Bent Nails

Written/Posted by crashingbooth

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- Play count: 235

Size: 2,891kb, uploaded 7/14/2011 2:29:37 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time

Just a tune I came up with. Capo on the 2nd fret, gDGDE

Bonaparte Crossing the Sea of Fertility

Written/Posted by crashingbooth

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- Play count: 259

Size: 3,393kb, uploaded 5/22/2011 2:45:47 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time

If he can cross the rockies in a fiddle tune, why not the sea of fertility? (I know, authorities differ. . . ) Anyway my attempt at writing something fiddle tune-esque on the banjo. tuning is gCGCD

Chinquapin Pie

Posted by crashingbooth

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- Play count: 1071

Size: 3,442kb, uploaded 5/2/2012 5:13:12 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time

I've never seen a Chinquapin in my life. Probably never will. But this is probably my all-time favourite banjo tune. It's completely hypnotic, and there's something oddly physically satisfying about playing it. Sawmill, capo on the 2nd (but I think my banjo is tuned low)

Clawhammer Jongara Bushi (Traditional Tsugaru Shamisen Piece)

Posted by crashingbooth

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- Play count: 370

Size: 2,336kb, uploaded 9/13/2011 5:37:00 PM
Genre: Traditional / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time

A few years ago I used to take lessons on Tsugaru Shamisen, which is a banjo-like instrument played in the Tsugaru region of Japan. Jongara bushi is the signature 'piece' for the instrument, with each player developing their own interpretation of it/improvisations around it. This is a nearly note for note clawhammerization of a traditional version of Jongara Bushi. Tuning is gCGCC

Cluck Old Hen

Posted by crashingbooth

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- Play count: 1453

Size: 3,475kb, uploaded 5/11/2011 3:57:13 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time

Cracked and Blistered

Written/Posted by crashingbooth

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- Play count: 178

Size: 5,132kb, uploaded 5/11/2011 3:46:10 AM
Genre: Other / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time

tuned gCGCC, mostly this tune is 7/8, clawhammer with a metal fingerpick. my foot is tapping in 7/4 which makes for the odd syncopation (everything the falls on the beat in the first half of the patttern, falls off the beat in the second) - so oldtime it isn't, i guess, but more hobart smith than king crimson (i hope).

Davenport

Posted by crashingbooth

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- Play count: 195

Size: 2,241kb, uploaded 11/4/2012 10:14:38 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time

Clawhammer, gDGDE. My take on the Davenport/Last Chance/Rambling Hobo family of tunes. My starting point was Dock Boggs' Davenport. I've drifted pretty far from his version, but I did keep his funky 5/4 low section (or at least the idea of it).

Fencesitting

Written/Posted by crashingbooth

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- Play count: 139

Size: 2,279kb, uploaded 8/22/2011 12:16:43 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time

Clawhammer aDADE I ended up writing a tune with identity issues. It can't decide if it's major or minor, whether it wants to go Old-timey, Bluesy or Eastern European.

It fell right out of the nest

Written/Posted by crashingbooth

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- Play count: 298

Size: 2,897kb, uploaded 8/13/2011 6:58:34 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time

clawhammer, f#DABD (i.e. a little birdie tuning with a capo on the 2nd fret)

Kicking at the Door

Written/Posted by crashingbooth

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- Play count: 216

Size: 2,850kb, uploaded 10/31/2011 1:09:44 AM
Genre: Unknown/None Chosen / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time

Clawhammer aEADE. Came up with this while experimenting with leaning on the major 3rd a bunch in sawmill. Lots of dissonance from overlapping semitones, which has an interesting texture. Borrowed some ideas from Dink Roberts and Hobart Smith, but it's not trying to be old-time.

Pits and a Stone

Written/Posted by crashingbooth

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- Play count: 126

Size: 2,248kb, uploaded 5/11/2011 4:49:10 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time

Reuben

Posted by crashingbooth

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- Play count: 340

Size: 4,115kb, uploaded 9/30/2011 6:09:31 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time

clawhammer, tuned eCEGC (i.e. graveyard tuned down a whole step) . . . Deliberately stole bits here and their from versions by Dock Boggs, Elizabeth Cotten, and Emry Arthur, and probably stole accidently from many other sources, but it's basically my Reuben

Saro Jane

Posted by crashingbooth

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- Play count: 234

Size: 2,922kb, uploaded 8/18/2011 11:27:45 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time

A clawhammer setting of Saro Jane

Steps for Three and a Half Dancers

Written/Posted by crashingbooth

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- Play count: 144

Size: 2,888kb, uploaded 9/14/2011 7:15:15 AM
Genre: Unknown/None Chosen / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time

Clawhammer in 7/8 time. I wrote this after spending a few weeks in Greece listening to musicians who come by odd meters naturally. When they do 7/8 time, it doesn't sound like 7 beats but rather 4 beats where the 2nd or 4th beat is half the length of the others. I tried to get that feeling here. Tuning is aDADE (capo on the 2nd fret)

The Mathematician's Drunk and the Fun's All Over

Written/Posted by crashingbooth

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- Play count: 161

Size: 3,755kb, uploaded 8/22/2011 11:10:13 PM
Genre: Unknown/None Chosen / Playing Style: Unknown/None Chosen

Clawhammer fCFAC - A tune made up mostly of stringing together a a few riffs and bluesy bits in 7/4 time. I've spent a fair bit of time messing around in 7/4 and it tends to syncopate in pretty much formulaic ways. In this tune I tried to syncopate it in ways that I haven't tried before.