bd Says:
Thursday, February 28, 2013 @8:42:26 AM

I'm not much into the hip hop stuff or current dance stuff, but I'll comment anyway. I really liked the beginning with the solo banjo & the slow introduction of bass line and beats. The scratching, and non-banjo samples didn't do a lot for me. I would have preferred just banjo bass line & beats, but I'm into really spare arrangements usually. I also wanted the banjo more forward in the mix. On the whole I though it a well made piece, tho'.
I'm curious what sort of reaction this would get in a dance club.

erikspangler Says:
Thursday, February 28, 2013 @9:11:20 AM

Thanks for listening and giving your feedback. Definitely not for everyone, I know. But I hope to open some ears on both sides of the fence.

rgoad Says:
Thursday, February 28, 2013 @9:33:49 AM

Well, *I* like this a lot. My observation concerns your thesis, about which I am eminently *unqualified* to discuss at all. It is that the base lines and concurrent rhythm lines already exist as part of the banjo heritage you are applying new techniques and some instruments that are currently considered unconventional. However, if you compare the various rhythm lines in Ngoni music from Mali I think you'll see similar, maybe even identical concurrent lines as you presented here. Check out 'Ladon' by Ngoni ba'.

I have been thinking of posting a blog hypothesising that the divergence of Old Time from Bluegrass is in the use of the musical scales and keys in Bluegrass versus the rhythm lines and tones in Old Time. I think your mp3 addresses that, to some degree.

In any case I am merely making noises in the peanut gallery, all of them approving. I like this a lot!

bd Says:
Thursday, February 28, 2013 @10:20:44 AM

rgoad brings up something I meant to mention but plumb forgot. I don't really see hip hop and old time as all that different. Both primarily dance musics and really part of the same musical tradition, that is American Music (with caps and all). Maybe its that I'm young enough to see hip hop as part of my folk tradition (whether I'm a "fan" or not). I think there is really only a "fence" (as you say Erik) that separates them.

rgoad Says:
Thursday, February 28, 2013 @12:24:09 PM

Let me add something to bd's comments about the music that risks getting me skewered by the Bluegrass people. One of the characteristics of banjo that makes it unique is the reduced sustain. I think the Bluegrass roll replaced that reduced sustain by a constant refresh of the sound in an relatively even, but short, beat patter. Some of the sounds you used in this piece are 'foreign' to our current tastes and mental image of the banjo, but mainly from a Bluegrass perspective. The Old Time banjo is more linked to a dance beat and can respond more easily to the Boom Bap kind of beats. If there is a problem with Hip Hop beats it is that the boom bap beat intervals can be so long they don't fit the same dance styles as easily. The decay of the banjo is so rapid it seems to lose a lot of the easily identifiable melody elements and becomes much more of the 'drum with strings'. I personally like that.