Slow Banjo - Part 1

Here is a clip of a nice, slow tune of Jenn Bojm's that I played banjo on.
 
firefly from jenn bojm on Vimeo.

        Slow tunes like this one may not scream for a banjo part the same way your uptempo barnburners do but I have found the old 5 string can add some welcome textures and distractions. A few tips from my experience playing banjo on slow songs...

  1. Milk the dynamics. On the fast tunes an 'every note loud and clear' approach is often the way to go but when you scale the tempo back the dynamic subtleties really jump out. In my head I try to think of the phrasing more in a sense of how it might be sung and tend to swell in and out of ideas a little more.

  2. Listen very closely to everything else on the song. This can be difficult with recording because some instruments will be added after you record your part but I find the more attention I pay to the vocal and the other instruments the better the results.

  3. Find the holes and fill 'em. When the singer stops to take a breath that's an opportunity to make some noise.

  4. Try beginning and ending phrases somewhere other than the 1 beat. Nothing wrong with beginning on the 1 but a little earlier or later breaks up the predictability.

That's all my advice for today.  Thanks to Jenn for writing such a nice song.

Only Love Can Break Your Heart

This is Neil Young's 'Only Love Can Break your Heart' from his 'After the Gold Rush' LP. I've always loved the tune and thought I would give it a go on the solo 5 string. Neil Young has quite the knack for crafting rock solid melodies so for my arranging on this I've tried my best to respect the melody and stay out of its way. The verse and chorus share the same basic melody but the variation of the underlying harmony makes them seem quite different from one another. Here is a little video performance of it... And here is the tablature...

Tablature for 'Something in the Way'

I had a request for the tablature to Nirvana's 'Something in the Way', a tune I had posted a video of about a month ago, so here you have it...

Forgot to note it on the sheet but the tuning is standard open G with the 5th string spiked to A.

Kokomo (solo banjo)

Kokomo is not everyone's favourite Beach Boys song. It has quite a few strikes against it; it was created post-Brian Wilson, it was featured in a Tom Cruise movie and I believe John Stamos was featured in the music video. Despite all this I love the song. I love it for its beautiful melody, its haunting yet soothing chord progression and, yes, even for the lyrics.

For the arrangement I plced it in the key of C and tried to go for a relaxed, draggy feel. Mostly I kept to the melody as it is so strong to begin with. The chorus gets a little Earl flavour to it.

Here it is...

Banjo Nirvana

Was watching the old Niravana Unplugged DVD the other night and thought 'Something in the Way' might sound nice on the banjo. It is sort of an atypical tune for the 5 string; slow, sad, and in the key of F# minor (original key is F minor).

Here it is...



And here is the tab...

Once, Twice

This here is a video of me playing the song 'Once, Twice' solo.



I wrote this song as part of the 'Where Does the Future Go' song cycle for soprano, piano and voice. If you're thinking you might like to hear it with full instrumentation and you live in or near the Vancouver area you are in luck; myself, Maria Cristina Fantini (soprano) and Andrea Wood (piano) will be performing the cycle this Saturday January 29th at Place des Arts (1120 Brunette Avenue, Coquitlam) at 7:15pm.

The Tishomingo String Band will also be playing a set. Should be fun!

(sorry my left hand doesn't show up in the video. Something to do with the embedding from youtube. If you watch it on youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQUNR4WhsYs&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL the screen composition is nicer)

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.