The Banjo Pickers Fake Book: The Ultimate Sourcebook for the Traditional Banjo Player [Plastic Comb]

David Brody (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 1992

This ultimate sourcebook for the banjo player contains over 230 jigs, reels, rags, hornpipes, and breakdowns from all major traditional instrumental styles. Includes special introductory materials on regional styles, interpretation, and bluegrass techniques. Discography.

Product Details

• Plastic Comb: 216 pages
• Publisher: Oak Publications (July 1, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0825602718
• ISBN-13: 978-0825602719
• Product Dimensions: 11.9 x 9.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #913,785 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Born in New York City, David Brody is a musician, artist, author and professor. For the most complete information about him please visit www.davidbrodymusic.com and www.davidbrodyart.com.

In his career as a musician he has appeared as a multi-instrumentalist, singer, and songwriter. Early on he played bluegrass, old-time, Celtic and swing fiddle with Henry Sapoznik and Bob Carlin in The Delaware Water Gap String Band. Later he played violin and mandolin with The Klezmer Conservatory Band. He recorded nine albums with these groups and other artists on the Flying Fish, Rounder, and Vanguard labels.

He has appeared at Avery Fisher Hall and Symphony Space in New York City, at major venues and music festivals across the United States, Canada, and Europe and on Garrison Keillor's radio show A Prairie Home Companion. He has published five books on music including the best-selling The Fiddler's Fakebook. His new CD, Kickin' It Old School, features 15 original songs with Brody on piano and vocals.

In his parallel career as a visual artist he received a graduate degree in painting from Yale University. His work has been shown in over 80 exhibitions across the United Sates and Europe. It has also been featured and reviewed in numerous publications including Art in America, Artforum, and New Art Examiner among many others. He has been a Fulbright Scholar and a Guggenheim Fellow. He is a Professor at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Banjo Picker's Fakebook by David Brody, June 30, 2000

By 

Luther Peterson (Georgetown, KY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Banjo Pickers Fake Book: The Ultimate Sourcebook for the Traditional Banjo Player (Plastic Comb)

This book is 216 pages of banjo tunes arranged for three-finger and clawhammer players. It includes a cross-reference of alternate titles and a 24 page general discography, as well as a discussion of the types of tunes included. There is also a short discussion of technical topics such as modes (very appropriate for traditional music) and how to read tablature.

This book is a lot like a Grainger's collection of fiddle tunes for flatpickers. Unlike Grainger's, which only provides enough tablature to spell out the melody for the A part and the B part, The Banjo Picker's Fakebook takes you through one whole iteration of each tune complete with first and second endings. Also like Grainger's, this is not an instruction book. It leaves both the right and left hand fingerings entirely up to the reader. For example, if you are a strictly a bluegrass player, the clawhammer arrangements will not be useful to you.

Although the discography could be used to collect aural examples of the tunes, a CD or a set of tapes would have been a welcome addition. Music is an aural art, and it is impossible to convey the full musical sense in tablature or in standard musical notation alone.

If you are looking for a lot of tunes, thoughtfully arranged in a single volume, I highly recommend The Banjo Picker's Fakebook. If the tune can't be found in this book, chances are no one eles knows it either, so you could go ahead and play anything that fit.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good news, Bad news, December 18, 2006

By 

GB Guitars "gbroulet" (Colfax, Ca United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Banjo Pickers Fake Book: The Ultimate Sourcebook for the Traditional Banjo Player (Plastic Comb)

The good news is there are tons of songs in this book and you'll have many hours of fun learning all sorts of new music. For that alone, this book is worth having.

The bad news: The Fiddle, Mandolin, and guitar versions of this book all have exactly the same song list all in the same keys. This is great because your fiddler, mandolin and guitar player all have the same reference to the same songs and can easily play together. The banjo book, however, does not have the same song listing. Many of the songs in the other 3 books are not in this book. Also, quite a bit of the music is in "Melodic clawhammer" style. If you don't play that style then you'll miss out on about half of the songs in this book.

However, the music that is here is pretty darn fun. Just be aware that if the other members of your group all have this book then your book won't match up to thiers.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Lots of banjo tunes!, March 9, 2006

By 

T. Goodsell (Belmont, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Banjo Pickers Fake Book: The Ultimate Sourcebook for the Traditional Banjo Player (Plastic Comb)

This is a great book if you already know how to play and just want a lot of tunes. My only complaint is that not all tunes are available in all styles. (That is, some have a clawhammer arrangement, some have a 3-finger arrangement, and some have both.) I can't really blame the authors, though, as it's a pretty large volume as it is. Overall, it's exactly what it's advertised to be.