HOME

Long time no post, but my friend Molly's album (on which I played banjo - more info on that here) got reviewed in the latest issue of the Old Time Herald! If you're not familiar with this publication, you should definitely check it out (www.oldtimeherald.org).

While you can't access the review online, you can check it out in the latest issue, the cover of which looks like this:

I don't want to infringe on any copyrights but hopefully its okay to include a few snippets about Molly's fiddling from that review - she's just fantastic and they did a great job putting that into words:

"She's a first rate fiddler who plays with great assurance."
"..where you might expect to hear the banjo or guitar solo, they don't. This is a fiddle record. But when the fiddler has McBride's ear for tunes and knack for delivering them, thats no cause for complaint."
"She plays with authority in tandem with terrific nuances."
"Consider this review an unqualified rave. If you love great old-time fiddling, well recorded and delivered sans frills but not without a deep sense of engagement with the music, then you'll find Molly McBride's album to be 43 minutes of unbridled bliss."

While the review was definitely (and should have been!) Molly-centric, I have to point out that there was one comment about my banjo playing as well:

"Banjoist Jeff Norman is a fine foil for McBride, typically echoing her tunes clawhammer style and once, on "Fine Times at Our House" even surprising us with a harmony line."

I had no idea if/when this review was coming, but I was pretty thrilled to read it! Hopefully, my solo album Stripey Cat will make it into a future issue as well : )

PS - you can still buy Molly's album here: 
www.elderly.com/collections/all/products/goodbye-my-honey-i-m-gone

When I was making the inside cover for my new album "Stripey Cat" (more info, including purchasing availability here), I only really had one panel to work with. Instead of giving a bunch of info on each track, I decided to spend that space on gratitude (panel reproduced below):

Given all the help I've had getting this album out (and along my banjo-journey as well) I think this was the right choice for what to do with a single panel inside a CD cover. However, I thought I'd do some liner notes in the form of a blogpost as well. What follows is a track-by-track breakdown of the album - hope you find it useful!

​1) Stripey Cat - This is an original tune played on my Buckeye (more info about that banjo here). Its one of the few tunes I play in what Adam Hurt calls "Sandy River Belle tuning" (gEADE). For those unfamiliar with that tuning, its a non-open tuning for playing in G, meaning that you hold down a chord shape (specifically 3203) to get a G chord - you kind of play melody notes around chord shapes (kind of analogous to the way that Chet Atkins treated the guitar). I typically play my G tunes out of "Old G" (gDGDE - more on that tuning here) but this tune came out of goofing off in SRB tuning one day - I first introduced "Stripey Cat" in a blogpost here. My original low-fi recording of stripey cat (just banjo + guitar) is embedded below:

Stripey Cat played by Jeff Norman on banjo (gEADE) + guitar (standard tuning, no capo)

If you compare that recording to what ended up on the album, you'll notice that we rush the walk down to the B part by a beat or so on the album - this was Molly's idea and I think it adds a lot of excitement to the tune! We did a few takes before i noticed what she was doing, then I just had to follow along so we ended up using the 3rd or 4th take (note that this album was recorded in a bit of a hurry - we typically only got 3 or 4 takes per tune). Obviously, I like this tune since it ended up as the title track (and the inspiration for the cover art) - why not make it Track 1 as well?

2) Dubuque - I learned this tune at the request of my friend Cory, who passed away tragically at the beginning of 2017 and its been rambling around my head since that happened. Nobody really played it when I lived in VA, but, being a midwest tune, I heard it a lot in MI. The thing that always frustrated me about this tune was that it made you go way up the neck on a standard banjo - I finally realized that this was one of those tunes that a 6-string (low bass) banjo was built for! When I converted El Hefe, the Pisgah-esque banjo I built in a workshop (here) to a 6 string (here) Dubuque quickly jumped to the top of my tune list. On this track I play it 4 times switching octaves (low then high then low then high) - again, the low octave only really works with an extra bass string. I *think* it was my idea for Chris to play DADGAD (irish-style) guitar on here so I'll go ahead and take credit for that decision : ). Some people may not dig the genre-mixing but I just LOVE how this track came together. We did this in 4 takes or so and the last one really clicked.

3) Texas/Newcastle - This is a Henry Reed tune that I learned from Jen, the banjo player that replaced me in the Happy Hollow String Band after I moved to Michigan (I'm playing my buckeye tuned aEADE). I have a recording of me playing that tune on El Hefe (before the extra string was added) with Adam Hurt on fiddle - audio embedded below, blogpost about that here.

Texas/Newcastle - Jeff Norman banjo, Adam Hurt fiddle.

I'm not sure how much I've "made this tune my own" but I wanted to put it on my album because its one of my favorites and I just don't hear enough recordings of it. Also, Molly and I frequently played it together at our frequent "Rock Andy Lunchtime Experience" gigs (...when we'd meet up during lunch to play tunes on the MSU campus...). We were all happy with the first take of this tune so thats all we did! A bit on the name - Henry Reed told Alan Jabbor two different names for the tune  (i.e. "Texas" and "Newcastle") so its typically listed as I've listed it here. I thought about picking one but I had difficulty making a decision since I was born in Texas but learned to play banjo right down the road from Newcastle...

4) Spotted Pony - I've said it before and I'll say it again: Spotted Pony is the greatest fiddle tune ever written (okay, at least the greatest "top 40" fiddle tune ever written). Maybe its un-cool to put such a basic (likely over-recorded) tune on your album but something about this tune has always put a smile on my face and I kind of had to record it. I've used "Spotted Pony" as an example in this blog more times than I can count and I even wrote a blogpost outlining 27 different variations for the first 4 notes of the A part (here). I told Molly that I wanted to go kinda nuts on this tune and she should do the same thing - the version we ended up with is pretty bananas overall with only a few regrets on my part (I ended up playing parallel 6ths for the A-part-walkup twice, which seems excessive). However, I really like how my minor chord substitutions came out and I LOVE Molly's B part harmony the 3rd time through, which I didn't have any idea she was going to do. Initially, I had plans to do one more repeat on finger style Baritone Ukulele, which is why we stopped on a dime. However, I just loved the way that sounded so I decided to leave the uke out in the end (not sure if I could have matched the energy of that fiddle-banjo duet anyhow...).

