Forum - Banjo Ben Clark

Lets do a collaboration

#241

Verse I

I went walking with my baby, we went walking through the fields
There was spring in our step as we were climbing the hill
When we get to the top we will see, the prettiest fall colors that you’d ever see
Walking through the maples off Mt Tabor Rd

Verse II

The Ol’ man’s always home he’s got work to do
And if he’s got a minute he’ll surely talk with you
He seems to stay busy spite’ getting nothing done
He taps out a livin’ off his mapleberry farm
Walking through the maples off Mt Tabor Rd

Chorus 1

Walking through the maples off Mt Tabor Rd
There’s a place in my heart where I like to go that I know
Walking through the maples off Mt Tabor Rd
It’s a little piece of heaven and if you’ve never been there then you outta’ go

Verse III

The frost in the meadows took the leaves from the trees
It will soon be time to tap in the February freeze
The forecast calls for snow, maybe an inch possibly three
The creeks are froze over but you know where he’ll be
Walking through the maples off Mt Tabor Rd

Chorus II

Walking through the maples off Mt Tabor Rd
There’s a place in my heart where I like to go that I know
Walking through the maples off Mt Tabor Rd
It’s pretty in the fall but just as pretty in the snow.

Verse IV

Now on thursday nights all his friends come round’
They play country bluegrass music with a classic rock sound
everything’s alright with his mandolin
He’ll pick out a lead when it’s time to step in
On walking through the maples of Mt Tabor Rd

Outro Verse

Walking through the maples off Mt Tabor Rd
There’s a place in my heart where I like to go that I know
Walking through the maples off Mt Tabor Rd
It’s not an easy walk and one that most don’t care to know.

Yes, he lives on Mt Tabor Rd and the name of his maple syrup business is “Mapleberry Farms”.(http://www.mapleberryfarms.com/

and here is what is at the top of the hill and where the verse “the frost in the meadows took the leaves from the trees” came from as this was on my hike in at daylight to my treestand and the fields were all frosty but under the trees it wasn’t…logically you can say the the frost took them because in 2 days or so after this frost most were gone. Had to pull out the cell and take a pic as that was “purdy” lookin at those colors.

#242

and here is a sample of the melody where i sing the last verse in my previous post. Bare in mind that I do not consider myself to be a picker let alone a SINGER!

http://kompoz.com/t/205753

Oh and a cool name : “Chordn’Bleu-Grass” …“We don’t drink our shine muffy, we sip it”.

#243

— Begin quote from "Oldhat"

Oh and a cool name : “Chordn’Bleu-Grass” …“We don’t drink our shine muffy, we sip it”.

— End quote

Clever, but it might be too French for bluegrass.

Nice melody for your song. It was good to hear the lyrics in context. I’d be glad to play on your song. If we’re going to do an original, though, it might be interesting to try to compose a song together. I imagine I could learn quite a bit working through the writing process with other pickers, but I’m not exactly sure how we’d do it. Seems like writing would be a lot easier with everyone involved in the same room, tossing around ideas.

I’ve stayed away from re-mixing Rider for almost a whole day, now. I’m trying to flush the memory of the song from my ears before I jump back in.

#244

Writing would be cool with me. I think writing really takes collaboration as ideas will be hard to convey at times and others can look at it from a different perspective and kick in something to help get you going.

Hey here is a rhythm I came up with while “piddlin’” around on the guitar one day. I’d love for someone to start a instrumental over it to get me started on ideas. This would be composed as an instrumental as there really is no way to sing over it the way the progression works.
http://kompoz.com/t/205761

So the idea is to share stuff fellows. A melody, an idea, a rhythm, or just maybe something you want to write about.

#245

Jesse, I like “Walking through the maples.” It’s a nice tune.

#246

Jesse. your little rhythm idea seems like it might fit well with the sawmill tuning I like so much. I’ll play around with it this afternoon.

#247

— Begin quote from "ldpayton"

I’m trying to flush the memory of the song from my ears before I jump back in.

— End quote

I think that’s generally a great idea. I don’t know about you, but when I get away for a few days or a week, I hear things totally differently when I return.

Jesse, I like the “piddlin” progression alot.

#248

Mike:

Glad you liked both of them. They were just “ideas”. Walking through the Maples is a complete song but I can’t sing it for squat. The second one with some changes does have a start to lyrics…“there’s an old dusty bible on the table, it can un-do all the things you’ve done. Better get down on your knees and start praying cause you don’t know where you’ll be when the morning comes”…that is far as I got and can restructure the song to accommodate lyrics.

Here is another one but on mando…is an instrumental and I have the rhythm for it worked out on the guitar. I purchased a second hand mandolin a few years back and never had played one, put it in my hands for the very first time and started piddlin on it also. Well the wife says “what are you playing that sounds cool” so in another 15 minutes I finished it, called it “Westena’s Hornpipe” after my oldest daughter, put the mando down and really have not picked it up since. Now bear with me on this recording as I dug the mando out that’s been in the closet… tuned it real quick and recorded it on my second take 5 minutes ago…so the strings are old, is slightly out of tune, it’s a cheap mando, and I had not touched one in two+ years so it’s rough. But would love to hear a fiddle, or other instruments added in as lead. Oh, and if anyone wants to add an entire other part to it I’d be happy to expand on the melody and make it longer/ add in a “C” part. Chord progression is fast and should go DDGGDDAADDGGAAD (play it just as fast as you can read it and it works) for the second part it adds in a Bminor.

http://kompoz.com/t/205785

The thing I have found about either intrumentals or pen’n lyrics is that they either all come in about 15 minutes or they get strung out over 2 months! Collaborating on a song could help push it along as when you are stuck you are stuck and may never finish it. The first collaboration I ever done was on “Rider” outside of that I have never worked with anyone on anything nor had any help, just jammed for the most part.

