with a leather plectrum attached to his index finger with an elastic loop.  All his recorded tremolo was played with a pick, plectrum style.

[Jody Stecher]

  The thumb tremolo under discussion is a means of achieving sostenuto (sustain)  on the bass string while the digits play chords on higher strings. This effect is nowhere to be found on that recording.


Austin said:

Farland did it in his recording of carnival of Venice

[Austin]

Then how does he tremolo a bass string and pluck higher notes on the others?
Joel Hooks said:

Austin, Farland’s recordings were made with a leather plectrum attached to his index finger with an elastic loop.  All his recorded tremolo was played with a pick, plectrum style.

[Joel Hooks]

It is called “duo style” for plectrum.  Look it up on YouTube.

[Austin]

Wow! Plectrum players are something else. I don't know how Rob Hinkle swaps chord shapes that fast.

Joel Hooks said:

It is called “duo style” for plectrum.  Look it up on YouTube.

[Trapdoor2]

Ron started playing in his family's band as a child. You tend to get good starting early like that...and playing professionally all your life...

Austin said:

Wow! Plectrum players are something else. I don't know how Rob Hinkle swaps chord shapes that fast.

Joel Hooks said:

It is called “duo style” for plectrum.  Look it up on YouTube.