First Quarter Report: Arkansas Traveled

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 so well that I'm scrapping the other tunes on the list I published in my 2019 goals post and am instead developing a list of other songs to learn. 

My other big goals were to play with others more often and to record myself regularly. I did well on the first part, but not so much the latter. 

I started off the year strong by attending my first jam of the year on the second day of the year. Pretty much all the tunes were in G, and I just bowed quietly along. The Lake Erie Folk Festival was on Feb. 23, and I sat in on a couple jams and attended the excellent Old-Time Banjo Summit with Mark Olitsky, Doug Unger, Richie Stearns and Lukas Pool. A week later, I also got together one-on-one with a local old-time master who has helped me identify areas to improve my fiddling. 

While I did record myself in January, I failed to follow up on that singular session. Which is a shame, because the results of that one recording session provided some good insights into my strengths and weaknesses as a player. 

Another success was setting a new personal best streak of 100 days in a row of playing fiddle and banjo. 

Overall, the first quarter went well. I got “Arkansas Traveler” and "Mole in the Ground" pretty solid, though I'm a bit behind on my playing time. My next fiddle tune is "Turkey in the Straw," and my next banjo song is ... to be determined. I'll entertain suggestions. 

[Editor's note: Pictured above are Doug Unger (top) and Richie Stearns at the 2019 Lake Erie Folk Festival.]