Bradbury Book 2

[Jody Stecher]

Having played through the entire first volume I now have turned my attention to volume 2. I found the first book to be excellent instructional material sequenced in such a way as to give the student a gentle prod to improve at the same time as building confidence in using what was learned on earlier pages. The downside was occasionally vague instructions and a few badly constructed sentences.  

Will volume 1 be similar?  I expect the music will get harder to play. 

The Norwegian Folk Dance and its preparatory exercise introduces new rhythms and fingerings. The piece is fun to play and  relentlessly jolly and therefore does not remind me of Norwegians. 

The second page of The Sailor's Refrain is  Darling Nellie Gray. Once again the title is a bad fit to the music. The musical arrangement is excellent and not as hard to play as it is to read. There are some tricky position changes. The arrangement and fingering instructions provide the means to play these changes with confidence.

[Jody Stecher]

Pages 30 and 31

Next is the key of G minor.  I had success with the exercises here. I have used slightly different fingering from what is prescribed here so in effect I undertook this as a beginner. In a short time, through dutiful repetition of the sequenced fingering  I went from "huh?" to "why?" to "this is awkward" to "oh, this kinda makes sense" to "I like this" to "this isn't so hard after all" to "oh, there's a pattern on each string" to "got it". 

Then comes a page and a half of Dance Morisco. I had a good laugh imaging English Morris Dancers prancing around to this wide-ranging exploration of the banjo fingerboard in G minor. It's a good review of chord positions and ways of sequencing them. 

At the bottom of the page Bradbury describes the movement between two chord formations as a "Picking Pattern".  It is not. It is a left hand pattern. Picking is done with the other hand.  Once again he has good advice to give but is limited in his ability to give the advice in words that accurately represent his intended meaning.

[Joel Hooks]

Dance Morisco is a total mystery to me.  Knowing what I know about the general obsession many historic banjoists had with race, I believe it is more likely related to "Moors" rather than English dancers with sticks, bells and ribbons (yes I am aware of the claims of "Morris Dancing" history and also the evidence that it is not so old as claimed-- I have no opinion on the matter only that I enjoy when they hit sticks together and leapfrog, also #swordstar).

Bradbury credits his teacher Fred Bacon for the piece, but I have scoured every piece of Bacon related music I can get my hands on and have not found it.  The late Eli Kaufman told me he had also tried to find it and could not. I hope that at some point some Bradbury manuscript turns up with it the original title or some clue to where it came from. 

It is a nice piece and when played at a brisk clip is a bit unnerving (so I like it). 

[Jody Stecher]

 I'm sure Bradbury did not have Morris dancers in mind. Because Morisco means Moorish and the other word in the title is "Dance" my mind connected the syllables with Morris Dance.  It was an amusing pun that briefly crossed my mind. The tune is supposed to sound Spanish. Does it? I dunno. It well might.  There is actually a lot of variety to Spanish folk music  

Joel Hooks said:

Dance Morisco is a total mystery to me.  Knowing what I know about the general obsession many historic banjoists had with race, I believe it is more likely related to "Moors" rather than English dancers with sticks, bells and ribbons (yes I am aware of the claims of "Morris Dancing" history and also the evidence that it is not so old as claimed-- I have no opinion on the matter only that I enjoy when they hit sticks together and leapfrog, also #swordstar).

Bradbury credits his teacher Fred Bacon for the piece, but I have scoured every piece of Bacon related music I can get my hands on and have not found it.  The late Eli Kaufman told me he had also tried to find it and could not. I hope that at some point some Bradbury manuscript turns up with it the original title or some clue to where it came from. 

It is a nice piece and when played at a brisk clip is a bit unnerving (so I like it).