The Tarbolton Reel in Numbers and ABCs

I plan on learning the Tarbolton Reel next month. In preparation for that, I am trying a different tactic than I've been using. I've written out the head melody for the tune in both numbers and letters. I hope this helps with learning and memorizing The Tarbolton. It's part of a larger set with Longford Collector and Sailor's Bonnet.

The numbers version is based on where the notes fall within the major scale. Since I'm classifying The Tarbolton as E-Dorian (Harmonic World #2), the numbers are two for E, three for F#, four for G, five for A, six for B, "sev" (one syllable) for C# and one for D. Interestingly, this tune also has a C-natural note in the 7th measure of both the A and B parts. Since C# is being called sev, I call C natural "dev" which stands for diminished seven. Here is The Tarbolton written out with scale numbers.

For the letters version, I wrote the actual note names of each note. Pronounced ee for E, eff for F#, jee/gee for G, ay for A, bee for B, "shee" for C# (shee as in sharp C), and dee for D. The C-natural note that shows up in measure seven of the both the 1st and 2nd parts is simply "see" for C. And since it is pretty much assumed that all F notes played in Irish music are actually F#, I refer to F# as "eff" 100% of the time. To prevent this from getting too confusing, in the rare case when a tune such as Chief O'Neill's Favorite actually does have an F-natural note in the melody I would call that note "feff" instead of "eff" for flattened F. Or maybe it could be "neff" for natural F. For the sake of completeness, if/when a tune had a G# note I would call this note "geesh" for sharp gee. That doesn't apply here though. Here is The Tarbolton written out as letters.

For singing the melody I think I prefer letters over numbers. It's a little bit easier to sight read the letters as well. If writing out a confounding tune this way helps me learn it, then I might implement this process for more pieces down the road. In case you're interested, here is The Tarbolton in regular sheet music notation.

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Back to the Basics of Playing Irish Tunes

This may be at odds with my Learn It Fast To Play It Fast post from last month but I think the time has come for a back to basics approach to Irish tunes. I've been fudging a lot at the Irish sessions I go to. I might have about 80 to 90% of the tune but there are sections where I fudge through what is unclear to me. 

Now that I'm reading Molly Gebrian's Learn Faster, Perform Better I realize that the best way to handle mistakes is not to plow through them but to locate precisely where the mistake is taking place, where you are going wrong, then slow down to make sure that you play the passage correctly, gradually bringing it back to tempo, and make sure to play it many more times correctly than incorrectly to reinforce the correct pathway.

One thing about regularly going to sessions is that I can make note of tunes that I supposedly "know" but don't actually know. Case in point: The Maid Behind the Bar. Despite having played that tune for years, I felt very lost in the B-part of that tune when it was played last Sunday. It became apparent that this was one that I needed to investigate so the other day I took a focused look at where I get off track and identified that measures 4 and 5 of the B-part was where this was primarily taking place.

In measure 4 I wasn't sure where or when to go to the high B note and I hadn't been remembering that the sequence of notes is G E B E G E E G. In measure 5 of the B-part there was one note different from how I learned it all those years ago, and that one note difference was throwing me off. So I'm trying to remember how these specific measures go.

One important factor that I think gets forgotten about is to know exactly how the tune is supposed to sound. Be able to hear it (visualize it) in your head and also try signing the melody. The sections that I fudge tend to be sections that I can't "hear" clearly. 

So one of my goals for this next year is go back over the dozens of tunes that I've become more familiar with over the last year that I currently fudge and fine tune my understanding of those so that I can play them three times through from memory exactly as written with no mistakes. At a reasonable speed. No ornamentation, variations or improvisation. Exactly as written. If there is a Trailjams version available I will use that as may source, and if not perhaps Aiden Crossey has a mandolin version or Hatao will have flute version with the music.

I feel like if I get the basic tune down with the correct notes and correct picking technique, then A) I can gradually speed it up and B) any variations or ornamentation will be more under my control rather than being used as band-aids to cover up not knowing what the actual notes should be.

Another tune I found myself unclear on was The Foxhunter's slip jig, so I am going to stop typing now and do an investigative refresher on that one.

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A Music Tip from David Reed's Improvise For Real book

I recently returned to my copy of David Reed's Improvise For Real book to review his section on the Seven Worlds, which is/are the seven harmonic worlds of the major scale. Since I am almost exclusively playing Irish traditional tunes (melodies) at this point, I don't need some of the more improvisation oriented teachings from the book, however, I still find his approach to scales/modes invaluable.

David describes the major scale as having no beginning and no end. Here's an example of how I conceive this: 

1·2·34·5·6·71·2·34·5·6·71·2·34·5·6·71·2·34·5·6·71·2·34·5·6·71·2·34·5·6·71·2·34·5·6·71... and so ad infinitum.

Notice that there's no space between 3 & 4 or 7 & 1. This is because these are half-steps/semi-tones. Everywhere else is a whole step/whole tone. What David calls the Seven Worlds are the seven different patterns found in this never ending sequence of whole steps and half steps. 

1·2·34·5·6·71

2·34·5·6·71·2

34·5·6·71·2·3

4·5·6·71·2·34

5·6·71·2·34·5

6·71·2·34·5·6

71·2·34·5·6·7

If you were applying these numbers 1 through 7 to the D-major scale the corresponding numbers to letters would be 1=D, 2=E, 3=F#, 4=G, 5=A, 6=B, 7=C# and so on. 

In Irish music we tend to use only four of these seven worlds: 1 through 1, 2 through 2, 5 through 5, and 6 through 6. An example of World 1 would be the reel The Wise Maid. It has a tonal center of D and if/when there is a C/C# note played it is always a C#. World 2 is also very common in Irish music. An example of World 2 is Swallowtail Jig. It uses all the same notes as The Wise Maid (D, E, F#, G, A, B, C#) yet the tonal center hangs on note E rather than D, making it the 2·34·5·6·71·2 world. E·F#G·A·B·C#D·E.

Worlds 3 and 4 are not typically present in Irish music so I'll skip those. And World 7 is not really used in any type of music that I know of. However, World 5 is very prominent in Irish traditional music. The High Reel is in World 5. It happens to use the same notes as The Wise Maid (World 1) and The Swallowtail Jig (World 2) but The High Reel has note A as its tonal center, making it the 5·6·71·2·34·5 world. A·B·C#D·E·F#G·A. World 5.

World 6 is also found in Irish music but surprisingly is not as common as Worlds 2 or 5. The Musical Priest is one that is World 6. Once again it shares the same notes as the other tunes mentioned as examples, but The Musical Priest has note B as its tonal center, meaning that it resolves to B instead of D, E or A. 6·71·2·34·5·6.

Maybe I'll cover the tonal centers of Irish music in another post, but I hope you can see how a book with its title/premise being Improvise For Real can still be very applicable to Irish music, a style known for ornaments and melodic variations but not improvisation, per se.

