Hi, The song of the week is 'Foggy Mountain Top' in the key of G. The chord progression for 'Foggy Mountain Top' is one of the most common progressions in bluegrass: 1141 1155 1141 1511 (Prog. V6 on the Basic Chord Progressions handout. In the key of G: 1=G, 4=C, 5=D.) Other bluegrass standards that use this same progression include: Live And Let Live I'll Never Shed Another Tear All The Good Times Are Past And Gone On And On Light At The River Little Cabin Home On The Hill - verse prog. only Before I Met You - verse prog. only Cabin In Caroline - verse prog. only Gonna Settle Down - verse prog. only Little Girl Of Mine In Tennessee - verse prog. only Little Old Log Cabin In The Lane - verse prog. only Hallelujah, I'm Ready To Go - verse prog. only Lovesick And Sorrow - verse prog. only Greenville Trestle - verse prog. only Keep On The Sunny Side - chorus prog. only For people who are much less familiar with bluegrass than with other genres of music, some good points of reference for this progression might include: Amazing Grace Swing Low, Sweet Chariot Jesse James - verse prog. only Cotton Fields - verse prog. only My Old Kentucky Home (some versions) - verse prog. only Note: With the exceptions of 'Hallelujah, I'm Ready To Go' and 'My Old Kentucky Home', all the songs listed here in which only the verses of the song use the V6 progression, the progression for the chorus is prog. X6 on the basic chord progressions handout: 4411 1155 1141 1511 Progressions V6 and X6 tend to show up together with each other in the same song much more frequently than any other pair of progressions on the basic progressions handout. Compare the progression for 'Foggy Mountain Top' (V6) with the progression for another one of the songs on the top 20 list, 'Bury Me Beneath The Willow': 1144 1155 1144 1511 Notice how similar these two progressions are. They differ from each other only in 2 of their measures, namely the last measure of line 1 and last measure of line 3. Part of the practical value of observing how certain commonly recurring progressions are similar and different from each other is that by taking note of this, one can help oneself to avoid certain common mistakes. In my many years of jamming experience, I have noticed that a lot of people tend to be more familiar with prog. V7 than with prog. V6. At large jams, whenever a song that uses prog. V6, I have found that it is typical to find at least one person playing prog. V7 for at least the first round or two through the progression. I count this as being one of the top half dozen or so errors involving wrong chord changes that occur at jams. Yet, the opposite case - namely, someone playing prog. V6 during a song that uses prog. V7 - rarely ever occurs at jams. Another way to put this is that when the first three measures are 114, there is a much greater tendency to assume that the fourth measure will stay on the 4 instead of going back to the 1. This assumption should be avoided, because songs with the 'Foggy Mountain Top' (V6) progression are very common in bluegrass, even if not quite as common as songs with the 'I Still Write Your Name In The Sand' (V7) progression. Here is a live version of Foggy Mountain Top to listen to, played in the key of G: Doc Watson, Earl Scruggs, Ricky Skaggs ('The Three Pickers'): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M06bCshmjQc&list=PLrKc0UaxjO0BfsX2Y0PFFr3q_G85nX7PY&index=3 Notice Doc's choice of pickup notes to lead into the first complete measure of his intro break on guitar: G, B, C, which ascend to a D note. This is the same series of notes that the melody of 'When The Saints Go Marching In' begins with, and is much more effective for starting a break than if one were to use the D half-note as a pickup that is written on the attached 'Foggy Mountain Top' melody sheets. This is a good case in point illustrating how it is often not desirable to slavishly follow the sung melody when playing a melody-based break. An alternative choice of pickup notes to use to ascend into the D note that the first complete measure begins with is: B, C, C#, and this is the choice of notes that you will often hear played on banjo and fiddle on good bluegrass records as pickups to lead into a melody line that starts with a D note on a G chord. A good number of songs that are now in the standard bluegrass repertoire were recorded by the Carter Family in the 20's, 30's, and early 40's before Bluegrass music, in the generally accepted sense of the term, came into