Six Bill Frisell Tunes on Tenor Banjo

Bill Frisell with Lucy (photo by Monica Frisell)

Over the last two months I've started to play a half dozen new tunes that are either Bill Frisell compositions or closely related to him.  I'm always looking for unusual new tunes to play - simple, distinctive melodic pieces that would be enjoyable to interpret on tenor banjo.  The selections below were all recorded on the couch in my living room in a span of about 30 minutes starting at about 8:30 this morning (July 30, 2016).  I love to get up early on a Saturday morning and start playing banjo.  This is what I would have been doing anyway. I just happened to have a recorder going this time so that these could be documented.

The tune that really got me interested in attempting some Bill Frisell stuff is We All Love Neil Young from Bill's Big Sur album.  I was instantly drawn to the melody and it seemed like I was almost able to play the notes the first time I ever tried.  I later had some help figuring out a couple of the pesky bits.  I don't have good, consistent timing here because I'm just playing it solo and I'd rather just play it than pause for the beats that are supposed to be there.  This melody shows up in other places on the Big Sur album.  Song for Lana Weeks for example.

Next is I Am Not A Farmer from the Disfarmer album.  This is another great example of a very simple - very Frisell like - melody.  It's actually quite similar to We All Love Neil Young.  If you listen to the Disfarmer album all the way through, this melody shows up multiple times under different names.  I struggle with what to do with the B-part since it's so sparse.  On the actual recording there's what amounts to a 3rd part that is just an E-minor chord for a few measures.  I don't really know how to make that work in a solo arrangement, so I just skip that sequence and make it an AA/BB tune.

The 3rd tune I recorded this morning is Uele, which I think is an African (Congolese) children's song.  The full title might be Uele Moliba Makasi.  There's a video of a Bill Frisell concert from the Barbican Theater in London 2/29/2004 featuring Djelimady Tounkara, Greg Leisz, Jenny Scheinman and Sidiki Camara where they play this tune. That's where I heard it. I don't think it's on any officially released Frisell recordings.  What I play is a loose, evolving interpretation of it that comes out different every time.

Speaking of Jenny Scheinman and Sidiki Camara -- Jenny Scheinman has a tune she wrote called Song for Sidiki which I'm assuming must be for djembe player Sidiki Camara.  Scheinman is a frequent collaborator with Bill Frisell and Song for Sidiki is one they often play together.  All of these tunes so far, and especially Song for Sidiki, are exactly what I'm looking for right now.  Relatively simple in structure, with a cool A part and (sometimes) a weird but even cooler B-part.

Bill Frisell has a tune on his Blues Dream album called Pretty Stars Were Made to Shine that is so traditional in its melody and chords that when played as a fiddle tune it sounds just like an old folk song that you can't quite place. Almost too standard. It sorta reminds me of Sweet Sunny South or maybe Uncloudy Day. I was fooling around with it, trying to decide if I liked it enough to add it to my repertoire, and as part of this experimentation played it in A-minor instead of A-major.  I instantly liked it better in A-minor.  It all of a sudden sounds more Middle-Eastern or something.  It's basically just a one-part tune. I would love to find a B-part for it but I haven't yet.  In this recording I toggle between major and minor (which gives it the impression of a two-part tune), and then I add an ending tag inspired by the end of Pretty Flowers Were Made for Blooming, its sister-song from the Blues Dream album.

Perhaps the most difficult Bill Frisell tune I've attempted so far is one of his earlier compositions - Amarillo Barbados.  I like it because it's got a funky Caribbean feel to the A-part, paired with an odd, almost Camper Van Beethoven-ish B-part.  I changed the key for this to make the notes easier to reach.  I wasn't expecting to be able to record this today.  Usually I make too many flubs to get all the way through, but I managed to somewhat capture it one take despite being constantly on the verge of collapse the whole time!

###

Tenner: Ten Years Playing Tenor Banjo

It was almost ten years ago to this day - Memorial Day Weekend 2006 - that I began playing tenor banjo.  Even though I had never played an instrument before, I decided out of the blue at age 32 that I was going to begin playing 4-string tenor banjo.

Ever since I received that first banjo and had it set up left-handed with new tuners in the "Irish" GDAE tuning, I have rarely wavered in thinking that the tenor banjo is the instrument for me.  What I have struggled with is finding the right music to play on it.  My favorite music to listen to at that time - John Prine, Neil Young, Ween, Phish, Grateful Dead - either wasn't fun to play or was too advanced harmonically to translate into single-note tenor banjo plucking.

I soon learned that I wanted to play instrumental melodies -- not strum and sing.  Irish music made the most sense: an endless repertoire of tunes - no chording required - in a style of music where the instrument I held in my hands was commonly used.  Delving in to Irish and old-time fiddle tunes forced me to learn about tenor banjo "flatpicking" and also a little bit about music theory due to my curiosity about the modes and scales.

