you-didnt-mean-me-no-good.mp3On July 18th, blues and ragtime guitarist and singer Ari Eisinger and curator of the Secret Museum, Pat Conte will perform a house concert in Hopewell, NJ at the Hopewell Train Station. This is a rare, intimate performance by two extremely gifted performers. The music begins at 7:30. Admission is $25. Seating is limited, so please rsvp to houseconcert “at” donegone “dot” net.
Okay, so I worked out the keys for a bunch of music that is probably, at this point, nearly totally culturally irrelevant and played by musicians long dead. I’ve encountered responses to some of my observations (not many, to be sure - this stuff is fairly obscure, you know) ranging from amused disbelief, to incredulity, to damn near hostility - because of the suggestion that many of these tunes were played on the original recordings in flat keys: F, B-flat and E-flat.
Let me get something straight - I don’t care in what key you and your buds choose to play any of these tunes on Saturday night or on your CD - it’s all good. If, however, the topic is the key of the original recordings, then we can have an interesting discussion. Of course there are a lot of variables, the most confusing to most people apparently being the pitch of the songs on the original recordings. Let me assure you that the pitch of the original recording is probably the least persuasive piece of evidence that one can consider when trying to suss out how some of these songs were played. Why does this matter to me? ’cause I’m built that-a-way, I suppose.
Why does the idea of flat keys provoke such a response? I wish I knew… since I can’t really argue from that perspective, I would like to highlight a little of what I think is easy about flat keys.
The mandolin and fiddle are tuned in fifths, so their fingering is consistent all over the fingerboard. Frets on the mandolin make this a lot more pain-free, particularly for the informed amateur. Doing the same on the fiddle requires a lot more practice and patience than most of us can muster, although it’s possible. In comparison to the guitar, the shorter scale, portability of the fingering, and the fact that they tend to be used for linear expressions, make playing in different keys a little easier on the mandolin, in my opinion.
Did they use capos? Speaking here specifically of the Chatmons and Charlie McCoy, who I’ve thought about most: flat keys on the mandolin and the fiddle are treated as another “open” position. What I mean is that open strings play an important role and are used freely: in B-flat, the open D string is the third below the tonic (on the 2nd string). Similarly, the open G string is the third below the tonic of E-flat (on the 3nd string), and A is the third below the tonic (on the 1st string). In both the fiddling of the Chatmons and mandolin playing of Charlie McCoy, these relationships are exploited at every opportunity. If Charlie were to use a capo, or the Chatmons to tune, say, up a half step to play D and sound in E-flat, it would force their instruments to lose the sonority that’s actually one of the strong points of the flat keys they so often play in.
All three of these flat keys use the same scale pattern, starting from their tonic note. In fact, all keys on a mandolin or fiddle in standard tuning make use of the same scale pattern, so flat keys are not unique in this sense. Just tune up your mandolin and try playing a major scale, but this time, try it from B-flat (first fret, second string).
All three of these flat keys have the same relative notes available to them on the string located below the tonic note - chromatic possibilities between the third degree of the scale on the open string and the fifth degree of the scale on the third fret relative to that. In general, Charlie McCoy exploited the chromatic possibilities of his instrument more than the Chatmon fiddlers did.
Most of what the Jackson crew needed is available in first position. There are occasional bursts of activity up the neck, but it’s usually a bit formulaic compared the stuff in first position, which seems a bit more spontaneous. One thing I can say is that the fingering for these keys is very pinky-intensive, so if you have a recalcitrant pinky, you’ll need to address that.
In closing, flat keys aren’t the devil incarnate. They’re just a bunch of notes and, in most cases, they’re notes you already know. If you can suss out B-flat, you’re one string away in either direction from E-flat and F.
Now A-flat and D-flat… well… you only need those for jazz (joke! joke!).
A little low tuned rambling from pals samjessin and Zac, recorded by candlelight, of course. I love these guys.
My friend Pat called last night to tell me the news… his longtime friend and playing partner Bob Guida passed away while packing for a gig. I only knew Bob as a musician and performer - he was generous and funny - a tremendous singer with a huge voice. I was in shock then, as I think everyone was. Pat said “Well, play one for Bob.”
So we did. Goodbye Bob.
Todd Cambio - he’s the brains, hands and heart behind Fraulini Guitars. If that sentence means something to you, then you might want to take a look at his blog:
…just to take a peek into the mind of a guy who is building ladder-braced guitars in the 21st century.
Hell yes.
Just a shout out to my pal Nate Layne from Richmond, who finally, finally got a high-speed internet connection and subsequently got hisself a YouTube account and started posting gems like this:
Nate’s got a great touch with a tune. And he’s a dynamite banjo picker, too.
Sam Jessin came over today and we dug this one out & dusted it off.
No more youtube for a while, I promise!