Check them out and enjoy! Now if you see an error or feel OCDly motivated to clean up the formatting, send it in! Again, send it to us through Github (Walking or Reprise) or, let us know through the contact page.

First and formost, modifications to all the tabs will be publicly tracked. So if someone discovers that a hammer-on from the second fret to the fourth should really be to the fifth fret, that will be recorded for posterity. It’ll help me to keep track of modifications were made.

Another benefit to having tabs posted on Github, is that it allows for people to download all the tabs as plain text files.

Now this is a relatively small thing to announce, but I want to let you guys know because it is the first step towards becoming a community driven site. Even though I know you are probably overwhelmed with the sheer volume of content posted here, I want it to be easier for you to be involved. This includes things like allowing you to fix mistakes in tabs, post your own tabs, or even post your own blog posts (eh? eh? any takers? .

Sorry for the complicated way of doing this but being a nerd, Github (and consequently git) provide a quick solution for getting versioning up and running. If you have suggestions on other ways to implement this sort of wiki feature, please let me know in the comments!

Enjoy!

Or if you are old school, you always see the song status tweets roll out here: #willowtreeproject.

To continue the pursuit of knowledge, I started another blog entitled, 1 Week 1 Project, where I undertake one project a week. This week’s project is to tab out the Willow Tree by Chad VanGaalen. Yes, yes, I know what you are thinking, “I’ve see this before, he won’t finish it.” I Walked this same path but now, it’s different. I’m going to Get Real, Get Right this time. It may seem like it’s All for Myself but I want you to hold me accountable. Vesuvius.

At the end of the week, I’ll post the tab to Willow Tree on here. I want to prevent any Bad Communication, so if you’d like to follow along on my progress, check out 1week1project.com. Also, if you would like to contribute to the tab head here: http://gist.github.com/633334 and fork the gist.

By the way, have you checked out the Age of Adz track list?

Bela is an incredible player (duh). His licks are as fast as they are complicated. He also is incredibly good at playing with other people. He is able to make the banjo work with marimbas, saxophones, tablas and the list goes on. So all of this makes transcribing Bela very difficult. You’ll notice that in the altbanjo archives there are only two Bela songs and 10+ Sufjan songs. In order to play some of his songs you’ve got to be an incredibly adept transcriber or you could buy his banjo books.

I, being a cheap (and lazy) college student, have gone and found third way to learn his songs: flecktonesrock. He is an incredibly talented musician and he takes the time to walk you through many Bela Fleck songs. He has some very helpful instructional videos, on songs like Big Country, See Rock City and more!

So if you have ever had any inclination to learn Bela Fleck on the cheap or just would like to listen to a great banjo picker, go check out flecktonesrock. You won’t be disappointed.

Each edition of this series highlights an influential and progressive banjo player. The musicians featured range from Steve Martin to Scott Avett. It is an excellent exposition of what makes these musicians special.

I would highly recommend check his blog out here: http://midwestmedievalist.blogspot.com/

Banjo Heroes

And the cool part? One of the backbones of this recklessly good band is banjo. The racing strings are held together by the persistent, old timey tone of the banjo rolling on into oblivion. This is no gentle banjo strum by some indie band trying for some Americana cred. This is banjo played with flying fingers, and solid understanding of how much this instrument can add. It’s not a cute little gimmick; it’s a blood churning, foot stomping, instrument of power.

The rawness in the vocals of Mumford and Sons ties together the rooted nature of their 2009 album. The emotion tempered by wisdom tells of the accepted clarity and regret that comes with hindsight, and the incredible leaps people have to take to find themselves in new territory. It’s a concept album on the road ahead, and how maybe the best thing to do is barrel forward with some hot licks on your heels and melodies whistling in your ears.

Highly. Highly. Recommended.

Roll Away Your Stone- Mumford and Sons

Over the past several months of inactivity, I have received various tab requests. Sadly, I do not have the same amount of time to transcribe songs. So I’ll post these songs on the website and hopefully there will be some kind hearted soul that will transcribe them.

Look for some more changes to be coming to altbanjo. For more news, you should follow us on Twitter here.

Finally here’s a song for you, the reader, now that we are almost back on our feet again…

The post is also a reminder of what a magnificant writer he his. I dare not try to match its eloquence and brevity. So without further ado, Sofia’s Song.

Sofia’s Song

Also a tab will follow shortly…

[UPDATE] The tab for this has now been posted!