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Sunday, February 5th, 2006
On Friday I was in Borders bookstore on 2nd Ave. and thought I would take a look at their music section, where I have found several interesting records in the past. And boy did I come up lucky this time! My eye was caught by "Will the Circle Be Unbroken", by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band -- I've been working on learning that song lately, and I've always heard good things about that band, so I bought it. Turns out to be one of the greatest things ever. In 1972 the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band hooked up with a lot of older, more established country musicians including Maybelle Carter, Doc Watson and Jimmy Martin. They recorded an album together that just soars -- it has all of the songs I want to hear together, absolutely ideal performances. Well I was listening to that all weekend, and especially liking the songs that featured Mother Maybelle -- "Sunny Side" and "Wildwood Flower" come to mind -- and that made me think I ought to listen to the Carter Family some. I was listening to a record of theirs this afternoon, and thinking this could be the music that I wrap my own musical ideas around -- the sound of it really gets to me, and I think I could play and sing a lot of it in a good and interesting way. "John Hardy Was a Desperate Man" is maybe the first thing I want to learn.
posted evening of February 5th, 2006: Respond
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Tuesday, February 7th, 2006
I woke up this morning singing "John Hardy was a Desperate Little Man" and it's been with me all morning. I was singing it on the street as I walked to work. And wow! I think I have come up with a harmony to it, which I will be able to play on my fiddle, simple with interesting variations. If this works out (I will try it when I get home, hope it stays in my head that long), it will be the first song that I know an actual fiddle part to rather than just playing the melody with ornamentation.
posted morning of February 7th, 2006: Respond
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This evening I played the version of "John Hardy was a Desperate Man" I'd been thinking about all day, and it was really nice, for a first attempt. I wasn't able to do some of the fast, trilling variations I had been thinking about, and didn't have the vocals integrated into the song very well; but I did have a nice degree of variety between each repetition of the verse. And I actually played a couple of verses in second position, without it sounding awful!
posted evening of February 7th, 2006: Respond
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Saturday, February 18th, 2006
Some friends were over this afternoon, among them Eileen Eliot, who recently learned "Keep your lamps trimmed and burning" (the Hot Tuna version) from tablature. I was interested because I learned the song a few years ago in the only Woody Mann workshop I ever took, and promptly forgot it. So Eileen showed me the fingerings a couple of times through, and handed me my guitar. I surprised myself by playing a pretty recognizable version straight off the bat, but in first position rather than the fingerings Eileen had been showing me. I was pretty happy about being able to shift it into first position so easily -- it made me feel like I understood the music pretty well -- I have always preferred to play in first position rather than learning new finger positions and playing up the neck. And, "Keep your lamps" turns out to be a totally addictive tune to play on fiddle. I was whistling it all evening after Eileen showed it to me, and I finally picked up my fiddle to try it out, and the notes just rolled off my bow.
posted evening of February 18th, 2006: Respond
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Tuesday, March 21st, 2006
This evening I am having my second fiddle lesson with Lisa Gutkin, who impressed me favorably at our first meeting. What I want to work on: blues; "John Hardy"; vibrato; "I'll Fly Away" and a couple of similar folk songs. I was going to go to a lecture on Robert Musil beforehand, but the schedule switched around and I will not be able to make it. Got my midterm back in Network Systems last night -- I scored 62/100, which in the wacky world of Professor Rubenstein's curves is an A. (Class median was 44.)
We worked on vibrato and blues, and a lot of bow hand exercises. And toward the end of the lesson some work on "John Hardy" and on playing drone notes while I am singing. I can do some really nice stuff jamming on "John Hardy". It is time that I should start keeping a book of what songs I play. Offhand: - John Hardy was a Desperate Little Man
- Shine On
- I'll Fly Away
- The Louisville Burglar
- St. James Infirmary
- Will the Circle be Unbroken
Anything else?... as I say, time to start keeping a book.
