Whiskey in the Jar - Tenor Banjo

I feel like I'm starting to make progress with the new tenor banjo. As with learning any new instrument it can be a bit disheartening at first but if you keep your head down and keep practicing it starts to come together. The hardest thing for me has been learning to play with a plectrum, it feels so weird after years of frailing! This sounds a bit rushed and clanky but that's because I was enjoying the fact that I've nailed the melody and I was hanging on for dear life. A bit more practice will breathe a bit of nuance and life into it. It sounds really high pitched because I'm playing in D on a standard CGDA tenor - its a long story!

I worked it our from the notation on Martin Daris' Irish music site http://www.martindardis.com/id804.html
which has loads of good stuff on it.

Whiskey in the Jar & Pickin' and Grinnin'

I've been working on some of the old blog pages on which the audio doesn't work no more, and this one was one of the most popular. So I've added newer versions of the audio and you can find the restored original post with Patrick Costello's workshop for Whiskey in the Jar Here and the tab Here.




Pickin and Grinnin is a great practice tune for working on drop thumbing and here is the tab.

2009 Round-Up part 2

Jesse James


Scottish Tune


Ragtime Annie


Worried Man Blues


Whiskey in the Jar

Country Roads

This is turning into the month with no posts. I'm not sure what's happened, but despite having more time I've posted less and less!!

So here's two tunes, one on the Uke and one on the banjo - Country Roads and Whiskey in the Jar. I've been trying to mix up picking and struming to get me away from the bump-ditty pattern on the banjo. Both songs use a relative minor in the chord progression and learning the Denver song got me thinking about playing Whiskey in a different way.

Country Roads
(I always thought this John Denver song was big bit of honkin cheese, but It's got a great chord progression and I'm hooked)


Whiskey in the Jar (for the nth time)

Whiskey on the Uke

Been trying out a few of the songs I've been doing on the banjo for the Ukulele and really enjoying it. It's quite a relief to be freed from the tyranny of the bump-ditty and to just strum.

Whiskey in the Jar

The Dubliners and Thin Lizzy

A Whiskey in the Jar double bill...

back-ups, melodies and tabs

Good practice session last week with Carlos and MC Clawhammer - thanks lads.
Here are audio files for the back-up and melodies to Whiskey in the Jar and Worried Man Blues.

They are taken from Patrick Costello's Outlaws and Scalawags Songbook, which is a great collection of outlaw songs tabbed for banjo. It is available as a creative commons pdf at http://www.archive.org/details/SingAlongBanjoVolumeOneOutlawsScalawags and includes loads of great songs.

Worried Man Blues
Back-up

Melody


Whiskey in the Jar
Back-up

Melody

Whiskey in the Jar & Pickin' and Grinnin'

Got my hands on a good digital recorder this weekend and the quality is good - much better than my playing. I'm taking it to my first jam next week, so I'll see what we get.

Here are two tunes I've been working on for a while, one from Patrick Costello's 'Outlaws and Scalawags Songbook' Whiskey in the Jar and one from Tim Jumper's How to Play Banjo Pickin' and Grinnin'.

Whiskey in the Jar


Pickin' and Grinin'


Patrick Costello 'Whiskey in the Jar'