Melodic Style on Plectrum?

[Martin Ohrt]

Hey everyone,

I've got some Alison brown records lately, and was excited by her fine melodic style runs. As I'm primarily playing Jazz on the Plectrum Banjo while being completely unable to do anything using three fingers, I wondered if this could be adapted on the Plectrum. I think, this would make for a great BeBop Banjo! :))
So I took out Tony Trischka's "Melodic Banjo" instruction book, and tried some Keith Style scale exercises - it's quite hard, as (of course) the 5th String has to be replaced by a fretted note somewhere... ;) Also, there are some long left hand-stretches required. But nevertheless- it sounds very cool! But I'm still not sure if this is could develop into something useful, other than a fine exercise to practice left-hand stretches... :grin:
So, my question: Is anybody here, who has already tried this out? Or do you guys have any thoughts about this?

Best,
Martin

[Ryk]

Hi Martin,

Why not? I'm trying something very similar on my plectrum. It seems to me that it all boils down to a demanding single string approach and grabbing a chord or double stop along the way. You are so right about the stretches, especially with the fourth string tuned to C.

We'll just keep on keeping on!

Ryk

[Martin Ohrt]

Hi Martin,

Why not? I'm trying something very similar on my plectrum. It seems to me that it all boils down to a demanding single string approach and grabbing a chord or double stop along the way. You are so right about the stretches, especially with the fourth string tuned to C.

We'll just keep on keeping on!

Ryk

Hi Ryk,
thank you for your reply, and please excuse the delay in mine...
Yes, my 4th string is on C, this certainly doesn't make things easier ;)

I have a bit more of an overview now, and I found some problems with my 5-to-4-string-transition.
I started out with Bill Keith's G scale as introduced in Tony Trischka's book:
534

This transfers quite nicely (once you get used to the stretches) to Standard Plectrum:
535

But then, the scale over two octaves looks like this on the 5-String:
536

The use of the fretted 5th string seems to make it quite comfortable to go up the neck - but I have to accomplish this without this high string, and found this to be the most workable way:
537

It turns out, that I always have to move the same 5-fret-covering grip up the neck on every beat.., I cannot really imagine doing this in a useful tempo...

Also, I'm not quite sure what happens when I try to play jazzy scales with half-steps... Haven't tried this yet.
Maybe I should get Pat Cloud's "Straight-Ahead Jazz for Banjo", and see if I can transfer his ideas to Plectrum? I'm still not sure if this effort would lead to something useful.

Best,
Martin