RG - Posted - 05/05/2012:  02:50:59

Originally posted by R.D. Lunceford

"I think part of the whole problem is that drop-thumb is cast as an advanced technique which it is not.

If it was viewed as a fundamental technique which it is, fewer folks would argue in favor of throwing it out.



I agree that if one can not execute the technique without losing time or rhythm then it should not be incorporated... however that is an individual problem with execution, not that the technique itself defective."

Truer words have not been spoken on this topic...

RWJones1970 - Posted - 05/05/2012:  03:22:49

originally posted by RD Lunceford

"I think part of the whole problem is that drop-thumb is cast as an advanced technique which it is not.

If it was viewed as a fundamental technique which it is, fewer folks would argue in favor of throwing it out.



I agree that if one can not execute the technique without losing time or rhythm then it should not be incorporated... however that is an individual problem with execution, not that the technique itself defective. ""

Amen !  I am thankful that I was able to learn drop thumb within the first two years of playing. I didn't follow Dwight Diller's advice although I primarily learned to play through his DVD's. I thought drop thumb added a whole new dimension to the sound capabilty of the banjo. I set my mind to learn it and that it must be incorporaed into a steady rhythm as Dwight instructed. I'm no banjo master by a longshot but I am blessed and thankful to be able to drop thumb. It's not that hard as my brother RD has said. Like someone once told me, "Son, if you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything."

Marc Nerenberg - Posted - 05/05/2012:  05:28:51

quote:

---

Originally posted by R.D. Lunceford

I think part of the whole problem is that drop-thumb is cast as an advanced technique which it is not.

If it was viewed as a fundamental technique which it is, fewer folks would argue in favor of throwing it out.



I agree that if one can not execute the technique without losing time or rhythm then it should not be incorporated... however that is an individual problem with execution, not that the technique itself defective.

---

R.D. said it, then RG endorsed it, then RW validated it. The 3 R's are all right!

captbanjo - Posted - 05/05/2012:  06:14:07

At this point, I'd like to volunteer my services to advance the cause of making this the longest running thread on the Hangout. Does anyone know the record? We're on page seven already!

So.....drop thumb! Yeah, I'm down with it!

Wayne

Marc Nerenberg - Posted - 05/05/2012:  06:40:20

quote:

---

Originally posted by captbanjo

At this point, I'd like to volunteer my services to advance the cause of making this the longest running thread on the Hangout. Does anyone know the record? We're on page seven already!

So.....drop thumb! Yeah, I'm down with it!

Wayne

---

Among current threads in the Other Banjo Related Old Time Section (lower down on the page), this one: banjohangout.org/topic/202324 , on Frailin's Banjo Builder interview series, is now at 34 pages and counting. And with not a hint of discord or acrimony!

This current thread has got a loooooooong way to go to be even close to the longest running thread. (I'm sure there have been some longer than the one I've highlighted - i just don't look at those sections of the BHO).

captbanjo - Posted - 05/05/2012:  06:45:38

Woah! So much for this thread trumping that stuff (which looks intriguing by the way...I'll have to take a gander)!

Wayne

mbuk06 - Posted - 05/05/2012:  09:13:18

Maybe to go some way to helping captbanjo's mission and keeping this topic going...

Does anyone know of anyone (living or historic) who has played clawhammer ​minus​ their thumb? I guess a thumb-amputee and banjo-player combination would be a pretty exclusive club but you never know...necessity being the mother of invention.

captbanjo - Posted - 05/05/2012:  09:25:33

I do not. But in case you're not aware of Barry Abernathy, check this out:

youtube.com/watch?v=XSHALha5IlI 

Wayne

quote:

---

Originally posted by mbuk06

Maybe to go some way to helping captbanjo's mission and keeping this topic going...

Does anyone know of anyone (living or historic) who has played clawhammer ​minus​ their thumb? I guess a thumb-amputee and banjo-player combination would be a pretty exclusive club but you never know...necessity being the mother of invention.

