The very last 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 12/23/2008 through 12/31/2008.
"So," I hear you ask, because I'm a listener, "What banjo-themed stuff did you get for Christmas?"
And the answer is, this:
A copy of Spectacular Spider-Man #156 (November 1989) featuring the 10-year-old mutant menace of Banjo! Yes, this has little to do with the banjo as a musical instrument. (See this video if you want to see the true Spider-Man/banjo connection.)
Thanks, Big Brother!
So that's it for 2008. One year of fierce battle between the forces of banjo and the boob tube.
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 12/16/2008 through 12/22/2008.
It's the busy holiday season. Music-wise, this week has been all about the preparations for the Royal Moose Jug Band's performance.
This week's banjo lesson, for example, didn't have much to do with the banjo per se. Instead I asked Dave for his advice as a recording engineer. Dave runs Shu-Man Studios and is an expert in such things.
Also in the last week:
While trying to work out sheet music for the Royal Moose Jug Band I ran across a good article: Bluegrass Harmony Vocals.
Haven't had time yet for our annual viewing of our three traditional Christmas movies...
...but will try to fit them in before the end of the year. (Note from the future: Nope, we didn't get to our traditional Christmas movie viewing. Better luck next [this] year. - 3/29/2009)
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 12/09/2008 through 12/15/2008.
Once again (You do remember last year, don't you?) it's time for Shorty's Strickly Bluegrass Festival, held this year from Thursday March 6 through Sunday March 8 at the Stoney Creek Inn in East Peoria, Illinois.
I don't have a flyer or much information about this year's festival. It'll probably be something like last year's schedule, with the "Branson Show" on Thursday at 7pm then shows on Friday evening from 7pm to 10:30pm, Saturday afternoon from 1pm to 5pm, Saturday evening from 7pm to 11pm and Sunday from 9:30am to noon.
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 12/02/2008 through 12/08/2008.
This week's event is something I made a big deal out of last year: I performed in Flatts & Sharpe's annual recital.
Last year (as you'll recall) I played a sing-along Preamble from Schoolhouse Rock, complete with slide show. It was pretty labor-intensive. But all that fuss and pomp helped to mask my lack of skill.
This year I'm a better player. The Banjo versus TV project has really helped. So with the urging of my banjo instructor, Dave, I decided to play it straight and to perform a simple medley of my two best songs: I'll Fly Away and This Land Is Your Land, with the latter played as a sing-along.
The performance went very well, except for one embarassing, rookie mistake.
I lost my picks -- which wasn't, itself, the rookie mistake, though it was a rookie mistake.
No, the rookie mistake was that I walked up to the mic and told everyone that I'd lost my picks but was going to play anyway.
It's like saying, "Hey, everybody. If this next thing is bad IT'S NOT MY FAULT! It's the lack of picks."
Really, I know better. When there's some problem before a public presentation you shouldn't draw attention to it, or start off in such a weak, apologetic fashion. I should have just sucked it up and played.
Ah, well. I got the crowd singing along and everyone seemed to have a good time. I got lots of compliments.
I will NOT repeat my previous years' mistake of missing B-Fest, that annual festival of B movies. So I've wadddled over to b-fest.com and signed up for email notification.
You should do so, too. B-Fest usually happens on the Friday before Superbowl Sunday, which would put it on January 30th this year.
It's a couple of weeks too late for Christmas and six months too early for my birthday, but I've recently discovered some cool stuff that just has to be added to J.R.'s Wish List.
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 11/25/2008 through 12/01/2008.
So I get a text message from my brother. He was driving up from Texas with my just-turned-8-year-old fiddle-playing niece and her brother in tow. Among the visit's highlights was going out to a restaurant for her birthday party. The text read:
She just said, "Maybe Uncle J.R. will play me Happy Birthday on his banjo."
One problem: I didn't know Happy Birthday.
But, of course, a few hours later at the restaurant, I knew Happy Birthday.
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 11/18/2008 through 11/24/2008.
What we covered in this week's banjo lesson:
We discussed the bringing of books to a jam session. I'd loaned someone a copy of The Parking Lot Pickers Songbook at the Costello's jam and he'd given the book to Dave to return to me, which is what kicked off the discussion. Dave figures that the only good role for books at a jam is to provide lyrics. I noted that, at this stage in my playing, I'm using the books to know what chords to play.
Dave suggested that I instead learn to watch the guitar player for chord prompts. I've been working on this, of course. It was the whole reason I took guitar lessons this fall. But I'm not there yet.
...for exactly the reason Dave mentioned: so you can learn to follow the guitarist's chords.
