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Paul Roberts - Posted - 10/12/2012: 19:50:58
Here are some sound clips with the CEB-4, Gold Tone’s 4-string cello banjo. I’ve played around with different tuning ranges on these and found they’re quite nice tuned either the way GT intended, as a cello CGDA; or GDAE and octave below fiddle (Irish tenor/octave mandolin); or, (with the same gauges for cello tuning) all the way down to double octave GDAE (two octaves bellow violin!). I demoed these 3 tunings in a couple YouTube videos a while back (something like “Paul Roberts Cello Banjo 1 and 2”).
In this current cello banjo episode, I’m in cello range - CGDA and DGDA. It’s a five-minute segment in which I go through different ranges, cruising up the neck with a capo, until I get to the 7th fret, which places me in GDAE, an octave below fiddle. This is the range in which Irish musicians have tuned 4-string banjo in order to play an octave below fiddle with the same relative fingering positions, like an octave mandolin.
The clip starts out in DGDA - like cello tuning only with the 4th string raised a note giving an octave drone off the 2nd. This is an original piece I call “The Swallow.”
At 1:27 I go into O’Keiffe’s Slide in same tuning as above. Then I keep the tuning going up the neck to higher capo positions. At the 7th fret I’m in GDAE where I hang out for a couple more tunes; Cluck Old Hen and Merrily Kiss the Quaker’s Wife.
BTW, I'm picking with thumb and first finger with plastic picks.
I love both 4 and 5-string cello banjos, CEB-4 and CEB-5 and have enjoyed being a crusader for them. Hope you enjoy the sounds.
Edited by - Paul Roberts on 10/13/2012 13:57:18
Janna - Posted - 10/13/2012: 05:43:36
First part sounds like arabian music from fairy tales like 1000 and 1 night or Aladdin !
The second sounds like scottish tune...
I'm not music expert and never saw cello banjo, but I like all the parts you played! The sound is very nice for the ear, it seems it has magic... You can play soundtracks for fantasy movies like the Lord of the rings and other! For me your music is mystic and magical, Paul, it's my favorite
Emiel - Posted - 10/13/2012: 07:49:11
Very pretty. This instrument has a beautiful tone.
CGDA - Posted - 10/13/2012: 09:36:42
I agree with Janna. Your music lights up the imagination and leads to distant worlds...it's magic! I never played a cello banjo. If I had one I'd like to play this way. In addition this track is very well recorded and every nuance of your instrument caresses the ears in the best way.
Marco
Paul Roberts - Posted - 10/13/2012: 11:54:06
Wow! Tashkent, Uzbekistan; Innsbruck, Austria; Italy... and Pagosa Springs, Colorado, USA. Thank you so much for your highly supportive comments - truly means a lot to me. In my heart and in my hands cello banjos have taken center stage. These instruments hold enormously rich tonal possibilities. The 14" pot, the nylon strings, and the deep tuning bring forth an exquisite bouquet of ear candy.
The reemergence of cello banjos - which occurred just a few years ago - came as a big surprise to me since I never knew there had been such creatures. And, now that they have reemerged, I feel blessed to have the opportunity to play them. Thanks to cello banjoist/multi-instrumentalist Marcy Marxer and Gold Tone's Wayne Rogers for making it happen. I have a number of articles about cello banjos on my website - including interviews with Marcy Marxer and Wayne Rogers. I appreciate your interest, which inspire me to record and post more 4-string cello banjo music. BTW, I've had quite a number of these go through my hands and I must say the quality has been very good and consistent.
banjo crazy pauL
Edited by - Paul Roberts on 10/13/2012 11:55:02
banjopaolo - Posted - 10/13/2012: 13:54:19
very amazing sound, are you using gut or nylon strings? are you actually using CGAD tuning or it's a mistake for CGDA that is the usual cello tuning?
Paul Roberts - Posted - 10/13/2012: 14:06:59
Yes, it was a mistake; thanks. Mirek Patek also alerted me - I changed it in the first post. Cello tuning = CGDA, and the variant I'm using throughout the ascending capo demo, on O'Keiffe's, is DGDA.
Gold Tone has string sets that are .024, .034, .042, .048. - all wound nylon (like the type of wound strings on a classical guitar). I'm using a guitar unwound nylon 3rd string for the 1st string.
banjo crazy pauL
JanetB - Posted - 10/13/2012: 14:57:38
Bravo, Paul! Nobody plays the cello banjo like you. Your recording devices are superior, too.
