Best Online Fiddle Lessons › Forums › What else is on your mind? › What are y'all up to?
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cricket 2 days ago.
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July 10, 2019 at 2:11 PM #74153
Cricket, I certainly know what you’re saying when you talk about getting rid of everything and just playing harmonica. I tell you what, everywhere I go I lug a double fiddle case and a heavy 5-string banjo,a double fiddle stand and an instrument stand for the banjo. Usually I lug a microphone stand, too.
Our band hauls all kinds of speakers, stands, monitors, cables, instruments, etc., etc. (And I’m not supposed to be lifting anything heavy).
But, I’ve had the same trouble with being able to play a harmonica. When I was young and in composing school, I could play 19 different instruments and couldn’t play a harmonica then either. Those darned things are hard to get a grasp on how to do it with any real proficiency. I could play Red River Valley, etc, but that’s about it and I’ve long since forgotten how to even do that.
July 10, 2019 at 4:56 PM #74160lol…well I think I played Red River Valley too…but it wasn’t good…lol.
July 10, 2019 at 9:57 PM #74180Fred , Cricket ,Gunnar , Dave and everyone else ! You Guys and Gals are doing fine ! I have been thinking of getting my fiddle repertoire all together , all at once , which is only about 25 tunes , and post them all at the same time , I will call it Steve’s fiddle Forum Repertoire and each time I improve one I will remove the former and replace with new , once I am happy with the majority then I will start adding new stuff ! Most of the folks at the senior center , I have held captive cause there to old to run away and some can’t hear , So when I am Soloing fiddle tunes with CD backup , They are not complaining and I also wear hearing aids which gives me selective hearing and I can always say , what you say ! sorry can’t hear you ! and then just turn up the volume and keep playing ! Ha LOL !
July 11, 2019 at 2:58 AM #74186Fred, I was gonna record it with banjo, mandolin, and….. harmonica! (And bass, but it’s so big no one ever notices it) I’d like to know, what 19 instruments could you play? Something that’s helped me on harmonica was realizing that 2nd position is laid out just like a banjo, so I can play most of my banjo repertoire on it. But it’s definitely a hard instrument to be good at. Although it’s easy to play, my four year old brother can play as well as most adults 😂😂😂😂 studying blues harmonica helps a lot
July 11, 2019 at 6:39 AM #74189Gunnar, that’s interesting about 2nd position being like a banjo. I’ll have to look into that. There was actually more than 19 instruments but I remember a time when it was at 19. Here they are:
1. Piano
2. Guitar
3. Drums
4. Saxophone family
5. Cornet
6. Trumpet
7. French horn
8. Clarinet
9. Glockenspiel
10. Tympani
11. Harpsichord
12. Pipe Organ
13. Xylophone
14. Violin
15. Viola
16. Cello
17. Double bass
18. Electric bass
19. Mandolin
20. Resonator guitar
21. Banjo
22. Dulcimer
23. Tenor guitar
24. Tenor banjo
25. Trombone
26. Steel guitar
I no longer can remember the fingering on a lot of these instruments and it would take some time to bring it all back. Pretty limited nowadays. lol
July 11, 2019 at 6:58 AM #74191Steve…that’s a good idea…except…Fred’s is all F’s…yours needs to be all S’s! Steve’s Serendipitous Song Selection, or something…lol. Anyway, yeah, Gunnar, your 4 year old brother most likely sounds better on harmonica than I do…lol. Fred, that’s a lot of instruments…don’t tell me they fit into your house…lol. I’d like to play out in real life…but just don’t know how anymore. I used to play all the time, but seems up here you need some sort of contacts, which I just am not good at creating. Down home I just played for anything. Up here, I did play at first, just guitar and singing was what it was, because somehow, in my lowly pion position at the library (makes no difference to me, but people in this area only associate with others in the same socioeconomic category), the university archivist got to talking to me all the time and had a particular interest and collection of Kentucky folk music…he got me bunches of gigs all around. Then…new people came in, he was gone, gigs were gone, I turned into a hermit…now I’m used to being a hermit…lol. Well anyway, I’ve said it many times…I guess the presonus helps make the most of being a hermit, but it just seems stupid and ridiculous to me at times.
