The Art of Playing Four Potatoes

[Rob Gerety]

I need help! I was embarrassed in a class recently when the instructor turned to me (actually playing guitar at the time) and said -" Rob, you kick this one off." It was a waltz. I was playing with my fingers - an arpeggiated type of back up behind a flute on melody one time thru at which point the whole band was to join in. Anyway, I totally fumbled the ball. I had no clue what to do to get a slow 3/4 time waltz kicked off nicely. Can anyone explain how to do this? Maybe ever post or direct me to a few examples?

[John Flynn]

I've never heard a waltz kicked of with "potatoes," the way you would with a reel, breakdown or hornpipe. Usually the lead melody instrument just jumps into the melody and everyone else falls in. Sometimes the lead will do a count, one-two-three, one-two three. But if I were in your situation and wanted to do potatoes, I would do "six potatoes," six single strums with your fingertips, one-two-three, one-two three, all downstrokes on the first chord of the tune, indicating the beat. Everyone should come in on the seventh beat. Once everyone comes in, you could return to fingerpicking. The purpose of potatoes is to set the beat and that would do it. I will be interested to hear other opinions on this.

[Rob Gerety]

Well, that makes me feel a little better. The problem with this particular tune - just to put this in the right perspective - is that the arrangement calls for a flute on melody and my guitar playing a soft finger style arpeggio type of deal for the first time thru the A part. The rest of the band joins in on the B part. I had a heck of a time giving a good solid potatoes 123,123 strum and then jumping right immediately into the fingerstyle on the first down beat all the while keeping good time. The waltz we are playing is Lemony Lullaby by Matt Heaton.

[steve V. johnson]

On tunes like this I like to lay out at the top, so I'd set the tempo as John suggests and then wait to let the flute establish the melody before I come in. If the tune is laid out in A A B B, then it's easy to come in at the top of the second A part, otherwise you'd need to find some other poignant place.

stv

[Eddie Sheehy]

While I do consider potatoes an art form, I've never heard of them used in musical terms before....

Cogito Ergo Spud

[Steve L]

I've never heard of this "potatoes" stuff either. I was wondering if that was the reason this was posted in the section where discussions of Irish music tend to predominate.

[John Flynn]

Well, assuming Eddie and Steve are not being facetious: A "four potato kickoff" is a time-honored way to kick off an old-time tune, also sometimes used in bluegrass and Irish, but less common in the those genres. It is usually a double stop of of the root and an octave or the root plus a chord tone that goes "da-dada-da-dada-da-dada-da," or some variation of that, establishing the key and tempo. Everyone jumps in the next beat after the four potatoes. My understanding of the orgin of the term is the beginners are sometimes taught the timing of it by thinking of the nursery rhyme, "One potato, two potato, three potato, four." Don't try to do get analytical and do the math of subdividing the rhythm into four equal parts. It is a colloquial idea, not formal music theory. You just get a feel for it.

Linked is an instructional video from MusicMoose that shows how to do potato kickoffs on a fiddle.

http://www.revver.com/video/101933/playing-potatoes-to-fiddle-songs/

[steve V. johnson]

It's very, very rare to nonexistent in my Irish music circles, but very common with the oldtime and bluegrass folks hereabouts.

I've also heard it used in the studio to refer to a musical comment, lick or fill in a tune. As in, 'Have the dobro put a little potato in right there before the chorus...'

Tho the word can be the same, this is musically different from the one that John describes which is most often that same lick.

stv

[pickloser]

"Potatoes" is a simple way to start a tune or song. It establishes the root note and the speed. If you were playing arpeggios behind the flute, you could play the root chord arpeggio a couple times thru and use that to function in the same way as potatoes. For example, if on the guitar you were playing Root-3-5-3-5-3 (meaning the 1, 3, and 5 of the root scale) of the arpeggio on the "one and two and three and" of the rhythm, then you could play that 1-3-5-3-5-3 twice thru at the appropriate speed and then nod the other folks in. Or, you play 1-3-5-3-5-3 over the first one and two and three and strum thru the chord on the down beat "one" of the second one and two and three and (a little tremolo over that chord on the mando), indicating that the group should silently count "...and two and three and", coming in together on the next downbeat "one."

Often you can play the chords you would have played over the last line of a song or last phrase of a tune, then strum or arpeggio the V7 chord to indicate you're going to start and then hit the I chord on the initial down beat of the tune. It would also work to play the last line's tune, and then hit the V7.

Happy Pickin'

[allenhopkins]

When I have to kick off a waltz, I usually use a single-note run from the "5" note up to the tonic -- e.g., A-B-C#-D in the key of D. Everyone's supposed to come in on the "1" when you hit the fourth (tonic) note.

Sometimes it works.