Posts Tagged ‘jamming’

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New tunes, okay. How about your old tunes?

Tuesday, November 2nd, 2010

Red Henry

When you’re learning to play, or even after you’ve been playing for a long time, there’s a natural tendency to play your newest tunes. After all, they’re new and much more exciting than your OLD ones. But you can get bored if you only play the tunes you learned most recently, and your musical skills can suffer.

When you’re practicing, or even when you’re picking with other folks, remember to play your old tunes too. This does several good things. Among them: (1) You keep your fingers playing a wider variety of licks and melodies. (2) Your friends will enjoy the variety when you dig up a tune from the past. (3) You have the pleasure of re-discovering a great tune or song you’d almost forgotten.

But one of the best things about picking your old tunes, is that it keeps your brain working. If you play just half a dozen or so songs all the time, it’s easy to get into a musical rut and stay there for years. Instead, consciously go back and find tunes and songs you used to play. Keep learning new tunes too. Go through our Slow Jam DVDs and remember some songs you used to like. Your brain will like it, and your picking friends will thank you for it!

Red

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Posted in By Red, General, jamming, Learning By Ear, Practice | 1 Comment »

The Good Old Thursday Night Jam

Friday, October 29th, 2010

Red Henry

I went over to the local jam last night. Why do I go to that jam? I’ve said it before in these pages: PRACTICE. But on some Thursdays the practice is easier than on others.

Now, when you get into real life jams, some of them aren’t as easy to play along with as (for example) on our Slow Jam or Picking Up the Pace DVDs. Sometimes, you have to work. And at first, I thought this would be one of THOSE THURSDAYS. We kicked off the jam a bit after 7:00, when five guitar players, two fiddlers, a banjo picker, and one mandopicker (me) had arrived and tuned up.

At first, it was heavy slogging. Few of the pickers besides myself wanted to take the lead in playing or singing songs, although Murphy’s banjo student Zac was an exception and played a creditable version of ‘Cripple Creek’. I sang a couple of songs, and it looked like it’d be a long night.

But at that point, help started arriving. Jam hosts (and excellent pickers) Linda and David brought in their bass and guitar, and joined the jam. Guitar picker and singer Gerald came in and added his talents to the mix. Fiddlers Wayne and Stormie arrived and got out their fiddles. Suddenly we really had a jam.

Right away, David and Linda wanted to sing ‘Your Selfish Heart’. That’s an old Stanley Brothers number that we get a good high trio on, and we always have fun singing it. Then Linda, who has one of the finest voices I’ve ever heard, sang ‘I’ll Go Stepping Too’. Things went on from there, and it was all very satisfactory.

With all that talent coming into the jam, we couldn’t miss. All the songs and tunes sounded good. It was fun.

Good practice, too.

Red

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Jamming: One Easy Time, and one Challenging Situation

Friday, October 8th, 2010

Red Henry

Last weekend I went over to Nashville for the International Bluegrass Music Association convention. During the day I helped Casey with our Murphy Method booth, but both nights I went over to my uncle John’s house to pick. John Hedgecoth is a banjo player with long-standing credentials including a stint in Bill Monroe’s band in the 1970s. He can also play ANYTHING on a banjo, from bluegrass ro jazz to classical, so it was good to pick with him. He invited a few other folks over, and we played a whole lot of tunes. We picked quite a few Bill Monroe numbers. We played lots of traditional tunes. We also played some entertaining numbers like ‘Sweet Sue,’ ‘Baby Elephant Walk,’ and “When I’m 64.” John played them all on banjo with aplomb. Nothing could be easier than picking with him, and it was all good.

Then last night, back here in Winchester, I went over to the weekly Thursday Night Jam. Playing music there was a different situation. About 15 local musicians were playing for an audience of about 50, inside a greenhouse. (It wasn’t any stranger than it sounds, but the acoustics were not the best.) There were about 7 guitar players, three mandolin players, two each playing banjo and fiddle, and (thank goodness) a string bass. So I got near the bass player and played firm rhythm on Randy Wood #3– a mandolin with unexcelled projection– and the rhythm was there. Not great rhythm, but adequate. The on-beat was there from the bass and the off-beat was there from the mandolin, and everybody hung together adequately. And everybody had a good time.

