Not Easily Broken

Banjo Fun

Each instrument in a bluegrass band has an important and distinct role. No bluegrass band seems complete without a fiddle, mandolin, guitar, bass, dobro and banjo.  Since each of my family members plays one of these instruments, I have a special affection for each instrument just like I have a special affection for each of my family members. 

I notice the unique qualities of each instrument and how that instrument's qualities corresponds with the loved one that plays it.  My little private thoughts about each family member and their chosen instrument is not something I can write about here, but it is interesting to me to see how each personality is drawn to a certain instrument.

I love all bluegrass instruments and would say that each is my favorite for different reasons...which is just what I say about each of my kiddos.  But today I want to highlight the banjo. 

Our favorite banjo player is, of course, Clayton.  Anyone who has seen him play can see the hard work he has poured into learning his instrument well.  He loves to practice and lovingly soups up his banjo just like a young man would soup up his hot rod.  Having him in our band has been delight and we absolutely love his playing.

With that being said, we can now mention two other banjo players that we enjoy too: Noam Pikelny and Steve Martin. 

 Noam Pikelny is a cutting edge banjo player who plays banjo for the Punch Brothers.  He is probably Clayton's favorite banjo player. 

 My favorite (other than Clayton, of course) is Steve Martin.  Not many people know that he is not only funny, but also very serious about playing banjo.  Clayton and I had the pleasure of seeing him in concert last summer as he performed with the Steep Canyon Rangers.  We loved the music and laughed the whole night while sitting on the lawn of the Chateau St. Michelle winery for the outdoor concert.  It rained most of the night on us, but the show was so entertaining and hilarious, we didn't mind.

On November 5th, 2010, Martin and Pikelny were side by side on the "David Letterman Show" as Martin awarded Pikelny with the 2010 Steve Martin Prize for Excellence in Banjo and Bluegrass.  Clayton found this YouTube clip of the show and wanted to share the laugh with you all.

     

Don't forget to come out Feb. 18th for the Hometown Hootenanny at the Historice Everett Theater.  Details and tickets at http://www.redcurtainfoundation.org/Hometown_Hootenanny.html.  We are playing there with Prairie Flyer, Northern Departure, Runaway Train and Convergence Zone.  It will be an exciting, jam-packed night of bluegrass!  We are looking forward to it and hope to see you there!

What is Our Problem?

You probably think I forgot to conclude the cliffhanger.  Well, I didn't.  I was just letting the tension and suspense build.  Are you just dying to know what our problem is? 

As I said in my last entry, we were in a singing workshop with Sue Thompson and she put a name to our problem.  She called it "noodling."  Ahhh, finally a name for this annoying problem.

For those who don't know, noodling is the playing of instruments when the song has stopped. It usually occurs when the band members are discussing changes to be made, set list, techniques, arrangement, etc.   Here's an example...Ben and Camden are discussing a part of the song, and instead of listening quietly or adding something useful to the discussion, Clayton begins to practice a break on his banjo.  The noise he makes is distracting and annoying (not because it is a banjo, but just because Ben and Cam can't hear each other).  Of course, this is just an example...purely hypothetical.   But it happens all the time with certain band members (the kids).

We have tried to stop the noodling with polite requests, loud reprimands, noodling fines, anti-noodling incentive programs, prolonged practices, shortened practices, humiliation and loss of privileges, praise for non-noodling behavior, and the list goes on.  Nothing has worked to stop our noodlers.  It has been a battle ever since we began playing together.

 Finally, a couple weeks ago, after being irritated with Clayton's noodling, Clark came up with an idea to stop the noodlers.  (We were surprised and delighted to see Clark's desire to join us older and more mature band members in our quest to stop the noodlers.  Will the conversion last?  We hope so....)