being, and their recordings of these songs directly influenced the first and second generation bluegrass artists who brought these songs into Bluegrass. (Both Flatt & Scruggs and Ralph Stanley, for instance, have recorded entire albums consisting of nothing but Carter Family songs, and there are many, many more of these songs scattered here and there on their other albums.) The 'pre-Bluegrass' music of the Carter Family bears a similar relation to Bluegrass as what the music of Woodie Guthrie has to the 'Pop-Folk' music genre of the 60s. So, for historical reasons, and because I believe that familiarity with the music of the Carter Family is an important part of a well-rounded Bluegrass education, here is a link to the old Carter Family recording of 'Foggy Mountain Top': https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnzjYS1iYJw Notice that (as I pointed out last night at the jam) Sara Carter (who is singing lead on the record) sings the song from the perspective of a man. As far as I can gather, the influence of modern pop music (from the 70s onward especially) is to a great degree responsible for the tendency that a lot of people now have to change the lyrics to songs sung in the first person to make them correspond to the gender of the person singing the song: one contemporary bluegrass commentator/teacher that I have a lot of respect for - Chris Jones (of the band 'Chris Jones and the Night Drivers') - refers to this as 'the dreaded gender-switch', and regards it as being entirely unnecessary, and in many cases, awkward, to do this. In my years of listening to good bluegrass records, especially ones recorded by first and second generation bluegrass artists from the late 40s through to the 60s, I am inclined to think that this view of the matter was likely shared to one extent or another by the pioneers of Bluegrass: they rarely ever change lyrics to make them suit their gender, even in cases in which a simple and non-awkward substitution of female pronouns in place of male pronouns (e.g., in 'Bury Me Beneath The Willow') is all that would be needed to do this. Some songs make more sense when sung in the person of a woman (regardless of what the gender of the singer happens to be), while others make more sense when sung in the person of a man (once again, the gender of the person singing the song is not relevant in this context). And, they didn't avoid singing songs in which recourse to 'the dreaded gender-switch' would not work for the song. (E.g., Ralph Stanley's 'Little Willie' which is sung in the person of a woman for its first three verses.) An unfortunate consequence of the more recent trend in music is that it leads some people to avoid singing certain songs that, if they were not influenced so much by this trend, they might otherwise sing because they like the songs. If Bluegrass is still a somewhat foreign genre of music to you, but you are more familiar with the 'Pop-Folk' genre of several decades ago, then, if it helps you to put this issue in context more easily, you might think of Joan Baez singing the opening line of 'The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down' in the person of a man: "Virgil Cane is my name..." The other Carter Family songs, besides 'Foggy Mountain Top', that are on the top 20 and additional 30 lists are: Bury Me Beneath The Willow (the very first song that the Carters recorded) www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCniFuHlPG0 Gathering Flowers From The Hillside www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jo7pEzfZklY Will The Circle Be Unbroken (there were earlier recorded versions, but they did not have much influence, if any, on how this song is played as a Bluegrass song compared to the Carter Family's version) www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjHjm5sRqSA Gold Watch And Chain www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pZD1Six5XI Worried Man Blues www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcvWrxrNk4k Additional Carter Family songs I recommend taking a listen to include: The Storms Are On The Ocean Little Darling Pal Of Mine (the direct source of the melody for the popular folk song 'This Land Is Your Land': the main reason why 'This Land Is Your Land' is on the current additional 30 list instead of 'Little Darling Pal Of Mine' is because in the initial stages of a new beginner bluegrass jam, it is often the case that many of the participants in the jam are new to the bluegrass genre, so I