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oldwoodchuckb - Posted - 05/15/2012: 17:26:59
mcw
Tiny Tim was English, and even if he got that operation would have been dead for a couple decades before "jazz" was invented. Now watch how RG builds a further case against me with this nugget of info. The man is, himself a serious "case".
sugarinthegourd - Posted - 05/15/2012: 17:28:43
quote:
Originally posted by oldwoodchuckb
Bert Williams was a white performer who did a blackface act.
sugarinthegourd - Posted - 05/15/2012: 17:31:38
quote:
Originally posted by oldwoodchuckb
Either my information on Bert Williams is out of date or I was thinking of a different man. I had a reissue of a well known C**n Shouter of that era and he was definately white. I remember his name as Williams, but I do tend to forget names.
Edited by - sugarinthegourd on 05/15/2012 17:48:01
oldwoodchuckb - Posted - 05/15/2012: 17:42:22
quote:
Originally posted by RG
AS lot of pompous drivel folloswed by:
originally posted by oldwoodchuckb (quotes in red)
"My Italian and Irish relatives both would have thrown rotten fruit at anyone who committed this kind of vile acts upon their culture."
Guess your Irish and Italian relatives went through a lot of fruit back in the day...
xroads.virginia.edu/~ma02/east...udio.html
In fact my Italian relatives were among the first to switch a radio off when carap like "Life With Luigi" came on, and my Irish relatives wouldn't have anything to do with phony Irish tenors or English movies about how the IRA was full of Informers. Personally I never had much respect for the IRA, but I was never "in the struggle" either. I would love to watch you try to recover from the face slap you would get if you told a "Paddy story" in my Aunt Nellie's house.
On a different matter:
RG asinine quote in red:
'nuff said...outta here...
"How many times have you quit this thread? Please Count the ways. Go ahead, count 'em up boyo. You don't even seem to any respect for your own convictions.
oldwoodchuckb - Posted - 05/15/2012: 17:50:46
Back in the 1960s I used to subscribe to "Downbeat". Louis Armstrong never said anything negative about anyone, but Jack Teagarden, Kid Ory, and dozens of others freqently mentioned The ODJB - and not a thing tehy said was ever positive. Miles Davis even mentioned them once - as the first no talent white dudes to steal black jazz and debase it into blackface clowning. He had a lot to say about Paul Whiteman too - who put his "yacht club boys" on the stage in blackface for part of the "show".
But it's all "entertainment" to you isn't it? Why would you look up what black musicians have to say about having their incomes re-directed into white pockets.
captbanjo - Posted - 05/15/2012: 17:53:38
Loved Miles the musician. As a person, I thought he was a bit of a jerk.
Wayne
quote:
Originally posted by oldwoodchuckb
Back in the 1960s I used to subscribe to "Downbeat". Louis Armstrong never said anything negative about anyone, but Jack Teagarden, Kid Ory, and dozens of others freqently mentioned The ODJB - and not a thing tehy said was ever positive. Miles Davis even mentioned them once - as the first no talent white dudes to steal black jazz and debase it into blackface clowning. He had a lot to say about Paul Whiteman too - who put his "yacht club boys" on the stage in blackface for part of the "show".
But it's all "entertainment" to you isn't it? Why would you look up what black musicians have to say about having their incomes re-directed into white pockets.
sugarinthegourd - Posted - 05/15/2012: 17:58:15
You know Jack Teagarden was white, right? And he recorded "Original Dixieland One-Step"?
Edited by - sugarinthegourd on 05/15/2012 18:06:32
blindsniper - Posted - 05/15/2012: 18:31:50
quote:
Originally posted by ZEPP
Time to post this again, I guess. It was recorded about 5 years ago in answer to a very similar question here.
Cheers,
ZEPP
Nice video Zepp, and very informative. I needed that!
Marc Nerenberg - Posted - 05/15/2012: 18:39:19
quote:
Originally posted by oldwoodchuckb
mcw
Tiny Tim was English, and even if he got that operation would have been dead for a couple decades before "jazz" was invented. Now watch how RG builds a further case against me with this nugget of info. The man is, himself a serious "case".