---

mbuk06 - Posted - 05/05/2012:  10:44:49

quote:

---

Originally posted by captbanjo

I do not. But in case you're not aware of Barry Abernathy, check this out:

youtube.com/watch?v=XSHALha5IlI 

Wayne

 

---

Brilliant! Great clip.

mwc9725e - Posted - 05/05/2012:  11:07:10

quote:

---

Originally posted by captbanjo

I do not. But in case you're not aware of Barry Abernathy, check this out:

youtube.com/watch?v=XSHALha5IlI 

Wayne

 

quote:

---

Originally posted by mbuk06

Maybe to go some way to helping captbanjo's mission and keeping this topic going...

Does anyone know of anyone (living or historic) who has played clawhammer ​minus​ their thumb? I guess a thumb-amputee and banjo-player combination would be a pretty exclusive club but you never know...necessity being the mother of invention.

---

 

---

My God!! That's a humbling performance, isn't it?

ZEPP - Posted - 05/05/2012:  12:16:46

quote:

---

Originally posted by banjo bill-e

Do you use a different motion for this technique? I could not tell from the video. I've been trying to have the thumb land in the same motion as when the frail strikes, which would be impossible with THIS use of double thumb----would it not? Whatever, that sounds great.

---

You know, I'm not sure exactly.  I suspect what's happening is that my thumb lands on the finger-struck string (in this case, the 3rd) as the finger continues its stroke and runs into the 2nd string or perhaps as the hand is reversing.  It would be fun to do some high-speed video of this to see what's really going on, as I can't slow it down much without changing everything...

This does actually introduce a staccato effect, but during the heat of battle, it's really not all that noticeable or a "problem" per se.

Cheers,

ZEPP

Edited by - ZEPP on 05/05/2012 12:17:25

erikforgod - Posted - 05/05/2012:  13:14:01

I think part of the whole problem is that drop-thumb is cast as an advanced technique which it is not.

If it was viewed as a fundamental technique which it is, fewer folks would argue in favor of throwing it out.



I agree that if one can not execute the technique without losing time or rhythm then it should not be incorporated... however that is an individual problem with execution, not that the technique itself defective.



R.D. I never thought of this way....makes alot of sense, and why some teachers or folks would cast drop-thumb as something advanced I dont know why. I agree just like everyone else, takes time and focus but hey, so does the beginning frailing technique as well...so does just about every technique. Some people just create things in their head and then toss it out as law...like saying drop-thumb shouldnt be learned until later...thats just their opinion.

Edited by - erikforgod on 05/05/2012 13:19:00

captbanjo - Posted - 05/05/2012:  13:23:34

Yes! I also play bluegrass five and a book I first bought told me to never use the picking hand fingers on strings other than middle-first string and second on second and third string. It took a long time to undo that damage. Now, I use all fingers on all strings except for maybe the fifth. I teach students to try it all and work multi-concepts into their approach now.

Wayne

oldwoodchuckb - Posted - 05/05/2012:  13:43:39

That middle finge on the 1st sting only was one of the things that helped destroy my chances of ever playing 3 finger picking on the guitar. I was pretty decent at 2 finger but never got anywhere with 3. Even the painstakingly taught and learned songs from De Van Ronk eventually wet out of my repertoire.

oldwoodchuckb - Posted - 05/05/2012:  13:45:54

RD and I and some others have been saying that for years. Good to see people are finally beginning to notice.

Drop Thumb is not an advanced technique -- unless you turn it into one.

Mike Liles, Jr. - Posted - 05/05/2012:  13:47:15

Just some perspective from an ex-Tennessean now on his 57th year playing the banjo.  For my first over 30 years I played Old Time primarily using a frailing style, which suited my then musical tastes and personality.  I liked to play really, really fast so that the guitar and mandolin players I was playing with would often beg me to slow down so they could keep up.  (I could sing that fast too, loudly and aggressively.)  Audiences were initially stunned .  By hindsight, I was often using my banjo and voice as forms of weapons in what I must have perceived as some sort of a contest for dominance.  Yes, I played in a number of amateur string bands, but the music was aggressive and the object was mostly to dazzle.  And it worked, in a rabble rousing sort of way.  

