hold the tomatoes till you hear me out.

I brought my banjo to work yesterday and as expected everyone wanted to hear deliverance. (or as we know it, the dueling banjos song)


I don't know how to play it but a bit by ear so was able to noodle a few bars.

After I did they laughed, thought it was cool, and asked me lots of questions, wanted to try the banjo out, listen to other stuff I can kinda play (amazing grace, this land is your land, worried man blues, etc)

I told them of my desire to play banjo for even rock tunes because its as versatile as any other instrument.

they thought that would be awesome and would even pay to see me. (oh man! gotta get good and quit my day job! just gotta lean some Van Halen. LOL! )

Not once did anybody give me grief or make fun of it. they thought it was cool, thought the banjo was cool, and a couple of them even wanted to know where to buy banjos. nobody came off as looking down on me or the banjo. not one. even the folks into rap and metal.

After all this I thought of the couple threads I've seen here where folks get offended when asked to play this song.

next time you get asked, do it, and see what happens. You might just open the person up to wanting to learn more about banjos and its history and versatility.

okay thats my thoughts.

what do you think?

Posted - 10/31/2009 :  04:57:31      

practice your Lynard Skynard tunes, a lot of them are in D and translate well to banjo ( or mandolin for that matter ). The kids at the festivals will really think you're cool!

Posted - 10/31/2009 :  05:43:21      

I agree. Anything that gets people excited about the banjo is a good thing

Now get workin on that Eruption tab

Tony

Posted - 10/31/2009 :  06:02:04    

You're right, I have found the same thing. I was always held back by "but it's too hard to play" and "but I need a guitar to play against" and so on. And that's true, but only if you need to play it properly. Thing is, most people now have no real idea how the piece goes! So you can, as you say, noodle the opening bars, play a fell chord rolls, close with "shave and a haircut" and they're happy. Give them a 30-second banjo commercial, and they just might buy.

GeeMott
"Sir, music played on the banjo is like a dog walking on its hinder legs. It is not done well, but you are surprised to find it done at all." --Sam'l Johnson, LLD (not the famous one)

Posted - 10/31/2009 :  06:11:29            

I think you're having lots of fun.

__________________________
"It is better, of course, to know useless things than to know nothing." -Seneca

Posted - 10/31/2009 :  06:26:00          

John,
Taking the banjo out into the world is allowed...it's even recommended!
Playing for others is cool, no matter your skill level.
The banjo is just a fun instrument that many (if not most) people have an attraction to.
And secretly many of 'em would love to be able to play it...at all.

Good for you,
Big banjo wave is coming...

Michael

Have a Great "Banjo Day!"
BanjoDay@gmail.com
Michael York

Posted - 10/31/2009 :  06:26:20        

That's the spirit! If you had refused to play, then people would have thought you were a snob. You would have turned all those people off to the banjo. Now, look how much fun you had!

GeeMott, you are right; the average person does not know or care about how the tune should be played correctly. It is funny, though, how that tune is stuck in everyone's head, including mine. It really is easy to noodle a few bars by ear without much thought.

Mar

"Do not pray for an easy life. Pray to be stronger. Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers. Pray for powers equal to your tasks."
- Fr. Solanus Casey

Posted - 10/31/2009 :  07:32:56        

JF, I don't think most banjo pickers are so offended by Dueling Banjos as they are tired of it. If you were asked to play it the very first time you took your banjo out, think how often the pros have had to field that request. Frankly it isn't that great of a showpiece tune for banjo, it is just the one everyone knows to ask for. They'd probably be equally impressed with Foggy Mountain Breakdown, if they knew to ask for it.

Similarly to Geemot's comment, you will get lots of requests for Rocky Top too. The problem is that usually the requester is expecting to hear you play something with a clear melody line for the song. However, Sonny's break is the gold standard for that tune and it likely wouldn't be recognizable to the unitiated as being Rocky Top. So be prepared to have a somewhat less stellar, but more recognizable version of it on hand.

