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Thread: Jethro Burns Method

  1. #1
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    Default Jethro Burns Method

    Has anyone gone all the way through the JB book. That is some hard stuff!

  2. #2

    Default Re: Jethro Burns Method

    yup

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    Default Re: Jethro Burns Method

    If you're talking about this one, no way. And I've had the durn thing since its release date, 1976. Some of it is just so wicked. Was it Carlo Aonzo, the great Italian maestro, who played it page by page? Amazing.
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  5. #4

    Default Re: Jethro Burns Method

    The book cover looks familiar. I may have it somewhere in one of my boxes in storage. I did learn from Jethro that "jazz" chords are better than "bluegrass chop" chords. Easier to do, and nicer sounding.

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    Default Re: Jethro Burns Method

    Every time I think i'm getting good I run into something like this and realize I suck!

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  8. #6

    Default Re: Jethro Burns Method

    Quote Originally Posted by montana View Post
    Every time I think i'm getting good I run into something like this and realize I suck!
    Welcome to the great truth of all persuits. I wonder if Chris T. ever has such self doubts.

    Len B.
    Clearwater, FL

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    Registered User Mark Seale's Avatar
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    Default Re: Jethro Burns Method

    Is that the same as the book currently available from Mel Bay: http://www.melbay.com/Products/94875...-mandolin.aspx

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    Registered User Jeroen's Avatar
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    Default Re: Jethro Burns Method

    Mark, that's the complete collection of the three Mel Bay publications. It has the humbling 'Mandolin Player' with many exercises and examples of his musical mandolin ideas and few 'easy' things to get started, his 'bluegrass techniques' book, which is of course very jazzy and very npon, and his 'mandolin picking solos', with transcriptions of his jaw dropping breaks on the 'budget bin buster' Wade Ray album that showed the upcoming second generation of bluegrass mandolin players how blazing hot bluegrass mandolin could be.

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    Default Re: Jethro Burns Method

    Well-described, Jeroen. I have all 3 and still can't give Jethro's Tune justice and I dropped them all down to .pdf for ease of access, hasn't really helped.

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    Registered User Jeroen's Avatar
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    Default Re: Jethro Burns Method

    I have all four, but I can't find 'solos', so maybe I have lent it to someone and forgot.

    Jethro's tune is the worst in a way, because it's such a fun tune.
    Friends love to jam on its nice progression, but I feel bad about improvising on a tune I can't play properly.

    Instead, I make a fool of myself trying to kick it off in style and again when I could have made fun for my second round. Of course my third fail is the theme again to close it off.

    I raised myself on Jethro, early Statman, Duffey and Dempsey. I thought mandolin was about having fun. When the neo-traditionalists decided you had to stick to the rules I was out.

    And now it often feels like I'm too old for both the cheerful energetic approach and the hardcore stuff.

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    Default Re: Jethro Burns Method

    Quote Originally Posted by Jeroen View Post
    And now it often feels like I'm too old for both the cheerful energetic approach and the hardcore stuff.
    Never say die. New inspiration is just around the corner.

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    Default Re: Jethro Burns Method

    Quote Originally Posted by Jeroen View Post
    I have all four, but I can't find 'solos', so maybe I have lent it to someone and forgot.

    Jethro's tune is the worst in a way, because it's such a fun tune.
    Friends love to jam on its nice progression, but I feel bad about improvising on a tune I can't play properly.

    Instead, I make a fool of myself trying to kick it off in style and again when I could have made fun for my second round. Of course my third fail is the theme again to close it off.

    I raised myself on Jethro, early Statman, Duffey and Dempsey. I thought mandolin was about having fun. When the neo-traditionalists decided you had to stick to the rules I was out.

    And now it often feels like I'm too old for both the cheerful energetic approach and the hardcore stuff.

    I have these 3:

    Jethro_BluegrassMandolinTechniques_MelBayBook
    Jethro_MandolinPickingSolos_MelBayBook
    Jethro_MandolinPlayer_MelBayBook
    (this last one is the one I floated the photo of)

    which is the 4th?

    And in terms of Jethro's Tune, Don Stiernberg recorded it at a much slower tempo than Jethro. It worked well. And I love how Jethro quotes Bernie's Tune when the boys recorded it on Back To Back, the Grisman-produced chef d'oeuvre, circa 1979.

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  19. #13
    Registered User Jeroen's Avatar
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    Default Re: Jethro Burns Method

    @Hudminster, I know. I started playing clawhammer banjo two years ago and I love it.

    @ Alan, It's not a secret book you missed, it's the complete one

  20. #14
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    Default Re: Jethro Burns Method

    All I can say is that Burns was a master mandolinist, and of that old school of ear players that had really "big ears". Lots of old-time and Bluegrass mandolinists fit that description, but Burns had what I've run into in my past, that is, he was also tuned in to what was the popular music of his youth, jazz, and he understood ALL those chord changes, nothing in the American Songbook (and even modern jazz) seemed to phase him, he could hear it all and play it beautifully.

    If I could ever play half as well I'd think I was doing very well indeed. I've played with some old-timers that could hear the most complicated chords once through - it's a bit frightening, and also inspiring.

    Isn't there a website that has some ZIP files of lessons from guys that studied with burns?

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    Default Re: Jethro Burns Method

    Quote Originally Posted by AlanN View Post
    And I love how Jethro quotes Bernie's Tune
    I need to hear that. "Bernie's Tune" is one of my guitar "go to" songs when i need to play something fun off the cuff. How could I have missed that?

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