Banjo versus TV: Week 62

A check-in on the Banjo versus TV project — J.R.'s ongoing plan to spend more time on his banjo than on TV. This post covers 5/3/2009 through 5/9/2009.

This was the week of my little sister's annual jam. She invites all of her musician friends to come together at her condo and play together for the evening. Lots of fun!

I was very pleased with my progress as a banjo player since last year. What was different?

Last year's jam	This year's jam
I'd been playing the banjo for 11 months (really seriously for 5).	I'd been playing the banjo for 23 months (really seriously for 17).
I'd only been to one jam previously.	I've been to a couple dozen jams, had played along quite a bit with Pete Wernick's jam DVDs and had made it my 2009 resolution to get good at jamming.
I could only play along with songs for which I had the written chords.	I knew how to read the chords from the guitarist's left hand.
The only chords I could play at speed were G, C and D7 in the first position, so every song had to be in G or I couldn't play along.	I knew a bunch of chords, some of them in the second or third positions and was comfortable playing in the keys of A, D, G and C without a capo.
I could sing or play, but not both at the same time.	I could sing and roll at the same time (though I couldn't play anything complicated like the melody).
When a song was too complicated for me to play on my banjo I banged on some pots.	When a song was too complicated for me to play on my banjo I could turn to the jug band instruments I'd learned in class at the Old Town School: washboard, kazoo, spoons

An important thing I learned at the jam: If you've got an iPhone, you've got pretty much any lyrics you need.

Banjo versus TV: Week 61

A check-in on the Banjo versus TV project — J.R.'s ongoing plan to spend more time on his banjo than on TV. This post covers 4/26/2009 through 5/2/2009.

I've been looking for some portable speakers to use with my iPhone during practice. I really like the Sony SRS-T55 speakers that Arlo Leach uses when he teaches jug band. They have a nice sound and they're lound enough that the whole class was able to hear his jug band samples. Here's Arlo, using them in class.



The problem is that they're discontinued and I couldn't find 'em for sale anywhere. So I've ordered up the Panasonic RPSPT70 Folding Travel Speakers and the Sentry Clamshell Folding Amplified Speakers to see how they work for me. My criteria are:

• Loud enough to play along with during jam sessions and practice
• Compact enough to carry in my banjo gig bag
• 4 hours or more of battery life

More about these speakers when they arrive.

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Things I learned at this week's banjo lesson:

• We discussed my recent performance of Good Old Mountain Dew as a member of the Hump Night Thumpers
  
  
  • Although Dave and I had discussed my doing a speed-up (or two) in the middle of my performance, and despite having practiced it this was with the Thumpers, I chickened out at the performance and just played it the same speed throughout. If just didn't feel right at the time. Dave thinks that was wise. "If you're not comfortable, don't do it."
  • At one point my fifth string capo slipped and pressed the fifth string, changing its from a G to an A. I managed it pretty well, I thought, by simply avoiding the use of the fifth string until I could sort it out. Nobody seemed to notice.
  • I was pleased with my microphone work. I'm glad that Dave and I had discussed this (same link). Some other helpful advice came from Arlo, who had advised me at a Thumpers class to pay attention to the sound of my vocice coming through the speakers and to adjust the distance between my mouth and the mic until I liked what I heard.
• This led Dave and me into a further discussion of microphones.
  • Most mics are unidirectional, cardiod microphones. They are "cardiod" because their sensitivity range is heart-shaped:
    
    
  • Lavalier microphones are usually clipped to the body and are omnidirectional.
    
    
    
    A recent trend is to wear a small headset that holds the lavalier mic a short distance from the mouth.
    
    It occurs to me that this kind of headset would make an awesome kazoo holder.
  • The can mics used in old-time radio are bidirectional.
    
    
  • A consequence of making the mic unidirectional is the proximity effect. As you get closer to the microphone the bass builds up. The cleanest sound is usually achieved by being about and inch or two away. You can take advantage of the proximity effect in your performance. Dave says to watch a good Sinatra performance to see how Frankie works the mic.
    