PS: I find it very interesting that David Reed disucusses the Seven Worlds without using the words Ionian (World 1), Dorian (World 2), Phrygian (World 3), Lydian (World 4), Mixolydian (World 5), Aeolian (World 6) or Locrian (World 7). Maybe he thinks those words scare people off or make their brains malfunction or sound too much like music theory talk, but for me making that connection between these music theory terms and the Seven Worlds was integral in my understanding of scales/modes. But then again, I Don't Punch Like Muhammad A Li.

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Practice Tip from Molly Gebrian's Learn Faster, Perform Better book

I received the book Learn Faster, Perform Better by Molly Gebrian as a Christmas gift and I can already tell that it's a book that I will be returning to a lot. Here's something that I got from the book that has to do with setting specific practice goals and how to handle mistakes. 

If you are a basketball player who is practicing free throws, some specific goals about what you want to accomplish might be "to make 10 out of 10" or "keep my elbows in". If you miss a couple shots in a row then you should attribute the missed shots to a specific issue with your technique and come up with specific ways to address this: "I didn't bend my knees" or "focus on the back of the rim". 

The best practicers have forethought and set specific goals for the practice session. Choose specific practice strategies to achieve these goals. Put the chosen strategies into practice and closely self-monitor how you're doing. After the practice session, use self-reflection to evaluate how you did and precisely why things went well or didn't go well.

For handling mistakes, you have to correct errors in such a way that helps you avoid making them over and over. Do some detective work to locate precisely where you are going wrong (where the mistake is taking place), identify the nature of the mistake and/or the underlying issues behind it, and come up with a plan about what you need to do differently the next time - what adjustments or tweaks to make.

Slow down and repeat to correct the error and make sure it is stabilized. Coordinate the correct motor movements at a tempo you can handle. Then gradually bring it back to tempo (or beyond), making sure to play it many more times correctly than incorrectly to reinforce the correct pathway.

If you are playing something incorrectly you have to address those errors immediately when they appear. Identify the precise location and source for each error and correct it. The more you play it incorrectly the harder it will be to fix. So fix it and then play it/practice it correctly so that your times playing it correctly outnumber the percentage of times you played it incorrectly.

No More Melodica for Me

I'm a mouth breather. Always have been. I spent all of my childhood and much of my young adulthood being completely stopped up, unable to breathe through the nose. Nowadays, thanks to Flonase, I can take in air through the nostrils but old habits are hard to break, I guess. I also have a history of asthma and bronchitis. My earliest memories are of being in the hospital with tuberculosis. Somehow I got T.B. when I was 2 or 3 years old and almost died from it. Breathing is a thing.

All that aside, a few weeks ago I got a melodica with the intention of learning some of the slower pieces that come up in Irish sessions like airs and O'Carolan harp tunes. A melodica is a portable, breath-powered keyboard instrument or "air piano", played by blowing through a mouthpiece while pressing piano-like keys to make the reeds sound. This is the first wind instrument I've ever tried to play. The tunes I was learning included Blind Mary, Inisheer, Sí Bheag Sí Mhór, The Parting Glass, South Wind and Fanny Power.

Within a month of getting the melodica I developed a lingering cough that required prescription steroids to get rid of. Try as I might, during any 30-minute melodica practice session I would accidentally take in some breaths through the mouth tube. This led to the cough. Considering my history, this is not something I want to mess with so I have stopped playing melodic effective immediately. Nothing against melodica. Plenty of people are able to play them just fine without getting these symptoms. I'm not one of them.

It just sucks because for a moment I thought I had found a device to serve as my secondary instrument. Something to play in addition to the Irish tenor banjo. I was really enjoying playing melodica and it seemed like it had the potential to be tolerated on select tunes at the Irish sessions I go to. I briefly looked into other sources of air for powering the melodica such as the bellows and air bag setup used for uilleann pipes, but I don't see myself wanting to invest in such a precarious workaround.

Casio Casiotone SA-50 mini keyboard

For Christmas I asked for and received a Casio Casiotone SA-50 mini keyboard. Thanks Santa! The SA-50 has the same 32-key layout as the melodica I was playing, so I can continue working on the repertoire I had intended for melodica without having to use any kind of tube or mouthpiece. It has its own internal speakers and can run on 6 AA batteries or with an AC adapter. The SA-50 has 100 sounds with #9 vibraphone being my favorite. That's fine but I don't know if playing The Parting Glass on a mini electric keyboard designed for kids would the right way to end a session.

In the more longer term, I'm still looking for another instrument to play. I don't want it to be a stringed instrument and I don't want it to be an instrument that uses the mouth to blow air. It should also be non-electric and relatively compact and portable. I'm considering a melodeon or Irish button accordion. At this point I'm not even sure if these are different instruments or the same thing! I'm also considering a harmonium which is usually associated with yoga or Indian music but could also be used for Irish pieces. Or perhaps tuned percussion such as a chromatic Free Notes mallet instrument or a Hammered Mbira made by Don MacLane. Any of these would require a significant financial investment that I am not ready to make at the moment.

In the meantime I think I am going to have a new neck made for my one-of-a-kind J. Romero tenor banjo. For the last six months I've been playing a custom made 5-string Zach Hoyt tenor banjo tuned in all 5ths GDAEB from low to high. It has a 5 strings at the nut and the addition of that high B string makes getting to that high B note a lot easier for me because of the one-finger-per-fret way that I like to play. Played as an open string rather than at the 7th fret of the E string. I don't see myself ever going back to just 4 strings GDAE. This might be a doable task for local banjo luthier Brooks Masten. 

My Favorite Music of 2025: Two Albums Really Stood Out

Tortoise - Touch

I've posted a list of my favorite albums of the year each year for at least the last 15 cycles, and at this point I'm definitely past my peak. I'm not listening to tons of new artists the way Trey Anastasio does. I didn't do a bunch of end of the year cramming. I mostly checked out new releases by artists I was already familiar with as they came out, including Mulatu Astatke, Big Thief, Béla Fleck, Page McConnell, Bill Frisell, Enda Scahill, Mary Halvorson, Circles Around the Sun, Thomas Morgan, and Andy Thorn. More on those later.

I did have two big-time standouts this year though. Albums that I couldn't stop listening to. One in the spring and one in the fall. Those were Phonetics On and On by Horsegirl (spring 2025) and Touch by Tortoise (fall 2025). Neither of these artists were new to me. I've been a fan of Horsegirl since their 2022 debut Versions of Modern Performance and my obsession with Tortoise goes back well over two decades, ever since I first heard TNT. 

When the all-female rock trio Horsegirl first came on the scene they were still teenagers, and their slacker indie sound gained them comparisons to Pavement and Sonic Youth. On their 2nd album I still hear that, but I also hear the introduction of a mod, paisley-hued nature that made me think of The Shaggs. I know that's a lazy comparison but oh well. According to Spotify, Phonetics On and On was my most listened to album of the year. Despite being my most listened to, I think it was my 2nd favorite overall, with the number one slot going to Tortoise who won the race by a wide margin!

