OLD TIME ENSEMBLE

Class Description:

 

For intermediate/advanced players of fiddle, guitar, banjo, bass, mandolin, and singers. Participants should be able to keep time and "hear" chord changes. Learn the amazing variety of dance tunes and songs from the Appalachians to the Ozarks that set the foundation for American music. Each week we'll work on tunes together and arrive at the groove that is stringband music. Join the hoedown . . .

Old Time music is one of the best examples of the folk process in American music. The songs and tunes evolve and sometimes even change names as they make their way from place to place and are passed down from one generation to the next. Snowshoe becomes Spotted Pony. Goodbye Liza Jane becomes Goin' Down to Cairo. Here in St. Louis Frankie once shot Albert, but now he's called Johnny. In order for you to play this music you too must be willing to allow your part to evolve. Songs and tunes that you learn from books, teachers, Youtube, etc. will inevitably be slightly different depending on who you are playing with, where they learned it from and how they have developed their own style and take on it. Therefore, it is important that you always listen and adapt your playing to compliment the music you are sharing with those you are jamming with. The songs and tunes I teach you in this class are my interpretations from what I have learned from people I have played with. If you learned a song or tune in a previous class and we are revisiting it again here you might find that the part I teach you is a little different. Be flexible, be open and most of all, always listen!   

Foghorn Stringband is joined by Dirk Powell in the above video and they rip into Lost Girl with great speed and bounce! The video below is the recording of the same song from their first album, Rattlesnake Tidal Wave. Notice that they had a three finger Scruggs banjo style picker for their first few albums which set them apart from most other Old Time stringbands at the time. Even though they don't often have a clawhammer banjo player in their band, you can still hear and feel the bum-ditty in their music. 

The chord progression for Lost Girl is:

A Part:

||: GG | CC | GG | DD

    GG | CC | GG | DD :||

B Part:

||: GG | CC  | GG | DD

    GG | CC | DD | DG :||

Some people play this for B Part:

||: GG | CC | GG | DD

    GG | CC | GG | DG :||

Others play the A and B Parts both the same

Click here for notation and tab for fiddle and mandolin to Lost Girl

Click here for notation and tab for the B Part on the lower register specifically for the fiddle to Lost Girl

Click here for notation and tab for banjo to Lost Girl

The chord progression for Shove the Pig's Foot a Little Further into the Fire is:

A Part:

||: GG | GG | GG | DD

    GG | GG | GD | GG :||

B Part:

||: GG | GG | GG | DD

    GG | GG | GD | GG :||

A nice variation for the second half of the B Part is:

   Em Em | CC | DD | GG

Some people play this for the A and/or B Parts:

||: GG | GG | GG | DD

    GG | GG | DD | GG :||

Click here for notation and tab for fiddle and mandolin to Shove the Pig's Foot a Little Further into the Fire

Click here for tab for ukulele to Shove the Pig's Foot a Little Further into the Fire