Towards the end of this period, I took up Scruggs style, with which I could be even more aggressive with maple Gibson and Stelling banjos set up to be loud and piercing.  Again, I played in a number of amateur bluegrass bands.  We were fast and loud and evoked a lot of clapping and dancing among our audiences.   As long as we performed infrequently and with sets that were not too long, so that our audiences did not tire, we were fine.  I do not want to imply that we were not musical because we apparently were and drew a number of imitators locally (Seattle area), but our range was narrow and we could never expand, and it was a chore to come up with truly engaging sets that had the requisite variations in tempo and rhythm.  We even resorted to having to intersperse Sacred  Harp songs a capella just to create the necessary variations.

About 25 years ago I finally decided to slow down and nuance our songs. (Yep, I got older and the banjo and voice as weapons got old also.  Not all that exciting anymore, more like annoying.)  About time, too.  Drop thumb then came naturally for the Old Time songs in order to to fill in pauses that cropped up.  Picked it up at a couple of Tennessee Banjo Institutes. Our repertoire expanded, and became more interesting (I think).  So now, I use drop thumb in the old Time songs most of the time.  Especially during the monthly jam sessions that I have led over the past decade.  Now I wonder why it took so long for me to take up drop thumbing.  Just feels natural now.

captbanjo - Posted - 05/05/2012:  15:09:08

As weapons go, it's my preferred one.

Wayne

quote:

---

Originally posted by Mike Liles, Jr.

By hindsight, I was often using my banjo and voice as forms of weapons in what I must have perceived as some sort of a contest for dominance.  Yes, I played in a number of amateur string bands, but the music was aggressive and the object was mostly to dazzle.  And it worked, in a rabble rousing sort of way.  

---

JTRoberts - Posted - 05/05/2012:  15:16:04

Mike Liles Jr. said:

"Drop thumb then came naturally for the Old Time songs in order to fill in pauses that cropped up."

Thank you Mr. Liles for eloquently stating the very problem with drop thumb. It does fill up the pauses. There is no silence (pauses) to allow the piece to breathe.

"Music is the space between the notes."

Claude Debussy

captbanjo - Posted - 05/05/2012:  15:43:06

Can't agree with that; drop thumb can only fill up the pauses if you CHOOSE to fill the pauses up. As the musician, you control the note durations and subsequent spaces.

Wayne

quote:

---

Originally posted by JTRoberts

Mike Liles Jr. said:



"Drop thumb then came naturally for the Old Time songs in order to fill in pauses that cropped up."



Thank you Mr. Liles for eloquently stating the very problem with drop thumb. It does fill up the pauses. There is no silence (pauses) to allow the piece to breathe.



"Music is the space between the notes."



Claude Debussy

---

EggerRidgeBoy - Posted - 05/05/2012:  15:49:15

quote:

---

Originally posted by JTRoberts

Mike Liles Jr. said:



"Drop thumb then came naturally for the Old Time songs in order to fill in pauses that cropped up."



Thank you Mr. Liles for eloquently stating the very problem with drop thumb. It does fill up the pauses. There is no silence (pauses) to allow the piece to breathe.



"Music is the space between the notes."



Claude Debussy

---

Filling up a silence that one thinks shouldn't be filled up is not a "drop thumb" issue - it is a "playing a note where you don't think there should be a note" issue.  Drop thumb is merely one method of playing a note you want to play.  If you don't think there should be a note there, don't play a note using drop thumb or any other method.

Do you think playing hammer-ons or pull-offs or slides "fills up pauses" and destroys the "silence (pauses)" that "allow the piece to breathe"?  Would you tell a fledgling clawhammer player to avoid those techniques? 

As has been said over and over again on this thread (and on every drop thumb thread I've read over the past five years), if you can drop your thumb you can choose to do or not to do it.  Playing "drop thumb" obviously doesn't mean you have to use it even when you don't want a note on that beat - if you want a silent pause, you just don't play the note, with your thumb or with a left-hand technique.  

How many notes one plays - how much room you want give the tune to breathe - is a personal stylistic choice.  It has nothing to do with whether you can play a lower string with your thumb.

EggerRidgeBoy - Posted - 05/05/2012:  16:00:52

quote:

---

Originally posted by JTRoberts



"Music is the space between the notes."