How do I describe Tortoise to those who don't know? First off, it's all instrumental, with elements of rock, jazz, classical, and film scores. Very heady. It's often drum forward although their guitarist Jeff Parker is one of the best jazz/experimental guitarists working today. Plus, I've always liked how Tortoise incorporates mallet instruments (vibraphone?) into their band. When I first listened to Touch, I would note the places or tracks where Tortoise sounded like Tortoise. It wasn't all the time. Now when I listen it is all the time. I might be biased because it's new, but if it's not the best Tortoise album of all time, it's at least on par with Standards and TNT.

Of the aforementioned names in the first paragraph, Life Lessons by Tim O'Brien, Bill Frisell and Dale Bruning is worth checking out, and is probably my 3rd favorite of the year. I think that one came out this year. The vinyl version is missing the Dylan cover Spanish is the Loving Tongue, which is a bummer. My 4th favorite might be BEATrio by Béla Fleck, Edmar Castañeda and Antonio Sánchez. I saw the first time that Béla and Edmar ever played together live at Big Ears in Knoxville in 2019. Now they've added a drummer and recorded an album together. Also worth noting is Banjo Dreams by Andy Thorn. Yes it's a banjo album, but it features some noticeably tasteful piano work by Erik Deutsch.

That's it for this year's list!

Learn It Fast to Play It Fast

A friend's newsletter this week led me to the Fast Practice Technique as taught by trombonist Jason Sulliman. The basic idea is that you should be learning new pieces at the actual tempo you will need to perform them at rather than slowing them down while learning. So if you play Irish music, this means learning a reel or jig at session speed to begin with. You might not get all the notes this way, but you can get it to survival mode and by doing so you accustom your brain from the get-go to the actual speed that is required of you. Not the speed that will eventually be needed, but the speed that is needed now. This bypasses some of the note for note, step by step learning that goes on when you slow the piece down and learn it that way.

The problem with learning a piece at a slowed down tempo is your brain can't process the information the same way when played at the faster speed. I've experienced this myself at sessions. Something I was playing at home at a much slower tempo completely breaks down when trying to keep pace at a session. It's kind of like going to the batting cage and practicing hitting off of pitching machine throwing at 60 mph. You might develop a perfect swing but when you finally face a pitcher throwing 90 mph you're not going to be able to hit it.

After getting the gist of the tune by learning it at tempo, with the fast at-speed version being your place of reference, you can slow it down later on to fine-tune and refine any notes you were misunderstanding or glazing over. You do this after learning it at speed, not before. What I'm not sure of is how much you have to worry about bad habits and tension creeping into your playing of the piece. Does that stick around or is it ironed out as your interpretation of the tune grows and evolves?

Recently I have been toying with the phrases "happy enchilada" and "whet your appetite". A happy enchilada is a tune where you know the general structure, you feel like you have most of the notes, and you can play it at-speed along with others as long as someone else is leading. You hear happy enchilada where the actual notes say half an inch of water. Close enough to survive in a session.

Then in the practice room you whet your appetite for the happy enchilada by going over the tune from a theory point of view, studying the actual notes of the piece compared to what you were playing, correcting notes you had wrong, and so on. Note that it's not "wet your appetite". It's "whet your appetite". Whet means to sharpen. So when you whet your appetite for a happy enchilada you're simply sharpening your understanding of a tune that you can already kind of play at speed. Here's to many more happy enchiladas!

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You Don't Have To Be Irish To Play Irish Music

From what I have noticed, as long as you're playing an instrument suitable to Irish music, and as long as you are playing it with some semblance of understanding, it doesn't matter how flimsy your connection to being Irish might be. 

I have no known history of Irish culture in my family. No relatives claimed Irish roots. We didn't grow up listening to Irish music in the house. I probably didn't even hear Irish trad until I was 30 years old on my first visit to Ireland and saw Yvonne Casey, Eoin O'Neill and Quentin Cooper play in McDermott's Pub Doolin. Or was it McGann's? Memories fade.

When I finally did start playing a musical instrument a couple years later it wasn't necessarily with the intent of playing Irish music. However, when I discovered that there's this type of music where you get to play all-melody all-the-time I was sold. No chord changes, no singing, no waiting for your turn to solo. Just play the melody 100% of the time in unison with other melody instruments. I thought, "I can do this". I try to keep thoughts of being completely inauthentic to the back of my mind.

To the original point. If you learn the etiquette and are making an effort to learn the tunes and get them up to speed, then you'll be fine. Don't wait around until you are good enough. I didn't. If I was waiting until I was good enough I'd still be waiting.

Welsh singer Tom Jones playing fiddle

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Happy Enchilada Tunes

We all have our Happy Enchilada tunes. By that I mean tunes where you mis-hear some of the notes so that your fingers play something that isn't quite right. Happy Enchilada comes from the John Prine song That's The Way The World Goes 'Round. The actual lyrics are "that's the way that world goes 'round, you're up one day, the next you're down, it's a half an inch of water and you think you're gonna drown, that's the way that the world goes 'round". But instead of "half an inch of water" you hear "happy enchilada". I also call these Brass Miracle tunes, after the Prince song Raspberry Beret. She wore a (brass miracle ring), the kind you find in a second hand store.

You might sing along with these songs for years until you finally get to see the written lyrics and realize you had part of it wrong. It's the same with tunes we are trying to learn by ear. Try as you might, someone still trying to develop play-by-ear abilities is going to have many Happy Enchiladas in their version of the tune. A minimal amount of Happy Enchiladas is OK. A large amount of Happy Enchiladas is also OK. The latter just means that you've unintentionally "composed" your own tune. It may be best to play these so-called original compositions in the comfort of your own home!

You can also play something that sounds correct, but represents a misunderstanding of the theory behind it. Like if you're someone who says "for all intensive purposes" instead of the actual saying "for all intents and purposes". It may be hard to aurally pick up the differences but there their. Is this a mute point?

The point being that the occasional misheard phrase is within an acceptable +/- range when trying to play something by ear. Sometimes this is to your benefit. For tunes like Dinky's, Dusty Windowsills, or Gravel Walks you might be better off relying on your ear rather than consulting the notation, because if you look at the notation you might see more notes than your ear was hearing that actually makes it harder to play from a technical standpoint.

Most of the time I do think it's beneficial to look at the notation, albeit after you've had a little bit of time to digest the sound of the tune. You don't want to be blatantly playing notes that exclaim "she wore a brass miracle ring" when you could be playing "she wore a raspberry beret". And you don't want to be playing notes that express "wet your appetite" when it should be expressing "whet your appetite". That's why a minimal amount of theory knowledge can come into play. 