Fast forward to now...it's taken me about ten years but I finally think I've cobbled together a personal repertoire of tunes that I endlessly enjoy playing.  I like to think of it as an "East/West" repertoire.  East being music with an Eastern European sound, and West being music with origins in the West Indies and therefore a more Caribbean sound.

The core of the "Western" repertoire is the music from an album called Bonne Humeur by The Etcetera String Band.  Around 1990, this ragtime string band from Kansas City recorded an album of early Caribbean music - dance tunes and other melodies from the 19th and 20th centuries.  The lead instrument is a banjo-mandolin.  My favorites from this CD include:  Aurore Bradaire, Bad Woman, Carnaval En Margarita, Dessan Mouillage, La Douceur, Lisette, and many more.  The majority of the 18 tracks, actually.

The core of the "Eastern" repertoire are the faux ethnic original tunes recorded by the band Camper Van Beethoven, primarily those from their 1985 debut album Telephone Free Landslide Victory.  My favorites are Balalaika Gap, Border Ska, Mao Reminisces About His Days In Southern China, Payed Vacation: Greece, Skinhead Stomp, Tina and Yanqui Go Home.

  

Add in a few other East or West type tunes from these and other sources and there are well over 40 tunes I'm trying to keep up with!

Transposing from Major to Phrygian (Rakes of Mallow in Ionian and Phrygian)

Most fiddle tunes are either in Ionian (AKA the major scale, mode 1), Dorian (AKA "modal", AKA "minor", mode 2) or Mixolydian (AKA "modal", mode 5), and sometimes Aeolian (AKA "minor", mode 6).  You don't see many in Phrygian (mode 3), Lydian (mode 4) or Locrian (mode 7), if at all. So, I wondered what it would sound like to transpose* a tune from major/Ionian - the most common and normal sounding of all keys - to Phrygian - a weird, exotic minor mode.

*Is there a more proper term than "transpose" for when you move a melody from one mode to another?

For this experiment I chose the Irish tune Rakes of Mallow because a) it's in the key of G, b) it's a relatively simple tune and c) it was the first tune I thought of!  To do this I had to get the music theory part of my brain working.  I knew that Phrygian was the mode starting on the 3rd note of the major scale, so in other words the G-major scale from B to B (B-C-D-E-F#-G-A-B) would be B-Phrygian.

Rakes of Mallow in G-major

Rakes of Mallow in G-Phrygian

I then made note of those intervals and transposed from B-Phrygian to G-Phrygian.  Those notes are G-Ab-Bb-C-D-Eb-F-G. (FYI: these are the same notes as the Eb-major scale starting on its 3rd note).  I suppose another way of looking at it is, to go from Ionian to Phrygian you flatten the 2nd, 3rd, 6th and 7th notes of the major scale.  I already had Rakes of Mallow written out in mandolin tab in G-major.  Based on that, I wrote it out in G-Phrygian, making sure to convert every A to Ab, every B to Bb, every E to Eb and every F# to F.  Those mandolin tab transcriptions are included above.

Another interesting thing to point out is how the chords changed.  Knowing that the G-Phrygian mode is really just the Eb-major scale starting on its 3rd note, I know that the G-Phrygian mode would use the exact same chords as the Eb-major scale.  (The I chord in Phrygian is the III chord in Major, the II chord in Phrygian is the IV chord in Major, and so on).  Using that logic, I think I wrote out the correct chords in the G-Phrygian version of Rakes of Mallow.

Rakes of Mallow is easy to play in G-major but very difficult and unusual feeling in G-Phrygian, partly because on a tenor banjo in the Irish tuning of GDAE you don't get to use any open strings when playing this melody in G-Phrygian.  (I bet if I had put it in B-Phrygian it would have been much easier because those are the same notes as the G-major scale).  But, I will say that by putting it in the Phrygian mode - with its half step between the 1st and 2nd notes of its scale - the tune takes on an almost Greek or Klezmer sound.

Listen and see what you think!

###

Eddy Davis' 4-String Banjo Video Lessons

Eddy Davis

Tenor banjo legend and Hall of Famer Eddy Davis (AKA Mr. Greenmeat, AKA The Manhattan Minstrel) has started posting a series of 4-string banjo video lessons to YouTube.  These lessons are primarily designed for banjos tuned CGDA, but are also broad enough to cover general music basics as they apply to any four string instrument.

Why should you care?  Well, anytime a player of Eddy's stature provides this kind of direct insight into his or her philosophy of music it's worth taking note, even if the material being covered doesn't directly apply to your specific musical genre or "dialect".

