Know Your Notes!

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Five String Trad

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Irish traditional tunes & technique. For the five string banjo.

53 Members, Created 4/16/2012 -

Administrators: mikey5string (owner)

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From mikey5string on 4/26/2012 9:00:02 AM

If you dont know the names of the notes on the fret board, learn them!

It is really not as difficult as it might seem. There are only 7 notes!

Read this blog post:

http://www.banjohangout.org/myhangout/blog.asp?id=303&blogid=21928

Dont go in thinking you cant, or that you dont need to. You do need to!

I am going to go over how to transcribe sheet music to banjo tab here and knowing the notes is a must (at least up to fret 5)

I am not going to transcribe piano concertos or orchestra's, just simple, one voice, treble clef fiddle tunes. Like something you would find for fiddle.

I read notes 1 at a time. I see it, figure out which note it is and then find that note on my banjo. Then move on to the next one.

Sounds tedious but its not! it is really rewarding and you get quicker as you go.

Once you can do it you can buy books like "Oneil's 1001" with 1001 irish tunes in standard notation. You could create banjo tabs from any tune youd like, you dont have to pay someone to tab it for you or wait until someone else does it. Old time fiddler books ar ea great source of tunes that you dont hear everyday.

I promise it wil make you a better player. You will start to have your own ideas and understanding. Start to feel like you are in control and not just a passive operator.

This is a really starting to sound like an infommercial!!!

BUT WAIT! THERES MORE!!!

actually, no. There is no more. Just learn those notes!

mike

2 Comments
	Banjo Hero says: 4/27/2012 7:16:55 AM Gabh mo leithscéal, ach... ("Excuse me, but...") Not to pick nits, but there're actually eleven, not five. You're forgetting the sharps and flats ;-) Beyond that one wee thing, you're totally right, Mikey. I actually _do_ find transcribing somewhat tedious, myself, but it is indubitably worth the effort. You get to understand the music so much better when you pore over it note-by-note. I just hate when I make an error :P There's these Bach cello suites I'm absolutely in love with, and a couple weeks ago, I was going over the sheet music, and realized I had been playing this one part wrong for, like, the last however many years. Sheesh. Just two or three wrong notes, but it means I have to rearrange the whole measure so the fingerings make sense. THEN I have to make my stupid fingers learn it. O, well. Ádh mór! ("Best of luck!" It's Irish, dudes. Figured it's germane to the group, traddy Irish music and all. Look, I'm just learning. I still don't know how to say "rock on, dudes!" or anything like that. So, uh ... Nyeah! :P )
	mikey5string says: 5/11/2012 11:32:55 AM thanks. i know there are more notes than that. I try to tell people that if they can remember the letters A-G than they can remember the notes. The rest is just accidental.... sorry. couldnt resist. I transcribe mostly as a reading exercise. I find that especially with these tunes I never play them the way I transcribe them at first. I am always making fingering changes ,adding ornamentation or coming up with different phrases. I like to get the tunes written in tab because it helps me remember them, plus ive got a bunch of tabs now of tunes that i dont see many for! thanks for the well wishes. I just wanted to share the tab and tunes. I really like the music and i think that there is a lot of potential with the 5 string, looking forward to see what develops. and I just happen to be irish-american but i know i would like the music anyway.....
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