The Glory-Beaming Banjo

Shall we just rip the Band-Aid off? I'm not going to make my overall playing time goal in 2022 . This has been an especially up-and-down year, as I've gone through equal measures of glut and famine when it comes to my musical endeavors.  My main goal this year was to get back into good practice habits. Unfortunately, I've struggled to find consistency.  I knew at the outset that aiming for a combined 250 hours of playing time on banjo and fiddle was a foolhardy mission. As of this writing, I'm three hours short of even reaching the halfway mark on my goal. With just two days remaining in 2022, it's pretty clear I won't even achieve half of my goal.  Despite my struggles this year, I'm not all doom and gloom about my playing. I've made some excellent progress with Michael Ismerio's All-Access Online Fiddle Course , learning 10 new tunes over the past 12 months.  On banjo, I have only learned four new tunes, but I've also tried to continue to get m...

Tradition states that I provide a summary of my banjo and fiddle playing over the past year. Give you a glimpse at how I did regarding my goals . What I learned. The things I did. The places I went. You know, the normal stuff.  In a year that saw the worst global pandemic in more than a century, there's not much to say about the places I went. My goals went out the window. I changed course on what I had planned to learn . Nothing was normal.  This year has been a rollercoaster. My motivation has risen and fallen on a week to week basis. Mostly, my aim has been to keep my daily streak going and just get to the end of the year. Goals be damned.  Fourth Quarter Review While I'm recapping 2020, this post also serves as my final quarterly report. Here are my previous 2020 quarterly reports:  First Quarter Second Quarter Third Quarter The fourth quarter was highlighted by a virtual fiddle lesson with Michael Ismerio (not to be confused with the workshop I attended earlier...

This has been a low production year. I can't see myself putting together a post that will top any of the posts that have already been published here in 2020. I'm always thankful for those of you who continue to visit this site and read my ramblings about banjo, fiddle and my adventures in old-time music.  I'm all ready to reflect on what can be reflected upon and move on to 2021. The following are the top viewed posts of 2020.  Sustainable Banjos: An Interview with Pisgah Banjos Founder Patrick Sawyer By far the most popular post this year, this interview was published the week after I started working from home for what I thought would be a short-term period. I think Pisgah Banjos is making some of the best banjos available today. Patrick was a very interesting interview, and here's a belated congratulations, as he and his wife welcomed their son in August.  5 Years, 5 Questions: Talking to Laura Lewis About the Lake Erie Folk Festival Here we have an interview and prev...

During these waning days of 2019, I figured I'd give you one last look back at the year that was. The following are the five most viewed posts of 2019.  Review: Mike Seeger's Just Around the Bend . I'm cheating a bit with this one because this Smithsonian release occupied two of the most popular posts of the year. The actual top post by a couple hundred views was my post announcing that Seeger's final project would be released in August . My review of said CD/DVD/booklet set came in a few slots down the list. Remembering the Kent State Folk Festival . A love letter to a once-popular event for old-time musicians like Tommy Jarrell, Melvin Wine, the Highwoods String Band, the Carolina Chocolate Drops and more. And it all happened in my hometown. Remember when I said I was going to write multiple posts on the festival? Me neither.  Review: Anna & Elizabeth, "Hop High"/"Here in the Vineyard." Anna Roberts-Gevalt and Elizabeth LaPrel...

After a couple years focusing on the playing of Ward Jarvis and struggling with rhythm, this year's goals were aimed at righting the ship and learning some old chestnuts on fiddle. I also tried my hand at learning to sing while playing banjo, and enjoyed it so much that I decided to focus on songs for the entire year. For the final quarter of 2019, I was working on "Old Joe Clark" on fiddle and "Down in the Willow Garden" on banjo. As my main source for "Old Joe Clark," I used the playing of Brad Leftwich from his book, Old-Time Fiddle: Round Peak Style , which I got way back in 2014 . What I discovered is that his syncopated bowing style is beyond me, at least for right now. I tried to keep some of the elements I enjoyed from his playing, including some of the slides, but I have been working on playing it perhaps a bit more straight ahead. It's still a work in progress. Up until I found Iron Mountain String Band's Walkin' in the ...

You may have voted with your pageviews which posts you liked best over the past year, but a few of my favorites didn't make the cut. Since we looked back at your favorite posts of 2018 last week, I thought it would be fun to revisit some of my pet projects this week. The following are five of my favorite posts to write in 2018:  1. Sounds of Summer: Beach Boys and the Banjo — My Beach Boys obsession seeped into my banjo addiction with this post. At first I found five songs where they used a banjo, but  I have since added two others I discovered after writing this post in July. From 1968 to 1973, the Beach Boys included the banjo on five of six albums. Al Jardine appears to be the only band member to actually play banjo. 2. Mike Seeger's Final Smithsonian Folkways Project  — In May, I wrote to Smithsonian Folkways regarding an uncompleted documentary that Mike Seeger was working on prior to his death in 2009. After some correspondence with Folkways p...

This has been quite the year at The Glory-Beaming Banjo. Although things may have slowed down a bit in the last three months, 2018 marks a new high in terms of the number of posts published in a year. That last time we had more than 30 posts was our first year, in 2011 . This one puts us at 40! Aside from the quantity of posts here, I'd like to think there was some quality too. Judging by the views, it seems at least a few items caught your attention this year. That said, here are the Top 5 posts for 2018: 1. Getting Blitzed with Tom Collins : Not just a top post for 2018, but this interview now ranks among our top posts of all time. Collins had just completed his Banjo Blitz series on YouTube. This year he launched Banjo Quest, an even more ambitious instructional video project that is well worth your attention. Check out his YouTube page . 2. Clawhammer Picks and You : A review of five different options for those in need of a pick for downstroke banjo playing. Whether...

