Yes, that's Steve Martin on the cover, acting like he doesn't know which picks go on which fingers. Stop the false modesty schtick, Steve. It makes us actually mediocre banjo players feel worse about ourselves.
Loved Tony Trischka's interview of Steve Martin.
Steve Martin mentioned that Steve Arkin suggests putting a mute between the bridge and the tailpiece, which is what got me thinking about mutes.
When Tony and Steve described how a new student should learn Cripple Creek, I think it was a reference to Steve Martin's "I can't stand to play Cripple Creek" routine, which Tony has used in performance:
David is in the middle of some heavy-duty dental stuff and had his jaw wired shut, which made for an interesting lesson. It made me realize how much of my lessons I spend chit-chatting instead of playing.
So we concentrated on Dueling Banjos, which allowed David to demonstrate a bunch of things to me without having to speak much.
I practiced that Alan Munde up-the-neck-solo technique that I'd previously described. I'm kinda okay when it comes to playing the melody on one string but I'm having some trouble figuring out how to play harmony or chords on the other strings at the same time.
Stuff from the May 2010 Banjo Newsletter:
