Fathand - Posted - 12/29/2011:  05:48:58

None of my CD players play Mp3s but my laptop does. When mine arrives I will be hoping to convert the files to something that will play in my car or on my portable stereo.

Any hints?  Convert Mp3 to WAV or WMA?

quote:

---

Originally posted by seanray

Hi Philipp,

That's interesting about the MP3/CD not playing in your DVD/MP3-capable player. Do you think the DVD player's region code may be to blame? (region 1 = US / region 2 = Europe). I would think that would only pertain to the DVD part of the equation but I'm not sure.

I tested the CD on several different stand-alone players, three of which were DVD players, and didn't run into any problems. The good news, as you stated, is that you can always transcode the the files on the CD to whatever format you wish including standard audio files.

Thanks again and feel free to contact me directly with any questions about the book or CD.

---

BPorter - Posted - 12/29/2011:  06:49:02

Sean, I got my book and CD and this is a great learning tool(s). Hopefully, in my upcoming retirement in March 2012 I will be able to devote some time to learning to play the 5-string.

Thanks for your fast service.

Bill Porter
Wadesboro, NC

phb - Posted - 12/29/2011:  07:42:11

quote:

---

Originally posted by Fathand

None of my CD players play Mp3s but my laptop does. When mine arrives I will be hoping to convert the files to something that will play in my car or on my portable stereo.

Any hints?  Convert Mp3 to WAV or WMA?

---

Are those CD players? Then you could make an ordinary music CDs from the mp3s. Most programs should have an option for that. Be sure to select "music CD" or "audio CD" and not "data CD" when you try that.

seanray - Posted - 12/29/2011:  10:01:53

You're most welcome Bill and to Rick, as Philipp mentioned, you can burn regular audio CD's (AIFF, WAV) with most audio apps like iTunes. The CD included with my book is 3 hours long so you'll need to burn 2-3 regular audio CD's.

OldFox - Posted - 12/29/2011:  11:08:27

My book came today.  I'm impressed with the book and cd, but also with the shipping.  It usually takes longer to get something here on the far east of Canada. Thank you -- lots of good practice and entertainment.  I will make a copy of the disk for my truck as it has a mp3 player.  Good job - congratulations.

Fathand - Posted - 12/29/2011:  11:42:12

I better go check my mailbox

quote:

---

Originally posted by OldFox

My book came today.  I'm impressed with the book and cd, but also with the shipping.  It usually takes longer to get something here on the far east of Canada. Thank you -- lots of good practice and entertainment.  I will make a copy of the disk for my truck as it has a mp3 player.  Good job - congratulations.

---

bc99 - Posted - 12/29/2011:  13:34:48

I ordered this book the moment I first saw this post. It was shipped quickly and I received it within days. The book is easy to follow, and the CD is wonderful to play along with.

Thanks, great job!

dcb - Posted - 12/29/2011:  14:47:31

Thanks Sean, Got the book and cd today.
looks like a winner. I can only echo everyones comments.
Dave

tooner2 - Posted - 12/30/2011:  00:43:30

Hi Sean, Just letting you know I got mine here in western Canada yesterday and have been busy with it since. Like I said I had just learnt Fireball Mail when you first posted the play-along and I'm on a mission to know all of Foggy Mnt Banjo and beyond --- so it is just what I've been wanting to build on my bluegrass foundation. I know it's still going to take time and a lot of work to play up to speed but this makes it that much 'easier' and even more fun. Thanks again.

Cheers and Happy New Year,

Monte

Edited by - tooner2 on 12/30/2011 01:06:53

phb - Posted - 12/30/2011:  05:28:55

I was interested in the bpm of the individual recordings. Using audacity I found that most were recorded at 100 bpm 4/4 time with just a few exceptions:



Foggy Mountain Special 80 bpm

Home Sweet Home 80 bpm

Pike County Breakdown 105 bpm

Sally Ann 90 bpm

Shuckin' The Corn 110 bpm

Perhaps this information could be added to the "CD track listing" for later editions? I think this might be useful when deciding on an order of tunes to practice.

