freight train on banjo

Subject: freight train on banjo
From: The Sandman
Date: 06 Aug 14 - 08:14 AM

http://youtu.be/JbBOQ25KE2A

Subject: RE: freight train on banjo
From: GUEST
Date: 06 Aug 14 - 08:20 AM

And your point being? (beyond a really poorly filmed clip)

Subject: RE: freight train on banjo
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 06 Aug 14 - 08:30 AM

Thanks, schweik.

Subject: RE: freight train on banjo
From: PHJim
Date: 06 Aug 14 - 07:29 PM

Thanks for sharing Schweik.

What was your point GUEST? (beyond a display of poor taste)

Subject: RE: freight train on banjo
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 06 Aug 14 - 08:07 PM

When I was a kid we put pennies on the railway line to see them flattened.

"Freight train on banjo" now that's a good idea, how about a couple of bodhrans as well?

Subject: RE: freight train on banjo
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 07 Aug 14 - 10:06 AM

Freight train on a banjo ? sounds like a good start.

Dave H

Subject: RE: freight train on banjo
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 07 Aug 14 - 11:01 AM

"Freight Train," simple as it seems, has a wonderful characteristic. That plunge into the minor, so warm and sad and deep.   You've brought it out well, Schweik.

I found a youtube video of Libba Cotten herself performing it. (Nigel and Dave: you can google her name and learning something about music.) She plays a fancy guitar acc. using only 1 (or maybe 2) right-hand fingers!

Subject: RE: freight train on banjo
From: GUEST,Hootenanny
Date: 07 Aug 14 - 12:17 PM

At the risk of offending some people it was performances like this from floor singers which stopped me going to folk clubs.

Is Mr Miles being serious or just 'avin' a larf'.

Leeneia are you guilty of the same crime? comparing this with Elizabeth Cotten!

Hoot

Subject: RE: freight train on banjo
From: GUEST,#
Date: 07 Aug 14 - 02:03 PM

Try out a Travis picking on it, Dick. It may help the sustain that is so much easier to get on a guitar than a banjo. It'll force the tempo just a bit, too. Thanks for putting it on the Tube :-)

Subject: RE: freight train on banjo
From: The Sandman
Date: 07 Aug 14 - 03:32 PM

hootenanay, if you can do any better put up a you tube, if you cannot shut up. GUEST #, I am using travis guitar picking style on the banjo,USING THUMB AND THREE FINGERS. and picking melody between the different fingers,guest # dont misunderstand me i am not offended, if i was frailing, the tempo would be more forced.

Subject: RE: freight train on banjo
From: GUEST,gillymor
Date: 07 Aug 14 - 03:49 PM

Travis Picking

Subject: RE: freight train on banjo
From: GUEST,#
Date: 07 Aug 14 - 03:53 PM

Thanks, Dick.

Subject: RE: freight train on banjo
From: GUEST,Hootenanny
Date: 07 Aug 14 - 04:00 PM

Travis Picking ?

It is my understanding that Merle Travis used thumb and one finger most if not all the time.
I think the clip referred to above by gillymor shows this too quite clearly. I would have to say however that I don't think Travis style would work on a banjo but I might be wrong.

Hoot

Subject: RE: freight train on banjo
From: GUEST,#
Date: 07 Aug 14 - 04:13 PM

It would, imo.

G, D, G, B, D

Thumb takes alternate GG and GD strings and the B snd D strings are plucked with the forefinger and political finger.

The three basic TPs of which I'm aware use T and 1 finger; T and 1 and 2 fingers or T, i, 2 and 3 fingers. I sometimes use T, 1 and 2. Somewhat easier on guitar.

Subject: RE: freight train on banjo
From: GUEST,gillymor
Date: 07 Aug 14 - 04:31 PM

Here is a good description of Merle Travis' style by a pretty fine fingerpicker.
Click here

Subject: RE: freight train on banjo
From: The Sandman
Date: 07 Aug 14 - 06:43 PM

hoot, you are wrong, of course thumb and one finger works on a 5 string banjo, that is what drop thumbing is about, or the reverse which is thumb melody style such as roscoe holcomb., where the drone can be more frequently the 1 string and occasionally the 5 string
hootenanny you are out of your depth, come back when you are not uninformed

Subject: RE: freight train on banjo
From: PHJim
Date: 07 Aug 14 - 11:13 PM

The terms "Travis Picking", "Cotton Picking", "Carter Style"... are usually used, not to describe a carbon copy of Merle, Libba or Maybelle, but a general impression.
I've often heard playing described as "Travis style", even though it is played with 3 fingers, no muting and no thumb pick. The alternating thumb bass and melody picked by the fingers is what is meant.
Very few people play the alternating bass with the fingers and treble melody with the thumb the way Libba did, but they can get a good approximation of her style playing right handed using 2 or 3 fingers.
I don't consider pattern picking to fit into either of these categories, bur I have heard people use the terms for this.
Carter style is played with the thumb and nails of the right hand, but a close approximation is possible with a flat pick.
John Hurt didn't mute the bass strings like Merle Travis, but his style had certain similarities. Perhaps "finger picking" is a good term for these styles of playing.

Subject: RE: freight train on banjo
From: PHJim
Date: 07 Aug 14 - 11:15 PM

Eddie Adcock often played a banjo style very similar to guitar finger picking when he was with the Country Gentlemen.

