Soldier's Joy

I picked up the basics of this old fiddle tune from my banjo bible and then trawled Youtube for variations and a sense of the tune. It seems like it's the Cripple Creek of C tuning and once you have the bouncy nature of the fingering its a great and relatively simple tune to relax into and enjoy to play. It follows the AA BB stucture of many banjo tunes derived from fiddle music and I play it capoed at the second fret raising the C tuning (gCGCD) to play in the the key of D (aDADE)

Oh Joy!

We had a go at Soldier's Joy the other night with and without the young'uns. Carl was playing mandolin and it worked best in D so at first I had the banjo tuned in C and capoed at the first fret, but it sounded a big clunky with guitar as well. So I tried it G tuned and capoed up to the 5th! which sounds very high and strange but seemed to work well with the mando and guitar, so I think that's how we'll try it at the moment.

Here's Soldier's Joy in G capoed at the 5th ie in D.

Soldier's Joy in D

I've been playing Harry's banjo in double C tuning and this is a pretty basic version of Soldier's Joy with a capo on the second fret.

Song Fragment in Key of D

I've been messing about with a descending chord pattern in the open G for a couple of weeks and today it's morphed into something which starts to feel like its got a verse and a chorus.
The chords are verse G/D/Em/Bm x3 G/D/Em/G/G/A.
Chorus D/A/D/G/D/A/G/D/Em/G/D/Em/G/D/G.

Now all I need is some lyrical genius from the Great North Strum to come up with some words!

'Strikes a Chord' on Posterous

As it's now official I thought I'd post something to the new Strikes a Chord forum on Posterous.
I've been messing around strumming the banjo and plucking intermittently and here's something that popped out this afternoon while playing in the key of D.

So Chris, I hope everyone moves across to the new forum at http://strikesachord.posterous.com/  as I think you've done a brill job with the old site!

Jesse James

I've been messing around with this song on various instruments for two years, here's a version of it on guitar. Plus I've had another go at singing, so cover your ears!

Major and Minor chords on the guitar

These are a couple of samples playing with the minor chord progression I posted a couple of days ago in Am, and a 1,4,5 Major chord progression in D. The major progression follows the structure for Jesse James but I've transposed it into the Key of D. So instead of G,C,D7 it becomes D,G, A7.

A minor


Jesse James in D

Wreck of the Old '97

Tried this song with a capo in D at the seventh fret. Playing is coming on but the singing is shocking!

Worried Man Blues

Worried Man Blues with capo in D

Master Stan Gee said I have to try playing and singing in different keys to see how it works with my voice (which is pretty crappy). As I haven't got the hang of the four fingered chords up the neck yet, I've been using a capo to raise the pitch of the banjo. I've tried this song in A ansd C but it felt most comfortable in D so here it is. I've used Patrick Costello's tab from the Outlaws and Scalawags Song Book.



Worried Man Blues in D (capo at the 7th fret)