I just tried "Cumberland Gap" which I had been practicing recently and found that I could more or less play along with the recording. I think the tempo is optimal for me to practice until I can play the tune cleanly and without mistakes (quite a long way to go). It's quite frustrating to think that the pros play this material three times faster...



Oh, a thought that crossed my mind: it would be really cool if people started to trade alternate arrangements and recordings of themselves playing them so that people could play the recordings along with the "no banjo" tracks.

Edited by - phb on 12/30/2011 05:30:56

seanray - Posted - 12/30/2011:  14:22:35

Thanks again to everybody for the feedback and helping make the book/cd a hit.

Philipp, are you talking about recording some original parts over the non-banjo tracks? That would be cool. Definitely post it if you do.

And don't get too frustrated by the pro's speeds. They're not technically three times faster but they're close to twice. Most folks play Shuckin around 160 so you're only about 50 clicks away.

Edited by - seanray on 12/30/2011 14:23:26

phb - Posted - 12/30/2011:  15:48:44

quote:

---

Originally posted by seanray

Philipp, are you talking about recording some original parts over the non-banjo tracks? That would be cool. Definitely post it if you do.

---

Yes, that's the idea, but don't hold your breath, it could take some years before I do... :)

quote:

---

Originally posted by seanray

And don't get too frustrated by the pro's speeds. They're not technically three times faster but they're close to twice. Most folks play Shuckin around 160 so you're only about 50 clicks away.

---

But aren't those 160 bpm in 2/4 time which should correspond to 320 bpm 4/4 time? It seems I still don't get the concept of bluegrass bpm. Somewhere in between the Session Book recordings and normal bluegrass recordings the notes crowd together too much for my brain to process... ;)

seanray - Posted - 12/30/2011:  16:44:41

The bpm thing can be confusing since it's all relative.

I always base my bpm on 4/4 half note pulse.

If you pull this J.D. Video into your DAW software it would more than likely clock it at around 160 bpm. Or you can tap along with an online bpm counter to get a ballpark as well. Since most pendulum metronomes only go up to about 208 I never refer to anything as being 200+ bpm. Again it's all relative.

Most folks would refer to this J.D. video being about 160 bpm and not 320 bpm. You could still say it's 320 bpm if you prefer but J.D. would still be playing the same speed either way.

So all of the tunes on the book's CD are over halfway to the target speed.

VIDEO: JD Crowe - Shuckin' The Corn (click to view)

phb - Posted - 12/31/2011:  03:00:05

quote:

---

Originally posted by seanray

The bpm thing can be confusing since it's all relative.

I always base my bpm on 4/4 half note pulse.

---

Aha! I just measured the metronome clicks assuming they were quarter beat clicks. I didn't realize that each metronome click corresponds to half a measure making the above bpm measures 2/4 time, not 4/4 time.

Phew, I feel relieved! In fact, the last time I worked with a metronome I could hardly go above 100 bpm playing clean rolls so I'm quite pleased that I can now play a tune at that speed. Okay, not very cleanly, yet, but this is a practice tool after all...

dcb - Posted - 01/01/2012:  09:53:48

Philipp, I use a program called Best Practice. If you open the tune that you want to learn it will show you the bpm

and you can speed it up or down as you like. I was just playing FMB and 100bpm was a little slow for me so I took it up to 130bpm and it was just about right.

 

Sean I have a problem with the cd trying to play it out of windows media player.

can I convert it to a wma file?

Dave

Edited by - dcb on 01/01/2012 09:54:53

seanray - Posted - 01/01/2012:  10:12:44

Dave, I'm not sure why you'd want to convert an mp3 to a wma but contact me off the forum and I'll troubleshoot it for you.

MiG-19 - Posted - 01/01/2012:  18:33:34

Sean, I got mine. Great book! Thanks for putting the time and effort into it. Happy New Year!

phb - Posted - 01/02/2012:  02:34:04

quote:

---

Originally posted by dcb

Philipp, I use a program called Best Practice. If you open the tune that you want to learn it will show you the bpm

and you can speed it up or down as you like.