That depends which Tiny Tim you're talking about: the character in Dicken's "A Christmas Carol", or the ulukele playing, long haired, falsetto singing, performer of the late 60s early 70s - "star" of the film "You Are What You Eat": a frequent guest on Johnny Carson's TV show - and, I think, maybe on Ed Sullivan's show too. He sounded like some of the thin voiced women singers from the early days of "talking pictures", except when he sang Great Balls of Fire, when he sounded like Jerry Lee Lewis.
Edited by - Marc Nerenberg on 05/15/2012 18:47:07
sigmond - Posted - 05/15/2012: 19:59:05
I have learned so much from this thread!!
It's killing me.
Now I am dead.
Too bad I'm not this thread.
plunknplinkntwang - Posted - 05/16/2012: 01:39:28
quote:
Originally posted by erikforgod
I think "Round-Peak" style banjo playing has more to do with the sound of a fretless banjo as being a hallmark of "Round-Peak" playing, as opposed to just a technique like drop-thumb as being "the standard." Also I would say that ASPOS in adding a more fullness to the basic clawhammer stroke would also be another hallmark as opposed to just drop-thumb...no? I say these things because popular musicians like Fred Cockerham and others who were considered "Round-Peak" players featured there playing so prominently using fretless banjos, although I dunno...Kyle Creed seemed to play mostly fretted banjos, but he was considered a "Round-Peak" banjo player as well right?
Erik I respectfully disagree with you on this one, my opinion (and that's all it is) is that drop thumb PLUS alternate string pull offs is the differentiation of what is known as "Round Peak style". This lick/roll rather than multi string brushing really fills out the tune and makes the playing style distinctive.
The name Round Peak Style is also a 'catch all' that initially made me believe that this was a traditional style of a whole geographic area. The more I read about it leads me to the conclusion that, as beautiful as it is, this is a style developed by an individual with the hope that it could lead to commercial success.
The individual was a man named Charlie Lowe who it would appear had developed a more distinct style of filling a tune that used the rolling Drop Thumb and ASPO combinations rather than brush strokes; he appears to have been a strong influence on the next generation of musicians such as Tommy Jarrell, Fred Cockerham & Kyle Creed, quite possibly they initially hoped for recording success in the early 20th Century. But musical consumers tastes & the world changed, hence the RP style isn't based on recordings from the 1920's 30's or 40's but from recordings from the late 1950's onwards.
Don't get me wrong, RP is fantastic and as a community we should all be grateful for the audio legacy that Jarrel Cockerham & Creed left to the world by willingly sharing their music. But IMHO it represents neither a hereditary style nor all of the Round Peak area, nor all styles within that area.
But it's still dang good & is reliant on using drop thumb
rgds
Chris
erikforgod - Posted - 05/16/2012: 05:56:28
Erik I respectfully disagree with you on this one, my opinion (and that's all it is) is that drop thumb PLUS alternate string pull offs is the differentiation of what is known as "Round Peak style". This lick/roll rather than multi string brushing really fills out the tune and makes the playing style distinctive.
I know I mentioned a fretless banjo as part of it...but I think I kinda said this too no? so in essence where do we disagree? What I was trying to say was that neither technique, as they stand alone, were a hallmark of "Round-Peak" playing but in my opinion a combination of the two. I felt Coonskin was trying to make a point that drop-thumb alone was strictly "Round-Peak" derivative...I disagree. Also I WOULD like to add "Played on a fretless banjo" I guess that part can be more of conjecture that anything. I am in TOTAL agreement actually with your entire comment. Please refer to the italicized sentence from my last comment:
Good point Evan ...actually I dont know why Coonskin seems to think that drop-thumb is more indicative of a "Round-Peak" style banjo playing. In my un-expert opinion I think "Round-Peak" style banjo playing has more to do with the sound of a fretless banjo as being a hallmark of "Round-Peak" playing, as opposed to just a technique like drop-thumb as being "the standard." Also I would say that ASPOS in adding a more fullness to the basic clawhammer stroke would also be another hallmark as opposed to just drop-thumb...no?