    
  • An advantage of unidirectional mics is that the reduce the feedback from monitors. A monitor is a set of speakers that faces toward the musicians, away from the audience, that lets the musicians hear what they sound like. Personal, in-ear monitors are frequently paired with lavalier mics.
  • When recording a choral concert, Dave will often place a hang single microphone from the ceiling, above and behind the conductor.
• Dave went to a workshop with Bill Evans. I took a couple of sessions with Bill at last year's Midwest Banjo Camp and I look forward to seeing doing so again in a few weeks. Some of the Bill-Evans-related things we spoke about:
  • Bill plays with the interval of muting; basically he does a vamp-style thing and take longer or shorter amounts of time to dampen the strings vibrations depending on the effect he's aiming for.
  • At the workshop Dave attended, Bill showed them some 2-measure roll patterns. Dave and I work on these patterns a little.
  • I really enjoyed Bill's all-levels session, "Playing Relaxed: It All Starts with the Right Hand." I recorded that session and should review it again.
• We discussed the array of sounds you can get from a banjo, including treating the banjo as a percussion instrument. This leads to a discussion of steel drums. I'm reminded that I've got a steel drum that my grandfather brought back from Barbados when I was around 10 years old. I should pull that out and mess with it.
  
  
  
  Dave says that steel drums were literally a revolutionay instrument — the powers that be had outlawed and confiscated musical instruments to prevent the spread of revolution through music and, in response, the people pounded drums out of the steel canisters.
• I told Dave about someone I'd seen at my last Thumpers class who'd played what he called a canjo, which was just an open soup can, a wire and a stick. He put wire under his left underarm, pressing the stick against his back and creating tension between the stick and the can, which was in his left hand. Then he increased the tension by pushing the can away from his body, changing the pitch of the string, which he plucked with a guitar pick.
  
  
  
  I figure if this guy can get an impressive sound out of one string I ought to be able to do even more with five.
• Two iPhone apps that I've found handy: OmniTuner and Metronome.

I am easily amused - Stairwell to Heaven

Banjo versus TV: Week 60

A check-in on the Banjo versus TV project — J.R.'s ongoing plan to spend more time on his banjo than on TV. This post covers 4/19/2009 through 4/25/2009.

This week I reversed the trend of recent weeks by chalking up more banjo hours than TV hours, mostly because this week was a long goodbye to the founder of the Hump Night Thumpers, Arlo Leach.

Arlo (a.k.a. Holstein Slim) is moving to Portland, Oregon and is turning the reigns of the Thumpers to Jonas Friddle, who's the leader of The Barehand Jug Band.

This week's events included:

• A performance of the Hump Night Thumpers, in which we opened for The Barehand Jug Band at The Horseshoe in Chicago
• A Thumpers performance at the nursing home where Arlo's wife Sally worked
• A graduation concert
• Our last class with Arlo as an instructor, with guest appearances by several Thumpers from times past.
• A big jammin' party at Arlo and Sally's

Good luck in Portland, Arlo!

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Also in the last week:

• My watch-in-the-morning DVD has been Telluride Bluegrass Festival: Thirty Years, which I rented from Netflix.
• I had a lot of interstate driving to do and I logged more than an hour doing right-hand drills on the sawed-off banjo.

Banjo versus TV: Week 59

A check-in on the Banjo versus TV project — J.R.'s ongoing plan to spend more time on his banjo than on TV. This post covers 4/12/2009 through 4/18/2009.

What a bummer! The Music Choice Bluegrass Channel has been dropped from my local cable. I was really enjoying that!

Here's what the Washington Bluegrass Association has to say about it:

On April 15th, Comcast Cable pulled (deleted) its Bluegrass Channel Broadcast. Many people are understandably upset about this. It may be possible to restore bluegrass on Comcast, if enough bluegrass fans send in a complaint. (Even if you don't listen to bluegrass on Comcast, do it for the sake of those who do!). You can make your opinion count. Take a few minutes and go to Music Choice online and register a complaint. Go to: www.musicchoice.com OR www.musicchoicetalktous.com to send in your comments or complaints. On the home page: scroll to the page bottom and select "leave a comment". On the comment page select in the subject line pull down "channel line-up changes" then write your message: 'bring back bluegrass!' Fill out the name info then select digital cable only (or your fav. service). Then check the No box to not receive marketing related stuff. Thanks and a tip of the hat to WBA member Sally Burtscher for reporting this story! Please pass this info on to your bluegrass friends.

