Posts Tagged ‘banjo’
*loud* banjo
Monday, July 30th, 2007I just got a Jump Lead from Troubadour in the UK. It was designed as a clip-on tuning pickup, but it can work really well as a general acoustic pickup if you put it on the right place on the instrument.
I discovered that if you clip it to a Fielding-Cutler Mute on the bridge, the sound is great: warm, mellow, very little acoustic feedback, but lots of chunky overtones. I like it!
Uncle Dave on ill-advised facial hair
Tuesday, June 26th, 2007Look at that man with all the hair around his mouth
Like he swallowed a mule and left the tail hanging out
- I’ve Got The Morning Blues
that’ll learn me
Sunday, June 10th, 2007… to buy so many CDs at the Midwest Banjo Camp. I’ve spent the last couple of hours keying in track listings for The Old Time Banjo Festival, Erynn Marshall & Chris Coole, and Neil Woodward. Please, please please don’t let me have to do the same for the Uncle Dave Macon set, ‘cos then I’ll be here all day.
last morning of Banjo Camp
Sunday, June 3rd, 2007Well, just two more sessions to go at banjo camp. It’s been a lot of fun, and I’ve learned so much. I do need to get my chord skills down, but even my half-formed frailing did garner compliments.
The concerts were great. Last night we had Wade & Julia Mainer perform some gospel numbers. Wade turned 100 this year, but you wouldn’t know it to hear them play.
So it’s a long drive back, but it was worth it.
it’s official - i suck at banjo
Friday, June 1st, 2007okay, I need to work on my basic G chords and getting to know the standard jam canon. I knew none of them at the slow jam tonight - no Boil Them Cabbage, no Cripple Creek, no Buffalo Girls. I might know a bunch of modal tunes, and one in F even, but can I fret a C chord … ?
and i wish and wish again
Thursday, May 31st, 2007Fully installed at Midwest Banjo Camp at East Lansing. It’s green, there are chipmunks, and many, many banjo players - oh, and Clif Ervin, bones player extraordinaire.
quit it!
Thursday, February 15th, 2007
“boing twang”, as Arnie would say
Tuesday, February 13th, 2007I’m going to the Midwest Banjo Camp this summer! W00t!
(and yes, I’ve set up a Banjo Hangout account. It’s like myspace for banjo nerds.)
Slower, and of Montreal
Sunday, April 11th, 2004Bit of a compendium today:
Chris Coole, while trying to teach me to play “Shady Grove” on the banjo, told me about The Amazing Slow Downer. This allows you to slow down CDs or music files without changing pitch, so you can work out how it’s played.
This is Windows and Mac only, but I found SndStretch for XMMS. I’m pretty sure it doesn’t sound as good (sounds slightly like it’s played through a hoover hose) as TASD, but it’s free.
While I was at Green Roofs for Healthy Cities (I contract for them), I found a Montreal-style bagel bakery. It’s on Bayview a couple of blocks south of Eglinton. They are great bagels; wood-fired, with a sweet crust. Maybe not quite as good as the tiny, rock-hard Polish bagels I got in Glasgow, but miles ahead of anything else in Toronto.
Speaking of Montreal, of Montreal’s new album Satanic Panic in the Attic is great. Think “Wilson & Barrett make psych-disco”, and you’re about there.
Oh, and I start a new job tomorrow. Wish me luck …
