The Glory-Beaming Banjo

Like last year, I am finishing 2023 on a high note. However, my playing time will fall well short of my goals this year with even fewer hours than 2022. And yet, I've been on a role since November, logging my longest streak within the year, which was only surpassed by the streak that had begun in 2022 and carried over until the end of January.  Other than not playing enough, I managed to do OK with some of my other goals this year. I'm happy to say I made it to some jams and local festivals this year, but I'd like to get into a more consistent routine of playing with others in 2024. It was a sad year for the old-time community. We lost some great people who left an indelible mark on the music and the people who knew them. Their memory will continue to live on in those whose lives they touched. Rest in peace, Kerry Blech, Robert Anderson and Bob Miller.   Got Back to Jams (A Couple, Anyway) Thinking back on 2023, I thought I went to more than just two jams. I attended a b...

Greetings, glorious readers! It's time for a quick update of my February five-string flings. Since my last update, I had two wonderful opportunities to play old-time music with friends.  First was a house jam to celebrate the birthday of Stephen Rapp , a regular player in Paul Kirk's Old-Time Tune of the Week videos. The festivities included a great gathering of Northeast Ohio musicians. I mostly played banjo. The group played a couple Ward Jarvis tunes for which I pulled out my fiddle, but I was too rusty to play along, so I went back the five-string.  Next was the 7th annual Lake Erie Folk Festival in Euclid, Ohio. I sat in on two organized community jams with an impromptu jam in the hallway in between the orchestra-sized sessions. I played banjo for the first couple hours and then switched to fiddle.  In addition, I finished work on "Hawks & Eagles" from Michael Ismerio's All-Access Online Fiddle Course and moved on to "Sally Ann." Because of s...

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on every aspect of our lives. For those of us who enjoy playing old-time music, opportunities to play our instruments with others has been severely limited. No more going to jams at bars or coffee shops. No more festivals. No more workshops. No more lessons. Just sit at home and play alone. Thankfully, technology can ease some of that pain. In the last couple weeks, I participated in a couple of online fiddle workshops and a virtual old-time jam. As a result of the coronavirus pandemic, video conferencing has hit the mainstream. People using the technology for everything from remote work meetings to virtual cocktail hour with family and friends. Zoom has become the technology du jour. The online conferencing platform seems to have materialized out of nowhere with the advent of social distancing, stay-at-home orders and mass quarantines. While some old-time musicians have been offering lessons through Skype for years, many are...

First of all, all apologies for the monthlong gap between this post and the last one . Things got a bit heavy with my professional workload and general seasonal affectation demotivation. But I'm back, and I have some ideas for my next couple posts. But first, let's get this one out of the way.  As I'm wont to do , here's my review of my old-time music activities for the First Quarter 2019. My navalgazing blogger version of a corporate earnings report shows that I logged 47.5 hours on fiddle and 12.5 hours on banjo, attended two jams and one festival. My fiddle tune for this quarter was "Arkansas Traveler." I learned a very basic version that I figured I could eventually work into something more interesting later on. The main thing was to use the tune as a means to improve my basic rhythm, and I think I've achieved that.  On the banjo, I successfully learned to sing (that's a relative term) and play "Mole in the Ground." That went ...

Last night I reached a new milestone in my attempt to play banjo and fiddle everyday. When I took my banjo out at a jam, I marked 70 days straight of playing it. I achieved the same feat on the fiddle a couple days ago. My daily habit dates back to May 7 on fiddle and May 10 for banjo. Most of my banjo playing over the past two months has been in short bursts, a few minutes here and a half hour there. All of that has been solo, either on the couch or on my porch. Yesterday bucked both trends. My extended playing session was the longest of the year, while also the first time I've played banjo in a group setting in I don't know how long. Probably a couple years at least. I've been so focused on learning the fiddle that anytime I went to a jam, my banjo stayed home. It was a measure to prevent myself from taking the easy road and playing what was more familiar. For whatever reason, I decided to bring the five-string along last night. I'm glad I did. It was a s...

T he inaugural Lake Erie Folk Festival was Feb. 27. Here my instruments are by the door ready to go jam. My wife and I brought our two-year-old son along. He made it long enough for me to participate in the old-time jam led by Mark Olitsky , Susie Goehring and Christina Tanczos . As one friend described it, the slow jam was more like an orchestra because of the tiered seating. I'm looking forward to next year and hopefully experiencing more of the event.

If you've been holding your breath since my last post, my apologies to your family. It's hard to believe it's been more than three months. My only excuse is that I haven't had much banjo-related news to report, as the fiddle has been my main instrument as I continue to tackle the fickle beast. Bertie the Bus on Banjo Road. The few times I do drag out the banjo, it becomes part of  my son's playground. It most recently served as a road for his toy bus to drive along. His muting of the strings has actually led me toward a new staccato way of playing when I do manage to be left alone. The fiddle, though, reigns supreme. This month marked a year and a half of working through Brad Leftwich's Learn to Play Old-Time Fiddle videos. Last week I started the final tune of the two DVD set, "Old-Time Blackberry Blossom" (aka " Garfield's Blackberry Blossom "). It's a real finger workout, but it's a fun tune.

