"We Must All Cultivate our Garden." - My Visit with Frank and Mary

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.

Atlanta Federation of Musicians Dixieland Jam - My Visit with Frank and Mary

This is a picture of the Monthly Dixieland Jam at the Atlanta Federation of Musicians.  I came right here from the airport when I got to Atlanta.  What a welcome!

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.