Click for Banjo: Number Nine

Dusty Miller: A Tab for Mandolin
Arranged by John Baldry

John Baldry

DUSTY MILLER IS A FIDDLE tune which has become part of the standard bluegrass mandolin repertoire. This is due largely to an influential interpretation by Bill Monroe, whose classic 1966 recording can be heard on the LP Blue Grass Time, or, if you are very rich, the Bear Family 4-CD set Bill Monroe: Bluegrass 1959-1969.

However, Dusty Miller is an old tune which predates bluegrass. It is popular in the more western states as well, and is a standard in the Texas fiddle repertoire. There are at least four parts, of which Bill Monroe took two and set his stamp on them. Most bluegrass players now use something approximating the Monroe version, and my tab here follows this example.

In the first part the notes are from the A minor scale, emphasising the C natural note (minor third) against A major accompaniment. In the second part the C sharp (major third) appears, creating a brighter sound contrasting with the moody muttering of the first part. All the way through, the 7th note of the scale is a G natural (flattened 7th of the A major scale). In modal terms this puts the first part in the Aeolian mode, with a change to Mixolydian mode in the second part. It's an attractive and unusual combination.

Bill Monroe recorded Dusty Miller at an aggressively fast tempo which clocks in at around 150 on the metronome. Texas style fiddlers take it much more slowly - Sam Bush played a more extended version (on fiddle) on the old Poor Richard's Almanac LP, at a stately 115 crotchet beats per minute. You can hear Sam taking a mandolin break on Dusty Miller on the recent Bluegrass Extravaganza double CD - together with breaks from Ricky Skaggs, Ronnie McCoury, David Grisman, Buck White, Jesse McReynolds, Bobby Osborne and Frank Wakefield! (This CD is in a class of its own, a 'must have' for anyone learning bluegrass mandolin.) On this outing they take Dusty Miller a lot more slowly than Bill, at a metronome speed of about 126.

Dusty Miller has been recorded in many different versions and styles. Two printed arrangements worth looking at are the one in The Fiddler's Fakebook (Music Sales / Oak Publications) and Tom Ohmsen's version in Fiddle Tune Method for Modern Mandolin: An Introduction to Improvisation. Tom is also the author of an invaluable book called Music Theory for Modern Mandolin - not for the faint hearted, but it will tell you everything you ever wanted to know about chords, scales and modes, and their application in improvising and arranging. There is also a companion volume for guitar players. These books are now available through AcuTab, URL http://www.acutab.com/mandofiddle.html and from Frets in Liverpool (see Trade ads)

I have always suspected that the Dillards were thinking of Dusty Miller when they arranged their tune Sinkin' Creek (on the old Live - Almost! LP on Elektra). For instance Part A of 'Sinkin' Creek' is similar to the second part of Dusty Miller as tabbed here. For comparison, you can see my mandolin arrangement for Sinkin' Creek at http://www.btinternet.com/~john.baldry/mando/tablist.html

John Baldry, Crawley, Sussex read about John

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Number Nine: A Tab for Banjo
Arranged for Banjo by David Cotton

David Cotton

NUMBER NINE WAS a locomotive on the Rock Island Railway in the 1890s. In the 1950s it was restored to run from Chickasha, Oklahoma to Andarko. The tune itself originated in Missouri in the late 19th century.

Unusually, the second section is 12 bars long, rather than the more conventional 8 and breaks down into a 4-bar phrase, repeated three times. I like to play the second section with gathering speed, like the train it commemorates.

It's a relatively straightforward tune to play, but watch the fingering in the first, fifth and ninth bars of the second part, as the middle finger moves between the second and first strings. Happy picking!

David Cotton, Altincham, Cheshire Read about David

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28 June 2000