Congratulations to Murphy’s student Zac, who won the banjo contest at Burlington, WV last Sunday! Way to go! We had him play ‘Foggy Mountain Breakdown’ at the jam, and he did quite well with both the low break and the high break. Good picking–

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Picking in the Gazebo

Tuesday, September 28th, 2010

Red Henry

Last Saturday I had a good time playing music with family and friends in the gazebo. And, you may ask, just where is that particular gazebo? Well, it’s some distance from here. It’s on the town square in Clarkesville, Georgia. And, in spite of some rain, we all had a good time.

The band for this occasion included, along with myself on mandolin, my old friend and now brother-in-law Mike Johnson, on banjo; Murphy’s #3 sister (and Mike’s wife) Argen Hicks, on bass; Murphy’s #4 sister, excellent singer/songwriter Nancy Pate on guitar; and our friend, multi-instrumentalist Barry Palmer on fiddle. What did we do? We just played music. Well, we did run over some numbers at Argen and Mike’s house beforehand. That was fun, too. Then we went over to the middle of town and set up at the gazebo and played our first set.

Now, I’ve talked before about how good it is when people are really playing together. This can happen immediately, as is did at that party I talked about a few days ago, or it can happen because everybody listens and adapts. On this particular day we had a group that hadn’t ever played together before, and I think we all played with slightly different natural rhythms. When we started practicing back at the house we sounded a bit loose, but by the time we started up at the gazebo, we sounded pretty tight. So how did this happen? It happened because everybody there was a very experienced performer and knew what to do. Everyone was listening and adapting to everyone else, one song after another, and in a short time we were really playing together well.

You don’t have to be a professional picker to do this. You don’t have to have played for 20 (or 30, or 40) years to listen to everyone else and adapt to their rhythm and play what sounds good.

As soon as you are able to play in a group, you can start listening to the other pickers (in fact, those two things go together). You can start listening to the other instruments and to the vocals, and follow your ears in trying to play (or not play) things that help the whole group sound good. If there’s a banjo or guitar player drowning everybody out you usually can’t help that, but if that player is YOU, then you can. Whatever instrument you’re playing, try to play steadily and supportively to the others. (Sometimes this means scarcely playing at all, during other leads or vocals.) When it comes time for you to take a lead, think about it ahead of time– stop playing for a few beats if you need to, to set up your hands and brain to start playing the break at the right time– and then keep listening to the rhythm while you’re playing your lead. That way, whether you’re playing lead or backup, you’ll be playing together with the others. And that can help them do the same thing (more on that later).

Happy picking!

Red

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Posted in By Red, Improvising, jamming, Practice | 1 Comment »

Are You Playing the Song Together? — Or Just “at the Same Time”?

Tuesday, September 21st, 2010

Red Henry

The title for this blog may seem strange, but it’s pretty important. As I mentioned before, Christopher and I played a party Saturday night before last, and we had two fine musicians with us– Mike Munford and Ira Gitlin. All four of us fit together perfectly, and our band dynamics– making the instrument leads stand out, putting the vocals out front, adapting the backup every moment to make the lead sound its best– were excellent.

During our first set break, Ira commented on this. He knew how rare it is for everybody in a band to be paying attention and always playing so as to make the lead instrument or vocal sound its best. He knew how very often, even with good musicians, the guitar player will be showing off his fancy bass runs, or the harmony singers will pay little attention to the lead singer, or the lead singer will be drowned out by a banjo player who’s playing lead all the time, all over everybody else’s vocals and instruments. But the four of us were playing TOGETHER– not just playing the same song at the same time, but listening to each other and playing together. And it was good.

You can pay attention to this too, whenever you’re playing music with other people. Is someone else singing a song? Make sure you’re not the one drowning him (or her) out. Is somebody else playing a lead break? Listen to that person, and play some gentle backup as appropriate to make the lead sound good. LISTEN all the time, and do whatever your ears tell you to, to make the music always sound as good as it can. That way, you won’t be just playing the song at the same time– you’ll be playing it together.