think it is a good idea to have some songs on the lists that adapt well to being played in a Bluegrass style, but which are songs that are well-known outside of Bluegrass circles. As a beginner bluegrass jam progresses, songs like these, which also include 'She'll Be Coming Round The Mountain', 'Red River Valley', 'Goodnight Irene', and 'When The Saints Go Marching In', naturally tend to give way to songs that are less well-known outside Bluegrass circles.) Keep On The Sunny Side Wildwood Flower God Gave Noah The Rainbow Sign I'm Thinking Tonight Of My Blue Eyes Lulu Walls (a.k.a. Lula Walls) Diamonds In The Rough Engine One-Forty-Three The Homestead On The Farm (better known in Bluegrass circles from Mac Wiseman's versions of the song under the title of 'I Wonder How The Old Folks Are At Home') Wabash Cannonball (the great old-school Country artist Roy Acuff later had a hit record with this song) A Distant Land To Roam Jimmy Brown The Newsboy (associated more with Flatt & Scruggs and/or Mac Wiseman in Bluegrass circles) On The Rock Where Moses Stood (a.k.a. Cryin' Holy. Both Bill Monroe and J.D. Crowe and the New South recorded excellent versions of this song) I Can't Feel At Home (a.k.a. 'This World Is Not My Home', recorded by numerous big name Bluegrass artists, as well as non-Bluegrass artists representative of several different musical genres) Give Me Roses While I Live I Never Will Marry The East Virginia Blues Darling Little Joe You're Gonna Be Sorry You Let Me Down Happy Pickin', Jason
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Hi, Very good jam last night! For such a large group, we did quite well keeping our timing locked in with each other. The song of the week is Little Birdie in the key of Bb. This was one of the first songs I learned to play on banjo. Probably the most well known version of this song within bluegrass circles is Ralph Stanley's, on which he plays clawhammer (old-time) style banjo instead of the more common (for bluegrass) 3 finger style. Ralph's version of the song is 'crooked', meaning that there are extra half measures in the progression. This makes his version somewhat hard to learn or to play along with. Making things even more difficult is that the breaks do not follow exactly the same form as the verses. Here is a link for Ralph's version of the song. But this is not the version that I will use at the beginner jam, since it is not very jam friendly. Ralph Stanley (key of D) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80if-yp-tdc Here is a slower version of the song, and one in which the form is not crooked, and in which the form is the same for both the verses. the choruses, and the breaks. Notice that Ralph Stanley's version has no chorus. His first verse is used as a chorus in the version below. The Cartys (key of D) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nkgi6k9LsPY This is pretty much how I intend on playing the song at the beginner jam, except that there will be no chorus, only verses, as in the Ralph Stanley version. The chord progression, for both the verses and the breaks is: 1155 5511 1155 5511 (first half of Prog. V9 - played through twice - on the basic chord progressions handout) In the key of Bb: 1 = Bb; 5 = F The notes that make up the Bb chord are: Bb, D, F The notes that make up the F chord are: F, A, C Of the other 7 common keys that bluegrass is played in, the key of F is the most closely related to the key of Bb. The Bb major scale and the F major scale contain six notes in common; only one note is different. The F major scale consists of the notes: F, G, A, Bb, C, D, and E. The Bb major scale consists of the notes: Bb, C, D, Eb, F, G, and A. Playing a song in Bb that uses only the 1 and 5 chords does not involve needing to use any chords other than those that are used to play songs in F that use the 1 and 4 chords in them. Playing the melody for Little Birdie in Bb does not involve using any notes that are not also part of the F major scale, because the melody for Little Birdie does not use the 4th note (scale degree) of the major scale. If you are fiddler or a mandolin player, and you already play songs or licks in F, then, provided that these songs or licks do not require using the 4th string, you can take your same fingerings for F and move them all one string lower in pitch, and you will be thereby be playing in Bb. For playing in the key of Bb, bluegrass banjo and guitar players almost always capo to the 3rd fret, so that they can use the same