Misissippi Breakdowns

[Graham Scott]

Peter LaBau and Mitch Nelin play a beautiful piece at the start of their video, Mississippi Breakdowns.  Does anyone know where I can find tablature for this tune, sheet music is really a steep learning curve for me at the moment, but if anyone has this too I would be delighted if you can let me know.

I am new to Classic style - only been learning for 18 months and stumbled into Classic style and love it...

[thereallyniceman]

Welcome Graham,

It is good to find that we have another convert to Classic Style!

I have added two versions of the score for Mississippi Breakdowns to the MUSIC LIBRARY for you,

unfortunately I do not have the TAB as with most of our music it was never published with TAB notation. Clifford Essex Music Co. do add TAB to their publications, but it is unlikely that they have this tune... but it is worth a look.

I hope helps. Why not get stuck into learning notated music?...  it is much more satisfying :-)

[Mike Moss]

Welcome aboard, Graham! The best way to learn how to read banjo notation is to read and play from simple, well-annotated pieces in easy keys. You'll soon notice that CB music is so laden with useful hints and tips on where to put your fingers that there is hardly any mystery to it, and if you stick with it you soon won't even miss tab.

Mississipi Breakdowns may not be the easiest piece to start out with, but it is well-annotated and by no means difficult to read as most of it has no flats or sharps, or one sharp, and the left-hand fingerings and position markers give away all of the chord shapes.

DOWNLOAD MIKE'S NOTATION PRIMER    (link added by Ian)

For some information on how to get the most out of the included fingering tips, you can check out my (somewhat old and outdated) tutorial on the subject: http://www.banjohangout.org/archive/226430

[Trapdoor2]

While I echo the above sentiments, I am a lifelong TAB reader. If you can stand the wait, I'll convert the notation to TAB over the next day or so and post it here for you.

This appears to be a decriptive piece, much like Morley's "Patrol Eccentrique". An awful lot of p's in there...not sure I can play that quietly!

[Trapdoor2]

Ok, I keyed in the Oakley arrangement before going to look at the Peter Labau video...which turns out to be the Essex arrangement (and a good bit simpler). I'll post both versions when I'm done. I'll try to produce a decent MIDI file of each so that you can hear the differences.

[Graham Scott]

Hi Trapdoor2,

Thanks fro your help with the tabs, extremely generous of you - once I get a couple of tunes under my belt I will be happy.  I have been learning Colorado Buck Dance which is going well.

Thanks again.

[Graham Scott]

Mike Moss said:

Welcome aboard, Graham! The best way to learn how to read banjo notation is to read and play from simple, well-annotated pieces in easy keys. You'll soon notice that CB music is so laden with useful hints and tips on where to put your fingers that there is hardly any mystery to it, and if you stick with it you soon won't even miss tab.

Mississipi Breakdowns may not be the easiest piece to start out with, but it is well-annotated and by no means difficult to read as most of it has no flats or sharps, or one sharp, and the left-hand fingerings and position markers give away all of the chord shapes.

DOWNLOAD MIKE'S NOTATION PRIMER    (link added by Ian)

For some information on how to get the most out of the included fingering tips, you can check out my (somewhat old and outdated) tutorial on the subject: http://www.banjohangout.org/archive/226430

[Graham Scott]

Thanks for all your help on the piece and help with notation, all of you are generous.  Good to be on board and learning some great tunes.....

[Trapdoor2]

OK, let's see if these upload properly...

 

[Trapdoor2]

And then some MIDI files...

Quite different handling of the same piece of music. I think there are a couple of "errors" in the Oakley arrangement, M20 has a final B where it probably ought to be a D...but either sound ok. The fingering shows a "1" (first finger, 7P), which is probably correct...but the note is shown as a B. I left it as a B (open) just "because". The same sequence repeats in M24 with the D firmly in place.

The TablEdit software does not support triplet grace notes...so M36 and M52 were added as 32nd note triplets and, em, faked into the measure for printing. I re-sequenced them for the MIDI...they're close.

The other thing the Oakley arrangement does is to start out with very quiet (ppp) harmonics, which are supposed to be a steam whistle in the distance (I think). It then goes to pppp and each repeat gains in volume by one step: pppp to ppp and then the "In sight" goes once thru at pp and then at p, etc. Then around M43, the sequence reverses as the boat leaves and disappears in the distance. TablEdit again cannot handle so many "p's" or I would have tried to sequence the dynamics as shown. Ah well!

[Graham Scott]

Hi Trapdoor2,

This is really great stuff, thanks for all your efforts.  I am so looking forward to trying this tune, I am indebted to you and will let you know how I get on with it..

Graham

[Trapdoor2]

My pleasure, Graham. I tend to TAB out just about anything that catches my ear anyway and I was interested to see/hear the differences between the two arrangements of this tune.

If you have other tunes to put on your 'wish list', don't hesitate to ask. I've done hundreds, so whatever you're looking for may be already done. If not, I generally put 'em on my "to do" list and get around to them eventually.

Good luck!

===Marc