Re: [Harp-L] bluegrass at SPAH

[Cara Cooke <cyberharp@xxxxxxxxx>]

You would have as good a chance as any other similar harmonica player to
jam.  With what little single note work I heard, I expect that you will be
fine as long as you can find the melodies of the songs/tunes being played
and know how to get around your harmonicas and the keys being played.  You
may have to stick to ballads and slower tunes, though, unless you can play
single notes melodically at higher speeds.

Bluegrass is highly modal, so it doesn't always sound best in straight or
crossharp.  It would help if you were familiar with common bluegrass tunes,
but the slow jam is a great place for learning stuff like that.  Some people
coming in to bluegrass may not spend much time in the slow jam, but that is
what gets them their "water wings" so that they can float up to the next,
more advanced, jam.  It depends upon them as to whether they are good
enough.

The only way to really know is to try.  You could, for example, get a Flatt
and Scruggs CD (or even a DVD of one of their TV shows) and play with it to
get into the music and start to build a repetoire.

One of the best DVDs for that sort of thing is the Bluegrass Jam Session DVD
from Texas Music and Video (
http://texasmusicsupply.com/bluegrass-jam-session.html).  It was developed
as a study tool for the bluegrass music degree students at South Plains
College back in the 1980s and covers very common tunes while showing you the
jam.  You can see the players and their signals, and you can see and
hear what they do when it is your time to take a lead.  You can pretend that
it is your jam, so you need to listen to the whole and the group and play
backup (or lay out) and when your time comes up to play, you watch for your
signal and go for it.

Woodshedding is important.  It always helps to have a few tunes that you can
play at the jam before you get there.  If you call a tune, call it in the
appropriate key.  The instrumentals usually have a specific key, though we
did have a fiddler who would deliberately call a tune in an absurd key.  He
would practice all week to befuddle his group of friends and challenge them
to do on the spur of the moment what he had practiced all week.  We rose to
the challenge and were better for it; but if you are coming into a jam where
you don't know the other players, it is bad form to call a tune in a
non-traditional key unless you need to so that you can sing.

If you wish to jam, please take the time to prepare like they do, or join
the slow jam or stay in the outer circles.  When you get to the jam, you
will know more about whether you are "good enough".

On Fri, Jul 15, 2011 at 9:01 AM, Emile Damico <oatss_oatflakes@xxxxxxxxx>wrote:

> Cara
>  I'm not a bluegrass player but was in a bunch of productions of
> Big River. I even wrote a kinda bluegrass tune. Please check it out and
> tell me if I'm good enough to jam.
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t03heiBASbY
>
> Me in Big River LOL
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STsJbR_hsZA&NR=1
>
> Thanks
>  See Ya at SPAH
>
> --- On Thu, 7/14/11, Cara Cooke <cyberharp@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> > From: Cara Cooke <cyberharp@xxxxxxxxx>
> > Subject: Re: [Harp-L] bluegrass at SPAH
> > To: "harp-l" <Harp-L@xxxxxxxxxx>
> > Date: Thursday, July 14, 2011, 5:12 PM
>  > My best information is coming from a
> > local: Thomas McCraig.  It sounds like
> > they are pretty generous people, as long as we are as
> > generous and
> > polite/respectful, etc.  He would be the best one to
> > answer your question.
> >
> > You have a good start on some good common tunes.
> > David's CD has some good
> > ones that are not on your list that are also pretty
> > common.  As long as you
> > have some common tunes to offer all practiced up and you
> > are polite and
> > respectful of the others in the jam, keep your background
> > playing in the
> > background, use the melody as a road map for the tunes you
> > do not know as
> > well, etc., you should be fine.
> >
> > Different jams are different to beginners than other
> > jams.  In most cases,
> > it seems that they are comfortable helping string players,
> > but not with
> > helping harmonica players, and that is what creates a
> > problem.  But your
> > approach shouldn't cause that much concern, except where
> > chords are
> > concerned, since you wouldn't be much use vamping a
> > mandolin chop on a
> > chromatic in more than possibly two keys.  As long as
> > you know your
> > instrument and can handle that part, being a beginner on
> > the tunes shouldn't
> > bother them that much.  Everybody starts somewhere,
> > and nobody knows
> > everything.
> >
> > cara
> >
> > On Thu, Jul 14, 2011 at 3:47 PM, <sheltraw@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
> > wrote:
> >
> > > David
> > >
> > > I was really hoping to talk with you at SPAH. I have
> > been learning some
> > > Bluegrass tunes for chromatic harmonica and developing
> > my own style. Oh
> > > well. Maybe next year?
> > >
> > >
> > > Cara
> > >
> > > I have only been playing harmonica for about 15 months
> > and have just a
> > > few bluegrass tunes in my repertoire (Read Haired Boy,
> > Cripple Creek,
> > > John Hardy, Amazing Grace, Sweet Georgia Brown, and
> > Old Joe Clark).
> > > Some bluegrass jams are welcoming to beginners and
> > some are not. Do
> > > you have a feel for how tolerant these jams are with
> > respect to beginners?
> > >
> > > I really appreciate you working on this.
> > >
> > > Cheers!
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > > We'll miss you, too.  Maybe next year.
> > > >
> > > > Cara
> > > >
> > > > On Thu, Jul 14, 2011 at 12:59 PM, Richard Hunter
> > > > <turtlehill@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>wrote:
> > > >
> > > >> David Naiditch wrote:
> > > >> <What a bummer.  Cara Cooke is
> > graciously arranging all these great
> > > >> bluegrass jams, and it appears I won’t be
> > <able to make SPAH this year.
> > > >>
> > > >> Ditto and likewise.  The lineup for this
> > year's SPAH looks amazing, and
> > > >> I
> > > >> will be unable to attend.
> > > >>
> > > >> Regards, Richard Hunter
> > > >>
> > >
> > >
> > >
> >
>