Dock Boggs #1: Introduction to Dock Boggs Banjo Instruction Videos
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- Опубликовано: 2 авг 2018
- This is the first in a series of videos about the banjo style of the legendary old-time banjo player, Dock Boggs.
This first video is an overview of the whole project with short snippets of each song I intend to teach.
The songs will be:
"Wild Bill Jones"
"Sugar Baby"
"Danville Girl"
"Pretty Polly"
"Country Blues" 
Видеоклипы
Cool!
Dock Boggs was one of my earliest inspirations. I was struggling with overhand "clawhammer" playing in those early days and had come up with my own two-finger picking which came more naturally. When I bought my first Boggs music ("His Folkways Years" set) I was, of course, in love with it. Much of my present two-finger picking is a result of listening to that album for many hours and trying to emulate his sound.
@@CliftonHicksbanjo This is late but I really love Doc Bogg's style. Very traditional, definitely has the Appalachian eerieness and a bit of that African origin sound to it. The earlier recording of "Pretty Polly" by Boggs has a more out of tune sound slightly but it sounds try fitting almost like the African Akonting players sound on their handmade instruments. Anyhow Boggs had a nice taste in his tuning and style.
Hi there, just wanted to tell you that I enjoyed watching your instructional videos of Dock Boggs songs. You have one or two that sounded so much like the playing of his original recordings.
Not that it matters but he wasn’t from West Virginia, but instead from Norton, Virginia- Wise County.
He’s my great great uncle. My grandma, Millie Jane was named after his sister Jane.
Jane Boggs married Tazewel Wampler, and they had a daughter named Laura - named after Jane & Dock’s sister Laura.
Laura married a Day in Letcher County where the families would fluctuate back-and-forth between Letcher County KY and Wise county, Virginia.
Laura Day {Boggs/Wampler} had 12 children and her daughter Jane is my Grammy.
It’s a pity great great aunt Sarah didn’t want him playing music, but I reckon I understand because he was kind of wide-open and rowdy there for a while from what I’ve heard of family stories.
Not much more so than a lot of my kin. Lol
for instance he had a brother-in-law {my Grammy’s PaPaw that shot and killed a man over his dog.
He used to try to run moonshine too to help make ends meet.
Anyway, how neat to see you given instructions on the very unique way that he played.
I will have to share this with family and Letcher county and wise county .
Have you ever heard of the music school in Cowan Creek there and Letcher county?
They have it for a week every summer, and it would be interesting to see you or someone teach in the style of my gg uncle.
My grandma was born not far from the place they hold that music school each summer, and he often lived in that area when he was avoiding police from wise county . Ha
God bless ya!
It's an honor to meet you! I'm sorry about my "West Virginia" mistake. I think I got confused by people saying Dock came from "Western" Virginia.
Thank you so much for your kind assessment of my attempts at participating in a cultural heritage that is part of your family history. Dock's music is powerful and touches people in diverse ways that are unique in the general old-time music genre.
My own attempts to analyze and play his style owes a lot to the playing and writing of Mike Seeger, who, as you know, was a friend of your great great uncle and encouraged him to come out of musical retirement in the 1960s. The recordings that came out of that are invaluable; Dock's style had mellowed since his 1920s recordings, and the slower tempos and better recording technology made it possible to hear better what he was doing. Seeger's notes on Dock's playing were also invaluable, as well as his own reproductions of the style. I met Mike Seeger once, shortly before he died, and I'll always regret not asking him questions about Dock and Dock's style.
No, I had not heard of the Cowan Creek school you mentioned. It would be thrilling to teach there, although, as Pete Seeger once quipped about singing at churches in Georgia, it would be like bringing coals to Newcastle. :)
Thanks again for commenting!
I’ve been waiting for someone kind enough to spill the beans on docs mysterious finger magic, thank you!
Thanks for posting this. Started banjo about a year ago doing Scruggs style. Found Dock Boggs a few months ago and fell in love. Feels like a good time to try to add this style to my (rather meager) repertoire.
Thanks for putting this all together. Man Dock Boggs is one of my favorite references into this old time music. You're a talented player and I appreciate you passing on the torch so we can keep the sound alive.
Been waiting for this for awhile!
This is an awesome idea for a video series, thanks!
Glad you're back!
Awesome! Looking forward to giving this a try! Thank you for sharing!
Loving the tunes glad to see your back on yt learnt a lot thanks.
I’m pleased to find you - I’ve always (well, close to 50 years!) wanted to learn his picking style.
Nice to see you again.
So glad to see you posting again. Learned majority of what I know on banjo from watching your videos. Would love to see you teach Dock Boggs O Death. Excited to try out this new style of banjo play.
Love the new look, and thanks so much for posting these videos. I'm learning lots from you.
🙏Thank you so much fro doing these. Dock was my gateway into American roots music and it's about time I learned his style.
Excellent- I'm looking forward to your next videos. I've messed about with Dock Boggs style for a while but never really pinned it down. Thanks!
beautiful.
Amazing picking! I hope to see a Sugar Baby lesson soon!
