That tuning

[David Miller]

Hatchet just mentioned his eAEG#B tuning... is that the most common?
If I figure right, that's just "Seeger's C" tuning but slacker by a
few steps, so I guess I'd be comfortable with it right off the bat!

Dave Miller

[trapdoor2]

The most common tuning in use at the Early Banjo Gathering is even
lower, dGDF#A. Same scheme, just two steps lower than the "A" tuning.

They're all good, of course.

===Marc

[RaiseTheHatchet]

Think it was dGDF#A in briggs and eAEG#B in converse? Yea same scheme
as standard c used by seeger

[GCA]

cFCEG: 1851 Gumbo Chaff (aka Elias Howe)
dGDF#A: 1855 Briggs, 1864 Septimus Winner
eAEG#B: 1858 Rice, 1860 Buckley, 1865 Converse, etc....

Briggs also instructs that the banjo can be retuned to any key using
the above pitch configuration.

> > > Dave Miller- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

[razyn]

So, if we were all sitting around in a circle in George's barn this
weekend, with everybody playing "Lucy Long" in the same key (while
Mrs. Colporteur tootled the flute), which tuning would that be? I
want to tune up and imagine it.

[Joel H.]

I have often wondered why we (myself included) have chosen the Briggs'
tuning as the standard. For myself, I blame the influence of the
modern books on minstrel Banjo. My gut feeling feels like it would be
more PEC to go with eAEG#B. When it is time for new strings I think I
will go with a lighter gauge and tune up. Perhaps the Briggs' sounds
more "old timey" (an expression I despise).

[GCA]

dGDF#A

[GCA]

I think there is some truth in what you are saying Joel.

To add to your comments, as I spend more time looking around, for
example, at other period violin books that include minstrel
repertoire, my personal, anecdotal response is that there is a good
bit of deviation beyond the two overarching tunings (i.e., D/G and E/A
tunings) that show up in the quintet of early tutors that we focus so
much of our time on (Briggs, Rice, Buckley, and the 2 Converse
books) .

I think, in the end, what keys I end up playing in depends on the
ensemble I'm working with at the time. For example, when I play with
people that do vocal music, they often select the key of the song
based on what works best for the voice. Fortunately, these folks
mostly gravitate around the keys of D, G, C, A, E, and, sometimes, Bb
(including relative minor keys). Because of being in the moment on
stage, where I'm usually in the dGDF#A tuning, I'll react by 1)
attempting to play chromatically in the key of their choice (without,
hopefully, butchering the tune with bad intonation), 2) retune the
banjo if there is time, 3) play bones, or 4) sit and wait for them to
go to the next song. When I get together with my fifing friends, I'm
in Bb and Eb; the couple period flautists I've met had D flutes; at
'old-timey' jam sessions, most things are in D, G, C, or A, etc....

I guess, ultimately, for myself, I'm not personally committed to any
one tuning, but I wait to see who I'm spending time with and then
adapt. Yet, dGDF#A tuning is where I end up spending 90% of my time.

Has anyone else spent significant time with other period, non-banjo
sources? If so, would you be willing to add a comment or two about the
wider variety of keys? If I had the time, I'd do an informal survey of
all my stuff and report back to everyone, but, alas, I don't.... Does
anyone else have the time?

Too many projects, too little funding,
Greg

[razyn]

On Sep 9, 9:53 pm, GCA <gregcad...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I think, in the end, what keys I end up playing in depends on the
> ensemble I'm working with at the time.

In that many of you are sticklers for the early evidence (reeanactors,
and whatnot), it might be germane that there is one instrument
depicted in a number of early minstrel lines that can't be retuned,
and is diatonic. That is the Accordeon (sic). At last year's AEBG2
Greg saw my early Howe (i.e. Gumbo Chaff) "Complete Preceptor" for
that instrument, that contains a good handful of Ethiopian tunes.
It's dated 1843, eight years older than Howe's banjo tutor. So, for
what it's worth, that key might logically have been influential in the
earlier minstrel-show scene.

For what it's worth, Howe's 1843 preceptor is for an Accordeon in C;
all the tunes in it are in scales with no sharps or flats; and his
1851 banjo tutor suggests a cFCEG tuning.

Later, of course, one could get diatonic button accordions,
concertinas, etc. in a variety of pitches. I'm not sure that was the
case in the earlier days.