Whiskey Before Breakfast:score, tab, sound file

[Jody Stecher]

I like the Canadian version of this tune very much when played on banjo, especially tuned gDGBD. I notated (and posted an early version) of Pete McMahan's Missouri version but found that its intricacies did not transfer well to the sound of the banjo so I won't attempt to master it. The ornaments, drones, unisons etc, while playable with some effort, did not improve the musical effect as it does on the fiddle. Even the bare melody sounded better on fiddle. Some other banjo player —BB Bowness for instance– could probably make it sound glorious, but I could not.

In the case of the Andy De Jarlis version I found that replicating his melody and simple left hand ornaments exactly on the banjo made for good banjo music. I added a couple of octaves at the start of the second part and did not replicate his unisons and drones. They added beauty on the fiddle but added mud on the banjo. 

Attached is the staff notation, tab for how I'm playing it (mostly lower frets and single string picking rather than the legato-sounding options), and a recording.

It's simple. It's Canadian. I like it. 

[Joel Hooks]

I’m taking a different approach.  I’ve been playing the A part an octave up all out of 7B and 7PB, then I drop to 1st position for the B part, I like the contrast.   I have not added in the grace notes but I have been playing the weird pick up measure.

I am not raising the 4th when I play it.  I was just reading it off the page and not playing an octave higher and it was fine but a little lacking in sparkle.

It is an okay piece, but there are others I like better. It will be nice to have in the bag though.

[Jody Stecher]

Right, an OK piece. But usually it's a bad one the way it's typically played.  

When transcribing the MISSOURI version of WBB I did what you did, starting at fret 7. The second part sounded squeaky when played between frets 12 and 17, especially when adding Pete McMahan's ornaments.   It sounded good when played an octave lower. But I didn't like hearing the range of the two parts reversed. Here's why:

In the 19th century the four strings of the violin each had a name. From high to low: fine, coarse, counter, bass.   When scordatura was used the terminology was, for instance, "High Bass" for ADAE (instead of GDAE) and "High Bass/ High Counter" for AEAE.    

The parts of a fiddle tune were named for their range with the same terminology. Each two part tune had a fine part and a coarse part. The fine was centered on the high string, the coarse on the second string.  The typical first part (or first "turn" according to the terminology of the time) was the coarse. The next part was the fine.  Occasionally a tune was composed with the parts reversed. In either case it was understood that each part had its own range.

WBB was composed in the usual way with the coarse as the first part followed by the fine as part 2.

Most bluegrass banjo players when playing WBB play the first part at fret 7 and then play the second part on the lower strings and lower frets. It disturbs me a bit when I hear that. It would work as accompaniment but as a solo the reversal of the parts disturbs the balance of the melody for me.

You don't like to see numbered measures and the staff with the 8 appendage. You probably wouldn't care if you hadn't seen so much older banjo sheet music and became attached to that aesthetic. I'm the same with tune parts. I'm a prisoner of my exposure to history and the Old Ways of fiddlers and banjo players. To most people it would make no difference whether part  2 of WBB was played above or below part 1.  To me it matters. I expect no one to agree with me.

Joel Hooks said:

I’m taking a different approach.  I’ve been playing the A part an octave up all out of 7B and 7PB, then I drop to 1st position for the B part, I like the contrast.   I have not added in the grace notes but I have been playing the weird pick up measure.

I am not raising the 4th when I play it.  I was just reading it off the page and not playing an octave higher and it was fine but a little lacking in sparkle.

It is an okay piece, but there are others I like better. It will be nice to have in the bag though.