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tomberghan - Posted - 07/05/2010: 23:06:11
Here is BHO member Mirek Patek, who is from the Czech Republic. He plays 4 string banjo and usually we see him in the plectrum and tenor forum . . . and, Mirek does the most interesting things with his 4 string banjo!
Here he is doing clawhammer. (Why I am showing it to you - I thought you would like to it) Check out this technique. If I wasn't seeing it I would have thought it was a five string.
youtube.com/watch?v=7Tp9-Zevw58
Mirek plays all styles on his tenor banjo! Some people always ask him "Why? Why not get a 5-string?" Hey, the man likes his tenor banjo OK? Nuff said! The proof is in the pudding as they say. 
Pretty interesting.
Check out his other videos and recordings. Here is his web site: mirekpatek.com/
Great work Mirek!
janolov - Posted - 07/05/2010: 23:23:10
I agree. Mirek is great! He absolutely does at lot of interesting things on the tenor banjo. And it is mainly the music, not the technique he has adapted. I think he usually plays note for note transcriptions of 5 string CH tunes to his clawhammer tenor. But to get the CH rythm he has to use three fingers of the right hand.
Edited by - janolov on 07/05/2010 23:32:48
Deaf Lester Crawdad - Posted - 07/06/2010: 00:25:07
quote:
Originally posted by tomberghan
Here is BHO member Mirek Patek, who is from the Czech Republic. He plays 4 string banjo and usually we see him in the plectrum and tenor forum . . . and, Mirek does the most interesting things with his 4 string banjo!
Here he is doing clawhammer. (Why I am showing it to you - I thought you would like to it) Check out this technique. If I wasn't seeing it I would have thought it was a five string.
youtube.com/watch?v=7Tp9-Zevw58
Mirek plays all styles on his tenor banjo! Some people always ask him "Why? Why not get a 5-string?" Hey, the man likes his tenor banjo OK? Nuff said! The proof is in the pudding as they say.
Pretty interesting.
Check out his other videos and recordings. Here is his web site: mirekpatek.com/
Great work Mirek!
He's picking the melody on the down-beat with his thumb, brushing down across the strings on the off-beat, and playing the notes in between as either hammers or pull-offs; and that's not really "clawhammer" unless *every* sequence that can create a shuffle rhythm is clawhammer.
It's actually the famed "Carter Lick" -named after Maybelle- that's commonly used in old-time guitar playing.
~Pete
Mirek Patek - Posted - 07/06/2010: 05:02:45
Thanks, folks!
I consider myself very lucky that I have came across something (frailing and fingerpicking on the open tuned tenor banjo) that had not been systematically explored before (as far as I know).
Concerning frailing sound, I like the opportunity to combine the low melody style (that Maybelle Carter strum I wrongly called clawhammer in the first link below) and the high melody style (I call it PINCH-FRAIL pattern as nobody told me the name used in guitar world) that is described in the second link below. It is very easy in my DGdg tuning where are just two pairs of dg strings so the melody is on the same frets.
Mirek
archive.banjosessions.com/dec09/patek.html
archive.banjosessions.com/feb10/patek.html
majikgator - Posted - 07/06/2010: 05:35:38
It really does sound like five string clawhammer banjo no matter how it is actually played. NIce job Mirek.
jbalch - Posted - 07/06/2010: 06:32:06
I like it!
Hoss - Posted - 07/06/2010: 07:59:23
Very nice and most unexpected (to me anyway) on a 4-string banjo!
Tessellater - Posted - 07/06/2010: 08:03:57
Nice job. Mirek. Thanks for shattering more conventions. Down with regularity! Up with individualism!
pernicketylad - Posted - 07/06/2010: 08:04:48
Sweet as a nut!
P.S. I think Dan Gellert's "Sandy Boy" on the album "Waiting on the Break of Day" is done on a four string banjo.
Edited by - pernicketylad on 07/06/2010 08:07:20
Kirk Jacobs - Posted - 07/06/2010: 08:45:52
Scruggshammer? Really nice job. Love to see different playing on a great instrument.
tunemakers - Posted - 07/06/2010: 09:34:13
If it sounds good, it is good and that sounds very good. Nice work!
Coonskin - Posted - 07/06/2010: 17:59:05
Pretty darn neato! Just shows what imagination and a little stubborness can lead to...I'm impressed!
Couchie - Posted - 07/07/2010: 13:28:48
Sounds good to me.....
banjopogo - Posted - 07/07/2010: 22:46:37
I admit, I clicked on the link with GREAT skepticism...
but it really works, and really sounds good AND Old Timey too!!!
I'm amazed!!!
banjo bill-e - Posted - 07/08/2010: 14:41:27
Same here, I was pretty sure that I was not going to like it, but I wuz wrong! I'm pretty big on that fifth string and usually do not care for 4-string styles, but Mirek plays very well and gets a unique sound. Great job!
Dan Gellert - Posted - 07/20/2010: 17:32:46
quote:
Originally posted by pernicketylad
P.S. I think Dan Gellert's "Sandy Boy" on the album "Waiting on the Break of Day" is done on a four string banjo.
It's played on a regular 5-stringer on the album.
I do like to play the tune on my four-string banjo-- which is NOT a tenor, but a gourd with three long strings and a short thumb string (i.e. like a 5-string, but without the *4th* string).
Mirek Patek - Posted - 08/09/2010: 07:35:07
In the August issue of MelBay's Banjo Sessions there is my tutorial of frailing on tenor banjo in low bass tuning CGdg and high bass tuning DGdg.
banjosessions.com/?p=86
Thanks again for all your comments.
Mirek
Rob MacKillop - Posted - 08/09/2010: 07:42:17
Sounds perfectly fine to me. Keep up the good work. We need trailblazers.
banjopaolo - Posted - 08/09/2010: 10:08:54
I tried something similar when I started playing tenor but after a while i got myself a five string.
Mirek anyway has made a great work, I guess that if he had a five string banjo he could play chord melody in Peabody and Reser style!!!