Again, these are ideas, maybe my playin’ and singing ain’t so good nor up to par, but they are musical ideas that now can be taken somewhere else or further if anyone chooses to. Just like singing the sample for “Walkin Through the Maples”…I can’t sing there but that’s the way the melody goes in my head so it’s only a reference for someone that can sing it.

#249

— Begin quote from "fiddlewood"

Front = Lead voice needs to come up or the other two down.
Back, The High harmony is way louder than the Low… Just before the first singing there is a banjo lead in you might want to kick up a bit

— End quote

Just uploaded a remix where I attempted to address these issues. Let me know what you think.

I created a Soundclick account for http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=1258497 and linked it back to this site. Now we need a netgrass logo for our page. Do we have any graphic design people here?

So far I only have Red Haired Boy uploaded. I’ll wait until we get a final mix on Rider before I switch it over from my account.

Jesse, it appears your last name is different on Kompoz and Soundclick. How do I credit your playing on the netgrass account?

I was thinking since Andy Griffith just passed away, we could choose our next song from among the songs the Dillards performed on his show. Here’s the list (from Wikipedia).
[ul]“Salty Dog” (Production# 88 - The Darlings Are Coming & Production# 193 - The Darling Fortune)
“Ebo Walker”
“Dooley”
“There is a Time”
“Shady Grove”
“Boil Them Cabbage Down”
“Doug’s Tune”
“Stay all Night (Stay a Little Longer)”
“Low and Lonely” (Production# 96 - Briscoe Declares for Aunt Bee)
“Banjo in the Hollow” (called “Tearin Up Your Old Clothes For Rags” on the show [2])
“Ol’ Joe Clark” (Played in key of D)
“Leaning on the Everlasting Arms”
“Whoa Mule”
"Dueling Banjos
[/ul]
Most of them are in the public domain. The TV studio must have been pretty frugal.

Shady Grove would be fun, and if I remember right, TravisCT (wherever he is) already suggested we do it.

#250

Just listened to your mando track, Jesse. Nice melody.

#251

um, didn’t know my last name was different…is “Anderson”

I see we are number #23 on the country chart and #4 on the bluegrass chart on soundclick.

If Ben posts the link on facebook then we’d surely bump up!

#252

The Soundclick charts are definitely more of a popularity contest than a critique of the music (but then again so are Billboards charts), so I’m sure Ben’s link would give us a bump. The Rosinators must work pretty hard at keeping themselves at the top of the charts so consistently, but they have a financial reason for doing so. I see we’re #16 in country and #3 in bluegrass today, so we’re still creeping up.

#253

I moved our remixed project over to our netgrass site on Sounclick. http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=11754127

Mighty quiet around here this week. I know I’ve been woodshedding like crazy. I bet my practice time was cut in half while we were recording, but I’m back to having sore fingers, now.

#254

Yes, been quiet around here.

I know I had and old friend bring his boy down to watch the Nashville fireworks (3rd largest display in US) and he and I done some fishing also, so the past 6 days have seen me doing little to no playing…I’ll get the blisters also Larry when I pick it back up.

Also may see my playing dwindle down some as I am considering going back to work, been thinking about it for about 2 weeks now as I had a small company wanting me to come on board and run it for them. This company offered the same services as I did and does about the same revenue ($2 million) as mine did. Owner wants to retire and has been on me for 6 months to take over it for him…don’t know, I like this retired thing but I am only 41…part of me wants to lay around for the next 30 years and then another part of my says “man that’s a long time to lay around”.

Oldhat

#255

I went and listened to Rider to hopefully give you a bump. I like logo. I really dig the old CRT monitor… it kind of fits (mixing old with new). Maybe I am just sentimental as it looks a bit like my old Amiga computer.

#256

Thanks for your support, Mike! When I moved Rider over to the netgrass account we lost our chart position. It looks like we had peaked at #3 anyway - we’ll have to try harder next time :slight_smile: My graphic design skills are pretty weak, but we needed some kind of logo for our page. I couldn’t figure out how to make a sihlouette of a flat screen look right, so I used a CRT instead. If a teenager saw it, whey probably wouldn’t know what it is.

Jesse, sounds like a pretty big decision coming up for you. Don’t let work get in the way of recording… haha.

#257

You all have done a amazing job. It is hard to believe 3 men miles apart can pull something like this off. GOOD JOB

#258

thanks Jim, It’s been a fun experience for us all.

#259

Thanks Jim!

Hey I found this on Youtube after we were done, would have liked ot have found it earlier before we finished ours as these guys have some cool stuff/ideas I could have used. They do a great job.

#260

Sounds great you guys!!! wish I could have been a part of it …but with the storm that came through resulting in a 4 day power outage and other things taking my time …i never got my break recorded …does sound awesome …maybe we can all do another collaboration sometime soon …!!!