5) Ducks and Drakes - This is the second of my original tunes that made in on the album and the tune that most people have commented on since hearing the album (I really thought "Stripey Cat" would be the hit!). I originally posted this tune as "Skipping Stones" in a blogpost here. My original recording is below:

"Skipping Stones" (later renamed "Ducks and Drakes) by Jeff Norman banjo (aEAC#E) and guitar (standard tuning capo 2)

Before the album came out, I googled the name and it just seemed a bit too common, even in the fiddle world. In fact, Brad Kolodner even has an album called "Skipping Stones" - I decided I had to change it. My mother-in-law was visiting at the time and figured out that "Ducks and Drakes" is another name for the activity of skipping stones - I really liked that name a lot so it stuck. My only request to Chris (who, in addition to playing guitar, mixed and mastered the album as well) was to dial back my banjo thumb slaps a bit - they get a bit excessive in the A part : ). I think it came out pretty well in the end. In terms of track order, I wonder if I should have moved it a bit further away from Texas, which has a fairly similar vibe (and guitar intro).

6) Sally in the Garden - This was one of the first dark/minor tunes I learned on the banjo and I'm still hooked on it. Molly and I played this at our lunch get-togethers a lot too and its even captured on video:

Jeff Norman (banjo) and Molly McBride (fiddle) playing "Sally in the Garden" on the MSU campus.

I have a standard set of tricks (including a low harmony to the B part) that I always try to get into this tune - its so trancey that this year I decided to play it with some friends for half an hour at Clifftop (...like, we set a timer...), which was pretty fun. I'm going to try to build momentum early to get a big group to do that again this year!

7) Five Miles from Town - This is a crooked Clyde Davenport tune that I learned from Molly. It seems to be fairly in vogue at jams over the past few years as well. Molly always played it with the parts swapped from how Clyde did it and we did the same thing here. I mostly wanted to include this as another great 6 string banjo tune. The two parts are an octave apart so if you're playing on a 5 string you either have to go up the neck for the high part (which I never like doing) or play both parts in the same octave, which falls a little flat (and requires a fiddle to give it some context) - the 6 string solves this quite handily. However, Molly is the true star of this track and it probably should have ended up on her album (here) instead of mine! Chris and I had a brief debate about whether to go to the B-minor or G-major chord in the A part (Clyde's B part) - the melody I've settled on suggests the B-minor chord, but I know that people have strong opinions about this so my apologies to whoever I've offended with this choice.

8) Yew Piney Mountain - This is a varyingly-crooked West Virginia tune. I say "varyingly-crooked" because everybody seems to add or subtract a few beats making it just a bit different for each player. My version mostly mirrors Chance McCoy's solo fiddle version from his album "Debut," which continues to blow my mind every time I hear it. I incorporated constant ghost note double thumbing into my solo banjo version (more on that here, including a tab and recording) and I'm really happy with how it came out. The folks on banjo hangout really liked that version too. The other solo banjo version I've heard is by Dwight Diller. As you might imagine its super bouncy and plunky - I think that Dwight tunes his banjo way down to aAEAE like a crossed tuned fiddle with an added 5th string. Super cool idea and Dwight's version sounds amazing. My version is in the more commonly-used tuning of A modal (aEADE) so I have to jump up an octave mid-phrase towards the ends of the A and B parts to get all of the melody in. I played this onstage at Clifftop a few years back earning me a lot of praise from people who came and found me afterwards...but unfortunately no place in the finals (reserved for those in the top 5). Though rankings beyond the top 5 are never released, I like to think that I came in a strong 6th that year : ) Chris dialed up the reverb on this one, which is really evident after my sparsely-placed clucks (more on clucks here) - a couple of them sound downright metallic!.

9) Swingin' on a Gate - I learned this Irish tune at a Pretty Shaky String Band jam from Fred and/or Tana and immediately fell in love with it. I couldn't help but learn it and I even hosted a "tune of the week" thread with Swingin' on a gate on banjo hangout, which you can find here - there are some really great versions on there from other players and I posted a tab (in Old G) as well. My original idea was to go straight Old Time on the recording - I was going to ask Chris to play straight boom-chick guitar in standard tuning and ask Molly to leave out all the "Irishy" stuff (e.g. grace notes and triplets) from her fiddling (and maybe add in some shuffle). However, once I heard Chris play DADGAD guitar and Molly play it how you hear it on the recording....well it sounded too good to mess with. Unfortunately, I think we practiced too many times because my left forearm muscle, which is really activated by super notey tunes where I use a lot of pinky, was totally worn out by the time we hit record! I fee like I can hear "struggling" in my playing. We did a lot of takes but I mostly picked this one because I liked the way everyone else sounded : ) It was Molly's idea to have me go fiddle-less for the first run through, and I just love it when she sneaks in on that long-bowed single-note crescendo!

10) Sandy Boys​ - I was just dying to play something on my fretless Buckbee (more on that banjo in this blogpost on fretless banjos here) and this admittedly "festival version" (here) of the West Virginia Tune "Sandy Boys" is what often pops out of my fretless banjo when I pick it up. Initially, I planned on trying this as just two-finger Baritone Uke (which I've been working on in the past - here) and fiddle. However, Molly and I's versions didn't really mesh that well and, frankly....I just couldn't hang on baritone uke. At first, I scrapped the uke all together and decided to make this a solo banjo piece - I tuned the fretless down to open F (fCFAC) because it just sounds great down there. However, Chris, who co-produced the album in addition to playing guitar, urged me to try twin banjos...then put the baritone uke (tuned down to CFAD to let me play in F) on top of that...and a tenor uke (tuned an octave above the baritone using a tiple string) on top of that! Add in some reverb, pump up the bass, and you've got a pretty funky take on this tune! Definitely an oddball compared to the rest of the album but also one of my favorites on there!

