Hi all,
It appears that everyone who intended to respond to the puzzlers on Josh White's "Silicosis Is Killin' Me" has done so, so I will post the answers.
For Josh White's "Silicosis Is Killin' Me":
* His playing position/tuning was Vastapol, playing in the key of the sixth, fourth and first strings. Everyone who responded had this right--well done!
* In the first two bars of each verse accompaniment, Josh White played the following positions and chords in the left hand. In the first bar, he played a I7 chord, sounding X-3-0-0-3-0, avoiding hitting the open sixth string, despite it being the root of the chord. In the second bar, he went to a IV chord in the first half of the bar, fingered X-2-0-1-2-0, and in the second half of the bar played a IV minor chord, fingered X-1-0-1-X-0. Prof Scratchy had the chords analyzed correctly, but had the fingering confused on the IV minor chord.
This series of chords was a pet move of Josh White's, and he used it for a very high percentage of the religious numbers he recorded in Vastapol tuning. In walking chromatically down the fifth string from the third fret, he starts at the bVII of the scale, giving him the I7 chord. Resolving downward by half-step into the second fret, he gets the VI note of the scale, which is the major third of the IV chord (the root of which he frets at the first fret of the third string). Moving to the first fret of the fifth string, he gets the bVI of the scale, which functions as the minor third of the IV chord, the root of which he continues to fret at the first fret of the third string. If you go to the "Josh White Lyrics" thread, which has over twenty of Josh White's early religious recordings in it, I think you'll find that he used this move at some point in practically every one of those songs.
As per Old Man Ned's query for tips on how to hear chords and chordal movement that happen underneath singing, I think the best way to hear a move of the type that Josh White employed here is to listen for the descending line in the bass, on the fifth string, and suss out where it lives in the scale. Once you figure out that the line goes bVII-VI-bVI-V, you can figure out the movement, if any, in the inner voices of the chords. The great thing about figuring out a series of moves like this is that you only have to figure it out once, but you can use it over and over again, as Josh White, in fact, did. Listening for where melodic runs live in a scale is also probably the best way of figuring them out, too.
* The run that Josh White played from 1:59--2:01 was played as follows: on the + of beat one, he played a bent third fret of the first string. On beat two, he played a triplet, going from the open first string to the open second string to the first fret of the third string. On beat three, he plays another triplet, going from bent third fret of the fourth string to the open fourth string to the second fret of the fifth string. On beat four, he plays a broken triplet, hitting the bent third fret of the fourth string on beat four and the + of beat four, resolving to the open fourth string on the downbeat of the next measure. Prof Scratchy had this run dead on--well done!
Josh White's playing at this stage of his career had tremendous finish and control. Like Buddy Moss, he was an exceptionally clean player, and was technically spot on, pretty much at all times. Blind Boy Fuller didn't have the same degree of polish and spiffiness in his playing, but at the same time, he seemed to me to have a greater spontaneity, looseness, liveliness, and feeling of being in the moment. It's impossible to say who was better, because it's simply a matter of what you want to hear in a player--and for that matter, at different times you may want to hear different things. Suffice it to say that they were all great players in their own ways!
Thanks to blueshome, Old Man Ned, and Prof Scratchy for responding to the puzzler, and I hope folks enjoyed the song. I'll look for another puzzler to post soon.
All best,
Johnm
It appears that everyone who intended to respond to the puzzlers on Josh White's "Silicosis Is Killin' Me" has done so, so I will post the answers.
For Josh White's "Silicosis Is Killin' Me":
* His playing position/tuning was Vastapol, playing in the key of the sixth, fourth and first strings. Everyone who responded had this right--well done!
* In the first two bars of each verse accompaniment, Josh White played the following positions and chords in the left hand. In the first bar, he played a I7 chord, sounding X-3-0-0-3-0, avoiding hitting the open sixth string, despite it being the root of the chord. In the second bar, he went to a IV chord in the first half of the bar, fingered X-2-0-1-2-0, and in the second half of the bar played a IV minor chord, fingered X-1-0-1-X-0. Prof Scratchy had the chords analyzed correctly, but had the fingering confused on the IV minor chord.
This series of chords was a pet move of Josh White's, and he used it for a very high percentage of the religious numbers he recorded in Vastapol tuning. In walking chromatically down the fifth string from the third fret, he starts at the bVII of the scale, giving him the I7 chord. Resolving downward by half-step into the second fret, he gets the VI note of the scale, which is the major third of the IV chord (the root of which he frets at the first fret of the third string). Moving to the first fret of the fifth string, he gets the bVI of the scale, which functions as the minor third of the IV chord, the root of which he continues to fret at the first fret of the third string. If you go to the "Josh White Lyrics" thread, which has over twenty of Josh White's early religious recordings in it, I think you'll find that he used this move at some point in practically every one of those songs.
As per Old Man Ned's query for tips on how to hear chords and chordal movement that happen underneath singing, I think the best way to hear a move of the type that Josh White employed here is to listen for the descending line in the bass, on the fifth string, and suss out where it lives in the scale. Once you figure out that the line goes bVII-VI-bVI-V, you can figure out the movement, if any, in the inner voices of the chords. The great thing about figuring out a series of moves like this is that you only have to figure it out once, but you can use it over and over again, as Josh White, in fact, did. Listening for where melodic runs live in a scale is also probably the best way of figuring them out, too.
* The run that Josh White played from 1:59--2:01 was played as follows: on the + of beat one, he played a bent third fret of the first string. On beat two, he played a triplet, going from the open first string to the open second string to the first fret of the third string. On beat three, he plays another triplet, going from bent third fret of the fourth string to the open fourth string to the second fret of the fifth string. On beat four, he plays a broken triplet, hitting the bent third fret of the fourth string on beat four and the + of beat four, resolving to the open fourth string on the downbeat of the next measure. Prof Scratchy had this run dead on--well done!
Josh White's playing at this stage of his career had tremendous finish and control. Like Buddy Moss, he was an exceptionally clean player, and was technically spot on, pretty much at all times. Blind Boy Fuller didn't have the same degree of polish and spiffiness in his playing, but at the same time, he seemed to me to have a greater spontaneity, looseness, liveliness, and feeling of being in the moment. It's impossible to say who was better, because it's simply a matter of what you want to hear in a player--and for that matter, at different times you may want to hear different things. Suffice it to say that they were all great players in their own ways!
Thanks to blueshome, Old Man Ned, and Prof Scratchy for responding to the puzzler, and I hope folks enjoyed the song. I'll look for another puzzler to post soon.
All best,
Johnm