Mel Bay Old-Time Festival Tunes for Clawhammer
by Dav Levenson
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Book Summary Information
Author: Dav LevensonEdition: Spiral-bound
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2006-10-18
ISBN: 0786675195
Number of pages: 248
Publisher: Mel Bay Publications, Inc.
Book Reviews of Mel Bay Old-Time Festival Tunes for Clawhammer
Book Review: A Versatile Old-time Banjo Resource on Many Levels
Summary: 5 Stars
I found Dan Levenson's "Old-time Festival Tunes for Clawhammer Banjo" to be a fantastic resource. Here is what the book is primarily: a way to visualize the melody of 117 commonly-encountered old-time tunes, plus a two-step approach to playing these tunes on the clawhammer banjo--through a simple version and a more complex one.
The tunes, appearing in alphabetical order, are presented in three ways:
1 - Through the tune's melody, written in standard musical notation
2 - Through a simple clawhammer-banjo version, in tablature
3 - Through a more demanding clawhammer-banjo version, also in tablature
The three versions are not written separately--they are, bar by bar, all three one under the other, which makes it very easy to see how a melody can be successfully rendered with this instrument. Chord changes are also indicated, so that a guitar or other instrument can easily play along.
As you get better, this format gives the learner the option to switch one or more bars from the simple version of a tune with those of the more complex variation. The possibilities in this regard are truly endless, and you may end up with personalized ways to play a tune just by swapping a few bars between the easy and the more challenging versions.
The quality of both versions is very high, very "banjo-like" and very melodic--which often makes it hard to choose which version to make truly your own! Also, Dan (being an accomplished fiddler himself as well as a banjoist), makes the banjo parts conducive to being played alongside a fiddle, with lots of melodic and rhythmic drive. This is an especially good touch, in my opinion.
The main difference between the two versions of each song is (generally) a higher number of notes in the more advanced one, and perhaps a few technically-challenging passages. No esoteric tunings are used--the G tuning and the double-C are the ones employed, with or without a capo-2.
In the two CDs that come with the book, Dan plays each of the tunes (1 tune per track) after naming the piece's title out loud. I found this to be a really nice added value.
Also, I love the fact that a) the book is spiral-bound, meaning that it opens easily and it STAYS open without cracking; b) that the alphabetical order of the tunes makes it a snap to find a piece; and that c) the book is constructed of sturdy paper and card-stock--believe me, you will get lots of use out of it.
Is it a book for absolute beginners? No. Slides, hammer-ons, pull-offs, skipped strokes, drop-thumbing and other more advanced techniques (e.g. that known as the Galax lick) are used copiously even in the simple versions of the tunes. But it is a book that will take a solid beginner to an advanced knowledge of the tunes and the style.
Finally, here what the book is not: a how-to instruction manual on clawhammer banjo. Don't even judge it as such, because this is not what it's meant to be (take a look at Ken Perlman's Mel Bay Everything You Wanted to Know About Clawhammer Banjo: A Complete Tutor for the Intermediate and Advanced Player for a great tutorial).
Bottom line: if you possess the basics of clawhammer, this is a fantastic resource to build old-time repertoire, a great book to bring along to jams as well as a thesaurus of examples on how to transform a melody into something idiosyncratic for the banjo. I'd give it six stars if I could.
Summary of Mel Bay Old-Time Festival Tunes for Clawhammer
This book and two CD set is intended to be a tune repertoire book. It includes over 100 Old-Time festival favorites. Some are cliche , others unusual, some easy, some difficult. The book contains 2 lines of tablature (one basic and one advanced) as well as standard notation and suggested chords. The basic version should be playable by those with general clawhammer skills. The advanced version will require more time and finesse as it is more ornamental (often more than just melodic) and may include intuitive ways of playing some passages.Songbooks
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