As far as old time fiddling goes, or the kind I do at least, in my own way, I don’t have a list of tunes…not really. I’ve got junk running around in my head and if I’m tuned in a good way for it, I just sit and try it on the presonus…either I can limp through it ok or I can’t. There are some things I just haven’t felt comfortable with, so I know I need to practice and learn them the right way…they’re on my to-do list…but I don’t get to that to-do list much when the presonus is in the house…lol. So…there’s all that. How much does a good harmonica run these days???? Maybe Gunnar’s baby brother could give me a few pointers!
July 11, 2019 at 7:57 AM #74195Well, I’ve got a rough take done, now I’ve got to add backup and do a little tweaking and I’ll be done. My room gets HOT as a studio. Well, Cricket, my nicest harmonica was about 50$ but a decent starter can run from about 10$-20$
July 11, 2019 at 9:09 AM #74205Cricket the sad part about harmonica is you need a different one for each key LOL So you just need to buy a set !
Hohner’s Blues Band 7-Piece Harmonica Set 1501 features seven Hohner Blues Band harmonicas in the popular keys of A, Bb, C, D, E, F, and G. For $42.00
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This reply was modified 1 month ago by
Steve Srader.
July 11, 2019 at 9:33 AM #74208Those are good harps, my first one that I seriously played was a blues band
July 11, 2019 at 10:57 AM #74209I knew a guy who could play in any key on just one keyed harmonica…li,ke, I don’t know if his was G or C or what, can’t remember, but he could play in any key other people were playing in…of course I think most people can only handle one or two, possibly three keys on one…takes ultimate harmonica skill to manage like that.
July 11, 2019 at 11:28 AM #74210Probably was a chromatic harmonica, check out David Naiditch for a great example of chromatic harp playing. I play ten hole diatonic harmonica. Check out Buddy Greene for a great example of that. I can play two major keys and one minor on harmonica, so I have a large collection of different keys.
July 11, 2019 at 11:48 AM #74211David Naiditch is incredible! I love his rendition for “Little Rock Getaway” ! Awesome. He is so good. I’ve listened to him for the past three years. Glad you like his playing.
July 11, 2019 at 12:31 PM #74217No it was a regular diatonic cheapie harmonica…I can’t remember if it was keyed to C or G…I played guitar and it was one or the other. He could just bend and find a starting spot for any key I’d play in…we didn’t get to Bb or any keys too weird, and he wouldn’t play like every note in the scale of certain keys, but he could navigate enough to play just about any song or tune and get it good enough that it sounded like what he was trying to play. He also did pretty fancy fiddle shuffles on that thing and good train sounds.
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This reply was modified 1 month ago by cricket.
July 11, 2019 at 12:54 PM #74219Ha Cricket , Fred’s FFFF , Mine could be Defiantly be SSSS as in Steve Srader Song Selection ! LOL
July 11, 2019 at 3:09 PM #74241Ok cool, that would take skill😬😱😂
July 11, 2019 at 3:54 PM #74246as in Steve Srader’s skillful song selection symposium…………lol
July 11, 2019 at 7:56 PM #74248Fred that would be six S not fair to your 4 F ! But then again what in life is fair ?
July 11, 2019 at 9:19 PM #74251Go for it, Steve!
July 12, 2019 at 8:02 AM #74268Had a great band practice last night with my band “Hit or Miss”. We’ve got around 80 songs and instrumentals that we’re doing actively and can break into organized sets. We’re preparing for a nice gig at the Visitors Center at Greer’s Ferry Lake Dam on the 27th of this month. It’s always a packed theater and we want everything to come off as perfect as we can so we’re only taking the cream of the crop material to use for the set list.
I’ll be playing about 65% banjo and 35% fiddle which is about what I always do with this group. When I’m playing with the Pearson Group and with “The Sugarloafers”, I play 100% fiddle.
