Same tune ... different chords

[Shad]

For the past year or so, I’ve been going to various jams around town, and I’m noticing that for fiddle tunes, the backing chords are not set in stone and can vary a lot! For example, I will learn one of Ben’s breaks for a fiddle tune with the backing chords, and then when I sit down to practice it with Strum Machine, their version will have some differences. Usually the same break/melody still works, but sometimes it doesn’t! Then when I go out to a jam and actually play the tune with other people, it turns out they are all playing yet another variation!

Any tips or other wisdom for dealing with all these variations? I think most of the time, in a semi-chaotic jam with more than a few people, I’m probably the only one who notices I am playing the wrong chord, but it still irks me!

[Michael_Mark]

What are some tunes this comes up in? I know there are varations especially in the more old-time oriented tunes, though with more “bluegrass” fiddle tunes I seem to notice this more rarely – Big Sciota would be one example.

Have you found more of an issue with entire chord progressions being different, or just a bar or two?

[Archie]

Hi Shad, Fiddle tunes have so many variants it’s hard to keep track.

[Shad]

@Michael_Mark- I think a lot of the ones that are driving me crazy are the Old Time ones. I know I have already posted about this, but the one that drove me crazy is Cluck Old Hen. My son’s fiddle teacher taught him the version from the Fiddler’s Fakebook, and I wanted to be able to play it with him. I scoured the internets looking for a tab that was three finger and not clawhammer, and I found a great tab for Ron Block’s arrangement (Alison Kraus and Union Station.) So I learned it, and it sounded cool. Then, when we tried to play together, it was like a different tune entirely and just did not work! I have since found a different tab that does work, but man, that was some wasted effort.

I am not yet at a point in my banjo playing (and probably never will be!) where I can learn a melody on the spot. I have to go home and practice something a zillion times! I am also still reliant on learning someone else’s arrangement rather than coming up with my own. Shove the Pig’s Foot and Squirrel Hunters are two favorites at the local jam, and I need to learn those. I just don’t want to repeat my Cluck Old Hen experience where I learned something, and it didn’t work!

[JohnnyD]

I have since found a different tab that does work, but man, that was some wasted effort.

Thats a shared sentiment for a lot of us, especially when we learn an arrangement is far more advanced than the basic melody. Ben has some build a break lessons you could use to help grow. If you know the words of the tune, just play sound of the words and worry about the fill later.
The fiddle teacher might also be a resource. You might also try talking about it him/her.

[Archie]

It’s the same with Banjo Tunes.

I learned Peaches & Cream from Alan Munde 's Anthology II DVD. I think @BanjoBen learned it from Katy Lou who learned it from Alan himself. There are variations.

I learned The Old Spinning Wheel from Murphy Henry which is different to @BanjoBen ‘s arrangement which is different to Raymond Fairchild’ s your always going to come across variations especially at jam sessions. If your goal is to play with your son get a copy of the Fiddlers Fakebook arrangement write out the chord progression and play backup rolls over the chord progression. Use fill-in licks to add colour.

Remember this. NOTHING you learn on the banjo is time wasted. You will use what you learned in that arrangement in some other tune somewhere down the line.

[JohnnyD]

NOTHING you learn on the banjo is time wasted.

Truth.

[The_Mole]

Old Joe Clark is an example of a tune with alternative chords. Tony Trischka discusses it in his Master Collection of Fiddle Tunes for Banjo book. I photographed the page and attached it. Remember, as Ron Thomason of Dry Branch Fire Squad likes to say, “There is a fine line between playing old time music, and not being able to play at all.”