A weekly check-in on the Banjo versus TV project — J.R.'s resolution to spend more time in 2008 on his banjo than on TV. This post covers 9/17/2008 through 9/23/2008.
I had a really great playing moment this last week. I brought my banjo along for a lunch break in the park and decided to try to play along with some of my bluegrass CDs. It worked! I was able to keep up with a simple boom-chick accompaniment for anything in G, even the fast stuff. (Next time I'll bring my capo so I can accompany the A stuff, too.) It was a really sweet hey-I-can-do-this feeling.
Also in the last week:
- Things I took away from this week's banjo lesson:
- Dave kicked off the lesson by asking me to "just play some banjo" so I warmed up with Do Lord then proceeded to my best number, I'll Fly Away. Dave said, "A couple of stumbles, but still: smooth, even, solid sound. That's exactly the way it's supposed to sound." Woo-hoo!
- I brought my laptop along to show Dave how I've been playing along with TablEdit. He liked it.
- Dave had me boom-chick along with a very cool version of Ring of Fire from the album Earl Scruggs and Friends. Billy Bob Thornton doing vocals. I really like it, even if the Amazon editorial review calls it one of the album's misfires.
- Then Dave had me roll along with the same number. Wow. That was the fastest I've ever played along with a forward roll. Dave says I did OK.
- I watched the darkly creepy musical Pretty Dead Girl on iFC. It's a little bit of Scrubs, Little Shop of Horrors and A Clockwork Orange all rolled into one with an heaping helping of Fosse on top.
You can watch the first two songs on YouTube: - 13 minutes of online videos I watched this week:
- I pre-ordered a copy of Banjo Camp!: Learning, Picking & Jamming with Bluegrass & Old-Time Greats. It's supposed to come out in November.
1 comment:
I love your idea and your blog. Just stumbled across it this morning. Perhaps checking out my podcast would ramp up your banjo time as this week's episode focuses on the banjo!
samjessin.libsyn.com
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