11) Hobart's Breakdown - this tune is basically "Banging breakdown," popularized by Hobart Smith, who reportedly learned the tune from his bandmate John Greer, with the "banging" removed (i.e. I don't bang on the banjo head like Hobart did because I can't really pull it off). I always thought it would work well as a full band tune and I was right! I also moved it up from C to D for tuning ease on my part (I just don't like tuning down) but Molly tells me the tune probably works better there on the fiddle as well. Though Hobart's recordings don't have a guitarist to guide you, I've always conceptualized this tune in Bm, the relative minor key of D major - I wrote out some chords for Chris to play in line with that decision; he played them but noted that they didn't work well for voice leading (which shows you that Chris is a much more thoughtful guitarist than I'll ever be). All of that is to say that this is a track where I really made some "producer" decisions and its really neat to hear how it all came together! I really love this one and I probably should have moved it a bit closer to the front of the album.

12) Snake Chapman's Tune - A group of friends in VA and I used to have a "tune of the week" thing going - my friend Beth suggested "Snake Chapman's Tune," a crooked D tune that includes both a flat 7th note (hinting at a Mixolydian scale) and a sharp 7th note (hinting at an Ionian scale) - if you don't know what I'm talking about, check out my blog post on modes (here). This modal confusion actually provided the inspiration for me to try the same thing in A when I wrote "Ducks and Drakes." This same modal confusion also makes harmonizing a bit tricky at times - I try a parallel 3rds harmony the last time through the B part and get a bit befuddled on how to harmonize the switch to Ionian (there are two possible note choices near the end of the B part and if you listen closely, you'll hear me pick both : ). I certainly couldn't presume to add any tune history beyond what BHO user EggerRidgeBoy put forth when he used this tune as a "tune of the week" addition on the hangout: here.

13) Cheese and Crackers - this crooked D tune was actually the first fiddle tune I ever wrote (maybe in 2009 or so?) and its still one of my favorite originals. The friends I played with back then weren’t all that used to crooked tunes at the time (neither was I, but this one just happened to come out that way), and actually suggested that I straighten it out by chopping off the pauses at the end of each phrase. However, I thought the melody needed a bit more space than that approach would allow for, and as often happens with crooked tunes, eventually “Cheese & Crackers” started sounding downright normal. The tune was named after two friends of mine, who’s last names kind of sounded like “Cheese” and “Crackers.” Note that I used to spell “Crackers” with a K in the title (reflecting that particular friend’s last name) but decided to defer to the normal spelling for the album to avoid any confusion. I mentioned this tune in a blogpost about original tunes (here). Also, here’s an MP3 of some friends and I playing “Cheese and Crackers” at a friend's wedding several years back:

A few friends and I playing "Cheese and Crackers" at a friend's wedding.

14) This Way - While I'd love to add an original tune to the Old Time festival canon one day, I don't really think the album-ender "This Way" stands much of a chance of meeting that goal : ) While tunes like "Ducks and Drakes" and "Stripey Cat" could presumably blend in with other fiddle tunes, "This Way" is just a bit too weird - maybe one day I'll hear it all "fiddled" up but I won't be holding my breath. Still...I'm really proud of it - blogpost about the tune here, which includes example chords for those inclined to harmonize Not so much a "toe-tapper" as it is a "head-scratcher," "This Way" works well as a solo banjo album coda of sorts. For whatever reason, two repeats was all I could get in without train-wrecking that night so this one clocks in fairly short. As with other original tunes, I recorded an example version (guitar included) that you can hear below:

"This Way" written and played by Jeff Norman - Buckeye 159 tuned aEADE; Ephiphone Masterbilt guitar tuned to standard (no capo).

Hope that was somewhat interesting to whoever has made it this far - thanks for reading!

.On blogging:

So, I've had a heck of a December/January - don't really want to overshare on the internet but on top of the holidays, I had a huge (and fantastic!!) change in my life that is going to eat up a considerable amount of my future free time. Its therefore kind of hard to promise a weekly blogpost of the caliber/quality that I'd like, so I think I'm going to have to back off on the blog for a while.  

I'll, of course leave the blog archive up on my homepage and I may do an occasional post...just can't promise a weekly one. I do have at least one piece of unfinished business - finishing my Album of Original fiddle tunes (here), by recording the last tune, "Cheese and Krackers," which I hope to get to soon. Note - this is a different album than I talk about in the title of this post - more on that album below.

To everyone who reads this thing regularly, thank you so much! I've especially loved hearing from you via email and comments on the site. Hope you got something out of it too! Now, on to other news:

I recorded an album:

Okay, thats a bit of a strong statement - really I played banjo on my friend Molly McBride's album. Molly (mollygmcbride.com) is an amazing fiddler I play with frequently - often at lunch as part of our duo/band "the Rock Andy Lunch Time Experience" (a couple videos of us playing here). Molly did all the organizing and tune selection - I just had to learn a few tunes and show up for two 4-hour recording sessions. Everything came together super quick and the album's already available!! Here's a link to a page about it on Molly's site (you can buy a copy if you so desire!):

​mollygmcbride.com/music/the-sigogglin-string-band/

The Album is called "Goodbye Honey I'm Gone" and its named after a cool G minor tune that appears on the album (the tune is actually one there twice: once as a solo fiddle rendition and once with the whole band). As with all my G tunes - minor, major, or otherwise - I played it in Old G (here). The album is all fiddle tunes but includes a few banjo/fiddle duets, a few solo fiddle pieces and several full band (fiddle, banjo, guitar, bass) numbers as well. 

As a teaser, Molly's given me the go-ahead to share a track that didn't make it on the album. Here's a banjo/fiddle duet of "Sally in the Garden" we recorded alongside the rest of the tunes:

"Sally in the Garden" performed by Molly McBride (on fiddle) and myself (on my Buckeye tuned aDADE). Recorded and mastered by Chris Scales, who also plays guitar on the rest of the album.

A few days back, I was also lucky enough to play onstage with Molly in a concert featuring women fiddlers of Michigan. The concert was put on by a local folk music society called The Ten Pound Fiddle - more info on that here:

​www.tenpoundfiddle.org/event/michigan-fiddle-styles-molly-mcbride-ruby-john-judy-raber/

Honestly, that was one of the most special shows I've ever played in! The room was packed with an attentive audience and it was really just a celebration of the music I love (and 3 women that play it really really well!) - I've been on cloud 9 ever since. Molly, Chris (guitar) and I played 5 tunes off the album and ended up selling a bunch of copies afterwards. Just a great evening!!