Claude Debussy

---

DeBussy's statement does not mean, say, "playing fewer notes is better music".  By that logic, even the basic bum-ditty frail would be too crowded, and we should be playing "June Apple" with all quarter notes. Or half notes, or whatever the absolute minimum number of notes needed to sketch out the basic melody.  There can be space (silence, pauses, etc.) between 8th notes or 16th notes or whatever, as long as one is aware of and paying attention to the nature and quality of that space.

I would say that Debussy's quote has more to do with rhythm, phrasing, intonation, and so on that on the mere number of notes one plays.

Edited by - EggerRidgeBoy on 05/05/2012 16:07:53

JTRoberts - Posted - 05/05/2012:  16:06:11

Mr. Liles made the statement, I am just agreeing with him.

And yes, music is the space between the notes. Debussy understood a concept that is foreign to the western mind.

EggerRidgeBoy - Posted - 05/05/2012:  16:27:36

quote:

---

Originally posted by JTRoberts

Mr. Liles made the statement, I am just agreeing with him.



And yes, music is the space between the notes. Debussy understood a concept that is foreign to the western mind.

---

Well, you took his statement and used it buttress your argument that drop thumb destroys the silences in music - something he certainly never claimed -  and then used the DeBussy quote to, I assume, suggest that no one with a true understanding of the nature of music would employ the drop thumb technique.

As for the idea that "Music is the space between notes", I doubt few people participating in this discussion would disagree. I think one's understanding of that has nothing to do with having a western or non-western mind, but rather with one's talent, experience, and emotional connection to music.  Some people will understand that idea on a much deeper level than others, but that is true of almost any artistic concept.

But of course, none of that is the subject of this discussion.  The question is not "Is music the space between the notes or not?", but - at least in these last few posts - "Does drop thumb destroy that space?", which seems to be the claim you are making.  If you truly believe that, can you explain why playing that second-beat note with another technique - a hammer-on or pull-off for instance - does NOT destroy the space between the notes that gives the music room to breathe.  If you do believe that playing a note on the second beat, no matter what technique is used, does indeed destroy the space, would you advise beginning clawhammer players against learning to hammer-on and pull-off?  

Those are sincere questions.  I simply don't understand how what is, after all, simply a technique for playing a note can be considered guilty of destroying the silence between the notes.

Edited by - EggerRidgeBoy on 05/05/2012 16:32:58

erikforgod - Posted - 05/05/2012:  17:40:54

quote:

---

Originally posted by JTRoberts

Mike Liles Jr. said:



"Drop thumb then came naturally for the Old Time songs in order to fill in pauses that cropped up."



Thank you Mr. Liles for eloquently stating the very problem with drop thumb. It does fill up the pauses. There is no silence (pauses) to allow the piece to breathe.



"Music is the space between the notes."



Claude Debussy

---

What!? Where are the pauses in straight up frailing then? One maybe could argue that a "piece has no room to breathe" when played in a straightforward frailing style always as well. Drop-thumb is a musical embellishment..and thats right there is no "pause" when you drop thumb...you dont hear the 5th string ringing when the thumb is dropping into another string. Drop-thumb is just a way to play melody notes in sequences of eighth notes using the thumb to strike strings other than the 5th.. A pause is ..well a pause its just a rest. Where are you going with this? Drop-thumb is not a problem.....well maybe for you, I dunno...again its just a "technique" and a useful one, its just a way to add melody notes on other strings. The pause you or anyone else maybe "thinks" they are hearing is that the 5th string is not ringing continually. I am sorry but I just dont see where you are going with your point of view about drop thumb with this entire thread other than the fact that you just dont like it. I cant understand why you view drop-thumb as a "problem" you seem to be trying to support your argument from all kinds of wild angles like drop-thumb being a white thing or whatever ....but I dont see where its going..what are you trying to say really other than the fact that you dont like it.....so why not just leave it at that?

