Thanks so much for all the positive feedback on the first video! I’ll be posting videos at least once a month for the next year or so, so keep checking back for more (or consider subscribing to my YouTube channel).
This is my oldest solo banjo composition. I started writing it sometime in the ’93 to ’95 range. This video contains a number of embellishments not present in the original version, of course, but the core arrangement and melody have always remained the same.
As with most of the tunes I’ll be posting here, this will be on my forthcoming solo banjo CD.
Last night I tracked down the video camera, power adapter, tripod, and blank tape, and made a quick-and-dirty recording of one of my favorite solo banjo pieces. It was at that point that I discovered that the Firewire cables I had were all the wrong type to connect the camera to my laptop (and I’d moved my desktop machine to the studio a month or two ago). A quick trip to Micro Center today sorted that out, so here’s the video:
Freedom of improvisation is one of my favorite things about playing solo material. Sometimes, it’s fun to choose just the first couple of notes you are going to play, decide how fast you are going to play them, and then see where the melody wants to go from there.
It was during these improvisational pieces that the melody in this video kept appearing. It became one of my favorite things to play, both alone and with other musicians. Last year, during the Bell Buckle Music Cruise (in the Caribean, no less) a couple dear friends of mine wrote some beautiful lyrics for this, which also furnished the tune with the title “High Above the Hills”.
This will, of course, be on my forthcoming solo banjo CD.
