'Nola' for A6 and C6

Guy Cundell · From: More idle ramblings from South Australia

This is just a little experiment in treating A6 and C6 as transposing instruments relative to one another. Yes, it uses a high G on the C6th to bring it into line with A6 but there are only a couple of spots where the top string is used.

The tune is an old novelty that I have seen performed on banjo lately. This is the first section of 3 but it's quite an ear worm. It is quite a demanding little exercise in arpeggios with an interesting rhythm.

Jeff Spencer · From: Queensland, Australia

Thanks Guy. I struggle a little with the high G on the top. Just need to practice more I guess

Guy Cundell · From: More idle ramblings from South Australia

Cheers, Jeff. I know that many C6th players don't use the high G but there seem to be some contemporary players who do. I believe that Murphey used it in the early fifties. I can understand the issue that some may have with the tone of the thinner top string but as a tuning it has the advantage of uniformity of intervals with A6 and also the top strings of GBDGBD and high and low A.

I am working through some Reinhardt repertoire on 8 string reso in A6 and wondered whether the charts might be of value to C6 players, even though they are transposed to non-standard key. It is not much effort to put in the transposed chords and dots.

Jeff Spencer · From: Queensland, Australia

I am always looking for stuff to 'push the boundaries' a little

Jim Wilmoth · From: California, USA

Lots of palm blocking on this one?

Guy Cundell · From: More idle ramblings from South Australia

Anything that gets the job done, Jim. Thanks for giving me cause to think about it because I find blocking an instinctive thing. When the tune or phrase demands it, you just have to do something. I can say that I hardly use palm blocking at all. I found it frustrating because I could never get it fast enough to play a line like this cleanly. Not being a pedal player and using a lighter bar I developed alternative approaches.

I generally use pick blocking and another technique for fast single string work. I donâ€™t know what you would call this technique. I saw Cindy Cashdollar explaining how you move the bar across the strings as it is required and mute the strings in front of it with your LH fingers. I think she had the bar flat on the strings in her demo. It is like that but I only use the tip of the bar, with the heel of the bar kicked up off the strings in my palm. As the tip of the bar moves across the strings, the trailing ring and little fingers do the blocking but can I block both sides of the bar tip which isnâ€™t possible with the bar flat on the strings. Sometimes even the thumb is involved on the leading side of the bar. (There is a video of Chris Scruggs playing a great line entirely muted with the LH thumb.)

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