Edited by - erikforgod on 05/05/2012 17:57:02

banjered - Posted - 05/05/2012:  17:41:50

I am not sure that all the talk about "spaces" was what Mike Liles was talking about. What I like and discovered with DT and songs was how useful DT was for the end of phrases where the beat is held for awhile, or any place in the song where the beat/note/word is held for awhile. It just a smooth way to hold a word/note/phrase for awhile. Yes it is not the only way to fill out pauses but it is a very useful way that I like and use frequently. I did not play DT for 10 years because I couldn't extract the concept from the printed page and I couldn't get anyone to show me how to do it. It was this website that helped me get going on DT. Thanks to Eric, BH, and Ya'all. Banjered

Oh, and has anyone else said it yet? Just to make sure it is covered....DROP THUMBS, NOT BOMBS!!! Ha!

JTRoberts - Posted - 05/05/2012:  18:01:52

Just having a little fun with you boys. But lord have mercy you drop thumbers sure get all het up. You'd think someone was peeing in church.

R.D. Lunceford - Posted - 05/05/2012:  18:38:05

quote:

---

Originally posted by JTRoberts

Just having a little fun with you boys. 

---

 So that's why none of your posts made any sense!!!

You got us!!!

chip arnold - Posted - 05/05/2012:  20:02:36

It is 11:00 p.m. in the North Georgia mountains. The whip poor will has just stopped hollering and the Airstream windows are open to the cool night air. A fine time to put this silliness to bed.

Chadbanjo - Posted - 05/05/2012:  20:28:31

Whats a little misleading in a few posts is saying finger style guitarist drop thumb.. so why can't we...or somthing like that...it's not the same at all, our thumb is working from a motion of the hand not picking(unless we chose to) and maybe thats a style of clawhammer to.  We need clawhammer enforcement. CHPolice

I remember reading a post of someone here one time saying that the thumb is like an accidental strike, put it where you want the hand motion will do the rest or something like that.

Edit..

Edited by - Chadbanjo on 05/05/2012 20:30:50

R.D. Lunceford - Posted - 05/05/2012:  20:41:32

quote:

---

Originally posted by JTRoberts

Just having a little fun with you boys. But lord have mercy you drop thumbers sure get all het up. You'd think someone was peeing in church.

---

 Come on now Mr. Roberts... I was just having a little fun with you.

Good night to you Chip, and you too Mr. Roberts.

R.D. Lunceford - Posted - 05/05/2012:  20:52:54

quote:

---

Originally posted by Chadbanjo

Whats a little misleading in a few posts is saying finger style guitarist drop thumb.. so why can't we...or somthing like that...it's not the same at all, our thumb is working from a motion of the hand not picking(unless we chose to) and maybe thats a style of clawhammer to.  We need clawhammer enforcement. CHPolice

 

---

 That was duly noted a few pages back.  It was a tongue-in-cheek comment.  Just chalk it up to my lack of humor

quote:

Originally posted by JTRoberts



 

Mr. Lunceford:



 

And when I was sayin that white folks can't dance, play receiver in the NFL or have much rhythm, perhaps I should have added "don't have much of a sense of humor." 

Chadbanjo - Posted - 05/05/2012:  21:04:09

quote:

---

Originally posted by R.D. Lunceford

quote:

---

Originally posted by Chadbanjo

Whats a little misleading in a few posts is saying finger style guitarist drop thumb.. so why can't we...or somthing like that...it's not the same at all, our thumb is working from a motion of the hand not picking(unless we chose to) and maybe thats a style of clawhammer to.  We need clawhammer enforcement. CHPolice

 

---

 That was duly noted a few pages back.  It was a tongue-in-cheek comment.  Just chalk it up to my lack of humor

 

quote:

---

Originally posted by JTRoberts



 

Mr. Lunceford:



 

And when I was sayin that white folks can't dance, play receiver in the NFL or have much rhythm, perhaps I should have added "don't have much of a sense of humor." 