Mark Olitsky (center) jams with other local musicians at the Raccoon County Music Festival in Burton, Ohio. Your intrepid blogger (center) plays tunes with old, new and soon-to-be friends at the Raccoon County Music Festival .

It's been several months since I've been to a local jam session. Since my son was born in September, it's just been too difficult to find the time. One of my goals this year is to get back to playing with others, preferably in the next month or so. The thought of playing my banjo in a group again fills me with a bit of anxiety. By nature, I'm not the most outgoing person. Couple that with the feeling of being way out of practice, and you have a recipe for the nervous nellies. As readers know, I've spent most of my music-playing time this past year learning the fiddle. However, I still don't feel confident enough to play it in public. Besides, there are plenty of fiddlers around and not enough banjo bangers to keep them honest. It seems high time I get back to woodshedding tunes on the five-string to get myself back up to speed. I like to practice by playing along with recordings. Last night, I was reminded of the handy Old-Time Jam Machine , an online sour...

The time is nigh, local folk fans. The 46th annual Kent State Folk Festival is this week in Kent, Ohio. Concerts start tonight, while the WKSU Folk Alley 'Round Town is tomorrow night and the free community workshops are Saturday. Banjo and old-time fans should pay particular attention to a few events Friday and Saturday. First, during the 'Round Town on Friday, there is an open old-time jam from 5 to 8 p.m. (or later) at the Euro Gyro, sponsored by the Kent Shindig, a group that gathers monthly every first Sunday. Also of note Friday are performances by old-time banjo player Shelby Bondzio from 3:30 to 5:50 p.m. at Kent Free Library, local old-time musicians Joe LaRose and Lynn Fredrick from 6 to 9 p.m. at Woodsy's Music, and the Mayfields start at 8 p.m. at Standing Rock Cultural Arts. Check the schedule for many others, from a wide range of genres. Saturday's schedule includes clogging workshops by Charlie Burton with music by Marilyn and Tom Lashuay at no...

Learning to play the banjo began as solitary venture. Me plus banjo plus book plus websites: that's how I started. This instrument and the music I wanted to play wasn't passed down to me from an elder. While my grandparents lived in Brevard, N.C. , they didn't play music, and it wasn't until after I undertook the banjo that I learned of the region's thriving old-time community. Instead, the banjo was my key to connecting with others. After two years of playing (but just one year of playing old-time), I finally summoned the courage to attend my first jam in May 2010, the Kent Shindig , in my hometown of Kent, Ohio. There, I found a thriving -- and growing -- group of people interested in the music to which I had become addicted.  There's discussion now at the Banjo Hangout about missed generations in the old-time community, decrying the decreasing frequency of musicians learning knee-to-knee from their elders.  Having to rely on technology to le...

Some Christians believe the Rapture will come tomorrow, and some people think that's a perfect occasion to bust out the banjos and play some old-time music. John Walkenbach, banjo player and author of The J-Walk Blog , posted this entry about the " Rapture Jam ": "wormpicker came up with the idea of a rapture old-time jam, to be held on Saturday, May 21. That's the day of the scheduled Rapture. It will probably be in a park, so we can watch people float up to heaven while we play music accompanied by an earthquake. "If you're anywhere near Tucson, and would like to join in, let me know and I'll provide details. That means, you, 12-stringer. "Please dress appropriately, and wear hipster glasses if you have 'em." It would be spectacular if more of these Rapture Jams took place around the country. However, there's already an opportunity to hear and play some old-time in Northeast Ohio this weekend. Hessler Street Fair Saturday an...

Festival season is upon us, and Northeast Ohio hosts two events this weekend for fans of traditional music. The 13th annual  Oberlin Folk Festival kicks off tomorrow, May 6, at Cat in the Cream Coffeehouse on the campus of Oberlin College and Conservatory . A highlight of the Friday concert is a performance by the Dust Busters , an old-time string band based in Brooklyn, N.Y. Capping off the evening will be a contra dance sponsored by the Oberlin Contra Dance Club . The festival continues Saturday, May 7, with more performances by local and student acts. You can view the full schedule here . Admission is free. From the far, far west side of Cleveland, we go to the far, far east side for the inaugural  Blue Sky Folk Festival , at the East Shore Unitarian Universalist Church, in Kirtland, Ohio, on Saturday, May 7. Performers include Hal Walker, Hu$hmoney, Dale Rodgers, and the Workmen's Circle Klezmer Orchestra, with storytelling by Robin Echols Cooper and c...

One of the most important aspects of playing old-time music is the communal participation of playing the music with other people. However, sometimes that option doesn't exist. Thankfully, there's an "app for that" -- or at least there's a good website anyway. Last December, Josh Turknett , a member of the Banjo Hangout wrote about a new webpage he had created, called The Old Time Jam , which features a music players with backup music tracks (with guitar, fiddle and banjo) to many traditional fiddle tunes. When you go to the site, you see at the bottom a music player, called The Old-Time Machine, which gives you the option of playing with two different speeds of a guitar track or a combination of guitar-fiddle, guitar-banjo, or fiddle-banjo. It also shows the chord changes to help you learn a tune by ear. If you've never been to a jam or want to improve your skills of playing with others, The Old Time Jam site is a great tool. It's also just a fun w...