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Thread: The Banks Hornpipe—Colin Botts

  1. #1
    Registered User Mike Buesseler's Avatar
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    Default The Banks Hornpipe—Colin Botts

    I’ve known this tune for many years. “Known” it, as in I recognize it, and like it a lot. I have little hope of playing it at all, let alone like my friend Colin Botts does in this video. I sent him a fiddle version from YTube, and within two days he created this arrangement, played on mandolin, mandola, and octave mandolin. Two contrapuntal parts against the original melody.

    I’ve forgotten how to embed videos into this post, so maybe someone will do me the favor. Anyway, it’s on his YT channel, which is just chocked full of brilliant performances.

    https://youtu.be/HnS8As2OLGM

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    Registered User Mike Buesseler's Avatar
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    Default Re: The Banks Hornpipe—Colin Botts



    That was easier than I thought.

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    Default Re: The Banks Hornpipe—Colin Botts

    Terrific. I'd never heard of him. Thanks for this.
    David A. Gordon

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    Registered User John Kelly's Avatar
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    Default Re: The Banks Hornpipe—Colin Botts

    An amazing arrangement and wonderful playing. A real Baroque feel to it. As Dagger says, a new player to me and certainly someone to follow.
    I'm playing all the right notes, but not necessarily in the right order. - Eric Morecambe

    http://www.youtube.com/user/TheOldBores

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    Mando-Accumulator Jim Garber's Avatar
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    Default Re: The Banks Hornpipe—Colin Botts

    Wonderful! I think this is a virtuosic piece that uses some advanced classical violin techniques especially in the second part. I think it works on mandolin a bit easier. Excellent playing by Colin.
    Jim

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    Registered User Mike Buesseler's Avatar
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    Default Re: The Banks Hornpipe—Colin Botts

    I so glad you folks, in particular, responded. I wasn’t sure where to post this. Colin’s music is hard to categorize. I hope you all got around to Great Dreams From Heaven, the Joseph Spence guitar instrumental that is all over YouTube. Colin plays the only mandolin version I’ve ever heard. Definitely not Celtic.

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    Mando-Accumulator Jim Garber's Avatar
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    Default Re: The Banks Hornpipe—Colin Botts

    I am not sure what key people are playing this these days but I believe it was originally composed in Eb major. I didn’t yet determine what key Colin is playing it in. It is often transposed to G for us mortals.
    Jim

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    Registered User Mike Buesseler's Avatar
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    Default Re: The Banks Hornpipe—Colin Botts

    Click image for larger version. 

Name:	Banks Hornpipe - Score.pdf 
Views:	136 
Size:	36.0 KB 
ID:	204482

    Jim, this one is in Eb. I have the dots for Banks (not the counterpoint parts).

    Someone could do me a big favor by transposing it to G!

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    Mando-Accumulator Jim Garber's Avatar
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    Default Re: The Banks Hornpipe—Colin Botts

    Quote Originally Posted by Mike Buesseler View Post
    Click image for larger version. 

Name:	Banks Hornpipe - Score.pdf 
Views:	136 
Size:	36.0 KB 
ID:	204482

    Jim, this one is in Eb. I have the dots for Banks (not the counterpoint parts).

    Someone could do me a big favor by transposing it to G!
    There are versions transposed to G on Thesession.org: https://thesession.org/tunes/922
    Jim

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    Registered User Mike Buesseler's Avatar
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    Default Re: The Banks Hornpipe—Colin Botts

    Colin saw this thread and sent me the notation and tab in G.

    Click image for larger version. 

