Forum - Banjo Ben Clark

The Old Home Place

I am having trouble finding certain bluegrass standards tutorials. This is happening more and more. I’m starting to rethink my membership. is there a reason for songs like " old home place" and others haveno tutorial

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Short answer: If a piece is still protected under copy-write laws it’s not legal to publish it here as a lesson.

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All the elements and licks that @BanjoBen teaches here go to make up all the Standard Bluegrass tunes out there.

What your learning here is the mechanics of playing banjo, guitar and mandolin. Taking the skills you learn here and applying it to any tune you wish to learn is what makes you a musician.

As Dave @Fiddle_wood said. To protect his livelihood and on legal advice Ben has decided not to publish tunes that are copyright. With a young family to support you have to respect his decision.

You may find partial references to copyright materials elsewhere on the Internet those teachers could quite easily be sued for publishing, that’s probably why no one publishes an entire tune.

Over the years I have had subscriptions to most of the online tutorial sites, none of them teach full versions of Standard Bluegrass tunes.

I can also state with hand on heart this is by far the best place on the Internet to learn banjo. I can’t really speak for guitar or mandolin because I don’t play those instruments but I still think this is the best overall tutorial site for learning those instruments.

Whatever you decide I wish you well for the future Terry, It is noted that you don’t frequent this Forum very often, that might be a reason that you feel your not getting the most from your membership. This Forum like the rest of the website is thee most supportive you will find anywhere.

On a final note (pun intended) Comparing the quantity and quality of the lessons on this website compared to all the rest combined. Here you’re getting the Best Bang For Your Buck. You know the grass always looks greener in the next field but wait till you get there and look back. You know what I’m saying?

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All that stuff about copyright is true. You can get around that (under certain circumstances) by giving it away for free. For example, if I wrote out the tabs to “Old Home Place” the way I play it, I could give you the tabs for free. If I want to spend a couple hours showing you how to play it for free, I could do that. But as soon as you gave me a nickle for my time & trouble, I will have run afoul of the law.
You may find free tabs for the song you’re looking for, but the odds of finding a free & complete tutorial are pretty slim.
And those free tabs may or may not be the version you had in mind. One thing about the old standards is no one plays them exactly the same way…not even Earl.
This is where Ben comes into action. He will teach you to play the instrument, not merely the song. So when you hear a song you like you will be able to play it the way you like. :banjo::grin:
And that to me is worth every penny!

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Howdy @tlong,

The ability to teach copyrighted tunes is coming to the site, or I’ll die trying. In the meanwhile, if there’s something you want to learn you can request in the forum and we can all work on it together. That is not copyright infringement.

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Here are some banjo tabs for Old Homeplace. This is an advanced version that I wrote long ago.

Ban-OldHomeplace-Adv.tef (2.4 KB)
Ban-OldHomeplace-Adv.pdf (53.9 KB)

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Thanks!! Love that song, especially the JD Crowe version

Here is an advanced TAB arrangement by Stan Slack which includes the chorus. Sorry I don’t have a PDF File. I downloaded this from the Banjo Hangout many many years ago never did get down to learning it because it was way over my head. Now thanks to @BanjoBen I have the skills to work on this in the coming weeks

oldhomeplace_stanslack.tef (7.2 KB)

Some time, from probably several years back, I have an intermediate and advance tab but no back up track. Any chance that Old Home Place back up track is available?

Great question, and I don’t have one handy right now. However, you can go to YouTube and find a recording and slow it down using the YouTube playback speed control:

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