Thanks, Jim C, Gazette Editor

The cancellation sparked a discussion at The Banjo Hangout. One of the forum regulars said he received this reply from Music Choice:

Brent,

Despite your extremely vulgar and rude e-mail, I will try to explain.

The Bluegrass channel and Opera channel were removed from the Music Choice line up due to low listenership.

Music Choice had an outside research firm conduct a survey on which Music Choice channels were listened to the most. Unfortunately Opera and Bluegrass were listed as the least listened to channels. I know this isn't what you wanted to hear, but that is why the channels removed from the Music Choice line up.

Regards,
Music Choice

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Things I learned at this week's banjo lesson:

• We played along with Dolly Parton's version of Cash on the Barrelhead from her album, The Grass is Blue. We also listened to a previous version of the song from the album Snakes Alive! by The Dreadful Snakes (a band who got their name from the Bill Monroe song, The Little Girl and the Dreadful Snake).
• We spoke about the reasons why a song is played in the key it's played in. For songs with vocals, you consider the range of the singer(s). For all songs, you consider the keys that are best for the instruments. Then there's this: Dave once asked Frank Wakefield why he wrote and played "New Camptown Races" in Bb. Frank replied, "Because nobody else was."
• Dave challenged me to find a I, IV and V for Eb major. And I got it! (My answer: Eb as D form between 3 and 5, Ab as barre at 1, Bb as barre at 3.)
• My F form is still weak and my D form isn't much better. I really need to make good on my promise to play along with Pete Wernick's "Bluegrass Slow Jam for the Total Beginner DVD, using the F and D forms rather than just the first position chords.
• We tried string bending. I stunk at it. Too timid, I think.
• We spent a little time playing Good Old Mountain Dew very slowly, finding a groove and playing with some hammers-on and slides.
• I'll be playing Good Old Mountain Dew with the Hump Night Thumpers next week and we talked a little about my plans for that performance. What are the cheap tricks available to me if I want to spice up a song for a performance?
  • Playing it faster or slower.
  • Speeding up the tempo in the middle of the song to add some excitement. (I could make this a little easier by starting the song a little slower.)
  • Modulate up a full step for a chorus or a verse.
  • Sing a verse a capella.
  • Play it in stop-time.
  I suggested that I might play Good Old Mountain Dew at a faster clip, or that I might speed it up partway through the performance. Dave liked this idea until he found out that the song will be the second song of our eight-song set. "Don't push it," he advised. "See, if it was the second to last song I'd push the tempo more than being at the third song. I need to warm up, you need to warm up, everybody needs to warm up. Just because you can play at a fast tempo doesn't mean you should."
  
  (Dave says he learned the lesson of "just because you can doesn't mean you should" from Jurassic Park. See two minutes into this scene.)
• I didn't like my microphone work at the jug band Seder last week. I was shouting and wasn't really using the mic. I don't want to make the same mistake in next week's performance so I asked Dave for advice. Here's some excerpts of Dave's advice"
  • "Say to yourself before you do this, 'I want to sing this.'"
  • "The adrenaline can cut in but you don't have to follow it blindly."
  • "If you find yourself pushing too hard back off immediately."
  • "Think about what I lot of teachers will do. If a class gets noisy they start whispering and keep on whispering and sooner or later the class gets quiet."
  • "For me, it's developed...an observer on my shoulder. Kind of a Zen concept. It serves me as a producer and as a teacher and as a performer because I'm trying to detach from me and just look at everything and feel the Gestalt."
• Dave says I'm doing well, although he notes that my playing is "way too genteel" and that I "need way more attitude". "What you need to do is put your jazz out there."

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Also in the last week:

• I've been trying to replace my morning turn-on-the-TV habit with a morning turn-on-the-bluegrass-DVD habit. I started with High Lonesome - The Story of Bluegrass Music, which I got from Netflix.
• Ever take a really, really long time to catch on to something? I just recently figured out where the band Hot Rize got its name.

Banjo versus TV: Week 58

A check-in on the Banjo versus TV project — J.R.'s ongoing plan to spend more time on his banjo than on TV. This post covers 4/5/2009 through 4/11/2009.

This week's big banjo event was the jug band Seder, which you can read about here.