Here are the first few videos.  There are at least 14 of 'em!

###

Closed Position Scale Fingerings for Tenor Banjo

I took some lessons a while back from Dennis Elliott, who is one of the best stringed-instrument teachers in the Richmond, VA area.  Fiddle, mandolin, guitar, bass, bluegrass, jazz, classical, theory - Dennis knows it all!

Dennis really helped me understand scale patterns by teaching a closed position scale fingering method for mandolin.  In a nutshell, this was basically:

Scale notes 1-2-3-4 (and 5-6-7-1) use a "whole-whole-half" pattern w/ fingers 1,2,3,4.
Scale notes 2-3-4-5 (and 6-7-1-2) use a "whole-half-whole" pattern w/ fingers 1,2,3,4.

Scale notes 3-4-5-6 (and 7-1-2-3) use a "half-whole-whole" pattern w/ fingers 1,2,3,4.

Scale notes 4-5-6-7 use a "whole-whole-whole" pattern w/ fingers 1,2,3,4.

This works great for mandolin, but on tenor banjo some of those stretches and reaches are damn near impossible to do.  So, I kind of ignored that method for tenor banjo since for Irish music you usually play in first position utilizing open strings, and I prefer a cello/guitar fingering of one-finger-per-fret.

But, to play in closed positions up the neck on tenor banjo you do need to figure this kind of thing out.  Just this morning I searched and found an archived 2010 forum topic on Banjo Hangout on 'Scale Fingerings for Tenor' where Andrew Roblin added a comment that happened to summarize Buddy Wachter's approach to this tenor banjo fingering dilemma.  I've indicated in red text where this fingering approach differs from what Dennis showed me for mandolin.

Scale notes 1-2-3-4 (and 5-6-7-1) use fingers 1,2,4,4*
Scale notes 2-3-4-5 (and 6-7-1-2) use fingers 1,2,3,4.

Scale notes 3-4-5-6 (and 7-1-2-3) use fingers 1,1,2,4.

Scale notes 4-5-6-7 use fingers 1,2,4,1 -- the last note in that 4-5-6-7 pattern is on the next higher string.

Roblin explained that in Buddy's method he slides with only the 1st and 4th fingers, and avoids whole steps between the middle finger and the ring finger because it is too awkward.  Further analysis may be needed to figure out work arounds for all of the potential occasions when a whole step might fall between fingers 2 and 3.

*I'm assuming that 1,2,4,4 would be Buddy Wachter's fingering pattern for closed scale notes 1-2-3-4. In Andrew's explanation of Buddy's technique, this is the only closed position example he left out.

Tenor Banjo Conversion - 5-String to 4-String!!!

"Gibsonoid" T banjo as lefty

Last week, the Irish Tenor Banjo Blog's Mike Keyes sent me one of his RK-R35 banjo conversions to check out.  The term "banjo conversion" usually refers to taking a tenor banjo and converting it into a bluegrass or old-time banjo by attaching a new 5-string neck to a vintage tenor banjo rim.  Sadness.

However, what Mike Keyes does is reverse this bad karma by removing the 5-string neck on a new Recording King RK-R35 bluegrass banjo and replacing it with a 4-string neck from his stock pile of vintage Gibson tenor banjo necks.  The vintage necks fit on these RK-R35 pots and you can re-use the tuners from the Recording King on the tenor neck by reaming the tuner holes to 3/8".

Once set up properly you're left with a very utilitarian Gibsonoid / Franksenstein style 19-fret resonator banjo that will more than meet the needs of most session-playing Irish tenor banjoists.  I'm not much of a tinkerer, so yesterday I had Fredericksburg, VA luthier Bob Gramann convert this heavyweight champ to lefty and tweak the setup.  Below are audio recordings of the first two tunes I played on it after getting it home - Golden Keyboard and Joe Bane's.

Bob Gramann also re-strung my wife's Blue Ridge BR-40T tenor guitar from DGBE to the Irish bouzouki tuning of GDAD, and fine-tuned the intonation while he was at it.  That's her playing the newly setup (single-course bouzouki) tenor guitar in the background. By the way, those Blue Ridge tenor guitars are great sounding instruments for not that much money.

John Carty - Irish Tenor Banjo and Tenor Guitar

John Carty

London born John Carty is probably my favorite Irish traditional musician.  When I started getting into Irish music his new-at-the-time tenor banjo / tenor guitar CD I Will If I Can was one of the first albums I heard in this style and it made an instant positive impression.  His earlier banjo album with Brian McGrath The Cat That Ate the Candle is also a good one.

Last year I was fortunate to get to see John give a small house-concert style performance with the esteemed fiddler Kevin Burke.  John is also an outstanding fiddler, but it is his banjo (and tenor guitar) playing that I like best.

