A Mel Bay Publications, Inc. Webzine
August 2006 · Bimonthly
     If you liked this article, you might be interested in: |
In this issue: Beginning Irish Tenor Banjo: Hitting the High B Note | Tenor Banjo: Peg Of My Heart | Clawhammer: Fisher's Hornpipe
Print this Article (PDF) Email Article to a Friend 
Beginning Irish Tenor Banjo: Hitting the High B NoteIn Old Time music there is a tune called Quince Dillon's High D in which the fiddler has to get out of first position and slide up to the high D note. The name of the tune is enough to grab the attention of any Old time fiddler because that person is warned that they will have to do something out of the ordinary. Like their Old Time compatriots, Irish fiddlers play most of their tunes out of first position. This occurs because most Irish tunes don't go past the high B note which is also the practical upper limit of the whistle and most lilter's voices. Unfortunately, the same is not true for banjo players. If you have been reading this series on Beginning the Irish Tenor Banjo, you will recall that I advocate the guitar or finger assignment technique of playing. While I consider the mandolin style just as valid, I think that a beginner has a better chance of playing the music with the four-fingered style due to the scale length of the banjo. All of this analysis goes out the window when it comes to hitting the High B note. The leprechauns who wrote most traditional Irish music had a strong tendency to use High B. I can hear the groans of every beginning banjo player when the note is indicated and can imagine all the shenanigans that occur trying to hit it at any decent speed. But the High B note is commonly the most dramatic note in the tune and it would be a shame to flub it. The mandolin style players will often say: "Aha, proof that we were right after all" because they do have a partial answer built into their system. To me the mandolin system is too much like work, but they do have a point.So how do you hit that note? "Let me count the ways..." I am going to introduce an old tune and an new tune to help you understand the various techniques and I hope that it helps you play the tunes a little more comfortably. First a little theory. With the fiddle and mandolin, you can play scales all the way up the neck by merely moving your hand (as a whole) to the correct position. The scale is short enough that you can play four notes on one string with your first finger on the root and then move to the next higher string (which is tuned a fifth higher) placing your first finger on the same fret and complete the scale by playing the same pattern with your four fingers. This is called a closed scale. If you try this with an instrument with 15" or more scale, you have to have very long fingers to make it work. It cannot be done that way on a tenor banjo by normal human beings. As a result, if you want to play a closed scale, you will have to move your hand down the neck to hit the fourth note and then bring it back up for the second four notes in order for the first finger to be placed on the correct fret. Most of the time we are playing in an open position (meaning we use an open note as part of the scale) and we can avoid this problem. The only note that we normally play that makes us move our hand is the High B. With the four finger technique the highest note we can hit with the pinky is the high A note. With the mandolin style the high A note is hit with the ring finger and the High B can be reached with the pinky. This fact alone seems to be a powerful reason to use the mandolin technique, but as you will see, sometimes this will not work. There are three ways (probably more) to hit the High B note: Use the mandolin style, Slide the pinky from the A to the B note, or Do a Positional Change. If you are being really picky, the mandolin style and the positional change may be the same thing, but for the sake of this article, we will treat them differently. The purpose of these techniques is to make sure that when you hit the High B note, it rings out as clearly as the other notes. 
Using Mandolin Style The Silver Spear Mandolin Style Positional Change 
The Silver Spear Variation with Jump Slide The Silver Spear Slide Variation Musical Priest 
First Part The Musical Priest Second Part The Musical Priest Second Part Slide The Musical Priest Second Part Positional Change Third Part The Musical Priest Third Part Slide The Musical Priest Third Part Jump The Musical Priest Third Part Anchored Positional References Finding the High B notes is easy if you get the music. Go to Thesession.org (http://www.thesession.org) and click on "Tunes" and you will have access to more tunes that you can stand. The trick is to figure out which method you want to use to hit that High B and if you want to vary how you do it. If you have questions, email me at mikeyes@charter.net Mike Keyes, a native of Franklin, Tennessee, has played tenor banjo since 1957 and over the years has learned to play five string banjo, mandolin, and guitar. He earned his way through college and medical school playing in bluegrass and dixieland bands and currently plays in the Irish band "Good Luck." He is an expert in sports performance and has written and book and over 200 articles on the subject. His interest in Irish music started a number of years ago when effort to learn more about his musical roots led him to the discovery of session playing. Since then he has been to Ireland to learn more about the music and has taken classes and interviewed such banjo greats as John Carty, Charlie Piggot, and Gerry O'Connor. His medical practice is in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin where he practices Psychiatry. You can email him at mikeyes@charter.net if you wish to discuss some aspect of the Irish tenor banjo. [ top ]
| |