You might be able to say the sentence "the small dog chased a red bull", but if you have no theory training you won't pick up the nouns (dog, ball), the verb (chased), and the adjectives (small, red). Secondly, you won't be able to interpret this in your own style by saying "the little pup hunted a crimson sphere". 

The One Thing I Wish I Had Done More of When I Started Playing Tenor Banjo

It's been over 19 years since I first got a tenor banjo. There are lots of things I wish knew starting out, including don't worry about when you will get "good", don't be afraid to change strings, don't let the fact that there are great musicians intimidate or de-motivate you, don't waste so much money on other instruments (banjo is where it's at), don't go on so many tangents and side trips, stay focused on things that help you reach your goal, know what your goal is, understand that music is more than just what you see as performance and entertainment on a stage, that there is a whole DIY hobbyist music community of peers, and more.

However, the one thing that I wish I had allowed myself to do more of is struggle. When I started playing tenor banjo at age 32 I quickly learned how to read mandolin tab fluently and sheet music on a basic level so I never tried to learn anything by ear. It felt like a seemingly insurmountable hurdle to have to learn entirely by ear with no notation or tab. But what I could have done is give myself like 30 minutes to try and learn or transcribe a tune by ear, then compare what I was playing to the actual notes on the page to see how far off I was. That 30 minutes would have been a struggle but if I had done this over and over and over again the unpleasantness of the struggle would have eventually subsided into a routine delivering positive outcomes. 

It was not until 2017, 11 years after I picked up the instrument, that I started to do something resembling this. In 2017 I became frustrated with almost everything I had been doing related to music. Instead of giving up entirely, I decided to create my own repertoire completely from scratch without any regard to genre, style, tradition, tune type, and so on. I accomplished this by listening to a wide variety of different sounds and then trying to write my own melody based on what I was hearing. I stopped playing anything I had ever played before.

Because of the freedom I gave myself this wasn't actually a struggle. Let's say that I was listening to a track like De La Montaña Venimos by Maso Rivera. What I would do is listen to this piece and then write my own melody inspired by it. I titled it "From the Hills I Go". From the Hills I Go became my tune and part of my personal repertoire. Emphasis on feeling as though it were my own. I never once saw sheet music and my goal was not to try and copy the existing melody. If I heard it a certain way I went with that. Then it would be on to something else. Maybe a track from a 1970's KPM library music LP, or a Jean Luc Ponty tune or a field recording from the Seychelles islands. Within months I had over a dozen of these little melodies to call my own and within a year I had "composed" over 50 of them. It was a fun and all consuming creative project and I can't believe I kept the momentum and focus in place for several years leading all the way into the pandemic.

The funny thing is, one day I actually paid a music transcriber on Fiverr to transcribe De La Montaña Venimos for me. I had my own tune that I was playing which was inspired by this melody but I didn't know how close it was to the actual melody. Lo and behold, I had almost transcribed the head melody to the tune note for note. My tune, the one that I supposedly wrote and felt ownership with and called From the Hills I Go, was essentially a plagiarized copy of De La Montaña Venimos. That was both good news and bad news. The bad news that I couldn't really claim it as my own. The good news was that it proved that you could learn something without needing sheet music! I didn't check the other 150+ tunes that I "composed" during this strange period of my life, but I'm guessing that many more closely mirrored the melody from which they were stolen from.

When I moved to Oregon last year and decided to get involved in the Irish trad community here I used this newly gained confidence to approach struggle with a positive mindset. Wish Irish jigs, reels, polkas, hornpipes, slides, slip jigs, and so on there are almost always going to be tunebook lead sheet transcriptions of the basic tune, but thanks to YouTube and other sources there are also always going to be audio versions to listen to. I treat the audio as my primary source and the notation as supplemental. I try to limit how often I allow myself to look at the sheet music. Resisting the urge to look at the music when you are stumped and letting your mind work through the issue does pay off in the long run. A tune is not static anyway. Your day to day interpretation of it is allowed to vary. One day your version may have a lot of "wrong" notes. Then as you learn the tune better, the wrong notes fade away only to be replaced by other notes that you hear in their place.

When I start a post like this I never quite know where it's going to end up. I think I'd rather go work on some tunes now than try to write anything else.

Poulsbo and Leavenworth - Exploring Washington's Euro-Themed Towns

We did a close to home "European" vacation this past week, visiting both of Washington state's European style towns: Poulsbo and Leavenworth. Here's a comparison of the two.

Poulsbo sits on the water at Liberty Bay about 18 nautical miles from Seattle. The downtown area offers many water views from its shops and restaurants. Poulsbo's maritime history relied on commercial fishing and seafood processing, plus logging with transport by water. Today, the town attracts recreational boating, sport fishing, kayaking, rowing, and day trippers from Seattle.

Poulsbo's Liberty Bay at night

Originally a bustling logging and sawmill town, Leavenworth is surrounded by mountains in every direction with some peaks reaching over 8000 feet in elevation. The town has cold, snowy winters and warm, dry summers. The surrounding area offers many outdoor activities including snowshoeing, mountain biking, and hiking.

Poulsbo has an authentic claim on its "Little Norway" nickname since it was actually founded by Norwegian immigrants in the 1880's. These Scandinavian settlers were drawn to the area's resemblance to Norway's landscape. Norwegian was the primary language spoken in Poulsbo until World War II. The town leans into this Scandinavian history and cultural identity with folk art, murals, and flags, an annual Viking Fest, and other Nordic aesthetics and traditions.

On the other hand, Leavenworth's German history only dates back to the 1960's when town leaders came up with the idea to turn the declining logging town into a Bavarian-themed tourist village. Existing buildings were remodeled in a German style and henceforth any new construction within the town limits has had to conform to these Bavarian design aesthetics. The marketing strategy was a success and Leavenworth was transformed into a major tourist attraction in an otherwise remote part of Washington state.

Downtown Leavenworth in a smoky haze

Poulsbo's most iconic shop/restaurant has to be Sluys Bakery. Located on Front Street in the heart of Poulsbo, Sluys is open everyday from 5am to 6pm. Sluys sells baked goods and traditional Norwegian pastries, including the Viking Cup, a cinnamon bun filled with cream cheese frosting. That's what I got.

If the lines to order are any indication, Leavenworth's can't miss eatery must be München Haus, an outdoor beer garden specializing in Bavarian sausages with a wide variety of mustards and other toppings available. We ate there one evening after the line had died down. It was worth it.

Painted steps in Poulsbo

The best place in Poulsbo for a tourist to grab a drink and mix with the locals is definitely The Brass Kraken, a lively no minors allowed bar/restaurant located directly on the water at Liberty Bay. They had a great pork belly taco and a welcoming atmosphere. Leavenworth didn't seem to have a Brass Kraken equivalent, but Blewett Brewing Company is a good place to get away from the tourists and enjoy craft beers and delicious pizza. It was a breath of fresh air only one block off the main drag.

