Mikegivney - Posted - 04/01/2025:  10:24:33

Just for fun I’m making a list of a dozen or so tunes that would go really well with my plunky nylon stringed Buckbee Fretless. Would love it if you’d drop a suggestion. I’ll start off with “Old Blue”.

Thanks
Mike

banjobob36 - Posted - 04/01/2025:  11:00:21

Google " When You And I Were Young Maggie" ...I play it in G C D...slow then let it rip like Earl did. Great for melody notes slow then fast...always a pleaser in our show.

s_ou_b - Posted - 04/01/2025:  11:24:39

quote:

---

Originally posted by banjobob36

Google " When You And I Were Young Maggie" ...I play it in G C D...slow then let it rip like Earl did. Great for melody notes slow then fast...always a pleaser in our show.

Google fretless.

Mikegivney - Posted - 04/01/2025:  11:27:46

Thanks, I’m quite familiar with “fretless”. The post is to start a convo about folk’s favorite tunes to play in fretless banjos…

lucas73b - Posted - 04/01/2025:  11:34:41

The Pateroller Song

writerrad - Posted - 04/01/2025:  12:07:39

Almost any tune that might date to before 1880 is good for a fretless if you can master it, since no banjos other than a few odd balls had frets until the 1880s,

. Frets were not originally on banjos, but started to be added at first as something like the trainer wheels I had on my childhood Hopalong Cassidy bicycle.  They followed lines for positions drawn or painted on banjo necks as means to popularize the banjo and make it more accessible to the public.  Minstrel banjo tutors are pretty good at instructing one or giving a person instruction on playing without frets since they were written before frets were on banjos.  Any banjo tutor written before 1880 and many afterward are written for a banjo without frets.  

If you have been playing any instrument with a neck for a while, let alone a banjo, you will find that to one degree or another your brain and hands have learned the positioning that comes with frets.   The problem really is that each particular banjo neck on fretless banjos will have its own peculiarities, like the green on each hole in a golf course you know has its little peculiarities.

Bill Rogers - Posted - 04/01/2025:  13:05:05

Reuben (D tuning)

Cluck Old Hen

AndrewD - Posted - 04/01/2025:  13:45:46

Get the Brad Leftwich Round Peak book. Some great examples of how fretless slides can help.
Mine's in a storage box somewhere. But his version of Paddy (patty ?) on the railroad (turnpike ?) is one of my favourites.

hweinberg - Posted - 04/01/2025:  17:09:36

Second for Paddy on the Turnpike. Fire on the Mountain, too.

writerrad - Posted - 04/01/2025:  17:30:42

quote:should add that you can find many, banjo instructors from the 1850s on on Archive.com thanks to the generosity and hard work of Joel Hooks  and other banjo historians.

---

Originally posted by writerrad

Almost any tune that might date to before 1880 is good for a fretless if you can master it, since no banjos other than a few odd balls had frets until the 1880s,

. Frets were not originally on banjos, but started to be added at first as something like the trainer wheels I had on my childhood Hopalong Cassidy bicycle.  They followed lines for positions drawn or painted on banjo necks as means to popularize the banjo and make it more accessible to the public.  Minstrel banjo tutors are pretty good at instructing one or giving a person instruction on playing without frets since they were written before frets were on banjos.  Any banjo tutor written before 1880 and many afterward are written for a banjo without frets.  

If you have been playing any instrument with a neck for a while, let alone a banjo, you will find that to one degree or another your brain and hands have learned the positioning that comes with frets.   The problem really is that each particular banjo neck on fretless banjos will have its own peculiarities, like the green on each hole in a golf course you know has its little peculiarities.

---

carlb - Posted - 04/02/2025:  09:12:52

Sullivan's Hollow

banjohangout.org/song/26654