Anyways, thats about it for now - again, I'm not entirely sure when I'll post again but check back on occasion - thanks for reading!

If you've been following my "album of original fiddle tunes" project, you'll know that I've only got one tune left to record on the original list (here). This tune is called "Cheese and Krackers" - rather than finishing my album, I thought I'd add another "bonus track." This week's offering is called "Skipping Stones:"

"Skipping Stones" - an original fiddle tune by Jeff Norman (me). Played twice through by me on my Buckeye tuned to aEAC#E; guitar accompaniment the second time through using a 12-fret Epiphone Masterbilt in standard guitar tuning capped at the 2nd fret. Tune and recording Copyright 2017 - Jeff Norman.

This tune has taken shape over the last few weeks - its what I find myself playing every time I pick up my couch-plunking Buckbee banjo (here). Its a squared-off A mixolydian tune that I play  in open A tuning - it would likely be a lot of fun at a dance or in a jam. I'll admit that I kind of stole the idea for the beginning of the B part from the fantastic Garry Harrison tune "Red Prairie Dawn." The B part of that tune starts with 4 really great half-notes that make the whole tune in my opinion - the ones Mr Harrison picked were absolutely perfect...the ones I picked are just okay in comparison : ) Note that, since I can't really "hold" notes on a banjo, I played them as quarter notes followed each time by open 3rd string A's; A fiddler would be encouraged to leave the A's out in favor of holding the half notes.

As for the name - my wife picked it. She just said it made her think of skipping stones - who am I to argue? Hope you enjoyed that one - I hope to finish the album next week with "Cheese and Krackers!" This monday/tuesday posting is getting to be a pattern - hopefully I'll post on time next week....

...okay not the whole microphone, but the cord:

To backtrack: this past weekend my parents came to town and we spent the whole weekend eating, drinking good wine, reading (yup, we had a Sunday book club of sorts...) and smoking a practice Thanksgiving turkey, which came out great! I therefore knew I was going to post a bit late this week and had planned to add another track to my album (here) Monday or Tuesday....

However, I went to pull the mic out tonight and found the above monstrosity. Usually I wrap the mic cord gently around the base of my mic, but I guess I got a bit overzealous this last go-round and right-angle-ified the business end : ) I'll have to order a replacement before I can move forward - the mac is great overall but the built-in microphone makes my banjo sound like its underwater (and not in the cool Kyle Creed way).

Therefore, the fates have conspired to give me a night off - see you next week!

So I may be posting a day late...but at least I'm not showing up empty handed! After just over a month off from recording tracks for my album of original fiddle tunes (here) I've finally recorded the penultimate track (at least in the order that they're being recorded...)! Today I present "Catawba," a tune I wrote several years back (maybe 2012 or so?). Here you go: 

"Catawba" - an original fiddle tune by Jeff Norman (me). Played twice through by me on my Buckeye tuned to aEAC#E; guitar accompaniment the 2nd time through using a 12-fret Epiphone Masterbilt in standard tuning with a capo on the 2nd fret. Tune and recording Copyright 2017 - Jeff Norman.

"Catawba" is a pretty straightforward A major tune that I play in - surprise! - A major tuning (i.e. aEAC#E). It came out of a noodling session one afternoon...this wasn't unguided noodling, however: I had a specific goal in mind. While it seemed to me that many A major tunes were meant to be barnburners (e.g. "Hangman's Reel"), I wanted to come up with something that sounded good, even "pretty," at a moderate pace...like an A major version of "Coleman's March." In this recording I put a bit of bounce in it - but trust me that it can sound damn near pretty in the right hands. While I wont say that I've hit my goal of writing the next "Coleman's March," I like the tune none-the-less : )

As for the name: I've heard of tunes named after other VA towns (e.g. "Newcastle" and "Richmond"), so I figured I could name a tune after one too. Since I frequently played gigs at the Catawba Farmer's Market, "Catawba" came to mind. Wikipedia tells me that Catawba VA is actually an unincorporated community....close enough I guess : ) Anyways, hope you liked it - see you next week! Since there's only one more tune to go, I'll likely finish this project then!

A while back I played a square dance with the "Sigogglin' Stringband" and wrote a blogpost about it (here). This weekend I played the other major type of Old Time band gig, a farmer's market, and I thought I'd write about that experience today. Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of stats like I did for the square dance post (sorry!) - hope this will be a worthwhile ride anyhow : )

A bit about today's gig
I'm pretty sure this is at least my 50th time playing a farmer's market (this is definitely true if I expand the definition to include fish fry's, craft fairs, and other "background music" gigs). While I've played with a variety of bands in the past, today I played as a duet with my fiddle-buddy Molly; we call this arrangement "Rock Andy" (though I prefer our full name "the Rock Andy Lunchtime Experience" : ) As usual, we got this gig by reaching out to the organization that runs the market via email - we actually sent them links to our youtube videos (here) in the email as well. The good thing about getting on the email list of a farmer's market is that they usually keep your name for next season so, assuming I'm still living in Michigan next year, hopefully this will be a recurring thing!

As a late-October outdoor gig in Michigan....well, it was cold - my hands were barely functioning when we were done! We put out a tip jar and made ~$25 on top of the $50 check that's in the mail - while gigs like this obviously don't let you quit your day job, its kinda nice to be payed anything for something I love doing anyhow : ) We also got a couple heads of garlic and hot burritos from the vendors. I played El Hefe (here) in his 5-string configuration with my new pick (here) so we were plenty loud without need for amplification. Since these gigs are fairly low pressure, I only brought one banjo and just took the time to retune when necessary.

Our set list included 15 tunes and we played for 2 hours - if you allow for 1 minute between tunes (for chatting with passers-by and retuning) this means that each tune lasted 7 minutes on average. Could be that we took longer between tunes, or that I forgot a few that we played, but, while it seems a bit long, I'd actually believe that we averaged 7 minutes a tune. I definitely enjoyed the opportunity to get into a groove and start messing with melody/harmony of tunes on the fly - Molly and I both managed to find some novel territory in tunes we've played a million times. Below is our set list with some general commentary - we grouped tunes by tuning (for my benefit) but tried to alternate tune types/feels for some interest.