Ho C Ying - Posted - 10/13/2012: 17:43:07
quote:
Originally posted by JanetB
Bravo, Paul! Nobody plays the cello banjo like you. Your recording devices are superior, too.
Ditto. I enjoyed your elegant playing so much, Paul. Thanks for sharing! 
Janna - Posted - 10/13/2012: 17:49:54
quote:
Originally posted by Paul Roberts
Wow! Tashkent, Uzbekistan; Innsbruck, Austria; Italy... and Pagosa Springs, Colorado, USA. Thank you so much for your highly supportive comments - truly means a lot to me.
Yes, it's great that banjo music makes people know each other from around the world :)
jimh269b - Posted - 10/13/2012: 17:56:11
that was a wonderful trip paul.i felt as though i was riding a camel,i could really feel that.it was wonderful
Paul Roberts - Posted - 10/13/2012: 18:01:08
Thank you, kind friends.
Jim, how about "The Kentucky Camel". You want to compose it?
pauL
Paul Roberts - Posted - 10/13/2012: 21:53:39
More grist for the mill. Got the beast capoed on the 7th.
Laurence Diehl - Posted - 10/13/2012: 23:06:47
Paul, I enjoyed those cuts as much as anything you have recorded. I think I am enjoying the tone of the 4 string even more than the 5. It sounds tighter somehow - that low string sounds like a grand piano -it doesn't flub out (technical term) like you might expect from a membrane sound board. And your playing - excellent as always, you have to put a lot of miles on the fretboard to play that well.
mikeyes - Posted - 10/15/2012: 10:33:45
Thanks for the tips on the CEB-4. Paul! As usual you sound great.
Mike
Paul Roberts - Posted - 10/21/2012: 21:07:03
Thanks you Laurence and Mike.
Here's Ducks on the Pond capoed on the 2nd fret: EAEB.
JanetB - Posted - 10/22/2012: 19:30:52
I never would have guessed that Ducks on the Pond was on a cello banjo till I heard the bass strings. Their sustain is like a bowed bass fiddle. Delightful listening, Paul. Is this an original piece?
Paul Roberts - Posted - 10/22/2012: 21:13:46
Janet, I learned Ducks on the Pond from Miles Krassen's fiddle book over 40 years ago. He has a clawhammer version in his banjo book. I don't think I've actually heard the tune played, but it's in that same modal vein as Cluck Old Hen, Kitchen Girl, etc.
On these Breton tunes I'm still capoed on the 2nd fret - EAEB, so it's in 5th's except I have the 4th tuned up a note, giving me an octave down from the 2nd and a low drone for the key.
Edited by - Paul Roberts on 10/22/2012 21:15:23
Janna - Posted - 10/23/2012: 14:09:19
Very nice, Paul! How can you learn so many tunes in a short time? Or it's improvisation?
JanetB - Posted - 10/23/2012: 19:38:41
quote:
Originally posted by Paul Roberts
Janet, I learned Ducks on the Pond from Miles Krassen's fiddle book over 40 years ago. He has a clawhammer version in his banjo book. I don't think I've actually heard the tune played, but it's in that same modal vein as Cluck Old Hen, Kitchen Girl, etc.
Paul, I assume you're doing 2-finger picking. This piece demonstrates how you can adapt clawhammered tunes to a four-stringed instrument. I listened to the Henry Reed fiddled version on the Slippery Hill website and like yours even better. Your sensitivity to the cello banjo and its full range of pitch has transformed the rather haunting tune to a mellow ensemble.
Edited by - JanetB on 10/23/2012 19:41:42
Paul Roberts - Posted - 11/26/2012: 10:05:29
quote:
Originally posted by JanetB
quote:
Originally posted by Paul Roberts
Janet, I learned Ducks on the Pond from Miles Krassen's fiddle book over 40 years ago. He has a clawhammer version in his banjo book. I don't think I've actually heard the tune played, but it's in that same modal vein as Cluck Old Hen, Kitchen Girl, etc.
Paul, I assume you're doing 2-finger picking. This piece demonstrates how you can adapt clawhammered tunes to a four-stringed instrument. I listened to the Henry Reed fiddled version on the Slippery Hill website and like yours even better. Your sensitivity to the cello banjo and its full range of pitch has transformed the rather haunting tune to a mellow ensemble.
Thanks Janet. I find this thing has so much sustain it really accompanies itself with an ongoing outpouring of harmonics and overtones.
PauL