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Posted in By Red, Improvising, jamming | 7 Comments »

Fruit Stand Picking

Friday, September 10th, 2010

Red Henry

Last night, we picked at the fruit stand. That’s Linda’s Mercantile in Winchester Virginia. The proprietors are well-known bluegrass performers Linda and David Lay, and they host local musicians for a couple of hours of music each Thursday evening from 7 to 9.

On this occasion, the usual schedule was interrupted for an excellent square dance exhibition: after we’d played music for twenty minutes or so, Murphy and her square-dance friends put on a set of mighty fine dancing for the folks.

The crowd really liked the dancing, but when it was over, all the energy had gone out of the picking. Quite a few of the musicians had departed, and most of the others didn’t seem to want to play. So Murphy and her student Zack and I started playing to get things going, kicking it off with “Cripple Creek” and then the old Lester Flatt favorite, “Will You Be Loving Another Man.” Sure enough, musicians started playing along: guitar players, fiddle players, and a bass and dobro. Now the music was shaping up. We kept it up with “Roll in My Sweet Baby’s Arms,” “Wabash Cannonball,” and other old favorites. Soon the jam was rolling along. We went for an hour or so, and then Murphy and I finished up our own part of the show and headed for home. But by that time, we left a dozen or so pickers carrying on.

When a jam is falling apart, sometimes you’ve just got to put some energy in there. Often as not it’ll be contagious, and you’ll have plenty of company soon!

Red

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Picking

Tuesday, September 7th, 2010

Red Henry

Yesterday afternoon we had a real good picking session. The participants were what made it work. Besides Murphy, Chris, and myself, we had a teenage banjo player, a forest ranger, a deaf banjo player, a singer converted from hip-hop, and an out-of-work bass player. A well-matched group, huh?

Okay. I guess you are wondering who these people were and why they fit together so well musically. Well, the teenage banjo player was Murphy’s student Logan, a good student and up-and-coming player whom she’s blogged about before. And the party was for Logan’s 18th birthday. The forest ranger was local guitar picker and singer Gerald C., who happens to be Logan’s scoutmaster. The deaf banjo player was our Cousin David, about whom you’ve heard before. (Just kidding about the “deaf” part.) The convert from hip-hip was our friend Chris L., a new Stanley Brothers/Flatt & Scruggs/Reno & Smiley freak who used to be in a rock band with our Chris. (The band was called, appropriately enough, The Bends.) And the bass player was Murphy’s long-time student Bob V., a fine picker and witty person.

So why did we fit together so well? Well, aside from Murphy’s formidable skill at leading a jam session (as amply demonstrated on our Slow Jam and More Slow Jam DVDs), it was because everybody knew a lot of the same material or could pick up on it well. You do find jam sessions where the players all have their own favorite songs but can’t really play anyone else’s. In this case, everybody picked up on what everyone else was doing, and it worked out fine.

Sometimes you find the strangest combinations of folks in jam sessions… and the music still works!

Red

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Posted in banjo, By Red, guitar, jamming, Learning By Ear, Practice | No Comments »

Unfamiliar situations: Flying and Picking #14

Friday, July 9th, 2010

Did you ever try to play music in a place that wasn’t familiar, and found yourself so distracted by the room, or the people, or the lighting, or the phase of the moon, that you had trouble playing? Or did you learn to play music while sitting down all the time, and then try to play while standing up? It might have been uncomfortable at first. You were in an unfamiliar situation.

I was reminded of this two nights ago, when I flew my very first night solo (well, my first since 1971). I’d flown several times at night recently with my instructor, but hadn’t tried it alone. So I took off about sunset and just practiced landings over and over, and kept at it as it got really dark.

Now, I’ve made about 400 daytime landings or so in the last 7 months. So I’m pretty familiar with them now. But now I was flying at night, and the situation was different. I really had to concentrate to find some of the same visual clues I’m used to in the daytime, and I had to adopt some new ones. But it worked. The results? 11 pretty good landings, including the last 3 in the pitch dark. But it did take concentration and practice in the new, dark situation (making those landings over and over). It was a gradual thing, but finally I was pretty comfortable with it. I really had to concentrate, but it just took some practice.