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Things I learned at this week's banjo lesson:

• Part of the reason my Oscar Schmidt OB-5 banjo goes out of tune so often between uses (aside from the fact that it's a banjo) is that it's got tuning pegs sticking out the sides and I carry it in a cloth gig bag. I'm considering investing (a little) in some improvements. Dave says, now that I've had my banjo tweaked by Tom Nechville, the only other thing he'd do is to replace the pegs.
• I'm still working on Tony Trischka's Blackberry Blossom from Homespun's All Star Bluegrass Jam Along series.
  • For the B7 chords, Dave usually does a forward-reverse roll between frets 4 & 7:
    
    
    
    Trischka does this:
    
    
  • Dave's worried about me tackling a piece in the melodic style at this point in my development, but I've got his blessing to try it.
• Regarding melodic style:
  • "My reservation with you working on this stuff is, you're not real accurate some times on what string you're hitting. You can't afford to miss notes in this [melodic] style the way you can in Scruggs. So be aware of that."
  • The left hand middle finger will live almost exclusively on the 2nd string
  • The 1st string will be fretted by the index finger or the ring finger as follows:
    • When on the same fret as the middle finger: Middle finger
    • When down the neck: Index finger
    • When up the neck: Ring finger
  • The definitive book on melodic banjo is Tony Trischka's 1976 Melodic Banjo. (Note to self: Order up a copy.) (Reply to self: Ordered it on 5/13/2009. Also, Tony Trischka Easy Banjo Solos.)
• I've been trying not to capo in jams. Dave agrees with this approach and says that my chords have gotten better because of this.
• Another thing that's helped my chords in jams considerably: Having learned to recognize several guitar chords by sight. Dave says I'm one of the few people to actually take this advice. (Recall that I'd taken some guitar lessons last year just so I could learn to follow the guitar at jams.)

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Also in the last week:

• As I was researching songs for the jug band Seder I ran across the music of Theresa Andersson's one-woman shows. What fun! Examples:
  
  
  
  
• This week's episode of The Office (on Hulu here) counts as both banjo and TV because it features a banjo performance by Ed Helms. Comedy bluegrass goodness.
• For some time I've been playing along with Sam Bush to Ol' Joe Clark (from his Glamour & Grits album). This is a Daryl Scott update to the classic Old Joe Clark. But this week I really listened to the lyrics for the first time. What a great song! Daryl Scott has taken a song that's often treated for laughs and made something dead serious out of it.

Heads in a costume shop

Mountain Dew Throwback update

My administrative assistant has gone above and beyond the call of duty in trying to track down the elusive Mountain Dew Throwback. She contacted Pepsi, who told her that nobody within 50 miles of us is distributing Mountain Dew Throwback. Why I stumbled across a stray bottle at that K-Mart remains a mystery.

In addition to that sad news: The stuff is only available during a 12 week promotion anyway.

BevReview.com has more information.

Jug band Seder

I had a blast at the jug band Seder thrown by my friends (and fellow Hump Night Thumpers) Fran and Skip.

Here are some selected photos from the ones I took at the Seder. That's me in the black fedora, pin-striped suit jacket and Mountain Dew T-shirt.

Here's a quick summary of the haggadah for the event, with a excerpt from each song. The songs are set to (more or less) jug-band-style tunes.

