Like many of you before me, I am tasked with the banjo role for the Steve Martin musical. I've been sent a PDF of the banjo book, which is just as difficult as others have noted. I've read both the really useful articles by Anthony Pooley and have started going thru the Ipad app with the much more useful tablature layout. Couple questions.
1. Anyone figured out a good way to print out the tab from the Ipad app? I've tried taking pictures of my Ipad with my phone and then copying the pictures into Word, but the print out of those are dark and grainy and likely really difficult to read on an often dark stage.
2. If anyone else has already put in the effort to tab it out themselves, I would be very interested in discussing your process and getting some pointers.
Edited by - Badjer on 04/29/2025 20:27:01
Bennett Sullivan - bennettsullivan89 - the original Bright Star banjo player, is a member here, a tremendously friendly and helpful guy, most likely the creator of the tab, and I would imagine he could offer pointers on how to approach the task of playing.
If he doesn't respond to being paged, you could write to him through his website: bennettsullivanmusic.com/contact
As to printing . . . I'm able to print things from my iPhone and iPad. It requires the printer to be wirelessly accessible on my home network. My printer is connected our home network by Ethernet wire. A wire comes into my home office and connects to a hub or switch. My desktop computer and the printer are both connected to this. The wire in the office, of course, starts at the router -- which is both wired and wifi. So the printer is visible and accessible to any device that uses wifi.
If your printer isn't on your home network, I'd think you could use the "Share" function in your iPad (the icon that's a square with an upward arrow coming out of it) to send the tab pdf to yourself by email, text message, or Apple AirDrop (if your desktop or laptop computer is a Mac). Then print from your computer.
Sorry if I'm saying stuff you know or have tried.
Good luck.
Oh, and congratulations. Sounds like fun.
I would love to do Bright Star, but I don't play clawhammer and I'm not experienced with alternate tunings -- both of which are required to play t "right."
quote:
Originally posted by BadjerI've read both the really useful articles by Anthony Pooley and have started going thru the Ipad app with the much more useful tablature layout. . . .
2. If anyone else has already put in the effort to tab it out themselves, I would be very interested in discussing your process and getting some pointers.
Another note: In a May 26, 2020 update to his article, Anthony Pooley says he's completed his full, detailed, transcription of the Bright Star banjo book. I see no link to it on the article page. Perhaps you could write to Anthony to ask how to get a copy.
Good luck!
Here's a link to Anthony Pooley's article - Decoding the Bright Star Banjo Book | STRUMpit
David
Thanks Ken and David. Good call on setting up the iPad directly to my printer. I have not tried that. Never had a need to print from there before. I shall experiment.
Read both of Anthony Pooley's articles. Very useful. He has completed a tab book but isn't going to share it without the approval of the Theatrical Rights Worldwide (TRW) as they own the rights to do so. And they don't appear to have any interest in working with him, which is a shame.
I downloaded the Bright Star. It has some nice features but I don't see a way to print from it on my iPhone. I can print pdfs and other files but I don't see a way to display the whole tab at once.
it's discouraging to read that the tab may not match the actual music.
Ordinarily I might be interested in writing some Clawhammer tabs but I don't know this music at all. That, combined with not seeing the complete tab at once, promises a long, difficult task.
David
Thanks for checking David. I found the same. I may have been harsh giving you the idea that the tab doesn't match the music. They provide some important sections, but it is written in Orchestral style and then much of it is left to interpretation with the chord labeled and "slash marks" for the notes. I'm looking at the reality of the task of having to rewrite the tab out of the app and then work out the scene change music and such that isn't in the app, but the timings of are in the provided book.
When do rehearsals start? How much time do you have to prepare?
David
Rehearsals start in mid-July for shows the 1st week of August. I do have some time to put this together, which I very much appreciate. I've read some stories of other people being asked to perform this with a week's notice.
Well that's disappointing to learn the controller of rights can't give a simple go-ahead to someone who would be doing a tremendous service to future banjo players who get the call to play Bright Star.
And I'm sorry that my *assumption* the Bright Star tabs could be printed from iOS like so many other things turned out to be invalid.
In 2023 a local production company put on the musical here in Wellington New Zealand. Because I live here and can play both BG & CH I was the banjoist of choice. Seeing I could not read music, I had to approach it a different way. I sourced as many of the lyric as I could online as well as a couple of Youtube videos of performances. I downloaded as as many of the tunes as I could from YT and set about learning them. I downloaded the various scores etc. I printed them off and during rehearsals and playing the vids on my PC, I made copious notes re timings etc. It was really hard work but worth it. Given that the music is written for both standard banjo tuning and also uses a long neck banjo, I borrowed a friends Gibson RB175 and installed capo spikes to facilitate the tunings.
I have both printed sheets and everything has been scanned and on a USB drive. I am happy to send you everything if it helps.
When do rehearsals start?
Wayne, that would be so very much appreciated. Rehearsals start in mid-July. I'll PM you to discuss. Thank you!
