Not Easily Broken

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!

Introducing...Caleb!

Caleb has approached me several times wanting to write in the blog.  And we are going to give him his chance now.  So, in his own words, here's Caleb and how he became interested in playing the Dobro.

Hi, I am Caleb.  You are probably wondering what a Dobro is.  It is a resophonic guitar.  You can hear it in Hawaiian music.  It is popular in bluegrass music too. 

I found this instrument at a magical place called Maltby.  We play there often.  Well, at Maltby a long, long, long, long, time ago (in my ten years of life), was the first time I saw this weird instrument.  I didn't think of it then, but one night at dinner, mom asked me what I wanted to play.  She said, "Pick something that you like the sound of."  I remembered what I saw at Maltby and I liked the sound.  So you might say I just slid into it!

Now you may be wondering how I learned to write such a good blog.  I learned from such a good mother who taught me!

                                            Until next time....

Post-Wintergrass 2009, Part 2

More about Wintergrass...

We arrived right when the first Saturday workshops were beginning.  So, we quickly chose our workshops and planned to meet up later.  I went to a workshop that equipped bluegrass bands to present bluegrass programs and music in schools.  This workshop was presented by Nancy Cardwell from IBMA.  It featured the band Bearfoot.  Bearfoot presents bluegrass music to many children through school presentations and camps. 

My mind was racing with ideas and questions.  Last year, we presented a bluegrass workshop to some local schools in our area.  It was a lot of fun and we would love to do some more of this kind of performing.  It is a great way to invest in our community.  We really enjoyed the kids and their interesting questions and eager enthusiasm.  The  workshop at Wintergrass was very informative and inspiring, complete with lots of resources.  We look forward to exploring how we can use our music to educate, inspire and encourage children in our community.

Ben, Kathryn, Clayton and Caleb went to a harmony workshop featuring the Isaacs.  Whoa!!  The Isaacs were amazing!!  I caught the tail end of their workshop and was captivated by their voices.   Ben said he wished I could have seen the whole thing because it was incredible to hear them singing together.   The Isaacs made quite an impression on Ben.  The main point they im0pressed upon him was that to sing well, one has to sing ALL THE TIME.  Once again, it comes down to practice, practice, practice!  The Isaacs treat their voices like instruments.  That inspired us to begin singing all the time just like playing our instruments all the time.

We were able to catch the Isaac's show later in the day.  WOW!!  Ben is planning on getting their CD's.  Ben, Clayton, Kathryn and I voted them as our favorite concert of the day.  The Isaac's were going to perform a gospel sing-along the Sunday morning of Wintergrass.  I wish we could have attended it.  If anyone knows how that went, we'd love to hear about it!

Until next time...

Wintergrass 2009: Clayton's Picks

Not banjo picks, but Wintergrass picks!

Wintergrass 2009 is upon us!  Wintergrass is a huge bluegrass festival in downtown Tacoma, that takes place in the Hotel Murano, Grace Urban Church, The Marriott Hotel, Rialto Theater, and The Varsity Grill.  It is a fantastically fun destination for any bluegrass fan.  We will be there for sure on Saturday, and possibly part of Friday.  We definitely can't wait!

The festival offers a variety of experiences:  jamming (the most common activity), concerts, workshops, and instrument vendors.  This year, I am the "Official Planner for The Hess Wintergrass 2009 Experience."   That theoretically means that I get to decide what we (my fam) will do at Wintergrass this year.  So, I have researched most of the bands playing there this weekend, and will give you my top nine picks, as well as, a description of them.  You can view the bands' webpages by going to the Wintergrass website.  Here it goes!

#1 Blue Highway--Incredible bluegrass band, one of Caleb's favorite bands because of their dobro player, Rob Ickes.

#2 Michael Cleveland and Flame Keeper--We saw this band last year, and they put on an incredible show. Michael Cleveland is one of the best fiddle players I have ever heard. Make sure to attend his concert, you won't be disappointed!

#3 The Isaacs--A family band that is known for its good harmony--at least vocally-wise, I don't know much about their personal life. :)  But, I bet they get along well to be able to sing like that!

#4 Three Ring Circle--A trio made up of Rob Ickes, David Pomeroy, and Andy Leftwich.  Andy Leftwich is one of Clark's favorite mandolin players.

#5 Dewgrass--Another family band that we first met at Wintergrass last year.  The whole family is very talented--Luke,the banjo player, beat me in a banjo contest last year.  They have a lot of interesting and  original material.  Go see them!

#6 The Traveling McCourys--These are the McCoury boys of the Del McCoury Band with fiddle player Jason Carter.

#7 The Bee Eaters--These guys are more New Acoustic Music than bluegrass, but still have some pretty cool stuff. They have pretty unusual instrumentation:  banjo, cello, 5-string fiddle, and hammered dulcimer. The banjo player, Wes Corbett, grew up near Seattle. He will be giving a workshop Saturday morning that I am definitely going to attend!

#8 The Alison Brown Quartet--Alison Brown was one of the first well known female banjo players. She is very talented, but has moved away from the bluegrass side of things.  She is playing more of a jazzy style of music now, but I will still go see her so that I can steal some licks!

#9 Tony Trischka--Well-known banjo player. He won IBMA's "Bluegrass Album of the Year" for his album Double Banjo Bluegrass Spectacular, which I must say certainly deserved the award. 

So that is my top nine picks. I hope this year's festival is a success, and that we will see you down there!

P.S.  This is my Dad's first bluegrass festival, so be nice to him so that he will come back next year!