benhockenberry - Posted - 03/03/2016:  07:03:09

The reel Mason's Apron is played in limitless variations across Ireland, Scotland, Canada, and the US (14 settings so far on thesession.org).  Barney McKenna and John Sheehan popularized the tune as a fiddle and banjo showstopper with their multipart arrangement with the Dubliners; Kieran Hanrahan, Boys of the Lough, Sean McGuire, and Matt Molloy have also recorded it.  At sessions in my area, I usually only hear the first two parts -- the higher parts get tricky for some instruments, while the first two are "friendlier."  I'll post my own version shortly.

I like this version from Youtuber Tantoonie0, too:

James Rankine - Posted - 03/03/2016:  11:25:24

How about these kids- don't know who they are but a great example of going off script but staying true to the tradition. Mason's second tune in the set - playing all over the neck, up an octave brilliant stuff and good backing as well youtube.com/watch?v=TrDqlzfJO8E

BanjoMacPickin - Posted - 03/03/2016:  11:33:40

quote:

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Originally posted by James Rankine

 

How about these kids- don't know who they are but a great example of going off script but staying true to the tradition. Mason's second tune in the set - playing all over the neck, up an octave brilliant stuff and good backing as well youtube.com/watch?v=TrDqlzfJO8E

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Thats Fionntan McDonald and Eoin Kearns, The Bar/Pub is Fa Joes here in lurgan.

Can find more of them here.

youtube.com/results?search_que...in+kearns

Edited by - BanjoMacPickin on 03/03/2016 11:36:28

James Rankine - Posted - 03/03/2016:  11:45:15

quote:

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Originally posted by BanjoMacPickin

 

quote:

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Originally posted by James Rankine

 

How about these kids- don't know who they are but a great example of going off script but staying true to the tradition. Mason's second tune in the set - playing all over the neck, up an octave brilliant stuff and good backing as well youtube.com/watch?v=TrDqlzfJO8E

​

Thats Fionntan McDonald and Eoin Kearns, The Bar/Pub is Fa Joes here in lurgan.

 

Can find more of them here.

youtube.com/results?search_que...in+kearns

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Thanks Mark. What a talent this young man is. Kids eh- they make you sick!

Feo - Posted - 03/13/2016:  19:28:31

This guy's using some non-typical techniques on his tenor arrangement of Mason's Apron ...he's got a capo on the 1st fret , like Gerry O'Conner ?

youtube.com/watch?v=79uzpnY0reU

Edited by - Feo on 03/13/2016 19:30:42

Tom Hanway - Posted - 03/13/2016:  22:18:08

Cool, I posted this BHO link a while back, and I'm about to travel, packing at the moment ... but I will post a recording of this.

Here it is in standard (G) with picking direction for tenor, based on Micho Russell's version (originally in F):



Mason's Apron

It's sublime, really lovely, hope you dig.

Best ~ Tom 

benhockenberry - Posted - 03/14/2016:  05:24:29

Awesome, thanks for posting that version, Tom!  Here's a version in A with just a few variations, staying in first position: youtu.be/NOzJKQP3Oc4

Tom Hanway - Posted - 03/15/2016:  05:39:26

quote:

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Originally posted by benhockenberry

 

Awesome, thanks for posting that version, Tom!  Here's a version in A with just a few variations, staying in first position: youtu.be/NOzJKQP3Oc4

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Hey, Ben, the tune that you're playing in the video is actually 'The Tarbolton' (not 'Mason's Apron', and it's originally Scottish, 'Tarbolton Lodge', part of a famous medley pioneered by the legendary Michael Coleman (one of the masters of Sligo-style fiddle).

Here's the classic Coleman medley with 'The Tarbolton', also the 'Longford Collector' (where I now live), and 'Sailor's Bonnet', probably a precursor to the OT tune, 'Billy in the Lowground':

THE TARBOLTON / LONGFORD COLLECTOR / SAILOR'S BONNET

I have to get to the airport, don't have time to set up and record, so here is my old version of 'Mason's Apron', from Complete Book of Irish & Celtic 5-String Banjo, (1998). I kept it mercifully short, just three parts, though for St. Patrick's Day this year, I have at least seven parts worked up with a jazz quartet (Arcadia), but that's before the clarinet player gets ahold of it, goes to Pluto, and turns left.  

