This week is a close one, but I'm about to head to town to do errands (in almost zero degrees!), so I'm going to post it now. The winner is Pig's Ankle Rag (Pig Ankle Rag) which was submitted as a ragtime tune. It sure gets my foot to tappin'~ Here's a You Tube video lesson from Don Julin: Here's a video from Shaun Garrity, who is a member here! Here's Vi Wickam on fiddle: Here's another video of a group doing it... Here's a link to notation, abc and a midi file on abcnotation.com Here's a link to some sheet music and mp3 files.
Quick and dirty once through on Pig Ankle Rag.
I like your dirty pig!
Mr, Hansen, your playing is good enough to deem this pig as 'kosher' Great stuff. I am thinking this tune is going to give me some big T.
Very good, David. I did Pete Cooper's arrangement two years ago when Sean posted his- here it is.
Very nice guys; David you mando sounds really nice there!
You inspired me to record this tune David. It's a very happy tune to play, and I love it the way you did it. Well done Maudlin... here's my version on this rainy day...
Nice work, Luurtie! Is that a new Clark mandolin?
Wonderful work, Luurtie, and good to see Maudlin's nice arrangement again. Here's mine. I've been working on my brushes technique on the snare drum, but I'm not very good at it yet. Still, I tried it here because I thought it fit nicely with the tune:
That was amazing David. I thought I was ready with this tune, but that sliding to the higher part and of cause your ending are Terrific,, Aaron, this is a Clark A5 from 2008 (serial no.30), an amazing mandolin I bought a few months ago.
Wonderful work by the two Davids. Great sounding mandolin and playing, luurtie. maudlin, you sound good with Pete Cooper's arrangement. However, you did not adhere to the bow strokes he suggests.
Great playing everybody!
Here's the Pig Ankle Rag played on my 1913 F2 Gibson mandolin and fingerpicked with a Simon & Patrick acoustic guitar. The guitar was overdubbed. I put together a little slide show to go along with the music...
Played on my 1918 A4 https://soundcloud.com/mike-parks-7/pig-ankle-rag
This tune seems to bring out the best in everyone.
That was nice Michael, a very bluesy one. You played a really nice ragtime guitar track too... I remember I bought a Happy Traum guitarbook 25 years ago to learn this technique, but I never got the hang of it.. Nice playing woodwizard..
Ooh...first day working on this tune and I'm enjoying learning it by listening to all your variations! David- If that's quick and dirty I'm in trouble! Nicely done. I like the little bass runs on the backing also. Lurtie- GREAT tone on that mando. Sweet, Fat, and Round! Super job. A very pro track you put together, showing speed don't mean much without superb tone and rhythm. I'm listening to this as my lesson in the tune. Sausage- The brushes sound perfect with the tune! Well thought out. Nice vibe and really liked how you killed the drums at the end for a mandolin solo to close it out. Michael- I think your playing really embodies the truly playful, bluesy, nature of ragtime, it is very playful and the backing track you have chosen really adds to the playful vibe the song possesses. Very pleasing way you then go to rhythm on mando for the guitar solo. Maudlin- Cool to the A/E on this tune for variety. Good job! OS was right... this tune brings out some great playful renditions. WELL done to ALL of you. I'm using this version http://www.traditionalmusic.co.uk/am..._ankle_rag.htm and I'm having trouble figuring out the phrasing on the 9th and 10th bars, where it slows down on the B and D note. I just don't hear it yet. I'll play around with it some more- I busted out the metronome and I think I might be getting it...
9lbs, the version you're looking at holds the B and D note on that ending line of the A part which works fine, but maybe you'd find it easier to do what it looks like other versions here are doing. In the space of the long B and D note, try walking up by playing B A B C# D C# D. Listen to the versions here for the timing and you'll have it. There's sure some incredible playing going on this week. Very nice you all.
9lb, I think the postings on this Song of the Week have been excellent. And yes, I was trying to sound playful and bluesy as those two things are at the heart of ragtime. It's funny you mentioned the rhythm mandolin... I was just thinking (again) that most of the time in a band situation what a mandolin really plays is backup with maybe 15-20 seconds of solo mixed in at most. And yet, we seem to spend most of our time and energy working on those 15-20 seconds instead of the backup... I actually recorded the mandolin part from beginning to end without stopping and it became clear that I needed to practice the whole song (including backup) in order to provide a framework for the guitar to follow. So many takes later I finally succeeded. And then came the guitar...
