Hi everyone,
Here are the tracks from class. Sorry it took a little longer to get to you. My computer had a meltdown, but it's all better and I was able to finish this up.
There are three tracks plus an album cover I made on itunes. I'm also including the original picture in case you'd like to make your own album cover.
Sunday, April 18 - Lead the "Your First Guitar Solo" workshop and then attended the Kids Faculty song swap at the Old Town School. Lots of new material.
Monday, April 19 - Jug band jam lead by Jonas at the Grafton
Tuesday, April 20 - General music at RPMS then after-school guitar class. That evening I went to Folk Club, lead by Mark Dvorak. We sang two songs in non-English languages!
Wednesday, April 21 - Genarl Music at RPMS, then off to Armitage for group classes and private lessons. We recorded our end-of-session album in Kids Guitar 1.
Thursday, April 22 - Harmonica Orchestra is gaining steam at Carson Elementary. Then headed to the Lincoln Ave. Old Town School for some private lessons and then Guitar Together. Then I helped organize the Thursday night graduation and rallied some people for some jamming during the breaks and after the graduation. Then headed over to the Soccer Club building to hang with the Uke Nation crew. Of coarse we proceded to play some tunes. Music started at 9:00am and I stopped playing at 11:00pm.
Friday, April 23 - Teaching all day. First the adults, then the Early Stummers. The afternoon was filled with recording end-of-session albums for Kids Guitar 1 and 2.
Saturday, April 24 - What a great day! Strummers in the early morning, then end-of-session album recording by Kids Guitar 1 and 2. Then we moved upstairs to the concert hall for the big party! 90 minutes of performances, dancing and jamming. Plus the eating of a bunch of goldfish crackers.
The things that's keeping me up tonight is that I had the evening to get into some of the stuff that Frank gave me; ideas, skills, tools, recordings.
One of the tangible gifts he gave me is a CD of banjo recordings that he found important, inspirational, educational, musical and all of the above.
The CD was created after a long night talking about the sound of the banjo. Frank was listing album after album by artist after artist that I should listen to. I started to get al little overwhelmed and I said, "I've found over the years that if someone gives me 100 things to listen to I don't listen to any of it, but if they give me just a few, I really get into it."
Frank took it as a challenge and he made me a CD of tunes he wanted to share with me. I'm just listening to it for the first time tonight. What is it about the banjo? What is it about a some singing a song and playing a banjo?
The one I'm listening to over and over is "Once I Had an Old Banjo" by Fleming Brown.
Once I had an old banjo
It was strung with twine
Only song that I could play
Trouble on my Mind
That makes me so sad.
Which makes me so happy that I play so much music. But sometimes I get sad when I play music. But at least I have music to fall back on. And so it goes.
Here's a list of the songs on the CD.
Cindy - Pete Seeger
Oh! Liza, Poor Gal - Pete Seeger
Blue Skys - Pete Seeger
Once I had an Old Banjo - Fleming Brown
Cuckoo - Flemming Brown
Rakes of Mallow - Billy Faier
Green Corn - Billy Faier
Croation Tune - Billy Faier
Spanish Fandango - Billy Faier
Three Jolly Rogues - Billy Faier
The Sky - Derroll Adams
John Henry - George Pegram
Unreconstructed Rebel - Fleming Brown
Bowling Green - Cousin Emmy with the New Lost City Ramblers
Cuckoo - Erik Darling
Fight On - Weavers with Erik Darling
I'm On My Way - Erik Darling
London Bridge - Peggy Seeger
Love Call Me Home - Peggy Seeger
Portland Town - Derroll Adams
Sing About These Hard Times - Peggy Seeger
Wedding Dress - Peggy Seeger
There you go. Maybe we'll get some of these going. If not, I'm very glad to have these recordings and to have gotten them from someone like Frank.
Check out this picture (Courtesy of Pat). I have never in my live heard anything like all these steel drums coming in loud right at the same time. Like a symphony of falling icicles.
I made a quick count from the balcony (where I could only see 2/3 of the group) and I think there were about 30 musicians. Imagine - some of them were playing between two and six drums. What a sound!
I've been spending a lot of time editing more video of Frank and putting together a video of The Gather-All. Stay tuned! Thanks for reading!
I had a great time at Folk Club last night. I lead Little Birdie, which we played for the first time. Maria lead Caballito Blanco. That was also the first time we played that. It's great to get some new stuff going. Will the Circle Be Unbroken was beautiful. So was the post-jam I'll Fly Away.
