Faster is better, I say! It’s a simple song, but what makes it fun is getting up on top of the beat.
The 9 Pound Hammer
Alright, we have Ozi wanting to do some vocals. Sounds like Jesse has a break in the works and volunteered for rhythm GTR. Man, this project has a bunch of people signed up before we ever did a thing.
We now have
Ozi - bass/vox
Jesse - GTR rhythm and break
JW - GTR break
Larry - dobro break and/or rhythm and/or noodling/nominated for some vox… hasn’t formally accepted
Mike - mandolin rhythm (break if needed)
Ben - unspecified instrument(s)
Fiddlewood - something to be named later (banjo, GTR, fiddle are open possibilities by my count)
So for breaks we have Jesse, JW, Larry, Ben and Fiddlewood. I suggest we have Ben kick it off and whoever plays the last break kill it, so that adds a mini break at the beginning. If Ben did a mandolin break, that would be 2 GTR, 1 dobro, 1 mandolin and 1 whatever fiddlewood wants.
Larry says faster is better… how fast are you thinking Larry, like 250 or 260? We better be careful… we don’t want to intimidate Ben 
I just started singing it at what seemed natural middling range and it tapped out to about 230. Jesse suggested 180 to 220. I am guessing the slower speeds in that range would have more of shuffle/swing feel. Any other peeps have thoughts on tempo?
Dave (Fiddlewood), are you thinking banjo or fiddle (or something else)? Last I remember, you had fiddle maintenance issues. I don’t remember the exact details, but I remember a fear of a violin folding in half.
Well, fast is a relative term, isn’t it? For me it’s about 150 bpm 
I’m pretty sure I’m not going to outrun Ben.
I just put Tony Rice’s version from Manzanita on the clock and it seems to be at about 240 bpm.
When it comes to vocals, I’ll sing if you twist my arm, but I’m more than happy to defer to others and just play dobro.
This sure does seem to be our biggest project yet, in terms of number of participants. I love it!
This is getting good. I hope we all stay this fired up throughout the project.
I like Jesse’s thoughts on 180 - 220 bpm’s and I think we all agree on the key of A. Since we’re getting some volunteers on vocals as well as breaks I have a thought if everyone’s in agreement. And remember it’s just an idea. Someone else may have better suggestions. I don’t like to sing and I hate the sound of my own voice (I think alot of people are that way), but I’d be willing do a vocal as well. If we get enough vocal volunteers along with the volunteers we have for the breaks, we could do a version like Tony Rice’s All Star Jam. We could have a kickoff, then each person could sing a verse and then play their break, and the next person do the same and so on. If we don’t have as many vocals as breaks, no problem. One person can just sing two verses. The Tony Rice version may be a little too fast but I think we could slow it down to 180 to 220 as suggested earlier and still keep the same feel yet be attainable for everyone involved.
Remember it’s just a thought, I’m willing to work with it however we decide to do it. Here’s the link:
Love that TRASJ version. Larry… go get that Jerry Douglas part down and we can have Ozi straighten out your mic while you are playing your break. In case anyone doesn’t know to what I am referring look at 1:10 in JW’s link.
I like how they extend each break longer than a verse. I also like Sam’s backing vocals.
At first I thought it was Tony reaching over to adjust Jerry’s mic, but finally I realized it wasn’t him. Do you think it was the bass player?
Mike, I have a fiddle on loan now. That being said, I’m up for trying to fill in on whatever you all think the song needs after everyone gets a chance to choose what they want to do.
When deciding the tempo it’s good to deep in mind what mood you wish to create. As a mid-tempo song 9#h can have a tremendous amount of drive. As speed increases dynamics, clarity, and inventiveness can suffer.
It might be a great learning experience to record Two versions of this song (one at mid-tempo/one at breakdown speed) just to see what we are capable of at different tempos. …just a thought.
— Begin quote from "ldpayton"
At first I thought it was Tony reaching over to adjust Jerry’s mic, but finally I realized it wasn’t him. Do you think it was the bass player?
— End quote
To be honest , I’m not sure, but the bass player was the best I could figure. You can see the upright moving around quite a bit in the background. I think the sound of the bass drops… if it was him, he maybe played a bit with his fretting hand while fiddling with the mic. Of course it could have been someone else altogether and the bass player was just moving around so this other person could get through.