Set list (with commentary):

(started in Old G tuning - gDGDE)

Maggie Meade - We started off with this G minor tune (you can see a youtube video of Molly and I playing it here) which is a bit of a head turner - nice to start strong! I don't have too many tricks with this one other than going to the low octave for the B part on occasion.

Big Scioty - We then picked this "top 40" major tune for a feel change - I actually have a lot of tricks for this one (melodic variation, octave switching, cool chords, chromatic walkdown...) and so does Molly. There's a youtube video of me playing this at Clifftop with my Canadian neighbors here (Thanks to John Reddick for posting/filming!)

Margaret Randolph Waltz - Molly found this tune on Bruce Greene's latest album. Its probably the only crooked waltz I've ever come across and I just love it! I mostly stick to the script on this tune and I was lucky enough not to trainwreck the B part : )

Seneca Square Dance - I picked this one and, though it works well slow, I probably started it a little too slow. Kinda regretted that tempo but it eventually settled somewhere nice - I still cut it a bit short, however. I will say that it is one of those G tunes that lays really nicely in Old G.

Jeff City - this is a Missouri tune I've learned since moving to the Midwest...and I just love it! Its another faster tune. I found some cool new stuff in this tune - mostly a continuation of the walk-up that starts the B part - I'd never tried that before today's gig and it seemed to harmonize pretty well with what Molly was doing too. I'll have to work on it a bit more at home.

(switched to double D tuning - aDADE)

Sally in the Garden - We liked starting with a minor tune in G so we tried it again in D. Also like "Maggie Meade," there's a youtube video of Molly and I playing "Sally in the Garden" as well (here). Both Molly and I have cool harmonies for the B part (its kinda funny when we both reach for them at the same time : ) - most of my other variation on this tune is right hand stuff. I used to play this tune a lot more dirge-like but Molly has made me put a bit more pep into it - I absolutely love it when she goes to the high octave for the A part - it really kicks it into high gear!

Jingle at the Window Tidy-o - This tune, which Molly showed me from a David Bragger album (more on that here) is a zippy major tune, which we picked to contrast with "Sally in the Garden." We went for a while on this one and rather than simply sitting in the groove I *tried* to find some harmony for the A part...didn't really work great in my opinion.

Swannanoah Waltz - Again, we picked this tune for symmetry with our G set (i.e. "Minor, major, waltz") I've given a tab for it on this blog before (here). I actually found some relative minor harmonies in the B part, which I've never tried before - sounded pretty cool! Molly had the idea for me to start with the melody while she shuffled in the background for the first A part!

Snake River Reel - We played this one pretty fast and I got a bit sloppy due to a combination of cold hands and pick dysphoria. It worked for the most part but I can't wait for my nail to grow back (just another 1/2 mm or so)!

Coleman's March - Not sure I've ever played a gig without this tune! Molly and I have made a bit of a game out of pushing the boundaries on "Coleman's March" in recent weeks - she's finding some cool harmonies and also takes a bit of "less is more" approach with background accompaniment at parts - super tasteful and not something you always hear in old time fiddle! For my part, I got to put in some of the alternate chord double-stops I worked out a few weeks back (here).

(switched to A modal - aEADE)

Rock Andy - We had to play the tune we named our band after! This is a mixolydian Snake Chapman tune that Molly showed me - I could see a lot of the vendors bobbing their head to this one so we played it for a while. We had a cool moment here where Molly and I instinctively reached for the low octave in the same instant - love it when things like that happen! I got a bit brave and put a low chromatic walk (G, G#, A) in the B part, which I'll definitely try again.

Jeff Sturgeon - I actually wanted to play "Texas/Newcastle" next but its a little too close to "Rock Andy" so I suggested this tune in the middle. While its an A major tune, I find it sits well in modal tuning, which is typically reserved for minor or mixolydian tunes - I have a few other major tunes like this as well ("Policeman" and "Chinquapin Hunting" come to mind at the moment). For those keeping score, Molly, who had been in standard tuning, switched to cross A (AEAE) from here on out. "Jeff Sturgeon" is a notey crooked tune that was just about pushing my fingers' limits at this point!

Texas/Newcastle - This is the crooked Henry Reed tune I played with Adam Hurt at banjo camp a while back (here) and one of my all time favorites. Molly always puts some great swing into this one and it sounded quite good.

(switched to A major tuning - aEAC#E)

Little Billy Wilson - Molly wanted to find an A major tune next so we settled on this 3 parter (we've actually never played it together...) After nearly 2 hours in the cold, my right hand was completely numb, and I was actually kind of surprised the right notes were coming out - but we played this tune for probably 10 minutes and found a really great groove!

Black Eyed Suzie - We ended on the 3 part version of this tune that appears on the Bigfoot album (more on that album here). Molly likes to say that I play counterpoint on this tune...I think that I just never quite learned it right : ) Strong ender with a lot of bluesiness.

------------

Hell, I'd buy that album : ) That's it for this week (and I'm guessing that was my last outdoor gig of the season) - thanks for reading!

About a week ago the unthinkable happened: I broke my banjo nail. As usual, I wasn't even playing when it happened - I just let it get too long and it broke when my hand slipped opening the fridge. Often when this happens, I'll just put the banjo aside for a bit until it grows back - after all, I've got a guitar, mandolin, octave mando, baritone uke, fiddle, etc. kicking around the house...little chance I'll get too bored! However, I've got a gig next weekend and, though my nail seems to be on pace to grow back by then, I thought I'd better have a plan B just in case. It's high time I figured out a decent pick option!

