I spent the first half of the day wrangling the piano accompaniment for Brooks & Denton's 'Tyro Mazurka' (1890) into ABC format, and the second half of the day playing along to it. Still rough around the edges but the piano part makes it more fun to practice. #classicbanjo #fingerstylebanjo #fediversemusic #musiciansofmastodon #banjo #piano

While searching for Schottische accompaniment patterns I was reminded of Herman Rowland's "Sunflower Dance" (originally published as "With The Tide Schottische") which for some reason is the classic fingerstyle banjo piece commonly recommended for beginners (in much the same way that "Cripple Creek" is the first tune a lot of clawhammer/bluegress players start with)

It's a good not-too-hard piece that gives you a great feel for the style in terms of picking patterns and transitioning up and down the neck, but there are far better beginner materials out there (A.J. Weidt's Elementary Studies was what really got me started https://archive.org/details/A.J.WeidtBook1/mode/2up)

But I'd forgotten what an earworm it is! I should really re-learn it, plus the 2nd banjo part, and properly record it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dWJZBMtD5U

#classicbanjo #fingerstylebanjo #schottische #music

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