Q&A: Banjo Blueprints & Learning to Sing
Added 2018-03-08 00:43:52 +0000 UTCCJ is building his own banjo at home and asks about where to find blue prints and what parts to order vs. make yourself. Jonas is learning to sing with his banjo and asks for a bit more guidance on that issue.
https://www.patreon.com/cliftonhicks
https://cliftonhicks.bandcamp.com/
Comments
Sounds about right. This also reminds us that many of these old banjo songs were originally composed a cappella and that the banjo was picked to accompany the singing, rather than vice versa.
Clifton Hicks
2018-03-08 16:02:11 +0000 UTC(continued) She suggested that much of my difficulty might come from learning to play a song on the banjo first and then trying to match the words to the music. she told me to try singing or humming the tune first and then try matching what I as playing to the words I was singing. When I try this, it seems that the singing and what I play on the banjo fit together much better. I hope this make sense.
David Long
2018-03-08 15:45:14 +0000 UTCTrying to sing and play at the same time had been a long time problem for me. About a year ago I had the good fortune to start getting live instruction from someone who has been singing and playing the banjo all over the world for almost 60 years.
David Long
2018-03-08 15:39:34 +0000 UTCTony, I thank you for these thorough contributions. I am tempted to compile them into one post so that new members and players might read your thoughts early in their journey. Perhaps this could function as a primer for newer people, or even old hands coming out of the "Fiddle Tune Scene." Perhaps, knowing you, you've already composed something like this that you could share with the group? Again, thank you and please keep participating!
Clifton Hicks
2018-03-08 13:45:56 +0000 UTCThank you all! It's amazing how much great advice came together here. I have some experience with singing and playing the guitar, but when it is getting to complex to play a song, the singing gets difficult. I'm very happy to hear that it is much about just playing and let the time to sing come by itself...and of course learning the lyrics! Thank you all for your kind replies ! I would very much love to maybe have at some point a video on how to play Darling Cora...It's the song I heard first from you Clifton (this Version <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOu2Y0FznX4)" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOu2Y0FznX4)</a> and it made me completely seeing the banjo in a new way!!!
Jonas Nottbeck
2018-03-08 10:59:00 +0000 UTCDont be afraid to repitch the banjo. Pete Seeger's long neck design banjo was his effort to have a banjo that was lower pitched by three steps than banjos have become by the 1930s when he started. If you listen to traditional singers note how their banjos are pitched, especially before "folklorists" and "revivalist" banjo heads came upon folks they are not in standard pitch. Too many banjoists are too whipped by socalled fiddlers (violinists are they mostly) who think a banjo should be pitched to match the limited pitches theyc an play in, wheras traditional artists often found ways to find compromise pitches to match singing and picking
Tony Thomas
2018-03-08 01:57:13 +0000 UTCAlso on YouTube there is a gentleman that plays some nice two finger thumb lead, and he just chords while he is sing , LNP292.
Charlie Driver
2018-03-08 01:54:32 +0000 UTCOriginally banjos were pitched about 3-4 steps lower than banjos began to be pitched in the late 19th century. Banjo tab and notation written say before 1890 would have A for what would be played today in C and E for G. In the late 19th century not only did the pitch get raised as part of a general raising of pitches of instruments in North America and Europe, but banjo design started to aim at a clear ringing treble. If you want to sing with the banjo listen to traditional banjoists who sing from Cornett to Rufus Kasey to my favorite Roscoe Holcomb.
Tony Thomas
2018-03-08 01:53:50 +0000 UTC<a href="http://www.bluestemstrings.com:80/pageFPMB1.html" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">http://www.bluestemstrings.com:80/pageFPMB1.html</a> Mr. Hicks there is a lot of excellent info. here.
Charlie Driver
2018-03-08 01:50:04 +0000 UTCI must say before I took up the banjo I was a well known local folk and blues singer with guitar for decades in CT then in Miami. I think banjo playing has unique properties for singing. Part of it is the interface if the pitch of the banjo and the pitch of the human voice. In the tradition, banjoists often did not tune banjos to concert pitch but to whatever pitch they thought worked best with their voice, some lower and some higher. I also find that traditional Black and white singing with the banjo is often in pitches that break through the spaces banjo playing provides, but often engages is different tactics than the crooning type singing that became popluar in the 20th century in both vernacular and popular music
Tony Thomas
2018-03-08 01:49:17 +0000 UTC<a href="https://drive.google.com/open?id=0ByIQwSzHMdvGUGtNVnVtclVjVDQ" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://drive.google.com/open?id=0ByIQwSzHMdvGUGtNVnVtclVjVDQ</a> this is a link to use to get the file
Richard Cockerham
2018-03-08 01:47:00 +0000 UTCI have the blueprint file from Bluestem (which was officially free at one point in time). I built one from these prints just 4 months ago. Printed at a scale of 24" top to bottom and 48" left to right. I also took lots of pics and videos of the build but I haven't sorted all that out just yet.
Richard Cockerham
2018-03-08 01:46:30 +0000 UTC