Candlelighting	“Lighting the Candles” (“This Little Light of Mine”)
Ba-RUCH a-TA Adonai Elo-HAI-nu MElech ha-o-lam a-SHER keed SHA-a-nu b-mitz-VO ta-a-av
Intro to the Seder	“God and Man”
So man made an image and he gave it a name, But this man-made god brought nothing but pain. Man started shouting "God! Where can you be?" "I'm right here man, inside of thee."
Intro to the Seder by Petrie Fishman	“Hurry Down to My House” (“Richland Woman Blues”)
Come on over to my house, It's Passover time. We'll ask the four questions and then we'll have some wine. Oh hurry down to my house, where you’ll relax and recline. You know relaxing is royal, to recline is divine.
Four Cups of Wine by Jacob Fishman	“Let Us Drink Four Cups of Wine (“Let Me Be Your Teddy Bear”)
We don’t drink that whiskey Whiskey is way too rough We don’t drink that Vodka Sweet wine is the kind we love enough!
Dip Karpas in Salt Water and Explanation of the Seder Plate by J.R. Jenks	“Good Ol' Seder Plate” (“Good Old Mountain Dew”)
Some herbs are bitter, you bet, Like maror and chazeret. They really do not taste great. But don’t be a quitter Recall that slavery was bitter So these herbs are on the Seder plate.
Hold up Matzo by Ruth Weinberg	“Passover Still Lives On” (“Battle Hymn of the Republic”)
As slaves so long in Egypt, Jews know not where to turn. They toil for the Pharaoh and for their freedom yearn. The bitterness of bondage tonight is what we learn. The lesson still lives on.
Break the Afikomen and Find the Afikomen by Jonathan Nachsin and Fran Landt	“Hide the Afikomen” and “Find the Afikomen” (“Eentsy Weentsy Spider”)
Take the afikoman and hide it in a chair. Take the afikoman and hide it by the stairs. You can even hide it underneath the pears. But YOU need to be sure that you remember where!
Four Questions by Richard Stowell	“Why Is Tonight Different?” (“Soul of a Man”)
Tonight we eat no hametz It’s matzo all the way Grandma was in a hurry She had no time to bake
Four Children by Michelle Weinberg	“The Four Children” (“Teach Your Children”)
What, Says the Wise child? Is the meaning of All these ceremonies? Thou Shall, explain to him the laws and rules, down to the last one
Telling the Passover Story by Fran Landt	“Retell The Story” (“Jug Band Music”)
We were down in the delta and beginning to swelta As we slaved in the hot Egyptian sun. When Pharoah started dreamin’ that the Hebrews were a schemin’ And that he’d be the targeted one. So he sent out an order from border to border Hebrew baby boys would all have to die And every year since then, we retell this story To remind us how we all survived.
The 10 Plagues by Fran Landt	“Ten Time Loser” (“Two Time Loser”)
First the water turned to blood, And then there were frogs. Oh Pharoah can’t you see that things are goin’ to the dogs? You’ll be a ten time loser. You’d better let us go, Cause the plagues are gonna get you, And you’ll be sorry you said no.
Crossing the Red Sea	“Oh Mary Don't You Weep”
If I could I surely would Stand on the rock where Moses stood. Pharoah’s army got drownded Oh, Mary don’t you weep.
The Passover Symbols (matzo) by Michelle Weinberg	“Bread of Affliction” (“Sitting On Top Of The World”)
This Bread of Affliction That our ancestors ate they didn't have time for their bread to bake And now I'm free, I don't worry Because I'm sitting on top of the world
Open Door For Elijah by Fran Landt	“Open The Door For Elijah” (“Walk Right In”)
Walk right in, set right down, Elijah won’t you drink some wine? Walk right in, set right down, Elijah is it finally the time?    Everyone is waiting for the messianic age,    Come on, help us turn the page, So walk right in, set right down, Elijah won’t you drink some wine?

Also in the haggadah were some straight-up songs: Dayenu, Welcome Table and a song that was a family tradition for the singer: A Bar Lach In Vald.

Banjo versus TV: Week 57

A check-in on the Banjo versus TV project — J.R.'s ongoing plan to spend more time on his banjo than on TV. This post covers 3/29/2009 through 4/4/2009.

I owe you a link to a video for this week. It might take a while for the video to come together.

There's a Chicago artist who's proposed a whole-city-sings-a-song montage video and he's asked various groups at the Old Town School of Folk Music to help him create a demo. So this week The Hump Night Thumpers put on our jug band semi-finery and played Welcome Table on the street outside the school.

We recorded the event. Now the project guy is going to mix us together with other groups performing the same song and create one single video.

I'll provide a link to the finished product when it's been put together.

I'm told that the video caught a good shot of me nearly bonking another band member in the head with my banjo's peghead. I hope they use that part.