Here's a video of John Carty playing his 1949 (?) Martin (?) tenor guitar with accompaniment from the great Arty McGlynn.  He seems to choose more wistful pieces for the tenor guitar.

Here's a video of John Carty playing his Ome open back tenor banjo with his daughter Maggie who is also a tasteful banjoist.  They go into the old-time tune Waiting for the Federals (AKA Seneca Squaredance), which is pretty cool.

Lastly, here's a lively video of John in a session-like setting with Irish accordion player Paddy Melia. 

John's tenor banjo playing seems to be more supportive and less over the top than most Irish tenor banjo players, while still proving to be continually inventive.

Irish Tenor Banjo Sound Comparison - Paramount vs. Romero

Today I borrowed a 1920's Paramount Style B 19-fret, 22.75", arch top resonator banjo.  I'm used to 17-fret, 21" short scale tenor banjos, but the longer (standard) scale length of the Paramount was an easy adjustment.  Until today, this Paramount had never been set up in the "Irish" GDAE tuning.  It really pops!  The owner who is only temporarily letting me play it as a lefty in this tuning says it sounds like a totally different banjo.  He also says it is NOT FOR SALE!  He's had it for several decades and during that time has refurbished it twice.

I made a recording comparing the sound of the Paramount to my 2013 custom made Jason Romero banjo.  The Romero is an open back 17-fret, 21" short scale with a Belle Rose tone ring (Jason's own design).  Jason mostly makes clawhammer banjos and banjo ukes, but does also make the occasional tenor banjo on request. Mine is a work of art and I was impressed by the way it held its own against the vintage instrument.

The tune is supposed to be Egan's Polka.  To give a full range of the sound, I played it in both a higher and lower octave on each banjo. The Paramount is 1st and the Romero 2nd. 

Whaddaya think!!??

DGDA and ADAE Tunings (Mandola and Tenor Banjo)

Mandolas are basically just slightly bigger mandolins with a scale length between 15.5" and 17" - so about 12 to 25 percent longer than a mandolin scale, which is typically 13.875".  A mandola is usually tuned in 5ths like a mandolin, but that 5ths tuning is CGDA instead of GDAE.

I recently got a mandola with a 15.5" scale.  I was going to tune it CGDA, but then I was reminded of a chapter in Enda Scahill's Irish Banjo Tutor on Alternate Tunings where he describes tuning a tenor banjo ADAE instead of GDAE.  (Note: the Irish tenor banjo's standard GDAE tuning is one octave lower than the mandolin's GDAE tuning).  Purists beware, ADAE is the way Enda normally tunes his banjo!

Tuning an Irish tenor banjo to ADAE simply involves tuning the 4th string (lowest string) up a whole step from G to A.  On a mandola this would equate to changing the CGDA tuning to DGDA.  I've found out that DGDA is the way Marla Fibish tunes her mandola, and maybe John Doyle as well.   I'm willing to give it a shot!

Enda Scahill

In his tutor Enda Scahill describes several advantages of this alternate tuning, and below I have paraphrased some of these while translating it to mandola-oriented language.

Advantages of DGDA tuning

DGDA is almost an open tuning of D or G.  By playing the A note (fret 2) on the G string or the B note (fret 2) on the A string you play either a 4 string D chord or G chord.  This allows the instrument to resonate more in tune with itself.

The stretch to that pesky low F# (Fret 6 on the low string) is now only a stretch to Fret 4.

The G note on the low string is now at Fret 5 instead of 7.  This allows for fiddle style double G “chording” (open G played with G on the low string).

Tuning the low C up to a low D creates opportunities for droning on the open string.  This is a big advantage for the key of D (the key that most Irish tunes are played in) and for the key of G (arguably the 2nd most common tonal center in Irish traditional music).

The DGDA tuning affords different (easier?) chord formations new found harmonies and voicings.

Tuning up to D tightens the tone and the action by creating more tension in the string.  In other words, you can use a lighter string but still achieve more tension.  This results in the 4^th string being not as twangy, heavy or loose.  (This feature has perhaps more relevance among banjo players tuning up to ADAE from GDAE).

I'll add to Enda's list by saying that this alternate tuning makes the mandola even more of a unique, hybrid instrument.  The interval from the 4^th string (D) to 3^rd string (G) now becomes a perfect 4^th (like on a guitar) instead of a 5^th, yet you still have the interval of a 5th between the other strings.

In this altered mandola tuning you can't quite transpose and use the exact same fingerings you've memorized on mandolin...you have to make adjustments for any notes on the low string.  But, overcoming obstacles and finding advantages in what at first might seem like an unnecessary challenge is all part of the fun of playing an instrument and growing as a musician!