I listened again to your version Michael, it's amazing what you did and there is so much in it. I know I missed a few notes in that ending line Marcy. An ending with B A B C# D C# D is much nicer, and I play it a little better right now
Everyone's done an excellent job on this tune! Great to hear all the variations! Had the time this morning to record what I've been working on…
Nice job Heath, even more good ideas.
1st. Nicely done Heath. 2nd. Thanks for the pointers on the B A B C# D C# D walk up you all. I'm excited to see how this sounds comparatively.
Great job, good tempo and excellent backup. Excellent use of harmony lines to make your breaks even more interesting. This is a treasure trove of ideas...
Here's my stab at this rag with Jeff playing some great backup on ukulele. Thanks, Heath, I stole your fun intro. I think I'll work on figuring out the cool harmony parts too.
Well done, Marcelyn! You two have a great feel playing together, the tune sits very nicely indeed.
Nice how you play that scales up the neck Heath. Very well played and good studymaterial for me. I wish I had such a picking mate in my house Marcy, and it sounds very good too....
Nice feel to the melody, Marcy, very bouncy! And Jeff does a great job on backup (as always).
This is way too much fun to pass up. Very cool renditions from all what with snare drums, guitar pickin, ukes, and all with unique arrangements and styles. I had my usual timing problems but seem to have sorted most of them. Lurrtie - I started out with Happy Traum too. Got 'Under the Double Eagle' nailed down and that was about it, other than the standard G run.
That arrangement has such a relaxed and happy swing to it, Wooden Fingers. Your backup chording sounds really nice, and it's fun to hear all these variations on the melody this week.
Very nice job, Bob! (Love the photos too!)
Woodenfingers- A pleasant version and nice back up! Marcelyn- You two sound really good- your version sounded super relaxed and confident- like you were both very familiar with the tune and had played it before. Solid mastery. Enjoyable rendition! I brought up buying some recording equipment/ condenser mic/ interface / etc to my wife so I could record backing tracks and the thought of me dropping a ton of $$$ may have been the boost I needed to have a playing partner for Song Of The Week. heh heh heh! It always sounds so much better with backing tracks! A great week here so far for all of you.
Here's my version, quick and sloppy. (Hey, aren't pigs supposed to be sloppy?) No fancy backing tracks here, just point and click. Thanks so much to Marcelyn for the suggesting the alternate walkup, which I used on the b part.
I've truly enjoyed all the posts. This a fun tune! I have been waiting for my nephew to come over with his snare drum before recording it. He helped with a couple of tunes in the past & when I told him about OldSausage doing the brushes, he wanted in. I will just have to post this one late.
Nice job on the tune and with the alternative walkups too, Richieb. Sasquatch, I look forward to your post with your nephew. The past ones have been great.
Well, its sunday and this is the best I could come up with! Yikes. This was a good learning experience. Now if I could only play it through in one take! Otherwise, this week was a big success including first time on a stage which went smoothly, playing 5 bluegrass songs with a group, (and sounded good for beginners!), and also ran a great race down in Chattanooga at the Lookout Mountain 50 Mile Ultramarathon for a spot on the podium, top 3. Surprised my fingers thawed out today to get this recorded... I did practice Pig Ankle a lot, but still couldn't nail it in one take.
home sick with a cold. Figured I try something to entertain myself. . . Slight pinky problem though. f-d
Hope it's ok to post to a past thread like this. I don't think I've ever posted a song here before, but this tune was just too wonderful not to attempt. Thanks to everyone I stole bits and pieces from! I got a microphone and audio interface for Christmas, so I gave a shot at recording the background track too. There was originally some banjo in there, too, but it didn't sound right so I took it out. dave
It's definitely ok to post to a past thread David. I'm going back and trying to record some of the great tunes I missed over the past couple months, and this was definitely one of my favorites. My version sounds simplistic next to all those great variations and embellishments that you put in.
