This one’s an unabashedly pretty song from my recent collaboration with fiddler, Esther Morgan-Ellis. We’ve been working for the last year on a group of new old-time tunes. We began performing them in a series of concerts beginning in Spring 2024, and we plan to release a recording of them soon. Here’s a performance of my tune “Summerbird” from our concert at the University of North Georgia, Dahlonega.
Here’s the tablature for the banjo part and the basic melody line.
Notes About This Tune
- “Summerbird” is a slow, sweet song in A major. A tune like this would typically be played in open A tuning, but I prefer to play this one in Sawmill tuning (aEADE).
- This tune uses the two-finger, thumb lead style that’s well-suited for slower songs. In general, the thumb plays all the melody notes on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th strings, with the 1st and 5th strings serving as drones. The higher melody notes in the B and C parts are played on the 1st string with the index finger instead of the thumb.
- The form of this song begins quite predictably, but the C part enters earlier than expected.
- Esther and I have experimented with adding drones for the accompaniment. There are plenty of other possibilities for harmonies, counter-melodies, etc.
Give this little beauty a whirl, and let me know how you like it!