Moving right along, March is dedicated to Red Wing. You know it, you love it (or not), so get out there and pick it. Mandolessons provides a tutorial here: http://www.mandolessons.com/lessons/...unes/red-wing/. Banjo Ben's version is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IP1Fs9FeKhg. and there are youtube versions are plentiful.
Cool!
I love this song, well at least the old timey version my bluegrass group used to do. Many bluegrass versions of this take the tempo to shear ridiculousness and add so many notes you miss the beauty of the tune.
a whole slew of choices at mandozine http://www.mandozine.com/music/searc...rder=A&submit=
I enjoyed learning Baron's version not long after I got my mandolin. Have to go back and re-learn that one.
Kevin, I'm with you -- when there is more ink on the sheet music than there is white space, I bail out. Red Wing. Is that the same as "There once was a union maid ..."? I'll have to check it out. I am going to put this thread into the TOM index real soon now. I promise.
same song Henry. But I know the words as "There once was an Indian maid, a shy little prairie maid ..."
Yes, I'm more familiar with the Woody Guthrie iteration but Wikipedia provides the 1907 lyrics.
Well that was fun I took the arrangement my bluegrass group used to do which was in Eflat (although we always played it in G) and actually went through musescore to transpose it to G. Now to see if I like it better than others. edit: Like an idiot I transposed it and entered it into musescore. What I should have done was enter it into musescore and let musescore transpose it. Oh well.
Stake in the ground
Alright, Kevin! You get the worm. Sounds good!
I haven't been real happy with the versions of Red Wing that I have found on the internet, so I started looking in some of the books I have acquired. I found the following three examples in The Ultimate Mandolin Songbook, a Hal Leonard publication by Janet Davis. The following video gives three versions that she tabs out, explains, and shows more alternate licks for, in the book. You might want to find a copy, maybe at the library, or just buy it. I could just reproduce the seven and a half pages she fills with alternate licks, these three versions, and commentary, but I don't want to wake up the copyright police. But I hope the video will introduce some ideas on interesting variations. I know you are probably thinking that is me playing in the video; thanks, but that would be incorrect.
Hank, that's nothing like the versions I've found!. Of course if you copy it, change it a bit, then publish it it's an original work ;-)
Henry her first version is what I'd like to achieve. Enough flourish but the tune is still central.
Kevin, that's pretty much my opinion, too. I think it is just a nice 'mandoliny' way to present the tune, has some good challenges for me just as it is, and not something that flies out into the wild blue yonder.
this one looks interesting but I'm stuck at work without a mando . https://static1.squarespace.com/stat...g+MANDOLIN.pdf
Hank - that book looks good - so good that I've bought it! Hopefully it wil arrive early next week...
Henry, I really like that video with the variations, great playing. I assume that those are actual samples of the audio that's included with the book? Can you tell whether all examples from the book have corresponding audio? Also out of curiosity, is it Janet who performs the audio playing? Good, clean picking that.
I can't find a specific statement of who plays the mandolin in those clips, so I presume it is Janet Davis. The picking is really clean. I think she could play Mary Had A Little Lamb and I would put it on my top 10. There are 2 CD's with the book and they contain all the examples that are in the book, but not the individual one or two measure "alternative licks". To give some perspective, the book is 248 pages in standard 8.5 x 11 format. It covers only 26 tunes (!). A lot of good stuff for each tune. The tunes are from a variety of genres. After all that, I guess I need to add a NFI to this discussion.
Mark, if you go onto amazon there's a pretty good "look inside" bit - this tune isn't there, but there's lots on the first two. I'm planning to try the Autumn leaves part later tonight after I've finished embellishing Red Wing with lots of double stops! It's the look inside that persuade me to part wit money for the book rather then the "free" internet....
Well, I bought it before seeing the responses and didn't look inside. I read the song list at Mel Bay and found that I could order it at quite a discount through Google - and on top of that, a further coupon discount for being the first ever item ordered through a Google shopping cart - so I'm stoked about it. Being shipped from Walmart. NFI from any parties mentioned.* YMMV. Reading small print may result in eye strain. Not responsible for deleterious results arising from or in any way related to my post. This post does not represent the views of The Mandolin Cafe, mandolincafe.com website or the Newbies group as a whole. *Did somebody mention parties? Let's party! Laissez les bon temps roulet!
Yep - it's Friday. Been a pretty bad week here... https://www.dropbox.com/s/y7fbf5dcy0...2038.jpeg?dl=1 No idea why I can't post an image here - is it because it's group??
Testing, testing: your image at dropbox doesn't work for me either. some websites do not allow "their" material to be embedded elsewhere. I have that problem with Google Drive, for example. I guess dropbox is the same way (?). I use ############. Some folks use imgur.com.
idk Sportsnapper, I've found the bach cello suites work best with bourbon.
Gareth's picture:
Cool beans! This one has been on my to-do list for a good while, What a catchy melody. I'm in the midst of a move, so once the craziness is done, I hope to get sumpin' posted here.