His idea was to have the noodlers hold their ears until we begin playing again.  If the noodler is holding his ears, then he will not be able to play his instrument.  We tried it on Clayton (the most persistent and hardened noodler) and it worked!  Clayton was completely unable to noodle while holding his ears.  Originally, we thought it would also help for him to put his banjo on the other side of the room, but it was pretty cumbersome to wait for him to haul it back and forth whenever we stopped playing.  Just having him hold his ears did the trick.  And it was pretty funny to look at too.  I snapped a picture of him here...  That's Clark in the background.

Whenever I see Clayton holding his ears, I find myself singing, "Do your ears hang low?  Do they wobble to and fro?  Can you tie them in a knot, can you tie them in a bow?  Can you throw them over your shoulder, like a continental soldier?  Do your ears hang low?"  Clayton doesn't look so happy though.

Not only has Clark's idea for dealing with noodlers been effective to stop the noodling, but it also makes us all laugh too.  That's a great thing for our practices.... "Oh, if only you knew...."

Coming up on Friday, February 18, the Hometown Hootenanny!  It is at 7:30 pm at the Historic Everett Theater in Everett.  We are excited to be playing there with Prairie Flyer, Northern Departure, Runaway Train, and Convergence Zone.  It will be a great night of bluegrass fun!  Go to the Historic Everett Theater for details.  See you there!!

Confessions...

Saturday night we played at the Maltby Jam and Open Mic.  The boys showed up early for the jam, while Ben and I came later so that we could hang out with our younger kiddos at home for awhile before our turn at the open mic. 

It was a blast to be at Maltby again since we had not been there since November.  There are many wonderful friends at the  Maltby Jam and Open Mic, and we love being with them.  A lot of the friends sent cards, notes and even visited Clark after his accident in December.  So, it was great to thank everyone in person for their kindnesses.  Clark even recieved a big hand of applause just for being there!  By the bright smile on his face, I think he was feeling the love!

In preparation for the open mic, we had some practices last week.  A lot of people ask me what our practices are like, and I kind of chuckle to myself, "Oh, if only you knew...." 

Some of the boys' friends have been here when we practice and if they were asked, they would also kind of chuckle to themselves, "Oh, if only you knew...." 

And last summer when visiting family in Illinois, some extended family members sat in on our practices and as they read this, they are definitely chuckling to themselves, "Oh, if only you knew!"

Our practices can be described in many ways, such as, noisy, passionate, funny, chaotic, frustrating, enlightening, educational, irritating, tiring, hilarious, loud, quarrelsome, weird, distracting, laughable, uplifting, and bonding.  We often pray for our practices to go well and that we would have a spirit of unity.  Usually our prayers are answered with resounding, yes! But, sometimes we are our own worst enemies. 

During some of our practices, I used to think, "Wow, I can see why the Beatles broke up now."  Bands break up all the time and it is no wonder.  It is hard work to agree on everything when there are preferences, ambition, creativity, artistic interpretation, and of course, egos, at stake.  As a family band made up mostly of young men, we deal with all those things too (especially egos--sorry, guys, had to write it).

However, we are not only a band, but also a family, and we always love each other deeply.  We also know how to irritate each other deeply. And sometimes we do.

The great thing about our being a family is that no one's going anywhere.  We are all stuck together by our name and relationship.  We have to work out whatever differences we have.  With a band made up of unrelated individuals, any one of the members can walk away as soon as the band situation is not fitting their needs or their liking.  He or she can always go and find another band that may be a better fit.  

However, with a family band, the members are not only band members, but family members.  As a result, there is a greater opportunity for unity and relationship with each other as we not only play together, but we also live together.  There is a lot more at stake when the members don't work it out.

All that to say that not only is our family band a great way to entertain others, but it also ends up being a wonderful training ground for close relationships as we work out the details of our music AND learn to respect one another in that process.  Fortunately for us, it has been a great joy and adventure.

