Realized that when I'm on the computer I don't think about music... it's only when I log off and get up that I think "Oh, I wanted to enter something in that practice blog...."
Had a good middle-of-the-night session, starting with "Didn't He Ramble" in D. I hit the bass note only on the "one", sometimes with bass runs on the "four" and "four-and". The left-hand chording implied a 12/8 without being a literal statement like Fats Domino or Jerry Lee Lewis, more like a clave kind of spacing. After that I did a few fiddle tunes, moderate tempo with good timing, paying attention more to the beat and implied rhythm than to melodic complexities. After that I went back to sleep for a bit.
Still listening hard to Don Reno on Starday, and reading Trischka & Wernick's book of interviews with top banjo players. There are some good quotes:
"(Q) What do you think makes a good banjo player?" "(Don Reno:) The ability to fit himself in with the group he's playing with... You can never hear a banjo standing behind one the way somebody else can standing in front of it, and I've always had the fear of overriding somebody or playing too loud... I started singing and I couldn't hear myself myself for [another banjo player], and I thought to myself, 'Lord, am I doing that to other people?'"
Had a good middle-of-the-night session, starting with "Didn't He Ramble" in D. I hit the bass note only on the "one", sometimes with bass runs on the "four" and "four-and". The left-hand chording implied a 12/8 without being a literal statement like Fats Domino or Jerry Lee Lewis, more like a clave kind of spacing. After that I did a few fiddle tunes, moderate tempo with good timing, paying attention more to the beat and implied rhythm than to melodic complexities. After that I went back to sleep for a bit.
Still listening hard to Don Reno on Starday, and reading Trischka & Wernick's book of interviews with top banjo players. There are some good quotes:
"(Q) What do you think makes a good banjo player?" "(Don Reno:) The ability to fit himself in with the group he's playing with... You can never hear a banjo standing behind one the way somebody else can standing in front of it, and I've always had the fear of overriding somebody or playing too loud... I started singing and I couldn't hear myself myself for [another banjo player], and I thought to myself, 'Lord, am I doing that to other people?'"