What makes a good banjo nail?
I thought I'd start here because its not a subject I see covered enough. Here's a picture of my nail as it currently exists (after about a week of regrowth):

If you squint you can tell that the white part of my nail doesn't actually extend past the end of my finger. This is the biggest problem at the moment - the shape is actually pretty good. I don't know if its because I've coaxed it this way over the years, but my nail kind of naturally grows into the right shape (note - this could be a chicken/egg thing...maybe I think that's the right shape because it grows that way and I'm used to it). However, if my nail doesn't extend past the end of my finger, I really can't get a crisp note. Below is a diagram of what my ideal nail looks like:

A little explanation of the above shape. I've marked 2 areas on the nail (10 o'clock and 2 o'clock) that I use when I play. I use the 10 o'clock region to hit the 4th, 3rd, and 2nd strings. The sharp corner of the 10 o'clock region is especially necessary - after my nail hits a string, it slides off that corner and rings freely. In the past, I've lost that corner to pretty terrible results (that's actually what happened after Clifftop this year). I use the 2 o'clock region for the 1st string mostly because its feels kind of awkward to try to hit it with the 10 o'clock region. The string hits the nail just about where the arrow indicates and slides off the top (12 o'clock position).

Other players have differing opinions on what makes a good nail as well as how to use it. For instance, I know that Adam Hurt uses the 2 o'clock region for every string - his tone is phenomenal, so you'd better believe I've tried this too...however, it feels kind of awkward to me and I really can't play that way without concentrating - if I get into a groove I pretty quickly shift back to my old ways. I know that Walt Koken keeps his nail pretty short (possibly even like my current nail, shown in figure 1). His unique tone is pretty staccato and I'm guessing this is part of the reason. I've read that Mike Iverson uses 2 fingers - his index for strings 3 and 4, and his middle for strings 1 and 2 (no idea what side of his nail he uses in either case) - this would actually be a pretty comfortable arrangement and I'd consider trying it too if it didn't seem like such a pain to grow and maintain a second nail.

Finally - many people play without any nail whatsoever. Watching these folks, I notice that they really put a lot of force into their downstrokes and manage to make a good sound with the fleshy part of the finger. If you can manage that, more power to you but I cant seem to make it work too well! In the end, I just had to make a pick.

Creating a fingerpick to mimic my nail.
So there are a lot of opinions out there on how to make a fingerpick for clawhammer playing. Many people (including Grandpa Jones) flip standard fingerpicks backwards, perhaps cutting them down a bit. John Balch has a creative approach to making picks out of a ping-pong ball. There are a few purpose-made clawhammer picks out there but I've read positive reviews of Fred Kelly fingerpicks (which are actually made for guitar playing) and they're pretty cheap. I bought myself a few of them at Elderly last week - here are some pictures of one on my finger:

Playing with these picks unaltered didn't feel quite right to me - likely because they don't quite match the shape of my "ideal nail" (FIgure 2) though they seem to work well for other players by all accounts. My solution was to cut one down, mostly using fingernail clippers, to match my ideal nail shape. Here's what I settled on:

The biggest improvement was definitely the "corner" at the 2 o'clock position which works a lot like my normal nail. I spent a couple hours playing on a friend's back porch yesterday with the pick. Honestly, while I still miss my nail, the pick sounded fine and after a while I was even kind of used to it. I found that a light touch gave me pretty good tone and plenty of volume. I did have to take it off for a bit and rub my finger between tunes - its possible that I should go up a size (from M to L) as my finger was getting a bit numb over time, but I erred on the side of tightness in order to avoid it falling off. Certainly tolerable for a couple of hours.

Its a relief to know that I should be all set to play my gig next weekend even if my nail doesn't grow back in time! I'll probably stash a pick in my case from here on out - even when my nail grows back, I may use the pick in big jams, where I tend to chip my nail by subconsciously hitting harder than I should for a bit of extra volume. If you've got opinions on picks, feel free to leave them in the comments - see you next week!

So last week, I did a blog post on playing jigs with clawhammer banjo (here). This week I thought I'd do a followup post presenting a different (and super-creative!) approach to playing jigs shown to me by a fellow banjohangout member who goes by the name "slc." His approach involves a surprising tweak to our "rules of right hand stride" from last week so I'll start by reviewing those rules below:
-------------
Rule 1 for maintaining right hand stride in jigs: The index finger of the right hand moves towards the strings on every 1, 1++, 2, and 2++ beat; the thumb never​ plays notes on these beat.

Rule 2 for maintaining right hand stride in jigs: The index finger is never used to play notes on 1+ or 2+ beats; these notes should be played with the thumb of the right hand, with a left hand pluck, or by hammer-ons/pull-offs from notes played on preceding beats.

Rule 2a) if the note on a "1+" or "2+" beat is on a lower string than the preceding note (or if the preceding beat contains a brush, cluck, or ghost note) this note should be played with the thumb of the right hand.

Rule 2b) if the note on a "1+" or "2+" beat is at a higher fret of the same string of the preceding note, this note should be played with a hammer on.

Rule 2c) if the note on a "1+" or "2+" beat is at a lower fret of the same string of the preceding note, this note should be played with a pull off.

Rule 2d) if the note on a "1+" or "2+" beat is on a higher string than the preceding note, this note should be played by plucking the string with the left hand.
-------
Again, these rules are based on online advice from Ken Perlman and Mike Iverson, amongst others; also the rules assume that you count jigs as One-and-a, two-and-a, which I notate as 1 + +, 2 + +.

This is the current approach I've been using to play jigs and so far its going pretty well. I've been working on "the Irish Washerwoman" since last week - I've mostly worked out the B part and I've gotten fairly comfortable with the jig feel. However, the necessity of playing two down-strokes with the index finger in a row (on 1++/2++ beats and the 2/1 beats that follow) puts a speed limit on this technique - even at a reasonable pace, I can't help but feeling that my hand is doing just a bit more work than it needs to. Instinctively, it feels like there must be some way to have down-strokes on the 1/2 beats and nowhere else - enter the aforementioned "other" jig technique as shown by banjohangout user "slc."

Before I dissect this technique (hereafter the "slc-method"), let me show you an example. Note that I got his permission to talk about this on my blog via email and I actually requested that he record this tune ("Coleraine's Jig").

Banjohangout user "slc" showing his awesome jig technique with "Coleraine's Jig" in A minor.

Note that Mike Iverson actually has a tab for this tune on his site As you can see, he's playing at a pretty good speed and he looks relaxed - I'm betting he could go a lot faster - pretty great right?