Other notable places we went to in Poulsbo included Valholl Brewing, Tizley's EuroPub, and The Loft at Latitude Forty Seven Seven. Poulsbo also has a pleasant park for walking called Fish Park, a short drive from downtown. In Leavenworth we liked Icicle Brewing, Andreas Keller Restaurant, and the dog-friendly Bushel and Bee Taproom. And we liked that Leavenworth had walking paths right in town along the picturesque Wenatchee River as part of Waterfront Park.

Enzian Falls Championship Putting Course

Poulsbo's tranquil location on Liberty Bay reminded me of other harborside small towns I have visited such as Lunenburg Nova Scotia and Akureyri Iceland. Leavenworth had more like a Deadwood meets Telluride feel, with a little bit of old country Busch Gardens mixed in.

Between the two I probably liked Poulsbo better, even though Leavenworth has more tourist amenities including Enzian Falls Championship Putting Course (like a putt-putt but with real grass that looks like a tiny version of an actual golf course!). Poulsbo is worth an overnight stay so that you can have time to explore nearby Bainbridge Island. Leavenworth, with its middle of nowhere setting and multiple lodging options, is definitely a place you'll want to rest your head. You'll be driving through the mountains and then all of a sudden there you are!

Portland Oregon is a great city for playing Irish music

Portland, OR is a great city in general, but it's an especially great city for an adult hobbyist to engage with others under the auspices of Irish traditional music. Just this past week, I participated in 4 separate sessions over 5 days. Saturday was an outdoor afternoon session at a block party in an idyllic setting within the wonderful Mt. Tabor neighborhood. Sunday evening was a recurring session at a bar/restaurant in Vancouver, WA just across the river from Portland. (My presence at this one made no difference whatsoever but it was still a learning experience). Tuesday night was a lively session that happens every week at a brewery in Tigard, which is a town a little south and west of Portland. And Wednesday was a super fun gathering at a meadery in the "wow I wish I lived here" neighborhood of Sellwood where I was able to lead on several tunes. 

To top it off, I didn't even go to the session that I usually attend each Sunday afternoon in Northwest Portland at the Hostel Cafe. And that's not all. There were other open sessions happening on Saturday and Thursday that I knew about but didn't attend. Plus there are also closed or invite only sessions most nights of the week that you can go to as a listener. I'm still meeting people that I've never even seen before when I go to these things.

For someone like me who is at best a mediocre adult learner who has been putting in lots of work to get up to speed and increase my repertoire, it's very motivating to know that there are opportunities like this in abundance. At those four sessions in the last week not only was I welcomed to participate and play but I was in the same circle as some top notch musicians. I often still think that I am the least qualified participant at the table, but I also feel privileged to even be able to take part in the unison tune playing. Sometimes while driving to a session I make an effort to clear my mind and get into a really positive headspace before walking in.

I'm sure there are lots of DIY music communities in the area: bluegrass, old-time, ukulele clubs, trad jazz, guitar groups, early music, singing sessions, choro jams, and so on. But the Irish jigs n' reel clique seems like the only one that checks all the boxes...get to play tenor banjo (check), no chords/accompaniment or solo breaks required (check), all instrumental and no singing (check). I guess old-time also qualifies but there are no jigs, slide or slip-jigs in old-time so you miss out on a diversity of rhythms. Plus tenor banjo is not the right type of banjo for that.

Despite my focus on the Irish trad repertoire, I don't think of myself as having a style or playing in a style. What I want to do is play a banjo or banjo-like instrument. Tuned in 5ths. Played using a plectrum/guitar pick. And with this instrument and that plectrum I only want to play melodies 100% of the time. I don't want to have to play chords or even think about chords, or strum or sing or anything like that. Irish music completely falls within those whims/constraints.

It's great that I have this DIY Irish music community to be a part of. The above picture of Pure Hell - Noise Addition is of no relation to the topic of this post, but someone played this LP at the Rain Drop taphouse in Beaverton and it sounded awesome so I took a picture!

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Gold Tone AC-6 Mini Banjitar review

I don't play guitar, so for me getting a six string guitar (banjitar, guitjo) was simply a way to use an all 4ths tuning with a banjo sound. Before learning about the Gold Tone A-6 Mini Acoustic Composite Banjitar, I never actually considered getting a six string banjo because the neck would be too long for me. I actually played around with the idea of getting a Puerto Rican cuatro since that is tuned in all 4ths BEADG with a scale length of about 20.5 inches, which is in my comfort zone. 

The Gold Tone AC-6 Mini Banjitar has a shorter scale than most guitars or banjo-guitars at approximately 22.8 inches. As soon as I learned of this instrument's existence I tried to buy one but it looked like the left-handed ones were out of stock. I called Gold Tone and David said that they could set it up left-handed with side dots for no extra charge so I was sold.

The instrument arrived and played OK right out of the box. As I expected, the 22.8 inch scale was still a little bit too long for me. It's not the finger stretch that bothers me but the shoulder position. Anything longer than a 17-fret, 21 inch scale tenor banjo causes bursitis in my shoulder to flare up. So I got a Shubb capo and I use that on the 2nd fret which makes the scale length about 20.3 inches. Problem solved.

The open string tuning I use is E-A-D-G-C-F low to high, which is like standard tuning with the top two strings tuned up a half step to keep the 4ths ratio throughout all the strings. With a capo at the 2nd fret this becomes F#-B-E-A-D-G. I think this is going to work well for Irish tunes since the open string notes B, E, A, D, and G are found in almost every Irish session tune. I don't play chords or strum. Just melodies played with a guitar pick.

I took it to a local music shop over the weekend and they made a few minor adjustments to the neck angle and head tension which improved the action and playability. Now it sounds just fine, I think. My main instrument will remain the tenor banjo tuned in 5ths, but my goal is to learn a few tunes at a time on the banitar so that I can break it out at a slow Irish session. It's also good for ear training - trying to find where the notes are.

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Bend, Oregon - is it worth a visit?

My wife and I moved to Oregon last year but had not been the to the Central OR tourist town of Bend yet so we did a late summer mid-week trip to check it out. The 3.5 hour drive to Bend included a boring stretch of I-5 from Tigard to Salem and a scenic 120+ miles through mountains and alongside rivers, creeks, and lakes via OR-22 and US-20. I would not want to do that drive during the winter, but it would be a pleasant way to go during other times of the year.

Bend is described as breathtaking in marketing blurbs. The area around Bend may be breathtaking, but it's not a term I would use once you are in the town itself. The term I would use is walkable. There is a high concentration of shops, restaurants and breweries in the downtown area. Most are within a ten minute walk. Plus there are pathways and parks along the Deschutes River. As I mistakenly found out, there is no reason to walk all the way to the Old Mill District as it really is just an outdoor mall with big box stores and chain restaurants.