fingerings that they would use for playing in the key of G. (In the key of G: 1=G; 5=D) Banjo players will need to raise the pitch of the fifth string to a Bb note (registers as A# on most tuners). This is done by capoing (with a 5th string capo, or 8th fret spike) the 5th string at the 8th fret. For banjo players who do not have a fifth string capo or an 8th fret spike (that includes myself), spike the 5th string at the 7th fret, and then tune it up a half step to a Bb (A#) note. This is best done by ear by playing the 5th string with the thumb while playing the 3rd string with the index finger, turning the 5th string tuning peg slowly until the 5th string sounds harmonious with the 3rd string. If you do not have spikes or a 5th string capo, you can just tune up the 5th string manually to a Bb note (I know one good local Boise banjo player who habitually does this), but don't be surprised if the string breaks. You might wish to keep the banjo away from your face when tuning the 5th string up this high in case the string does break. Also, remember that the tension on the neck changes every time you tune a string up or down. Tuning one string up 3 half steps will cause the rest of your strings to go flat, and so they will need to be tuned up a little bit. Here is another version of Little Birdie which you may enjoy (and which, unlike the previous links, has a 3 finger style banjo break): Spinney Brothers (key of B) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mk139nLQ2so Reminder: The Friday Night Jam will be playing at Sockeye this Friday (tomorrow) at their Cole Rd. location (3019 N Cole Rd.) from 7pm to 9:30pm. We hope to see you there. Attached here is the poster advertising the upcoming 4th Annual Weiser Bluegrass Banjo Camp, which I will be teaching at together with Janet Beasley, Mark Thomas, and Gary Eller: there will be classes for all levels of banjo playing. If you are interested, I will be happy to give you more details, and I encourage you to check out our website given on the poster (or, you can punch in: banjocontest.org and it will redirect you to the current webpage). The dates for this year's camp are May 18 - 21. Please help us to spread the word about the upcoming banjo camp. Happy Pickin', Jason
Two notes separated from each other by 7 half-steps form an interval of a perfect 5th when, assigning the number name of '1' to the lower note, the letter name of the higher note corresponds to '5' in the number system. (E.g., G and D, with G being the lower of the two notes: D is 7 half-steps higher than G, and D is '5' when G is '1': G (1), A (2), B (3), C (4), D (5).)
Two notes separated from each other by 5 half-steps form an interval of a perfect 4th when, assigning the number name of '1' to the lower note, the letter name of the higher note corresponds to '4' in the number system. (E.g., D and G, with D being the lower of the two notes: G is 5 half-steps higher than D, and G is '4' when D is '1': D (1), E (2), F# (3), G (4).) The 7 natural notes arranged in perfect 5ths are, in order: F, C, G, D, A, E, B, which can be remembered by: Father Charles Goes Down And Ends Battle. Reversing this order results in the 7 same notes being arranged in perfect 4ths: B, E, A, D, G, C, F: Battle Ends And Down Goes Charles' Father. Practical Application #1: In the alternating bass pattern used for playing bluegrass bass and rhythm guitar, the note that the root note of the chord is alternated with is to immediate right of the root note in the sequence of perfect 5ths: so for playing the alternating bass pattern for the C chord, one alternates between a C note (the root note of the chord) and a G note (the '5' of C), for a G chord, one alternates between a G note (the root note of the chord) and a D note (the '5' of G), etc. Practical Application #2: In the sequence of perfect 5ths, the 5 chord is to the immediate right of the 1 chord, and the 4 chord is to the immediate left of the 1 chord: E.g., when 1 = G, then 5 = D and 4 = C. The list of practical applications goes on and on, but these two applications make for a good start. Suffice it to say for now that the sequences of perfect 5ths and 4ths clump the notes and chords together that most frequently show up together in songs, whereas the chromatic scale (the sequences involving ascending and descending in half-steps) separates these from each other. The sequences of perfect 5ths and 4ths can be expanded to include sharps and flats (this will be dealt with in a future