It was a fun night. :)
July 12, 2019 at 8:31 AM #74271Well, I’ve just finished pike county breakdown, (the recording part) so now I’ve just gotta film each part and send it to one of my friends who’s going to edit the video. I’m still waiting on my other friend who’s doing little brown birds, he’s been busy and hasn’t been able to do it yet 🙄 but hopefully I’ll be able to get them both on YouTube by late August. Next recording project will be Ashokan farewell, but that could be a while 😂 Fred, that sounds like a lot of fun!
July 12, 2019 at 12:07 PM #74283Fun times, Fred…more F’s…lol … Fantastic Fun Fiddling and, well doggone it, banjo starts with B…anyway…good to see you are out there playing up a storm! Enjoy! Gunnar, glad you are getting videos going…can’t wait to see them!
Well I think this year is the worst gardening experience I’ve had in a long time…between too much rain, followed by too much heat and too dry, to the neighborhood raccoons that have enjoyed everything I’m growing (except they are leaving me plenty of cucumbers…indicating they must dislike them as much as I do and they still haven’t figured out how to make pickles)…ugh…I guess we’re gonna have to set traps. We haven’t had to do that since we had chickens…but the people across the river set them loose around us, I guess because we have a patch of woods nearby…and every two or three years it gets outta control. Our fences protect most of our stuff from other critters (plus I just grow a lot more than I think we’ll ever need), but you really cannot keep raccoons out of anything…they are good with their hands and so much smarter than people. My dad said he saw a mom raccoon unlatching his trap and setting a younger one free…lol. I know they can unlatch chicken coops quite well. So anyway…between weather weirdness and raccoons running through the neighborhood…the garden is suffering here. The neighbors who have chickens have lost more than half from foxes…So, between the raccoons and foxes, I am glad we don’t have chickens right now, at least. Anyhow…that’s what’s up here…makes me feel like just playing some more music…lol.
July 12, 2019 at 2:40 PM #74286Everybody keep posting!! Don’t worry about hogging or anything. I love hearing all the tunes, all the tales, all the alliteration…. LOL
I’d post more, but I got so much going on, it’s hard to stop and capture a thing or two. Ha….I’ve been working on Ookpik Waltz, Westphalia Waltz, Elk Creek Blues and Listen to the Mockingbird (which currently sounds more like Listen to me Kill a Mockingbird).
One day, I’ll stop and record them.
July 12, 2019 at 3:37 PM #74289Angela, I don’t think I’ve ever heard “Elk Creek Blues”. (can’t remember the name anyway)
July 12, 2019 at 5:45 PM #74295Well….maybe because it’s commonly called Elk River Blues…haha…I just put the wrong name….
July 12, 2019 at 6:34 PM #74297I haven’t heard “Elk River Blues”, either. lol But I will look it up. :)
July 12, 2019 at 8:48 PM #74301I just posted a version in Lion’s Den
July 17, 2019 at 12:10 PM #74513well, guys, I was all into working on my youtube channel/presonus stuff, etc., today, because bad weather put us inside. Well now it’s storming bigtime, so, well I don’t run the presonus in storms…said on the package not to do that, and if that thing would get blown apart I’d probably just go nuts…lol. So I guess then I’ve gotta get in there and do the dishes…Mike wants to make soap, so I’ll probably help him with that since it’s just much easier with two people…daggone…I had it in my head to work with the presonus all day…now look…can’t do my stuff…I guess if I have enough coffee it’ll keep me from going crazy!!!!
July 18, 2019 at 1:52 PM #74560Y’all probably have been spared the agony, but I’m recoiling in horror at the latest form of social media stupidity. There’s this app that you put a picture of yourself into, and it ages your face to whatever age you set. Most people are going about 30-60 years older, and it’s disturbing. I had to threaten one of my brothers lest he take a picture of me and send it to someone who had the app. I really hate what photos I’ve seen from it. On a happier subject, I started building my DIY dobro today, and I remembered to take some pictures, so I’ll share those when I finish
July 18, 2019 at 5:47 PM #74568Glad you are working on that dobro! Sounds like fun! As to the app…no, no, no…I don’t want to hear about that….no, not at all. It’s a real life horror at this point…I’m like…oh who’s that old cranky lady in the mirror…oh no…it’s me! When did I get that old??? People used to think my daughter and I were sisters, then suddenly, they not only think I’m her child’s grandmother, but her grandmother too…yikces…hey wait I ain’t really old…lol.