Bend sits at 3,623 feet above sea level. This arid high desert climate is at just enough altitude to experience the effects of thin air. I normally wouldn't give this a second thought but the massive 23,000 acre Flat Fire was burning not far away in Sisters OR which made the air quality unhealthy. With daytime temps hitting 90 degrees plus unremitting sunshine, we weren't really motivated to do any of the outdoor activities that Bend is known for. Like I said, the town itself is walkable. The place we stayed had its own parking spot so once we parked we didn't have to move the car again for two days. Our main outdoor activity involved walking from one place to another! Consumer, consumer.

Bend did live up to some of its stereotypes. For example, there is a high concentration of tall, skinny, outdoorsy types who look like they just walked out of a Patagonia, Stio, or Carhartt catalog. These folks procreate so you can expect their blonde-haired 2.5 kids to be running wild at any brewery or restaurant you go to that isn't 21 and up. I don't think it was quite as bad as usual though since we were there mid-week when kids are supposed to be back in school.

Here are some places worth mentioning:

Jackson's Corner - a nice spot for breakfast, coffee or lunch in Old Bend. An excellent BLT sandwich. 

The Cellar - kind of like a basement speakeasy with a British pub theme. Featuring cask-conditioned ESB, red ale and porter from Porter Brewing Company in Redmond, and imported Kilkenny, Guinness and Old Speckled Hen on nitro. They have old-time Appalachian fiddle-style music on Wednesdays and an Irish session on Thursdays!

Spider City Brewing Downtown Tasting Room - a smaller, quiet space offering beer and wine. 

McMenamins Old St. Francis School Hotel - another one of the sprawling McMenamins properties that can be found throughout and Oregon and Washington. There's nothing else like it in Bend. See if you can find the hidden Broom Closet Bar!

Dudley's Bookshop Cafe - a two-story book store with a mix of new and used books. I always like going into bookstores while traveling and Dudley's was a pretty good one.

Pine Tavern and Bend Brewing Company - both of these places have outdoor areas along Mirror Pond, an impoundment of the Deschutes River. Both are better than you might expect them to be.

Mirror Pond, Drake Park and the Deschutes River Trail - Bend has made good use of its location along the Deschutes River by having green spaces and walking paths. Not much shade though!

Thai restaurants - Bend is not known for its diversity, but it does seem to have a different Thai restaurant on each block. What's up with that?

Cool poster in McMenamins Art House

River walk in Bend, OR

Our place had a welcoming courtyard

Tin Pan Alley in Bend

Was it worth the visit? Yes, although it's no match for the Oregon coast.

Would I go back to Bend? Maybe for a concert at the Hayden Homes Amphitheatre just across the river from downtown. 

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How to Change your Banjo Strings

One of my music goals for this year is to get better at and more comfortable with banjo string changes. I have a custom made 5-string tenor banjo with five equal length strings so at least I don't have to deal with re-stringing that short drone or thumb string, but otherwise everything else is the same. You hook the loop end of the string at the tailpiece and run it through the tuner at the headstock. Banjos and mandolins with floating bridges are similar in this regard.

Let me say this. I am not good at changing strings. I sweat and agonize over it, and I have to make an effort to remain calm while doing it. And it takes me like 45 minutes. But that is about to change with practice and a new mindset. This is not a post by me telling you how to change banjo strings because I am not qualified to do that. I am simply sharing some articles that I found helpful and will want to refer back to later.

Whenever I have had a luthier or shop tech do a string change for me, the instrument always came back with the new strings winded (wound?) two or three revolutions or more around the tuner. This looks pretty but I just don't see myself doing that. Fortunately there's a simpler method where you simply lock-in the string. 

Here's a link to a page demonstrating this step by step. What I like about this is it's written as an article with pictures. That works better for me than a video.

http://frets.com/FretsPages/Musician/Banjo/BanjoStringing/banjostr2.html

I actually think his mandolin restringing article from the same site is equally if not more helpful.

http://frets.com/FretsPages/Musician/Mandolin/MandoString/mandostring1.html

I'll be checking these out the next time I change strings!

All 4ths versus All 5ths Tuning

I'm most familiar with all 5ths tuning like on a tenor banjo. I have also experimented with all 4ths by tuning my Vagabond travel guitar in all 4ths EADGCF. To that end, I thought I would jot down some compare/contrast notes about each tuning.  

All 4ths

-Easier to play in any key.

-Utilizes closed shapes, doesn't rely on open strings.

-Pattern oriented.

-You can play melodies anywhere on the fretboard, not just first position.

-You have more fingering choices for how you want to play a melody and sometimes you might have the same note in two places.

-Due to the way the strings are spaced, you might have string jumps that you wouldn't have in all 5ths tuning.

-Due to the shorter range from string to string, it's better to have 5 or 6 strings like on a guitar rather than 4 like on a violin.

-Works for guitar length scale of 25 inches, although could also work for a shorter scale length.

All 5ths

-Suited to fiddle tune repertoire.

-Wider intervals means you rely on open strings to play melodies.

-You tend to stay in first position.

-Only needs 4 strings total or 5 at the most.

-Best for shorter scale instruments like 21-inch scale or shorter.

-Some say the 5ths interval has more resonance or a more pleasant harmony than 4ths.

If I Could Have Musical Influences, What Would They Be?

If I was going to take music lessons again, it would be on the subject of "what can I learn from these musicians?". I would work with an instructor who is willing to go over the playing styles and techniques of 3 or 4 musicians with me to see what I can learn or draw from their playing. 

As someone who is learning/memorizing Irish tunes on tenor banjo and then bringing said tenor banjo to Irish pub sessions and using it to play monophonic unison tunes in a group setting, it would make sense for me to be influenced by players who do that specifically. Those cats would include John Carty, Angelina Carberry, Kieran Hanrahan, Kevin Griffin, and Daithí Kearney. I especially like Daithí Kearney's playing since he does a lot of slides and polkas, which you don't always hear Irish tenor banjo players doing.

Surprise, surprise. None of these musicians in the subject of this hypothetical study with an instructor would be players of Irish music, even though my goal would be to take whatever influence I could extract and apply it to my hobby of playing Irish tunes. The first four musicians would be:

-Puerto Rican Cuatro player Maso Rivera. Suggested track: De La Montaña Venimos from Reyando Con Maso Y Su Cuatro.

-Kali, a banjo-mandolin(?) player from Martinique in the French West Indies. Suggested track: Bel Plesi from his Racines, Vol 1 & 2 CD.

-Another banjo-mandolin player...Dennis Pash of the Etcetera String Band and the Ragtime Skedaddlers. The super obscure CD Bonne Humeur - in which Pash plays his interpretations of the early dance music of Haiti, Trinidad, Martinique, and the Virgin Islands - may have already been a big influence on me.

