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Posted by JanetB
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- Play count: 853
Size: 774kb, uploaded 4/9/2012 1:42:35 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
BHO pickers have posted so many good versions of this great tune that I was inspired to learn it.
1 commentPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 199
Size: 783kb, uploaded 4/10/2012 7:22:54 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
Learning to play the cello banjo is an interesting challenge. It does remind me of playing the cello a long time ago, but with no bow. We called that "pizzacato."
2 commentsPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 164
Size: 1,328kb, uploaded 8/3/2019 4:40:26 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
Henry Reed, WV fiddler, passed this on to Alan Jabbour and Tommy Thompson of the Hollow Rock String Band. It's in modal tuning and has that typical feel of a West Virginia tune. It's the old-time Tune of the Week for 8/2/19.
2 commentsPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 655
Size: 907kb, uploaded 12/5/2014 11:32:11 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
For the old-time Tune of the Week, 12/514 this was learned from the fiddling of Rayna Gellert who learned it from Roscoe Parrish of Virginia. The discussion thread for this tune tells of an interesting story of Catherine (Kate) the Queen's lady-in-waiting who heroically tried to protect King James I: http://www.banjohangout.org/topic/295494/#3733746.
2 commentsPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 120
Size: 1,328kb, uploaded 1/8/2018 11:31:50 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
From the playing of Kentucky fiddler, Estill Bingham (1899 - 1990), this old-time Tune of the Week is a nice, but rare tune, learned from his father Noah Bingham. Bruce Green first recorded him and there's a nice photo of him if you have the Jeff Titon book called Old-Time Kentucky Fiddle Tunes. He died at age 91 in an accident while walking to work.
5 commentsPosted by JanetB, written by Bill Monroe
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- Play count: 1293
Size: 1,080kb, uploaded 7/14/2011 8:47:06 AM
Genre: Bluegrass / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
This is a state song. What a wise choice for an official song, like an official bird or flower. I've never been there, but the song makes it feel like it would be a nice place.
4 commentsPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 191
Size: 1,244kb, uploaded 11/16/2018 4:16:14 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
For the old-time Tune of the Week, 11-16-18, Kentucky Winder is a crooked tune from John Salyer. A winder may be a kind of a dance, but not much is known about it. Kentucky tunes like this are often mysteriously pleasing.
4 commentsPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 415
Size: 1,711kb, uploaded 11/27/2016 1:03:21 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
For the old-time Tune of the Week, 11/26/16, this old minstrel tune comes from Thomas F. Briggs' Banjo Instructor of 1855. I'm playing on a Gold Tone cello banjo in order to play in the key of G, but tuned down five steps to put it in the key of D. It's Thanksgiving weekend and, though we didn't "kick up the devil," we had a very pleasant holiday. Hope you did, too.
2 commentsPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 87
Size: 3,183kb, uploaded 2/24/2024 12:07:55 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
A Tune of the Week with various titles and styles, but popularized most by a Canadian string band as Kiley's Reel, whose style is normally notey and energetic. For the final B part, I combined this clawhammer arrangement with its minstrel roots in the last time through on the B part.
Add CommentPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 342
Size: 873kb, uploaded 10/24/2011 5:58:42 PM
Genre: Traditional / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
Listened to Bill Monroe and liked Kiss Me Waltz. He recorded some great instrumentals like this one during the early 70's. Over the Waterfall seems to go along with the theme and also stays in the ending chord of Kiss Me Waltz, which modulates from G to D.
2 commentsPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 1121
Size: 1,267kb, uploaded 7/19/2012 12:29:10 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
A friend played it long ago, a lot of BHO members post it, and it's on the Henry Reed collection. I'm finally learning it, but wonder about the major/minor parts.
7 commentsPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 895
Size: 783kb, uploaded 7/4/2012 7:20:37 AM
Genre: Other / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
This is the first part of an African slave song notated when Sir Hans Sloane was in Jamaica in 1668. It's quite a lovely tune and I thought putting it to clawhammer banjo was fitting. Sloane also drew the earliest known pictures of the gourd banjo, seen in many written reference materials.
Add CommentPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 46
Size: 1,372kb, uploaded 2/25/2023 1:00:04 PM
Genre: Other / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
Have you ever heard of a bour?e? It's a dance of the 1700's. The Tune of the Week introduced us to two dance tunes, interestingly with a mid-eastern flavor.
Add CommentPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 110
Size: 1,480kb, uploaded 11/6/2021 10:43:54 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
We don't often get a French Canadian tune on Tune of the Week. This one is a charming dance tune, said to be Quebecois, which must mean that Quebec has its own style of music. The B part is crooked and adds to the charm. The source recording played it much more quickly and it must have made for a happy, lively dance.
Add CommentPosted by JanetB, written by Turlough O'Carolan
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- Play count: 139
Size: 1,257kb, uploaded 2/3/2017 3:30:46 PM
Genre: Fiddle/Celtic/Irish / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
Turlough O'Carolan wrote many of his harp tunes to honor the friends where he stayed at length, earning his living as a bard. Those friends are called patrons and the tunes are called planxties. Lady Athenry was one such patroness who hosted him as he traveled. It's written that this composition was one of his loveliest. I found that 2-finger picking was the easiest way for me to play this tune. It was exciting arranging a tune in 6/8 time in this style since I sort of make up my own rules as I go. If I want to pick something twice in a row with my thumb, I do. If I want to use my finger likewise I do! Not using picks, though, the tone may not be as bright as it could have been.
Add CommentPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 1217
Size: 1,489kb, uploaded 2/25/2014 6:13:00 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
Three versions from my Skype lessons with Adam Hurt. The first one comes from the fiddling of "Uncle Norm" Edmonds (born in the 1890's) of Hillsville, Virginia and is one I arranged as an "extra credit" homework assignment. The other two come from Parley Parsons (born 1864) from near Galax, Virginia and from Paul Brown's recollection of the B part.
10 commentsPosted by JanetB
[download]
- Play count: 221
Size: 1,424kb, uploaded 12/19/2016 11:04:27 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
For the old-time Tune of the Week, 12/17/16, this Bob Walters tune, recorded by R.P. Christeson and notated in The Fiddler's Repertory, Vol. 1, has roots in a syncopated minstrel tune called Hell on the Wabash. It's a happy tune, though nobody seems to know what the title really means.
Add CommentPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 82
Size: 2,856kb, uploaded 12/1/2023 3:55:58 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
Here's my arrangement of Lafayette from the playing of Kirk McGee and Arthur Smith found on the Slippery Hill site. It was a popular dance tune on the Grand Old Opry back in the days.
Add CommentPosted by JanetB, written by John Jones
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- Play count: 742
Size: 1,424kb, uploaded 1/31/2016 7:16:30 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
Here's another tune heard from the great Alabama fiddler James Bryan. Per usual, he makes it sound so good I just need to try it. The story behind the title is that Missouri fiddler John Jones was walking home with his children after playing for a dance, humming this new tune, and their lantern fell in the ditch. They walked the rest of the way in the dark.
2 commentsPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 1118
Size: 3,582kb, uploaded 1/15/2015 6:18:39 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
These two tunes also are the names for the tuning they use, also called Old G tuning, which I've been studying this month. I'm tuned a step down to fCFCD. I'm finding that some tunes work well in this tuning, some work okay, and others don't work well at all!
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