Our son's been home from college for the summer which is a delightful state of affairs. It's great to have him around but it means that I can't start banging on the banjo as soon as I wake up--courteous soul that I am--so I've had to adjust my playing routine.
Mostly, that means waiting until a reasonable hour before picking up an instrument. : ) I've gotten into the habit of taking practice breaks out on the front step on and off during the day (better than playing inside, actually) and if I want to play late-night, I head out into the garage (which seems to make me more focused and productive).
Yesterday, I finished some fine banjo practice out front and as I stood up to go in, I heard an Asian-language whoop through the open kitchen window next door. I'm not sure what it meant, but it might have been, "Oh hooray! She's taking the banjo inside!" Or, it might have just been coincidence. : )
I've been having a drop thumb issue (catching the third string) and I can actually say that I'm glad. It prompted me to post in a message thread to get some advice and because of that I did some out-patient surgery on my banjo (had to move the tension hoop back into the right position and I cut wider-spaced notches in an old bridge to experiment with wider string spacing) which left my banjo sounding better than it has for a while. I also gained some insight into what I need to do technique-wise to get better tone and I feel like I'm off and running again.
My goal for the upcoming weeks is to add a bunch of new tunes from the Leftwich Round Peak book to memory and to work at playing a few of my favorite tunes to date without experiment-on-the-fly crashes. There's a small local festival that includes what I think is a low-key banjo contest and if I could manage to get a couple of tunes polished to the point where an audience might enjoy them, I think it might be fun to share.
Good news is I've figured out how to use my recorder as an external mic so now I can experiment with trying to get video with decent sound. I posted a quick practice clip on my blog page yesterday.
17 Comments |
 | laertes22 says:
7/21/2014 8:49:13 AM
Cyndy, you are a much more courteous and thoughtful parent than I am! Glad that you found somewhere you can practice though. I have not tried practicing in the garage, but I bet the acoustics are pretty good.
The modifications that you did on your banjo-were they on your Prust fretless or on a fretted banjo?
-Genford
|
 | VioletMoon says:
7/21/2014 9:16:35 AM
The tweaks were to the fretted banjo. Basically, the tension hoop (I think that's the right word) had moved around so that the neck opening wasn't lined up and when I put it back, I don't think I tightened the head quite as much. Something changed for the better and I'm liking it.
Just read your post and it's a good reminder to me that time spent working on putting life things in order (like healthy eating and exercise which I was really good about last year but not so much at the moment) and, for me, cleaning out and organizing house things) frees up mental energy that can be put back into music.
I'm feeling focused with banjo and fiddle again in large part because I've figured out a house cleaning routine that gets things done very fast in a satisfying way.
Cyndy
|
 | Zischkale says:
7/23/2014 9:35:45 AM
Many great acts got their start in the garage. Put up some Led Zeppelin and KISS and Fred Cockerham poster and jam out.
And just out of curiosity, what specific Asian-language are we talkin' about here with this whoop?
Glad to hear you've found a solution to your third-string problem, did it feel instantly better when you got the repaired 'jo?
Which tunes are you working on from Round Peak Banjo? It'd be really cool to enter a contest--I think my next big hurdle will be working up the courage to do open-mic at a coffee house or something.
Good job on posting some music--I'll check the practice clip tonight!
|
| VioletMoon says:
7/23/2014 9:51:10 AM
Yup! The garage is a good place to play. And I believe my neighbors speak Korean but I've never listened carefully. They are really great about me playing outside, by the way, which I really appreciate.
The banjo sounded better instantly, post-tweak, and widening the string spacing in combination with catching the thumb closer to the tip seems to have taken care of the drop thumb scare. I'm on my way again.
I'm basically trying to learn all of the tunes in "G" tuning from the book (except the ones that I've learned in other ways from other sources) and my favorites at the moment are Big-Eyed Rabbit and Breaking Up Christmas.
I'm on a Wade Ward kick at the moment -- Shady Grove and Hollyding from a recent workshop -- but I still play the book tunes that I have in my head pretty much every day.