Okay, here's my old guide track from the Complete book, a relatively restrained version with a bit of Barney McKenna in it, one variation in particular that crawls up the neck (A-part), and of course, the shoot-'em-up trebles and triplets.  I also use some Irish fiddle ornamentation ("long rolls" or "turns"), using hammer-pull-off combinations that insinuate themselves in a few spots. In the book these are written out as evenly spaced quintuplets. (I would write them out differently today, still keeping all five notes.)

THE MASON'S APRON

Happy Paddy's Day to all, and may your sweet pint of Guinness never run dry....

Take it handy! ~ Tom 

Edited by - Tom Hanway on 03/15/2016 05:47:19

mylesm - Posted - 03/15/2016:  06:54:50

I like this one but its a real show off tune and whenever its started at a session it usually becomes a solo as what happened here see how the other Banjo Dropped out only because he wasnt sure what version was going to be played after the first 2 parts as Chris is well able to play 

 

youtu.be/5bQV_oGNXg0?list=LLwY...jqQ6_pZtA

Feo - Posted - 03/16/2016:  08:11:10

Pulled out the banjo and guitar to wing out a version of Masons Apron .... no fancy arrangement or showing off ... this is my first recording since I got an audio interface for my computer ...lets me use the old stage mics ...now I should have less static and background noises in my recordings

captbanjo - Posted - 03/16/2016:  11:46:45

The fact that there is no standard way to play this makes me reluctant to invest the time to learn it. 

Wayne

DSmoke - Posted - 03/16/2016:  12:27:54

quote:

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Originally posted by captbanjo

 

The fact that there is no standard way to play this makes me reluctant to invest the time to learn it. 

 

Wayne

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Yeah, I was thinking the same thing, not at this point in my playing.  Great solo tune though.

KLR - Posted - 03/18/2016:  19:28:03

Banjo Redican's Apron - YouTube This is a variant I learned from a recording of a great fiddler/banjo player, Larry Redican; there are many Redican reels people play, and also a slip jig, Redican's Mother.  I got the tape from a piping friend of Larry's who thought he was the best ever - this fellow played with Coleman, Morrison, and Killoran too, so that's some praise.  On the tape Larry was cut short before he got through all the 3rd part too so this is my guess at what he played.  You can hear the source recording at comhaltasarchive.org if you're really curious.  Lots of recordings there of him playing the fiddle and banjo - and the banjo-mandolin - too; and his grandson has put some cuts up on YouTube as well.

"Redican's Apron" is also my own idea for a suitable title.

benhockenberry - Posted - 03/19/2016:  03:55:42

quote:

---

Originally posted by Tom Hanway

Hey, Ben, the tune that you're playing in the video is actually 'The Tarbolton' (not 'Mason's Apron', and it's originally Scottish, 'Tarbolton Lodge', part of a famous medley pioneered by the legendary Michael Coleman (one of the masters of Sligo-style fiddle).

Oh my, that's hilarious (and embarassing) -- I recorded Mason's Apron, then proceeded to grab another recently-recorded video from my folder when loading it into Youtube. So now I have two copies of Tarbolten on my account...every video just looks like a picture of the same bloke playing a banjo. Name your files, kids.

Here's the actual file: https://youtu.be/_lJtKYMhcwA

Edited by - benhockenberry on 03/19/2016 04:03:35

benhockenberry - Posted - 03/19/2016:  03:59:44

quote:

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Originally posted by KLR

 

Banjo Redican's Apron - YouTube This is a variant I learned from a recording of a great fiddler/banjo player, Larry Redican; there are many Redican reels people play, and also a slip jig, Redican's Mother.  I got the tape from a piping friend of Larry's who thought he was the best ever - this fellow played with Coleman, Morrison, and Killoran too, so that's some praise.  On the tape Larry was cut short before he got through all the 3rd part too so this is my guess at what he played.  You can hear the source recording at comhaltasarchive.org if you're really curious.  Lots of recordings there of him playing the fiddle and banjo - and the banjo-mandolin - too; and his grandson has put some cuts up on YouTube as well.

"Redican's Apron" is also my own idea for a suitable title.

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Nice!  I haven't heard this version before; not "show-offy" at all, just melodic.  Thanks for sharing this!

crisscross - Posted - 03/24/2016:  12:50:39

Hey Feo, I really enjoyed your version! Sounds rather like American Old-Time than Irish-Traditional, but maybe that's why I like it so much...

