Back-Up Piano-Missouri Style | Livin' with The Possum
Audio Samples | Lead Sheets | Contact Patt
By Patt Plunkett
When I first met The Possum and he told me what he expected in a back-up player, I though he was joking. He explained the "Missouri Rules of Harmony". Essentially, the rules consist of just one rule: Play I-V-I-IV-V-I for every part of every tune. He said Missouri fiddlers wanted that level of predictability, and if you didn’t play that same progression every time, well, you just didn’t know how to back up a fiddle tune. He did give me two options for a bass line. On the back half of each part of each tune, you could go up or down. For example, if you were in the key of D, the upward bass line would be: D-F#-G-G#-A-C#-D.
The downward line would be: D-C-B-Bb-A-E-D.
I’ve learned to live within these limitations, although, it wasn’t easy at first because I was used to listening to the fiddler in an attempt to make the chords fit the melody. Possum has shown me the error of my ways. Every now and then, I’ll play piano for another fiddler and I’ll start listening again. This always gets me into trouble because the next time I play with Possum, I’ll still be in the thinking and listening mode and I’ll slip up and play some modal-type chord (the BIG NO-NO).
Summary: Chords are important, but Rhythm is King. Rhythm is Everything!
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Patt and her housework and home improvement-challenged Possum (Summer 1995) |
By Patt Plunkett
Possum is a great fiddle player, but being married to him, now that’s somethin’ else. It’s like having another son, a smart-alecky-couch-potato-type son. He can’t recognize dirt and is powerless to counter the effects of gravity.
This morning, January 25, 2001, I was treated with a classic Possumism. I had been up half the night with our 12 year-old, who was feelin’ poorly, and I asked The Possum to fetch him some cereal. His reply was "I’m trying to help, but I’m not going to do anything."
I realize I’m not the easiest person to live with either, and this makes me a perfect match for The Possum and his unique brand of chicanery and high-jinx.
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| Festival of Fiddle Tunes at Port Townsend, WA (1997). Patt on Piano, the late, great Pete McMahan doin' the fiddlin' and Rich Levine beatin' the livin' daylights outa his six-string starvation box. What an unstoppable combination! ---Possum | |
| Photo ripped off from Kerry Blech's website. Click here to go there. |
Lead Sheets----Coming Soon To A Computer Near You!
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Patt coaches on the finer points of piano accompaniment with a student at fiddle tunes (1997). |
Audio Samples of Missouri/Midwestern Piano Stylists
Emily Buckhannon (St. Charles, MO) with Charlie Walden on Fiddle
R. P. Christeson (Auxvasse, MO)
Piano
Pump Organ
Musial Wolfe (Boonville, MO)
Copyright © 2001 Charlie
Walden. All rights reserved.
Revised: November 17, 2006.