Mandolin vs. Tenor Banjo

Blue Star Mandoblaster

When I originally chose to get a tenor banjo as my first (and only) instrument it was partially because despite being a relatively obscure and unique instrument, all you're really really doing with tenor banjo is playing an over-sized mandolin, or "banjolin".  Especially in the GDAE tuning, which is the same as a mandolin but one octave lower.

The longer tenor banjo scale length and potentially different fingering technique wasn't an issue or drawback for me initially.  For one thing, I had never played mandolin or any other instruments before getting a tenor banjo, so I had nothing to compare it to.  It seemed normal to me.

Secondly, the type of instrumental Appalachian and Celtic fiddle music that I chose to play on tenor banjo is key-driven and allows for lots of open strings.  In other words, a "D" tune is almost always played in D so you can learn it with open strings knowing that you won't have to transpose or play in a closed position.  Nobody at the session is going to suggest that we try that one out in "C" or "E" if it's always played in "D".

When I've tried mandolin in the past, it always felt awkward due to the shorter scale length and double course strings.  I was also a less of a musician then and didn't have any specific mandolin oriented exercises and drills to work on and keep me focused.  But now that I'm taking lessons from a mandolin player, I'm learning that there are mandolin-specific things that you just cannot do on tenor banjo.

Red Line Traveler

You can do closed position chords on a tenor banjo pretty easily, so that's not really an advantage that the mandolin has.  In fact, the shorter mandolin scale length makes the chords feel more choppy than I may prefer.  The real advantage of the mandolin starts to become clear when you move melodies up or down an octave, or to different keys, or to different positions/fingerings.

Soloing without the benefit of open strings becomes a possibility, which allows a lot of other patterns and concepts to come together. Of course, you can utilize open string notes just like you would on a tenor banjo, but you don't have to.  I also think that taking up mandolin will make me a better ear player, because it's so easy to transpose closed position arpeggios and scale patterns that your ear starts to make connections.

I still love that banjo sound, but maybe instead of trying to make the tenor banjo do it all, it might be better to reserve it for more genre driven techniques - such as "Irish" tenor banjo - and then use the mandolin as a tool to explore music in general.  They are both in the same tuning, so any "light-bulb" moments I have on mandolin can then be transferred to tenor banjo.

But, now I'm wondering - should I also learn how to play guitar???!!!

Irish Jig Apples in Winter - slowed down recording

One of my favorite Irish music CDs is a 2010 live recording by Kevin Griffin, Eoin O'Neill and Quentin Cooper called Live at the Burren Centre, Kilfenora.  It is available from Custy's and Ossian USA.  Kevin Griffin is one of the best Irish tenor banjo players and this recording is pretty much a clinic in that style.  Problem is, he plays VERY FAST so it's not always easy to pick up on what he's doing.

A tune that caught my ear off this CD is the jig Apples in Winter.  To help with learning, I've been playing along with this tune at 70% speed.  I uploaded that same recording at the slowed-down speed onto YouTube and am sharing here so that others can know about this cool 6/8 tune.  The above notation comes form the Dusty Banjos presents Ten Years of Tunes tunebook.  It's not exactly what Kevin Griffin is playing, by any means, but it may help get you started.

The Banjo Is Best T-shirt - For the Tenor Banjo Player on Your Christmas Gift List

This holiday season give a gift that banjo players will love – the Banjo Is Best T-Shirt designed by jazz banjoist Cynthia Sayer!

Banjoists are the butt of a lot of jokes, so the Banjo Is Best shirt is a way for the musician or music fan on your Christmas list to poke some of that fun back in the other direction whilst showing off his or her banjo pride.  Plus, please note that the banjo in the design only has four strings – a small detail that tenor banjo players will appreciate.  Order here.

Plucking/Picking Exercises for Tenor Banjo/Mandolin

I'm not convinced that practicing finger exercises is necessary for playing traditional music on tenor banjo. The tunes themselves are the etudes, and if you practice tunes slowly and mindfully as you are learning them you incorporate picking exercises into your routine by default.

Still, every once in a while it's helpful to focus on scales and exercises specifically designed to improve technique and increase speed and accuracy.  Enda Scahill's Irish Tenor Banjo Tutors, Volumes I and II, are a great source for this type of instruction.  Below are two examples of exercises (out of many) from his Irish Banjo Tutor Volume II.

According to Enda, practicing these exercises will stretch out the fingers, improve their separation and independence from each other and strengthen the fingers.  I highly suggest you purchase his tutors if you do not have them already.