teaching segment at the jam), and this is something we will need to do, for instance, to account for the '4' chord in the key of F, and for the '5' chord in the key of B and for the alternating bass pattern for a B chord. In preparation for this, a good thing to make it a point to remember is that F and B are at the two ends of the sequences of natural notes. (The reason why F and B are the two outermost natural notes of the sequences will be made clear when we expand the sequences to include sharps and flats.) Hi, Good jam last night! The song of the week is Nine Pound Hammer in the key of A. The chord progression for the verses (the second half of which can be thought of as a chorus) and for the breaks for 'Nine Pound Hammer' is: 1144 1511 1144 1511 Notice that this progression is simply the second half - played through twice - of other more commonly occurring progressions. E.g., the progression for 'Bury Me Beneath The Willow', 'I Still Write Your Name In The Sand', 'Memory Of You', and 'Wreck Of The Old '97'. (Prog. V7 on the Basic Chord Progressions handout) 1144 1155 1144 1511 or, the progression for 'Mama Don't Allow', 'Will You Be Loving Another Man', 'She'll Be Coming Round The Mountain', and 'When The Saints Go Marching In;' (Prog. V2): 1111 1155 1144 1511 In the key of A: 1=A; 4=D; 5=E The A chord consists of the notes: A, C#, and E; the D chord consists of: D, F#, and A; and the E chord consists of: E, G#, and B. Banjo players and most guitar players will wish to capo to the 2nd fret to play in A; so the key that they will be thinking in will be G. In the key of G: 1=G; 4=C; 5=D The G chord consists of the notes: G, B, and D; the C chord: C, E, and G; the D chord: D, F#, and A While the intro break for the song should follow the melody closely enough to make it clear what song is being played before the first verse is sung, Nine Pound Hammer lends itself quite well to lick-oriented improvised breaks that may deviate considerably from the melody. (See especially the first youtube link below for examples of this.) This is a good song to use as a means for practicing any licks that you may have in your repertoire that fit over a line of 1144 or a line of 1511 for the key that you are playing the song in. Here are a couple of good youtube links of Nine Pound Hammer to listen to: Tony Rice - key of A (unfortunately there is no banjo in this version) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_u964a0f38s Lonesome River Band - key of B https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tNA13W2cds Guitar and banjo players who wish to play along with this second link can capo to the 4th fret and play as if playing in G. For fiddle, mandolin, and bass players who wish to give playing in B a try, the 1, 4, and 5 chords in the key of B are: 1=B, 4=E. 5=F#. The B chord consists of the notes: B,D#, and F#; the E chord: E, G#, and B; the F# chord: F#, A#, and C#. Remember, on youtube you can adjust the tempo by clicking on settings, and then clicking on 'speed'. In the melody sheets attached here, notice that the first three notes of the melody of 'Nine Pound Hammer' are quarter notes, and that they occur before the first complete measure of the tune. (In cut common time, i.e., 2/2 time, as well as in common time, i.e., 4/4 time, 3 quarter notes make up only three-quarters of a complete measure.) Make it a point to remember these notes, because they will be useful for starting your intro breaks for many other songs that, like 'Nine Pound Hammer', also have as their first melody note in their first complete measure the note that has the same name as both the key that the song is being played in, and the first chord played in the song. In the key of A, these three quarter notes are: E, E, F#, and the first note of the first complete measure is an A note. In the key of G, these three quarter notes are: D, D, E, and the first note of the first complete measure is a G note. In the key of B, these three quarter notes are: F#, F#, G#, and the first note of the first complete measure is a B note. Etc. The melody of 'Nine Pound Hammer' contains 3 more notes in it that are higher in pitch than the notes that it starts with. In the key of A, these notes are, in ascending order of pitch: B, C#, and the E above the C#. So, in ascending order of pitch, the melody notes for Nine Pound Hammer in the key of A are: E, F#, A, B, C#, E. These are the same notes used to play 'My Home's Across The Blue Ridge Mountains' (two songs of the week