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Also in the last week:

• I've been meaning to go for some time, and I finally went to my first First Friday at the Old Town School of Folk Music.
• Speaking of the Old Town School of Folk Music, quite a bit of my banjo time lately has come from jamming at the OTS. If you're in the Chicago area you really should stop by the school. Great place.
• I watched Joe Versus the Volcano. You'd think this would count as TV time and you'd be right, since the rules clearly state that videos count as TV time unless they're banjo-related. But it's got a music connection, too, because the soundtrack is just wonderful! I'd love to get a a soundtrack CD but it looks like there isn't one. There's only a promotional CD, of which only 3000 were created. Bummer.
• Homespun has a series of books called the All Star Bluegrass Jam Along series. I got the banjo edition (written and performed by Tony Trischka) and got a copy of the mandolin edition (by Matt Flinner) so we can make it part of our morning practice. (Okay, I also picked up the guitar, bass and fiddle editions because I'm that way with books.)
  
  They did a really good job with this series. The play-along CD tracks are well thought-out and the tabs are very clear, even if they're probably a little beyond me at this point.
  
  I've been working on Blackberry Blossom from that book. Ouch, it's hard.
  
  Other songs from the series — and they all look just as hard: Bill Cheatham, Black Mountain Rag, Farewell Blues, I'll Fly Away, Footprints in the Snow, All the Good Times Are Past and Gone, In the Pines, I Am a Pilgrim, John Hardy, Little Maggie, New River Train, Old Joe Clark, Pretty polly, Don't That Road Look Rough and Rocky, Sally Ann, Sittin' On Top of the World, Soldier's Joy, Roll in My Sweet Baby's Arms, Way Downtown and Down in the Willow Garden.

Banjo versus TV: Week 56

A check-in on the Banjo versus TV project — J.R.'s ongoing plan to spend more time on his banjo than on TV. This post covers 3/22/2009 through 3/28/2009.

The scale tipped toward the TV this week, although the banjo is still ahead. But, c'mon. The finale to Battlestar Galactica? Jim Gaffigan specials on Comedy Central? Legally Blonde replayed for the zillionth time? I'm supposed to miss any of these?

Banjo versus TV: Week 55

A check-in on the Banjo versus TV project — J.R.'s ongoing plan to spend more time on his banjo than on TV. This post covers 3/15/2009 through 3/21/2009.

Things I learned at this week's banjo lesson:

• I'm starting to do a morning bluegrass session with a developer at work. He's an accomplished guitar player who has his own band and who wants to learn bluegrass mandolin. So most of this week's banjo lesson dealt with the question of how to play banjo alongside a mandolin.
• Dave recommends that any mandolin player ought to listen to the masters: Bill Monroe and Jethro.
• Dave says I'll want to capo to A, mostly, and play a lot of fiddle tunes. The mandolin is usually tuned to GDAE, the same as a fiddle. Most fiddle tunes are in A, some in D and a few in G or C.
• Most fiddle tunes have an A part and a B part and go AABB.
• The mandolin player is a more accomplished musician than I am, although I've currently got more bluegrass study than he does. This will be good for me. I might want to show him some of my good tunes and we can work on those, since I'll have a head start there. (My good tunes, currently: Good Old Mountain Dew, This Land is Your Land, Will The Circle Be Unbroken, Do Lord, and Hand Me Down My Walking Cane. I'm getting there on Wabash Cannonball.)
• We explored Cripple Creek. Note: I might be the only banjo player who really doesn't know Cripple Creek. It's like being a pianist who doesn't know Chopsticks. So Dave set me up with a copy of Cripple Creek from Tony Trischka's book, Melodic Banjo. The tablature was kind of hard for me to follow, as it puts the notes between the lines and not on the lines like I'm used to.

Mountain Dew Throwback

Look what I found at K-Mart!

They're making a Mountain Dew with natural sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup. This has been in the works for a few months now, I understand.

Don't know how long it's going to stay on the market, so I'm going to have to order up a ton of this stuff.

I'll perform with the Hump Night Thumpers on Tuesday

Want a chance to see me and my fellow Hump Night Thumpers in all our jug-blowin' banjo-pickin' glory?

This coming Tuesday, April 21st, we open for The Barehand Jug Band at The Horseshoe in Chicago. We start at 8:30pm and play for a half hour or so before the Open Hand Jug Band takes the stage.

Here's our set list:

Banjo versus TV: Week 54

A check-in on the Banjo versus TV project — J.R.'s ongoing plan to spend more time on his banjo than on TV. This post covers 3/8/2009 through 3/14/2009.

