Teaching the Banjo to Speak Welsh

A little over three months ago, I sent off a Fulbright application to study the fiddle music of Wales via the 5-string banjo. It just might have been crazy enough to work. But it didn’t.

No sense letting that get me down or stop me from pursuing my project in the capacity I’m able. I found free sheet music online for two traditional Welsh tunes, which I arranged for banjo.

Then I received my copy of Alawon John Thomas, an edition of an 18th-century Welsh fiddler’s fakebook. I arranged 3 of these tunes for banjo too.

So I’ll sleep a little better tonight knowing that there are 5 more Welsh tunes arranged for 5-string banjo than there were 3 months ago.

Enjoy!

Teaching the Banjo to Speak Welsh: The Fiddle Music of Wales on a 5-String Banjo

Nathan

More Lemonade

The intervals remain the same, but I’m steadily tuning up. We’re roughly at b♭G♭D♭g♭, or a#F#C#f#.

Enjoy!

N.A. Wendte

Making Lemonade out of Lemons

About a week ago, the 4th string on my canjo snapped at the bridge. It was an old string and the wound wire had started to come loose. It was it’s time. Unfortunately, I was without a good replacement. So those were my lemons.

I began to make lemonade when I retuned the remaining strings to f#DAD. It’s like shamisen tuning with an added 3rd (I think). Or it’s like removing the 1st string of a banjo in Double-D tuning and putting the 5th string to f#. I started messing around and found that I didn’t miss the 1st string much at all. I even began arranging some Ken Perlman tablature for my new setup. It’s really not all that bad. Plus, it allows for some very nice sounding partial chords, which I’m a fan of. Partial chords sound better on a fretless anyway.

Here’s the first tune I’ve written specifically for my new setup. Enjoy!

The Scoop

According to many banjo aficionados, the “scoop” in the neck of a banjo can be traced to the Round Peak style of clawhammer playing. For those unfamiliar with the term, a banjo “scoop” is an area of the fingerboard that has been removed to create more space below the strings. This allows the banjoist to play around the 17th-19th “fret” without whacking his thumb and fingers against a stiff piece of ebony. The reason for playing at this spot is the sweet harmonic. Kyle Creed really popularized this sound.

I was bored last night and, thanks to my friend, Jerry, I have a woodcarving set I’d been wanting to try out. The canjo’s all I have to work with, so I decided she could use a wee scoop. I slackened the strings and went to work with some teeny tiny rasps and some micro-chisels.

An eighth of an inch later, here’s what I came up with.

Can you hear a difference?

A Couple Canjo Clips

I continue to keep my chops up on the old canjo. Check out my recent post about my first native Haitian banjo sighting while you’re at it.

3 New Canjo Videos

Life goes on here in Haiti, but when it slows down every once in a while, I like to take the opportunity to record a snatch of a song or a tune. Unfortunately, finding the time to record rarely means finding the time to post the videos online. So what ends up happening is I have a backlog of videos to post that, come another lull in the pace of life, I put up all together. Here are the most recent three: “Veins of Coal” (a cover of a Horse Flies song), “Chinquapin Hunting” (traditional American fiddle tune), and “Nellie Gray” (American ballad/instrumental with a grand history). Enjoy!

Nathan

“Kreyolizing” the Canjo (Fin)

Step 4 (cont.): Replace the zebrawood tuning pegs with bwa loye.

After I finished the easy part of carving the pegs, I needed to come up with a way to attach the strings to them. You can search for the topic “Primitive Pegs” for the brainstorming that led to my method.

I cleaned up a rusty piece of wire, heated it red hot with a candle, and burned the string holes into my pegs. It took a long time, but it made me proud to not use a drill.

Step 3: Replace the maple/ebony bridge with bwa loye.

This was pretty painless. As I mentioned earlier, this wood carves like a dream.

Fini !!!

And there we have it. She’s “kreyòlized.”

Peace,

N.A. Wendte (Nathan)

P.S. Here’s the first video with my new and improved canjo. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqweufBfni0

“Kreyolizing” the Canjo Pt. 3

Step 4: Replace the zebrawood tuning pegs with bwa loye.

Here’s a photo of the wood pieces I’m remaking with bwa loye:

Bwa loye is very light in color, with a grain that somewhat reminds me of mahogany.

And the stuff carves like a dream! Here’s a picture of a peg and a peg blank:

And here’s the canjo with two pegs completed:

More to come in the next few days. Enjoy!

“Kreyolizing” the Canjo Pt. 2

Step 1: Burnish the neck and the peghead with a conch shell.

Easy enough. Once I found a perfect specimen (about the size of a large wonton), I went to work.

It didn’t make as noticeable a difference on the back of the neck, but the headstock really sparkled after this simple treatment.

Step 2: Replace the zebrawood nut with goat bone.

As I mentioned I earlier, I got this idea after I found a goat bone in my lunch. I threw it in a half empty hip flask of Rhum Roi des Coqs (a strong and unappetising Haitian rum) for a few days to get all the gristle off and to sterilize the material. It just so happened to be the perfect length to replace the nut in the photo below:

And here’s the goat bone upgrade:

The goat bone has its drawbacks. For one, I couldn’t saw effectively enough with my pocketknife to get the nut slots all at the same level. Some strings are higher, some are lower. But, I checked every slot to make sure I could get a clean sound from a string placed there. I was satisfied. This isn’t a Mastertone. It’s cooler.

Step 4 coming up later. I’m saving Step 3 for last.

 

N.A. Wendte (Nathan)

 

“Kreyolizing” the Canjo

As I mentioned in an earlier post, the canjo accompanied me to Haiti. And it’s gone over very well! The Haitians call it gita peyi, gita bwat, or gita kreyòl (my favorite). They’re referring to the various chordophones that Haitians make for themselves out of cans, sticks, and various odds and ends to allow them to play mizik twoubadou, a type of folk music.

Two things make mine different: a short drone string (think of the short, 5th string on a banjo) and no soundhole in the face of the can. There’s a little hole where the olive oil can’s spout used to be and I feel it lets out plenty of sound.

I built the canjo in Illinois, played it in Indiana and South Carolina, and I feel it picked up some unique character in each of those places. Now I want it to absorb some Kreyòl flavor. Here’s my plan:

1. Burnish the neck and peghead with a conch shell (found at the pristine beach of Port-Salut). The neck is unfinished cherry, and burnishing should bring out some shine.
2. Replace the zebrawood nut with goat bone. I found the goat bone in my lunch one day, and zebrawood is an exotic that I have no real connection with. Plus it’s endangered.
3. Replace the maple and ebony bridge with bwa loye. As far as I can tell, this wood has a hardness similar to cherry or walnut and its scientific name is Cinnamomum elongatum (laurel avispillo). I picked up some small pieces of this wood at a local ebenist‘s workshop. These skilled artisans are not the reason for Haiti’s deforestation, so I felt comfortable buying lumber products from him. His name is Majorie.
4. Replace the zebrawood tuning pegs with bwa loye. Same reasons as were given for #2, plus bwa loye smells wonderful! It’s in the same family as camphor and cinnamon.

Pictures will be posted soon. Steps 1-2 are already completed, and I’m already at work on 3 and 4. Today CJ and I are teaching children at BTI, but I might get some carving done in the evening.

Peace,

N.A. Wendte (Nathan)