Exploring Blackberry Blossom - Part IV Abstract Break

So far in this micro series we've covered a simple backup arrangement, a low single string break and a high break. For this, the forth and final chapter, we'll look at what I'll be calling an abstract break.

Perhaps abstract is not the most correct term. Fantasia? Noodlefest? Whatever we call it what I am refering to is a break which is not tied down to the melody. It uses the melody in quite a few places and the melody remains the bedrock foundation on which it grows but from that place it sort of meanders into the twilight zone (not much, just a little).

Have a listen here and then I will explain a little.





The first part of the break picks descending chord inversions with a forward/revers roll. I pick a dead note (muted with the left hand) on the 'and' after the 2 beat. I like the sound of dead notes occasionally. Here are the pros and cons of dead notes as I see it:

Pros: Creates a nice contrast with the more common ringing notes and provides an interresting percussive effect

Cons: Can sound like you messed up while trying to fret a note

The next part begins ascending chord inversions with some chromatic sliding movement on the third string.

After that it returns, for the most part, to single string melody playing for the rest of the A section.

For the B section I begin with an Em arpeggio which ascends a fair ways up the neck. For the B chord I play B diminished tones. The second time it returns to the B chord I also use B diminished chord tones only this time in triplet form.

That's the general gist of it. Hope you enjoyed these posts on Blackberry Blossom. It was suggested on the Banjohangout forums by Grumpy7 that we do more of these 'Exploring' series with different standards so I am going to try to do that as well and as regular as possible.

Write a quick comment if you have a favourite standard you think might be good for the 'Exploring' thing.

Exploring Blackberry Blossom - Part III High Break

The last post in this series covered a low single string break for Blackberry Blossom. Once you've gone as low as you possibly can there's only one to go: up.

For the high Blackberry break we begin with some single string way up at the 17th fret of the first string. We stay on the first string for a while, shifting the index finger back whenever neccesary (to the 16th and then the 14th fret) and then use a bit of a melodic escape at the end of measure 2 to skip back to 7th position. The 2nd half of the A section (measures 5-8) is the same as the first only with a slightly different ending.

The B section veers away from the single string technique to a forward/ reverse roll barring at the 12th fret and adding and removing the 14th fret on the first string as neccesary.

Because I wanted to make this high break as high as humanly possible I put a jump up to the 22nd fret on the first string over the B chord.

The end of the B section returns to single string on the melody.

Here is the arrangement in tablature form (click for a larger image)



And here is what it sounds like.



Also, for anyone looking for backing tracks to play the break along with there are some in mp3 form here;

NEXT: Exploring Blackberry Blossom Part IV: Abstact Break

Exploring Blackberry Blossom Part II: Low Break

Last post we covered a simple backup arrangement for the Blackberry Blossom. In this post we will explore some single string picking with a sweet and low Blackberry break.

For those of you not familiar with single string playing it is a technique similar to scalewise guitar playing whereby a single string is often plucked several times in a row (in Scruggs and melodic styles the same string is rarely plucked twice in a row) traditionally alternating the thumb and index finger of the picking hand.

Some players prefer using the thumb and middle for singlestring playing and others favour a TITM pattern. I find the TITM pattern is best for generating speed but tend to use TITI for most everyday single string.

This arrangement brings the melody an octave lower than the standard Keith style arrangement. Because the banjo runs out of lower notes at the D I bring things up the octave when necesary.

The break stays somewhat true to the original melody in the A section and then steps a little more into its own in the B section. I really love playing on the low D string; something about the big wound string and how it just crackles and pops.

Here is the arrangement for you in tablature form (click on the image to make it larger).



Here is what it sounds like slow.



And here it is a little faster (threw in a couple alternate licks in this one)



As always let me know if you have any questions.

NEXT: Exploring Blackberry Blossom Part III: High Break

Exploring Blackberry Blossom Part I: Simple Backup

Blackberry Blossom is one of the most common and popular bluegrass instrumentals. It's melody posesses both an intangible 'prettiness' and an infectious cadence which set it apart from the hordes of similar tunes.

It was first popularized on the banjo by Bill Keith and was one of his very first melodic arrangements. It has since become a standard almost every bluegrass banjo player learns at some point in his education.

The purpose of the series of posts I am writing on Blackberry Blossom is not to teach the standard Keith derived banjo arrangement (I will cover it breifly for those not familliar with it) but to explore various possibilities for playing banjo on the song. Anyone reading this blog is welcomed and encouraged to try out the ideas and arrangements presented in these posts in any and all playing scenarios as well as to play around with the concepts and develop their own variations.

For this, the initial Blackberry post, we will look at a simple backup arrangement using a diatonically descending bass line. It is easy enough to play and I personally find descending basslines quite appealing. (This arrangement also works for the Greatful Dead's 'Friend of the Devil' with a few minor adjustments).

Here is the arrangement in tablature form (click on it to get the larger image)



And here is what it sounds like.



As always let me know if you have any questions.

Bonus: Here is a standard Keith Style version of the melody.





