The Bubbling Hot Tub of Humanity in Blanchard, Louisiana

I try to take my mandolin with me on business trips and find a bluegrass jam in the town or city I am staying in.  It such a great thing to get out of the hotel and meet some people, and it is always an adventure.  Through the powers of the internet (especially folkjam.com) I can find a jam in pretty much any town I go to.

Well this past week work took me to north Louisiana.  I knew for sure I would be able to find a bluegrass jam somewhere in the area on a Monday night, and sure enough, Blanchard, LA, fit the bill.  Through folkjam.com I was able to contact some folks and confirm that the jam was on.

Blanchard is a one stop light town just on the other side of the Texas border and about 10 minutes north of Shreveport.  My traveling partner and I were able to easily make it to Blanchard from Dallas by the 6:30 jam start time.

In fact we arrived about 15 min early.  The jam takes place in the town hall, and as we walked up we could see that there were already a lot of people inside jamming.  In fact, there were about 10 people playing in a jam circle, and then there must have been 20 people in seats just listening and tapping feet.  I didn’t know we were going to have an audience!

My friend and I walked into the room and of course everyone turned their heads to check us out.  We were a bit out of place.  One kind soul came up to greet us and welcome us to the jam.

The jam itself was….relaxing.  The pace was slow, there was no pressure other than the audience who seemed to enjoy anything that was being played.  There were a lot of guitars and the jam improved immensely when the bass player showed up.

I had a great time just soaking in the “bubbling hot tub of humanity” as my dad would say.  Mostly gospel songs were played.  Not everyone took a break, but everyone sang.  It was just a genuine and downright joyful experience.

I think I also broke out with a couple of big improvements.  On most of my breaks I stuck very close to the melody.  I was able to utilize some tasty Monroe licks that I have been working on.  Most of all, I just played to have fun.

Here are a couple of clips I am proud of.

This first one I like because it is pure Monroe.  These are actually licks from “First Whippoorwill” but changed up just a bit.

Monroe Style Clip

This second clip is from my 9lb Hammer.  I like this one because I really let loose on it and got raw.

Blanchard 9 lb hammer

The final clip I am most proud of.  “Jumbalaya” is a pretty popular song and I have always had a terrible time coming up with a break for it.  The reward for trekking to Blanchard, LA, was this break.  It is raw, and I may never be able to summon it up again, but it was sure fun when it happened.

Jumbalaya clip

Filed under: Jam Reflections, Music & Mandolin Meditations, Music Clip, My Journal, Traveling Man

Red Haired Boy (FAST)

Well this is a long time coming, and I am really pleased to be posting this.

Attached below is recording of me playing Red Haired Boy at the “fast” level – according to my taps at this online metronome it is around 123bpm.

My first blog post that mentions the Brad Davis DVD is November, 2008.  I remember when I first got the DVDs I thought there was no way in hell that I would ever be able to play with the fast level – at least not note for note.  It is really cool that not 9 months later I am able to play along with it.

Now I still have a long ways to go, obviously.  I can’t really play this fast with the rest of the songs on the DVDs.  Also, 123bpm is not the fastest that people play in some jams around here in Dallas – they are typically 130-150.

How did I get here?  In my opinion there are some key factors that helped -

• Slow, intentional practice.  The Brad Davis DVDs are great because the slow level is really slow.  In just about every practice session I would start out with the slow and made sure I played it PERFECTLY;
• This blog – recording my progress and being able to look back at what I have done has been key.  When you get into a rut or plateau the journal helps you pick out things you forgot about and keep things fresh.  It also held me accountable when I was not practicing consistently or being lazy;
• Form – I started taking lessons via webcam with Taterbug a couple of months ago, and he immediately identified a flaw in my left hand form.  I took two months to slow things down and fix it, and now I see there would be no way I could play this fast before hand.

I want to give some credit to the mandoliniana blog for reminding me how important it is to look at yourself in the freshest, most honest mirror possible.  Also thanks to flatpicker650 for nudging me to do this and go public with it.

So, here is the clip.  In the recording I am listening to the DVD through headphones.  Its not the best I have ever played it, and its not the worst.  I always like to improvise out the Part B of Red Haired Boy, and I especially like what I did on this take.  There is a little of my stuff, and some classic Monroe licks.  Thanks and please leave comments!

