Old tenor & Irish tunes

[Simone]

I think I’m lost, what am I doing over here?!
Inspired by Gunnar’s Temperence set (thanks for that!), and because it’s St. Patrick’s Day, pulled out the old tenor banjo. It’s very temperamental. (Maybe it’s me?!) Does not stay in tune. Separate post on that to come later.

So, just played around with it this afternoon. Got about 20 mins of it recorded but only got a few minutes of half way decent material. I was mostly tuning and figuring out where best to pick from on the strings… the good spot was tiny and any little deviation from it sounded like dead notes.

Warning: I know nothing about tenor banjo, how to play, what not to do, not even what its really supposed to sound like. And I’m not good at picking it. I’ve never played anything string except mandolin, and getting used to this giant fretboard was tricky. But it was a fun afternoon trying something different.

So heres 4 short song snippets from todays experiment. And for those of you who dont like “the little red light” aka something recording you, just turn it on and play – play whatever, for however long, mess ups and all, and eventually you forget it’s even there…

Kesh Jig

Sargent Early’s Dream

Irish Washerwoman

St. Anne’s Reel

[JohnM]

Irish Washerwoman looks simple but is very tricky. I can’t get it to play clean even at slower speeds even after plenty of tries in guitar.

[Dave_Long]

Kudos on your control of the pick!

[Stuart.Gamble]

A very St. Patrick’s Day post…thanks for sharing, it sounded fantastic!

[D_HRRFan7303]

Nice picking, I should learn those.

[Archie]

Wow @Simone you have been busy. Curious to know if you have been taking online lessons for the Tenor Banjo. I had a years subscription to the Online Academy of Irish Music a few years back with Lisa Canny’s Beginners Course, I dropped out of the advanced course with Paddy Cummins because I found it hard to understand what he was saying half the time.

He is a link if your interested https://www.oaim.ie/

[Simone]

Thank you @jmonickaraj1 ! Just keep on plugging away and then coming back to it, you’ll get it down !

[Simone]

Thank you @Fiddle_wood ! It was really tough (for me) to get a handle on the pick as the strings were so loose and floppy feeling compared to the mando. Especially the G string. Felt like I was digging in too much and getting tangled up in them. G string is under such low tension I kept coming close to actually pushing it over the edge of the fretboard, and/or bending it outta tune - So i tried to avoid it haha! On the other hand, these strings are much easier on the fingers than mando strings, didnt even feel em! Edit: another thing I dont think I pick the Irish correctly, the DUD thing… thought never even entered my mind till now

[Simone]

Thank you @Stuart.Gamble ! Glad you enjoyed it!

[Simone]

Thank you @D_HRRFan7303 ! You can do it, of that I’m sure !!! They’re fun to play!

[Simone]

Thank you @Archie ! Yup, been trying to keep musically busy and if I could, I’d do it 24/7!! Nope, zero irish tenor lessons. I just took songs I play on the mandolin and pulled em over to the tenor. The strings are the same as a mando or fiddle when the tenor is strung irish style so the same fingers will work. I have to say the method seems different though cuz stuff I can do on the mando sounds horrible on the tenor and then again it just might be my lack of knowledge, and that this banjo probably needs professional set up work.

[Archie]

Good for you, I don’t play mando but I can pick out a few tunes on the tenor banjo by ear. Lisa is a super teacher she names all the notes, and repeats everything three times so the music sinks in quickly. I wish there was more content on the site.

I hear what you say about the tone of the banjo. I think once you get more proficient and begin to build speed the tone starts to come out better. Particularly on the triplets. It’s the same on the 5 String if you are a newbie and play things slow it just doesn’t sound right, but once you get more proficient playing slow doesn’t have that same horrible sound. If you follow.

Also your ear is probably more tuned in to hearing the higher frequency of the mando. So when you transfer the tune to the banjo those lower tones just don’t appear to sound right.

I have not played my Tenor in a while seeing your vids prompted me to pull it out the case and start working on a new tune.

[Simone]

@Archie Awesome ! And please post it for us when you are ready! I think the newbie thing you mentioned is true, as well as that particular
banjos condition. Edit: you currently read 5 string tab, all Ben’s mando tabs will work for you if ‘by ear’ isnt working out…

And… maybe @Lee_G (new tenor back in December…) might do a post as well??

[WillCoop]

@Simone,

You go and pick that thing! Wow!

[JohnM]

I did a lot of that already but I guess I have to do a lot, lot more.

[Dragonslayer]

Great job! I enjoyed listening!

[Simone]

@WillCoop thank you!

[Simone]

@Dragonslayer Thank you!!

[Archie]

Hi @Simone

Stumbled on Michael Keys YouTube Channel. It has some tenor banjo tutorial stuff that may be of interest to you…

https://www.youtube.com/user/michaelkeyes12/videos

[xmark]

@Simone, thanks for sharing…that was fun! I agree with @Fiddle_wood, that single-string pick control is impressive. You’ve inspired me to work on an Irish tune…never have given it a try, but love to hear them.