-Sylvester McIntosh, also known as "Blinky", who was the band leader and alto saxophone player in Blinky and the Roadmasters plus other scratch music bands in the United States Virgin Islands. Anything from their 1990 Rounder records release Crucian Scratch Band Music. 

I suppose four is enough of a start. Three of those four are stringed instrument players - Maso Rivera, Kali, and Dennis Pash - who each use or used some type of pick/plectrum to pluck/flat-pick the strings. The only non-string instrument player is Blinky, so I'm not exactly sure what I'd be trying to get from his playing but that's where an instructor could help.

An extended list of musicians who I'd like to draw from would include Norman Blake, Jerry Garcia, Elmer Snowden, Michael Kang, Don Vappie, Tiny Moore, and Jamaican mento 4-string banjo players in general. Once again, not to play their styles of music per se, but to continue playing Irish tunes albeit with the feel of those musicians in mind. 

One thing you wouldn't hear in most of these influences,  I am guessing, is some of the rhythmic qualities that show up in Irish trad, such as the 6/8 jig, the 9/8 slip jig, and 12/8 slides. Those are some of my favorite types of tunes! So it could be a bit of a leap to go from listening to Maso Rivera, for example, and then apply those picking techniques to an Irish jig. But it could be done I suppose.

Does this make any sense at all?

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What I Like About (Tenor) Banjo

I've mentioned why I play tenor banjo* several times, but I'm not sure I've covered what I like about banjo. I had to give it some thought. Here's what I like about the (tenor) banjo.

-Stringed instrument played with a flat-pick. At least the tenor banjo is. If I wasn't playing a stringed instrument with a pick my second choice would probably be a chromatically tuned mallet percussion instrument such as a marimba.

-Scale length between mandolin and guitar. Mandolin feels too short and cramped. The guitar neck is too long for me and my shoulder. A short scale tenor banjo is just the right fit.

-Single course strings. I don't like the feel of double course strings on instruments with a similar scale length such as an octave mandolin or Puerto Rican cuatro. 

-Ergonomics. No big guitar-like body to have to reach your arm around and wrestle with. 

-Lots of sound in a relatively small package. My newest banjo has a 10-inch, open back rim and that's still plenty loud. You can't get that same amount of projection or volume with an acoustic tenor guitar.

-5ths tuning. The tenor banjo is tuned in 5ths which makes sense to me. The other tuning I like is all 4ths, but that wouldn't work as well for playing Irish traditional tunes up to speed. So I'll stick with all 5ths. 

-The tenor banjo is generally accepted at Irish music sessions. It may still be looked at askance by a few naysayers, but it's closer to being in the norm than clarinet or saxophone would be.

-Not as common as fiddle or other instruments. At the Irish sessions I go to, I am usually either the only person playing tenor banjo, or one of two. This uniqueness suits my personality.

-Ability to play melodies with no need to re-tune for certain keys. In Irish session music, tenor banjo is one of the melody instruments. No matter what instrument I was playing, I'd be wanting to only play melodies so I like that it can hold its own in that department.

-Something about the sound of it. I do love the sound of a flat-picked guitar or tenor guitar, but if I have to choose one over the other, banjo ultimately wins that competition at least from my own playing perspective. One of the benefits of an open back is if I'm practicing at home and want to muffle the sound I can always stuff a t-shirt or towel into the inside of the banjo pot.

*Why I chose banjo. I had never played any instruments before but back in May 2006, when I was already in my early 30's, I called Elderly Instruments to order CDs by old-time banjo players Riley Baugus and Dan Gellert**. The woman on the other end of the line asked "do you play" and I said no. She said that I should, that's it's fun, so when I got off the phone I researched what type of banjo to get and learned about the tenor banjo, which I had never quite heard of. I chose tenor banjo because I'm left-handed and online forum commenters told me that a vintage right-handed tenor banjo like a Vega Little Wonder or a Bacon and Day can be set up left-handed. I also realized that tenor banjo is the type of banjo used in Irish traditional music and that it's tuned like a mandolin for Irish, so learning how to play GDAE tenor banjo is kind of like secretly learning mandolin. To top it off, I quickly located two local teachers - Josh Bearman and Cleek Schrey - who helped make sure I stuck with it and advanced beyond the awkward beginner stage when so many adult learners give up. There was also a welcoming community of DIY fiddle-tune musicians in the Richmond, VA area that I quickly fell into. 

**Next question: why was I buying a couple of old-time CDs if I didn't play that music? Well, I had already been listening to bluegrass such as Old and in the Way, Hot Rize, New Grass Revival, Tony Rice and Yonder Mountain String Band for several years by that point. Then in 2004 and 2005 I visited Ireland, heard Irish trad for the first time, and brought back CDs by West Clare musicians Yvonne Casey, Eoin O'Neill, Quentin Cooper, and Mary Custy. So when I called Elderly to order those old-time CDs I was probably thinking that old-time Appalachian music was the bridge between the bluegrass I had been listening to and the instrumental Irish trad I recently discovered. It had not yet occurred to me that this was something I should try and play. It took a stranger saying I should play to flip that switch!

Zach Hoyt 5 String Tenor Banjo update

Here's an update on my custom made Zachary Hoyt banjo now that I've had almost two weeks of playing it daily and taking it to Irish sessions.

Build Quality

This banjo played great right out of the box, but soon after getting it I took it in-person to master banjo luthier Brooks Masten's basement shop in Portland, Oregon to get his take on it and to do any additional setup work that might be needed. Brooks was very impressed by the build quality and materials used. He said that ash was a very stable neck wood. He even uses ash in some of his banjos. The only adjustment Brooks made was to slightly lower the action at the nut. 

Sound Quality

I have already played this banjo at four Irish sessions over the last two weeks and have received compliments on its sound. I even got to hear another lefty play it for a moment so I could experience it from that perspective. Someone also happened to make a short recording of an outdoor session I was in at a park and I was shocked at how clearly the banjo stood out amongst tin whistle, concertina and fiddle. I don't hear any compromise in the sound at all by having an open back (no resonator), a very short scale (19.75 inches) and a smaller than usual pot (10" rim as opposed to 11").

Playability

Having this banjo in my hands seems to have bolstered my confidence. The high B-string means that I don't have to make that leap to the 7th fret of the E-string. This has definitely made my playing more fluid. The shorter 19.75" scale is not a problem at all. It's actually part of what makes this banjo easier to play. I was initially worried about the chunky feel of the neck, but I don't think this has hindered me at all. It primarily feels chunkier due to the width of the neck since it has 5 strings at the nut instead of 4. Brooks Masten assured me that a chunky neck is a good thing for a banjo's resonance and for keeping it in tune.

