Cherry Blossom Waltz

[Tracy Ballinger]

Just discovered this song and it is SO pretty... does anyone have the tab for it? It was written by Tony Ellis and I can only find it performed on banjo (also found sheet music, and tab for banjo; I'm not smart enough to convert from sheet music to mandolin tab, though!)

Help, anyone?

Thanks in advance.

Tracy

[JEStanek]

One of my favorite old time bands the Orpheus Supertones do this on "bound to have little fun". It is a pretty tune. If you have the notation you could try and convert it to tab yourself with the help of this. I have a staff with the fingerboard below it. The 1, 2, 3 and 4 with the degree symbols are the open strings from G, D, A, and E respectively. You also have the neck just beneath. Just remember to adjust for the sharps#, flats b and naturals in your score. It's slow but satisfying and may help you learn to read (even slowly) the staff and your neck.

Jamie

[Tracy Ballinger]

Thanks Jamie! A long time ago I printed out a page for guitar tab to mando conversion, but wasn't sure how to go about converting from standard notation. While the task seems a little daunting, I'll give it a whirl and see what happens! Who knows, maybe I'll learn something.

Tracy

[Tracy Ballinger]

While the task seems a little daunting, I'll give it a whirl and see what happens! Tracy

Why is this so much harder than it seems like it ought to be? 8 notes out, and off track already...

[Jean Fugal]

Go Here For a sample Dan Levensen New Frontier enjoy

http://cdbaby.com/cd/levensonmurley

[JEStanek]

Keep at it, Tracy. Like anything new, you'll make mistakes. The great thing about knowing the tune is when you play the tab as you go, you'll hear the error and be able to go back and fix it. Patience and stick-to-it-edness will get you there. You've done harder things!

Jamie

[Tracy Ballinger]

You've done harder things! Jamie

All right, I'm still wrestling with this song... not much progress at this point, and I'm wondering if the audio I heard actually matches, note for note, the intro on the sheet music. It just doesn't sound right.

Can you answer a question? On the sheet you posted, there are several different sections of notes (three octaves?) How do you know, from looking at sheet music, the octave in which to begin?

Funny how I can handle physical challenges better than mental challenges... maybe because I'm already mentally challenged?

Thanks for your help!

Trac

[JEStanek]

Tracy. I looked at the tab/notation that you linked to in the OP. The best thing to to is maybe print that sheet music and cut out all of the tab for the banjo. It would just confuse me. Next, the song is in C (no sharps or flats except where noted on the staff). To start with only play the highest note if there is more than one in a vertical line (you could add the lower note (must be on a different string of course) if you want... they aren't important to start. You could add in I, IV, V chords of C, F, G respectively to the mix (later!).

Most of the A part will be on the A and E strings. I find it easiest to play these tunes at first in first position (use frets 1-6 on the strings. Fret 7 is the next higher string open). The tune as written on the Banjo Hangout may not be exactly like the one you've heard but it will be pretty similar.

OK. So each note on the staff will be on one place on the G, D, A, or E string in first position. I've attached my own Tab sheets (use copies of page 1 and each line represents a string set (so you would write on the lines rather than between them). Hope that helps. Maybe for fun, I'll tab out the music for the A part, scan it and attach it from work tomorrow (or the next day!). Hope this helps.

Jamie

[Tracy Ballinger]

All right, Teach, let's see if I'm on the right track. This is what I've gotten thus far - assuming I remember my lines and spaces from Jr. High Music Theory correctly! I understand what you are saying - now I just need to see if I can translate the a-b-c's to fret positions. That's where I get confused, but will work on that tomorrow.

[JEStanek]

Great! Now on the first attachment I had in post #2, you see that the Open G string is the G below the staff, the open D string is just below the staff, the open A string is the A in the middle of the staff, and the open E string is the E near the top of the staff.

Much of this song is in C (and so far none on the G string) so you won't use the #s or bs unless noted...

The D string notes going from just below the staff to the middle A are:
Fret Note
Open D
1st D#/Eb
2nd E
3rd F
4rth F#/Gb (not used unless noted with # or b)
5th G
6th G#/Ab (not used unless noted with # or b)
7th A

the A string notes span from the middle to top of the staff are:
Fret Note
Open A
1st A#/Bb (not used unless noted with # or b)
2nd B
3rd C
4rth C#/Db (not used unless noted with # or b)
5th D
6 D#/Eb (not used unless noted with # or b)
7 E

The E string notes from near the top and above are
Fret Note
Open E
1st F
2nd F#/Gb (not used unless noted with # or b)
3rd G
4rth G#/Ab (not used unless noted with # or b)
5th A
6th A#/Bb (not used unless noted with # or b)
7th B
8th C
9th C#/Db (not used unless noted with # or b)
10th D
11th D#/Eb (not used unless noted with # or b)
12th E

You're doing great!
Jamie

[Tracy Ballinger]

Hey Jamie! Just wanted you to know I haven't given up... the weather got crazy and threw off my schedule due to school closings and delays, and now the holiday rush is winding up... but I'm going to work on it at some point in the next couple weeks! Thanks for all your help - it's very... er... helpful! I'll keep you posted on my progress.