July 19, 2019 at 3:16 AM #74583Ha, well, people usually think my mom’s my sister, and the often think my dad’s my granddad, especially when my three year old brother is with us 😂😂
July 19, 2019 at 10:39 AM #74589Well, my dad and I just had a bicycle wheelie contest, and he won by about 7.5 feet. His best was 84 feet, and mine was 76 or 77 (it wasn’t measured immediately, so it’s our best guess) anyway, I can’t let that stand, cuz I ride everyday, and I have a much better bike, and I’m about 40 years younger, so I should win. On paper anyway 🙄🙄. Stay tuned… I did do better than him in one way: today I learned to ride a one-handed wheelie. (He can’t ride one)
July 19, 2019 at 10:40 AM #74590Ha…poor Dad, hey? Well I’m sittin’ here cookin’ and thinkin’ how lonely it feels sometimes to just play music only by myself. Yet, can’t find anybody who I like to play music with. Didn’t really play Bluegrass…so I was like a sore thumb in that band and at those jams…don’t know anybody else. We’ve lived up here 30 years and I realize we just don’t really know anybody…except people who make meth or shoot up one thing or another, etc. Don’t really know them, except as neighbors. I wish I could play music with other people, or for somebody or whatever…maybe I wouldn’t feel so guilty about wasting time playing it if there seemed to be some purpose…lol. ok…done whinin’ about that…I might be a-burnin’ that pork belly by now so I gotta go.
July 19, 2019 at 3:16 PM #74594Cricket, I sure do wish for better circumstances for you to be able to surround yourself with multiple talented players and just have a grand old time at least once in a while. Gosh, I know what it’s like not to have any talented musicians around. When I was up in New York State way up in the Adirondacks, good seasoned pickers were far and few between. I had to travel great distances a lot of the time for many years. I belonged to a good Bluegrass band for a lot of years and had to travel a lot but at least we ran into all manner of good players on the festival circuit. I did the circuit with that band for 19 years. I was also in lots of other bands, but I had to travel for each and every one.
Good luck to you. You certainly deserve to be surrounded with the finest, ’cause you are very talented!
July 19, 2019 at 3:55 PM #74597That’s very nice, Fred. I used to play for little local gigs where we used to live just all the time. I even did all the music for an oral history project our county did for the Humanities Council in…well, I can’t remember if they’re in Lexington or Louisville…but the slide show with my music on there is housed there and was on KET…our local PBS. I also did a thing for a Harlan Co. author that ended up on KET one time. I was gonna do another one…the poet…can’t even remember his name, but he wrote stories and poems and was in either Hazard or Perry Co…he was at some festival and reading his stuff, and he usually had a musician travel with him. Well the musician couldn’t make it, and somehow I got elected…lol. He had this whole thing worked up where the musician would play some instrument/some tune during various parts of the reading…so….I didn’t know how to go about that with just me and my guitar…guitar was all I had at the time…didn’t know half of the tunes and would have to just improvise all the way through and not even sure when I was supposed to start and stop the music…I was really scared…no idea what I was supposed to be doing…KET was setting up their equipment and the something-or-other busted on them…maybe generator or something…it was out in some state park…I was so happy they blew out and coulnt’ put that on TV because I was just fumbling around not knowing when…what…how, etc., to do that thing with that guy…lol. Well anyway though, what I’m saying is I always had friends to play with, places to play, etc., then moved up here and for the past 30 years it’s disintegrated into nothingness, which is kinda bad since I finally got the money up to buy more than just one ol’ guitar, etc. LOL…oh gosh…well, sometimes it feels lonely, and even worse, like a big waste of time. It bugs me that I just wanna play all the time…neglecting my work and stuff…then it just all seems so ridiculous and useless…I have felt like selling or just giving away all my instruments here lately and just hanging it all up so I can think about something besides music…something more productive maybe. I’m gonna throw the autoharp in the garbage…I paid 15 bucks for it used a few years back…the little felt pads are worn out, rusted strings…you have to tune it to play (takes a long time) and before you get through a song it’s already outta tune…and you have to press on the stoppers until your arm shakes…press as hard as you can to stop the strings…so it’s very hard to play and you’re outta tune and worn out before you get through a song…I was thinkiing to set it outside by the trash because people pick through and get stuff, but I wouldn’t wish that on anybody…lol…too frustrating, so it’ll go in with old chicken bones, etc. I need to make room in the house…got an extra dulcimer I don’t need (barely can’t keep up with one) and I need to get rid of one guitar so they all fit in the same room…I don’t know why I bought that big ol’ cello…anyway…gettin’ close to feeling like sellin’ ’em all and becoming a useful person…lol. I’ve done it before, but it was only banjos.