I've recently gotten Steve Martin's CD The Crow: New Songs for the 5-String Banjo. The first track, Daddy Played The Banjo, brought to mind the cover of Earl Scrugg's book Earl Scruggs and the 5-String Banjo:



One day Daddy put my fingers down upon the strings
He picked it with his other hand; we made the banjo ring.

The possible connection to that cover art is made even stronger by Steve Martin's choice of singer for this song: Gary Scruggs.

I shared these thoughts with Dave, who told me the sad story of who that kid really was.

He was Earl's son Steve Scruggs who, as Dave described it, "had a lot of demons." Steve Scruggs died of self-inflicted gunshot wounds in 1992.

I'm not sure whether Steve Martin intended his song to make such a connection, but I found one. Listen to the song, think about that cover (and Steve Scruggs) and see if you don't find the same thing.

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Things I learned at this week's banjo lesson:

• It's been easier to adjust to my new, higher bridge than I thought. I suggest that maybe this is because my fingerwork is kind of sloppy.
• I'm not letting my notes ring; I'm changing my left fingers too quickly, causing the sustained sound to be the open string and not the note I'd played.
• Where should I set the 5th string capo when I'm in other keys? Dave says that the Scruggs answer to that question is 7 for D and 9 for E.
• My pull-offs aren't really audible. I need to angle my left fingers and pluck the string a little when I pull off.

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Also in the last week:

• TV really kicked the banjo's butt this week, seven hours to one-and-a-half. I'm really liking Dollhouse, which is excellent, and Tool Academy, which is pure trash.
• At the festival I purchased a somewhat worn Lotus banjo from Shorty. I told Dave I'm thinking of replacing its strings with heavier ones, creating a lower-tuned banjo akin to Tom Nechville's Atlas banjo.
  
  Dave told me that John Hartford had a low-tuned banjo. Dave played a John Hartford record and we dope out that Hartford probably tuned his banjo low by 6 semitones.

Hitler's nightly build fails

Banjo versus TV: Week 53

A check-in on the Banjo versus TV project — J.R.'s resolution ongoing plan to spend more time in 2008 on his banjo than on TV. This post covers 3/1/2009 through 3/7/2009.

This week's big event is my annual (twice now!) trip to Shorty's Strickly Bluegrass Festival in East Peoria, Illinois. I'd gone to the festival last year and it was pretty nice to discover how much my jamming skills had improved.

Shorty puts on a great festival at the Stoney Creek Inn in East Peoria. The festival opens Thursday night with a Branson show; she brings in an act from Branson, Missouri. This year, as last year, the Branson act was Goldwing Express.

Other acts this year:

• Faris Family, whose banjo player Ed Faris has recently joined Ricky Skagg's band Kentucky Thunder
• The Martins
• The Punches Family (formerly Arlington)
• Henhouse Prowlers
• River Ramblers
• Prairie Grass from Peoria, Illinois
• Bull Harman & Bull's Eye

Stage acts run all weekend and there are jam sessions throughout the hotel. Last year I spent most of my time watching the acts and only a little time jamming. This year I reversed that, spending way more time in the jam sessions.

You should definitely come to next year's festival: March 4, 5, 6, & 7, 2010

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Things I learned at this week's banjo lesson — mostly having to do with preparation for jamming at Shorty's:

• It's time for me to replace my strings; especially #3.
• We talk a lot about finding the melody and finding a solo for a song.
• Scruggs style surrounds the melody with rolls. So one way to play a song, Scruggs style, is to pick a roll for each measure (or half measure) that starts on the melody note. So here are some of the rolls that you can use:

  this roll	starts on string
  Forward-reverse roll	3 or 4
  Alternating thumb roll	3 or 4
  Foggy Mountain Breakdown roll	2
  Sonny Osbourne roll	1

• Dave has me find the melody for She'll Be Coming 'Round the Mountain, which I (eventually) do. Except for the lowest notes, which are too low for my banjo.
• Then I find the melody for Camptown Races.
• I try to find the melody for Crawdad Song, but I have a very different melody in my head than Dave does and I'm not able to find it.
• Here's a trick that Dave uses for Charlie on the MTA:
  
  
  
  That's moving from one inversion of the C chord to another, which is a good trick.
• Here's the conversation thread: We talk about Twinkle Twinkle, which leads to Mozart, which leads to Mozart's highly-driven upbringing, which leads to stage moms, which leads to Dave telling a story about his studio recording business.
  