I must say though, that sometimes it would be nice to learn those lessons in the privacy of our home, instead of onstage with the threat of public humiliation looming over our heads.  I am reminded of the time a couple years ago when two members (I won't mention names, but it is killing me not to) were fighting over a microphone while we were playing "Folsom Prison Blues." 

Band member #1 decided that band member #2 should not be miked for the song, and in the middle of the song, turned the microphone away from band member #2.  Band member #2 made a face at band member #1 and turned it back.  Band member #1 made a nastier face at band member #2 and turned it again.  I don't remember how it all turned out because of the extreme bloodrush to my face during this incident. The very obvious, non-verbal quarrel onstage nearly made me faint.  Fortunately, it did resolve later in our post-performance briefing, and I haven't noticed it ever being a problem again.

BUT there is one problem that we have been perplexed about; it is a problem that vexes the older and more mature members of the family band (Ben and I).  It is always there and persistently an issue.  What is this problem?  For a long time we did not know what to name this problem.  But one day, at a harmony lesson with Sue Thompson, a name was given to this persistent irritation.  And you will have to wait until my next blog to find out what that problem is!

Instead of publicity stunts like having band members getting hit by F-150s, we've decided to try another safer idea...a blog cliffhanger!

So, come back later and find out what our problem is.... Oh,that didn't sound right. Maybe I should try to say that another way.  I have never done a cliffhanger before.  How do you end them?  Or rather, how do you give the reader a sense of hanging over a cliff?  Hmmm. I need to generate a feeling of suspense and urgency. Oh, I don't know--just make sure you come back and read my next blog.

Until, next time...and don't forget about the Hometown Hootenanny in Everett on Feb. 18!!  Click on the link for details!

 

Wintergrass 2010!!!!!!

We are so excited--next week is Wintergrass! 

Our family has been so busy this week with Clayton and Clark's debate tournament preparations that we have hardly had time to even daydream about all the fun we will have at Wintergrass next week. This school year Clayton and Clark joined a debate club called Verve.  Clayton has been competing in Team Policy Debate and Extemporaneous Speech and Clark has been competing in Extemporaneous Speech.  There is a huge tournament this weekend in nearby Bothell.  We are playing for their banquet Saturday night.  Getting ready for this tournament has kept us very busy as I am helping with the Judges' Hospitality room.

But after we are finished with the tournament, we will be all ready for Wintergrass.  Wintergrass is a huge indoor bluegrass festival here in the Northwest.  In the past it was held in Tacoma, but this year it is being held in Bellevue, which is a lot closer to our home.  That means it will be a lot easier for us to spend lots of time at the festival! 

Something new for us this year is that Clayton, Clark and Camden are all volunteering in the Hospitality Room.  They are looking forward to putting all their energy to good use in helping the volunteers and performers take a break from their rigorous schedules.

Also this year we have a kiddo attending the Youth Academy.  We have not been involved with the Youth Academy before, but we thought this year we would give it a try.  Caleb, our Dobro player, will be enjoying instruction during Thursday and Friday at the Youth Academy. 

That leaves the girls and I to enjoy concerts and workshops at our leisure.  Ben will join us on Saturday.

As we get closer to Wintergrass, stay tuned to hear what we are looking forward to at Wintergrass...

Let the daydreaming begin...well, after Saturday (debate tournament, remember?)

ps.  I removed my cross-eyed picture...it was compromising my professional image.

Waterslide with "Sleigh Ride"

It has been a very, very busy last few months for me, and unfortunately my posting in this blog has suffered.  I know you all missed me….

I thought I would share some of the things I have learned about how to arrange strange songs for the banjo in the last month.  During the Christmas break, we had the wonderful opportunity to play three performances at a hotel and indoor waterpark, called The Great Wolf Lodge.  It was a fantastically fun gig. 

We spent hours going on waterslides, and figuring out how to corrupt the water cannons on the big water fort thing so that they would shoot MUCH farther than they were designed to.  What fun it was to watch people cluelessly walking along, thinking that they were out of range of the water cannons.  And then, BLAST!  Their shocked and indignant expressions sent us into hysterics.  Something about annoying random people is very attractive to us boys.  Actually, annoying any people, in general, is our favorite pastime.