July 20, 2019 at 1:45 PM #74608I’m thinking playing music has seemed lately to be a ridiculous waste of time for a person who has a lot to get done…then I’m always rushing around trying to catch up because I messed around with music, never focused on what I’m doing because I’m thinking of what to play next, etc., then wondering why I’m doing it in the first place…for cyberspace…so my efforts sink down into the pits cyberspace and become nothingness. Seems at the same time playing music is giving me the sense of the absence of community and friendships…our friends are far away, and there’s no community, not really, not up here…there’s none down there anymore either…all destroyed by poverty and greed, etc. I think I’m at some kinda impasse here…not sure what I do now…lol. Just catch up and drink coffee…lol. Sounds pretty good!
July 20, 2019 at 2:08 PM #74609I get so busy at times, especially in the summer, that music takes the back burner and I ‘forget’ to play. But when I have a few moments to just sit, if I have the mandolin or fiddle handy, it makes for a nice break. I think we all have times when something we enjoy becomes less enjoyable or not a priority. Set it aside for awhile and don’t fret; you’ll find that it will come back. I agree it can be hard not having others to play music with. I have bounced through a few groups but have not found a good fit. I have been meeting with a small Irish session group. I enjoy the folks but their focus is on high speed, which isn’t my main interest or skill. I have remained in the church choir because it gives me the opportunity at least once a week to play with others and for others. Even if you slack off for awhile, it is obvious that music will always be a key part of your life.
Joe
July 20, 2019 at 5:59 PM #74611Cricket , Some folks waste all there time in front of a tv , Other gaming , There is just so much to waste time on , You could waste all your time working , So you might as well waste some of it playing music !
July 20, 2019 at 6:58 PM #74614If you really love something, you don’t really need to ask yourself if you love it, in my humble opinion. I’ve loved music since I was just a little baby and my love for it has grown leaps and bounds ever since.
When I go down into the pits and think it’s due to music, it really isn’t at all. It’s always something else that has distracted me in one way or another. It may take a little while to find the distraction, but I always find it and I’m always relieved it’s not my music after all.
One of my most recurring distractions is the need for more and more money for things that pop up in life…..travel to distant family members, wanting things I can’t afford, etc., But I’m always delighted to find that it is not and has never been my love for music.
July 20, 2019 at 7:36 PM #74615Took my first day off in three weeks…21st anniversary of my father & brother’s passing via auto accident.
Been storming here off & on since midnight…still have power though.
July 20, 2019 at 9:32 PM #74631Hi Dave: It’s nice to see you’re back on the forum. I’ve missed reading your posts. By the sounds of it, you have been very busy working.
I’m sorry to learn of the untimely deaths of your father and your brother so many years ago. I’m sure you miss them a great deal. I sure miss my father and mother a whole lot.
Great to have you helping others here on the forum. I always get something out of it, too. :)
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