Waiting on vassar

[mdlorenz]

Anyone here know this tune? It's on Grismans Rounder CD, & DGQ-20.

Here's an itunes link: http://phobos.apple.com/WebObje....2657755

I'd love to learn it. Haven't taken a stab at it yet, but could this weekend.
I don't supose anyone knows it already though

I know the tune my friend and have been messing with it for a while.
It's a bit of a beast,
I think its best if you can learn it with someone on rythm guitar as well as it sounds a bit strange on its own.
I suppose playing along with the CD would work but its fast dude!!
Best of luck
DD

[SternART]

You'll need to get that hammer-on/pull-off thing going....to me that lick is one of the keys to the tune.
I learned it from an old MWN years ago.....but rarely find someone to play it with. The bridge is all
improv and was my first extensive lesson at trying to play the same or similar lick, in different positions
up & down the neck....as the chords change. I really dig this tune, it was a part of the early DGQ set lists,
but hasn't been played by them in some time. I remember early-on into my trying to pick I was over at Darol's
and tried to get him to show me the hammer-on/pull-off part that takes you on all the strings. I wasn't quite
up to the task yet, but Darol got into experimenting on Vassar's doublestop licks on fiddle, from OAITW and it was fun
for me to watch him work on something & figure it out.....hey DeputyDawg we should pick it sometime, hard to find
folks who pick Waiting on Vassar! GREAT tune!

[mdlorenz]

You guys ever use Amazing slowdowner?

http://www.ronimusic.com/

Changes keys, slows down, speeds up, awesome.

Helps a ton when learning new tunes especially when they are too fast for my rookie fingers... or when the singer likes to change keys all the time!

hey DeputyDawg we should pick it sometime, hard to find
folks who pick Waiting on Vassar! GREAT tune!
QUOTE SternART.

Possibly one of the best!
We will have to get a internet linkup going (I assume you are in the USofA)

[SternART]

Hey Deputy, just show up at the Mandolin Symposium one year.
Mando Folks from around the world unite in lovely Santa Cruz, CA.
I've met Dawg pickers from as far away as Italy! and he could play
harmonies to Grisman tunes as soon as we met!

Where do you hail from?

[jmcgann]

Hint- this tune has a lot of nice symettrical fingering patterns (the same fingerings down through different string sets). Lots of fingers 123, and the Bm-Em-Am part repeated 3x before the bridge is easily fingered with fingers 1 and 3 combined with open strings. Poke around a bit and you'll find it

[mdlorenz]

Here's the sheet music.

[AlanN]

There is this one niggle in the recorded v. on DG Rounder Record which has always irked me. I think it's during Vassar's vamp on the bridge with the chordal stops that there is what I hear to be tape bleed, or something. I thought it due to a cassette recording I had of the LP, but I recently put on the record and it's there. Now, I always look for it

[AlanN]

Hey, that looks familiar

Where do you hail from? QUOTE SternART..

Man, I come from way away!!A place called West Cumbria, its (to)near to the Sellafield nuclear reactor(boo/hiss).
The mandolin Stmposium would be the best thing ever but I think some serious saving up would be in order (and whats to say that once I HAVE actually saved up MAS will prod me until I buy a phenomenally expensive instrument).
I do have relatives coming from the states in the next few weeks...I will sweet-talk them.
DD
(and BTW mdlorenz, that sheet music is great, good effort, I just love it when they say 'ad lib')

[Peter Hackman]

Hint- this tune has a lot of nice symettrical fingering patterns (the same fingerings down through different string sets). Lots of fingers 123, and the Bm-Em-Am part repeated 3x before the bridge is easily fingered with fingers 1 and 3 combined with open strings. Poke around a bit and you'll find it

I tried it. Seems 7th fret fingering is more natural
than open - unless
the e and a are pull-offs.

[AlanN]

7th fret fingering...do you mean you replace all opens with pinky on 7? You got good pinky!

I would agree the pinky 7th fret feels more natural (not to replace all open notes of course), but it does seem like it falls beneath your fingers easier quite frequently.
Then again, with living near to the Sellafield Nuke plant(dirty ba%*ards)I have 3 pinkies at my disposal.

[Peter Hackman]

7th fret fingering...do you mean you replace all opens with pinky on 7? You got good pinky!

No, just those final bars that jmcgann was discussing.

Right, thats it,
I'm gonna realy get going on this one..
I'm gonna work it out once and for all..
I have the accompan accoomm, aacc, rythm guitarist to learn it with me.
He does need tutoring in the ways of the dawg music but he will learn..mmmowuuuhahhhhh!!(evil laughter)
DD

[SternART]

It is all cool hammer on & pull off stuff, repeating patterns.
After getting my pull offs down from workin up this one, I was
ready for Jethro's Tune.

[jmcgann]

There is this one niggle in the recorded v. on DG Rounder Record which has always irked me. I think it's during Vassar's vamp on the bridge with the chordal stops that there is what I hear to be tape bleed, or something. I thought it due to a cassette recording I had of the LP, but I recently put on the record and it's there. Now, I always look for it

Overdubitis- when the band all plays together and someone doesn't like their solo and goes back to overdub, there may be leakage of the original solo into the original track's non-overdubbed parts. What we hear is probably the leakage into the other (non-fiddle) mics, since they probably recorded the original track as a band in one studio room (as opposed to isolation booths). This is really obvious on the track since the band is holding long chords with space enough that you hear that leakage- you can be sure this sort of thing happens on hundreds of records that you just don't hear due to the amount of activity in the music. You are hearing the "old" solo as originally played in the background, with the new track overdubbed on the top. There's no way to get rid of that leakage on the other mics.

That leakage on "Waiting on Vassar" never bothered me, I always thought it was a cool effect. Don't adjust your sets!

[SternART]

Or hmmm......I'm pretty sure it is Darol's solo on Blue Midnight, first DGQ album.....they had 2 versions of his solo,
I don't think the original intent was a double fiddle solo, but upon playback it sounded fabulous.....cloned Darol for
that one. Another cool effect.