Edited by - erikforgod on 05/16/2012 06:06:37
Lew H - Posted - 05/16/2012: 07:09:00
Not everyone has to use drop-thumb to be an old-time banjo picker. I almost never use drop thumb because I'm terrible at it. But to set things straight, I refer to my style as frailing rather than clawhammer. But even that's not quite right. Like other old codgers, I learned banjo from the Pete Seeger materials--specifically the LP--which stressed up picking. Friends and acquaintances suggested I start frailing, but I never had clear instruction on the right hand technique. I modified my three finger pattern used in up picking, but picking down with my index finger (sometimes braced with my thumb to get a slightly louder note and better tone), strumming down with the middle, then thumb on the fifth. So it's the basic bum-ditty with a three-finger picking pattern. My niece video taped me playing of a few tunes and showed this to an Australian clawhammer banjoist. She reported that he commented that my playing "looks funny but sounds right."
If I were starting over, I would learn drop-thumb, but after 50 years of playing this way, I have little motivation to change. I can get the tunes of most songs using hammer on, pull of, slides, string bending with my left hand. I'm unable to play most hornpipes, reels, and the like because they consist of a stead stream of quarter notes without ever letting up. I do play tunes such as Cherokee Shuffle that are notey, but to do so, I mostly pick individual notes with my right hand, hammer on or pull off, or do a triplet with my left, and the bum-ditty comes in only as occasional filler. When I met Mark Johnson at a banjo camp, he asked me to play a tune with him. We did Cherokee shuffle, and he opined that I was flat picking the banjo rather than clawhammer--because, I think, my right thumb was mostly idle. But my ornamentation was good, he said!
There are several ways of getting a sort-of clawhammer sound. In addition to up-picking, there is the scratch. This basic strum is made up of two up-picks (a note and a strum) with the index finger, and thumb on the fifth. I think I learned this from Hedy West in the sixties.
steen - Posted - 05/16/2012: 08:00:06
Lack of drive ? I have played clawhammer to fiddle tunes for many years and can´t remember that extended use of the thumb have ever caused any lack of drive.
However :
A couple of years ago I started to use the banjo for many other things than fiddle tunes f. example Danish songs and Nordic tunes, and many of these go just fine with frailing.
But :
I have noticed that some of them seem to suffer from double thumbing, and yes I think lack of drive will be the right expression. I cant explain what goes on, because some of these tunes are in 2/4 just like fiddle tunes. They simply seem to be rythmically much better off with just "bum-ditty" than with "bum-a-ditty". A single hammer now and then may be all right but certainly not too much.
It´s a little strange, but it´s my clear experience. Am I alone ? Steen
captbanjo - Posted - 05/16/2012: 08:00:51
And it is posts like this that show the fallacy of thinking by anyone here that nothing can be learned from this thread.
By the way, it's pretty well documented that bluegrass music was born because Bill Monroe wanted to make music on the road that would earn money. Imagine that idea!
Wayne
quote:
Originally posted by plunknplinkntwang
quote:
Originally posted by erikforgod
I think "Round-Peak" style banjo playing has more to do with the sound of a fretless banjo as being a hallmark of "Round-Peak" playing, as opposed to just a technique like drop-thumb as being "the standard." Also I would say that ASPOS in adding a more fullness to the basic clawhammer stroke would also be another hallmark as opposed to just drop-thumb...no? I say these things because popular musicians like Fred Cockerham and others who were considered "Round-Peak" players featured there playing so prominently using fretless banjos, although I dunno...Kyle Creed seemed to play mostly fretted banjos, but he was considered a "Round-Peak" banjo player as well right?
Erik I respectfully disagree with you on this one, my opinion (and that's all it is) is that drop thumb PLUS alternate string pull offs is the differentiation of what is known as "Round Peak style". This lick/roll rather than multi string brushing really fills out the tune and makes the playing style distinctive.
The name Round Peak Style is also a 'catch all' that initially made me believe that this was a traditional style of a whole geographic area. The more I read about it leads me to the conclusion that, as beautiful as it is, this is a style developed by an individual with the hope that it could lead to commercial success.
The individual was a man named Charlie Lowe who it would appear had developed a more distinct style of filling a tune that used the rolling Drop Thumb and ASPO combinations rather than brush strokes; he appears to have been a strong influence on the next generation of musicians such as Tommy Jarrell, Fred Cockerham & Kyle Creed, quite possibly they initially hoped for recording success in the early 20th Century. But musical consumers tastes & the world changed, hence the RP style isn't based on recordings from the 1920's 30's or 40's but from recordings from the late 1950's onwards.