Here's a rough attempt at a version I heard Tony Williamson do. Sorry if my camera gets ahead of me in some spots
Janet Davis book is superb! However, rather intimidating for this newbie when I first purchased it. Now, not so much. That said, I found 2 easier versions of Red Wing for me to get started with. 1. Parking lot pickers by Dix Bruce. This is still my go to tune book for learning something new. Stripped down melody and easy chord changes. Did I mention that the book has over 200 tunes in it. 2. American Mandolin Method by Wicklund and Winship. Volume 1. This is in the key of G as opposed to Dix's version in C. Added plus is the AMM version uses tremolo in the b section. (My tremolo is pathetic) so a good reason to practice on this version. Kevin's version is in G also, I like the shape of the tune there so I am probably going to be picking that version first.
Kevin, great job on jumping out in front! Enjoyed your video. Justin, your smooth bluegrass licks and skills are a pleasure to listen to and to watch as well. Great job, guys! & Larry, thanks for the tips on those books.
Bluegrasscal_87, that was awesome. Really, Bravo! I don't believe you're a newbie, I think you're a spy . Really enjoyed it.
@Bluegrasscal, your double stop placement is excellent! The bar is already high this month - nice job to you both!
Bluey - very nice. There's a lot to like there, but one thing that I focused in on was the ease with which you do the shuffle thing. Not the only thing -- one other is that the version you play is not a simple one and you just sorta say "Hey, I think I'll play this" and then play it.
Thanks for the feedback, everyone. It's like our own virtual jam session, Kevin, thanks for getting us started so quick this month. That was smooth playing and a neat rendition; I've really enjoyed all the variations I've heard on this tune in everyone's posts so I think this is going to be a fun month to see how everyone plucks this one out differently. Ellsdemon, haha, what you don't see is the 15 minutes worth of "outtakes" it took me to get that one 2 minute clip.
bluegrasscal_87 I admire your smooth double stops. I can play quarter note doublestops but eighth note or sixteenth note double stops fall apart into a jangle of multiple string sounds. I am going to buckle down and work on that this month. As always there is so much to improve and so little time to squeeze it all in. I really need to win the lottery
@Bluegrasscal - wow, that's great. I've just looked at a couple of videos of Tony Williamson playing this - and that's a really good interpretation. I've never really played bluegrass, so this may be a small challenge! Even more impressive is that it only took 15 mins of outtakes for the video!
The books arrived Hank - the "About the Audio" page says that Janet Davis played these- also that the mandolin is on the left channel and the backing midi on the right - so you can just play along with the backing if you'd like to. And my version doesn't have a cd (yipee) but the tracks are downloadable with a code. In addition to the downloads, if you play the tracks online, then you get a web based player (PLAYBACK+) that allows you to slow it down, change the pitch, change the balance and more. Great book - and a wide range of stuff - Stardust is another to be worked on I think.
Why did I look at the Mandolessons version and see it was a nice achievable version but then decide I'd learn Sam Bush's ��
That was my assessment of the mandolesson version as well. Great bones of the tune but lots of quarter notes just begging for company..... I'll have to see if I can find the SB version.
It's in mandozine's library of bluegrass tef files
Re: The Janet Davis Book Wow, what a resource. Thanks for pointing us there, Henry. My copy was waiting for me when I got in late yesterday evening. I hadn't peeked inside online so I was pleasantly surprised at what I found. Great presentation of these tunes, background info, lyrics, etc. dealt with nicely and dispensed with quickly in the intro for each tune, then the music. Simple versions moving to advanced versions, use of all kinds of technique: Tremolo, hammers, slides, etc., and all kinds of musical ideas: Adding chord tone, embellishments, etc. and alternate licks measure for measure to match numbered measures of each tune. A self-starter can use this book as a tool to really up their mandolin playing. I hope I can make a lot of use out of it this year. I'm usually not much of a self-starter unfortunately.
Thanks Posterboy
Mark - perhaps there should be a "Tunes from the Janet Davis book" thread? I'm loving "The Entertainer" and Stardust atm. Not sure my wife is ;-)
I like that idea, Gareth. Maybe once we finish with Brad's MMC, we can work though Janet's tunes in the Woodshed group.
With work obligations right now, I don't have the time to study this thread. I do want to be working on Red Wing in G major, however. Can anyone tell me if sheet music has been posted - in G?
Sherry, see Kevin Stueve's post on 3/1/18. He has a link to one in G.
Thanks, Henry - and Kevin!
I also have an arrangement in G that I did from some old sheet music in E flat. I'd send it to you but due to concerns over copyright I don't want to post it dropbox or this site.
Kevin, I printed the music from your 3/18 post and find it to be sufficiently challenging! Thanks again.
Oops. 3/1, not 3/18. I only wish I could see into the future - or not.
Okay I took the tune that I posted the video of on Mar 1 and added embellishments to reach the tune I wanted. I think I have all the embellishments identified now to find the time to practice it. Here it is warts and all at this point
