Chords for Minstrel Banjo with sliding bridge - no capo needed - Civil War music

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_ [D] _ _ [G] _ _ [D] _ _ _
_ [G] _ _ [D] _ _ [G] _ _ _
_ [Eb] Here's an oddball banjo I've got [N] here today.
If the stick-to-your-banjo, or the stuka, however you pronounce it,
if that wasn't a weird enough banjo to start with,
what we've done here, the lady that wanted this
said enlarge the rim a little bit, instead of 12 1⁄2", 12",
make it 13 inches, shorten the scale length,
_ _ _ and let's see if we can slide the bridge
_ to the 13-inch rim [E] like _ _ _ _ [A] they used to do. _
If you look [N] at the old illustrations of the banjo players,
let's see if we can go from the key of G to E,
just with [Db] a sliding bridge, and see how that works, [B] and see how that sounds. _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [A] _
Sounds pretty [E] good.
She [N] said, let's shorten the tailpiece and see if we can slide the bridge back.
Let's see if we can go from A to G to F, _ _ _
_ _ with just a little adjustment of the fifth [C] string.
_ _ That's it.
The rest is out. _
_ _ [F] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [Db] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ Just like the old-timers [Cm] did it.
_ _ _ [N] _ _ You claw [D] hammer players, _ _ [Eb] and there's just a little bit of an adjustment here,
[D] _
which makes it so nice.
You claw hammer players _ _ that like to play minstrel [Ebm] and claw [Gb] hammer style,
you can just raise this string, [D] _ _ _ _ _
and you're in double G. _ _ _ _ _
_ [G] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ [G] _
_ _ _ If you lower the bottom string, _
_ _ [Ab] I mean raise [D] the bottom string,
_ [A] _
_ what you call maybe high bass,
it's the same thing as if [Cm] you're in minstrel tuning
and you bring the [A] bottom string up just one whole tone,
called the high [D] bass, you just bring it up one [Dm] note, one tone,
_ _ [A] and you have the mold tuning [Dm] or the sawmill tuning.
You think of mountain music when you hear that.
_ [C] _ _
_ [Dm] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [A] Back to minstrel tuning, _
_ [G] put the bass _ _ _ _ _ lower, [Gm] the second string.
[Gb] _ _ [D] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [N] Now on this banjo, like the original, _
the photographer might want to come in on this one.
_ Scribed, [G] scratched fret marks.
One, two, three, four, fifth fret.
[B] The black and the brown [Eb] area here,
very convenient when you're always shooting for the fifth fret.
If you look a little closer, you'll see the frets.
If you look even closer, you can see [Bb] that on the camera, _
there's a scribed seventh fret [N] _ and a scribed ninth fret.
Tunes like, _ _ oh, for instance, the gal with the blue dress on.
You come up here and you play. _
There you go, you've got your marker.
For [Db] example.
[G] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Here we go. _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [Em] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [D] _ _ _ _ [G] _ _ [Em] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [C] _ _
[G] _ And then the ninth fret.
_ [G] _ _ _
_ _ [N] So there's the, oh, this one's distressed by the way too.
Took a few bullet holes and it fell off the stagecoach a few times.
You can see some of these kind _ _ of dragged around
on the floor of the livery and fell off the train a couple times.
As rotten as it can be.
_ Of course I made it all look like this. _
_ _ _ So there's your distressed, custom stick to your banjo.
Let me play. _ _ _
_ _ [E] It'll never do to give it up so.
[D] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[A] _ _ _ [G] _ _ [D] _ _ _
_ [G] _ _ [D] _ _ _ [G] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [A] _ _ _
_ [G] _ _ There she is. _ _