this will surely make me famous

[Manna]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuEN8LvXERU

[Jimmy O'Connell]

Very talented indeed, a Chailin!!

Is it a tradtional tune? Where does it come from?

Got any more?

Jimmy

[Jimmy O'Connell]

You might enjoy
Planxty - Little Musgave
on YouTube

Jimmy

[Manna]

I have only two recordings of this tune - the one I made and the one my husband made. And it's not a small collection we have. I don't know if it is old. My husband learned it from a guy who was once like a son to him. But the origin of the tune wasn't something that came up, I guess. It doesn't have the sound of something that was made up recently to me, but I just don't know.

Do I have more? Nope. That's the only tune I can play.

[lizzytysh]

We're getting there!! NOW, I want to know where all the daddle deedle dums are for where the words would normally be . Looking forward to both coming together in the next one you post.

Seriously, I just watched it here and then went straight over to you-know-where to see if you'd posted it there, as well. Super to see you did. It's such a treat to watch and listen to you, Manna. You seem very adept and confident with your banjo .


Love,
Lizzy

[Pete]

I enjoyed that!!
and now you are famous

Pete

[Birdonawire]

Great tune Manna. Very brave posting the vid. I can only play a couple of (very basic) tunes on guitar, but wouldn't have the nerve to do it on youtube. I see you hold your right hand (strumming or picking hand) high up on the neck of the banjo and not over the main body or 'skin' (if thats the right term for it). Is that a standard position or just the way you do it? Would you achieve a deeper sound if you hold your hand further down the body of the banjo?

[Manna]

If you have a banjo handy (or a music shop), you can try strumming in different places, and you'll hear the different ways it sounds. Right at the base of the neck there is where it seems sweetest to me. It sounds more open? more easy-going? Blue grassers tend to play down near the bridge, which makes the sound more attack and less sustain, if you follow, plus it sounds tighter and more metallic down there. It's softer when you play up the neck, so when I'm in a jam, I might play more over the head to modulate. Some old-timers have that part of the fingerboard scooped out which makes it easier to play there. But not mine.

[mat james]

I only play a few tunes on the banjo and I too have noted that "sweet spot" at the base of the neck.
I used to make moutnain banjos, got the initial designs from an Appalatian (spelling?) mountain book called the "Foxfire Book", edited by Eliot Wiggington. I made about 10 of them, experimenting with a range of timbers, trying to create a honey sweet tone and eventually I succeeded. My nephew who is a "muse-o" visited me and loved it. So it is his now.
I have a friend (a Thoreau/ Walden Pond type, opinionated, anti-social with a few good points if you don't hang around too long for the barrage of abuse) who lives in the bush around the Bendigo gold fields in Victoria Aus. He prospects for gold and plays banjo in the evenings and is presently building a massive mud-brick home. He has one of my earlier attempts at banjo making. It looks great hanging on his wall but that is where it stays as he prefers the sound and feel of his older one.
You play your "only tune" beautifully!
So for all the above reasons and more, I thoroughly enjoyed viewing your "you-tube" clip and I too look forward to the next one.

Matj

[Birdonawire]

And now I know Thanks for the info.

Any chance of you doing likewise on youtube mat? Go on, go for it.

[Jimmy O'Connell]

Yeah, Mat....
Come on.... Give it a lash... we won't laugh, honestly...

Jimmy

[Manna]

Hey! Not a bad idea. Maybe we could teach each other a few tunes, Matj.

[damellon]

Manna - have you thought this 'fame' thing through? What will you do for your encore? Can you juggle?

[Red Poppy]

On damellon. Why no slap on the wrist to Manna for self promotion when poor old Cortez got the full whip & high heels for trying to sell his tome?

[damellon]

And he loved it!
Manna is not selling anything - yet, we are still on page one of this thread, and she and I have been friends for over 25 years (and I'm still considering her 'cantaloupe' proposal). Do you rest on the Sabbath? Welcome back.