Mike Keyes' Irish Tenor Banjo Blog

If you’ve ever been on the Celtic section of the Mandolin Café forum, or the 4-String Banjo board on Banjo Hangout, chances are you’ve seen comments by, or perhaps even corresponded with, Mike Keyes.  I’ve never met Mike, but he did offer me some very helpful advice when I was buying my first instrument – a 1920’s Bacon and Day tenor banjo – back in 2006.

Mike Keyes

A few years ago Mike Keyes was doing the occasional article for Mel Bay’s online Mandolin Sessions publication and even had his own site where he wrote about Irish music and the Irish tenor banjo.  Both of those are now defunct, but in late July of this year Mike started up a new blog called, quite simply, Irish Tenor Banjo Blog, where he posts in-depth and intelligent instructional material about playing Irish music on the tenor banjo, with the beginner in mind.

There’s a wealth of information to be found on this blog, including tips on gaining speed, playing triplets, learning by ear, how to practice…even building your own banjo from commercially available parts!  Mike has studied with many of the experts in the field, including Enda Scahill, John Carty, Angelina Carberry, Gerry O'Connor and Martin Howley, so he knows what he's talking about.  

While I tend to focus on my experiences learning to play the GDAE tuned tenor banjo across a variety of genres, including Irish, Appalachian, Caribbean and early jazz, Mike’s blog is focused entirely on the Irish tenor banjo, with some side trips into the world of Celtic mandolin and tenor guitar.  He’s been updating the site rather frequently, so it’s worth bookmarking and checking back often!

Waiting To Exhale

For the last year and a half or more I’ve been consumed with immersing myself in traditional music:  Irish jigs and reels, oldtime breakdowns, and more.  I’m not overly concerned with authenticity or style, but have put a lot of work into growing my knowledge, repertoire, rhythm and ability to participate in sessions and jams for these specific genres.  Recently, this quest has started to expand to include string ragtime and early Creole/Caribbean dance tunes.  

Now, I’m finally ready to exhale and bring it back full circle by taking another look at some songs by the bands that were favorites of mine long before this music playing obsession began.  Those bands would be Phish, The Grateful Dead and Ween.

 

When I first started playing tenor banjo I tried doing songs like Water in the Sky, Ripple and What Deaner Was Talking About, but found my 4-string banjo interpretations to be lacking.  Rather than muddle through poor renditions of my favorite songs, I was made hip to traditional music, which worked perfectly for tenor banjo, and the rest is history. 

I’m finally at a point where I can relax a bit when it comes to the traditional tunes, and increase my overall knowledge of music by trying to once again bring to life songs that have no business being played on tenor banjo!  If successful, not only will I add enjoyment and versatility to my playing, but I should become a better musician as a result. 

I’m wondering what songs might be good ones to start with?  For Phish, I was thinking maybe Wading in the Velvet Sea and Mountains in the Mist?  For The Grateful Dead perhaps Ship of Fools and trying Ripple again?  For Ween maybe starting with She Wanted to Leave and I Don’t Want It?  Last night I was fooling around with the vocal melody line to the Phish song Prince Caspian.  I moved it from G to F to pair it with a Caribbean song from the 1800’s called Belle Layotte.  It's a bare bones instrumental, but it kind of worked.  Here’s a sample:

Rather than trying a whole bunch of songs by different artists, I think for now I'll focus almost exclusively on Phish, The Grateful Dead and Ween, partly because it adds focus and, at least with Phish and The Dead, those are almost like individual genres unto themselves.  Hold on...I may need to make an exception for the Eamon O'Leary song Like A Dime from his Old Clump album.  That's just too good to pass up.  

Other suggestions? 

Why Tenor Banjo?

Ten reasons why you might want to consider playing the tenor banjo.

#1 - Banjo sound
It is a banjo after all!  It exudes that banjo sound that we all love.

#2 - Versatility
The tenor banjo is most prominently used in Irish traditional music and early jazz, but is also found in Klezmer music, Jamaican Mento, Scandinavian music, pre-WWII American stringbands, jugbands and more.

#3 - One octave lower than a mandolin/fiddle.
The way I tune it is, at least - GDAE.  This means that mandolin music and/or fiddle tunes fit well under the fingers.

#4 - Tuned in 5ths
The tuning in intervals of 5ths is a very intuitive, symmetrical tuning.  Patterns are easily recognizable and repeatable.  None of those pesky 4th, 3rd and back to 4th intervals like on a ukulele.

#5 - You use a pick
 You get to use a guitar pick to pluck the strings, not something as unnatural as a bow or as blistering as your own skin, or picks on the ends of your fingers like a bluegrass banjo player.

#6 - It's got 4 strings
Yeah, a guitar has six strings. But you've only got 4 fingers.  Something doesn't add up there.  4-strings equals one finger per string.  Makes sense.

#7 - Scale Length
The shorter scale banjo mandolin is too shrill and unplayable.  The longer scale plectrum banjo is too much of a stretch.  The tenor banjo is just right!