I don't know if I'll enter the contest or not but thinking about it is good motivation to try to play really cleanly. Still not sure what I'd play, but Tally Ho is a candidate so I'm back to working on it.
|
| laertes22 says:
7/23/2014 10:17:20 AM
I really need to get both the Round Peak fiddle books/dvds and the Round Peak Banjo ones, even though they are way beyond my level. If it makes you feel any better, I get to hear myself bad mouthed in Japanese all day, made worse by the fact that I speak and understand it. :D
-Genford
|
| VioletMoon says:
7/23/2014 10:28:48 AM
Really? How'd you learn Japanese?
|
| laertes22 says:
7/23/2014 10:38:59 AM
I minored in Japanese in college. After that I lived in rural Japan for 5 years. I was esteemed a decent shamisen player afore I took up the banjar.
-Genford
|
| VioletMoon says:
7/23/2014 10:48:11 AM
Really! I majored in Japanese (but haven't used it in years) after spending a year there as a Rotary student in Sapporo, 1977-1978. I also spent the 1980-81 year in Iwamizawa studying and helping to teach English through an informal exchange set up by my professor.
We wanted to go back after my husband graduated, but the post-doc acceptance letter sat in a mailbox in Arizona and didn't catch up to us until it was too late. I envy you those 5 years. : )
If I knew then what I know now, I would take up shamisen! But, while all my exchange friends were studying things like judo and karate, I learned to play a bit of koto.
Cyndy
|
| laertes22 says:
7/23/2014 10:56:02 AM
Uso da?!?! No way! I lived in Hamamasu Village, which is currently part of Ishikari City in Hokkaido. I was right down the road from where you were in Iwamizawa (Wammy-Zammy, as we gaijin liked to call it) and Sapporo. Living in the inaka, I generally spent my weekends travelling up to either Sapporo, Iwamizawa, or Ebetsu. Small world. I studied Shamisen under a local Hokkaido minyou master for 3 years, then moved to Hachinohe City in Aomori and studied Nanbu-minyou style shamisen for 2 years, there. Both my teachers also did (and taught me to some degree) Tsugaru-jamisen. I don't consider myself that good, but I was good enough that I would be asked to play at local festivals and schools. I'll check when I get home-I may have a clip somewhere.
-Genford
|
| VioletMoon says:
7/23/2014 11:34:36 AM
Hokkaido! Ah, Hokkaido. I didn't get out in the country much, but I took a mid-winter train trip north and it stopped in the middle of the night and (long story) I was riding between cars and I looked out over the fields and it was dark and quiet and it was one of the most memorable experiences of my life.
I'm not much of a traveler, but, maybe, someday, I'd like to go back.
I'd LOVE to see you playing shamisen!
|
| laertes22 says:
7/23/2014 4:29:46 PM
It wouldn't let me add this to my profile page, because it is not strictly banjo related, but here is a clip of me playing shamisen back in the day.
youtu.be/uONMVZyEtqI
|
| VioletMoon says:
7/23/2014 7:59:45 PM
Just got to see the video. Very, very cool. Do you still play?
I've been playing fiddle with a mountain dulcimer player for a couple of years and last year when the dulcimer club was playing Sakura for a festival concert, I got to add a bit of simple koto to it. Every once in a while I get to introduce the instrument to people, kids in particular, and I really enjoy having the chance to do that.
|
| laertes22 says:
7/23/2014 8:04:24 PM
Unfortunately my shamisen got damaged a while back and I haven't found any way to get it repaired. If I ever get it fixed, I still hav my old tabs from japan and recordings from my teacher.
|
| VioletMoon says:
7/23/2014 8:05:48 PM
Ah, that's too bad. One of these days!
|
| Zischkale says:
7/24/2014 6:56:35 AM
Man I'm jealous, it'd be awesome to visit Japan. As for the news on shamisen and koto, it's clearly time for y'all to get back in practice so we can get some kind of old-time Japanese remix thing going.
|
| VioletMoon says:
7/24/2014 7:00:50 AM
: )
|
| laertes22 says:
7/24/2014 7:02:13 AM
lol
|
Post a Comment
|
You must be logged in and a member of this group to post a comment.
|