Anyway, the way this all relates to music and banjo, in particular, is that for this gig, we had to learn Christmas songs bluegrass-style.  It sounds very simple doesn’t it?  Most Christmas songs have really simple melodies, right?

No.

We had a rather difficult time bluegrasserizing several songs.  Most were somewhat easy, but some were downright difficult.  One of these was “Sleigh Ride.”  I had learned the first part of it from a Bela Fleck recording, but the second part was a bit more elusive.  It moves into a C#M7 chord, and just gets a bit weird.  This is the reason the rest of the band decided that I should do it as a solo.  My initial thought was that I wouldn’t be able to do it.  Solo banjo is very easy: you are just playing by yourself.  Good solo banjo is very hard.  For some reason, the banjo just doesn’t sound quite as cool by itself (in other people’s opinion, not mine).  You have to make it interesting.  I had already learned the first part, and I had about three weeks to learn the rest, so I decided to give it a try.

The first thing I realized was that I had to stick very close to the melody.  In the first part that was easy--Bela Fleck had done all of my work for me and did it much better than I would have.  The second part, I just couldn’t  get to sound very good.  I tried and tried to figure it out by ear, but it just wasn’t happening.  So, I pulled out the Christmas Carol book we had and transcribed “Sleigh Ride” note for note into banjo tab.  I then went through and made the fingerings work.  After that, I learned it, and tried to make it as banjoistic, as possible.  Then I worked on trying to make it sound good all by itself.  From watching other great players do solo pieces, I had decided to accent the melody so that people would first hear that, and then all of the other stuff.

I don’t really know how it turned out, but nobody booed.  So, it must not have been horrible!  Arranging something like that taught me more about my banjo neck, and being familiar with ways to overcome technical difficulties in fingering and picking.  If you are bored with your playing, arranging unusual songs like that can give you some new ideas for your music.  I know it gave me some.    
    

Sinners Welcome

Last night, our family had a unique experience.  We had the privilege of playing for a juvenile detention center a couple hours from our home.  This performance opportunity came through an organization called Prisoners for Christ. 

We became involved with this organization after meeting one of its volunteers last year.  The volunteer found out that we have a family bluegrass band and asked if we would be interested in playing some concerts for detention centers in Washington.  We signed up for a couple concerts and last night was the first one.

The drive to the center was long and the weather was pretty awful.  We are in the nasty part of the year where everything is DARK, RAINY, COLD and WINDY.  These are the days when I question why we live here.  And I begin counting down to Dec.22--the day when we are past the shortest day of the year and it can only get better.  

Anyway, though it was a long ride, we had a fun time together laughing, teasing and storytelling.  The mood was light and joyful until we reached the center.  Then the  kids became sober when they saw the gates and concertina wire.  I felt some concern about what we were about to do.  Being a woman and a mom, I have a healthy fear of criminals.  And here I was taking my kiddos to where many reside.  

The young men we were going to be performing for were around the ages of 17-21.   We were going to give a 1 hour concert and were told that we may see 10-20 residents--never over 30.  The residents who can come to concerts are those with good behavior and who choose to come.  The facility holds about 200.  You can imagine our surprise and delight when 42 young men showed up!! 

The twist to this performance was that we were told that this is like a chapel service to the young men and that we were supposed to share our faith and Scripture with the young men.  Though we sing and play Gospel music and we are followers of Jesus Christ, we don't often share openly about our faith unless asked, or if we are playing for churches and such.  So this was going to be a very different performance for us.

My heart pounded hard as the young men filed into their seats.  They were quiet and so were we.  After our introduction, as soon as I hit the first note of "Suburban Breakdown" all the fear dissipated and we were on stage performing for what felt like new friends. 