Diva
_____________________________________________________


RK R-80 #67 "The Black Dahlia"




www.banjoholler.com

Edited by - BanjoDiva on 10/31/2009 07:34:18

Posted - 10/31/2009 :  08:15:09    

Diva, yep and you are 100% right. The only songs the non banjo players know are Rocky Top, Foggy Mountain Breakdown and Dueling Banjos. The main thing jfrebel is to just have fun. They won't know if you make a mistake in playing the song. Just have fun, thats what it is all about.

Poverty Ridge Bluegrass

Posted - 10/31/2009 :  08:37:43    

Any requested song that sparks that kind of interest seems to open the door to other songs you might like to "really" play.

Duelin' wasn't used in the Bluegrass in the Schools program I'm helping with (video, since my picking isn't that great!), but the kids were really interested.

Videos: http://frobbi.org/bgschools

Topic: http://www.banjohangout.org/topic/160779

Posted - 10/31/2009 :  08:51:52    

i'm a huge metal fan but i can see the beauty of the banjo!
many of my friends think the banjo is brilliant and they respect the skill you need to play it!

i think deliverence is a great lil opener because everyone knows it and also its quite catchy!
fair play to ya for bringing it out and showing people that the banjo is brilliant!

Posted - 10/31/2009 :  09:42:16  

quote:

---

Originally posted by BanjoDivaSimilarly to Geemot's comment, you will get lots of requests for Rocky Top too. The problem is that usually the requester is expecting to hear you play something with a clear melody line for the song.

---

Posted - 10/31/2009 :  09:42:50    

I picked up the banjo originally because the twang of it as I plucked it at the store sounded like an electric guitar without having to mess with all the amplifiers and cords and junk. (I was 15 and playing congas in a garage rock band and we would spend more time setting up our equipment than we would spend playing music.)

Try strumming as well as picking.

Best lesson I ever got was from a truck driver who said I could strum any song in any songbook just like a guitarist if I had a chord chart. Try working your way through fakebooks of real music (Beatles Anthology, Favorite American Songs, Sing Out) which you can check out of the library or find in any piano bench along with working on regular banjo books which tend to focus purely on right hand techniques in a restricted genre of music.


My very first song was Proud Mary. The run down F D, F D, F D C Bb G is all barre chords on the dotted frets. The song is all in G except for the chorus.
[D] Big wheels keep on turning oooh the
[Em] Proud Mary keeps on churning
[G] Rolling........

Mike Moxcey
http://moxcey.net/mike/minstrel/index.html

Posted - 10/31/2009 :  12:09:44          

quote:

---

Originally posted by Oalbrets

Diva, yep and you are 100% right. The only songs the non banjo players know are Rocky Top, Foggy Mountain Breakdown and Dueling Banjos. The main thing jfrebel is to just have fun. They won't know if you make a mistake in playing the song. Just have fun, thats what it is all about.

Poverty Ridge Bluegrass

---

Posted - 10/31/2009 :  14:25:51            

quote:

---

Originally posted by R.C

i'm a huge metal fan but i can see the beauty of the banjo!
many of my friends think the banjo is brilliant and they respect the skill you need to play it!

i think deliverence is a great lil opener because everyone knows it and also its quite catchy!
fair play to ya for bringing it out and showing people that the banjo is brilliant!

---

Posted - 10/31/2009 :  18:04:30        

I recently played Dueling Banjos with a tuba (!) at a church function-we brought down the house! If you're having fun playing a song, the crowd will have fun listening to it, and we had a huge time playing.

"Life Has Been Easier On Me Than Any Lazy Person Like Myself Has The Right To Expect"-Pete Seeger

Posted - 10/31/2009 :  20:49:24    

The Movie was terrible, and unfit to be seen, as for the tune it had been written, and recorded way before the movie came out. I went to that movie when it came out, I watched up to that one sciene started, and I left.



(Cowboy In Town, Trouble Expected)

Nechville. In Higginsville.

Lee Kelso

Posted - 10/31/2009 :  22:14:28        

my teach keeps telling me i only need to know a few bars (played very well) of only 3 songs for your friends to think yer a pro on banjo: Dueling banjos, FMB and Beverly Hillbillies. After that, they seem to know nothing about banjo- at least down here in NZ.

