Yes. I must have had Georgia On My Mind.
The whole day through?
Very different kind of music, but I have led bluegrass jams for the past 5 or 6 years. You wouldn’t think a group of folks getting together to play music would turn up so much bad behavior.
Some examples:
– Players fuming and walking out because some “rule” of bluegrass has been “violated.”
– Players fuming and walking out because of some other perceived (usually imaginary) slight.
– People complaining about things totally out of my control. “Oh, I don’t want to play outside, there will be bugs.” “I can’t play with so-and-so, he’s always out of tune.” Fine, just leave.
– People “investigating” others on the internet because “they don’t seem right to me.” And then blabbing about what they have learned, no matter how trivial. With repercussions.
– Venue hosts suddenly deciding to limit the number of players, specify where they can park and where to sit. Hey we are free entertainment for your patrons!
All of which (and more) is why I have decided to quit being the adult in the room and give up leading bluegrass jams.
Yikes! You have all my sympathy. Now I feel extra lucky that the brouhaha I described in this thread is really only the 2nd headache I’ve had in 6 years. (The first was a woman who had to be the poster child for Oppositional Defiant Disorder - she was demanding, critical, and disruptive. She was downright scary and had a history of defacing/damaging our property. Plus she couldn’t play worth a damn! Our organization ended up taking out a Temporary Restraining Order on her, for reasons unrelated to our music class. I was glad to see her go, and when she asked if she could return when the TRO expired, I told her no.)
I have your music playing in the background while I’m reading the thread, and I love it. I find it rather hypnotic.
How delightful to hear you say that! Yes, many players describe their musical experience as “calming” or “like meditating.”
Thank you for the links, Carol. It is beautiful, and indeed calming. I can attest that if the players find it calming, then the audience does too. Definitely not Western in any way, but I quite enjoyed it. One thing I noticed is that nobody seems to be reading any music. Can it be written down? If so, how?
Me, I like to play the traditional music of the US, Canada, Great Britain, Ireland, and Australia. I have no video of me playing, though there may be some videos out there—I saw some people videoing me when I played my spoons in a St. John’s, Newfoundland, bar last fall. Wouldn’t be surprised to find that they had made their way to YouTube. I play a few other things, but I know that there wouldn’t be videos of me playing them.
Thanks again for sharing the links, Carol. You and your friends made beautiful music!
Yes - there is a fairly standardized notation that uses numbers for each note, with dots above or below if needed to specify register. Lines above indicate double speed (ie, if a number is a quarter note, then two numbers with a line over them would be two eighth notes).
Now that you mention your own musical explorations, I recall that I recently got to hear some spoon music on YouTube thanks to a thread you were participating in. I had no idea such a thing existed - it was really cool to hear a sample!