Duelling banjoes..help!

Subject: Duelling banjoes..help!
From: greg stephens
Date: 12 Apr 02 - 06:27 PM

The normal lineup of the band I play with is fiddle,accordion,guitar,washboard, and a bit of trombone. I have lost count of the number of times we are asked to play Duelling Banjoes. What exactly is going on here?

Subject: RE: Duelling banjoes..help!
From: SharonA
Date: 12 Apr 02 - 06:38 PM

"What exactly is going on here?" Well, it seems that the audience is taking the name of the song less literally than the band is!

"Dueling Banjos" is just the name of a song. I mean, you don't need to be standing in a forest to play "Wildwood Flower", right? You don't need to have a cardinal perched on your shoulder to play "Red Wing." You don't need to fly yourselves and your audience to the US to play "Banks of the Ohio". So why not just play the song with the instruments at hand, and have fun with it? :^)

Subject: RE: Duelling banjoes..help!
From: greg stephens
Date: 12 Apr 02 - 06:42 PM

Well, believe me weve tried but the twiddly bit is a bit difficult to do justice to onthe instruments we have. My theory is the requesters are confused between Deliverance and Souyhern Comfort.

Subject: RE: Duelling banjoes..help!
From: SharonA
Date: 12 Apr 02 - 06:50 PM

Greg: Yeah, I can see where it could be a problem to play it on trombone!

Subject: RE: Duelling banjoes..help!
From: Jeri
Date: 12 Apr 02 - 06:50 PM

Dueling Banjos is basically a tarted up Yankee Doodle, if that helps at all. It's dead simple on fiddle. It might be more interesting if you had the accordian and trombone doing the leads.

I'd be tempted to work up an a capella version of it, though.

Subject: RE: Duelling banjoes..help!
From: Anahootz
Date: 12 Apr 02 - 06:52 PM

ow...

I just had a mental soundtrack loop of "dueling banjos" on accordion and trombone...

Subject: RE: Duelling banjoes..help!
From: Jeri
Date: 12 Apr 02 - 06:58 PM

I have a vague memory of a Dr Demento radio show, and "Dueling Tubas."

Subject: RE: Duelling banjoes..help!
From: Gypsy
Date: 12 Apr 02 - 07:08 PM

Minstrels of Mayhem have a song version of dueling banjos....pretty good to check out. Any of us will play it...EXCEPT our banjo player. But i wont play Greensleeves without heavy bribery, either (hammer dulcimer)

Subject: RE: Duelling banjoes..help!
From: Snuffy
Date: 12 Apr 02 - 07:14 PM

Mudcatter Geoff the Duck plays it solo on banjo and kazoo!

Subject: RE: Duelling banjoes..help!
From: Sorcha
Date: 12 Apr 02 - 07:44 PM

In the movie it was a guitar and a banjo--not 2 banjos. It really should work with a guitar and a fiddle. All the melody line does is move up a 3rd each time. Add a few bad "match this" notes, and you've got it made.

Subject: RE: Duelling banjoes..help!
From: Bullfrog Jones
Date: 13 Apr 02 - 06:35 AM

Geoff -- The Bullfrogs get this too! (The fact that you can play DB on other instruments is irrelevant -- the kind of dimwit who asks for it expects a banjo). I usually ask the requester to point out the banjo he'd like it played on. Funnily enough our drummer has recently taken up the banjo -- two musical stereotypes for the price of one! Maybe when he's good enough.... Incidentally Duelling Tubas was by Martin Mull and it's hilarious, as is his 2001 Polka.

BJ

Subject: RE: Duelling banjoes..help!
From: greg stephens
Date: 13 Apr 02 - 06:56 AM

Thanks Bullfrog, you got my point, why are they asking for the tune when they cant see a banjo.The duelling tubas is classic.And you can indeed play it on a trombone. Another interesting question, specially to you Bullfrog,is why have people persisted all my life in calling me geoff when my name is greg? This always happens to people called greg..they dont sound or look that close.

Subject: RE: Duelling banjoes..help!
From: Bullfrog Jones
Date: 13 Apr 02 - 07:05 AM

Yes!!! My given name is Malcolm (so you'll see why Bullfrog is preferable) but if someone gets my name wrong it's ALWAYS Graham! I've been called Graham by so many different people in different places and different times that I've decided I must really LOOK like a Graham!

Subject: RE: Duelling banjoes..help!
From: Jeri
Date: 13 Apr 02 - 08:56 AM

That's your answer then:
Greg = Geoff
Malcolm = Graham
Fiddle = Banjo

Subject: Martin Mull: Dueling Tubas
From: GUEST,Gene
Date: 13 Apr 02 - 11:49 AM

Picked up that old LP for 50 cents at the flea market...

laughed till i cried....

Subject: RE: Duelling banjoes..help!
From: Geoff the Duck
Date: 13 Apr 02 - 01:23 PM

I worked up the Duelling Banjo and Kazoo routine when I got fed-up with being asked for duelling banjoes (usually by some bloke holding a guitar, expecting me to do all the work and him bum along for half of the applause). As it happens I do NOT play bluegrass banjo, so I did the flash bits on kazoo and the accompaniment was clawhammer style on the five-string.
I reckon a trombone would sound brilliant on the runs, especially with rip-snorting slurs and glissandoes.
By the way, Bullfrog. Where are you based. I recall a band of that name playing pubs around Bradford when I used to live there. Was that you, or is it a coincidence of names?
Quack!!!
Geoff the Duelling Duck!

Subject: RE: Duelling banjoes..help!
From: Coyote Breath
Date: 13 Apr 02 - 01:51 PM

Well once upon a time a fellow banjo player and I were asked to play duelling banjoes.

Simultaneously, without any plan we both picked up our banjoes by the braces and holding them like epees we shouted "en garde" and proceeded to dance about the stage ala Eroll Flynn. Brought the house down.

CB

Subject: RE: Duelling banjoes..help!
From: Anahootz
Date: 13 Apr 02 - 01:57 PM

Sort of a threadcreep here, but has anyone heard the cover of the Black Sabbath tune "War Pigs" done by Alice Donut? If you have ever wondered what heavy metal sounds like performed on tuba and trombone, this is for you...

Now back to your regularly scheduled programming.