Alan Hill - Posted - 11/28/2009:  23:13:28

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How about next week my new best friend !

tanglefingers - Posted - 11/29/2009:  02:30:53

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lol Alan you and Tom and I are the closest 3 in this area, we shoulad at least organise an alternating thing between here and Alstonvill. is Woodenbong about half way? love to spend some time sharing tunes with you guys

robmac07 - Posted - 11/29/2009:  04:07:23

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quote:

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Originally posted by tanglefingers

Was a great day for banjos in southern Qld , aside form the great workshop , the meet and greet aspect was fantastic. I wish there was more time to talk to all of you. Strangely out of all the attendants only 3 Aussies? All the others were either expat Poms or from the US? I found this a very revealing cross section of the banjo community and surprised and slightly saddened me. It was interesting that with all the tunes we all knew we could only agree on ... cripple creek to jam on , plenty of tune knowledge amongst us , but nothing in common i think this is indicative of the fact that there is no jams anywhere you can go to do the "local tunes".

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Hi Folks
In Adelaide we are trying to create a mini- old time music 'culture' by meeting regularly in homes on the 3rd Sunday of the month. There are about 12-13 regulars with mainly clawhammer banjoists, 3 fiddlers, a few guitars, mandolins and bass. We only have one expat 'Pom' :)

It's good to play along in a string band like environment as well as share individual items for those able to do so.

The secrets are 'inclusiveness' where everyone gets a chance to play along regardless of level and common core basic tunes which are played each time and then added to with a couple of 'tunes of the month'. The emphasis is on listening and encouraging playing by ear. Tab books are discouraged. There is always a leader who can call out chords, and most importantly keep a steady rhythm and tempo (not too fast!)

We use a monthly email-newsletter and it contains the common tunes and suggested new ones. The idea is to 'grow' the tune list which we all agree on.

Examples of our common starter tunes

D Angelina Baker, Old Molly Hare, Soldier's Joy
A Cripple Creek, Old Joe Clark, Sourwood Mountain, Cluck Old Hen
G Cumberland Gap, Buffalo Gals and so on.

It works well and we have fun! We have nibbles, fellowship and if time permits, finish with an impromptu 'stringband'.

For what it's worth, that's what we're doing and it's great fun, a time of sharing and learning, and best of all, folks keep on coming back!
Rob