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Jeff Norman 
Weekly Blog on Clawhammer Banjo

Playing G minor tunes in Old G

8/27/2017

3 Comments

 
This Blog has been all over the place as of late (well...maybe it always has) - however, rather than stubbornly sticking to some pre-determined plan (i.e. messing with "La Rotta" as promised here), it seems appropriate to use this blog to chronicle what's actually going on in my "banjo-life" from week to week. In that spirit, I'll be talking about the tune "Maggie Meade" this week - the biggest reason for this is that a local fiddler and I were filmed playing it on our lunch break (and its also one of my favorite tunes at the moment!):
"Maggie Meade" played by myself (on my Buckeye) and Molly McBride (on fiddle).
Great tune right??

While the Michigan weather allows it, Molly and I get together on our lunch break once a week and play some tunes. This is mostly for our own amusement but on occasion we get an audience - this week, Molly had a co-worker film us as a promo video for her upcoming concert at the 10 pound fiddle (details on that event here). I was flattered that she'd want me in her promo video, and I thought we sounded pretty great!

The tune we played here is called "Maggie Meade" - its a G minor tune from Kentucky fiddler J.P. Farley...and I just freakin love it! As with all of my G tunes, I play "Maggie Meade" in Old G tuning (gDGDE - more on that tuning here). If you read the post in that link, you'll see that the fact that Old G works for minor tunes is one of the "pros" I listed for this tuning. However, this "pro" was a bit theoretical when I wrote that original post - "Maggie Meade" is the first G minor tune I've ever come across! I definitely loved the tune the second I heard it and wanted to learn it at any cost - its especially nice to not have to retune for just one song so Old G was quite the blessing.

I decided that I'd write up a tab of "Maggie Meade" for anyone who'd like to add it to their repertoire:
----Click Here for a Tab of "Maggie Meade"----
A quick word on that tab: I had to jump around octaves a bit to make the thing playable in the banjo's range. Rather than falling in the "natural octave" for a banjo (which is, in my opinion, one octave below where the fiddle plays - more on that here), I mostly play in unison with the fiddle since this tune veers fairly low in the fiddle's range. However, there's a stretch in the A part (measures 4 and 5) where the fiddle jumps up, but my banjo stays low - to stay in unison with the fiddle, I'd have to jump way up the neck here....and I just don't wanna : )

Hope that anyone reading found that useful! To finish up, I'll point out that Molly and I actually did a second minor tune as well. Here's a video of us playing "Sally in the Garden" in D minor:
Molly and I playing "Sally in the Garden"....in a garden (well, quad)
other than a few subtle variations and a low harmony in the B part, I pretty much stick to Mike Iverson's tab of this tune (I talked a bit about his site here). Good luck with "Maggie Meade" - see you next week!

PS - if anyone has other favorite G minor old time tunes, please mention them in the comments section - I'd love to learn them!
3 Comments
Marlene Stiles
7/19/2018 06:17:21 pm

Do you know "send me your address in heaven" or maybe its "form heaven", (google or youtube it) and do you ever or would you consider playing at a funeral? And how much would it cost us?
my mom just died and that was the only song my dad said he wanted. Funeral is this sunday July 22, 2018 in East Lansing.
Marlene Stiles

Reply
Jeff N
7/19/2018 11:13:39 pm

Hey Marlene - so sorry to hear about your mom. I actually moved away from East Lansing, but if you use the contact form on my site, I'd be glad to give you contact info for some other musicians in the area. Alternatively you can contact Molly (fiddler in the above videos) through her site: https://mollygmcbride.com

Reply
Marlene
7/20/2018 01:00:59 am

Thanks for getting back to me Jeff. I appreciate it!




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