Q: What do you say to the banjo player in the three piece suit?
A: Will the defendant please rise.
Q: How many banjo players does it take to change a light bulb?
A: Only one, but all the others gathered around will complain that that's not the way Earl Scruggs would have done it.
ilearnmusiconline.com

Sunday, July 24, 2011
How would you describe rhythm?
Here is a great site to read about rhythm and to get started on our musical road to wisdom.....can you define rhythm? Do you know what it is? How would you describe it? Write your answers down and then compare them to the ones in the article...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhythm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhythm
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Rhythm is fun.
Being able to count music is one of the most valuable skills you can have as a musician. Do you have trouble counting rhythms? I will begin a short group of studies on counting and making rhythms fun. Stay tuned.
Joke of the day
Why did Mozart get rid of his chickens?
They went around the yard saying "Bach,Bach,Bach".
They went around the yard saying "Bach,Bach,Bach".
Saturday, July 9, 2011
Bluegrass music on your computer
Hey, did you know you can listen to bluegrass music on your computer? For that matter, you can listen to any kind of music...just go to this site and sign up. You can design the type of channel you want to listen to and then you can listen to music while you work...Soooooo coooooooool. Try it and see. If you are able, download it to your phone and when you aren't close to a radio, turn on your phone. When I was at my Mom's a few weeks ago, we listened to music while we played cards....way cool.
www.pandora.com/#/
www.pandora.com/#/
The Banjo....a short history....Interesting facts..
The Banjo
A Short History by Mick Moloney
The very essence of minstrelsy was black-face caricatures which became increasingly popular toward the end of the 18th century, leading to fully fledged black-face skits and songs on stage throughout white America by the middle of the 19th century. [Note 1.] It was during this time that the banjo in all probability was first introduced to Ireland, when the Virginia Minstrels toured in England, Ireland and France in 1843, 1844 and 1845. The leader of the Virginia Minstrels was Joel Walker Sweeney who was born in Buckingham County, Virginia, in 1810. Sweeney, whose antecedents came from Co. Mayo, has become one of the most controversial characters in the history of the banjo, having been credited widely with introducing the fifth string, or chanterelle, to the instrument. In fact, there are early watercolour paintings well before Sweeney's time that show the fifth string on plantation banjos. [Note 2.] So Sweeney most certainly did not invent the 5-string banjo. What he did, however, with his minstrel show was extend the popularity of the banjo to an enormous audience all over the United States and Europe.
The minstrel banjo also lacked frets and as a result, playing above the fifth string peg posed a lot of severe intonation problems. It wasn't until 1878 that frets were added to the commercially produced banjo, a development credited to Henry Dobson of New York State. It took three decades of animated controversy for the idea to catch on. So the earliest Irish banjos were also, it appears, definitely fretless. Up to the turn of the 19th century, banjos were plucked and strummed by the fingers. So the evidence, though it is circumstantial, would indicate that originally the banjo was used in Ireland for rudimentary accompaniment of songs and tunes, with perhaps some of the simpler melodies being plucked out by the fingers.
It's not hard to pinpoint when this "standardization" occurred. Before 1960, a number of styles and instruments co-existed in the modest fraternity of banjo players in Ireland. Some players favoured the 5-string banjo, some the banjo-mandolin, while others favoured varieties of the 4-string instrument. Some players used a pick, while others used a thimble.
Now in the mid-1980s, there are literally hundreds of accomplished Irish banjo players in Ireland, England and America. The instrument has most certainly come of age, after years of occupying a marginal position in the traditional music.
Introduction to
Gerry O'Connor and David McNevin
50 Solos for Irish Tenor Banjo
Walton's, Dublin 1986
Thursday, July 7, 2011
He's Back...
After 3 1/2 years and many trials and tribulations, White Dawg is back and as powerful as ever. Check him out...wish I could say "taught him everything he knows", but he's done this all on his own with just a little help with the I IV and V chords...Love you Billy
http://www.reverbnation.com/whitedawg
http://www.reverbnation.com/whitedawg
Monday, July 4, 2011
Check out this You Tube Video...
WOW what a singer and she is soooooo young. Check this out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bm_e5Q6w2ZI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bm_e5Q6w2ZI
Quote of the day..
- Ah, music. A magic beyond all we do here!
- J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, 1997 British fantasy author
Beginning Banjo theory......
Here is some interesting information about banjo theory....Ok, you guitar players can use it to, so read it and give it a try. Pretty interesting stuff.
http://www.elfshot.com/banjo/info_chord_theory1.htm
http://www.elfshot.com/banjo/info_chord_theory1.htm
Sunday, July 3, 2011
Quote of the day.....
For me, singing sad songs often has a way of healing a situation. It gets the hurt out in the open into the light, out of the darkness.
Reba McEntire
Reba McEntire
Do you wish your child appreciated classical music? Check this out...
Check out this site for tips on helping your child appreciate classical music..Excellent ideas.
http://gretchenspianos.wordpress.com/2011/02/20/teaching-children-to-appreciate-classical-music-tips-strategies/
http://gretchenspianos.wordpress.com/2011/02/20/teaching-children-to-appreciate-classical-music-tips-strategies/
Saturday, July 2, 2011
Listen to music everyday.....
The very famous Suzuki violin teaching method requires that the student listens to a tape containing the pieces he/she learns everyday to “develop musical ability”. Guess what? It works. As you listen more you will unconsciously adapt more to music in general and, on the conscious level, discover tricks and techniques in music writing that you didn’t know about. Nobody can create music De Novo, it has got to have some roots!!
So, listen while you practice to be perfect.
So, listen while you practice to be perfect.
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