Subject: RE: freight train on banjo
From: The Sandman
Date: 08 Aug 14 - 02:51 AM

the point about libba cotten is that she played the guitar upside down so her fingers played the bass strings up and her thumb the treble, this gave a unique style.
john hurt and etta baker played in what is often called piedmont guitar style alternating basses but fingers melody picking up. the second part of frieght train goes to an e major chord.

Subject: RE: freight train on banjo
From: The Sandman
Date: 08 Aug 14 - 04:32 AM

http://youtu.be/CN6uvOZbTFk a request to see my right and left hand, so hootenanny, someone is interested in what i am doing.

Subject: RE: freight train on banjo
From: The Sandman
Date: 08 Aug 14 - 04:53 AM

http://youtu.be/89ygAhnXrXk

Subject: RE: freight train on banjo
From: GUEST,Hootenanny
Date: 08 Aug 14 - 05:16 AM

Schweik,

Please read my post VERY SLOWLY, it is headed Travis Picking. I in my "ignorance" believe that the term Travis Picking refers to the style of guitar picking used by Merle Travis.

You have stated "I am using travis guitar picking style on the banjo,USING THUMB AND THREE FINGERS. and picking melody between the different fingers". NOT the same thing.

If I am uninformed and by no means do I call myself an expert in these matters how can you relate drop thumb banjo technique to Travis picking.

It is good to know also that you are not offended.

Keep smiling

Hoot

Subject: RE: freight train on banjo
From: The Sandman
Date: 08 Aug 14 - 06:13 AM

It is my understanding that Merle Travis used thumb and one finger most if not all the time." hootennany.
drop thumb banjo technique uses thumb and one finger most if not all the time, the melody is often played by the finger but can occasionally be played by the thumb, so reversed, this is uased in clawhammer banjo for example the thumb can play the open g string as a melody note .    hooteannany, piedmont guitar style, or travis picking when very advanced can sometimes lead with finger and use a drop thumb effect on bass or on string below, similiar to 5 string banjo., the thumb on guitar in piedmont or travis picking can sometimes be on the off beat.
you are uninformed, rude, and made an insulting comment,kindly go away with your poppycock

Subject: RE: freight train on banjo
From: The Sandman
Date: 08 Aug 14 - 06:21 AM

pete seeger called it an educated thumb. so do you get it now? on the banjo the thumb can play a melody note, the open g string is not always used as a drone.
same applies to travis picking on the guitar the thumb can occasionally play a melody note, particularly if you are using thumb and two fingers or thumb and one finger, the thumb does not always have to play the bass on the beat sometimes the melody can be plucked with a finger and the thumb can play the bass off the beat, this is similiar to 5 string banjo double thumbing, so travis gutar technique and 5 string basnjo technique can be interchangeable on occasions, now please go away, you are proving to be nothing but a booby.

Subject: RE: freight train on banjo
From: GUEST,Hootenanny
Date: 08 Aug 14 - 09:13 AM

Sorry Dick, I submit.

You appear to go off piste with every post. As you asked so nicely I will go away and leave you more time to practice your Travis style, drop thumb Piedmont fumble and finger picking technique. Meanwhile don't give up your day job.

And do please keep smiling.

Hoot

Subject: RE: freight train on banjo
From: GUEST,kloop
Date: 08 Aug 14 - 09:55 AM

Ok, girls, enough already

Subject: RE: freight train on banjo
From: The Sandman
Date: 08 Aug 14 - 03:25 PM

hootenanny , I have been a professional singer and concertina player for 35 years, you meanwhile, are unable to put up any clips of yourself.

Subject: RE: freight train on banjo
From: GUEST,kloop
Date: 08 Aug 14 - 07:14 PM

I said ENOUGH already!

Subject: RE: freight train on banjo
From: The Sandman
Date: 09 Aug 14 - 07:46 AM

girls is a sexist remark,
next , one person on this thread has been insulting that was hootennanny, hootennanny likes to criticise others but cannot put up any videos himself, one of these negative people that like to run others down but appears to be unable to do anything himself, typical of a few of the boring old farts we had to put up with in the sixties the people that tried to tell others what they could or could not do. hootennanny to quote Cromwell, you have been sat to long here for any good you have been doing. Depart, i say, and let us have done with you. In the name of god, go!."

Subject: RE: freight train on banjo
From: GUEST,Derrick
Date: 09 Aug 14 - 09:05 AM

Dick, all us folkies who joined the folk scene in the sixties have been there,done it and got the t-shirt and know everything about folk song,dance and music.
This vast experience of life gives us the certain knowledge that the only opinion that counts is our own,the rest of humanity have simply got it wrong.
Its all part of growing old like arthritis,poor eyesight,and slightly dodgy memory.
People ask where are the young folk club followers?
They are discovering things for themselves not listening to us quarrelsome old farts squabbling.

Subject: RE: freight train on banjo
From: The Sandman
Date: 09 Aug 14 - 11:47 AM

hootennany,still has not put up a video of himself.
the young folk performers are out there sharing platforms with people like me at festivals and folk clubs, furthermore i do not have dodgy eyesight, arthritis or dodgy memory yet, and i am still doing gigs.

Subject: RE: freight train on banjo
From: GUEST,Derrick
Date: 09 Aug 14 - 12:12 PM

Neither do I Dick at the moment,but such things come to most of us in time.
Many youngsters are doing as you say, performing at festivals and clubs and some are, in spite of the scorn poured on them by some who post on this site, doing as good or better a job than some of their elders.
To return to the frailities of advancing age,I can't see where I said you personaly had any of them
Gigging obviously is of great importance to you and I'm pleased to see you are still performing.