They seemed a little shy and we delighted in getting them to smile and feel at ease.  Getting them to smile became easier and easier as the night went on.  I think they were surprised to find themselves enjoying bluegrass music.  Clayton said, "I felt like they were able to forget where they were for just awhile."  Yes!!

We added a new song to our repertoire for this performance.  It is actually an old song called, "Working on a Building."  Clayton sang it and it went very well.  I would put up a video of it, but we didn't bring the camera.  We will try to get it up another time.

We were torn about whether we should do our usual "Mama Tried" and actually had scratched it from the set, but a friend told us it would be something the young men would probably connect with.  So, we kept it and it led into an opportunity for Ben to talk about the Gospel.  It was very meaningful and exciting to be there with these young men as they pondered Christ's offer of a redeemed life.  Where would any of us be without the gift of a redeemed life?

Another highlight was, of course, "The Corn Dog Song."  A couple of our boys wanted to scratch that song too.  But, we decided to include it and the young men LOVED it!!  Many sang along and I am sure that the next time the center's menu has corndogs on it, they will not be able to control the urge to sing that silly chorus.

After we were finished, we packed up and headed out into some more terrible weather for our long drive home.  We listened to Cadillac Sky's album, Blind Man Walking, during the late night drive. One of the songs on the album, "Sinners Welcome," sticks out in my mind.

As we listened to the album that we have listened to many, many times, it struck us differently this time.  Many of the songs on that album are songs about prisoners.  And as we thought about it, we began to remember many other bluegrass tunes that refer to prison and being a prisoner.  Once again, we became excited about bluegrass and how this basic, enduring music brings to light the basics of life, and often Christ.

We are looking very forward to our next performance in December at another detention center.  Sinners Welcome!

Clayton's Visit to Banjo Heaven

Sunday night I returned from the weekend I spent at American Banjo Camp. It was an amazing experience! I learned much more than I thought I would, and I came away with a new appreciation for music theory.

The highlight of my trip was probably having the opportunity to take a one-on-one lesson from Pat Cloud on jazz soloing. It was very interesting and informative. Normally, the lessons there are taught in groups, but nobody else attended this particular class, so I was able to have a one-on-one lesson. It was awesome! I got to know him over the weekend, and found that he was a great person, in addition to being a fantastic banjo player. I also was able to take group lessons from other instructors such as Alan Munde, Bill Keith, and Danny Barnes. I learned so much….

Let me start with our trip there. We brought our band trailer so that we would have some room in the car during the drive there. It also enabled us to bring my Mom’s bass so that she could participate in the evening jams. She was very nervous about having to drive the trailer, because she likes to stop and accelerate quickly, and also has a habit of driving over the curb while turning corners in the Suburban. It is kind of like the way I drive, except on a slightly lesser scale. But with some practice, she did fine.

We got a bit lost on our way, but eventually arrived at our destination just in time to attend orientation. Mom and the rest of my siblings (Dad and Caleb were on their own fishing trip) went to go do other activities at that point, leaving me on my own.

 The students went through a quick orientation then went off to the first class. I elected to attend Chord Melody Soloing by Pat Cloud. It was rather interesting and I learned about how to embellish chords, and use them to play melodies. The second class I took was taught by Alan Munde. It was called Fiddle Tune Arrangements, and it talked about how to arrange fiddle tunes for the banjo. It was very interesting. I haven’t learned my melodic and single string scales completely yet, and this class impressed on me the need to learn them in order to be a better banjo player, and be able to find melodies note for note. It was a good class! 

I then went and ate supper. After supper, Mom, Camden, Clark, and I were hosting a jam with Alan Munde and Danny Barnes in a cabin. I think all of us were nervous about jamming with two legendary banjo players. I know I was somewhat petrified. I think Alan noticed this, because when I introduced myself, “Hi, I’m Clayton, by the way,” he responded with, “Hi, ’Clayton by the way.’” Throughout the whole weekend, he was cracking jokes like that. He was very funny to listen to. I think he liked messing with people.  