---

Was it you that wrote that, I'd know you'd know the difference...anyhow, it's been said in threads preivous to this one. In the few years i've been here I had seen it said multiple times and perhaps to a complete beginner to clawhammer and coming from a picking style(like myself at the time) it would be misleading path.

ceemonster - Posted - 05/05/2012:  21:06:25

no, i also said it. i'm aware it's not eggggggzackly the same. but, some fingerstyle guitarists consider the alternating-bass thumb thing a big deal and a big mountaing to climb and a this and a that. but if you're learning the style that involves alternating-bass thumb, you just learn it, and everybody gets it sooner or later.

ceemonster - Posted - 05/05/2012:  21:07:48

[But lord have mercy you drop thumbers sure get all het up.] i dt but i could care less if anyone else does. however, i am fascinated by the fact that people get het up about it......

cockneybanjo - Posted - 05/05/2012:  21:17:59

well, I don't play drop thumb because I have never learnt to do it well enough, through lack of teaching and a distinct tendency to use the banjo as a comfort blanket and/or escape from the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune; by the time I pick it up I have usually had enough struggling with techniques and formats for one day.... would be nice to know but it just doesn't seem to emerge from why I play.

pollywaffle - Posted - 05/05/2012:  21:20:18

Apologies for all this. I was just wondering if it was true is all.

Now I'm off to drool over Mr ZEPP's wonderful playing. Remarkable!

Edited by - pollywaffle on 05/05/2012 21:22:38

Chadbanjo - Posted - 05/05/2012:  21:25:39

quote:

---

Originally posted by pollywaffle

Apologies for all this. I was just wondering if it was true is all.

Now I'm off to drool over Mr ZEPP's wonderful playing. Remarkable!

---

Well now that you made the entire hangout poop themselves sideways, us normal people can carry on with our lives.

 My comment easn't meant to pick anyone out, just .....jsut....a fugit. Fug the thujmb.

JTRoberts - Posted - 05/05/2012:  21:49:11

Just wait until you guys discover that the ever radiant pollywaffle is really a middle aged guy from Hoboken living in his mother's basement.

Deaf Lester Crawdad - Posted - 05/05/2012:  23:29:49

quote:

---

Originally posted by JTRoberts



Just having a little fun with you boys. 

---

 You might want to watch that.

One of the all-time 'troll's-favorite' online ploys is to say something completely outrageous  -and that they really, really believe in-  and then, when the roof falls in on them, they post exactly what you just did:  "I was just kidding, and you guys don't have any sense of humor".

Online kidding is what these    are for, and if you don't use them then there's not much chance many folks are going to believe that everything you said was purely meant in fun.  

oldwoodchuckb - Posted - 05/06/2012:  00:05:38

If making a complete idiot of yourself is your idea of fun you ought to be in show business.

I understand some rodeo clowns carry banjos. The bulls enjoy chewing them into toothpicks.

Most of us have known from the start that pollywaffle is not the lady pictured in her Avatar, whom I believe is possibly the late Audrey Hepburn or another well known dancer. I don't base anything on screen names or avatars however. My help is based on the problems people talk about experiencing. That is a much as I worry about their life story. it doesn't matter if Mr, Mrs, Or Mzzz Pollywaffle tricked us, it was not a very damaging trick. I got the same answer from me I would have given to a person with an 18 wheeler for an avatar and the screen name Big Mike.

Edited by - oldwoodchuckb on 05/06/2012 00:14:19

mbuk06 - Posted - 05/06/2012:  02:54:56

Hey this is a pause. Shouldn't something be dropped in here...? 

erikforgod - Posted - 05/06/2012:  06:38:42

To be honest I wondered that..I kinda felt we were being baited with some of his comments...but for the sake of discussion, I think both sides of this discussion have been well presented. Actually I learned something....that drop-thumb actually does have some african roots...and goes way back before this country was ever founded. Their were some great points discussed here... I think the reader can come away well informed to decide for him/herself about drop-thumb......

countryman99 - Posted - 05/06/2012:  06:58:50

NUFF SED!!!!   Carry on dropping

Mac

captbanjo - Posted - 05/06/2012:  07:54:17

To each their own, but I scrupulously avoid, in music and elsewhere in life, placing racial digs in my language.

It would be wrong imo, for example, to say that while the Polocks can polka well, they can't really read and write too much, huh? And yes, I chose Polish because I am partly Polish.

Just the way I see it.

Wayne

quote:

---

Originally posted by JTRoberts

Mr. Lunceford:



Even in jest some truth is spoken.