Can you believe 2018 is drawing to a close? That means it's time for a heavy dose of navelgazing to see what's built up, what needs work and perhaps what needs to be cleaned out. Back in January, I dubbed this " A Second Year of Ward Jarvis ," building on the previous year's progress . My goals were to learn four Ward Jarvis tunes on fiddle, log 186 hours of practice and play my banjo more often. The tunes on this year's list were culled from my list of common Ohio tunes , as well as one carryover from 2017. Here are the tunes: Three Forks of Reedy Leather Britches Forked Deer Grey Eagle Fourth Quarter Highlights The Good:   "Grey Eagle," while still a work in progress, has come along nicely. I had the opportunity to play with some folks recently, and I gave my newest tune a try for the first time in a group setting. It didn't go half bad. There are still three and a half weeks to go this year, and I think by then it'll be do...

Well, folks, the New Year is upon us. I hope you have enjoyed the holiday season. Thank you all for reading my blog throughout the year, despite my sometimes lackadaisical frequency. This is a hobby, and I appreciate all of your support. Keep in mind, we do have a Facebook page . Join us there to keep the conversation going. I look forward to what is to come in 2018. For your enjoyment, here are the Top 5 Glory-Beaming posts of 2017: The Year of Ward Jarvis : Learn how I decided to put together a project to learn the repertoire of the great Athens County, Ohio, fiddler. Review: Olitsky and Moskovitz Weave Beautiful Banjo Harmonies on "Duets" : A look at the banjo duets album, released earlier this year by two great players. New Additions to My Old-Time Record Collection : An overview of my budding old-time vinyl collection, including Tommy Jarrell, Ed Haley, Roscoe Holcomb and more. An Old-Time Smorgasbord in Peninsula : A preview of the wonderful Music on the Porche...

In January I dubbed this the "Year of Ward Jarvis." My intention was to start learning the repertoire of what I've come to call the Ohio River Valley Fiddlers, primarily those old-time musicians who lived in Kentucky, Ohio and West Virginia. Starting with the repertoire of Jarvis, an Athens County, Ohio-based fiddler, I identified six of his tunes to learn from the field recordings by Jeff Goehring and David Brose. Those tunes were: "Head of the Creek" "Icy Mountain"   "Tomahawk" "Pretty Little Indian" "Three Forks of Reedy" "Cattle in the Cane" Goehring's recordings of Jarvis are available via the Field Recorders Collective. Brose produced two LPs that included Jarvis and his family in the 1979, Rats Won't Stay Where There's Music and Traditional Music from Central Ohio , both of which are now out of print. I received digital copies of these recordings through generous members of the Fid...

Your scribe (second from right) with some friends at the 2017 Raccoon County Music Festival. (Source: Chagrin Valley Times) Well, it's been a minute, hasn't it? The last year has been difficult on many fronts. Playing music was no exclusion. The amount of time I spent playing banjo and fiddle suffered the most. I didn't blog much either, which you already knew. But it wasn't all bad. Here's a look back at last year and a look ahead to my goals for the year ahead. 2016 Notes I have now been playing banjo for eight years and fiddle for four years. My focus remains on the fiddle, as I try to learn general technique and tunes. Time spent playing banjo was mostly to keep up with a handful of tunes I like most. Playing Time: Due to increased work travel and other factors, my playing time was dramatically reduced in 2016. As mentioned before , I log my practice time in the quest to reach that fabled 10,000-hour mark. This last year was my lowest (by far) amount o...

H appy New Year, banjo nerds! We’re back with a few quick topics as we kick off 2016 and another exciting year of the Glory-Beaming Banjo. Let’s get right to it. Year in Review The New Year marked my third year playing fiddle. I’m playing with a little more confidence, but realize I have a long way to go. I accomplished a number of goals in 2015. I got out more to play with others, which has helped improve my ear, rhythm and speed. I completed the Brad Leftwich “Learn to Play Old-Time Fiddle” videos, which gave me a good foundation to build on, with a strong focus on rhythmic bowing. I also exceeded my annual practice goal.

Having just looked back on the progress I've made playing the fiddle this year , it seems appropriate to revisit some of the other blog-worthy events of 2013. This has been a momentous year. By far, the biggest highlight of the year was becoming a father , but there were some pretty cool things happening in my old-time music realm as well. Here are a couple notables. Interviews We kicked off the year with an interview with Chris Valluzzo of Horse Archer Productions about the upcoming documentary on the Highwoods String Band. At the time, the documentary was scheduled to be released in the spring or summer, but a wild goose chase for more footage of the Highwoods playing live has delayed the project. Valluzzo provided an update in October on Facebook, saying the film should be ready around Christmastime. In March, Greg Galbreath of Buckeye Banjos spoke to the Glory-Beaming Banjo about creating custom banjos. Since then, Galbreath has closed his custom orders list to begin f...

A few years ago, I read Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers , which propagates the idea of "the 10,000-hour rule," whereby it takes 10,000 hours of practicing a certain task to become a master of that task. This idea planted a seed that led me to create a spreadsheet to track my banjo playing. I already tracked my running on another spreadsheet, so it seemed natural to carry over the practice to quantify my musical pursuits. Since 2008, I've logged 1,010 hours (and counting) of banjo playing, so in another 45 years I'll have mastered the instrument. I'll be 79 years old. It seems hopeless to think that way, but having the spreadsheet helps me keep track of my progress, regardless of whether I ever actually reach that gilded 10,000-hour mark. A year ago, I bought a fiddle as a Christmas gift to me from my wife, and you'd better believe I created a spreadsheet to track my playing. I made some great progress in the beginning of the year, but then the weather got...