#8 - You don't have to re-tune for each key
Wanna play a tune in D while we're in the key of A?  You won't hear any complaints from a tenor banjo player.  He/she is ready for any key, even Bb!

#9 - Melody  maker

The tenor banjo makes playing melodies a breeze.  Are you able to hum or whistle a nursery rhyme?  Then you can easily pick out the melody on tenor banjo.  It's got rhythm too, just ask any Dixieland banjo player.

#10 - Obscurity
You won't be just another guitar player or fiddler.  You're free to play whatever you want, however you want.  And when people assume that your banjo has five strings and tell you that they love bluegrass, or say that they understand that banjo is one of the hardest instruments, you can confuse or regale them by saying that your banjo only has 4 strings and it's actually more like playing mandolin than the banjo they are thinking of.

Ragtime Tenor Banjo

There’s a lot of discussion and misinformation on the web regarding what constitutes Irish tenor banjo.  Is it 17 frets or 19 frets?  Is it open back or resonator?  Is it GDAE tuning, CGDA tuning, or something else?  Is it all single-note melody or can there be some chordal playing?  Frankly, I don’t care.  I tune my tenor banjos in 5ths and like to play both Irish Celtic jigs and reels and Appalachian Old-Time fiddle tunes on them.  One thing for certain is that this is different than the chordal jazz banjo style.

I don’t know if it should be considered a subgenre of Old-Time or if it’s a category unto itself, but there’s a subset of mandolin-friendly tunes that

I would call “string ragtime” numbers.  These are tunes like L and N Rag, Stone’s Rag, Hawkins Rag, Pig Ankle Rag, Chinese Breakdown, At a Georgia Camp Meeting, Walking Uptown Foxtrot, Plowboy Hop, Eli Green’s Cakewalk, Alabama Jubilee, Ragtime Annie, and so on.  Even though there’s a jazzy tinge to this music, it would probably still fall more under the “Irish” way of playing:  single notes within a group situation.

This early 1900’s string band ragtime music is represented on the recordings of Adam Tanner, the Ragtime Skedaddlers, The Old 78’s, Leroy Larson, Kenny Hall, The Hot Seats and The Skirtlifters, to name a few somewhat recent examples.  In written form, many of these rags, cake walks, stomps and marches are featured in Steve Parker's Ragtime for Fiddle and Mandolin book.  In Irish music, the type of tune called a barn dance can also have some ragtime elements.

I do feel like these string ragtime numbers are distinct from the kind of music played by Eddy Davis, Cynthia Sayer, Elmer Snowden, Don Vappie, Tim Allan, Narvin Kimball, Buddy Wachter, Tyler Jackson, Carl LeBlanc and other jazz tenor banjo players.  Nonetheless, some knowledge of the chordal Dixieland jazz banjo style of playing cannot hurt when learning these ragtime tunes.  It is the quest and use of other ideas that round you out as a musician, and I’m not too strict with regard to one style or another.  Adding some of these ragtime tunes to my repertoire would be a nice challenge and complement to the Irish and Old-Time tunes I already play and they would be great for tenor banjo.

The Red Dunlop Tortex Pick

A lightly used Red Tortex pick

I have a lot of picks/plectrums laying around that I use to pluck/flat-pick my tenor banjo, but the one type of pick that I keep returning to is the Red Dunlop Tortex .50 mm pick.  It's flexible enough to feel really comfortable, while still being firm enough to provide a desirable amount resistance against the strings.  The .50 mm Tortex actually feels firmer than the gray .60 mm Nylon Jim Dunlop pick that a lot of Irish tenor banjo players use.  That gray nylon one feels too flimsy to me, and I don't like the grooved and raised up gripping area.

The Tortex picks have a smooth surface and seem to be very durable.  I think the Red one is the lightest pick in the Tortex line.  Some days the Orange Tortex .60 mm pick feels better to me.  I alternate back and forth a lot between the Orange and Red, but the Red is the one I use more often.  For a while I was trying out Tortex (and Clayton) picks in the larger triangle shape that bass players like, but I've since returned to the standard wedge shape.  

I also use these Red and Orange Tortex picks when I play mandolin, but I make contact with the strings using one of the rounded edges instead of the pointy corner.  It reminds me of the rounded corner "Dawg" style Goldengate mandolin picks when I hold it this way, but is not anywhere near as thick. The Golden Gates have a very mellow sound.  I like the bright sound of the Tortex picks.

My Lesson with Eamon O'Leary

Eamon O'Leary

Last month I had two hour-long Irish tenor banjo lessons with Eamon O'Leary when he was in Williamsburg, VA to teach at the Boxwood Festival - one lesson on a Thursday and one on a Saturday.  Eamon didn't seem too concerned with time and each lesson ran longer than the allotted hour. 