Don't get me wrong, RP is fantastic and as a community we should all be grateful for the audio legacy that Jarrel Cockerham & Creed left to the world by willingly sharing their music. But IMHO it represents neither a hereditary style nor all of the Round Peak area, nor all styles within that area.
But it's still dang good & is reliant on using drop thumb
rgds
Chris
countryman99 - Posted - 05/16/2012: 08:06:18
quote:
Originally posted by countryman99
Like the lady asked simply enough......Is it true, that some players dont Drop -Thumb?
Answer.....YES.!
Mac
On the other hand...........????
Mac
captbanjo - Posted - 05/16/2012: 08:08:13
The 'other hand' would be the fretting hand. I never drop thumb on that one unless I hit the fifth string peg!
Wayne
quote:
Originally posted by countryman99
quote:
Originally posted by countryman99
Like the lady asked simply enough......Is it true, that some players dont Drop -Thumb?
Answer.....YES.!
Mac
On the other hand...........????
Mac
Wishuey - Posted - 05/16/2012: 11:27:52
Well, at last I`ve arrived at a point at which I don`t have to feel inferior to all those old time banjo players who, unlike me, have mastered the art of dropping the thumb, something I`ve never been able to do.
When I first heard a 5-string banjo it was courtesy of Don Reno playing "Dixie Breakdown" back about 1952. I was utterly gobsmacked and at the tender age of fourteen, knowing absolutely no one who played "hillbilly music" ("Bluegrass" was not yet in common usage) scrounged up a banjo and started buying 78s and 45s, slowing them down to try and sort it out; learned all wrong but have stuck with my ass-backwards roll.
When I ran into the late Mike Seeger and his crew, who lived nearby, I started attempting to play the old-time way but just couldn`t get the drop thumb business; felt even more inferior on hobnobbing with such virtuosos as Bill Schmidt.
Now, at last, I find I`m hardly unique and will henceforth quit giving myself hand cramps trying to keep up with all those "how to" videos on YouTube.
Free at last! Thanks Banjo Hangout!
bcob - Posted - 05/16/2012: 13:54:13
I'm probably in the minority, but drop thumbing comes naturally to me while the basic clawhammer stroke is what I have the most trouble with. I think I have it backwards...
voodoo_science - Posted - 05/16/2012: 14:01:29
Wow... this thread has got to be a record breaker in terms of replies... Great!
oldwoodchuckb - Posted - 05/16/2012: 22:26:52
Sugar in the gourd
Thank You So Much!
Emmett Miller was the man I had referred to, originally. In fact now I doubt I ever heard of the Williams guy until late in this thread, where RG managed to associate Miller with Williams and use this and other non facts to... well to be honest, I never really did understand what he was out to prove, but he definately proved to be yet another person worth ignoring.. Such is life on the innertubes. I still have not heard Williams but I wouldn't expect much more than what I had on that Emmett Miller album. C**n Shouters were never my cup of tea no matter what their actual race. I found blackface "entertainment" pretty insulting to both races - even before the civil rights era.
You came to the thread relatively late so I'm not sure what all you've read but I brought up Miller - without a name as I had long forgotten it, then RG assumed I meant Williams and attacked me for not realizing he was black. Since I had long forgotten the name, I assumed RG knew what he was talking about for once - he didn't, and the confusion blossomed.
I am actually fully aware that Teagarden was white - but he was a white musician whose playing and opinions were fully respected by the black musicians of his era. My great uncle Carmine worshipped Teagarden. Uncle Carmine Mastroianni, played in the Glenn Miller Band for several years under his "Americanized" name - Carmen Masters. I never said there are no white jazz musicians, and my colour blind jazz record collection is proof of that.
As to Tiger Rag. If it really is jazz - it is bad jazz. There is no subtle interplay between melody and descant - in fact there is no descant. It is as if a precocious 10 year old heard a New Orleans Marti Gras parade from a distance and that night he wrote it down from memory. If there is anything to take away from hearing it, it's really just another stale tuba joke. If you want to call it jazz, go ahead. Tha'sokay with me. I don't think it has anything in common with real jazz - but as has been pointed out, we are actually well into musical opinion on that subject, and there is in fact no possible agreement on matters of taste.