Feo - Posted - 03/24/2016:  21:08:44

quote:

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Originally posted by crisscross

 

Hey Feo, I really enjoyed your version! Sounds rather like American Old-Time than Irish-Traditional, but maybe that's why I like it so much...

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Hey , thanks ....      After listening to it , I may have been going kinda slow , I was too busy trying to find the notes on the neck .... maybe I'll try perking it up a little ..

crisscross - Posted - 03/25/2016:  12:23:09

I found the tabs for Mason's Apron in a mandolin book by Steve Kauffman, it was listed as a hornpipe though.

That's why I kept the tempo quite relaxed, allowing even a "Slowwrist" like me to enter the realm of the dreaded triplet.

I picked it on my CGDA tuned tenor banjo, so I had to transpose the guitar chords from A to D.

soundcloud.com/tele1310/masons-apron

Edited by - crisscross on 03/25/2016 12:24:37

robobanjo - Posted - 08/14/2017:  19:22:21

Okay, while 1 year late, I hope you enjoy my version [click here] of this classic reel ... 

Edited by - robobanjo on 08/14/2017 19:22:42

robobanjo - Posted - 08/14/2017:  19:38:58

Oops - wrong TOTM tune ... this is what happens when you're up too late!  Time for bed.  LOL!

Bribak - Posted - 08/15/2017:  04:56:58

youtu.be/91HrZhM9kYM

 Pretty amazing version here. Starts at about 4:21. 

brewerpaul - Posted - 08/15/2017:  05:13:34

quote:

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Originally posted by captbanjo

 

The fact that there is no standard way to play this makes me reluctant to invest the time to learn it. 

 

Wayne

---

Do you go to any regular sessions?  Ask people there to play it, and learn that version. Someone will know it.

It's an awful lot of fun to play and I think it's worth your time to learn it for that reason alone.

brewerpaul - Posted - 08/15/2017:  05:17:12

quote:

---

Originally posted by Feo

 

This guy's using some non-typical techniques on his tenor arrangement of Mason's Apron ...he's got a capo on the 1st fret , like Gerry O'Conner ?

youtube.com/watch?v=79uzpnY0reU

---

I was gratified to see that he's playing a 19 fret version of my modest CC-IT 17 fret. Just goes to show that even relatively inexpensive instruments can make first hand music in the right hands.

morph2o - Posted - 08/21/2017:  10:09:25

i love this tune after hearing Kieran Hanrahan and The Banjo Heads, great version youtube.com/watch?v=2kCl1VjyaYQ

Edited by - morph2o on 08/21/2017 10:10:11

mylesm - Posted - 08/22/2017:  02:22:28

What about this Lad only 12 years old

Masons starts at 02:00 in

youtu.be/ZsTH0qVqSpE

davidcava - Posted - 08/23/2017:  15:56:02

I have a question for those musicians of this music in Ireland. I was listening to the version from the young Fionntan and Eoin, and I know they are expanding/embellishing from other genres. Is this sort of thing welcomed, or frowned upon by the traditionalists in Ireland? I'm coming from a Bluegrass backround here in America, and I'm really curious as to your views on the trad scene music in Ireland.

Thank You for any response,

David

Mike Floorstand - Posted - 08/24/2017:  13:25:12

I think this amount of expansion/embellishment is accepted on Mason's Apron which is something of a solo party piece. You wouldn't do it on every tune in a session.

Tom Hanway - Posted - 12/06/2017:  12:44:49

quote:

---

Originally posted by davidcava

I have a question for those musicians of this music in Ireland. I was listening to the version from the young Fionntan and Eoin, and I know they are expanding/embellishing from other genres. Is this sort of thing welcomed, or frowned upon by the traditionalists in Ireland? I'm coming from a Bluegrass background here in America, and I'm really curious as to your views on the trad scene music in Ireland.

Thank You for any response,

David

---

David, that's a great question! Here's my old three-part version—I have others—which I'm putting up again because I want you to notice the jazz chords used by backing guitarist Gabriel Donohue from Athenry, Co. Galway.  I've noticed a trend lately among the youngest guitar players to go wild with chord substitutions, and sometimes (if they manage to stay in the right key) ... it works great!

So, old friend, times have changed, and they are still changing. ITM purists in America I don't waste my time with: talk is cheap. Now, traditionalists in Ireland, e.g. the Comhaltas crowd, get a bad rap for being purists; however, I think the younger players who play Irish music, and whom Comhaltas promotes on its website and in lots of other ways, are forever pushing out the boundaries to include non-Irish instruments, non-Irish tunes, other Celtic tunes, accompaniment ideas, and the like. (The fiddle came into Irish music via Scotland, so this process has been going on for centuries.)