Tracy

[JEStanek]

Thanks, Tracy. I've been thinking about you. Even if you can't sight read notation to the neck (I can't yet) being able to convert notation to tablature will open a lot of music to you. It did for me. Now, any tune I want to play from my hymnal is ready to become a mandolin tune! The first few times are harder, then it gets easier, espescially when you start recognizing phrases in the tune that get repeated. Don't get me wrong, this isn't easy at first. It's like learning anything new, challenging, and hopefully rewarding.

JamieJamie

[Jim Garber]

I would find it difficult to learn the banjo part on mandolin since banjos often play countermelody and/or chords. I am not sure if this is the same tune but it is the same title. I would learn it from here rather than the banjo sheet music.



PS: sorry if this is not the same tune...

[Jean Fugal]

I think that is a different tune Jim The Dan Levensen on CD Baby sounds just like Tracy's example and ias played on the fiddle and mandolin as well as banjo

<<PS: sorry if this is not the same tune...
__________________
Jim<<<

[Tracy Ballinger]

I would find it difficult to learn the banjo part on mandolin since banjos often play countermelody and/or chords. I am not sure if this is the same tune but it is the same title. I would learn it from here rather than the banjo sheet music. PS: sorry if this is not the same tune...

Hi Jim! I also saw that video, and it is a very different tune, at least to my ears. Since the banjo is the sole instrument in this song, I think it's going to be possible. Just going to take some work! Thanks for trying to to help.

Tracy

P.S.
Check your MySpace email... I sent you a bowlback question the other day.

[Bernie Daniel]

Tracy,

See if you can open these Cherry Blossom Waltz mando tabs. I downloaded a midi and converted it with Melody Assistant. If you can't open these windows metafiles I can print and scan it later today. I couldn't make it output on one page sorry.

[Bernie Daniel]

Looks like they wouldn't upload? OK I'll try something else.

I don't know why a .wmf file will not upload.

[Bernie Daniel]

Just to close this loop. The .wmf files seem to be a clunky format and were big -- even an image of one page of notation for Cherry Blossom Waltz was ~2 mB!

And, had I noticed in the first place .wmf are not a valid file format to attach on this forum anyway and Melody Assistant does not offer a save in .pdf or .txt which will work.

Later today when I get my printer hooked back up I will print & scan them in and post them in a .jpg format.

The midi file will not work either -- I wonder in .mid at least isn't a format that could be added as valid attachments for this list server?

[JEStanek]

Bernie, and any others interested,

There are plenty of free PDF generators available on the web. They act like a printer and generate a PDF file to your local drive. Google will find you many options.

Jamie

[Tracy Ballinger]

WHEW! Now that my dulcimer performance for the church Christmas program is out of the way, and our out-of-town-3-days-this-week plans are now cancelled because hubby has the flu (he's actually recovering but since his mom is on chemo and the kids or I may be pre-flu carriers, we can't be around her)... I can concentrate on mando again! Gonna start working on this tomorrow. Wish me luck - both that I can get somewhere with the song, AND that my flu shot beats this strain!

Tracy

[Bernie Daniel]

JEStanek: There are plenty of free PDF generators available on the web. They act like a printer and generate a PDF file to your local drive. Google will find you many options.

I am aware of those but I don't know how much good it will do in Melody Assistant as you can't even highlight and copy in that program. Maybe you meant convert the .wmf to a .pdf? Yeah, that is probably what I should have done.

If anyone out there is considering Melody Assistant -- I suggest you pay a few dollars more and get the "full up" version which is called Harmony Assistant.

Once I get a working verison of TablEdit on my PC again that is what I prefer to use then I can output into a format that anyone can read with the free viewer.

I still think it would be good to able to attach .mid files though.

[Mike Buesseler]

I've used Melody Asst for years and have been totally satisfied. If you have the tune in MA now, why not save it in ABC form? That translates anywhere, takes little room here. There are ABC converters all over the web.

[Bernie Daniel]

OK sorry about the delay - I was taking care of a sick border collie -- he is fine now.

The best way to do this is print to the Adobe printer, save the .pdf to your hard drive and then attach it.

So here folks is the mandolin tab to Cherry Blossom Waltz in C.

[Mike Buesseler]

A waltz in 4/4 time? Is that right?

[Bernie Daniel]

The name is Cherry Blossom Waltz and Melody Assistant rendered it the way you see it. I suggest you try to find the writer of the tune for your questions. I for one would not have an answer for you.