stevebo - Posted - 12/20/2009:  14:07:30

Im looking for tabs for "wayfaring stranger" in open G , clawhammer style. Any suggestions?

oldwoodchuckb - Posted - 12/20/2009:  15:31:21

My first suggestion would be to chance to modal tuning (gDGCD). The melody practically jumps out at you in modal tuning.

http://www.rocketsciencebanjo.com

Edited by - oldwoodchuckb on 12/20/2009 15:31:56

chip arnold - Posted - 12/20/2009:  15:36:08

Definitely what woodchuck said. If you want G because that's where you sing it, G modal will be the same pitch but way easier to play. Start on the 3rd string open and learn it by ear.

stringbeaner - Posted - 12/20/2009:  17:40:28

Well shucks, guys. I have played that tune in E minor (G-tuning) for ever. I find the melody with no trouble in G-tuning and I play clawhammer on it. Let me see if I can get a video of on the hangout videos and if you like it, I'll put up in tab.

String...........

majikgator - Posted - 12/20/2009:  19:43:07

well this is probably true a lot of people use open G for tunes others play in sawmill (i call gDGCD sawmill not the A equivalent, but whatever) as it's only a half step away and on many tunes is almost as easily fretted, like some round peak players will play Cluck Old Hen in open A instead of tuning the second up a halfstep, i guess a lot of people just don't like to do a lot of tuning. At any rate you should be able to pick that one out in either tuning but if you are very new to clawhammer i can see wanting the tab of even the simplest tunes until your confidence grows and even then it can be interesting to see how somebody else figured the tune out, it could be interesting and perhaps useful if it's different than your own. i have seen quite a few tabs of this tune in books for sale i think Mary Cox and Bob Carlin, and Clawhammer Banjo for the complete ignoramus are some sources, you don't have it Woodchuck?

Edited by - majikgator on 12/20/2009 19:44:54

oldwoodchuckb - Posted - 12/20/2009:  20:32:51

I didn't mean to imply that Stranger can only be done in Sawmill (Modal) tuning, but only that so many melody notes are where you can find them easily that it makes a good melody constructing tune for Sawmill.

I haven't tabbed Wayfaring Stranger because there are so many versions of it - which might sound strange considering how many multi-variant tunes I have done. I try to pick tunes that are well know and notate well known versions of them for RSB (sometimes I fail in that). For The Tabonanza, I try to pick out tunes I think are going to come up at jams. You KNOW I would have plugged it if I had a tab available - I practically live to plug my stuff!

I haven't done very many songs yet, so perhaps I will do up Wayfaring Stranger eventually - At least the version I used to do in Sawmill - I've played it in G minor tuning capoed to Bb, and I think I've done it in Open D at some point too. I rarely use minor tunings now and haven't been in Open D (f#DF#AD) for decades - I know - but I only jam with other people now, and I try to keep my tunings to a minimum.

It also takes me about 10 hours to do a tab these days, not only because of my eyesight, but because I can't just do a tab blop, blop, blop, Done! - I'm mentally incapable of that. I have to notate the banjo figures and make it all "just so". I can't really be a "prefcetoinist" in my playing anymore, so I've transferred that osbesoin to my tabbing. I find it both rewarding and frustrationing however. I'm frustrated with the "notes" tool in Tabledit, and haven't found a good way around the problems. By notes, I mean the written instruction part - although I have also had some issues with how to notate song melody in what is basically a banjo arrangement.

RSB small

RSB mid

Jackie O

Uncle Sinner - Posted - 12/21/2009:  10:08:36

if you're using David Eugene Edwards as a source I'd try G-minor instead (g-D-G-Bb-D).

majikgator - Posted - 12/21/2009:  10:46:48

Tony, i googled Wayfaring stranger and it kind of looked like it might have been in RSB at a glance, i just thought maybe you had done so many you forgot, guess i was wrong. i also thought EZ-Folk would have had it and apparently they didn't either. it does seem like a good candidate for a modal tuning and i probably would have approached it that way myself, i do like that Eminor chord in a G tuning though and would be curious to see how that works out for that tune, from a chord standpoint it's not bad in that tuning but i don't really like playing those full chords.

Edited by - majikgator on 12/21/2009 10:57:13

RaiseTheHatchet - Posted - 12/23/2009:  14:50:27

Stringbeaner, let us know if you get a video up. I'd love to check it out

Russ Cox - Posted - 12/23/2009:  20:06:58

I'd love a tab copy or a video link if someone figures it out. Especially if someone does the David Eugene Edwards version.

Happy holidays!