And when I was sayin that white folks can't dance, play receiver in the NFL or have much rhythm, perhaps I should have added "don't have much of a sense of humor."

---

KnarfEK - Posted - 05/06/2012:  08:24:36

I still find that I call 'drop thumbing' 'double thumbing' (incorrectly according to accepted dictate) as I am more aware of using the thumb more than that I am of placing it differently. But that is possible just because I come from a fingerpicking guitar background where moving the thumb forward (I never though of it as 'dropping') and backwards on the strings is routine.

(But then I also prefer winding my banjo strings ALL clockwise on the pegs rather than the lower two counterclockwise so that tuning them is all in the same direction, though not as anesthetically pleasing for those with eyesight good enough to notice which way the strings are wound. But only with normal straight through banjo tuners. With guitar style tuners sticking out sideways the different tuning direction doesn't bother me, likely because my hand is turned already anyway.)

Edited by - KnarfEK on 05/06/2012 08:34:05

JTRoberts - Posted - 05/06/2012:  08:47:15

Mr Woodchuck:

You seem determined to name call "making a complete idiot out of yourself". Why don't you try a more civil approach. Assume a virtue even if you have it not.

Mr. Capt banjo:

Life proves this statement to be correct: "for the most part white folks can't jump, play receiver in the NFL and don't have much rhythm". Not to many white guys jumping in the NBA these days are there?. Besides this was taken from the movie by the same name. As for receivers in the NFL, hard to name them, can you? As for not having much rhythm, go to a concert and watch them clap out of time. Now I have also added "don't have much of a sense of humor". Well this thread proves this to be true. If fact if I get together with some "bruthas" they like to do a little bar-b-q, have a few drinks, maybe a little doobie, and laugh a lot. When I get togethers with my white friends they like to get all serious and talk politics, religion, and argue.

Mr. Def Lester Crawdad:

What is a troll? I am using humor to display truth. Look at the thread I started called "Mississippi Diddy Bump."

Now are there any questions, or can we just have some fun here?

blockader - Posted - 05/06/2012:  09:03:10

yes, racism is so freakin fun.

erikforgod - Posted - 05/06/2012:  09:06:38

Mr. Def Lester Crawdad:



What is a troll? I am using humor to display truth. Look at the thread I started called "Mississippi Diddy Bump."



Now are there any questions, or can we just have some fun here?



I seem to remember it wasnt funny for you a few pages back when you said you were leaving and werent going to post anymore...or were you just kidding? How convenient. So we should just suppose that when you were presuming to "educate the rest of us about the origins of drop-thumb as being some sort of a white mans concept" you were really just joking right? Thats what it was right? Just using humor to display truth? Because to be honest most of us really just thought you were being a smart "a#!$ with that comment. I am going to be frank with you, the fact is many of us did not think it was very funny, quite the contrary, it was quite silly, hence the reactions you are receiving. I think alot of us wouldnt call that comment necessarily humor. Joking and cutting up is fine, be careful trying to push it off as being "fact" when its really not...thats when you get called out and corrected by others for the sake of the discussion so someone doesnt come away from the thread misinformed believing a bunch of "bunk". But ooops...my bad...you were just kidding....Im sorry!

Edited by - erikforgod on 05/06/2012 09:17:28

mwc9725e - Posted - 05/06/2012:  09:08:16

quote:

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Originally posted by ceemonster

no, i also said it. i'm aware it's not eggggggzackly the same. but, some fingerstyle guitarists consider the alternating-bass thumb thing a big deal and a big mountaing to climb and a this and a that. but if you're learning the style that involves alternating-bass thumb, you just learn it, and everybody gets it sooner or later.

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 And it is a big mountain to climb. I don't know why, but I struggled for a long time back in the 1960s to get the alternating bass thing, and had no success at all. Then, around 2000 or 2001, I was wailing away on a song and thought "Holy Cow, that's alternating bass".  It just sneaked up on me when I wasn't even trying to do it. After that, it's always seemed perfectly natural. The only possible explanation I have is that in the 1960s I was trying to be a classical guitar player, and playing classical guitar is completely different from playing alternating bass blues or folk. Maybe that had something to do with it.