Chords for Carrickfergus - Playing Ballads and Songs on Irish Tenor Banjo

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[C] _ So I'm stepping right out of my wheelhouse for this video, which is how to play ballads and songs using tremolo and cross picking.
_ It's not something that I normally do, but it is quite enjoyable.
And of course, when you listen to the great Barney McKenna, you can see that playing songs and tremolo on the banjo with great taste, as he did, can be very enjoyable to listen to.
And it's actually a lot of fun to play as well.
For demonstration, one of the songs that Barney made famous, the great Carrick Fergus.
Two different approaches to playing a ballad like Carrick Fergus.
One is to cross pick and to just mark out the melody, but to almost accompany yourself _ _ by picking across the notes of the chord.
So the first way that we're going to look at it is to play the melody, _ but to almost accompany the melody with chords cross picked across the different strings on the banjo.
So you're almost accompanying yourself.
So there's a bit of work in trying to mark out the melody _ [G#] and _ play the cross picked chords at the same time.
So the trick, I guess, is to try to bring out the melody of the tune _ [C] and play [A] the backing at the same time.
And sometimes that gets a little bit confusing and you can get a little lost, but _ _ overall the idea can sound really, really nice. _ _
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_ Second option is to really play the melody of the tune _ with tremolo.
And this is a lot more work, I guess, for the right hand because tremolo is the [G#] constant down-up-down-up fashion.
And there's two challenges to this.
One is to mark out the rhythm so that the rhythm of the tremolo _ matches the rhythm of the tune. _
And the other, of [F] course, is to keep _ tremolo going for quite a long time.
And that involves very good right hand technique.
It actually involves an awful lot of looseness and lightness in the right hand.
You might think when [A#] you're doing tremolo that you need to tense up and that that's the way to do it.
It can work, but a lot of lightness in the right hand and a lightness in the way that you grip the pick can actually be more beneficial to being able to play tremolo [F#] over an extended period of time. _ _ _ _ _ _ _
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_ _ _ _ _ I'm actually doing there, because I'm playing away from the bridge so I get a sweeter tone, [D] _ I'm lightly planting [G#] my pinky on the head of the banjo and using that as a support.
Because I'm moving away from the bridge, I don't have my usual hand support down on the tailpiece.
So I do need some support somewhere on the banjo.
And I do that by a very light planting of the pinky on the head. _ _ _ _
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_ _ _ _ _ Of course, the real magic is to combine both the chord cross-picking and the tremolo so that you're going to pick up the chords of the song _ a little bit as you tremolo the melody. _ _ _
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Tremoloing across two strings at the same time actually requires way more lightness in your right hand and way more lightness in your pick hold.
If you [G#] tense up, it makes it an awful lot harder. _ _
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