Mopick - Posted - 09/03/2014:  19:19:11

I've been working up Bill Cheatum on the banjo.  Thanks ~ Randy

Edited by - Mopick on 09/03/2014 19:30:14

Paul Meredith - Posted - 09/03/2014:  19:50:51

Nicely played!   BIll Cheatum is one of my favorite fiddle tunes.

chuckv97 - Posted - 09/03/2014:  20:16:09

Nice job ,Randy. One of my faves. You put in some cool variations.

eMike - Posted - 09/03/2014:  21:19:26

You played that old tune very well.  I really like the tone of your banjo also.  Nice job.

Mike

Mopick - Posted - 09/04/2014:  05:46:10

Thank you eMike.  I'm really happy I have a Gibson, especially now that I don't think they are going to make any more.  This is a 93 Gibson RB-3 re-issue, Rich era.  I bought it new in 94.  A couple of years ago I left it with Chris Cioffi in Springfield TN and he went completely through it.   He did a neck set and set it up for a .656 bridge.  This bridge is a Kateyz w/ Crowe spacing.  When Chris got through with this banjo it sounded like a completely different banjo.   

And just a couple of weeks ago Julio Boysenberry sent me a set of his custom made strings. Wow! is all I have to say.   Thank you Julio, these strings are fantastic.  I wrote and told Julio that I was amazed at the beautiful tone I was pulling from my banjo with those strings when playing Bill Cheatham and Blackberry Blossom.  

I would love to hear the tone that Charlie Cushman or Jim Mills could pull from it. 

Edited by - Mopick on 09/04/2014 06:01:11

60spicker - Posted - 09/04/2014:  06:36:08

Very nice, Randy. Now if we can just coax a wee smile...

Mopick - Posted - 09/04/2014:  08:18:46

There are some good practice tracks on the Flatpick Apprentice page.

flatpickapprentice.blogspot.com/

Tim Purcell - Posted - 09/04/2014:  08:27:27

Great job on a not so easy tune!!

Tim

casinojack - Posted - 09/04/2014:  08:30:21

Great pickin Randy

Should make you smile

 

Mopick - Posted - 09/04/2014:  08:41:57

I was concentrating too hard trying to keep up with that guitar.   It sounds slow tempo, but not when you have to keep that rock steady beat for nearly three minutes.  

Edited by - Mopick on 09/04/2014 08:46:36

Richard Dress - Posted - 09/04/2014:  10:38:58

Great control.  Good hand management.  Like a pro.

Mopick - Posted - 09/04/2014:  10:52:22

Thank you Richard.  That's a real compliment coming from you.  

banjoy - Posted - 09/04/2014:  14:25:28

I think this thread deserves to be in the SoundOff section, Randy. Don't be shy!

Julio B - Posted - 09/04/2014:  21:28:16

Very nice arrangement and your banjo sounds superb! I would think that you are extremely satisfied with it!
And don't worry about not smiling - check out some videos of Raymond Fairchild! Hahahahaha!
~Julio

eMike - Posted - 09/04/2014:  22:24:24

Yeah, Raymond doesn't smile a lot when he's performing.  I think the only time he smiled that night several years ago, was when I bought a couple of his CD's and got my picture taken with him holding the CD's.  Very interesting fellow, and amazing picker.

Mopick - Posted - 09/05/2014:  06:05:10

I met Raymond Fairchild back in the early 90's at the Withlacoochee Bluegrass Festival.  I was talking to him at the CD table and a guy asked him if he still carried that Owl's head pistol.  Raymond reached down and pulled up his pant leg and stuck in the top of is boot was a .32 pistol.  An Owl's head.  Dave Maynard was my banjo teacher in the early 90's and he was from Hurricane West Virginia.  Dave told me that a right of passage in the mountains is that when you turn 13 you were given an Owl's head pistol.  I never saw one until I saw Raymond's.



He can make the banjo talk. 

Ks_5-picker - Posted - 09/05/2014:  06:19:44

You did a fine job!  I would make one suggestion.Right at the beginning of the A part where you hit the first string twice in a row,I believe the melody is a B note,so I do a pinch of the first AND second strings right there.Other than that,I've no complaints.  

Don Borchelt - Posted - 09/05/2014:  06:23:24

Well done, Randy. 

Mopick - Posted - 09/05/2014:  06:28:15

This was really a video I made of myself practicing to the guitar tack from flatpick apprentice.  It really wasn't' meant for human consumption but I kind of liked it so I put it up.  Thanks to my banjo teacher Fidlin' Al for showing me those licks.   He's a fiddle player so who better to work up a fiddle tune.  He wanted to stay within the realms of Scruggs and not too  heavy into melodic.  I hear a triplet close to the end at 2:43 that sounds really cool.  This was an accident but I'm going back at looking at how I did it and work that up.

Thank you all.  I'm steady working at learning.   Richard....hand management is something I have to really concentrate on.  Usually my fingers look like a drunk tarantula.  Al harps at me to get rid of  unnecessary motion.  It's a challenge.   Making a video of yourself playing helps you see things and hear things from a different perspective.

And Julio's strings are outstanding.   Medium ga.  pre-stretched, they have velvet wrapped around the loop ends like violin strings that amazingly cut out unwanted overtones and protect the tailpiece.  No recycled material and the manufacturer uses new dies for each production run.  High end.  I told Julio they make my  Mahogany Gibson sound like a Gibson should.

Mopick - Posted - 09/05/2014:  06:29:38

quote:

---

Originally posted by Ks_5-picker

You did a fine job!  I would make one suggestion.Right at the beginning of the A part where you hit the first string twice in a row,I believe the melody is a B note,so I do a pinch of the first AND second strings right there.Other than that,I've no complaints.  

---

Yes.  I only did the pinch one time in the whole song.  I know Al is going to point that out.   Thank you.

Stevespickn - Posted - 09/05/2014:  07:00:20

Very hard song to play right.

country frank - Posted - 09/07/2014:  03:47:16

Randy, sweet, measured and oh so pretty.

Just like my lovely wife. Great work.

figmo59 - Posted - 09/07/2014:  04:50:11

I think ya need more..bbq pratice..

Me back pourch id open to ya.. ;0)

Oh..bring yer banjo..Debb...too.. ;0)

Kenneth Logsdon - Posted - 09/07/2014:  08:58:09

Here, here.... The least you could have done was mess up a little and make the rest of us feel better..

Joe Jakonczuk - Posted - 09/08/2014:  11:48:45

I was in a jam last year and was about to play a fiddle tune. There was another banjo in the jam played by someone who played for a famous group years ago. She made a fuss and said she hated fiddle tunes on a banjo and only played straight Scruggs songs. Rather than cause anyone to get upset I played Lonesome Road Blues I think. My thoughts were how do you play banjo and NOT play any fiddle tunes? Earl played gobs of them. And what do you do if you have a fiddle in the jam? Later I reflected that if it happened again I would play the fiddle tune. I like them and in fact just learned Dance Around Molly.