For that reason, I haven't learned any of these yet but i know enough basic chords to play a heap of other tunes they wouldn't expect to hear on banjo (Eagles, Clapton, Dylan, Green Day, Depeche Mode, New Order, REM, Chilli Pepppers, etc). This breaks them out of their usual expectation for banjo. My metal-god guitar buds (most offices have these guys) are really amazed at the right hand stuff, esp clawhammer style. Go fer'it!

Posted - 11/01/2009 :  01:51:12            

For those of you who really can't STAND to play that "Dueling Banjos" theme, a simple suggestion:
If someone requests it of you, ask them "Is that the one that goes like THIS????",
and launch into some dazzling bit of whatever you feel like impressing them with.

They will at least know how dazzling you can be, and if they insist "No, that's not it", you can say something about having practiced the wrong tune, and at least you haven't done anything to appear rude.

And thank your lucky stars that they don't lurk HERE, where (rumor has it) banjo players are SICK & TIRED of having it requested, so the asker, TRYING to be nice, says
"Hey, can you play that Caroline and the Pines song, like that one guy did on Letterman?"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ywv5fxFpR_8

Yeah, I wish! that I could play like that one guy.
Shook hands with him, one sunny day in Milwaukee, what, 20 years ago??
Close as MY fingers are ever going to get to HIS talent.

Gimme a chance to crank out a short rendition of Drooling Banjos and if that impresses the civilains, everybody's happy.

Edited by - mike gregory on 11/01/2009 15:27:35

Posted - 11/01/2009 :  08:10:38    

i dont see the big dea with playing it to be honest! its like asking a guitar player to play time of your life-green day!
at the end of the day its just a song and it does kind of promote the banjo as being an interesting instrument with catchy songs for people that dont have that great an interest in banjo because of lack of knowledge about its songs etc

Posted - 11/02/2009 :  12:08:05      

I am currently practising that tune because I think its great ! there is nothing wrong with anybody enjoying a good old corny tune, I also like Last train to san Fernando, yellow submarine and My old Kentucky home, its cool to be uncool !

spoonfed

Posted - 11/02/2009 :  20:14:44        

you can always say:

"I'll play the tune if you'll squeal like a pig."


AWFUL !!

I went to see the movie at a drive in! But I missed that part... , Till bout 2 years ago I saw it on youtube. That put a stop to any desire to play that tune or even think about that movie.

Posted - 11/03/2009 :  06:37:48    

I do not think people feel insulted as much as they get tired of being continuously asked to play that tune, or at least I do not feel offended. It is a tune that you will get a lot of requests for ..... so be prepared.

By the way, the original name of the tune (I think Don Reno put this number together) was "Feuding Banjos", then it was renamed at one point "Dueling Banjos" and then the theme from the movie "Deliverance".

Froggie
"Courage is Fear that has said its prayers.

Posted - 11/03/2009 :  06:48:37        

It has been around since 1899 when it was known at the Banjo Reel. Arthur Smith resurrected it and copyrighted it as his own in 1955. The Dillards included it on their Back Porch Bluegrass album in 1963. It was recorded through the years as Battling Banjos, Feuding Banjos, Duelling banjos and whatever prior to the release of the Deliverance movie @1972. Strange that many people still think Billy Redden was actually playing that old banjo on the porch.
I watched the movie several times, but did not particularly like it. I did immediately buy an album of the soundtrack though. Some of the best banjo playing I have ever heard.

www.bobbythompsonbanjo.com

Edited by - Ronnie on 11/03/2009 06:55:13

Posted - 11/03/2009 :  07:14:57      

When I get a request for Dueling Banjos, I just play the first bit, then wait, look around and wait a bit more (as there is usually no other players around), and then say, "I guess I win."

Never play the same thing once......yoR

Posted - 11/03/2009 :  12:00:22        

quote:

---

I watched the movie several times, but did not particularly like it. I did immediately buy an album of the soundtrack though. Some of the best banjo playing I have ever heard.

---