I was so happy to sit off to the side and work on my new banjo techniques. Some of it is coming together and that's exciting to hear.
Wednesdays are fun, but can be tough. It's a full day with classes at both RPMS and Old Town School. We have only 9 classes left at RPMS. Can you believe that? Time to get get going on the final project. We're going to record CDs. I'm not totally sure how it's going to happen, but I'm excited to try it.
I'm back in Chicago. Like the dang fool I am, last night I went right from O'Hare Airport to the Thursday Night Jam where Mary, Colby and Jimmy were laying it down with everyone. I was able to practice the new banjo strums that I learned from Frank and I was very happy to be a beginner again. I keep thinking about what Frank said. "In a year you're going to be a real good banjo player." You'll be seeing me with the banjo a lot between now and next April.
Today was a very full day. Adult Guitar 2 Rep, this afternoon. We've been learning to play solos in G Major today and had a great time digging into Friend of the Devil by the Grateful Dead. If you know me, you know how important that band is to me.
Thanks to my cohort, John Mead, who took the ball and ran with in during today's Second Half. He choose two tunes in E blues (Folosm Prison Blues and another one which I forget) and, knowing that G major is prefect for E blues (for reasons we'll get into another time), he called on Guitar 2 Rep to take the solos on both tunes. Thank you John!
Then this afternoon was filled with Early Strummers and Kids Guitar 1 and 2. A couple students visited us. Emma visited Kids Guitar 1 and Charlotte visited Kids Guitar 2. Both young ladies are fiddle players and it was great to work on some tunes with them. We played Old Joe Clark, This Land is Your Land and Angeline the Baker.
] After that it was on to First Friday. Check this out! The Gather-All had both a musical saw and a tenor saxophone player. Everyone was great! Darrell lead an awesome song called "I'm Changin" which he learned from Ella Jenkins, the young fiddlers lead some great tunes and we got up and danced for a bit during Everybody Loves Saturday Night.
After the Gather-All I found some dinner.
Then, it was back to First Friday. I hit the square dance for a bit then headed off to the concert hall to catch a set by Ann-Marie Akin and then Shelley Miller. Loved Ann-Marie's sing-a-long and loved Shelley's "blue note" guitar pickin'.
Then a late night snack with Darrel, Maria and Sandra.
Now off to bed so I can be ready to go in the morning.
What a great day! I started with a sleeping late, a delicious breakfast and then Frank and I got down to some of the work of cultivating the garden.
I brought both instruments (banjo and guitar) with me, but this has definitely been a week of banjo. One thing I've been working on is getting out of clawhammer style (which I still love), without going right into bluegrass (which I only like). The answer? Pete Seeger style!
Frank as been so generous in giving me the keys to the kingdom of this style of banjo playing. We've both been so excited by it that we decided to make some videos, and maybe others can learn this stuff also. It's all recorded. I just have to edit it a bit.
What follows is the first of what I believe will be six videos featuring short lessons on banjo playing, taught by Frank.
Wait! Don't go grab your banjo without finishing this post! There's more!
Then we went into Atlanta to meet Bill Rutan. This guy is awesome! He is the banjo player that sings and plays in the video of the dixieland jam in my previous post. Bill is incredibly knowledgable about banjos, but isn't a show off. He's very humble. I like that.
Frank, Mary and I hung out with him for about an hour or so. We played banjos, conversed about banjos, thought about banjos, looked at banjos, took banjos apart and put those same banjos back together again.
Here is a video of Bill singing a song called "When that Midnight Choo Choo Leaves for Alabam."
We've got to find a way to get this guy up to Chicago. I have a feeling that he's a great teacher.
From Bill's place we went to have lunch at a place called R. Thomas'. That is some good food. Best part? Raw veggies and fruit shakes for Frank and Mary. Burger with cheddar cheese and a pint of organic pilsner for me! Oh, that tasted good.
From the restaurant, we went to the Martin Luther King historical site.
I was touched by the words enscribed on the plaque under the monument called The Eternal Flame.
"The Eternal Flame symbolizes the continuing effort to realize Dr. King's ideals for the "Beloved Community" which requires lasting personal commitment that cannot weaken when faced with obstacles."
Maybe it sounds silly, but my presonal commitment is to continue to give children a voice and have them actively take the lead in their own musical education.
I have a feeling I'm going to be thinking about this plaque a great deal when I get back to Chicago. There's a lot of work to be done.