So, whats going on here? Well, the technique demonstrated above is likely to scare off the clawhammer purists because it involves (gasp!) up-picks! To play jigs in the slc-method, one simply re-define's right hand stride a bit by breaking rule 1 in half:
-------
Rule 1a for maintaining right hand stride in jigs: The index finger of the right hand moves towards the strings on every 1 and 2 beat; the thumb never​ plays notes on these beats.

Rule 1b for maintaining right hand stride in jigs: The right hand moves away from the strings (upward) on every 1++ and 2++ beat and the middle finger is used to pluck (by up-picking) any notes on these beats; the thumb never​ plays notes on these beats.
--------
Again, what a hugely elegant solution - you're using both the down stroke and the resulting upstroke to get notes! Note that slc actually down picks with his middle finger, so he up-picks with his index finger (backwards from what I've done). I suppose one could up-pick and down-pick with the same finger....I've always found up-picking with a nail to feel strange - I know guitarists do this but I really don't know how they stand it.

I should mention that another clawhammer player named Steve Baughman also experiments with up-picking in an Irish context: he calls this technique "the frisco flick" and he essentially plays triplets peppered through Irish reels using the "down-pick, thumb, up-pick" pattern similar to what is used in the slc-method. Steve's playing is super clean (on clawhammer guitar too) and I would recommend checking out his youtube videos as well - I would post one here but I didn't ask Steve first.

Anyways, I've been trying out the slc-method myself and as for now it still feels a bit awkward - not sure if I'm going to convert all of my jigs yet (okay I've only really got 2 so far...) but this is a ton of fun! Thanks to slc for giving me the go-ahead here (and recording "Coleraine's" - love your playing!

(Before I get started...) This post is a few days late, for which I apologize! I wanted to make it good rather than fast and it took me a while to get the recordings/tabs together - hopefully this was worth the wait for any regular readers!

----------

This weekend I went to a memorial for my banjo-buddy Stew who passed away this summer. The gathering was really nice - while I mostly knew Stew in a musical context, it was great to hear about his other passions (racing cars and dirt bikes; doing after-hours renegade IT at his University) and meet his family. I also got to meet the members of the contradance band Stew played with and even join them for a few tunes on banjo. Let it be known that when my time comes I absolutely want a jam session to break out at my memorial service as well - I think Stew would have loved it.

Before playing with the contradance band, they let me look over their tune list and pick out the ones I knew for us to play together. I was grateful for this bit of courtesy since contra bands often veer Irish I'm not super familiar with that repertoire. In addition to skewing the jam towards "crossover tunes" (e.g. "Whiskey before breakfast" and the like), letting me pick tunes meant that we ended up playing mostly reels and a few waltzes; though Stew's old contra dance band had plenty of jigs on the list, they didn't get to play any (note: I did actually ask them to play a few without me but they were too polite to take me up on that). Stew once mentioned to me in an email that he had never found a great way to get clawhammer jigs up to speed - maybe a jig-less jam at his memorial would have actually been his preference : ).

However, I've been meaning to tackle jigs on this blog (and in my own playing) for a while so...today's post is all about playing jigs on clawhammer banjo. I'll start by describing problems with playing clawhammer jigs, then Ill break down right hand stride for jig playing, and finally I'll then talk a little about breaking stride in a jig context. Here we go!

The problem with playing jigs...
First off, a definition. "Jigs" are tunes in 6/8 time frequently found in the Irish repertoire, but (in my experience) absent in Appalachian Old Time music. The biggest problem with playing jigs on clawhammer banjo is that they require players to slur notes in groups of three 8th notes with the first note played strongly; I typically count each measure of a jig as "one, and, a, two, and, a..." with the bold notes denoting heavier emphasis. However, as clawhammer players, we have 2 right hand appendages available to us (the striking finger and the thumb) and figuring out when to use these for 3 notes without getting all twisted up is a bit of a conundrum. In typical 4/4 tunes, we can go with the general rules of right hand stride (outlined here), which dictate that we bring our striking finger towards the strings (...even if we end up playing a ghost note...) on every beat; off-beat notes (i.e. those indicated with "+'s" in my tabs) are played either with drop-thumb, hammer-ons, pull-offs, or left hand plucks. Of course its just fine to break stride on occaision, but it would be nice to figure out the "rules" of right hand stride in the context of a jig before trying to break it.

Right hand stride in jigs
For today's post I'll be talking about a familiar Irish jig called "the Irish Washerwoman" which, even if you're not all that familiar with Irish music, you may have heard in old Popeye cartoons like I did back in the day. Here's a tab of the A part without any markup to indicate hammer-on's, pull-off's etc.:

Figure 1 - The A part of "The Irish Washerwoman" without any markup indicating hammer-on's, pull-off's, drop thumbs, or left hand plucks. All tabs meant to be played in Old G tuning (gDGDE). Hand position: 2nd fret - index; 3rd fret - middle; 4th fret - ring; 5th fret - pinky.

Note that while jigs are typically thought of as 6 beats (and could be counted 1,2,3,4,5,6) I typically count each measure of a jig as "one, and, a, two, and, a..." with the bold notes denoting heavier emphasis. In my notation above I put "+'s" above the 2nd, 3rd, 5th, and 6th notes in a measure of un-interrupted 8th notes; in the discussion below, I''ll call these beats either 1+/2+ (indicating the first beat after a numbered beat) or 1++/2++ (indicating the second beat after a numbered beat).

The most straightforward (but perhaps least "clawhammery") way would to play this thing would be to simply play every note with the striking finger. Here's how that sounds:

Example 1 - The tab in figure 1 played using my striking (index) finger for every note.