Audio Clip: Red Haired Boy (Fast)

Filed under: Music & Mandolin Meditations, Music Clip, My Journal, Practice Session Notes

Avalon Reprise – A Rekx Original

Well I finally got to recording a little tune that I have been messing with for a month or two now.  I recorded this using my Zoom H2 microphone and Audacity.  It took a couple of nights to get the sound somewhat optimized – and then of coarse I have to find a time when it is quiet – in my house usually around 10 or 11.

I named this Avalon Reprise because the guitar work is obviously in the style of Mississippi John Hurt.  The song is really just a mixture of 3 or 4 different John Hurt songs.  I play for my son every night at bed time, and many times I will segway from one John Hurt song, into some sort of “John Hurt Jam”, and then back into the original song.  This song is a jam I keep going back to.

It took a couple of tries to get the mandolin part down.  I am just noodling around on it.  I discovered that it is much more difficult to get a satisfactory track when you are just jamming then when you have a written and set solo to play.  I might like to go back and try a different mode like mixolydian and shoot for some Jerry Garcia type noodling.

So, the recording is not perfect, but I just wanted to get it out there and move on.  And I had a blast doing it.

Enjoy!

Avalon Reprise

Filed under: Music & Mandolin Meditations, Music Clip, My Journal

Picking and Grinning in Garland

Last Saturday I was able to go jam at the town square in historic downtown Garland, Tx.   Man, I had fun.  It was a genuine hopping good time.  Nice Texas weather, good folks.  There must have been 50 pickers out and another 50 people just there to listen.

Even better is that an independent coffee shop has opened on the square – The Generator Coffee House.  They were brewing great Bolivian beans, but I had to help myself to a quadruple espresso.  I have said before and I will say it again; nothing helps a bluegrass jam like caffeine and a little bit of sugar.

The Generator Coffee shop just opened a week ago, and already they are endearing themselves to the bluegrass community.  Not only were they giving out the first cup of coffee free, but also, they were rotating in a different bluegrass band to play inside the coffee house every hour.  A band would play, and then go outside to pick, and another band would step up.  It definitely generated a lot of traffic inside the coffee house.

I was picking and grinning until about 12:30.  I finally left at about 1:00 AM with my fingers were sore but my spirit light.  Here are some clips from the evening.

These first two clips I am proud of.  They are somewhat coherent and musical – I would not have been able to do this last year.  I am employing Monroe licks that I have learned through Taterbug.  I am still tense, but getting better

blog Garland clip 1

blog garland clip 2

The next clip – Whiskey Before Breakfast – I am proud of because of the speed at which we are playing.  It is not the best solo, but I keep up with the beat at over 120bpm.

Whiskey Before Breakfast jam clip

Every little bit of improvement is good improvement – and most importantly, I had a blast.

Filed under: Jam Reflections, Music & Mandolin Meditations, My Journal

Left Hand Technique

At the behest of Taterbug, I have been working on my left hand technique.  I suppose that now is a good time to do it.  I didn’t pick up my mandolin for most of the month of June, and so when I did pick her up last week, she felt like a disconnected piece of wood.  So I might as well improve my form while I try to get my feel back.

The problem is that I was gripping the mandolin like a guitar.  I was wrapping my hand around it and hooking my thumb over the top.  The mandolin needs to be held more gingerly, like a fiddle.

The ball of thumb and the large knuckle of the finger should grip the neck.  And the fleshy part of the hand should be off the neck.

It is so frustrating working on form.  You try different things – they all feel awkward.

But last night I came to a bit of a realization.

The point of good form in playing any instrument is that you are playing comfortably and naturally.

If you are not comfortable, and you are not natural, then you are wrong.

So I have been focusing on this idea, and things are coming along.  I have been avoiding the details and the visual.  Instead I look for feel and comfort.

Surely this work will pay dividends.

Filed under: Music & Mandolin Meditations, My Journal

Time To Settle Down (for a month at least)

Well, the month of June was very hectic for me.  I don’t think that I picked up the mandolin the entire month.  I certainly didn’t go to any jams.  I was able to pick up the guitar from time to time, and even got Hurt’s “Make Me A Pallet On Your Floor” down pretty well.

Well, check that – I did take my mandolin with my on a trip to Memphis and got to jam with my Dad at a dinner party.  That was a lot of fun.  We play this very chill Brazilian jazz together.  It is totally improvised and I gotta say we sound pretty good.  Well, at least the friends enjoyed it.

