Martin Carthy tunings

Martin Carthy

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[fingal42]

Complete nonsense! The banjo - like the guitar - is in the lute family of musical instruments, and its repertoire includes Classical music. A well made banjo has a superb ringing tone, but less sustain than a guitar. It just needs a different approach.

[hallobaaaby]

@fingal42 The banjo is INTIMATELY related to the african cora the way it is played in the mountain variation this gentleman talks about. This is not the bluegrass style. It what they call in parts of US i've played 'mountain or 'oldtimers. It REALLY does use very very African rhythm patterns/loops/shapes. on the other hand i play renaissance lute and i'm telling you, there is strictly nothing in its logic, structure or way of playing in common with the banjo which is on skin like cora.

[fingal42]

@slowuncle; I see - thanks for that. Ethnomusicology isn't my strong point. Do you know of any good books on the subject? Trying to be objective, I'm not sure it matters much what family an instrument is in; though I recently saw a gourd banjo on YouTube (played by Mike Seeger) which put me straight on the subject. Anyway - I love any stringed instrument, irrespective of its family tree.

[slowuncle]

@fingal42 I'm sorry to correct you but the entire lute/oud family of instruments do indeed have roots in north africa----quite easy to trace, actually

[themachinist1000]

@hallobaaaby You've hit the nail on the head there. He duly bigs up standard tuning here as it is indeed the ultimately versatile tuning - but there is a lot you can do with open tunings, DADGAD, Carthy's tuning, etc. that you can't in standard. After all an open string has a different timbre than a fingered note and when you have to move your hand that fingered note stops.

[themachinist1000]

@ruben1kord Invented isn't a good word with guitar tunings - I thought I'd 'invented' a tuning once and then discovered that somebody 'invented' it in the 70's. However Davey Graham was the first person to even have the concept of tuning the acoustic guitar into an adapted version of a sitar tuning and it opened up countless possibilities to thousands of other guitarists. So yes - he did 'popularise' it too!

[hallobaaaby]

@fingal42 (cont)...because Hendrix, also like Martin, i notice, would typically rarely play more than 4 notes at once which sounds fresh and light while allowing mobility/fluidity and execution of figures where one note dances around while the rest still resonate...fascinating stuff!

[hallobaaaby]

@fingalYes i feel it the same way: percussive and with whole lot of harmony voicings. What he does often is putting a bass line or chords on the rhythmic grid of the melody phrase while purposefully skipping some notes leaving them voice-only,others playing inbetween accented notes like this creating this percussive off-beat swingy feel to the music.What i like is that, while using who range of harmonix,he doesn't exagerate with heavy poliphony,like Hendrix.What miss r bluesey curves:)

[fingal42]

@hallobaaaby It's interesting that Martin derived at least part of his technique from listening to Big Bill Broonzy's finger picking style, so the African influence is implicit even there. Martin's style is quite percussive - but it's melodic at the same time. I see it as multifaceted in fact. It interests me that what is called 'English guitar style' is nothing of the kind when you really boil it down. Davy Graham invented DADGAD after a spell of foreign travel...

[hallobaaaby]

@fingal42 Oh no supperior please we're all friends :D Funny thing with the cora is that despite many strings they typically play a rhythmic figure that repeats for a given section of a song, rather than melody phrase -kind of like if you check guit. of Seasick Steve on 'Cut my Wings' song. so to play this(wish i could show what i mean)you make the thumb & index fingers in this shape(what Carthy insinuated) & produce these rhythmic figures--these r the african/oldtimer style ones.Cheers

[fingal42]

@hallobaaaby - I can well believe the banjo has African roots; it's an interesting subject. Having heard a couple of cora players, those instruments have a hell of a lot of strings! The banjo was the first stringed instrument I heard as my dad used to play one (sadly no longer)... I bow to your superior knowledge on this. ;)