riverstein - Posted - 05/16/2012: 23:57:16
A brief footnote on jazz and non-jazz, with apologies to the OP, who only asked a simple question about drop-thumb (!). Jazz has always been as much about what the player brings to the material as what the music is made of, compositionally. And from Day One of its history, jazz musicians have also made art out of what Woodchuck here has called “fluff” and what others might call simply pop tunes. The Original Dixieland Jazz Band were indeed no virtuosi but they brought a number of catchy little pieces into the repertoire which greater musicians subsequently transformed. The world of jazz standards includes a very high proportion of tunes which did not have their origin in jazz but instead in ragtime, spirituals, folk tunes, show tunes, tin pan alley songs, film music. Think of Coltrane covering pieces from The Sound of Music and Mary Poppins as late as the 1960s and wringing levels of emotional expression from the tunes that would have astounded their composers. That trend hasn’t stopped. Miles Davis, Mal Waldron and Lester Bowie, for instance, all covered Michael Jackson tunes with various degrees of irony and reverence. This summer Italian trumpeter Enrico Rava is touring the festivals with a programme built entirely of
oldwoodchuckb - Posted - 05/17/2012: 12:54:24
Coltrane's My Favourite Things is one of my favourite uses of a non-jazz piece in a jazz context. I love the creativity involved. But "My Favourite Things" was a good piece of music to begin with, and Coltrane was a genius. Besides, he left out the ghastly diabetic lyrics so the tune was completely acceptable. Was it jazz? It was when Coltrane finished with it.
Tiger Rag was a tuba joke. Jazz? - Give me a break. It was a novelty tune and not one of the best novelty tunes of it's era. Most of us who really appreciate the 2/4 jazz of the time would sooner eat gum off a NYC sidewalk than listen to Tiger Rag.
On his long road downhill after he and Desmond parted ways Dave Brubeck recorded a bunch of bad albums with the same title "Jazz Impressions of.........." There were Jazz Impressions of France, Japan, Disneyland, and here, there, and everywhere. The albums were among the best insomnia curatives I can recall and completely lacked any real jazz. Indeed, Dave was a fine jazz pianist once, but these records were downright pathetic. I was able to mostly avoid this stuff (and the even worse records he later made with his sons) but some jazz DJs would discover the dust covered dust jackets buried on radio station shelves in the 80s and play a few cuts off of them, thereby turning off younger members of the audience to ever listening to Brubeck's real career.
Edited by - oldwoodchuckb on 05/17/2012 13:02:35
oldwoodchuckb - Posted - 05/17/2012: 13:12:56
On the "Round Peak" thing. I've always felt that the "RP Style" was simply a term that came into use (probably through Ray Alden) about the time the people who would be considered "Round Peak" players started dying off at a high rate. It was more a record bin catagory than an actual regional style.
Personally I think that if one were going to come up with a definition of RP style, it would be far more important to talk about the interplay between the banjo and the fiddle found in both Galax and Round Peak than to gin up a lot of iffy correlation to actual banjo techniques.
majikgator - Posted - 05/17/2012: 14:31:47
Yes this thread seems to go on and on and to a variety of places.
"
By the way, it's pretty well documented that bluegrass music was born because Bill Monroe wanted to make music on the road that would earn money. Imagine that idea!""
" Hey! there's tens of dollars to be made in old time music.
Wishuey - Posted - 05/17/2012: 14:42:58
Ah yes, to paraphrase something I once heard about another interest of mine, vintage cars, "One can make a small fortune playing old time music, provided one starts with a large fortune."
sugarinthegourd - Posted - 05/17/2012: 17:59:18
Just for the record (no pun intended) I have everything (I think) Bert Williams recorded, and like him an awful lot, though perhaps not quite as much as Emmett Miller (but very close).
RG - Posted - 05/17/2012: 19:06:27
originally posted by sugarinthegourd (quotes in red)
Just for the record (no pun intended) I have everything (I think) Bert Williams recorded, and like him an awful lot, though perhaps not quite as much as Emmett Miller (but very close).
John, I am sure you are aware of this, but for others who may not be...at the height of his career (when he was with the only person of color to perform with The Ziegfield Follies), Bert Williams was the highest paid entertainer in theater, earning a salary equal to the president of the United States for close to 10 years. His character was an African-American counterpart to Chaplin's "Little Tramp" character, and he paved the way for many African-American performers. He was a learned man of great dignity who wrote:
"It was not until I could see myself as another person that my sense of humor developed. For I do not believe there is any such thing as innate humor. It has to be developed by hard work and...I have studied it all my life."
