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 Playing Advice: Bluegrass (Scruggs) Styles
 ARCHIVED TOPIC: Surviving A Crash and Burn


Please note this is an archived topic, so it is locked and unable to be replied to. You may, however, start a new topic and refer to this topic with a link: http://www.banjohangout.org/archive/395421

SimonSlick - Posted - 01/28/2024:  10:39:38


Bluegrass banjo players are like stock car racers.Everyone suffers a crash at one time or another.
Try to just accept it, recover, and move on.

In this version of Pete Wernick's Pow Wow The Indian Boy at 1:01, I intended to execute 8 bars of forward roll
on the 5-2-1 strings, working my left hand down the neck from high Am to G to D to A to Am to G to D to A.

Things went pretty well through the first 7, but at bar 8 I suffered a crash. I kept going and
finished the take. Upon listening to it, I decided that a do-over was not worth the effort.

Everyone crashes. Just try and finish the race.


Texasbanjo - Posted - 01/28/2024:  11:04:11


I remember once at a festival the banjo picker was supposed to kick off a certain song and he kicked off the wrong song!!! The other band members gave him a weird look, but went along with him until he got back to the original song. If he'd have stopped and started again, it would have been very noticeable, but the way he and the band handled it, only other musicians understood what happened. The audience was not aware a goof had happened. We all had a good laugh afterwards.

Culloden - Posted - 01/28/2024:  11:15:58


I was playing a show in Bluefield, West Virginia some years ago when the third string D tuner decided to lose tension and drop to F# just as I kicked off the song. The following year I was playing in Greenup, Kentucky when the fog rolled in off the Ohio River. I had a calfskin head on my banjo at the time and the head stretched all through the show. I kept having to tune up until, finally, the strings were so low I couldn't play anymore. That was the last time I used a skin head.

Tractor1 - Posted - 01/28/2024:  11:39:24


by far not a crash and burn--nothing sounds like complete discord or out of time-- listeners have no way of knowing that you did not say it exactly as planned imo

roydsjr - Posted - 01/28/2024:  12:03:38


I thought it sounded just fine! I haven't heard the song before so I would not know the difference.

wrench13 - Posted - 01/28/2024:  13:26:33


Your break sounded just fine! Everyone experiences one of these eventually, some many times. I saw Chuck Berry one time where he was so befuddled, he crammed at least 6 songs into the one time slot, and at first the rest of the band was really shaken up, but like any good group of side men, they quickly realized what was happening, and the tune(s) went off without a hitch. Myself, after imbibing a few tokes of medical grade weedies, tried to start a song 7 times, each try going right into a totally different, WRONG, song, including one that I actually wrote! Giving the boys credit, they were ready and followed me right into the tune I played! And turned it into a fairly funny stage bit.

Crashes occur far more frequently than one might suppose, but the burning part does not . A testimony to all the competent, talented side men out there!

Laurence Diehl - Posted - 01/28/2024:  13:52:48


We are all our own worst critics and you’re right, a few flubbed notes go unnoticed. The only thing I’m not cool with is being out of tune but tuners are cheap and you don’t hear that much anymore.

FenderFred - Posted - 01/28/2024:  14:26:32


quote:

Originally posted by SimonSlick

Bluegrass banjo players are like stock car racers.Everyone suffers a crash at one time or another.

Try to just accept it, recover, and move on.



In this version of Pete Wernick's Pow Wow The Indian Boy at 1:01, I intended to execute 8 bars of forward roll

on the 5-2-1 strings, working my left hand down the neck from high Am to G to D to A to Am to G to D to A.



Things went pretty well through the first 7, but at bar 8 I suffered a crash. I kept going and

finished the take. Upon listening to it, I decided that a do-over was not worth the effort.



Everyone crashes. Just try and finish the race.






I am not familiar with the tune. But it sounded just fine to me. Then again I am no music expert

Bronx banjo - Posted - 01/29/2024:  08:14:33


Even Earl Scruggs made his share of mistakes. There’s a radio broadcast recording of the band playing “Blue Ridge Cabin Home” and Earl starts it with the wrong intro. It sounds like he’s playing the intro to “Your Love is Like a Flower”. It’s an obvious mistake and when he finishes the break you can hear Lester say, “Is that it?” just before he starts to sing.

monstertone - Posted - 01/29/2024:  09:48:08


Even Earl Scruggs made his share of mistakes. That syncopated run down the neck, in the B part of Earl's Breakdown, was not as Earl had planned it. Earl's BD was a new song, the band had only played it a few times before going into the studio to cut a new album. During the recording, Earl found himself between a rock & a hard spot. However, he quickly worked his way out of it. The record was cut, so Earl was stuck with it because his fans expected to hear it played that way. 

Paul R - Posted - 01/29/2024:  10:59:34


We were playing for the annual Toronto Transit Commission employees dinner/bash, along with some other acts. I realized that this crowd was busy talking through/over the entertainment. So, when one of our songs came crashing to a stop shortly after it started, it didn't seem to matter much, even when one of the band asked, "What key are we in?" Or even after, right after he asked that, another band member asked, "What song are we doing?" The audience didn't seem to notice. We started again, but I cut the song one verse short. It didn't seem to make a difference.

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