Find a Teacher
Find a Dealer

Super Bluegrass Banjo Picking Techniques
by: Alan Munde

---

     Print this Article (PDF)         Email Article to a Friend

by Michael J. Keyes, MD

If you go to any of the lists or to www.thesession.org and introduce the concept of "How do I learn a tune?" you will receive a lot of different answers. The originalists will tell you that you can only learn by hearing the tune from a master player and reproducing it note for note while others will tell you to get the notes on paper and learn it that way. In fact, both are right (and wrong.) Back in the days when Irish music was local, aspiring musicians would learn from a local master of the instrument and would often learn a specific style of playing tunes. While this is still true (and some of the best musicians are products of this system), Irish music is now world wide and most of us don't have an experienced musician to learn from. We are obliged to learn from CDs, workshops and concerts or, if we are lucky, there are teachers within an hour's drive to help us. Besides, we have the Internet.

Since there are tens of thousands of tunes, we are not going to be able to have someone teach us all the ones we want to know. Throw in inexperience, partially evolved technique, and the influence of other music and... Well you get the idea.

Nonetheless, if you love the music, you want to learn the tunes. Irish music is all about feel. The only way to learn it is to listen to a lot of it and feel the rhythm and lilt of the various tunes. Hardly any of the top players will play a tune the same way, but they will play it with the same feeling even if they play at different speeds and timing. In this column I am going to take a new-to-me jig, Garret Barry's, and go through the process of learning to play it.

Most of us hear tunes in sessions or on CDs. I have Garret Barry's on several CDs including Tim O'Brien's "Two Journeys" and Paddy Keenan playing it on a Bothy band album. They are totally different in pace and interpretation but they are unquestionably Garret Barry's. The traditional way is to learn the tune note for note from the master until you get it absolutely right. In these modern days you get out Amazing Slowdowner (http://www.ronimusic.com/) and work on the tune until you sound just like Paddy Keenan. Of course now you have a problem, because you are not Paddy Keenan and don't play the pipes. You have learned a version that is Paddy Keenan's. It is nice and exciting, but it is not yours and you will not own the tune. There is a better approach.

Irish tunes are meant to be interpreted. Most of the time the basic tunes are simple but the ornamentation and presentation changes with the musician. This means that there are two parts to any tune, the skeleton and the flesh. We start with the skeleton. We go to the notation, a heretical concept to some.

There are many places to find Irish tunes, but the best places are on the net: The Session (http://www.thesession.org/tunes/) and the JC's ABC Tune Match (http://jc.tzo.net/~jc/cgi/abc/FindTune) cover about 70% of the tunes available on the net. Or you can do like I did an buy a lot of books with Irish tunes in them. However you do it, you will want to get the barest rendition of the tune. The one shown below fits the bill (I had to modify thesession'sversion and they try to be as ornament free as possible.)

One of the problems you might run into is the name of the piece. There are a bunch of Garret Barry's but this jig is the most popular.

Played straight the tune sounds like this:

Garret Barry's Straight
Download the mp3: GBStraight.mp3

OK, I guess but not as interesting as the first time I heard the tune. But until you know the tune you can't make it more exciting. Learn it and then throw the music away.

The second thing you do is ask yourself a few questions: What do I like about this tune? How fast can I play it and still sound good? What, if any ornamentations can I use on this tune? Do I own this tune?

If I was trying to learn to interpret this tune, I would play it straight without ornamentation (if I could) until I get a feel for the tune. This drives my wife nuts, so you should try this while no one is around. After a while you will learn something about the tune.

The first thing I notice is that in spite of only having one sharp, this tune is in D Mixolydian, not G and is a pipe tune. To me that means an aggressive dark tune with a hint of playfulness. OK, I sound like a wine snob, but how else would you characterize the tune? In fact that is what you have to ask yourself. Tim O'Brien saw it as a pleasant harp tune.

So I start thinking about my interpretation of how the pipes should sound and came up with this first interpretation.

Garret Barry's 1
Download the mp3:GB1.mp3

Not the stuff that stars are made of, is it? But it is a start. I am trying to remember the tune and I am not playing it completely as written. This is another feature of Irish music in that as the tune is learned, minor variations might creep in. As you improve as a player you will find this is happening because it is easier to play on the banjo or because it sounds better this way on the banjo. If you are playing in a group and they have a different setting of the tune, you can adapt, so don't worry.

I was not satisfied with that playing of the tune, but I am learning it for the first time so I expect to change how I look at the tune. I want to add a few more banjo type things, so the next time I try it I add a few triplets and left hand ornaments.

Garret Barry's 2
Download the mp3:GB2.mp3

This one has more guts and sounds more like a banjo tune with the triplets, bends, and hammer ons. I am beginning to like the tune more and more and decided to try it at a faster pace.

Garret Barry's 3
Download the mp3:GB3.mp3

I like this version best, but that's only because it is my latest version. If you are reading off of the notation (shame on you) you will notice that at no time did I play it the same way. Also, I varied the way I played each part the second time around to make it more interesting. Irish music is aural and interpreted so notation and tab only have a minor role in developing a tune, mostly as a way to store and remember the tune later on.

Challenge

I'd like any of you to take this tune and make an mp3 to send to me (mikeyes@charter.net) so I can use it in a future column or on my web site. Try and make it short as my email has some limits. I welcome any interpretation of the music as that is what it is all about.

References

This time around I used no video and I did that for a reason. Learning to play tunes is a not visual exercise, it is almost entirely by ear. Once you know the basic tune you should give up the tab or notation and concentrate on how it will sound when you play it. A good tool for this is a recorder and I used the Zoom H4 (http://www.zoom.co.jp/english/products/h4/index.php) to record these mp3s for the article. By using a recorder, you can get an idea about how you sound and how you are progressing

.

There are multiple sources for tunes out there. I mentioned the main Internet ones, but Mel Bay is a great source for tunes (see http://www.melbay.com/ and http://www.elderly.com/brand/267_MEL%20BAY.html) including the one essential book "O'Neill's 1001 Jigs, Reels, Hornpipes, Airs and Marches" which is the one must-have book in the bunch.

I get to blow my own horn and mention my new personal web site, www.mikekeyes.com as another source of tunes. I am slowly collecting versions of my favorite tunes and will lay down some mp3 tracks of my interpretations of the music.

About the Author

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 "Maggie's Misfortune." He is an expert in sports performance and has written a 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 or go to his web site at www.mikekeyes.com.

[ top ]