Edit… went back and looked. That was a left hand moving the mic with a brown jacket arm. The bass player has both a brown jacket and a left arm! I believe an upright is generally tuned E A D G, which would have allowed the bass player to play open strings with his plucking hand. How he did that without dropping it, I’ve no idea.
— Begin quote from "fiddlewood"
Mike, I have a fiddle on loan now. That being said, I’m up for trying to fill in on whatever you all think the song needs after everyone gets a chance to choose what they want to do.
When deciding the tempo it’s good to deep in mind what mood you wish to create. As a mid-tempo song 9#h can have a tremendous amount of drive. As speed increases dynamics, clarity, and inventiveness can suffer.
It might be a great learning experience to record Two versions of this song (one at mid-tempo/one at breakdown speed) just to see what we are capable of at different tempos. …just a thought.
— End quote
I vote we put you in for fiddle and potentially banjo in case Ben doesn’t play some banjo. This song has the potential to have all the standard BG instruments going, and I think that’s pretty nifty. I certainly think a fiddle break would be highly desired.
I agree with you on the speed thoughts. Two versions could be fun (and the slower one might even entice a few more players). The John Prine tempo/feel that Ozi liked was about 180 and had a shuffle to it. There have been some votes for 220 to 230. That’s still not hair on fire (TR link was about 260), but it’s got a bit of pep.
So now I have to wear a brown jacket and try not to drop it at 230 revs, right?
Man this is getting complicated…
And adjust my microphone while you’re at it, ozi.
9#Hammer backing track attached at 200 bpm. I decided to do a no-frills quick recording to serve as a backing track to practice some chops over and just figured I’d share it.
200 bpm is pretty slow. We may end up with a 10 minute jam at this speed!
In other news I done a “search” for 9lb Hammer and I was surprised that most of the results came back with results for a strain of “weed” called 9lb hammer…if I was a betting man I say it’s probably grown around the hills of Hazard!
Edit: We might want to add a bluegrass measure coming out of the breaks to let the instrument tag their statement before going into a verse. I think those “tags”/bluegrass measures give stuff a nice live feel. There are no tags in my mp3 file.
Thanks!
Good start OH, now we all have something to work to. Well done and thanks.
I know I’ve been clamoring for speed on this project, but when I sat down to play with oldhat’s track this evening, I was having trouble keeping up. Guess I’m faster in my mind than I am in real life. Off to the woodshed for me!
Just wanted to clarify that I put this up for others to practice to. Seems a standard guitar rhythm, although boring, is a good way to have something to play to for the other instruments to get started on.
With this said, by no means should we lock ourselves into this speed or this crappy recording. It is in time though, which is a plus! I just wanted to throw this up as I know personally for me it is so much easier to work out a break with some simple form of a backing/rhythm track that is played over and over and over.
Speaking of “time”…damn it’s tough playing rhythm for around 4 minutes and keeping in time…seems you want to fall asleep/forget where you were in the monotony.
I picked 200 bpm because it seemed comfortable for me at that speed to start working on a break. If there are some folks out there that do not play guitar and want either a slower backing track or faster one to work to then let me know what speed you think you would like and I will record a simple backing track. Don’t be shy or embarrassed to ask, even if it’s at 100 bpm as all of us are at different levels. Maybe the slower guys can get to the woodshed and work up to a faster target speed over the next month and be able to add in some parts.
Again, it’s all about learning.
Thanks for posting the rythym track Jesse. Like you said, this may not be the tempo we end up with but it gives us something to practice our breaks and/or our vocals along with. Faster or slower is ok with me, whatever everyone agrees to.
Much appreciated.
J.W.
I’m not advocating for a slower version. I just realized that I needed to do a little more practice. I spent a couple of hours on 9#H last night and got my memorized break up to speed with oldhat’s practice track and even figured out a few variations. One of the things I like about these projects is how they push me outside my comfort zone.
I think we’ve hit on something good by choosing a song a month or so before recording begins. On most of our previous projects I’ve recorded as soon as I’ve had the most tenuous grasp of the song. The way we’re doing it now I’ve had a chance to play 9#H a few times at jams, I’ve worked out a couple of different dobro breaks, and last night I started trying to figure out my dobro break on the guitar which is a very interesting exercise. By the time we’re done, I should have a really functional understanding of the song that I can apply in various situations.
Good point. I often do the same thing when recording. That is, just get to where I can play it, record and move on.