Name:	Banks Hornpipe in G (with tablature) - Score.pdf 
Views:	88 
Size:	79.5 KB 
ID:	204501

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    Mando-Accumulator Jim Garber's Avatar
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    Default Re: The Banks Hornpipe—Colin Botts

    Quote Originally Posted by Mike Buesseler View Post
    Colin saw this thread and sent me the notation and tab in G.
    I was fooling with this monster of a tune on fiddle yesterday. Much more approachable on mandolin in Eb. I have it transcribedin that key in a J. Scott Skinner tune collection book I bought in the UK decades ago that I am finally getting around to exploring. Colin sticks to the original key. In that book and elsewhere it is attributed to an Italian fiddler named Parizotti.
    Last edited by Jim Garber; Nov-27-2022 at 9:06am.
    Jim

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    Default Re: The Banks Hornpipe—Colin Botts

    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Garber View Post
    I was fooling with this monster of a tune on fiddle yesterday. Much more approachable on mandolin in Eb...
    Possibly much more approachable because the fiddle version includes classical bow bouncing techniques that few fiddle tunes require and fewer fiddlers aspire to. I suspect this tune is so well know because it's in a J Scott Skinner tune collection and was one of his 'party pieces'. Skinner was a showman and somewhat of an egotist (collection title page - 'Talent does what it can, genius does what it must' - a quote from Edward Bulmer-Lytton), and this would have been a suitable showpiece for him. It's the kind of tune a lot of Scottish fiddlers dread being requested, because the reason behind the request is too often the hope that you'll mess it up - like Skinner's hornpipe 'The Mathematician', that goes up to 6th position at the dusty end of the fingerboard). I agree with Jim that it's a 'monster' of a tune, but possibly for different reasons

    All that takes nothing away from this excellent rendition of it, of course!

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    Default Re: The Banks Hornpipe—Colin Botts

    Colin Botts is doing a tune a day on his Facebook page. Lots of tunes.

    https://www.facebook.com/colinbottsmusic
    David A. Gordon

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    Default Re: The Banks Hornpipe—Colin Botts

    He has inspired me to finally get around to trying to play Banks Hornpipe, which I have been familiar with for years but never really got the hang of.
    David A. Gordon

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    Registered User Simon DS's Avatar
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    Default Re: The Banks Hornpipe—Colin Botts

    Thanks, interesting tune.
    It seems to be one of those competition tunes that fiddlers use to determine their level, just as Arkansas Traveller means intermediate mandolinist.

    Thanks JimG:
    https://thesession.org/tunes/922

    Absolutely nothing personal but I couldn’t handle the twenty seconds of adverts (French Christmas toys) so I was unable to enjoy the first vid and unfortunately Facebook doesn’t agree with my constitution (breakfast).

    But thanks again, those arpeggios in Eb on the octave are quite a warmup!

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    Registered User Mike Buesseler's Avatar
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    Default Re: The Banks Hornpipe—Colin Botts

    Glad to see Colin getting some attention! Yesterday morning I sent him a link to a YT video of the banjo tune, Wild Goose Chase, also known as Lost Gander. He hadn’t heard the tune before, but said he would try it on mandola. I love this arrangement. I tried to embed the video, but it wouldn’t accept for some reason.


    https://youtu.be/_1eLaCfF0Zk

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    Default Re: The Banks Hornpipe—Colin Botts

    Great stuff from Colin.

    His version reminded me a bit of the late Louis McManus' (1956-2004) 1977 version with the Bushwackers, called "The Cameo" , but sounds pretty much like "The Banks" to me.

    Louis (cousin to guitarist Tony I believe) was a fixture around Melbourne in the mid-70s when I first picked up a mandolin, and formed a large part of my idea of what a mandolin should sound like in this kind of music:

    Bren

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    Default Re: The Banks Hornpipe—Colin Botts

    That's really great playing from Louis, Bren.
    I once saw Louis having a tune with Paddy Keenan at the Cambridge Folk Festival. Just the two of them. It wasn't appropriate to hang around and ogle, but he was really good.

    Meanwhile Colin Botts is continuing to fire out heaps of tunes on his Facebook page.

    As for myself, I've tuned the low D strings on my 10 string Sobell up to Eb to play Banks Hornpipe and it seems to have transformed how it sounds. I find it's actually easier to play much of Banks out of first position, including on the fifth course. I've also been inspired to move up the neck a bit by watching Sierra Hull's current Fretboard Journal video, so I'm finding all this quite inspiring actually!

    See what I mean about Sierra Hull getting out of first position:

    https://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/t...13#post1887313
    David A. Gordon

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