Sousa arranged for banjo...

[Trapdoor2]

Hi gang,

I found a site yesterday that has some interesting sheet music...esp. a pile of Sousa marches in their original published banjo arrangements. Check it out!

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/search?query=%2Bbanjo&start=0...

It appears that several have both solo and duet versions. If I ever get my TAB program back up and running, I'm going to get "King Cotton" up and running...

===Marc

[thereallyniceman]

WOW!!
Thanks Marc,
Not just for the link but for the unbelievable coincidence....Only yesterday I started to produce an arrangement of Sousa's Manhattan Beach for banjo from the sheet music my Handbell Ringing Team use to play the piece. (Yes, I run a handbell team, sad but true !)

In the past you have sent me copies of pieces of music when I asked you but this time you sent it BEFORE I asked...you must be telepathic..very spooky!!!!

I just love Sousa Marches and am currently struggling though "The Washington Post" which is another great march.

I shall be spending some time on this site ......... EXCELLENT find!!

[Trapdoor2]

LOL. I'm usually "telepathetic" (weak mind, easy to read) but I'll take the rose petals where they're thrown. Handbell would drive me nuts...getting the timing down! Argh!

"Manhattan Beach" is such a cool tune (as are most Sousa marches). I want to do "El Capitan" one of these days.

[thereallyniceman]

I am a bit of a duffer when it comes to the older banjo tunings. I am a gCGBD man myself.

The Manhattan Beach score that I downloaded is in 4 sharps and goes down to B on the stave......Can anyone tell me how you should tune the banjo?

It says on the score "Elevate Bass" .. and I am still a little stumped!!

[Trapdoor2]

That would be eBEG#B, Ian...the old American "A" tuning with raised bass. Quite frankly, I'd strike a new staff line thru the current middle C and delete the current top line (essentially moving the whole staff down a line). Then, drop off all the sharps but the F# and call it "Gmaj"...tune to gDGBD and off you go!

I have a rough ouline of tunings, a bit of history...and charts. I'll append it.

[Jody Stecher]

This piece is written for eBEG#B tuning. But I recommend that you play it in gDGBD. Just bring your bass up to D from C. Now you have an open G chord. Remove the top line from the staff and add a new bottom line. Remove three of the sharps from the signature so that only F sharp remains. Everything will work and you'll be playing in G major instead of E major. OR, you might see if your music writing software will convert from E major to G major. The A tuning (and the resulting E tuning when the bass is tuned up one whole step ("elevated") is simply the same arrangement of tones as in gCGBD tuned down three half steps.

[Adam]

Yes, thanks, Marc. Both for the link and the pdf ... I'm getting a new banjo today (from Bernunzio - this one) so I'm hoping to spend a good amount of time banjoing this weekend ... :)

(If y'all didn't know, Bernunzio has reduced prices on a number of their banjos.)

[Adam]

Just out of curiosity, why do you guys (Marc & Jody) recommend playing in gDGBD?

[Jody Stecher]

I'm recommending that to Ian specifically, not to the world. He is used to reading and playing in C tuning for one thing. But also his strings and banjo setup and bridges etc are all set up for that. Also all his particular banjos were built to respond to C tuning (and G "elevated bass" of course). So in his case I think that's the thing to do. If you're playing a 12.5 pot 1880-s banjo with a 29 inch scale I think the lower tuning would be the way to go.

[Jody Stecher]

I'd also provisionally recommend the modern tuning for your new Morrison banjo as well, since it has a scale length of only 25 inches. Low tuning is likely to feel very slack with nylgut for instance, which is calibrated for a specific pitch. But it depends on the gauge and type of strings used. I've gotten shorter scale banjos to sound great tuned even lower than the old A tuning.

[Adam]

Got ya ... thanks.

I'll play around with the Morrison and see what feels right ... I have an 1880-ish Buckbee that is also 25-inch scale and I tune that low (eAEG#B) ... Tuning up to G makes the strings awfully tight and I don't think it sounds as good ... I'm not sure what sort of nylon strings are on it, or the gauge - they're the ones that came with the banjo and I've never had the need / desire to replace 'em ... I did buy some Aquila Nylguts recently from Elderly in anticipation of the Morrison so I'll probably try different things this weekend.

Thanks again for your reply.

[marc dalmasso]

Congratulations ; your choice ' bout the Morisson is a good one ; i had the chance playing on éric ' s one ( i posted a photo with éric & his Morisson ) ; It is a wonderful banjo , good sound & powerful ; it vas a 12 inches pot ; unfortunatly , he exchanged it with a guzheng 4 or 5 years ago during a China tour ; why ? , you could ask him .

[Trapdoor2]

I'm with Jody...

All I can add is that one oughta try both tunings and see what your ears prefer. By the time these Sousa marches were published, most American players were tuning to gCGBD/gDGBD but reading from the old "A" notation (so, the banjo was technically a transposing instrument).

OTOH, one could probably look at the Piano versions of this old sheet music and find that it is also written in three sharps...so the banjo part would be played as written if one had a piano player handy. It gets confusing sometimes but back then, the training one received was a good deal more rigorous than today. ;-)