The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #19825 Message #2880952
Posted By: matt milton
06-Apr-10 - 05:34 PM
Thread Name: Learning the Banjo From Pete Seeger
Subject: RE: Learning the Banjo From Pete Seeger
Sorry, if I came across as a bit prickly it's because I thought you were suggesting some kind of putative update to Pete's book. Personally, I think it's fine the way it is. One of the appealing things about that book is its home-made look and charm. It is quite ad-hoc.
so while I'd be one of the first people to buy, say, a 'Mammoth Pete Seeger Tabbook', I wouldn't want Pete's "How To..." book to get formalized into anything - it's fine the way it is.
I agree that the old frailers I mentioned don't play like Pete. But Pete does play a little like them on occasion, from time to time - when he's frailing, say.
Pete Seeger's version of Darling Corey is clearly based on BF Shelton's, to name one example. (It's in a slightly different tuning - Shelton uses a quite esoteric one - but the playing is essentially the same idea)
And while Hedy West and Peggy Seeger are probably the most clearly Peteseegeresque of banjo players, I hear quite a few similarities in Frank Proffitt's playing to Pete. I think it's probably a certain kind of simplicity. Actually, Peggy's playing would be a better comparison.
It's quite problematic, in my opinion, to talk of Pete Seeger's style as if it was one thing, and working through his book shows you that. He plays "come all you fair and tender maidens" very differently to how he plays "cumberland mountain bear chase". In fact, in some ways the more complex his playing is, the more familiar it sounds to me, because it starts to sound more "fingerstyle guitar".