I went to Switzerland – while there was a lot of interesting things I did and saw, none if it was music related, and I didn’t bring my instrument with me.  I have really hit my stride with twitter – I kept a running diary of experiences on it.  I am open ears for any suggestions of folk and/or bluegrass jams anywhere in Switzerland – I know they are out there.

I go through waves and cycles in my mindscape.  The last couple of months have been heavy on bluegrass.  June was big on Blind Blake and John Fahey.  Right now I am moving into an academic mindset – listening to university lectures, being a total news hound, and learning French.  The academic mindset is hardly ever sustainable for me, and I suspect that July I will move back to bluegrass.  Maybe a kind of tough blues + bluegrass…. = Monroe!

And I am looking forward to continuing my lessons with Taterbug.  I want to put in a good month of lessons with him for July.  I also want to get out to some jams, but that is always difficult with all the things I have going on in my life.

That said, July promises to be a fun and exciting month!  New baby is imminent within weeks.  I can’t wait to see how my little one react to another little one.  In fact, there is NOTHING more exciting and fun than a new baby in the house!  July/August are going to be good months.

Filed under: Music & Mandolin Meditations, My Journal, Traveling Man

Lots of Tunes

I am a big, big fan of live music.  When I was in college my best friend had a large collection of Grateful Dead bootleg tapes.  By the end of college I had become accustomed listening to live shows only.  Today, it is quite rare for me to listen to an album.  While I appreciate the album as a completed work of art, it just doesn’t seem to have the soul and excitement that a live show has.

One of the great things about bluegrass is that it has a very strong taper tradition.  In fact Jerry Garcia himself used to tape bluegrass bands around the bay area in the early 60’s.

Now days, I am a very experienced bootleg listener.  There are certain microphones I prefer, and certain tapers I look for.  For example, any show taped by Bill Kouky is going to be excellent quality.

I just think that it is so, so cool to be able to listen to a David Bromberg show that took place in Italy last week!

The most convenient place to find live and legal bootlegs is at bt.etree.org.  You will find a lot of jam band music on here, but a lot of other stuff comes through as well….and a lot of bluegrass.  Just lately some new shows have been put up and I have had the great pleasure of listening to, and I recommend them to anyone.  Here are some of the really good ones:

Tony Rice Unit 2004-03-23 ~ Smilefest, Union Grove, NC ~ SBD DAT Master ~ uncirculated

Sam Bush 2009-05-23 Delfest 2009 Cumberland, MD

David & Nancy Bromberg – May 24th, 2009 – Vicenza, Italy

Del McCoury Band 2009-05-22 Delfest 2009 Cumberland, MD BSC1-K2

Junior Brown, Summer Camp Festival, Chillicothe, IL, 2009-05-22

CharlieHunterTrio2009-05-24-Hopmunk Tavern-Sebastopol,CA.MK22

Steep Canyon Rangers 2009-05-22 Delfest BSC1-K2

the Greencards April 18, 2009 Brooksville, FL; sbd

Infamous Stringdusters 2009-05-22 Delfest 2009 Cumberland, MD BSC1 K2

Filed under: Music & Mandolin Meditations, My Journal

Lose the Ego

I have been super busy lately.  Life, life and another dose of life.  But I have been able get in some good mandolin practice and have even gotten to a couple of jams.  And of coarse I have been plugging away with taterbug.

My practice sessions have recently taken an interesting change – for the better.  I went through about a 2-3 week period where I was really lost, but now I have nailed down a really great practice regime.

Through my lessons with taterbug I have been building a good cateloge of Monroe style licks in all keys.  I am really trying to take these licks and positions and integrate them into my mandolin vocabulary.  So, I have been playing along with some recordings of jams and applying the licks to them.  I will take a lick that is in C and transpose it to G, or A or D and try it against several different songs.

I am also working on playing the melody, and playing what is in my head.   This has been a real turning point for me lately in my playing.  In the past I feel that I was reaching for notes that I knew would not be out of key, while not really thinking about the melody I was playing.  This makes for solos that start to all sound alike and that do not represent the melody.  Playing the melody has been something that does not come very naturally to me, and so I really have to work on it.

Another aspect I have been working on is the ego.  In a lesson with taterbug I mentioned how I froze up in jam and how that tension really affects my playing for the worse.  I feel that my playing at home and alone is much better than when I am in front of people.  His response was that playing in general becomes so much easier once you loose the ego.  He really just mentioned this in passing but it struck a chord with me.

