Stewart's " The Minstrel Banjoist"

[Joel Hooks]

Ladies and gentleman, this interesting work is now available to download on my website.

I'd love to here your thoughts on it.

http://www.thejoelhooks.com/Site/Home.html

[Jody Stecher]

Thanks for posting this, Joel. On my computer the book comes in sideways so I have to tilt my head way over or lie on my right side to read it. The latter is not so bad for reading but when I try to play the music my right arm, especially the elbow, is having unfortunate encounters with the floor. Please advise.....

[Joel Hooks]

OK, try it again, all is well.

[Carl Anderton]

Clarke Buehling sent me a copy of this. It's an interesting book, but in the end, I didn't find any tunes that were likely to enter my repertiore. That could change, of course, if I heard others play the material.

I would politely disagree with your assesment of the opening paragraph as "sarcastic." I just read it as the typical nineteenth-century mindset of everyone and everything having a natural "station" in life, from "low class" to "high class". And to Stewart, the stroke style was the natural style for the lower class, less refined (and presumably less intelligent) banjoist.

And to that I might add that true artistic worth cannot assigned simply by genre, and the relative merits must be judged on a case by case basis. I think Frank Converse would agree. His method books didn't patronize the stroke-style quite so much.

[Jody Stecher]

I agree that SSS intended no sarcasm. I'm not nearly so sure that this is a book of stroke-style banjo music. He writes in the beginning that "picking" (which he makes clear is finger style) is the more widespread style, and that stroke is now (read "then") passe and used only for "military marches etc". It doesn't seem that the etcetera means the content of this book. It seems that Stewart is identifying the music in this collection as suitable for the minstrel stage. One may surmise that in his opinion both techniques were suitable and he recommends learning the finger style first and adding stroke technique (which can be learned quickly, he says) later. I also don't agree that all the repertoire here is easy for a beginner to play, especially the tunes with triplets. These are mostly dance tunes that were popular with the masses in America. It's popular music, folk music, and composed music in a pop-folk style. I think that may be the reason SSS separates this music from what he considers high-class (for rich people) music. Carl's on the money about the meaning of high and low. It's not about musical merit. Or rather, merit adheres (in his view which was not unusual) to anything to which upper class people turn their attention. Minstrel music is Irish, blacked-up, connected with display dancing and comedy. It is therefore (he indicates) dirty but fun. Readers of my comments may argue that it's well documented that minstrel music was generally if not always played in the stroke style and that SSS's comments would make no sense as I interpret them. They will be correct. But when did Stewart's writings ever make much sense?

Carl Anderton said:

Clarke Buehling sent me a copy of this. It's an interesting book, but in the end, I didn't find any tunes that were likely to enter my repertiore. That could change, of course, if I heard others play the material.

I would politely disagree with your assesment of the opening paragraph as "sarcastic." I just read it as the typical nineteenth-century mindset of everyone and everything having a natural "station" in life, from "low class" to "high class". And to Stewart, the stroke style was the natural style for the lower class, less refined (and presumably less intelligent) banjoist.

And to that I might add that true artistic worth cannot assigned simply by genre, and the relative merits must be judged on a case by case basis. I think Frank Converse would agree. His method books didn't patronize the stroke-style quite so much.

[Jody Stecher]

thanks! Yes being vertical while playing the banjo is preferable. Although I worked out a way to play horizontally. If one lies on one's left side on the edge of a bed or couch, the right arm is able to play the banjo whose pot is resting on the floor and whose lower frets meet the finger tips of the left hand. It didn't work out when I tried to play the upper frets. I leaned over too far, the banjo swiveled, it swiveled, it swiveled and caught me upon the belly button and throwed me through the window and clear across the street right into my neighbor's washtub. Full of sheep guts it was. He was a maker of banjo strings for SSS Stewart. I just got back. I just got back. I just got back from the front.

deuceswilde said:

OK, try it again, all is well.

[Joel Hooks]

I don't know, the whole thing seems to be talking down to the reader. From "Organizing A Minstrel Troupe" where he tells the reader that he is not smart enough to put it together himself, To using quotes around "Comic Banjoist," "Banjoist Soloists" and "Banjo stories."

Then there is that corny joke, long and goes on and on. It all seems to me to be making fun of the person who would buy it.

I like the section on "How to Remove the Cork, or 'Wash Up.'" So we could not have figured out how to use soap on our hands and faces? Thus, the reader is a nasty and unwashed person.

I Don't know about his dislike of stroke style. He went through a lot of expense and effort to deign and patent a thimble, patents being something he did make fun of.

Then there was his promotion of Horace Weston, a thimble player.

In fact, in "Observations on Stroke or Thimble Playing on the Banjo" Stewart wrote "A thimble which had been used by Horace Weston for some time had become so worn that it was difficult for an inexperienced observer to believe that it had not been ground off."

I do a good deal of practicing with a thimble, I've yet to wear the end off of one.

Horace Weston could have just been an anomaly with SSS, as Weston was notation illiterate. It's clear how he felt about that. That said, SSS did publish many of his arraingments that fit perfectly with a thimble on.

[Jody Stecher]

Can you find an example of Stewart's writings where he is *not* talking down to the reader? He displayed disdain for everyone who didn't share his ideas of the moment. He had "a whim of iron". Yes, it's hard to get a coherent picture of his view of stroke style. Whatever sold product probably played a significant part in his writings and rantings. About wearing out thimbles: try playing loud enough to be heard over the din of a noisy crowd night after night, without microphones of course and you'll find wear on your thimble after a while. I once saw a Scottish fiddle player saw a metal e string in half with his energetic bowing. Metal does give out.

deuceswilde said:

I don't know, the whole thing seems to be talking down to the reader. From "Organizing A Minstrel Troupe" where he tells the reader that he is not smart enough to put it together himself, To using quotes around "Comic Banjoist," "Banjoist Soloists" and "Banjo stories."

Then there is that corny joke, long and goes on and on. It all seems to me to be making fun of the person who would buy it.

I like the section on "How to Remove the Cork, or 'Wash Up.'" So we could not have figured out how to use soap on our hands and faces? Thus, the reader is a nasty and unwashed person.

I Don't know about his dislike of stroke style. He went through a lot of expense and effort to deign and patent a thimble, patents being something he did make fun of.

Then there was his promotion of Horace Weston, a thimble player.

In fact, in "Observations on Stroke or Thimble Playing on the Banjo" Stewart wrote "A thimble which had been used by Horace Weston for some time had become so worn that it was difficult for an inexperienced observer to believe that it had not been ground off."

I do a good deal of practicing with a thimble, I've yet to wear the end off of one.

Horace Weston could have just been an anomaly with SSS, as Weston was notation illiterate. It's clear how he felt about that. That said, SSS did publish many of his arraingments that fit perfectly with a thimble on.

[Joel Hooks]

I plays it pretty straight in "Observations on the Banjo and Banjo Playing."

[Jody Stecher]

you does?

deuceswilde said:

I plays it pretty straight in "Observations on the Banjo and Banjo Playing."

[Joel Hooks]

That's funny, I should spend more time on the minstrel banjo site!

Rereading "Observations on the Banjo and Banjo Playing" I did see something that I did not notice before. I'll start another thread on it.