Tuesday, September 23, 2008
My Scruggs mission, which consists of learning most of the songs on
The Essential Earl Scruggs, is coming along nicely. I've probably gotten about a third of the way through the list of tunes I want to learn. I've focused almost exclusively on songs with vocals. I haven't worked much on backup, which was the point of focusing on songs with singing, but I have picked up a lot of the up the neck stuff I've neglected to learn until now. Once you learn a handful of songs they all sort of start running together.
Heavy Traffic Ahead and
Foggy Mountain Special is a good example of this. As far as the backup, I don't think I'll progress much until I can find some people to play with who are serious about playing, and maybe even improving. (IMHO talking about playing and smoking pot don't help much with the actual playing. Maybe, though, I'm just getting old and grouchy.)
For me, one the best tools for learning new stuff is to put aside what I'm working on in favor of something different. A lot of times a different tune by the same artist will work. Better, though, is different tune by a different artist from the same milieu. I think learning a tune or two I've recorded from streams will provide a nice diversion. I'll almost certainly hear things differently when I return to finish up disc one of the Scruggs project. Then, before starting in on disc two, I think I'll try and take a small bite out of Mr. Don Reno's playing.
Enough writing about playing. I've got a lifetime of work to do and a fraction of a lifetime to do it in.
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robinscotjones.googlepages.com
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Interests:
[Jamming] [Socializing] [Helping]
Gender: Male
Age: 64
My Instruments:
2008 Deering Deluxe
Favorite Bands/Musicians:
(In no particular order) -- Duane Allman, Allman Brothers, Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Johnson, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Steely Dan, Larry Carlton, Dire Staits, Joe Pass, Brad Jones, James Taylor, Joni Mitchell, Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, Norah Jones, Alison Krauss, Gillian Welch, David Lindley, Derek Trucks, Ken Jones, Randal Morton, Greg Morton, Richard Bailey, Tommy Burroughs, Mark O'Connor, David Grisman, Sam Bush, Vassar Clements, Bill Monroe, Earl Scruggs, J.D. Crowe, Larry McNeely, Alan Munde, Carl Jackson, Jack Hicks, Butch Robins, Bela Fleck, Clarence White, Tony Rice, Dan Crary, Doc Watson, SteelDrivers -- all the other good ones.
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Created 8/1/2008
Last Visit 5/9/2009
My father exposed me to music early. I was around it steady from about 14 forward. The summer between 8th and 9th grades Dad's brother gave me a proper introduction to the 5 string. Later that summer I saw the great Bill Monroe at Lakeland in Memphis and haven't been the same since. Dad bought me a banjo and arranged for some lessons with super-picker Randal Morton. I was progressing nicely when the rock-n-roll thing happened in my late teens.
In my 20s I played electric guitar and rock. I still listened to bluegrass occasionally but had little interest in getting back into it. Then, halfway through my 47th year on the planet, the long dormant banjo bug came out of remission.