  

Supports Guitar Fingering

I was always a one-finger-per-fret type of 4-string Irish tenor player. I never adapted to the more common and more recommended mandolin type fingering. Irish tenor banjo players are taught to slant their fretting hand at an angle and use mandolin fingering, which means pinky on fret 2, middle finger on frets 3 and 4, ring finger on fret 5 and 6. Saving the pinkie finger for fret 7. Having that angle allows you to do this fingering. I don't do this angle though. I like to keep my fingers almost parallel to the frets like a guitar player would. This banjo allows me to fully embrace my preferred way of holding my fretting hand and fingering the notes one-finger-per-fret.

More Range in First Position

This GDAEB all 5th tuning from low to high gives me more range. That extra string tuned to B has a 5th fret E note. That's the equivalent of a 12th fret E note in standard EADGBE guitar tuning or GDAE mandolin/Irish tenor banjo tuning. This means I can play "up to the 12th fret" without having to leave first position since I have the equivalent note on the 5th fret. I haven't quite figured out what to do with this extra range yet. For some tunes it'll mean that I can play the melody in a higher octave. It could also open up some interesting higher-pitched harmonic opportunities if I make small chords incorporating notes on that high B string. 

Tab and Staff Paper are the same

I realized yesterday that having 5 strings tuned in 5ths means that "mandolin tab" for this instrument could be written on tab representing 5 strings instead of four. It just so happens that traditional sheet music staff paper already has five lines. I do still write out the occasional tune in tab or notation so that I can see it more clearly, and now I can use regular sheet music staff paper for tab or for notation!

With 5 strings this works for both tab and notation!

Inspiration from other instruments

I believe the late jazz tenor banjo player Eddy Davis had a tenor banjo with a 17 inch scale and 10 inch rim custom made by Joel Eckhaus of Earnest Instruments. That helped me feel OK with a sub 20 inch scale tenor banjo mandola. At first glance, my banjo could be mistaken for baritone banjolele, which is not a bad thing. The design also draws characteristics from the old-time banjo world simply because that is the type of banjo Zach Hoyt usually makes. The additional range potentially places this banjo into banjo-mandolin sonic territory, which is cool. If/when I can play a melody an octave up it'll double the fiddle and mandolin octave. Lastly, an inspiration for 5 strings tuned in 5ths with a similar scale length comes from the Puerto Rican Cuatro, which has 5 (double-course) strings tuned in all 4ths BEADG on a 20.5" scale, the exact opposite of my all 5ths GDAEB tuning.

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My New 5-string Tenor Banjo made by Zach Hoyt

Las month I emailed banjo maker Zachary Hoyt with an idea for a one-of-a-kind banjo, and now that banjo has arrived. That might be a record time for a custom made instrument! My idea was to make a tenor banjo with 5 strings instead of 4 so that it can be tuned in 5ths GDAEB from low to high. Zach has made that dream a reality. In a matter of weeks!

Zachary Hoyt banjo #391

My main inspiration for this banjo was so that I wouldn't have to deal with the 7th fret high B note. About half of all Irish tunes have this high B note in them and that reach or shift up to the 7th fret of the E-string is something I never got comfortable with even after years of playing tenor banjo in the "Irish" GDAE tuning. This banjo has one more string of equal length tuned to B, which is a 5th above the open E string. Problem solved. It turns out that this actually isn't a totally new idea. Michael Kang of the band The String Cheese Incident has been playing a 5 string electric baritone mandolin tuned FCGDA or GDAEB for years now.

Getting an open string to tune up that high B (B4 octave) is a bit of a gamble. Tenor banjos were originally designed to be tuned CGDA with A as the highest note, and that in-and-of-itself is pushing it. This B is a whole step higher than that A. On a regular 19-fret tenor banjo with a 23 inch scale, it would be asking a lot of a string to get up to that pitch without breaking. So what I did was reduce the scale length to 19.75 inches, which is a scale length that Zach already uses on his A-scale 5-string clawhammer style banjos. An .008 or .009 string can be tuned up to B at this 19.75 inch scale length.

For the other four strings - the GDAE strings -  I simply need to use slightly heavier gauges than you would normally use on an Irish tenor banjo. For the low G string, something like a .046w gauge will work. I don't mind a heavier gauge for the low G. Only about 10% of Irish tunes even have a note lower than D, so the main reason you'd ever be playing anything on that G string is to harmonize with a melody note in the D string. I can live with that. It's better than not having that string at all.

The banjo pot is an openback ten inch block wood Ash rim with a walnut rim cap. Featuring brass hardware and 12 total brackets like you might find on an old-time banjo. Zach prefers 10 inch pots for his 19.75 inch scale banjos and I agreed that a 10 inch rim is the proper aesthetic and ergonomic ratio for this scale length. It probably puts the bridge in a better position than a larger rim would have. I think the 10 inch rim gives it a punchier, more direct sound. The use of a Waverly style tailpiece instead of a no knot tailpiece puts more break angle on the strings, which should also help brighten up the sound.

The neck is made of ash with a walnut center stripe. Zach recommended ash even though it may not be as pretty as other wood options because he thinks it has a bit of extra volume and projection over maple or cherry. The width at the nut is about about 4 centimeters (1.6 inches). Not bad considering that it's got 5 strings across there. The fretboard wood is jatoba and the headstock showcases a stunning walnut peghead overlay.

The tuning pegs are individual Gotoh Schaller-style knobs that I picked out. These have a 16:1 gear ratio. I happen to like the looks of guitar style tuners over regular banjo tuning pegs. The headstock is a special design I requested inspired by the shape used on Mann mandolins and some five string bass guitars. It has a 10 inch Renaissance head and a wooden arm rest.

As a personality type, I'm pretty individualized and not one to always go along with the conventional thinking. For example, I don't buy into the belief that playing Irish tunes on a tenor banjo requires a 19-fret, 23 inch scale vintage banjo with resonator. I happen to like lighter weight, no frills, openback banjos mainly for the comfort factor, and I've found that the shorter scale length of a 17-fret 21 inch scale tenor banjo is easier to play and doesn't cause any bursitis in my shoulder. At 19.75" this Zach Hoyt banjo is even shorter than that which makes it an absolute joy to play!

I have no concerns about volume with this banjo. Up 'til now I've always stuffed a towel or t-shirt into the back of my banjos to muffle the sound out of a fear of being too loud or abrasive. I'm not planning on doing that with this banjo though!

Specs:

Tuned in 5ths GDAEB from low to high

10 inch openback pot with twelve brackets

19.75 inch scale length

Approx. 4cm (1.6in) width at nut

Ash neck with walnut neck stripe

Ash block wood rim with walnut rim cap

Jatoba fretboard wood

Brass hardware

Two way truss rod

Wood tone ring profile in top of rim

Renaissance head

Gotoh Schaller style knob individual tuners 16:1 gear ratio

Mann style headstock shape with walnut peghead overlay

Waverly style tailpiece

10 inch Renaissance head

Side dots on left-hand side and fretboard dots

Recommended string gauges: .044w or .046w G2, .034w or .036w D3, .022w or .024w A3, .013 E4, and .009 B4