beegee - Posted - 02/08/2010:  21:00:36

I just bought a 1975 copy of Al Jeffery's (Clifford-Essex Publications) Classical Banjo. This is standard musical notation, not tablature.

Now, I read music, but I have no clue about the arrangements in this book. The cover says,"...beautiful melodies, arranged so that even modest players can perform them."

Gee, I feel really dumb. The first tune, Minuet by Robert de Visee is in F, and the score shows a 5P and 5B above the staff and little numbers by each note. I assume these are the right hand fingerings?


The Bouree is in 2 flats and has 7P 10P 8B 7PB above some of the notes.
Is there a standard way that these pieces are written? Is there a tutorial somewhere that explains all of these markings?

Edited by - beegee on 02/08/2010 21:01:02

deuceswilde - Posted - 02/08/2010:  21:31:44

Yes.

Go here...http://www.classicbanjo.com/tutor.php

Elli's and Grimshaw are written in "C" notation. Work through the scales and exercises.

or...

Get Mel Bay's Banjo Method, C tuning, Concert Style... scales etc.. This teaches fingerings and will get you accustomed to banjo specific notation symbols (like notes played on the 5th string are flagged).

P= position

B= Barre

Once you get the hang of it, you will find that there is very little "classical" music and lots of popular music available (marches, polkas, mazurkas, schottisches, rags, etc.).

The best part is that most of it is PD.

Welcome to a whole new world of banjo.

beegee - Posted - 02/08/2010:  22:41:34

Thanks! I was just going through my files and found that I already had a copy of the Jeffery book. So if anybody needs one, I'll sell the older version. I also found Mel Bay's Banjo Method Vol 1 & 2 from 1967 that seems to hve the same material that the C-Tuning Concert Style book has.

thereallyniceman - Posted - 02/09/2010:  00:56:21

An easy way to see what 7P 12P etc, means:

Usually the Index finger of the Left Hand goes at the 7th or 12th fret etc. The index may be on any of the strings but the rest of the notes are should fall under the other fingers.

7B or 12B etc means that the Index finger of the Left hand forms a 3 or 4 string (usually) barre at the 7th or 12th etc and the other fingers form the rest of the chord or phrase.

7B2 means the index finger forms a two string barre at the 7th fret etc

Often there are numbers 1 2 3 4 next to the notes on the chord or phrase which indicate which fingers of the Left hand are used to get the notes, and . .. + under the notes to show which fingers of the Right hand they are picked with.


Stick with classic style. It is worth the effort!!

Rob MacKillop - Posted - 02/09/2010:  01:56:06

And you might want to visit http://classic-banjo.ning.com/

thereallyniceman - Posted - 02/10/2010:  00:33:00

Or even here, eh Rob? :-)

http://www.classicbanjorm.com/

Rob MacKillop - Posted - 02/10/2010:  04:58:31

Naa...that guy sucks!

trapdoor2 - Posted - 02/10/2010:  08:34:09

Those Bradbury books (Mel Bay, two volumes ca.1967 and the current iteration "Concert Style") are excellent, as are the Grimshaw offerings.

A good 'primer' on reading banjo notation is on Bill Talley's site. http://www.members.tripod.com/~wtalley/

The primer is here: http://www.members.tripod.com/~wtal...notation.pdf

To differentiate, are you primarily interested in "classical" (Bach, Brahms, Mozart) or "classic" (1870's-1920's Ragtime, polkas, marches, waltzes, etc., written specifically for banjo) style? The differences are subtle but stylistically you can skew your learning curve to better attack one style or the other.