You can make the same kind of adjustment when you’re playing music in an unfamiliar situation. If you’re put off your stride (or even freaked out) by standing up to play, or playing in a new place, or playing in front of people, or playing in a group you’re not used to, then don’t concentrate on the unfamiliar stuff. Simplify what you’re doing and concentrate on yourself and the notes you’re playing. Keep your eyes on your instrument and play tunes you can play in your sleep, or your favorite basic backup licks, or just vamp until you have your hands and mind under control again. Let your brain assimilate the new variables a little at a time, and eventually you’ll get used to the new situation. Play your same familiar tunes and licks over and over standing up, for example, and you’ll get to where you can stand up in a group and handle not only your oldest material but new things as well. Practice at different places in your house, or your yard. Play when one or two family or friends are around– not suddenly for a crowd, but gradually. Even if you’re freaked out at first, it just takes some practice!

Red

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Posted in By Red, Improvising, jamming, Practice | 2 Comments »

A Meeting of Mandolins

Tuesday, June 29th, 2010

Red Henry

Red Henry


Folks, I just ran across a photo and wanted to share it with you. A few years ago, a member of the “Co-Mando” mandolin email list held a gathering at his house in Maryland, a couple of hours’ drive from here. Our friend David McLaughlin rode over to the gathering with me, and we joined nine or ten other mandolin players for an afternoon of visiting and picking.

At one point, we lined up our mandolins on a soft couch so that everyone there could try all of them out (it’s called a “mandolin tasting”, and someone took a photo. Here it is:
Mandos104

Seen here at the party are 11 mandolins, my mandola, and my home-made mandocello conversion. Among the mandolins are the two I brought (Randy Wood #1 and #3), as well as the one David brought (a 1923 F-5). Others seen in the photo include two Rigel mandolins, one late-1950s Gibson, and a few other makes. The other pickers were especially excited to have the chance to play that 1923 F-5, after David generously put it on the couch for “tasting.” They were also amused to play Randy Wood #3, the one formerly owned by Bill Monroe, and get themselves a few molecules of Bill as they played. (My four instruments in the picture are distinguished by their light-colored maple bridges.) See if you can pick out David’s Loar in the photo!

As you can guess, a good time was had by all. And we’ve got the pictures to prove it!

Red

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Posted in By Red, Improvising, Instruments, jamming, Mandolin Bridges, pictures | 3 Comments »

Earned the License! (Flying and Picking #12)

Friday, June 25th, 2010

Red Henry

Red Henry

Folks, I’m going to break away from those excellent postings from Kaufman Kamp to tell you about something else good that happened this week. As many of you know I’ve been learning to fly, and on Wednesday I got my license! It’s been a huge 7-month-long project, studying and flying all I could, but it finally happened. I took the flying examination (called a “check ride”), and passed with– yes, I’ll say it– flying colors.

This flight exam was in the same old rusty Cessna 172 you see in that photo above, registration number N51056. I’ve flown about 121 hours so far, mostly in that same airplane, and the plane and I have come to know each other pretty well. Now I’ll start flying a couple of times a week just for fun, in this airplane and others, and enjoy the flights even more, because now there’s no pressure about making the grade. Although I expect to keep learning forever, now I’m an independent pilot.

And what (to ask it again), does this have to do with playing music? A lot. The more I fly, the more connection I see with music. You’ll have some goals when you learn to play, such as playing your first tune all the way through without stopping or losing your place; being able to play your tunes while your teacher plays rhythm for you on a guitar; someday being able to play along with the group in a jam session, and maybe even performing at parties, small concerts, at church, or for folks at nursing homes. But along the way, you really hit a landmark when you can play your tunes standing up, at a reasonable speed, in a jam session. That’s what Murphy sometimes calls “becoming an independent banjo player” (or mandolin player, or fiddle, or guitar, or whatever). Although you still have lots you can learn, you might say that that’s when you’ve earned your license. And it’s good.

Red

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Posted in By Red, jamming, Learning By Ear | 8 Comments »

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