posted afternoon of March 21st, 2006: Respond
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Sunday, March 26th, 2006
Yesterday morning I went to Sylvia's school to help build a garden for the students to cultivate flowers and vegetables. Fun working and meeting some other parents. And by a stroke of luck one of the parents I met was Matt Hauser, drummer for Felt. We got to talking about music and I asked if his band could use a fiddler. He responded pretty enthusiastically and said they were playing at St. James Gate in the evening, I should come by and check it out. So when I got there, Matt's bandmate Tarquin asked me "Where's your axe?" I hadn't been thinking I was going to play and begged off, but Tarquin talked me into it (pretty easy to do actually.) I drove back home and returned with my fiddle. I ended up playing two songs with them, "Pass You By" by Gillian Welch and "Deal" -- I haven't really figured out how to play into a microphone though, so I was totally inaudible on "Pass You By" -- on "Deal" I was getting it a little better and people in the audience could hear at least some of what I was playing. Leaving aside the issue of whether anyone off the stage was able to hear it, I was able to keep up with the band and improvised some really nice licks. They asked me to play with them again. (I need to get a pickup!) And: 13 Scotland Rd was in the audience and played a couple of songs at the intermission -- I have jammed with Aaron and have their CD, but have never listened to them live -- they just blew me away! And Bill was interested by what he could make out of my fiddling, and asked me to practice with them. Update: ...And, I just ordered a pickup for my fiddle. Looking forward to my next opportunity to use it.
posted morning of March 26th, 2006: Respond
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Tuesday, March 28th, 2006
Tonight I practiced with 13 Scotland Rd, which is Bill Binford on guitar and vocals and Aaron Seglin on harmonica, flute, percussion and vocals. I have jammed with Aaron before at Bob and Janis' house, but had never heard him playing 13 Scotland Rd songs, and never met Bill. The music was just lovely. I played coherent, pretty solos with two of their songs, and less together stuff with a couple of other songs. I did "John Hardy" with Aaron. Anyway -- they were happy enough with what I was doing, to ask me back -- so I will be practicing with them for a while, and if it goes well, performing with them! I'm very excited about this -- I've wanted to be in a band for as long as I can remember.
posted evening of March 28th, 2006: Respond
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Tuesday, April 4th, 2006
I was jamming again tonight with 13 Scotland Rd, and got a lot of good stuff on tape. Where last time I felt pretty up-in-the-air about whether I was playing with or against Bill, tonight I was starting to click and hear what I was doing right or wrong. Bill was also teaching me the songs in a way he was not doing last week, which was really helpful. Between Bill and Lisa Gutkin I feel like I have really happened on two ideal music teachers. We played: - "Dream", which we had finished out the evening with last week, with me playing a really pretty intro. Had a hard time getting back there, but after a couple of times through I broke through and started getting it.
- "Used to be" -- just blew me away, a beautiful song. Aaron taught me an intro that I picked up fairly quickly. On the solo I'm having a hard time really going into it aggressively without also being sloppy.
- "If You Were Mine", which I've been practicing most of this week.
- "Always", which is really difficult for me to hear the key of.
posted evening of April 4th, 2006: Respond
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Thursday, April 6th, 2006
Tonight for the first time I felt myself starting to get comfortable in the second and third positions. All along I have been trying to work them in to my playing without any real luck. On Tuesday, Bill and Aaron were saying how they'd really like to hear the high notes and advising me to practice scales up the neck -- aagh! my bane! repetitive practice! -- so I set out to try it. Last night I was playing the scales but without any real clue what I was doing. But tonight I changed my strategy a little. First, I decided only to work on the key of G for now, since the songs I've been playing with Bill and Aaron are primarily in G. And second, I decided not to worry about the bottom string since I was having a lot of trouble there. I started playing some scales, sounding a little better than last night; and after a little while I moved into playing melodies and solos -- mostly in third position. Still having to hunt for notes a bit and sometimes drifting away from the proper position. I'm trying to figure out how to move between positions now.
posted evening of April 6th, 2006: Respond
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Sunday, April 9th, 2006
Singing while I play is really coming naturally -- besides "John Hardy was a Desperate Man" I've now got a pretty good version of "Keep Your Lamps Trimmed and Burning", and this afternoon I played (on the spur of the moment) "Since I Laid My Burden Down". This is almost exactly the same melody as "Will the Circle Be Unbroken", which I have tried without much success to sing while playing. Tonight I played the open mike jam at the regrettably named "Here's to the Arts" in Maplewood. It was just me and the owner of the bar playing electric guitar, and the audience was Ellen and Sylvia and the owner's wife; but we had some fun. We played "John Hardy" and "Trimmed and Burning", and a jazz tune that I had not heard before. I turn out to be able to sing into a mic while playing, which is a relief, and to jam to an easy but unfamiliar tune, which I already sort of knew but is always nice to get confirmed.
posted evening of April 9th, 2006: Respond
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