ago) in the key of A. But, so far at the new beginner jam, we have only played My Home's Across The Blue Ridge Mountains in the key of G, and for the key of G, the melody notes are (in ascending order of pitch): D, E, G, A, B, D. So, these are the set of notes that are also used to play Nine Pound Hammer in the key of G. Notice also that there are only 5 letter names involved here for naming the notes that make up the melody in each key: for A, the letter names are: A, B, C#, E, and F#, the same letter names for all the notes in the melody of Shortnin' Bread in A, though the range of notes for Shortnin' Bread in A runs from A (lowest note) to the A an octave higher (highest note), whereas for Nine Pound Hammer and My Home's Across The Blue Ridge Mountains, the range of notes in A runs from E (lowest note) to the E and octave higher (highest note). For G, the corresponding letter names are: G, A, B, D, and E, and the two ranges are: G to G for Shortnin' Bread in G, and D to D for Nine Pound Hammer and My Home's Across The Blue Ridge Mountains. Having a basic understanding of the Number System (the subject of last night's teaching segment) for naming the notes that belong to the Major Scale (the series of notes that gives us that familiar 'do-re-mi-fa-sol-la-ti-do' sound) together with an understanding of the relation of the Major Scale to the Chromatic Scale (which, for our purposes here, may be conveniently thought of as the set of 12 notes needed in order to be able to play all the Major Scales), the subject of the teaching segment at the jam the week before, can make it much easier to memorize the relationships involved here and to see how the information presented here all neatly fits together. G Major Scale: G, A, B, C, D, E, F#, (G) A Major Scale: A, B, C#,D, E, F#,G#, (A) B Major Scale: B, C#,D#,E,F#,G#,A#, (B) Number Names: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, (1) So, no matter what key one plays Nine Pound Hammer and My Home's Across The Blue Ridge Mountains (also, 'Will The Circle Be Unbroken' and 'Long Journey Home', both played at last night's jam) in: the melody notes are, from lowest to highest: 5, 6, 1, 2, 3, 5. For Shortnin' Bread (and also for 'Liza Jane' that was played at last night's jam), they are, from lowest to highest: 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 1. The three quarter notes that make up the pickup measure that precedes the first complete measure in Nine Pound Hammer are: 5, 5, 6, and this leads to the first note of the first complete measure, and the number name for that note is 1. Happy Pickin', Jason
The song of the week is Shortnin' Bread in the key of G. Shortnin' Bread is a two-part fiddle tune. Each part is 4 measures long, and - as is typical for fiddle tunes - is repeated before going on to the next part. This form (2 parts each repeated) is called AABB. 'A' stands for 'A-Part', i.e., first part, and 'B' stands for 'B-Part', i.e., second part. The chord progression for Shortnin' Bread (both parts have the same progression) is typical for fiddle tunes that have 4 measure parts. The progression is: 1 1 1 5/1 That is, 3 measures of the 1 chord, followed by half a measureof the 5 chord, followed by half a measure of the 1 chord. In the key of G: 1 = G; 5 = D. The melody of the tune consists of, in ascending order of pitch, the notes GABDEG. This set of notes is called the G major pentatonic scale, and is one of the most common scales used in bluegrass and old-time music. (Compare this with the set of notes used to play the melody for the previous song of the week 'My Home's Across The Blue Ridge Mountains': in ascending order of pitch, DEGABD. Same notes, same letter names (G's, A's, B,s D's, E's), but a different range: D to D rather than G to G. Like almost every other traditional old-time, bluegrass, Irish, or Scottish AABB fiddle tune, the two parts of the tune are differentiated from each other primarily by the fact that one part starts with a higher note than what the other part starts with, and by the fact that the part that starts with the higher note tend to have a melody that is overall higher in pitch - in some cases only slightly higher on average, in other cases, significantly higher on average - than what the other part does. In old time and bluegrass fiddle tunes, the higher of the two parts is sometimes the A Part (i.e., the part that gets played first) - this is the case with Cripple Creek and Old Joe Clark - while other times it is the B-Part