This approach is actually okay at slow speeds - after all, I essentially did something like this to play the non-Old-Time song "Atlantic" at a relative's wedding (more on that here) - but you're never going to get a jig up to speed like this. Also, that type of playing is missing that "clawhammery groove." So how do be play faster and add in some groove? After trying to feel my way through this conundrum in jams, I finally turned to the internet for advice - as you may have guessed, you can find a lot of info about this on banjo hangout (banjohangout.org). I found a post by Ken Perlman (definitely a go-to guru for Celtic clawhammer) which suggested using an "ITIITI" approach for jigs. There's also a great youtube video by Mike Iverson advocating the same approach. Basically, Ken and Mike are suggesting that each measure of a jig could be played as follows (note that I've used "++" to refer to the second plus beat after each numbered beat):

Beat 1: index
Beat 1 +: thumb
Beat 1 ++: index
Beat 2: index
Beat 2 +: thumb
Beat 2 ++: index

I'll go ahead and modify this just a bit and say that the "1+" and "2+" beats of each measure could also be played with hammer-on's, pull-offs, or left hand plucks. Under this guidance, the rules of right hand stride for jigs become the following (text heavily borrowed from my aforementioned first post on right hand stride - again, here):

Rule 1 for maintaining right hand stride in jigs: The index finger of the right hand moves towards the strings on every 1, 1++, 2, and 2++ beat; the thumb never​ plays notes on these beat.

Rule 2 for maintaining right hand stride in jigs: The index finger is never used to play notes on 1+ or 2+ beats; these notes should be played with the thumb of the right hand, with a left hand pluck, or by hammer-ons/pull-offs from notes played on preceding beats.

Rule 2a) if the note on a "1+" or "2+" beat is on a lower string than the preceding note (or if the preceding beat contains a brush, cluck, or ghost note) this note should be played with the thumb of the right hand.

Rule 2b) if the note on a "1+" or "2+" beat is at a higher fret of the same string of the preceding note, this note should be played with a hammer on.

Rule 2c) if the note on a "1+" or "2+" beat is at a lower fret of the same string of the preceding note, this note should be played with a pull off.

Rule 2d) if the note on a "1+" or "2+" beat is on a higher string than the preceding note, this note should be played by plucking the string with the left hand.

I like a lot of things about this approach, but it does have one big drawback: you end up constantly playing 2 striking finger notes in a row (e.g. between the 1++ and 2 beats). While this may put an inevitable speed limit on your playing, I really like the feel that this approach gives: the 1, 1++, 2, and 2++ beats are noticeably stronger than the 1+ and 2+ beats. I try to play so that the 1 and 2 beats are strong, the 1+ and 2+ beats are weak, and the 1++ and 2++ beats are somewhere in the middle. By using a slightly higher tough on the 3rd beat of each group, it also becomes a bit easier to get your hand back in line for the 1st beat.

So lets start applying this approach to "the Irish Washerwoman." For various reasons, I'll start with the 2nd measure. Here it is again, not marked up:

​Figure 2 - the second measure of the A part of "the Irish Washerwoman" without any markup indicating hammer-on's, pull-off's, drop thumbs, or left hand plucks.
​(Meant to be played in old G tuning - gDGDE)

The rules of right hand stride for jigs outlined above say that it should be played as follows:

​Figure 3 - the second measure of the A part of "the Irish Washerwoman" as it should be played according to the rules of right hand stride outlined above. Brackets indicate drop thumb.
​(Meant to be played in old G tuning - gDGDE)

You'll get some audio a bit further down, but I'll just say that this actually works pretty well for now. Next let's check out the first measure (again unmarked up first):

​Figure 4 - the first measure of the A part of "the Irish Washerwoman" without any markup indicating hammer-on's, pull-off's, drop thumbs, or left hand plucks.
​(Meant to be played in old G tuning - gDGDE)

The rules of right hand stride (above) would say that this phrase should be played as follows:

​Figure 5 - the first measure of the A part of "the Irish Washerwoman" as it should be played according to the rules of right hand stride outlined above. Again, I hope you like my creative method for indicating the use of a left hand pluck : )
​(Meant to be played in old G tuning - gDGDE)

However, that left hand pluck on the 3rd string (and left hand plucks in general...) feels pretty awkward to me. Banjos don't have​ to get every single melody note; I'm in favor of replacing that note with a 5th string pull as follows:

​Figure 6 - the first measure of the A part of "the Irish Washerwoman" as it should be played according to the rules of right hand stride outlined above, but with a 5th string pull replacing a left hand pluck. ​(Meant to be played in old G tuning - gDGDE)

Using this "replace left hand plucks with 5th string pulls" technique, you can play the whole A part of the "the Irish Washerwoman" in stride as follows:

​Figure 7 - The A part of "the Irish Washerwoman" played according to the rules of right hand stride, but with all potential left hand plucks replaced with 5th string pulls. Brackets indicate drop thumb. ​(Meant to be played in old G tuning - gDGDE)

Here's the audio:

Example 2 - me playing the tab shown in Figure 7 on my Buckeye.

If I really wanted to, I could use some left hand plucks to get all of the melody notes in "the Irish Washerwoman," but again, I really don't like playing that way. Also, the note on the 2+ beat of the 3rd measure is fretted and I find that plucking fretted notes with the remaining fingers of the left hand to be nearly impossible. Perhaps we could get these notes with some hammer-ons and/or shifts in left hand position...but we can also get them by breaking stride!

Breaking right hand stride in jigs:
The one relevant stride breaking move that I'll talk about here is what Adam Hurt calls a "modified Galax lick" that I've talked about previously (here). Basically, you're trying to use a single right hand stroke to strike 2 adjacent strings as follows:

Figure 8 - A poorly drawn explanation of how to accomplish a "modified galax lick" to get 2 quick striking finger notes in a row. For the figure on the left, pretend you're looking down your banjo neck from the nut to the bridge...and that every part of the banjo other than the strings and bridge has disappeared for some reason. For the figure on the right, the circled numbers represent cross-sections of strings 1-5 and the line at the bottom represents the fingerboard.

This move gives us a less-awkward way to reach the melody notes were missing (at least in my opinion). Here's what our tab of the A part of "the Irish Washerwoman" looks like afterwards:

​Figure 9 - The A part of "the Irish Washerwoman" played with a bit of right hand stride breaking. Brackets indicate drop thumb, astrices indicate that the note should be played with the index finger as the second note of a modified galax lick (shown in Figure 8).
​(Meant to be played in old G tuning - gDGDE)

Here's the audio:

Example 3 - Me playing the tab shown in Figure 9 on my Buckeye.

Well this turned into a long one : ). Next week, I've got just a bit more to say about jig playing - see you then!