Anyway, the jam session went off without much of a hitch, I even remembered all of the words when I sang “Mama Tried!” I also got to witness the fantastic banjo playing of Alan Munde and Danny Barnes. Danny Barnes played guitar for most of the evening, and brought out his banjo for the last two songs. He is an amazing guitar player in addition to being a fantastic banjo player. 

I am running out of time for this post, so I will continue my story in the next one. Until then, we have a gig at a local chef’s show on Tuesday, Sept. 15 at the Kitsap County Fairgrounds. For more information, visit http://www.buylocalfoodinkitsap.org/peninsula-local-food-chef-showoff. We would love to see you there!  

Also, we are playing at Trinity's Heidelfest on Saturday, September 19.  For more information, visit http://www.heidelfest.com/2009/08/foooooood.html.       

Singing

We have been practicing, practicing, practicing.  I know you must be getting tired of me writing that, but you ought to try the practicing part!  Ugh.  We are working on our singing with the help of our voice teacher, Deanna Sarkar.  I found her name through a homeschool co-op that I belong to.  She was advertising for voice lessons and I happened to notice her card on an info table at the co-op.  On her card was listed every genre of music you could imagine...except bluegrass. I called her anyway.  I figured if she could teach singing, why not bluegrass?  I thought that she didn't put bluegrass on her card because she knew that if she did, then she would just be flooded with too many students.

So, I called her and we have been meeting with her for over a month now.  And, wow!  We are just thrilled with the new singing skills she has been teaching us!  She is a very capable and fun teacher.  And we found out that even though she wasn't overly familiar with bluegrass (leaving bluegrass off her card was not a ploy to keep her number of students to a manageable ratio), her expertise in all other music areas was more than adequate for bluegrass.  That probably comes as no surprise to most.  Anyway, we all look forward to having lessons with her not only because she teaches us to sing, but also because she has a great sense of humor!  You kind of need one to work with our crew....

Anyway, we are working hard to get our new singing skills in shape for Folklife.  The harmonies are sooo fun to sing.  It is like having a harmonica in your throat (although, perhaps if you truly swallowed a harmonica and had it stuck in your throat, it might not be so fun)!  I just love it!  Clayton, Kathryn and I have been working on "Angel Band" and "Mama Tried."  Hopefully, we will be able to nail each song well on Friday.  It is hard to sing and play at the same time.  I am finding that challenging...but with some more work, I am sure it will come. 

The hardest thing is getting the time to work on it.  There's a lot of baseball this week, finals for Kathryn and just regular stuff of life with a large family.  But we have practices scheduled almost every night and plan to hit it hard until it is all "easy as pie."  In the meantime, we are loving being able to sing together.  What a wonderful thing it is to be able to sing together.... 

See you at Folklife!

Ron Block's Banjo DVD

Well, this is Clayton again to tell some more about what I have been working on lately, and the answer is…..not much…. I have not had as much time as I would like to work on/obsess over my chronic addiction of playing banjo.  My mother has probably told you all about our busy schedule, so I will not delve into our complicated life here.  But, I will tell you that my baseball team is 10-6, which is pretty decent, and that I just got a new (actually used, but new for me) baseball bat.  Hooray!  It has been a lot of fun playing baseball this year. Anyway, back to the more relevant information…

I recently picked up a copy of Ron Block’s instructional DVD called "A Fresh Look at Bluegrass Banjo."  I have enjoyed the DVD very much, and would heartily recommend it to any student of the banjo who wants to take his or her playing to the next level.  I love Ron Block’s banjo playing, and had secretly been hoping that he would come out with something like this for about the last year. 

