Fuzzy Mountain String Band memories

Fuzzy Mountain String Band memories It's a movie, give it time to load.

Old time jammer's manifesto

There is ample proof that there are many ways of learning to fiddle, not just one.

There are many people who develop the skill of being able to play tunes without the benefit of notation.

There are an infinite number of ways to drag a bow across some strings.

There are an infinite number of ways to express the basics of a tune.

Perfect intonation and accuracy are overrated. Many of the old time masters had neither.

Freezing traditional music in print is not the only way to preserve traditional tunes, and it is not the best for a goodly number of players.

Much of traditional music is social music that can be learned informally in gatherings as an alternative to a more classical approach.

Playing by ear is not a special talent. It is a skill that can only be learned by trying to play by ear.

There are those of us who take poorly to learning a tune phrase by phrase.

There are those of us who take poorly to playing in parallel with folks who play a tune the same way each time by rote.

There are those of us who relish puzzling out tunes that we don't know and being a part of something that is bigger than the sum of all the pieces.

Therefore, I call on all organizers of traditional music events to include at least one structured jam component, if not many, opportunities for students to learn by ear, to play with supportive jam leaders who can foster efforts to play by ear, to actually be a part of building communal tunes in a jam circle. Between those lines, read: not just to sit next to greatness and watch experts jam, thinking 'I could never do that'.

All the better, if you would hire me.

Turning off your inner adult

I came across an article in an 'About Town' newspaper that I picked up in Dutchess County recently. Interesting piece about approaching music like a child. Read it here. The author talks about turning off your brain. In light of the brain articles that I've been posting lately, I'd say not your whole brain, but mostly that pesky left brain that insists on putting everything perfectly in a row, from 1 through infinity.

So, I went looking for the author online, and there's more gems on his blog. Check it out here. Nicely written.

And More!

More Jam and more ...

Here's the draft schedule. There's a full screen view mode. Look for the international symbol of full screen-ness. There's lots of good stuff going on, but since this is my blog, let me just say, have a look to see when my Aussie Jam is scheduled. Also New Old Time Tunes and Playing Old Time By Ear. More info here.

Fritz Stafford and I are doing a workshop about tech and music. Fritz knows about editing sheet music and generating sound from notation. My expertise is about digital field recording. Between us, we can find just about any tune in any key anywhere on the internet. And, the venue this year has -tada- Wifi. So, we won't have to squint to see my little laptop like we did last year. There can be a large screen display as well as people following along on their own internet accessing devices.

Here's a tour of the venue and directions.

Fuzzy Mountain String Band tribute

Getting ready for the Jam & Sing Thing, specifically for the FMSB tribute. Lots of research detailed in the spreadsheet that I'm working on. Trying to keep the facts straight and accessible. Really interesting, considering that they were a jam band. Quite a few of the tunes that they preserved and passed on are noted as the only source in the Fiddler's Fakebook. There may have been other recorded sources, but it's a statement to their clarity that their versions have been preserved. Well, preserved as best that freezing old time music on a page can do it justice.