The Hon. Mayor of Banjotown 🪕 @mayor@banjo.town

spouse is out of the house, practice earworm at full volume #mastomusic #banjo

I can tell using SID Wizard efficiently will require memorizing emacs-level keyboard shortcuts, but this isn't bad for a half hour of tinkering (time spent looking up shortcuts not included) #chiptunes #commodore64

Anyone get a new #banjo for the holidays and want an instant learning library? I've got this pile of books #forsale, all of the CDs are included and still playable as far as I know. The Ross Nickerson book is autographed.

$25 for the lot including media mail postage anywhere in the U.S. Ping me if interested; first come, first served.

Boosts+!

Here's "8th of January", another #oldtime tune that I have no real memory of multitracking 11+ years ago, despite the fact that I included a flatpicked guitar lead. #banjo #mandolin #mastomusic #tootradio #musiciansofmastodon

On the one hand, it's nice to periodically come across stuff I recorded 10+ years ago that sounds way better (in terms of both recording quality and performance) than I would have thought. On the other, it underscores my need to get my shit together and just *release* stuff instead of yak shaving it to death. Here's a really nice #oldtime solo #banjo tune called 'Snowdrop', which I recorded in 2008 if metadata is to be believed. #mastomusic #tootradio #musiciansofmastodon

...and here's the first strain of "Banjoland," once through. I've got the whole piece about 90% "under my fingers" as the saying goes, with the remaining challenges being to put all the parts together without stumbling, and play it maybe a little bit faster. #mastomusic #classicstylebanjo #classicbanjo #classicfingerstylebanjo #banjo #practicemakesbetter

Just got outbid on a nice looking little old banjeaurine. 😭 I probably should have bid a bit higher despite some condition issues, they are relatively rare.

very very clever, the Trio is really flashy but not actually difficult to learn; as with most things, the primary challenge is playing it however many hundreds of times is necessary to burn it into muscle memory so you can play it at speed

Here’s the intro of “Banjoland.” 🪕 #classicbanjo #classicstylebanjo #banjo #joemorley

I've only learned one other Joe Morley piece, and as I start to work on this one I'm again struck by how *clever* his arranging is, the efficient use of chord shapes up and down the neck and carefully timed notes sounded on the fifth string to give the left hand time to jump up or down. He really was brilliant. (This is a really fun piece to listen to, and I think it's going to be fun to play if I can get it under my fingers. Lots of work ahead of me)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9_V8e9lDJA

#banjo

wut

Working on a tune from 1868 this week, which has a darker sound than its name would suggest. #mastomusic

I've been fooling around with #plectrumbanjo for the first time in a while and damn, steel strings hard on a person's pinky after years of nylon.

I'm tempted to try nylon strings with a felt pick (properly set up, nylon/gut strings can be quite loud on a banjo with a good tone ring) but there is something to be said for building up those callouses and being able to pick up any old #banjo without killing my fingers.

I wrote a thing for the equinox. I began working on this *last* fall and managed to get it cleaned up for this year. Not sure I'll have it rehearsed enough to record tonight but I can at least share the dots:

https://archive.org/details/equinox-jig

#mastomusic #banjo #classicbanjo #fingerstylebanjo #equinox #autumn #standardnotation

This may finally enable me to memorize the bass cleff. (Source: uncredited FB post)