Please do an intermediate or advanced lesson for Mississippi Sawyer in any key. I entered the Va Folk Music contest for summer 2019 and chose that song and Sweet Georgia Brown, for which I have a good arrangement. I’m happy to be a gold pick member and plan on doing lots of practice this year.
Thanks!
Bruce
Song Request for Banjo Ben
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I’m not familiar with that song, but according to this link
https://www.loc.gov/item/afcreed000206/
It was written in 1967. That’s still covered under copyright law. At the moment, Ben can only cover songs in the public domain. He’s working to legally expand that, but not quite there yet as far as I know.
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Oh man-although I understand the copyright laws are necessary I am hoping so much that @BanjoBen can get some more song rights. This website is far better than anything else on the market in any capacity and the more options the better!
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Yeah, he definitely wants to go that direction. This site is Ben’s main source of income, so he’s doing everything he can to keep it above board. The music moguls don’t take kindly to stepping on their copyright toes.
The plan is that, once Ben gets everything lined out with the powers that be, he’ll have copyrighted songs available on the site for a small additional fee. The additional fee will cover the cost of paying the copyright holder.
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Hi Bruce, Welcome to @BanjoBen 's Forum. We ALL (including Ben) look forward to the day he is able to post copyright lessons. A lot of work has been going on behind the scenes to secure licenses in order to make this possible. We just need to be patient.
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thanks and yes maybe in the future. Its a great song and if you have not heard Norman Blake’s version please listen.
Bruce
Cumberland gap for mandolin?! Am I crazy or is it not on here yet?
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It is not, but I need to do that one!
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I noticed the site had worried man blues for Banjo - how about Mandolin? I think it is something worth decorating simple to intermediate (sorry if I did not request correctly)
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Great request, thanks!
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It would be awesome if you could do Victory in Jesus as intermediate mandolin
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I’d be down for an advanced version of MS Sawyer as well.
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Hey @BanjoBen I really loved your version of Love Lifted Me!! (you and your sisters) Do you think you could do an advanced lesson of that song sometime in the future using all three instruments?thank you for all that you do!! - Josiah Morrow
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I second this request. I would love to see a fingerstyle version of Love Lifted Me in a build a break version going from simple to advanced. BTW, I joined your site 5+ years ago and it was the best purchase I have made (short of my retirement gift to myself - my Martin HD-28 
)
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Not trying to spoil anyone’s requests but was just wondering for example Love lifted me is a pretty straight forward tune that could be played an infinite number of ways. If anyone is stuck where they are not able to work out arrangements maybe a lesson on how to do that is more productive.
It just seems to me that there are far far to many tunes for Ben to ever be able to do a complete lesson on every song that somebody might want to do. (although I am sure he would like to and appreciates all the ideas for new material)
With practice you can play right along with any song.
My only problem on that Purple Hull song version is that I could not come close to playing at the speed she was playing it and so even if the break was tabbed out I would not be able to play it that fast.
But because I can just make up any break I always do what fits my current abilities. In other words I try to make a break as interesting as possible.
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@C-Stewart. I’m with you on playing Love Lifted Me. I was able to work out most of the chords. The girls have a tendency to add a few extras.
As for speed I used the loop to learn app which allows me to take a YouTube video, slow it down and loop any section. The app is not perfect but it serves a purpose.
There is a lesson where Ben takes the piano music from the hymn book and transposes it.
https://banjobenclark.com/lessons/hymn-study-i-surrender-all-mandolin-intermediate
Good luck on keeping up with Penny and Katy. If I ever get the chance I’m going to ask them about the extra chords and why they fit.
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I did not notice anything extra maybe an A7 or something but I often just skip 7’s and just let the guitar do the more nuanced chords. Definitely used different voicings for the same chords. Double stop choices can make it seem like a different chord.
Oh there are some blue notes that I did not notice first time I listened to it.
It is not the speed of the video that is my problem -my fingers just won’t go that fast so even if that break was tabbed out I would have to modify it to be able to play it that tempo.
Still I think it is more useful to learn how to improvise than having to learn each song by tab.
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