Lastly, Frank and I had another great chat tonight. Gosh, I have learned so much over the last few days. Questions have been answered and new questions have appeared. I mentioned how I feel like, over the past couple of years, I've built a beautiful garden with my music, my teaching and my life, but, like many projects, I didn't always think about how much work it would be to take care of the garden. Frank layed this quote from Voltaire. "We must all cultivate our garden."
Thanks so much for your great perspective, Frank.
OK, everyone. Thanks for reading the whole post. Now you can go get your banjo.
Frank and I had a great time playing today. I'm work on some things up the neck and it was really fun to experiment with that. It's opening a whole to world of banjo for me. Here are a couple of tunes that we played. I brought out Take Time in Life and Frank was reminded of Little Birdy. Similar topics. We play Take Time in Life a lot in Guitar Together, and I'm thrilled to have a complimentary song like Little Birdy to go with it.
The chorus of Take Time in Life is
Take time in life.
Take time in life.
Take time in life.
Far way to go.
I thought that was just about he perfect song for this trip. I do have a far way to go, as do we all, and I know I'll be a lot more prepared for the journey if I keep my head up, take deep breaths and move slowly but delibrately. That's why I'm here.
The recording are very noisy right now. Is you know how to remove that wind sound in Garageband, please let me know. I'd really like to clean it up.
(The OTS site crashed just as I was uploading Take Time in Life. I'll post it later. Keep an eye out for it.)
Frank also hosted a couple of jazz guitar students at his house tonight. Tom and David were their names. Class was tough stuff! We played on a Blues in Bb, All of Me, Autum Leaves, How about You, Sweet Georgia Brown and I Got Rhythm. I held my own, but again, my enthusiam overshadowed my knowledge and ability. If you're going to fail, fail spectacularly, right? I certainly did that, which I was very proud of.
This afternoon took a trip downtown, went to a health food store and stopped by an honest to goodness record shop. They guy at the counter, who I imagine is the owner, noticed my Old Town School jacket and recounted a story of seeing Win Stracke at the Old Town School in 1962. He knows Frank from being around town, but didn't realize his role in the creation of the school as it had never come up in conversation. Old Town School friends, we are part of something very big. (Like I need to tell you that.)
Frank made me a couple compilation CDs of "Stuff I think you'll be able to learn from." The CDs are full of tracks by Pete Seeger, Fleming Brown, Billy Faer, Erik Darling and Peggy Seeger, among others. I can't wait to get back to Chicago to dig in deep.
Here is a short video of the gang playing "Someday You'll be Sorry". That's Frank with the hat on and playing guitar. The banjo player is named Bill. We chatted real quick after the jam and Frank, Mary and I are going to visit with him on Wednesday. Seems like a real nice guy. I can't wait to play and sing some music with him. He's REALLY good.
A few things that I loved about the jam.
They were certainly there to impress each other, but not in a competative way. They were having a blast making little challenges for each other like, "This time all the horns play left-handed."
I never quite figured out how they called the tunes out. It seemed like they all just started and that they all knew what to do. I'm sure there was much more going on, but I just didn't see it.
There was lots of communication with head nods and gentle finger pointing. Great to see others do that so well. I'm not normally on the listening side of a jam like this. It gives me much more confidence that my jam leading instincts are correct.
It was a very relaxing day around the Hamilton household, today. A real day of respite. I got up late with not one thing on the schedule. I didn't realize how badly I needed that.
Frank and I took a long walk this morning. We must have gone around the neighborhood four or five times. Then we played a little banjo in the afternoon. More work on the standard C tuning and I moved to three finger chords as I went up the neck. Once I did it I was all like, "Duh, J! You've seen people do that a million times and just now you're going to play that way?" But mostly I'm ecstatic to dig in. I hope there's time tommorow.
We watched a documentary about their friend Derrol Adams in the evening. I was not
familiar with Derrol's music, but I am very glad I am now. What a voice.
We talked for a bit about Woody and I was very glad that Frank did not laugh when I told him that, to me, it's hard to imagine Woody as a real person. He's just been so built up in my mind that it seems impossible that he was real, let alone a person who played a great deal of music with someone that I know. It's like saying, "I remember chopping wood with Paul Buyan" or, "I remember working on the railroad with John Henry." It's not a "star power" kind of feeling. It's more than that. Deeper. Much more awe-inspiring.
Today was the first days since, well probably since I was born, that I ate entirely raw food. Frank and Mary only eat raw food and, to my suprise, it's been delicious! Lots of fruits and vegatables. Lots of flax seed crackers. Lots of oats and nuts. It's kind of perfect for my constitution, actually. I'm not totaly surprised that it suits me, but I am surprised at how delicious everything is. Probably not ready to totally convert yet, but you never know.