---

That sounds quite neat. Audacity cannot figure out the bpm automatically so I had to measure the spacing of the metronome beats at the beginning of the tunes. Fortunately audacity can speed up files. It is not really a practice tool but I guess at some point in the future I will just use it to create a set of sped-up tracks for practice once I find the original speed is too low for me. I'm a Linux guy so I would have to nick my wife's computer to use the software you suggest. "Transcribe!" is also available for Linux and can be operated easily to change the speed (contrary to audacity). I consider buying it because it is also a great tool for tabbing out recordings.

quote:

---

Originally posted by dcb

Sean I have a problem with the cd trying to play it out of windows media player.

can I convert it to a wma file?

---

You could also try convert the files to lower bit-rate mp3. I reencoded the files to ~190 kbps and they now play fine on my outdated mp3 player.

seanray - Posted - 01/02/2012:  09:25:11

quote:

---

Originally posted by MiG-19

Sean, I got mine. Great book! Thanks for putting the time and effort into it. Happy New Year!

---

Great to hear Jay and a Happy New Year to you as well.

blugraz - Posted - 01/03/2012:  05:59:17

Sean....Book & CD  arrived, ...safe 'n sound.

Well packaged...great job all round!.....100% satisified plus.

Roll on #2.

Thanks,

Sean.

ArizonaBlacksmith - Posted - 01/03/2012:  08:15:58

Just ordered my copy.  I can't wait to get it!  Thank you for your time and energy on this project.

OSCAR82AA - Posted - 01/03/2012:  11:11:39

 Hey Sean,

              Just ordered mine today. Looks like some great learning tools there.

                Need to practice up on  some of the great Scruggs tunes.

                                                                Barry,

                                                                           Ann Arbor,Michigan

Fathand - Posted - 01/03/2012:  12:29:43

Mine just arrived, I believe I ordered on Dec 23 and it was shipped Dec 24. That is pretty good time for shipping to Canada over the Holidays. It was nicely packed and the shipping charge was appropriate.

I will say that this is some of the cleanest looking tab publishing I have seen, large type and not compressed all together for those of us with older eyes. I don't even need my reading glasses. It also looks to be a very nice selection for intermediates or just anyone looking to improve their repetoire.

seanray - Posted - 01/03/2012:  15:52:46

Thanks everybody,

I just got back from the post office where I'm now on a first name basis.

Glad to hear you're all enjoying it.

Who's going to be the first one to "Sound Off" with one of the backing tracks? I'll send along any 3 tabs (PDF & TEF) of you're choosing to the first three folks that post themselves playing along to any tune out of the book.

kino99 - Posted - 01/31/2012:  21:56:59

Got my book a feW weeks back. Love it!!! Thanks for the work and thought into the project. You have helped me learn the banjo, and it is nice to be able to support your work with this perfect book.

On the next round, my only suggestion would be to do add a no banjo backup track at about 30-45 bpm faster, but without the solos of others. I find in practice its fun to play all of the breaks in a row.

Anyway, great job. Everyone buy!! Love the book and tracks.

seanray - Posted - 02/01/2012:  05:45:35

Thanks Mike,

I'm considering recording a follow up with faster tracks but haven't decided on the instrumentation yet. Correct me if I'm wrong but you would like to hear just guitar and bass for the tunes at a faster tempo right (no solos of any kind)?

That sounds like a plan to me and of course I would make these available as a free download to all of you who have already purchased the book.

If anybody else has an opinion on this let me know and then I can get a consensus on the instrumentation and tempo that works the best.

Thanks again everybody.

Sean

Richard Dress - Posted - 02/01/2012:  08:38:10

I wish I had that twenty years ago.  Good job.

Railo - Posted - 02/01/2012:  08:45:51

I agree with kino99 on a faster backing track, but I feel you should leave the fiddle and mando leads in. It makes a more real playing situation. It gives us the the ability to practice starting into our solos from another lead player and also finishing up our leads with endings that will compliment the next instrument. It gives us the ability to work on our backup behind the melody also. A track without other leads would give the ability to string our leads together but that is something that doesn't really happen that much in a true jam. Also without something to carry the melody for us, its tough to work on backup which is 90% of what we play. Just my thoughts. I love my "Session Book". Keep up the good work Sean.