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Post by RickW on Aug 20, 2020 23:06:29 GMT -5
She plays clawhammer, I know that. But the actual banjo itself, is much less twangy than the standard country style banjo. It almost sounds like nylon strings.
Damn, she’s good.
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Post by Russell Letson on Aug 20, 2020 23:38:52 GMT -5
Look and sound like nylon strings.
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Post by david on Aug 20, 2020 23:55:45 GMT -5
Pleasing and interesting stuff. What a nice performance. Sincere singing/story telling.
A six (nylon) string banjo with the high "g"? string. She is constantly grabbing that high bass string and the second highest string with her thumb, somewhat akin to grabbing the low E and the B string on a guitar with your thumb.
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Post by Marshall on Aug 21, 2020 7:53:18 GMT -5
I wonder what tuning. She plays so much mando I suspect it's not a banjo tuning. Lovely sound. Nylon strings tame the harshness of many banjos. yet still has the staccato percussive sounds of a banjo.Just more mellow.
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Post by billhammond on Aug 21, 2020 8:01:33 GMT -5
I've mentioned this before, but Sarah is the master of attack -- it's why she can make the humblest of instruments sound wonderful. She brings them to their tonal sweet spot and does not pass that point. It makes for a quiet propulsion that I covet.
It's all about smooth, soft, consistent touch.
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Post by TKennedy on Aug 21, 2020 9:15:21 GMT -5
The right hand is certainly where the magic lies. I have definitely see great players make a mediocre instrument sound amazing.
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Post by John B on Aug 21, 2020 9:22:44 GMT -5
I wonder what tuning. She plays so much mando I suspect it's not a banjo tuning. Lovely sound. Nylon strings tame the harshness of many banjos. yet still has the staccato percussive sounds of a banjo.Just more mellow. "Old time" and clawhammer banjo had a whole ton of different tunings, with names and everything. Here are a few, courtesy of Deering. www.deeringbanjos.com/pages/how-to-tune-a-banjo |
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Post by RickW on Aug 21, 2020 9:50:13 GMT -5
The right hand is certainly where the magic lies. I have definitely see great players make a mediocre instrument sound amazing. I would say that the hands is what makes every great player great, and the picking hand is the dominant. It is in a lot of ways like singing. Lots of folks with great voices, as all the singing shows can attest to. But it’s someone like Sarah who, while not belting out the high hard notes, shapes the song so beautifully with her phrasing and emotion that make you come back again and again. |
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Post by Russell Letson on Aug 21, 2020 11:21:28 GMT -5
As JohnB points out, "banjo tuning" is pretty much what you can get away with, and (as in slack key guitar) there are tunings devised for particular songs.
That looks like a five-string to me, an old-timey stage between the very early fretless and the modern steel-strung open-back designs. I believe her right-hand technique would be called "drop-thumb frailing."
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Post by coachdoc on Aug 21, 2020 11:26:51 GMT -5
I would call that style ‘really, really good. ‘
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Post by robjh22 on Aug 21, 2020 11:35:16 GMT -5
Yes, every note she plays is just so right.
It's probably my hearing, but I cannot understand 50% of the lyrics of any modern recordings.
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Post by james on Aug 21, 2020 11:44:52 GMT -5
Another one she plays on banjo sometimes.
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Post by RickW on Aug 21, 2020 12:39:13 GMT -5
Another one she plays on banjo sometimes. Cat Stevens is/was such an amazing songwriter. One of my favourites. And that is a wonderful interpretation. |
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Post by coachdoc on Aug 21, 2020 12:40:19 GMT -5
Very simply, I have yet to hear anything from her that I didn't like.
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Post by james on Aug 21, 2020 13:00:59 GMT -5
On the banjo, somebody at the 'banjo hangout' forum posted a paragraph from American Songwriter magazine a few years ago.
"Jarosz plays a custom six-string banjo built by her old friend Bernard Mollberg in Texas...Jarosz eventually decided she wanted a six-string banjo like the one Mollberg had built for himself, with a G for the fifth string that was tuned an octave below the third string G. So from bottom to top is a high G string for the thumb string, with the next five strings – G, D, G, B and D when tuned to standard banjo tuning – reaching to the nut."
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Post by Russell Letson on Aug 21, 2020 14:06:13 GMT -5
Now I see all six strings--I had to go to the ninth fret to make them out. (The fourth and fifth are black.)
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Tamarack
Administrator
Ancient Citizen
Posts: 9,390
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Post by Tamarack on Aug 21, 2020 22:38:10 GMT -5
Sarah's clawhammer playing is traditionally rooted but very much her own style.
The extra low G string gives all kinds of additional melodic possibilities
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