From the PBS website pbs.org/wnet/broadway/stars/wi...ms_b.html
"Racial prejudice shaped Williams' career. Unlike many other blackface performers, Williams did not play for laughs at the expense of other African Americans or black culture. Instead, he based his humor on universal situations in which any members of his audience might find themselves."
Lastly, Booker T. Washington once commented, "Bert Williams has done more for the race than I have. He has smiled his way into people's hearts. I have been obliged to fight my way."
Quite a story indeed...
Marc Nerenberg - Posted - 05/17/2012: 20:31:54
Thanks for this RG - I never heard of Bert Williams before - i read the stuff on the website you linked, and then went and listened to a whole lot of samples on ITunes. The guy is great - truly great! I particularly like "Unlucky Blues" which has to be one of the earliest male blues performances ever recorded.
Edited by - Marc Nerenberg on 05/17/2012 20:34:17
RG - Posted - 05/17/2012: 23:05:21
Marc - indeed, glad you enjoyed his work...I first heard about Bert Williams from my dad who was friends with folks like Nat King Cole, Johnny Mercer, Stan Kenton & "Kid" Ory in the early 50's (my dad was a 50 year music industry veteran after serving in WWII), so sad that Bert Williams met such a tragic demise, but what a consummate and professional performer to the end, quite a legacy he blazed for those to follow...and unfortunately his story and body of work is unknown to most, or dismissed by those who haven't heard him...knowing you, I'm hoping we'll get your version of "Unlucky Blues" soon on youtube...I'd love to hear your take on that tune...I'm thinking you'll use that 6 string...with lot's of drop thumb!
Edited by - RG on 05/17/2012 23:11:35
captbanjo - Posted - 05/18/2012: 07:46:41
All together now: The difference between a large pizza and a professional banjo player is?
Wayne
quote:
Originally posted by Wishuey
Ah yes, to paraphrase something I once heard about another interest of mine, vintage cars, "One can make a small fortune playing old time music, provided one starts with a large fortune."
Marc Nerenberg - Posted - 05/19/2012: 09:21:40
quote:
Originally posted by RG
Marc - indeed, glad you enjoyed his work...I first heard about Bert Williams from my dad who was friends with folks like Nat King Cole, Johnny Mercer, Stan Kenton & "Kid" Ory in the early 50's (my dad was a 50 year music industry veteran after serving in WWII), so sad that Bert Williams met such a tragic demise, but what a consummate and professional performer to the end, quite a legacy he blazed for those to follow...and unfortunately his story and body of work is unknown to most, or dismissed by those who haven't heard him...knowing you, I'm hoping we'll get your version of "Unlucky Blues" soon on youtube...I'd love to hear your take on that tune...I'm thinking you'll use that 6 string...with lot's of drop thumb!
Now you've done it, RG ... You threw down a challenge like that, and it made me go to ITunes to buy that song (Unlucky Blues), and somehow I ended up buying about 200 songs from that era. (Oh, the seductiveness of one-click buying!)
One of these days I will indeed work up a version of Unlucky Blues and post it (but it probably won't be that soon - sorry - I'm deep in preparation for a very long and complicated war crimes trial that starts in a week, and probably won't be recording much of anything for awhile - I don't think this was the kind of case Bascom Lamar Lunsford used to do!).
RG - Posted - 05/20/2012: 12:57:18
Sorry about that Marc, but they make it so easy to buy don't they (I like to blame it on "them", it couldn't be me right)? It is a cool song however...as I am sure the other 200 are as well!
I got a chuckle out of your BLL statement...I agree, not the kind of case he would probably be involved in for a number of reasons & given all of his other activities, musical or otherwise, I wonder if he ever practiced law at all...doubtful! My father has an attorney friend in New Orleans who inherited a case stemming back to the great flood of 1927...it has been his only case for the last 30 years and is still ongoing...now that's litigation! Of course, it is Louisiana...
I'll wait patiently for your "Unlucky Blues" take, it'll be worth the wait...take care & good luck...
pastorharry - Posted - 05/21/2012: 01:53:31
"All together now: The difference between a large pizza and a professional banjo player is?
