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stigandr5 - Posted - 01/31/2012: 09:28:58
The Fiddle Music of Wales on a 5-String Banjo!
A little over three months ago, I sent off a Fulbright application to study the fiddle music of Wales via the 5-string banjo. It just might have been crazy enough to work. But it didn’t.
No sense letting that get me down or stop me from pursuing my project in what capacity I can. I found free sheet music online for two traditional Welsh tunes, which I arranged for banjo.
Then I received my copy of Alawon John Thomas, an edition of an 18th-century Welsh fiddler’s fakebook. I arranged 3 of these tunes for banjo too.
So I’ll sleep a little better tonight knowing that there are 5 more Welsh tunes arranged for 5-string banjo than there were 3 months ago.
Enjoy!
P.S. 3 Videos sampling 3 selections from this little primer.
Edited by - stigandr5 on 02/06/2012 07:06:30
Dingoman25 - Posted - 01/31/2012: 10:34:16
Very nice playing Nathan!
Good work on the tabs; bummer about missing out on the scholarship though.
cheers, Chris.
Don Borchelt - Posted - 02/05/2012: 05:27:08
A very nice package you have put up here, Nathan, with the videos and tabs combined. All three tunes are very well played, and serve to explode the subliminal delusion held by most pickers that it is the banjo that makes the player. While all three performances are great, it is the minuet that is most immediately striking; it is rare to see someone reach so far up a fretless neck for notes and still maintain reasonably accurate intonation.
Some unsolicited advice: I can only imagine the commotion you created in the State Department's cultural affairs section when they received an application from an unknown scholar requesting funding to deconstruct Welsh fiddle tunes using a banjo made from a tin can. You probably bemused a few foggy bottom bureaucrats, for sure. I would suggest looking into private foundations in the future. There are literally thousands, and probably quite a good number that specialize in arts, music, and culture in general. Private foundations are more likely to think out of the box, and I say that as someone who spent 35 years writing grant applications to federal agencies. Whatever you want to say about government bureaucrats, and I have fonder feelings for them than most people, having been one, but it is true that they rarely take risks. Grants from private foundations are generally small- a grant over $10,000 is actually pretty unusual- but they generally require far less work to apply and have far fewer requirements. I would suggest in starting out that you think small and don't forget to emphasize your core message- the easy access to making traditional music afforded by the tin can banjo.
Edited by - Don Borchelt on 02/05/2012 05:31:54
stigandr5 - Posted - 02/06/2012: 04:11:51
Don -- Thank you for the advice (and the compliments). I'll certainly bear that in mind in the future!
JanetB - Posted - 02/06/2012: 05:29:33
Have you ever looked at the long list of Abraham Lincoln's failures, Nathan? You've found a rarely touched niche and your passion is in music, so as they say at my school, "dream it, believe it, achieve it." I liked the Prussian March best. I'll look forward to learning more about Welsh music through your efforts.
Best,
Janet B
Mark Johnson - Posted - 02/06/2012: 13:04:18
dig the playing, the mix of history and innovation, and the positive attitude. also, I really got a chuckle when Don really drove home the image of stuffy bureaucrats looking over the Welsh music/canjo proposal.
keep it up, and keep posting videos.
bc99 - Posted - 02/06/2012: 13:31:41
So awesome. I can't get over the canjo, and it sounds so very good. As some of my ancestors hail from Wales this is particularly cool. Thanks!
