Last month I ended my 500-day streak of playing banjo and fiddle. I followed that with two and a half weeks of not playing banjo or fiddle. It seems during my break that my fingers have lost almost all of their calluses. They haven't been this tender in a long time.
It feels good to be out of that rut.
The biggest thing I want to get back to is learning new stuff. I'm continuing to work on Michael Ismerio's online fiddle course, and I've been revisiting Ken Perlman's Clawhammer Style Banjo, the book that helped get my started on old-time more than a decade ago. I'm also thinking of digging out Mike Seeger's Southern Banjo Styles videos.
I've been trying to approach my instruments with a beginner's mind. I'm hoping that will help me avoid getting into another rut while I anxiously await the time when I can play with others again.
I can't believe it's already the middle of April. This year is going by fast. I guess this is a belated quarterly report. So, let's get to the breakdown.
General Highlights
The biggest highlight was my daily playing streak reaching 500. While I started to feel that my streak had become a burden, it helped me form a strong practice and break the stigma of worrying I wasn't playing long enough. Even five minutes is enough time to make progress. The sense of it becoming a burden was more attributable to the pandemic. In a way, I felt trapped by the "obligation" I felt for keeping the streak going.
Like everyone else, I've been streaming a lot of content over the last year. One show that I've highlighted on the Glory-Beaming Banjo Facebook page is Carry On, an educational program about folk music on YouTube, hosted by Hal Walker and produced by the Northeast Ohio Heritage Music Association. In the last couple months, the show has featured two great old-time musicians in Elizabeth LaPrelle and Bob Smakula. I highly recommend you check them out.
Fiddle Highlights
I began learning "Daddy Shot a Field Lark," from the playing of Arville "Sandy" Sandusky of Liberty, Kentucky, whom Bruce Greene collected in the late 1980s. It's a fun little melody in cross-tuning.
Unfortunately, I feel like I'm neglecting the other tunes in my repertoire. I need dedicate some tune to review those before I lose what I've learned.
Banjo Highlights
The last song I was working on was "Little Sadie," which I feel pretty comfortable with now. I started reviewing Perlman's book and have been working on playing and singing "Jesse James." I keep meaning to get a copy of the lyrics, because right now I only really know the first verse and chorus.
Blog Highlights
As I wrote about a few weeks ago, my blog celebrated its 10th anniversary last month. Before COVID-19, I had planned to do something bigger to mark the occasion, but those ideas have gone by the wayside.
Here are my Top 5 most popular posts this quarter:
- A Tribute to David Brose (1951-2021)
- 10 for 10: Top Posts for a Decade of Glory-Beaming Banjo
- A Decade of Rambling: Celebrating 10 Years of Glory-Beaming Banjo
As always, thank you for reading. In these pandemic times, it's even more humbling that my little blog cuts through all the media seeking to grab your attention. I truly appreciate it.
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