As you may know, I'm in Decatur, GA visiting Frank and Mary Hamilton. Frank is the co-founder (withe Dawn Greening and Win Stracke) and first teacher at the school. I'm here just to visit and get a way for a bit, talk about the history of the school and folk music in general.
I knew there would be a lot of music making on this trip, but, boy, that was fast! I went right from the airport to a dixieland jam that Frank is part of at the Atlanta Federation of Musicians. I got there at 3:00 and by 3:05 they had me joining in. I didn't know name, the tune, the key or nothin'. By the end of the song I had learned that i was in Bb. That's about it. They were a very welcoming bunch. Lots of smiles and lots of dixieland.
The jam was great. More on the actual content once I figure out where my camera is. I hope I left it in the car.
It's been a inspiring evening. We watched an awesome documentary called Karoo Kitaar Blues all about marginalized musicians in South Africa. If you have Link TV I think it's available on-demand. I want to watch it again.
We ate at a place called Your Dekalb Farmers Market. This place is inredible! Whole Foods - eat your very expensive heart out. You've got nothin' on this place.
We also got down into some "Pete Style" banjo picking and my ears and fingers have been opened. Turns out, it's not double C tuning that I need. It's single C. That changes everything. I can't wait to dig in and get all my new tricks under my fingers! Here we come songs in minor keys!
My favorite quote from Early Strummers, my class at the Old Town School with 4 and 5-year-olds and their parents learning to play the guitar.
4-Year-Old Young Lady: There are three kids and three adults in class today. Mom: What about Jason? Is Jason a kid or an adult? 4-Year-Old Young Lady: Jason is part kid and part adult.
Hello,
Today's project was the completion of a goal I have had for a very, very long time. I made a flute out of a piece of PVC pipe. I found the plans in a book called Homemade Instruments by Dallas Cline, published by Oak Publications.
I was hoping to have the kids make this, but while I think they could make them, playing them might be another situation. It ain't easy. I like that the book says "Once you have the feel of how to blow across the mouth hole, you will be able to play it happily! I may take a week of practice, but a week is a short time, really, and you will be so glad you stayed with it." I love that it has that bit of encourangement.
So here is day one. I'll make another video next Monday and we'll see how it all went. But for now, I share with you "Hot Cross Buns" on the Plumer's Pipe Cross Flute.
I spent most of the day doing my best to relax around the house and stay off the computer. I listened to the album Nonesuch and Other Folk Tunes by Pete Seeger and Frank Hamilton a few times. What a great record! Super-musical. From the first notes of Meadowland, these instrumental roar through my stereo. The first song, "Meadowland", is a beautiful demonstation of dynamic tension right out of the gate and the energy never lets up. Then, as if they want to prove just how much fun they are having in the studio, Pete and Frank team for for an incredible vocal rendition of The Battle of New Orleans. The power of their voices on lyric "Well . . . " ,which opens every stanza, practically knocks me over every time.
I always love the liner notes from Folkways. Here are a couple of selections.
Pete writes, "[The album] is influenced by the folk traditions of hte American south, popular music of the air waves, and recordings hear of ethnic music fromAfrica, Russia, Asia, the Caribbean and, and also of the symphony and concert hall . . . The selections together tell, we hope, of our love for many peoples, our neighbors in a small world. May our various languages be better understood."
Frank writes, "We attempted to explore the uses of instruments that were not necessarily related to the culture backgroud of the songs." If you know me, you know that this is a sentament that is very close to my heart.
The liner notes also include this awesome picture of Frank playing the guitarrón. The photo is by David Gehr.
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We also had a very good Young Stracke All-Stars practice today. I'm feeling a bit rejuvinated after a very long week of struggling musically, idealistically, emotionally, etc. It's good to "hit bottom" once and a while. Partily because it gets easier to shake it off each time it happens, and also, once you hit there's no where to go but up. Onward!
I just got home from Maria's birthday party. She had it in the basement of the Chopin Theater after the House Theater performance of Wilson Wants it All, which is great! It closes next week. Go see it!
Yes, so then Maria had her birthday party. Miki played for a while and then another gentleman played and then the picking session began. It was really fun. Mike Alberts on guitar, Hillary on fiddle, Darrell on piano, Mark (Lou) on mandolin (and Judy played some mandolin also), Maria on fiddle and I played banjo. This Land was Your Land was the highlight for me. So many people sang! Great food. Great friends. Great music. Great show. I am so lucky.