NEXT UP: Exploring Blackberry Blossom Part II : Low Single String Break

How to Arrange a Tune in Bluegrass Style--This Land is Your Land

I've seen alot of banjo students progress very well working with clearly defined arrangements only to hit a bit of a wall when it came time to arrange for themselves. The following is something I've used to break down my general banjo arranging formula for students. It uses Woody Gutherie's 'This Land is Your Land' as the example.

Step 1. Figure out the melody and the chord progression

You can do this a couple of ways. One way is to pick the melody out by ear from a recording, from another musician who knows the melody, or from memory. The other way is to find sheet music with the melody and chord progression notated.

Here is the straight melody for 'This Land is Your Land'.



And this is the chord progression.



Step 2. Begin to fill in the holes (spaces between melody notes)

You can fill the holes in any number of ways but chords tones (playing notes from the chords of the underlying chord progression)are a good first shot.

Filling in the holes with pinches (in this case plucking the outside strings with the thumb and middle finger) is perhaps the easiest way to start.

Here is 'This Land is Your Land' with melody and pinches.



Step 3. Experiment with rolls

Any tune can be arranged thousands of ways so which rolls you choose really is up to your judgement and taste. The forward roll (T,I,M) carries alot of power and lends itself to the kind of syncopation characteristic of Scruggs style. You generally don't want to overuse any one roll (in my opinion) but you can pick one roll to be the dominant, driving roll of the arrangement.

Here is 'This Land is Your Land' using forward roll and not much else.



Step 4. Final touches--Adding licks etc.

Once you are comfortable with the melody on the banjo and have experimented with filling the holes and using rolls you can begin adding the final touches. These may include:

1. Solidifying which rolls you are using and where---striving to find an appealing balance and breaking up any spots where one roll has overstayed its welcome.

2. Thinking of different places to play melody notes. Instead of playing a B note on the open 2nd string you could slide into it on the 4th fret of the 3rd string. Sliding and hammering into notes is an important part of the Scruggs style and can really make a tune come alive.

3. Adding licks where appropriate. As far as where and when to put licks that is again a judgement call but I would strongly advise keeping the melody as clear as possible.

Here is a Scruggs style arrangement of 'This Land is Your Land' using a few standard licks.



Hope that is useful to someone out there. Arranging is a personal and creative venture so any formula like the one I've outlined should be seen more as guide to help you along.

Log Drivers Waltz

Hadn't put a new tune up in a while so here you go. The is the Log Drivers Waltz and from what I hear it pleases girls completely.

The song was written by Wade Hemsworth and I know it from the cartoon they used to play on CBC. Great cartoon.

It's a lively waltz. I like to play most of the melody with the thumb and try to make the melody sing out as much as possible.

without further adieu here's the video...


And here's the tab...

Auld Lang Syne

Here's a little Auld Lang Syne. Happy New Year!!

Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer----Transcribed

This here is old arrangement for Rudolph which I've just got around to transcribing.

It's in the key of C.

Here's the tab...







And here's the video...


Also, if you want to download the tabledit tab file (you'll need a free viewer which you can get from their website) you can find it HERE. *Ben commented that measures 21 and 22 were played differently than written. Here are those two measures closer to the way they are played in the video... Measures 20-21

13 Days of Halloween (part IV)

Day 4 brings us to the dramatic surf tinged theme song to the 6o's Batman tv show as written by Neal Hefti.

Like Mountain King in the last post this one is basically the melody set in what seemed the most logical banjo key without alot of additive arranging.

The key here is E. The oringinal is in Eb so if you want to get right to the source key tune down a half step from standard G (gb Db Gb Bb Db).

I've always liked this tune and we have a Batman in our family this Halloween so I thought I'd break it out.

You can play it either plucking entirely with the thumb or alternating thumb/index.

Here's the tab...



As with Mountain King I'll put a video up in the next day or so.

9 more to go...

13 Days of Halloween (part III)

Today's tune is the old Edvard Grieg chestnut In the Hall of the Mountain King.

I stuck it in the key of D minor as that seems to make best use of the banjos low range (such as it is).

The basic melody is written here. Played as written it can be used as a quote to bridge two songs or as an additional sacry but somewhat humerous section in atune.

It could also be worked up much more than this. Think of this as raw material to do with as you wish.

Here is the tab....



And I will get a video up soon.

Stay tuned...

13 Days of Halloween (part I)

Greetings all and sorry it's been so long since my last post.

Anyways I figured in the spirit of the season I would put together a string of posts, each containing a large or small bit of frighting ghoolish banjo. I call it the 13 days of Halloween.

Alot of these posts will be short and feature only a measure or two of terrifying music but for the first post I am going a little long. This is The Funeral March for a Marrionette AKA the theme song for Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

I won't go into too much detail on the ins and outs of playing this one but will answer any questions anyone has.

Without further adieu; here is the video...



And here is the tablature...



Be sure to come back tomorrow same bat time, same bat station for part II of the Halloween banjo bunch.

Cheers.

Tennessee Waltz in D tuning

Thought I might do a post on D tuning.

