www.angelfire.com/blues/wester
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Playing Since: 1992
Experience Level: Purty Good

Interests:
[Teaching] [Helping]

Occupation: guitar/banjo teacher

Gender: Male
Age: 74

My Instruments:
iida mastertone copy(upgraded with stewmac tonering) . I have also an iida lightweight banjo with aluminium material in it.Further I have a
framus nashville and a
framus longneck

Favorite Bands/Musicians:
Flatt&Scruggs/
Steve Earl&the Del McCoury Band/
Hillbilly Bluegrassman

Classified Rating: not rated
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Profile Info:
Visible to: Public
Created 1/31/2008
Last Visit 1/15/2009

Got interested in bluegrass banjo by seeing Earl Scruggs play on the Beverly Hillbillies tv show when I was a teenager and later by hearing the music from the film Deliverance.I bought a cheap secondhand framuslongneck 5string.But there were no banjo teachers around.So I came no further than some double thumming from a book of Pete Seeger . Years later I took some banjo(and dobro) lessons from Michel Jansen a dutch banjo & dobro player who at that time lived a few blocks away from my house.It was around 1992 and he and I lived in The Hague back then.I was amazed about the very solid way he played Scruggs style banjo.Untill then I didn't succeed to get the right sound for bluegrass on my banjo.A few good lessons from him opened my eyes,put me in the bluegrass banjo saddle.Meanwhile I started playing banjo and dobro in the W Rounders, a local dutch bluegrass band, and did several nice gigs with them. After around 1995 I left the bluegrass and began to concentrate more on blues & rockabilly guitar and some lapsteel and played in several bands.The banjo I didn't play much anymore because blues&rockabilly guitar gave me a lot more gigs and response from people . But recently I play a lot on the banjo again because I like it and I have now some people who are eager to learn to play bluegrass on the 5 string and I think I am the only bluegrass banjo teacher in my area(Eindhoven). I started teaching some banjo and guitar to 2 of my sons and liked it very much to see people starting to play because of me.That gave me the idea to try to do this for a living.And at the moment I earn enough money to survive. What 5string banjo lessons concerns, I can give people a solid base of Scruggs style,to get the right sound, with help of not to difficult tabs from several banjo books..info: www.angelfire.com/blues/western