As anyone who reads more than a post or two of this blog knows, I like to make documents: lists, exercises, whatever. There’s something about making a beautiful document that gives me almost as much satisfaction as playing. Maybe it’s because I’ve done so much playing already. In my career as a symphony trumpeter I performed a couple of thousand concerts and have nothing but memories and a few bad recordings. The music just vanishes into the ether. I know that’s part of music’s charm — up with live music! — but I do occasionally like to have something physical to hold in my hand after the work is done.

The crowning jewel of my recent efforts is my big tenor-banjo chord collection. I’ve been working on it for years (literally) and don’t ever expect to finish. 🙂 I decided to keep it in an all-text format for reasons of compactness and ease of updating. Here’s an excerpt of what it looks like in its current edition:

Click here or on the picture to download a high-quality PDF of this masterpiece. (The link will take you to www.dmcclure.org/banjo, where you then need to click on “Tenor banjo chord list”.) I’d love to hear your opinion of it. Remember, this is my life’s work, so if you think it’s crap, be gentle. 🙂