When I heard the news on the Banjo Hangout Forum that he would be making an instructional DVD and wanted suggestions for it, I was thrilled!  I made my input and waited several months for the DVD to be released.  A week after it was released, I ordered it.  The official story is that I waited a week before ordering, so that I would avoid waiting because of backordering. Unofficially, I didn’t have the fifty bucks to buy it, so I worked as hard as I could for a week to raise the money, and then it still got backordered.  Grrrrr! 

After three weeks of nail-biting and hand-wringing, it finally came!  I instantly popped it into the DVD player, and sat on the couch with my banjo.  Being the impatient person I am, I didn’t want to watch it all the way through at first, so I skipped to the songs I had burning questions about.  The first one I watched was My Poor Old Heart.  I watched in amazement as my questions about how Ron makes his break sound so good on that song melted away.  This is what I needed!

The DVD includes the songs "Cluck Old Hen", "Tiny Broken Heart", "Man Of Constant Sorrow", "I’ll Remember You Love in My Prayers", "Every Time You Say Goodbye", "Bright Sunny South", "My Poor Old Heart", and "Smashville".  For each song, Ron first discusses some of the tricks and special things about the song, plays it with a band, then teaches the son--one phrase at a time.  After he is finished teaching, he plays the song without the band at medium speed, then at slow speed.

This method of teaching is very nice, as he actually goes over difficult parts more than once so that you have ample time to learn a complicated phrase without having to rewind over and over again.  The teaching sections are presented in a split screen mode, with Ron’s picking hand on a smaller screen in the corner, and his fretting hand in the center of the screen.  This feature is adjustable so that if you prefer to see the picking hand more than the fretting hand you can change it in the options.  The DVD also comes with a very accurate tab booklet for those who prefer to learn that way.

I really like the beginning section of the DVD where he talks about the ideas behind his banjo playing.  He puts a lot of thought into what he does, and it is interesting to hear some of his ideas.  He does some things differently than most banjo players, one of these things being his hammer-ons.  If you listen to his playing on, let’s say, Rain Please Go Away, you will notice that his hammer-ons sound a little different than a normal hammer-on.  They sound, for lack of a better term, slurpy.  This is because he hammers three notes at one time.

Example:
Regular hammer-on as done by the Average Joe:
          h 
----------------------------------
-------1-3-----------------------
----------------------------------
----------------------------------
----------------------------------
        T
Ron Block hammer-on:
        h h
---------------------------------
----1-2-3----------------------
--------------------------------
--------------------------------
--------------------------------
     T

You are still hitting the string one time, but are getting three notes instead of two.  This is a very cool technique which helps Ron sound unique from other banjo players.  He delves quite deeply into other areas of his techniques in the DVD, and the result is a very full view of how he approaches the banjo.

I really enjoyed the DVD, and after several months, have still not completely learned all the material on it.  I think it would be invaluable to any intermediate/advanced players, and beginners can learn a lot from it too.  Thank you, Ron Block, for coming out with a great product!

Singing Harmony

Hey, I just received an email announcing the availability of a new CD that teaches how to sing harmony.  Sue Thompson, Keith Little and Don Share have put this CD together and it is now available.  The title is "How to Sing Harmony the Natural Way" and it's actually a two-CD set.  Here's the website www.harmonybyear.com.  I would tell more about the CD set, but the website already describes it very well.  So check out the website!

We met Sue last summer when we asked her to help us learn to sing harmony. Before that we had tried using another "how to harmony" CD that basically had you memorize all the parts.  It was not very helpful.  And it didn't teach us to figure out the harmony for ourselves.  But Sue's method does and that is why we like it so much.

Sue did a great job working with us.  She is very patient  and encouraging, and she knows what she is doing.  Her method for learning to sing harmony is pretty simple, and she boils it down very well for the "harmony challenged" (like us!).  We are excited about this new CD and are looking forward to purchasing it!  Especially because now we won't have to drive all the way to Ballard for harmony lessons!  It is so hard for us to make it over there consistently!

  Check out this new CD and let me know what you think--my guess is that you will like it very much!