More Old Joe Clark, This Land is Your Land and My Dog Treed a Rabbit in my classes, today. Super fun. My Saturday Kids Guitar 2 really want it. I love teaching, but that is a particularly strong group of students.
Another full day of teaching. I love passing the tune Old Joe Clark on to young people. What is it about that tune? Also, Skip came and played harmonica with my Kids Guitar 1 class. We worked on This Land is Your Land. I want to have Skip visit all my classes now. He was great! They really loved the kazoo and slide whistle demonstrations.
I was teaching so I only caught the last 5 minutes of the Old Town School "Town Hall Meeting" to discuss the new strategic plan. I was there just long enough to help everyone sing "E Huli". I was quite honored. Lani, you are an inspiration. Ann Maria, so are you. "You've got to sing when the spirit says SING!"
Then Lindsay and I headed down to the Hideout to hear a happy hour set by the Barehand Jugband. They were great as always. I was honored to play a couple of tunes with them. Pamela's washboard sounds great and Clay, as always, was a master jug player. I like how he's started teaching some post-gig jug lessons on the empty beer bottles.
Tonight I took a workshop with Sean Cleland, director of the Irish Music School of Chicago, all about learning Irish tunes. It was pretty cool. One of the best workshops I've had at the school. I'm not sure how many specifics I learned, but I got to play a lot, I felt like he listened to my questions, and he left me curious to learn more, in a proactive way. Very inspiring.
I can't remember the name of the tune that we learned, but we spent an hour and a half learning it from beginning to end. I was the only banjo player. There was one fiddle player, one concertina player and one uke player.
OK. Onward to more Irish fiddle tunes.
Later,
J
Just got home from the World Music Wednesday concert at the Old Town School. This week's performer was the The Irish Music School of Chicago, directed by Sean Cleland. I only stayed for the first set, but I loved it.
The beginning was all teen-agers. There were (as I remember) four fiddles, flute, bodhran, and octave mandolin. They played with great energy. They said that they were nervous, but you wouldn't know it. They played into the mics, called out the names and stories about some stories about the tunes, and counted the tunes off with a lot of power. Then they sounded great when they played. Very impressive.
About half way through the first set, Sean invited "The Irish Music School of Chicago community" onto stage. That was awesome. There where about five rows of ten people per row on the Old Town stage. I knew a bunch of the adults, which was very cool. They played a bunch of tunes, together. Sean said some of the people had only been studying for a short period of time. But obviously a bunch of the musicians had more training. Great to see a moment of "everyone together" to get such a prime spot in the set instead of the end of the second set.
As for my life, it was a good day of teaching. RPMS and Strummers and Kids Guitar at the Old Town School. My Wednesday kids guitar class is particularly hungary, and they did a great job today when we split into smaller groups to work on the chorus of This Land is Your Land.
I played the Whyte Lady banjo tonight. I lead Erie Canal. I forgot the beginning, but once I got some help to get it off the ground it was cookin'. Another favorite that we played was I'll Fly Away. Lisa led it. Everyone sounded great.
The after-jam was lively and fun and I got to know a couple people a little more. That is always fun. $4.50 Kronenbourgs. It's French. Who knew?
Tomorrow back to RPMS and the Old Town School. Wednesday is a full day.
This is my initial post for my new blog experience!
If you know me, you know how important my teaching is to me and how much time I spend making, listening to and reading about music and education.
This podcast from Radiolab has been on my mind since I listened last week. It's called Musical Language. I've studied music for most of my life, and over the past couple of years I've been studying Spanish. Both experiences have informed each other in ways that have been very exciting. So it's great to hear some other people making comparisons between music and spoken language. It's quite validating. I can't recommend listening to it highly enough.
Lots of "Front Porch Music" today. If you know me, you know how important that is to me.
As you may know, I'm in Decatur, GA visiting Frank and Mary Hamilton. Frank is the co-founder (withe Dawn Greening and Win Stracke) and first teacher at the school. I'm here just to visit and get a way for a bit, talk about the history of the school and folk music in general.
Pete writes, "[The album] is influenced by the folk traditions of hte American south, popular music of the air waves, and recordings hear of ethnic music fromAfrica, Russia, Asia, the Caribbean and, and also of the symphony and concert hall . . . The selections together tell, we hope, of our love for many peoples, our neighbors in a small world. May our various languages be better understood."_2.jpg)