Dave played me a 1975 Steve Goodman version of Mama Don't 'Low and a Doc Watson recording of the same song. Dave's been helping me prep for the songs we'd like to play at the family jug band get-together in December, which includes Mama Don't 'Low. When I first started my lessons with Dave he told me we'd be spending a lot more time listening to and playing along with recorded music and a lot less time working with tabs.
We discussed bluegrass harmonies and the bass, baritone and tenor parts.
We discussed the tambourine, which is another family jug band instrument. (More on that later, too.)
We talked about several instruments that will be part of the family jug band. More on these in later posts:
Melody harp (gusli)
Tambourine
Fiddle
Guitar
Cookie tin banjo
Dave told me a trick that he sometimes uses when he plays guitar with another guitarist. If they're playing in A, he'll let the other guitarist play without a capo and he'll play with a capo. That means that, while both guitars as playing in the same key, they're both playing a little differently. This sounds like a good idea and is applicable to other capo-capable instruments (like the banjo).
We talk key changes. Dave shows me a simple three-chord key change trick to go from G to A. Basically, you wrap up your G part, you play a G chord then a G# chord then an A chord on the first string like this...
...and you continue to play in A.
My homework includes switching between C and F chords.
Also in the last week:
Spent a chunk of time working on tabs for the upcoming family jug band: Underdog and Duelin' Banjos.
For various reasons I spent a lot of time waiting in my car this week. Happily I'd brought along the sawed-off banjo so I got some good practice time in as I waited.
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 11/11/2008 through 11/17/2008.
What we covered in this week's banjo lesson:
The redhead says she'll get me a fancy schmancy banjo for my birthday. That's still seven months away, but still, I've started looking. I'm thinking about getting one from Tom Nechville, who I met at Midwest Banjo Camp in 2008. Dave and I discussed the various features of the Helimount banjos from Nechville, the Stealth banjos from Scott Vestal, Steve Huber's tone rings and the alloys of Gold Star banjos. Any of these would be a big step up from my Oscar Schmidt OB-5 with its aluminum tone ring.
We discussed the low bridge on my OB-5 and if/when to raise it. Dave's Stealth banjo has a higher bridge and he likes it a lot. If I'm going to raise it, I'll do so after the beginning of the new year. Why wait? Because I've got my recital and my family jug band coming up in late December and it takes a while to adjust to a change like a raised bridge. How long? (Boy, you ask a lot of questions.) Motivational speaker Brian Tracey says it takes about 21 days to establish a new habit. That's about how long it took me to adjust to my closer-to-the-fingertip style of finger picks this summer.
We talked about my plans for a family jug band at our holiday get-together. I ran my instrument ideas past Dave and got his feedback.
I asked for some advice on what to play at the December recital for Flatts and Sharpe, my neighborhood music store. Dave suggested doing a medley of my two best songs: I'll Fly Away and This Land is Your Land. I like it, since This Land is Your Land would make a good sing-along. Last year's sing-along of Preamble was a big hit.
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 11/04/2008 through 11/10/2008.
Election week. Big week for America. Big week for TV watching. Not so big a week for banjo practice.
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 10/28/2008 through 11/03/2008.
I tried to keep up with the banjo-playing penguins this week, but they were too fast for me so I concentrated on some Foggy Mountain Breakdown rolls.
It's been a busy end of the year, but I'm determined to make up for my neglect of my banjo blogging by catching up on my Banjo versus TV Project posts.
You may tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, VIRGINIA, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.
No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.
OH NOZE! I booted up my Windows XP Tablet Edition laptop this morning to see the following HORRIBLE SCARY sequence of messages:
So am I going to LOSE ALL MY DATA and ALL OF MY PROGRAMS?
Nope. Here's why.
I keep all of my data under source control. I mean everything. My Christmas shopping list. My business stuff. The photo of my niece at her 8th birthday party. Everything.
I install programs from a network share, never from CDs. When I get a new program on CD I copy the install files to a network share before I run them. The network share is backed up.
I keep a log of every program I install. If my hard drive fails (or other disaster strikes) and I need to reinstall all of my programs, I just repeat the steps that I've put in that log. The log is, of course, under source control.
Yeah, I'll look into this failing hard drive. I'll use SpinRite on it and patch it up. But even if I let the drive fail, having followed the aforementioned good habits I'm going to be just fine.
If you're one of the people who would freak out by seeing the above messages, take that as a sign that you're doing it wrong. Stop treating your computer as if it's never going to fail and stop treating your data as if it will always be on your hard drive.