Thank you so much - well done and clearly
explained introduction to Dock
Thanks for your kind words!
Great thank you, I love Dog Boggs!
check out Wade Boggs while you’re at it!
Dock Boggs is a LEGEND
Superb introduction - can't wait to see the others. Hung up my banjo some years back because I was dissatisfied with my clawhammer playing. Will get it down off the wall and try to get into Doc Boggs. First heard him over 50 years ago: I can still remember the impact that Country Blues made on me.
I know...there's something about Boggs's playing that really hits certain people hard. Very powerful music, and idiosynchratic.
Splendid
Would love to tune like you do lol
I discovered Dock Boggs today and Im obssessed with his style already
Thank you for this. I'm from vancouver Canada and my proximity makes it difficult to reach out to other musicians for information like this. I've paid some teachers but they were more guitar teachers who just tried to teach me banjo tabs that I would find on the internet. But never possessed the info that I needed. Or even knew what I was talking about ultimately. And I've been trying to tackle dock boggs by ear for awhile now. And it's fun but not easy. So thank you for real!
Hey, I'm from the island! Love me some Dock Boggs too
Thank you for the Dock Boggs instruction and history content. Many people where I live in WA. Are cousins to Dock , myself included but most Boggs family descendants here are young and know nothing about him which is unfortunate, I am 66 and an old timer where I live and know much about Dock, I have been pointing some of the young Boggs descendants to these videos, maybe they will become interested in learning about him. you have done well to keep Dock Boggs relevant.
Thanks for your kind words. I’m glad to play a small part in keeping Dock’s influence alive!
May I ask your relation to the family as I didn’t know that we had any Boggs relatives in Washington.
As far as I knew, he only had the one daughter Charlotte, who would be my grandma‘s cousin.
Some of us are always working on our family tree, and I would love to get any information!
Deeply moving! Grew up with my father playing those tunes on his banjo. Thank you! Loved it...
Please teach o death at some point. I love that one.
Thank you for this video! Could you do Old Rub Alcohol Blues?
Gonna lay hands on a banjo one day
Please do Oh death!!!
Colin Bazsali
I have seen your videos for years now and it was you who taught me two finger style to which I am eternally in your debt sir. If I ever meet you in person you got a glass of good Whiskey to drink sir!
And thank you for all your efforts in teaching the banjo. When you feel down or burnt out just know you got folks caring and using your videos to improve our banjo skills.
I am heavily influenced by Dock Boggs I do not wish to copy his style I want to convey the emotional and musicality he possessed.
I am so impessed you took the time and effort to learn his method of playing.
Could you list the tunings he uses?
Yours a faithful blind banjoist.
Thank you, Jeremy! I'll gladly drink that whiskey. I'll list the tunings as go through the tunes--I"m going to post one for "Sugar Baby" soon, which uses gDGBD.
👍
any place to find the tunings listed? many thanks for this, thanks for the singing, very helpful for learning.
There is a paper on banjo tunings by Anita Kermode which has details on tunings used for a good many banjoest. You can find it on banjo hangout.
Any idea when you may post up Country Blues?
absolutely fantastic many thanks, been looking for some tips on this style for a long time. any chance of you covering some tips on the style of Frank Proffitt, to my mind a very underrated player/singer, I read somewhere he actually made his own fretless banjo, again many thanks, much appreciated.
Thanks! I've never tried to learn much about Frank Proffitt's style, although I enjoy listening to him. I think he plays in a style very similar to what's now often known as "Seeger style", with up-picks and brush-downs. In fact, I first heard about him through Seeger's comments about him on his Carnegie Hall concert CD.
@@ColinBazsali information much appreciated, thanks
Wow! You're a great banjo player! Thanks for teaching how to play like Dock Boggs! Very helpful! PS I think Dock Boggs was from Virginia, but you say West Virginia in the video :) PPS can you do a lesson on how to play "The Coo-coo Bird"?! Your version in this video is just like Clarence Ashley's!
Thanks for the compliment! Sorry about my mistake with the state. I do have a lesson for "Coo Coo" from a while back: ruclips.net/video/OvP4VxNb1fE/видео.html Enjoy!
@@ColinBazsali Oh sweet! I'll check that out ASAP :)
Any chance you can do a video dedicated to "Country Blues?" Would be great to see that broken down as well!
Yes! I hope to make one soon.
Very cool, vey much appreciated! What was the tuning you're using for O death? It's be nice to have a more in depth look at O death!!!
"Oh Death" is the same tuning for "Country Blues": fCGAD. Weird, eh?
Oh boy that'll be a new tuning for me haha
@@ColinBazsali thanks for the cool video. please do an in depth oh death lesson. I cant quite fathom it from this vid(:
is this song originally done by doc boggs or doc watson?
Dock Boggs, but Doc Watson recorded an awesome version of it that I heard first.
You totally miss the blues feeling in your singing , but I appreciate your attention to detail specifically to the banjo.
I know, I don't sing blues very well. When I try, I feel like an imposter. Wasn't raised to it, I guess, as Pete Seeger would say. So I do what I can! :)
He sings perfectly to suit