1/29/06 Maggie in the Wood, 3 originals

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TonyHiggins
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1/29/06 Maggie in the Wood, 3 originals

Post by TonyHiggins »

1/29/06 Welcome to Matt Spangler (Alespa), who sends: "These are a couple of my first tunes to share on this site, so I've got my apron on in case the tomatoes start a'flyin' ;). "Maggie in the Wood" (saved in misc) on my Greenwood soprano d in blackwood, "Skipping Along," an original tune by me, also on the Greenwood soprano d in blackwood. I have another original tune called "On The Run" and it's what came to mind as I played around on me whistle one day, thinking "what would it sound like if James Bond were runnin' to Celtic music?" . . . well, this is my tonguing/jazz version I guess you could say, but I'm working on a traditional version. It is a work in progress.

Welcome also to Tom Dowling, who writes (edited version): "... It is an Internet collaboration that started with a banjo track by my brother Ed. The banjo is one that he built with pieces from three different banjos...along with a photo of me and him. The photo is approx. 53 years old, but really adds to the 'two brothers' aspect of the tune...I improvised the whistle track, using a Michael Burke Narrow Bore D Brass Black Tip whistle. Larry McLarry (aka viejomc on the C & F Message Board) kindly offered to re-mix it and clean up the whistle track." (The tune is "Here and There" saved in orig.)

"Here is the description of the banjo, which offers some insight into the maker as well as the instrument:The latest string theory is adamant that the nature of subatomic forces is vibrating strings - "chemistry is the harmony" of atomics. Anyway The banjo is one I built from parts of 3 different banjos. It is "Black Beauty" and its original sound - before the special pickup bridge was way high, piercing almost and loud - vary nice but almost too piercing in tone. The body is the most "expensive" Kay banjo body - having twice as many hooks for the head is what makes it the "high end" kay. Kay made millions of cheap instruments - some of reasonable quality. This banjo would be considered a very poor imitation of a gibson or Stelling - I dont care. The head on this unit is unusual - semi opaque mylar - not white and not clear - only one i ever saw and it is also way way tite - this unit has the mojo - fated by the mixture of parts and my tendency to resurect and releast the mojo that is watin there. Enough of that.The neck is from another Kay 5 string and the resonator (back) is from a korean cheap banjo. There is only one instrument being played on the recording - fingerpicking plays the bass line and tinkles to boot. Anyway this banjo is special because I built a piezo pickup into the bridge. This is a "fishman" style unit - but way cheap - so cheap that i didnt realize that it was a sandwitch that included the aluminum foil wrapping as the ground conductor. Bottom line is that the thing has a spongy layer between the strings and bridge so the tone of the banjo is radically more woody without the piercing tone and volume. It turns out to be excellent for playing live and is very resistant to feedback. I will build another like it with a fishman - but they cost $80 so later for that. When I record an instrument with a pickup in it I go stereo with one track using the mike and the other track is the electronic signal from the pickup. These will sometimes be quite different in tone and texture and this allows a lot of messsing around with added effects applied to one or both tracks - including panning to mix the 2. You could see if it came out that way on the original stereo i sent. Anyway the banjo has ultra low action dur to my unrelenting filing of frets to get it that way. I will check out the tune on the web site. I am stuck with getting to the multi track recording so I am going for the best i can do with 2 tracks, no multi-track. This is still better than fahey had - so onward and upward with me doing more simple acoustic recordings and all like that. by for now."
http://tinwhistletunes.com/clipssnip/newspage.htm Officially, the government uses the term “flap,” describing it as “a condition, a situation or a state of being, of a group of persons, characterized by an advanced degree of confusion that has not quite reached panic proportions.”
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