Forum - Banjo Ben Clark

Rice/Grisman Morning Sun rhythm practice

#1

What have yall been working on? Would love to know!
This is one of my current projects.

Been trying to improve my backup playing, switching between chords, & some songs w new chords (for me) & timing …

Lately seems I’ve been trying to play stuff in the “B” keys. This song is Bm, (but also working on one in Bbm, ‘Autumn leaves/Eva Cassidy version’ (thanks @Archie for posting that version), and plain ole Bb, Never leave Harlan Alive).

This is a work in progress, timings off in several areas, and mistakes are there. But it’s better than when I started it! Eventually would like to get the mando breaks down too, even if somewhat simplified. Only posted half the song as it’s a long (4 mins) song.

Your comments and advice are always appreciated! Thanks! :grin:

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#2

Sounds great, @Simone! I always love hearing you play—you can hear the fun flow from your mandolin. I’ve been working on an assortment of mainly clawhammer stuff. Very slow progress, but enjoying it anyway. The latest one is a clawhammer version of I’ll Fly Away. My daughters’ accuse me of always playing funeral songs :grin:.

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#3

Thanks Jeff! @JKL
Once I finally started getting the hang of it, this song is alot of fun to play. Glad to hear you’re enjoying the Clawhammer - and about the slow progress… you’re not alone, it’s taken me a few weeks :confounded: to get this to the point here in the video & it still needs work. But it’s fun :grin:, so it’s not like “work” work!
Would love to hear your version of I’ll fly away… Funeral songs, oh my! I guess I’m guilty of that too…

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#4

Well%20Done

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#5

@Archie
Thank you Archie!

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#6

Wow…sounds really good!

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#7

HI Simone, I always enjoy your videos. I’m working on Cold Frosty Morning and also trying to work out the song “House of Gold” by the Kruger Brothers. I love the banjo in that song. Everything’s a work in progress, right?
It’s 16 degrees in Missouri today so I’m moving a little slower than usual

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#8

Thank you @Stuart.Gamble glad you liked it!

#9

Thank you Becky! @blkelk31051
Happy to hear you enjoyed it!
Cold Frosty is definitely appropriate :snowman_with_snow:! 16 degrees, I’m shivering just thinking about it. I remember what that feels like :wind_face: ! Have 4 totally different versions of that song, but can only handle 2. Have not heard the Kruger Bros House of Gold, will have to check it out…

Yup :smile:, happy pickin :notes:!

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#10

Been trying to learn some jazz and fingerstyle guitar… I also played mandolin yesterday and had a lot of fun messing around with a medley of hymns. Great job on the mando rhythm, that Grisman stuff is great!! Cold Frosty Morning’s been on my mind too; it got down to freezing in FL yesterday morn.

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#11

I’m using Ben’s lesson for the song. It has two lessons and I’m just now starting the harmony one.
I’m not sure why this is labeled House of God but here is the YT of Krugers. That banjo speaks to me!! Nice chatting with you. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmauUpKeBK0

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#12

Sounds good to me. I had to go listen to the Rice/Grisman version and I could hear the rhythm better and sounded like you were hitting all the key points. How did you learn the chords? Was it by ear?

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#13

@Michael_Mark
Thank you!
Jazz & fingerstyle guitar, cool! I’ve tried a little bit of swing and bit of jazz mando. Want to get back to working on that some more. I’ve said this before, ‘so many songs, so little time’ :grin:. Glad to hear you’re still playing the mando, I think I read here somewhere - that you mentioned you weren’t playing it as much these days. Yes, my sister in FL was quite upset about the cold weather yall got!

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#14

Becky @blkelk31051
“House of Gold” Never knew that was the name of that song, we’ve always called it ‘I’d rather be in a deep dark hole’ :rofl::grin: so now I’m feeling kinda silly, but I’ve learned something :+1:. One of Banjoson’s bands used to play that. The Krugers version is great, hadnt heard it before! Thanks for sharing :slightly_smiling_face:

#15

Tim, @Tim_C
Thank you!

And you definitely have a point there - you can’t can’t hardly hear what I’m playing along with & I should have turned up the recording, (which seemed pretty loud in the moment), or else put a link to the original recording, which I will do below. Thanks for pointing that out! :+1:

While I wish I could say I figured out the chords on my own, by ear, I did not. I learned the progression by reading off an app called chordu. (A.K.A. cheating) I already knew the chord shapes, but was not certain of the changes. Hadn’t really played songs that use the 1, 3,5,6,7 chords, didn’t know what to do with them :upside_down_face:! And changes/switching between chords/in time, is what I was mainly after when I started this one. Got most of it memorized now, though it was a challenge for me to get it down & somewhat in time…

I’m better at figuring out melody stuff (vs chord stuff) by ear. By ear is how I’m figuring out the mando breaks. This song seems to have a lot of leniency towards that you can get it to sound close to the melody, (minus technical flair & xtra notes that Grisman uses) & its still recognizable as"the song".
Or maybe I’m just wishful thinking, lol :confounded::rofl:

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#16

Link to the actual recording of Morning Sun from “Tone Poems” that was playing in background as it was barely audible in my video:

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#17

Simone, a big vote for training your ear and learning breaks, progressions etc that way. The more you do it the easier it gets. I guess it’s a generational thing because that’s how most everyone did it when I was starting out years ago. “Slow dim records down to 16” (lol). What I am really enjoying is all the stuff out there on the internet. You can slow anyone down without distorting the tone and learn some really cool “licks”/progrssions. Wish we would have had that 35 years ago (haha).

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#18

@Simone I wouldn’t call it cheating. I’d call it a tool. And I need all the tools, tricks, gimmicks I can get. lol Your rhythm and melody videos are inspiring. And I enjoyed seeing your smiling face at the end. Thanks for posting.

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#19

Chuck, @Ol_Papa
Thanks!
And yeah, I do remember putting the needle on the record a million times just trying to write down lyrics to songs, then it later on it was rewind the cassette… and that’s if you were fortunate enuff to own or borrow the album or cassette or record it off the radio… Wait forever for the radio station to maybe play the song you want & hope you were able to hit the ‘record’ button to capture it? No internet for instant musical gratification, we’ve come a long ways from those days :grin:

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#20

Thanks again Tim, :grin:!!
Appreciate that!!
@Tim_C

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