Mountain Music 2nd Saturday Jam

show at this Jam. This month we had Mary Frances Herndon. Wow..and incredible person and international champion at whistling.

I hope the shoppe gets her C/D.

I'm a mediocre fiddle player looking to improve. Would like to get hooked up with a claw hammer banjo player and work on some of the many old time tunes I have on tapes and cds. For those interested, WPAQ (940AM) out of Mt Airey NC has about the best selection of old time music I've heard anywhere. When I lived up in the mountains near there I could barely get them on the radio but now I'm back in the low country and get perfect reception on line. Thanks for peeking.

Bill

I'm not sure what a 'mediocre' fiddler is. I fiddle as well. I didn't take it up until I was 50 and I'm 65 now and still learning. But although I am no longer quick enough for some of the flashier techniques, I figure that a lifetime spend making music on one thing or another must count for something.
Thanks for the tip about the radio station. I will definitely look into that.
Nita

Hello Nita,

Mediocre in my case means not too hot and not too shabby. People don't throw things at me when I play and even on rare occasions ask me to return. Actually there are times when I feel like my playing, in new age speak, sucks! But that's just my opinion. By the way I was 45 when I got my first fiddle and I'm just a few months away from 70 with a lifetime spent working my butt off and playing nothing more complex than a comb with waxpaper wrapped around it. The radio thing; your welcome and if you like bluegrass there is a Galax VA. station, WBRF, live streaming, that plays not only that along with some (ugh)country but they also cover live the annual fiddle competition, in August I believe. That competiton includes all the acoustic instruments plus group entries. It can be pretty good and prety bad- - - -mediocre?

Bill
)

When I was learning to play I had the fortune/misfortune to be attending sessions along with such Irish fiddle greats as Martin Hayes and Liz Carrol. It was a great stumbling block and I only wished to be able to scrape out a tune. When I got to where I could do that, I said I just wish to be a regular ordinary mediocre fiddler. How's that for ambition.
I was so overwhelmed by the technique and speed of the fiddlers around me that I was making the mistake of struggling forward. I finally learned to relax and enjoy my 'mediocre' music.
I am nowhere near where I wish to be. I wish only that I could play the music the way I hear it in my heart. To have it come out of the fiddle and bow spontaneously.
My current challenge is playing in the upper positions and getting back to the open position without going off key.
Meanwhile I get invited into bands pretty regularly because there seems to be a dearth of fiddlers in my area and you don't have to be great to play back up. It amuses the heck out of the teens and twenties that I work with that the granny is always requesting days off to play gigs. LOL

Another plea from wet warm belly of coastal South Carolina. Are there any claw hammer,drop thumb,or whatever other old time open back banjo styles exist, players in the Berkeley, Dorchestor, or Charleston county area? If so give me a heads up. My fiddle needs a companion.

Bill

There are many members of the Banjo Hangout, and you can at least search by state. Unfortunately they don't list what styles they play. You can post a query in the clawhammer/OT playing advice forum.

http://www.banjohangout.org/

The Fiddle Hangout is pretty good, too.

http://www.fiddlehangout.com/

Erich
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http://vrteach.org/banjo/