I wrote this back in 2001, "Regrettably, the term 'Celtic music' has become a chimera for players who work within the core of Celtic tradition. The playing of tunes is very situational and contextual—yet timeless and ever changing. The dynamic interplay of continuity and change, repetition and variation, lies at the heart of all Celtic artistic traditions, as in all living tradition." tomhanway.com/celtmusc.htm

Irish legendary composer Seán Ó Riada  (1 August 1931 – 3 October 1971) "felt that the old céilí band style had been corrupted by organizers who 'took the easy and wrong way out, tending more and more to imitate swing or jazz bands' by using instruments such as the piano, drum set, and bass. 'The result,' he added, 'is a rhythmic but meaningless noise with as much relation to music as the buzzing of a bluebottle [monster fly] in an upturned jamjar.'"  Quoted in James R. Cowdery, The Melodic Tradition in Ireland, (Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 1990), p. 24.

I'll stop quoting Irish musicologists for now. (We really need to jam again, it's been donkey's years. I can teach you 'Mason's Apron' in no time!)

At the moment I'm putting in chords (suggestions) to a humongous nine-part setting of 'Mason's Apron' for 5-string. I also have a two-part Clare version in G (based on Micho Russell's laid-back whistle version in F), which I posted earlier on this thread, and the three-part version (above), from the companion recording to Complete Book of Irish & Celtic 5-String Banjo.  

Now, I regularly play four- and five-part versions at sessions, depending on who's around and wants to take a whack at it. One can always jazz this tune up to annoy purists or please the old heads who have more eclectic tastes (and party favors). So, I'm not too precious, not a purist, and I'm happy to rattle out different versions of this tune, though I tend not to mix them up. This tune can even be slowed down, with ornaments added, then played as a hornpipe for a formal or sean-nós step dancer. It's been done at many a pub session, even if by accident.

For the bedevilment, I'll come back later with that nine-part transcription for 5-string.

Tenor players have their own standard versions—Barney McKenna famously played five parts—so that's a good option for anybody. 

One can work up a bare-bones-two-part version, leaving out triplets, and stick to that. What harm?

My old version is loosely based on Barney McKenna's version, but leaving out some parts to keep it mercifully short, hehe.

THE MASON'S APRON (Gabriel Donohue backing on jazzy guitar)

Enjoy!

Tom

Edited by - Tom Hanway on 12/06/2017 12:47:39

davidcava - Posted - 12/06/2017:  14:47:42

Fantastic Tom, I loved it! I really would like to get over to Ireland again, just to soak up what the young are up to......that means you too! Thanks for the input, and it has been way too long indeed my friend. I'm afraid I'm very stagnant with the 5. I do enjoy the occasional Bluegrass gig from time to time, and I'm enjoying trying my luck on Jazz tenor guitar, but that's about it for me for the time being. I have other non musical interests at the moment, but it's all good right?

Thanks for the message Tom, and I hope to see you soon sometime down the road my dear friend.
David

Tom Hanway - Posted - 12/07/2017:  16:55:29

David, you got it! I'll listen for your stuff. I look forward to picking with you, and we will. Okay, I was listening to Seán McGuire's legendary fiddle version (one of them with 10 parts, then an extra two-parts the last time through).



Anyway, I noticed some similarities to Barney McKenna's tenor version, which can be reduced to five parts, but has more like seven, or seven-and a-half parts, lol. I reckon Barney was constantly tinkering with it and playing in the moment. I like it in G on the 5-string, with the most resonance out of the banjo. It can always be moved up to A with a capo. But for the nine-part version, G is perfect because it actually goes past the 12th fret in the eighth and ninth parts. 



I'll add it to the Tab Library once I've gotten it under my fingers and found any glitches that need ironing out. I pretty much have it though; now to memorize it. I'm actually working on it backwards, learning the last three parts first, just to make sure that I do them justice and have the ending nailed. I'm compartmentalizing all these versions so that I don't have a gigantic mess of a tune, and so that I can play and teach them all separately. Maybe someday I'll be able to play all sixteen parts and clear the pub except for the lovely barmaid at my local (best kept secret in town). Hehehe. (I'm joking, maybe.)  };^D>



All the best ~ Tom