The John Reischman Banjo Book
In my opinion, John Reischman does everything that relates to playing the mandolin extremely well. His tone, timing, dynamics, phrasing…you name it, he does it at the level of mastery. A few other things that he can do extremely well—which proves to me that he is not only a phenomenal mandolin player, but also an equally skilled musician—is write tunes, interpret other people’s tunes, and arrange traditional tunes as good as anyone on the planet.
If you are a mandolin player, you know this about John, and you have, no doubt, spent hours learning some of the tunes that he has recorded from a few of the internet sites or books that include those tunes. While the tunes John wrote, interpreted, or arranged for the mandolin are somewhat available to the mandolin player (with a lot of close listening and hard work). Those tunes are maybe not so easy to translate over to the 5-string banjo. If you are a banjo player and the mandolin player at your jam or in your band is playing Reischman tunes and you are frustrated trying to learn those tunes, don’t worry, our friend Lluis Gomez is here to help with his publication of The John Reischman Banjo Book.
Lluis is a banjo player from Barcelona, Spain, who was drawn to Reischman’s ability to write and arrange tunes. In his introduction to the book, Lluis states, “John has the most extraordinary gift for crafting beautiful melodies that just stay with you right away…”. Banjo players may remember that between 2020 and 2022, Lluis wrote a column for Banjo Newsletter titled “Reischman’s Corner.” That column planted the seeds that grew into this new book.
In addition to providing a section focusing on Reischman’s original tunes, a section on John interpretation of tunes written by other modern musicians and a section on traditional tunes, Lluis provides an introductory section of the book that talks about his experiences with Reischman’s music, the purpose for writing the book, the process of making the book, a section on the Jaybird’s banjo player, Nick Hornbuckle, a section on reading tablature, and some information relating to the main three styles of bluegrass banjo—Scruggs, melodic and single string. He also includes advice about listening to and recording yourself and instructs you on how to find companion videos that he has made to accompany the book.
I do not have space in this review to list all of the tunes; you can find those by searching the internet on the book’s title. In presenting each tune in banjo tablature, Lluis also includes helpful technical and performance notes along with each tune. In my opinion, Lluis has provided you with everything in this book that you need to have available to learn how to play these wonderful John Reischman tunes and arrangements on the five-string banjo. So, it is a job well done and highly recommended.