  Dave was recording a mother and her kids who sing harmony. Rather than arranging their physical positions around the microphones, he asked them to arrange themselves. Their arrangement? Mom in the front of the group to everybody's left, one kid to her right and the others in a row behind them. Just like they sit in the minivan. It's how they work.

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Also in the last week:

• A personal accomplishment: At Costello's Jam there was a song I'd never heard before but, by following the guitar chords, I played along and didn't miss a single chord. Yay me!
• Tom Nechville of Nechville Music Products did an in-store event at the Different Strummer. In addition to showing off his really cool line of banjos, he offered to do setup work on the banjos we brought in, whether he made them or not. He made a few adjustments to my Oscar-Schmidt OB-5 banjo...
  • tightened up the head
  • changed the stock 1/2-inch bridge for a Nechville Enterprise Bridge
  • corrected a hard-to-find (for me, not him) buzz in the nut
  ...and it sounds SO MUCH BETTER.

Barely out of gas

I really shouldn't be proud of how today — for about the fifth time in my life — my car sputtered to a stop, running out of gas JUST AS I PULLED UP TO THE GAS PUMP.

I shouldn't take pride in that sort of thing.

Yet I do.

Good Ol’ Seder Plate

My friends (and fellow Hump Night Thumpers) Fran and Skip are throwing a jug band Seder. They've asked us guests to take jug band songs and convert them to a Seder theme.

Here's my contribution.

Good Ol’ Seder Plate

(With apologies to Bascom Lamar Lunsford, the author of Good Old Mountain Dew.)

Chorus:
    Oh, what’s on the good ol’ Seder plate?
    Sit 'round and I'll give it to you straight
    With a tune and some verse
    That for better or worse
    Will explain the good ol’ Seder plate.

We’ve all had some wine
Now some karpas, dipped in brine,
Should provoke an inquisitive state.
Perhaps this unique ingestion
Will lead to a question
That’s why it’s on the Seder plate.

Some herbs are bitter, you bet,
Like maror and chazeret.
They really do not taste great.
But don’t be a quitter
Recall that slavery was bitter
So these herbs are on the Seder plate.

The slaves by the Nile
Used mortar by the pile
To build Pharaoh’s real estate.
In remembrance of such
We put just a touch
Of charoset on the Seder plate.

In the old times they did
Take a lamb or a kid
And sacrifice it on a slate
But we don’t all eat meat
So we’re using a beet
As the z’roa on the Seder plate.

It was a terrible cost
When the temple was lost
And our rituals had to wait.
So please listen, I beg,
And don’t eat the egg!
Leave the beitzah on the Seder plate.

We should answer the call
To respect one and all
And never discriminate.
So we choose to in-clute
A small piece of fruit:
There's an orange on the Seder plate.

So that is our good ol’ Seder plate
And that’s all I have to relate.
You’re all very dear
And I’ll see you next year
In Jerusalem 'round our Seder plate.

The return of the Banjo versus TV project

I'm bringing back the Banjo versus TV project.

I was really pleased with the way the project worked out last year. Since I first made my resolution in January of 2008 and started tracking my banjo time against my TV time, I've really gotten a lot more banjo time in. Take a look at the numbers. On the right are my 2008 banjo hours (in blue) and on the left are my Q3-2007 and Q4-2007 estimated banjo hours (in purplish-red).

See how much more banjo time I had in 2008? Great stuff! Pat on the back for me!

And then it stopped. Starting on January 1st, 2009, I hit a dry spell, banjo-wise. I was a much better player than I'd been one year prior, but I wasn't a better practicer.

So I'm bringing it back, maybe for good. Sunday March 1st, 2009, marked the beginning of week 53 of the Banjo versus TV project. That's the day that I picked up my old steno pad and started tracking my banjo and TV hours again. (Yeah, that means I'm a few weeks behind in my blogging. I'll catch up.)

It's the same plan — spend as much time on my banjo as I spend on television — and the same rules apply. I'll continued to post to both my personal blog and to my blog at the Banjo Hangout.

Big thanks to Dave, my banjo teacher, who suggested that I continue this project. "I'm a big fan of what works," Dave said. "And this works for you."