I instantly liked Eamon O'Leary upon meeting him.  His easy-going, patient nature allowed me to learn some tunes phrase by phrase in a way that I had never been able to do before.  Eamon wasn't concerned with changing my "one finger per fret" fretboard assignment, although he uses mandolin style fingering.

Eamon did bring to my attention several things that I could do to improve.  In fact, he was probably more critical of my playing than anyone ever has been to me in person, but I was appreciative of that.  He had a constructive way of phrasing his pointers that made me feel encouraged and not defensive.

Below are some of the things he told me to work on:
--Watch your over emphasis on "the one".  Smooth it out.
--Shorten pick strokes for a more efficient movement.
--Don't lift fingers on the fretting hand until you have to. When you do lift them keep them close to the fretboard; don't lift them far.
--Experiment with putting in double stops wherever you can.
--Look for places where you can put triplets.
--Some triplets don't have to be melodic. In other words, instead of making a triplet F# > E > D, which would be more melodic, you can do it as F# > F# > D.

Those are the main notes I took.  We didn't talk too much about ornamentation or variation; just about throwing in some triplets or double stops as you see fit.  I recorded the lessons so I plan on reviewing them again to pick up more details I might have missed.  In addition, Eamon taught me two tunes I had never played before: the reel My Love is In America and the jig The Black Rogue.  I now love both of these tunes, especially Black Rogue, and they have now become regular parts of my repertoire.

I'd definitely take some follow up lessons from Eamon O'Leary if he's ever back in the area. Eamon's currently based in New York City and is one-half of The Murphy Beds, with Jefferson Hamer.  He is scheduled to teach at the Swannanoa and Augusta Heritage Irish weeks this summer.  Here's a video of The Murphy Beds.

Traveling Light (With A Banjo)

The Well-Heeled Traveler

I've flown four times now with a banjo (soon to be five) and have yet to encounter any problems.  Mine is a tenor banjo, so it's a little bit smaller than a regular 5-string, but I'm still always a little trepidatious when I get ready to carry it on.  I have a nice padded gig bag, but no way am I going to let it out of my hands when boarding.  I carry it right on with me and have always been able to find a place for it in the overhead bin, despite its oblong shape that is at odds with more conventional forms of carry-on luggage.

I also hate to check any bags, so if my tenor banjo is the "carry-on", then anything else I take has to either fit inside the banjo case or in a small bag that I can stow under the seat.  For this reason, I am obsessed with making sure that my packing is as compact and efficient as possible!  Rick Steves watch out, because I can seriously get by with just a banjo case and a very small sling-bag!

For a warm climate like Jamaica or Puerto Rico it's really easy to pack lightly.  I'll bring what I'm wearing (including a hat) plus a change of clothes and some swim trunks.  And that's it.  I'll wear one pair of shoes or sandals without socks.  I'll bring a book to read, some printed pages with my itinerary and other notes, and a minimal amount of toiletries.  Ready to hop off the plane and go!

For the shirt, I want it to be a cotton/polyester collared shirt - like a golf or polo shirt. This type of shirt is presentable enough to meet the minimum dress code requirements for almost any bar or restaurant that I'd want to go to. I can skip the fine dining restaurants and flashy nightclubs with more strict dress codes.  The cotton/polyester blend makes for easy hand washing in the sink or shower, and fairly quick drying with minimal wrinkling.  I can wear one while the other is drying.

The same goes for shorts and underwear.  For shorts, I prefer nylon shorts with deep front pockets and a zippered or Velcro enclosed back pocket. These kinds of shorts dry quickly and are very comfortable and breezy.  For underwear all you need are a couple good pairs of travel underwear, such as the Ex Officio Give-N-Go brand, or Duluth Trading Company's Buck Naked boxer briefs.  These you just rinse out and hang overnight.  And for footwear, you can't go wrong with all purpose Teva sandals for hiking, wearing in the water or walking around town.

I'll also bring a pair of swim trunks if I anticipate swimming and/or going to the beach.  As far as getting by on just two shirts, if you start to feel grungy or repetitive later in the week, then this can be a nice incentive to buy a T-shirt souvenir from that cool bar you drank in all night.  Top it all off with the most stylish part of your holiday wardrobe - a sharp looking summertime fedora or similar style hat to both keep the sun off and add a bit of edge to your otherwise drab, touristy, American get-up.

Part of the fun of traveling for me is seeing how minimal I can pack.  I once went to Scotland for ten days with just a knapsack no bigger than the typical woman's purse.  But now that I'm bringing my banjo along I have extra reason to pack lightly and avoid having to check any bags!