For those unfamilliar with D tuning it is when your banjo is tuned to an open D chord (standard tuning, g D G B D, is an open G chord).

There are 2 common open D tunings: a D F# A D and f# D F# A D The two D tunings are actually the same for all strings except the 5th. The 5th can be tuned up (or capoed) to an A or tuned down to an F#. For this particular arrangement I tune the 5th string to A.

I like D tuning for alot of reasons. Having the root note of the chord on the lowest note of the lowest string is somehow very satisfying to me and certain melodies come out easier/ nicer in the D tuning.

On the downside if you are more familliar with G tuning (almost all bluegrass players are) the D tuning can feel counterintuitive and cumbersome. I find that in some ways the lack of easy familliarity with D tuning can act as a catylyst for creative playing--the old standby licks aren't as readily available so you are put in a position where you are forced to develop a modified toolkit and/or modified vocabulary.

The arrangement I'll show in this post is 'Tennesse Waltz'. I find the melody fits well in D tuning and overall the song possesses a certain timeless beauty.

Here's the tab...



And here's a video...



Hope that is helpful to some.

Adios.

Banjo ------------------> Guitar Transmogrifier: How to Easily Convert Any Banjo Tune for Performance on the Guitar

Yes, just like the title says.

Well, actually it's not really EASY easy (crowd disperses). The concepts may take a while to fully soak in but once you have the trick you will be able to convert banjo to guitar relatively quickly and painlessly.

There are a number of tunings we could use to get the guitar prepped for banjo duty (open G would seem the obvious choice) but for this particular method we will use open D tuning. Open D tuning involves tuning your guitar from low to high D A D F# A D.

Once you have your guitar in D tuning you are ready to begin.

The idea is this; think of your guitar's 5th, 4th, 3rd and 2nd strings (A D F# A) as being relative to the 4th, 3rd, 2nd and 1st strings (D G B D) on your banjo (in standard G tuning). Then think of the 1st string of your guitar as being relative to the high 5th string of the banjo.

Making sense? Here is a tab example of the transmogrification in action.

The first 2 measure of Cripple Creek in banjo tab...



And those same 2 measures converted for open D tuned guitar...



How's that? The idea is essentially treating these strings on the guitar



like these strings on the banjo



And then treating the 1st string on the guitar like the 5th sting on the jo.



For a full song example lets try a little of the old Blackberry Blossom.

Here is a standard melodic style banjo version...



And here it is converted for open D tuned guitar (added some harmonic strums but otherwise transferred directly from banjo)...



Here is a vid of that Blackberry Blossom arrangement on guitar...



Soothing, ringing stuff (a little string noise but what the hay).

You may have noticed that the 6th string on the guitar is not used at all. This is simply because thus far we have only been transferring directly from banjo and the 5 string banjo has 5 strings. If you want to make use of the low string for whatever purpose (probably to provide some harmony/ bass) it is right there waiting to be used. This method allows you to transfer banjo arrangements directly to guitar but once you have done that you can alter them for their new environment as you see fit.

Also, if you want to keep things in their original banjo key you can use the capo. If something is uncapoed on banjo then capoing on the 5th fret of the guitar will make it make it match. If you are capoed on the 2nd fret on banjo then capo 7th fret on guitar.

Hope that proves helpful/ fun for some people. It may be a bit of a headful to get down at first so take your time and as always don't hesitate to write me with any questions.

Killer Endings - part 1

Someone suggested I do a post on endings so here it is.

I titled this 'Killer Endings - part 1' because really there is a whole galaxy of great endings to be discovered out there and I will post more periodically.

The ones I'll cover in this post are tag endings and to be more specific they are 'shave and a haircut' tag endings. "What is this 'shave and a haircut' thing" you ask? It is a short rhythmic pattern sometimes used when knocking on a door. Here it is in doorknock form...



You hear this rhythm very often in tags for bluegrass tunes. I will start out with a few of the most common examples.

Exhibit A is the first ending most banjo players learn.

Example 1





The second example is very similar to the first only dropped down an octave.

Example 2





The third example is a very slight melodic twist on the last one.

Example 3




The next ending is a longer tag that will be familliar to anyone who's seen Deliverance. It begins with 2 shave and a haircuts and finishes it off with some alternating thumb chord action.

Example 4




The next few examples are a little further from the beaten path. Example 5 varies things up with a standard opening leading to a small flurry of natural harmonics. (If you are not familliar with how to play natural harmonics I will explain them in detail in a later post but essentially they are bell like tones created by touching (but not pressing down as you would to fret) the string above the indicated fret.

Example 5




The 6th example is one I use on a tune I wrote called 'The Crowchild Ramble'.

Example 6




This next one is a bit of a fingerbuster. It begins with notes generated from a diminished chords and then finishes rather conventionally (shave and a haircut MarkII).

Example 7




The 8th and final example begins with a series of diminished triplets. They look difficult but once you get the left hand figured out it is quite like moving this left hand shape...
...and rolling over it.

Example 8






That's it for endings for now. Let me know if there are any questions and be sure to check back for the next post which will deal with transmogrification as it applies to banjo music.

See you then.