There has been a lot of discussion on the Banjo Hangout about Noam Pikelny’s 4 note cells and how to use them. Jazz substation comes in very handy when using his 4 note cells. Quick and dirty way to use the cells. Cells based on the tonic i.e. I, iii, and vi, will work over any diatonic chord. This is an old jazz trick. Bela and Noam use this technique extensively. The other cells can be used as passing chords. The topic of scale to chord application is old and as frustrating as ever. Here is my two cents.

One way I have developed to implement scales is to set up an exorcise that break melody down into a decision tree much like the ones used by Nash in Game Theory. Most melodies follow some basic principals that come from voice leading and how to handle leaps. Look at Bach two part writing or Tonal Harmony.  These parameters can be implemented in an ear training exercise by the following restrictions. Each of the restrictions can be isolated and worked on separately. 1 no leaps. The rest of the parameters are how to handle leaps. 2 Leap through chords. 3 No leaps more than a seventh. 80 percent of good melodies do not leap. There is more to this than these parameters but the first one I think is the most important. No Leaps out of the mode of the moment. This is an ear training exorcise not a way to solo.  

Practicing no leaps.

Put on a song that is in the key you would like to practice. Put these restrictions. Start with whole notes. Start on the tonic. With the passing of every measure choose a new note in the scale. There are three possibilities or decisions for every note.  You could repeat the note move up a note in the scale, or move down a note. Every new note has the same choice. If a note sounds tense or wrong that is ok. The point is to learn and handle tense notes.  You will discover that this breaks you out of applying scales to chords and into muscle memory melody decisions. There are no wrong notes but tense or resolved notes.  I read time and again about how to apply scales to chords and think most have it wrong. You can play any scale of any chord with authority and it will sound correct. If you apply scales and arpeggios to chords in a strict traditional application i.e. Ionian with the I chord Dorian with the II,  then you are missing the tension and point of learning the modes. Learning the modes will not teach you how to play. The modes are just the relationships between chords. The trick is learning how to resolve tense notes, and make decisions with authority.

This exorcise is actually very easy and I have done it with many studens and even beginners.

Once you feel comfortable with whole notes, move to half, then quarter then eighth then sixteenth.

If you are trying to apply scales to chords good luck. My advice is to apply your ear to the chords and forget about application of modes. Soloing is making decions. Train yourself to make decisions. That is not to say that you should not study modes. You will need them to inform your decisions. This is ear traning.

Hey, here is what I played on the record. Hook the 5th string on the railroad tie to A. There are some backward rolls in this arrangement. Good luck, it is tricky. I am still working on an improved arrangement.

I separated the A and B with some empty measures. It is an AABB tune

Sandy River Belle.tef

TablEdited by Timothy Ryan Fisher

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|——–0——-4——-4——-|—-0———–9——-7——-|
|—-0——-5——-5———–|5———–8——-8———–|
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|—-0——-5——-5———–|5———–8——-8———–|
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|14———-14——14——14–|——–9———————–|
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Hey banjo folks I am a huge fan of Noam Pikelny who keeps true to Scruggs tradition yet moves the banjo technique into the future. I have been hearing about him for years through friends and colleages like Colby Maddox, Rita Ruby, Steve Doyle, Nelson Mandrel and many others that watched him grow up at the Old Town School of Folk Music, and saw him for the first time at the Abby Pub in Chicago and my Jaw was dropped which does not happen that often.  Noam embodies a rare musicality at a very young age. This guy is amazing.

The trick to this arrangement is the use of the first finger on the fourth string seventh fret to keep a Bela type forward backward roll going to get the melody.

Speed Bump is the first song off of In the Maze his solo album. This record rocks and is actually in the Rock catigory on my Ipod.  

peed bump.tef

TablEdited by Timothy Ryan Fisher

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Here is the tab for Whiskey in the Hall. Again swing hard. This is mostly melodic with some Scruggs in the B part. This Tune was inspired by Bill Monroe’s Uncle Pen.
(more…)

I am not sure how but I got this tab program copied on word so here it is. Swing the hell of it. That’s the feel I used. (more…)

For the past four years I have worked as an acompianist for the School of Ballet Chicago at 218 S. Wabash in downtown  Chicago. This has put me in contact with principle Goffrey dancers who’s children are in my classes, (we were in the same building for years) as well as many other proffessional dancers from Alvin Ailey company, to the director of Deeply Rooted, and  Luna Negra. In fact I have been submerged in the dance world for many years having worked as an acompianist for Collumbia College, River North, Zephyre, Hubbard St, and have two (legitimate children, which are both mine), with a proffessional dancer. The last time I was on a New York subway I ran into at 4 or 5 different dancers that I knew from different jobs. I have trained with highly regarded musicians, and am currently surrounded by old school Russian ballet piano players.

So what’s the big deal, all of this sounds rather normal for say a pianist. But I am a banjoist. I love Scruggs, and play many a fiddle tune for tendus, and chasses’ as well as classical guitar peices from Sor, to Bach, having learned how to adapt guitar music to the banjo. I must say that reactions to seeing a banjo in a point class turns many a head. In fact like, much of my past, people think I am lying or crazy when I tell them about it.

The truth may be that this marks a point when the hillbillies like their Irish ansesters after the fall of Rome, are reintroducing the masses to the classics during these dark ages, and the fall of the Amercan empire. And like our Irish ansesters the muslims will probably get the credit. This is evident in that “Hillbilly Teeth” can be purchased in the the vending machine at the Pizza Hut near my house, and movies like “Joe Dirt” dont seem offensive to people. If Pizza Hut sold “Jungle Bunny Hair or “Jew Noses” they would be sued and it would be national news. Poor whites are the outgroup in the current politics of hate. Banjo players are at the very bottom of this class. I have coined the term “lower leisure class” to describe this demograhic.

The Russians are very concerned about banjo in the ballet class, but they are are dying off and replacements can not be found. Maybe the banjo is reaching  the appex of Western Culture and we banjo players are the new cultural warriors bringing civilization back the barbarians, or western culture is in much worse decline than we thought. Either way I have a job.

I just whatched an interesting movie called The Confederate States of America, which is a satirical look throught theoretical television programming of post Civil war Ameica, had the South won the Civil War. You can rent it at Block Buster. It uses some real historical footage, and is set as a scandalous historical documentary interspersed with commercials with real products that were on the market in recent Americal history like “Darky Toothpaste”. The scary reality is that this country is not that far from this satirical look at what if. In Many of the commercials southern music is used featuring the banjo, and other bluegrass intrumentation. It is shocking, brilliant, and audacious. Check it out