that is the higher of the two parts (e.g., Soldier's Joy, Boil The Cabbage Down, Buffalo Gals, and the vast majority of Irish fiddle tunes). Shortnin' Bread can be - and has been played at the jam - either way, but I have given the higher of the two parts as the 'A-Part' in the attached melody sheets, since that is how I am most used to hearing it played, and it is the way I always play it when I am the one who calls and kicks it off at a jam. (Angeline The Baker is another jam-favorite fiddle tune which can be started with either its high part or its low part.) However, if someone else kicks off Shortnin' Bread at a jam, and they start with the low part instead of the high part, then I follow their lead and play my breaks the same way as they did: low part first, then high part. For, it is the person who kicks the tune off who determines which part is the A-Part and which part is the B-Part. Also, like many other AABB fiddle tunes, both parts end the same way. (on the melody sheets attached here, notice that the last measure of the B-Part is identical with the last measure of the A-Part) and the two halves of the A-Part begin the same way (notice that measure 3 of the A-Part is the same as measure 1 of the A-Part), and the two halves of the B-Part also begin the same way (notice that measure 3 of the B-Part is the same as measure 1 of the B-Part. Besides these commonplace repetitions within fiddle tunes, there are even more points of similarity within the parts of Shortnin' Bread than what is frequently encountered in fiddle tunes. Notice that the 2nd measure of the A-Part is almost identical to the 1st and 3rd measures of the A-Part. Notice that the 2nd measure of the B-Part is identical to the 1st and 3rd measures of the B-Part. Finally, notice that the only difference between the 1st (or 3rd) measure of the B-Part and the 1st (or 3rd) measure of A-Part is which octave the G note is played in that starts the measure. There is, indeed, very little in Shortnin' Bread to learn or to memorize, for the tune is about as repetitious as what a fiddle tune can be, while still having well-defined parts. You may notice in listening to the Flatt and Scruggs youtube link below that both the banjo and the fiddle breaks do not stick all that closely to the melody. (In the attachments, the melody given for Shortnin' Bread is the melody as it would be sung, albeit in a rhythmically simpler form that does not account for every sung syllable.) All the notes are there, however (GABDEG), but the fiddle and the banjo take liberties with the order in which these notes get played. For instance, taking the first measure of the A-Part, and ignoring the 'filler' notes, the melody being played by the banjo is GDED instead of GEDE. Flatt and Scruggs (live) - Shortnin' Bread in the key of G, tune starts at 0:49 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FgpQyk5ibw Notice that the AABB form is altered the second time through it. Scruggs plays four B Parts back to back, the first two of which are a variation on his basic B Part. The most effective way to kick-off most AABB fiddle tunes at a jam is not by playing a pickup measure consisting of three quarter notes to lead into your intro break, but is by droning in a straight but rhythmic manner the root note of the key that the tune is in (often together with another one of the notes that also belong to the 1 chord) for four measures to lead into your intro break.This is called in bluegrass and old-time circles the '8 Potato Intro'. In the attachments, I have included a sheet that shows good ways to play on fiddle, mandolin, guitar, and banjo, an 8 Potato Intro for the key of G. I have also included on the sheet, a simpler (unfortunately, also less effective when both are played correctly) way to play this type of intro on each of these instruments for those who are new to playing this type of intro, and may have difficulty playing the more developed forms of the 8 Potato Intros with the right feel and with rock-solid timing, since playing with the right 'feel' and timing are crucial to making the 8 Potato Intro an effective jam tool. If anything at all goes wrong with the timing or feel of the Intro or with the transition from the Intro into the Intro Break, the whole purpose for using it is thereby defeated. For another take on the melody of Shortnin' Bread, here is a youtube link of the old-time string band 'The Freight Hoppers' playing Shortnin' Bread (key of A.) In the old-time tradition, all the lead instruments in the band (in this case fiddle and clawhammer banjo) are playing their 'breaks' together at the same time, instead of taking turns. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A00SDXFgxn4 While most fiddle tunes have only one standard key in which they are played (e.g., Soldier's Joy - D, Old Joe Clark - A: it is a good idea to get on the habit of thinking of the key as though it were part of the title of the tune), some have 2 or even 3 or 4 different keys traditionally associated with them. This is especially true of those fiddle tunes, like Shortnin' Bread, that have especially simple melodies. It would not be odd for Shortnin' Bread to be called at a jam in any of the 4 most fiddle-friendly keys: G, A, C, or D. Other tunes like this include: Buffalo Gals (usually G or A though, rather than C or D: but at the old-time jam on Mondays at Pengilly's it often gets played in E: it is usually a sung version that is done there; otherwise 'E' would be an unlikely key for it to be played in at that jam), Liza Jane (G, A, or D), Golden Slippers (G, A, or D), and Miss McLeod's Reel (G or A). Since Shortnin' Bread has been played twice at the Beginner Bluegrass Jam in the key of A within the last month, I thought it would be a good idea to include in the attachments melody sheets for fiddle and mandolin written in A (in addition to the ones written in G), so that one can easily compare the notes used to play the melody in G with the corresponding notes used to play the melody in A. This ties in well with the last 2 teaching segments at the Beginner Jam (see below for a summary of these), and it is useful for fiddle and mandolin players to know the relationships involved between the keys of G and A, since there are other songs besides Shortnin' Bread that will tend to show up in both G and A at the jam, depending on who calls them, and in which part of the evening they get called: e.g., Nine Pound Hammer, Buffalo Gals, and Mama Don't Allow. The notes used to play Shortnin' Bread in G (from lowest to highest): G, A, B, D, E, G The corresponding notes for playing Shortnin' Bread in A: A, B, C#, E, F#, do, re, mi, sol, la, do
Summary of Jan. 25, 2017 teaching segment:
7 letters to name 12 notes: e.g., ascending from G to G: G, G#, A, A#, B, C, C#, D, D#, E, F, F# (G) e.g., descending from G to G: G, Gb, F, E, Eb, D, Db, C, B, Bb, A, Ab, (G) Points to remember: - nothing between B and C - nothing between E and F - # (sharp) = 1 half-step higher in pitch (the equivalent of one fret higher on a fretted instrument) - b (flat) = 1 half-step lower in pitch (the equivalent of one fret lower on a fretted instrument) Summary of Feb. 1, 2017 teaching segment: The name for the 12 note scales in the preceding teaching segment is 'the chromatic scale'. The Major Scale is a subset of the Chromatic Scale, and consists of 7 notes. The easiest way to remember which notes of the Chromatic Scale make up the Major Scale is by using the C Major Scale as the point of reference relative to the Chromatic Scale, since the C Major Scale is the only Major Scale that contains no sharps or flats: Chromatic Scale starting on C: C, C#, D, D#, E, F, F#, G, G#, A, A#, B, (C) C Major Scale: C, D, E, F, G, A, B, (C) do re mi fa sol la ti (do) So, the formula for the Major Scale is: whole-step, whole-step, half-step, whole-step, whole-step, whole-step, half-step. (A whole-step higher is the equivalent of 2 frets higher on a fretted instrument.) So, applying the same pattern to the Chromatic Scale starting on D: D, D#, E, F, F#, G, G#, A, A#, B, C, C#, (D) we find that the D Major Scale is D, E, F#, G, A, B, C#, (D) for F: F, F#, G, G#, A, A#, B, C, C#, D, D#, E, (F) F, G, A, Bb, C, D, E, (F) for G: G, G#, A, A#, B, C, C#, D, D#, E, F, F#, (G) G, A, B, C, D, E, F#, (G) for A: A, A#, B, C, C#, D, D#, E, F, F#, G, G#, (A) A, B, C#, D, E, F#, G#, (A) etc. In each Major Scale, the notes are to be named in a way that uses all 7 letters of the musical alphabet only once. This determines whether the note between G and A, the note between A and B, the note between C and D, the note between D and E, and the note between F and G are called by their sharp names or by their flat names in the context of a particular Major Scale. |
Jason's Beginner Jam Blog 2017 - 2018
Songs regularly called at the Beginner Bluegrass Jam and links from Jason's "Song of the Week" emails. (from Renee)
Songs
All
in alphabetical order
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