Wayne"
well, one gives one gas, while the other gives one BAS.....is that it?
captbanjo - Posted - 05/21/2012: 05:05:53
A large pizza can feed a family of four!
Wayne
quote:
Originally posted by pastorharry
"All together now: The difference between a large pizza and a professional banjo player is?
Wayne"
well, one gives one gas, while the other gives one BAS.....is that it?
captbanjo - Posted - 05/21/2012: 05:07:17
And yes, if your banjo's too heavy, you can get gas.
Wayne
quote:
Originally posted by captbanjo
A large pizza can feed a family of four!
Wayne
quote:
Originally posted by pastorharry
"All together now: The difference between a large pizza and a professional banjo player is?
Wayne"
well, one gives one gas, while the other gives one BAS.....is that it?
captbanjo - Posted - 05/21/2012: 05:09:00
At this point, I believe a moment of silence in reverent awe should be considered as we hit page number fifteen on this subject.
Wayne
countryman99 - Posted - 05/21/2012: 08:58:21
Fellow BANJOLIERS!!!.......... Shall we say Grace, on that which we have gratefully received.......Amen?
Highest regards.
Mac![]()
Wishuey - Posted - 05/21/2012: 09:18:40
Being a Banjo Hangout/computer challenged old geezer, this is probably a stupid question but what on earth do just about all of the recent postings have to do with whether or not one should "drop thumb"? Have we not got off message a bit?
Actually, I`m satisfied that we`ve gone just about as far as it`s possible to go on the drop thumb issue.
captbanjo - Posted - 05/21/2012: 09:48:05
My God! This is about drop thumb?
I thought we were discussing interplanetary time travel!
Wayne
janolov - Posted - 05/21/2012: 11:05:35
quote:
Originally posted by captbanjo
My God! This is about drop thumb?
I thought we were discussing interplanetary time travel!
Wayne
Some banjoists seems to think interplanetary time travel is easier than drop thumb.
erikforgod - Posted - 05/21/2012: 11:32:58
Yes...I think this dead horse has been thoroughly beaten!!
janolov - Posted - 05/21/2012: 12:13:19
quote:
Originally posted by janolov
quote:
Originally posted by captbanjo
My God! This is about drop thumb?
I thought we were discussing interplanetary time travel!
Wayne
Some banjoists seems to think interplanetary time travel is easier than drop thumb.
Edit: They don't have studied Rocket Science Banjo Theory
5steve - Posted - 05/21/2012: 12:17:56
Just to help the thread along yes banjo players drop thumb. Some do not . I hope this helps propel the thread forward to many more pages.
minstrelmike - Posted - 05/21/2012: 12:53:08
quote:
Originally posted by pastorharry
Drop thumbs, not bombs.
Is it true that some people don't drop bombs at all? ;-)
captbanjo - Posted - 05/21/2012: 13:03:30
Can you tell me how many do and how many don't and why they do or don't?
Wayne
quote:
Originally posted by 5steve
Just to help the thread along yes banjo players drop thumb. Some do not . I hope this helps propel the thread forward to many more pages.
minstrelmike - Posted - 05/21/2012: 13:26:29
We don't even have a handle on how many folks clawhammer the banjo.
OF those who do, drop off all who have played for less than 5 years and don't drop thumb because they may decide to do so soon.
After 5 years of playing, you might still advance but you probably have discarded the technique for whatever reason
So of all the folks who have been clawing hammered (hee hee) for more than 5 years, what percentage of them do drop thumb?
I dunno but I'd suspect it is more than half because I've only heard of one pro and one well-known amateur who actually discourage the technique. Most everybody else views it as something optional you can do for the song and not some sort of thing you do or not do for philosophic/traditional reasons. It's merely a musical technique that actually works for most folks.
And here's the analyst's question back at you.
What does the raw number or percentage matter?
If it's just curiosity, fine. But if you're going to base your actions on it, I'd like to know why. Just because I'm curious.
imo, people who take up banjo are -not- trend followers (otherwise they'd take up piano or guitar) hence I'm always curious about the banjoists who do want to 'obey' trends.
Even the justification that "I'd like to know what most banjoists are doing and do that" doesn't hold water for me because if you're into what most folks are doing, why'd you pick up banjo? It's a general question and not targeted only at the people who asked.
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