Composing & Arranging

To give the banjo music a new input I'm always trying to arrange compositions and songs for the tenor banjo, which were buried in oblivion.

Or I'm composing new music pieces for the tenor banjo, which have a tradition to the roots of our instrument, but originate something new.

To get the tenor banjo and it's music popular I'm trying to arrange well known banjo classics in a playable form. In this way my specialization is a wonderful sheet music score, in which you have a normal notation and special added TAB (tablature) line, which shows you the to be played note on the fingerboard.

Playing the most popular banjo tunes, without the pressure to have the facility to read notation is now possible.

"Tradition does not mean keeping the ashes,
but to rekindle the embers."
(Benjamin Franklin)

Chrille's Hot & Jazzy Melodies For The Tenor Banjo Vol. I is my first tenor banjo song book, in which I have arranged my favourite tenor banjo tunes. It is a sheet music book from a banjoist for other banjoists.

These are the songs: Banjomania (Pete Madell), Bye Bye Blues (Traditional Jazz & Banjo Classic), I'll Get By (Turk & Ahlert), Marie (Irving Berlin), Pals, Just Pals (Dreyer & Ruby) & Take Your Pick (Pete Mandell).

Here you have the chance to look inside the book and try to play an example page of "Take Your Pick".

Chrille's Hot & Jazzy Melodies For The Tenor Banjo Vol. II deals with wonderful compositions for the tenor banjo, which present the banjo in all it's characteristics.

These are the songs: St. Louis Blues (W.C. Handy), Pepper & Salt (Ralph Colicchio), Foochow's Shanghai (Christian Loos), The Savoy Rag (Pete Mandell), The Ghost Of The Banjo (Roy Smeck) & My Lady Jazz (A.J. Weidt).

As a first impression of the book you can enjoy my composition Foochow's Shanghai.

"The Popular Folio" copes with jazz classics, which are very comfortable to play on the tenor banjo. Useful for a band-banjoist or a solist you can play these tunes in every occasion.

These are the songs: Ain't She Sweet, Blues My Naughty Sweetie Gives To Me, Carry Me Back, Chinatown, Dill Pickles Rag, Dinah, I Miss A Little Miss, I Whish't I Was In Peoria, Ice Cream, Ida, In The Shade Of The Old Apple Tree, Jazz Me Blues, Linger Awhile, Margie Medley, Nola, Petite Fleur, Rose Of Washington Square, Temptation Rag, The Teddy Bear's Picnic and When You're Smiling.

Here you can look inside the book and enjoy the solo of "I Miss A Little Miss".

For every banjoist, who likes Far East sounding jazz tunes the new tenor banjo folio "The China Folio" could be interesting. This folio will be published in two volumes. Each volume will include 15 hot and jazzy tunes with an Oriental or Asian touch. As always you have an piano accompaniment in three different tempi.

These are the songs: Chan A Song Of China, Chine We Owe A Lot To You, Chinawaren, Chin Chin Chinaman, Chinese Moon, Ching Chong, Ching-a Ling's Jazz Bazar, Chu Chin Chow, Hindustan, Idle Dreams, In A Street Of Chinese Laterns, Indian Butterfly, My Chinese Cherry Blossom, My Dreamy China Lady and Lena From Palesteena.

What the Oriental Fox Trot sounds like, you can check out, when you are going to try my arrangment of "Hindustan".

In this special issue called "The Monkey Folio", you have fantastic monkey sounding tunes, like "Down In Jungle Town", "Monkey Business", "The Monkey Dance", "Tiger Rag" and many more... As always a piano accompaniment on CD in three different speed levels gives you wonderful backing tracks. Banjopower!

These are the tunes: Charlestonia (Ralph Colicchio), Dizzy Dazzle (William 'Banjo' Morris), Down In Jungle Town (Theodore Morse), Hot And Bothered (George C. Lehrritter), In Zanzibar (Gus Edwards), King Of The Bungaloos (Charles Straight), Monkey Bizness (Fred C. Stoutenberg), Plinka Plunk (Michael Pingitore 'Banjoist of the Paul Whiteman Orchestra' & Chas F. Caldwell), Plinkety Plank (William 'Banjo' Morris), Rhythm On The Bass String (Howard Parsons), Sailing Down The Chesapeake Bay (George Botsford), The Monkey Dance (William 'Banjo' Morris), The Turtle Dove (William 'Banjo' Morris), Ticklin' The Banjo (William 'Banjo' Morris), Tiger Rag (D. J. La Rocca).

To get to know what the "Monkey Rhythm" and "Djungle Sound" sounds like, you can try an example page of my favourite apesville tunes "The Monkey Dance".

"The Plectrum Folio" includes popular classics for the plectrum banjo. Songs, like "Somebody Stale My Gal", "Take Your Pick", "The Savoy Rag", " I Cannot Give You Anything But Love", "Foochow's Shanghai" and "Banjomania" are playable arranged.

Here you can try an example page of "The Savoy Rag".

Generell information about how you can work with "Banjochrille's Hot & Jazzy Melodies" and another example page of the very popular "Chrille's Rhythm Section" you can find "here".