Thomas J. Armstrong...tunes from the files

[Trapdoor2]

Hi Gang,

I've been wandering thru the files again and pulled out some nice bits from the pen of Thomas J. Armstrong (1859-1932). Dots and TAB for each below.

 

Kalamazoo Kapers.pdf

Subtitled (Rag March). Neat little tune with some raggy bits in the B part.

 

Royal Rag.pdf

An exercise in F and Bb...and for your 'Ian-esque' snapping pleasure in the A part, a series of snaps from A to G (with the pinkie) whilst holding an F chord (and then a nasty-quick grab at a G7). 

 

Woodland Echoes.pdf

"Woodland Echoes" must have been particularly popular as I have several copies in the stacks. It reminds me a bit of "Sunflower Dance".  Temp di Schottische...I believe I will give this one a go on video (as it appears easier than the other two!).

 

[Mike Moss]

Wow, nice job, and great tunes as well, played through a bit of each and they're all very catchy.

I bought Tabledit about a year ago and I'm not very good at using it, but I'll try to contribute a few tabbed out classic tunes next year to help bring CB to the general banjo-playing public.

[Trapdoor2]

TablEdit has its quirks, but I've been using it for over 10 yrs and I'm used to most of 'em. ;-) These are "single page" tunes, ~50 measures in 2/4 and ~40 in 4/4. They take about 2hrs to enter into TablEdit. TablEdit has a really great little feature in that if you start a dotted section, it automatically chooses the next proper note and then switches back and forth between dotted and non. This really helps a lot for those Schottisches!

I think it is the best TAB program out there for the money.

Check in before sweating thru a CB tab...I have about 250 already tabbed out. Happy to share...and happy to help if you have TablEdit issues/questions.

[thereallyniceman]

Hi Marc,

I was only today asking David Wade how he manages to get in his house with all the music he has. I can only assume that you must live in the garage as your house must be stuffed full too! I am perhaps showing my ignorance, but I don't know much about Thomas Armstrong. (Other than Joel Hook's and Mike Moss's renditions of the Exile's Dream).  Any information on him available?

You can't beat a good snap or two, so Royal Rag deserves looking at!

 A "Rag March" sounds odd... syncopated walking... you would probably get arrested for being drunk ;-)

Thanks for posting them all

Ian

[Trapdoor2]

Ian,

I don't know anything about him beyond what I've tabbed out (I think I've done a couple others somewhere). He was born in 1859, died in 1932. American chap, y'know. I keep seeing references to a tome written by him about harmony for fretted instruments...but nothing on the book itself (I'd love to find it). He was often found writing in S.S. Stewart's Journal and penned quite a few tunes for the banjo. I have several bits of large-format sheet music published by him...and he shows up in several of the American "banjo tune collections" from the 1890's. I think he also worked on the tenor/plectrum side in the 19-teens.

[Sylvia]

Don't know how I missed these. Don't know about BAS , don't have ( can't afford ) that but do have Music AS.

Thank you Marc.