The fact is that I am so worried about “sounding good” that it handicaps me.  My own ego is my belief that I should sound good, and that other people should recognize that.  I get so nervous worrying about what other people will think.  Loose the ego and you loose the nerves.  Who cares what other people think!  Have fun!

So I have been happy with the progress I have been making and I feel that my practice sessions will lead to more progress.

Below is a clip from a recent jam.  I like this solo because I had some really good ideas in it.  I used some licks that I have been learning and applied them really effectively.  But this clip is also an example of my ego getting in the way and my need to loosen up.  This solo could have been really good, but my tenseness gets in the way.  When I listen to it, I can really hear my musical idea and my insecure ego battling it out.

Loosen up, play raw, have fun.

05-07-2009 Bluebell Irving clip

Filed under: Jam Reflections, Music & Mandolin Meditations, Music Clip, My Journal, Practice Session Notes

Taterbug Smack Down

The previous two weeks were pretty stale for me on the mandolin front.  I got in two good days of practice in L.A., but that’s about it.  It showed during my lesson with Taterbug on Tuesday.  He had given me the assignment of creating my own solo to “When You Are Lonely” using some of the licks and ideas from our previous work – I didn’t really have anything to show for.  I couldn’t even play the solo off the score very well.

Mike was very cool about it – there was no such smack down at all really.  But he did want me to try again and bring something “to convince him” at the next lesson.

In truth this is what I needed.  I needed more time with the piece and more time to practice.  As I told Taterbug, I am just starting to get into the meat of the thing.

I got to jam a bit with my friend Keith this past weekend, and I sang “Blue Yodel #4″ for the first time.  My solo was good, but I was surprised that my yodel was even better.  I feel like my singing in general is improving.

So, I am pretty focused on coming to my next lesson with Taterbug.  In the last couple of days I have been doing a lot of Getting Into Jazz Mandolin exercises, and the practicing “When You Are Lonely”.  I also have been keeping up with Brad Davis.

The only thing missing is a jam – I really am itching to get to one.  I can’t wait for Garland to start up again.

Filed under: Jam Reflections, Music & Mandolin Meditations, My Journal, Practice Session Notes , Taterbug

Mandolin Practice in L.A.

I went out to L.A. this week for a couple of days of training.  I was really looking forward to this trip – not for the training, or for going California – but for the chance to get some alone time with my mandolin.

I did get in some good practice.  My homework from Taterbug from last week was to compose a solo to “When You Are Alone” using the licks and techniques I have learned over the last 6 weeks or so.  I had fun with this, but I also ran through some basic exercises and played some fiddle tunes.

I brought the Carver mandolin with me.  I acquired the Carver mandolin with the express intent of making it my travel mandolin.  Indeed it is a great travel mandolin – it sounded wonderful in that little hotel room.  I know it was the acoustics playing inside a thick walled square, but man did that mandolin sound great.  The Carver mandolin really reminds me of the Dudenbostel that Chris Thile plays on his Mandolin Techniques DVD.  She has a modern sound, but she can get dirty.  She likes a soft touch, but she really loves to chop also.  Probably what most reminds me of Thile’s Dude is this mandolin sounds so good all the way up the neck.

So I had a lot of fun getting to know the Carver mandolin.  I don’t know if I annoyed my hotel neighbors, but no one complained.

The other item I would like to comment on is mandolin travel cases.  I have recently acquired two new cases.  One Alpine Gig bag, and one Presto hardshell case.  I bought the Presto specifically for when I travel, but I have really fallen in love with the Alpine gig bag.  I have used the gig bag exclusively to and from jams the last couple of weeks.  It is light and has great pockets.

So before the trip I convinced myself that I didn’t need to take the Presto.  I figured that the mandolin would be with me the whole time, and besides, I was only going from taxi>airplane>taxi>hotel.

Well I learned my lesson on this one.  Basically the new rule is that anytime you are in situation where someone else will be handling your mandolin, you better use the hardshell case.  Not that anything bad happened, but I did have a incident where a taxi driver tried to pack the mandolin on its head in the trunk.

All in all a good trip, and I got a great idea for a blog post that I will be putting up soon.

Filed under: Music & Mandolin Meditations, My Journal, Practice Session Notes, Traveling Man , Carver