Saturday, February 27, 2010

Grey Eagle practice tracks

Finished off recording the Grey Eagle practice tracks tonight. This practice track has an odd beginning--there's a count-in, then a strum, another strum, then the song begins in proper. This is to make room for the double Georgia shuffle lead-in that Tyler Grant does on his excellent recording of this tune (which was transcribed in a relatively recent Flatpick Guitar Magazine).

I find this tune devilishly hard. Or, at least, Tyler's arrangement is. It's almost unbelievable that he recorded it at 240 bpm, and it sounds super relaxed and clean. Anyways, blah blah blah...here are the tracks:

Enjoy!

Update, 2/28/10. A guest asked about the structure of this song. An excellent question; Grey Eagle is one of those tunes that seems to be played pretty differently in different places.

I recorded three parts, each repeats once, then the tune starts over:


A part (x2)
|A |A |A |E A|A |A |A |E A|

B part (x2)
|A |D |A |E |A |D |A D|E A|

C part (x2)
|A |A |A |E |A |A |A |E A|

8 comments:

  1. Hi, great resource, thx for sharing, nice clean recording. Question - how many parts / how many times each part, for this version of Grey Eagle?

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  2. Excellent question! I should have mentioned that, especially since Grey Eagle is such a variable tune. I recorded three parts, each repeats once, then the tune starts over:

    A part (x2)
    |A |A |A |E A|A |A |A |E A|

    B part (x2)
    |A |D |A |E |A |D |A D|E A|

    C part (x2)
    |A |A |A |E |A |A |A |E A|

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  3. Dave,
    Great blog! Have you heard Don Reno's recording of this tune?

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  4. Thanks! I'll try to keep putting useful content up as I come across it--life's been busy lately.

    I have heard the Don Reno and Red Smiley recording from the album "On Stage". Which Don Reno version is the definitive one?

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  5. The one on "The Golden Guitar of Don Reno" is the only one I have heard. That whole CD is awesome.

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  6. Hi Dave, banjohangout.org is a great website for all things banjo. Lots of good tabs sorted by style, tuning, difficulty, etc.

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  7. Good call, Jack. I'll put that in the links section.

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  8. How about clinch mountain back step!!!!

    ReplyDelete