Banjo Decisions

So I got my dad's banjo and I am starting to lean towards frailing now. I'm thinking that my musical ability doesn't fit with my musical ambitions. When I look at the Scruggs (Bluegrass) style of banjo picking, it seems like a long road of practicing rolls and learning how to fit licks and rolls together in a kind of seemingly magical way to then play a song. Combine that with the speed that Bluegrass guys play and you have the recipe for years and years of practice before you can play any kind of recognizable song. Of course there are those guys out there that have a natural musical aptitude to make that kind of practice pay eventually. Unfortunately I have to be realistic and I've realized that my goal of playing for my friends and family may mean trying to get in faster at the ground level. Of course I haven't made the effort to start to learn how to frail yet, so I may run into more trouble. Either way, my commitment to practicing every day should pay off some time, if not immediately. In the end I imagine that I will eventually learn a little bit of both Scruggs style and frailing. Here is a video of a guy my dad's friend referred me to. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qo0cy0REMY8

Banjo

I've been in a flurry of activity lately learning about the banjo. I'm looking to take up the instrument and am very excited about it. My dad played when I was young and I have always enjoyed the sound. I played guitar in high school, albeit poorly, and want to have another crack at a musical instrument. I want to make some music and the banjo seems very appropriate for the turkey woods once the gobblers have all gone to sleep. Who knows maybe with the banjo I'll finally have a shock call that works. I'm going to try to borrow my dad's old banjo to get me started until I can make a good decision about what kind of instrument that I want to get. One thing that is giving me a lot of angst is the bluegrass vs. open backed banjo dilemma. Here are some of the pros and cons for each. I love bluegrass music. Ever since I got XM radio I listen to the Bluegrass Track 14 a lot. I really like the hard driving banjo in bluegrass songs. The down side is a lot of bluegrass is very fast paced and will be hard for a beginner. As for the open backed banjo, there is a lot going for it. It is the instrument of choice for folk music. Folk music is great for singing around the camp fire, especially with kids. The instrument is lighter and cheaper. The problem is that it doesn't seem like as much fun to me. The open back lends itself to a technique called frailing, which I was less than interested in until my dad's friend shared a link with me to an artist/teacher named Patrick Costello. He can really make frailing look fun. It seems to me like a fellow ought to make a choice about what style he goes for at the beginning as both frailing and finger picking take a year or more to become proficient. Right now I'm leaning towards bluegrass. Before I talked to my dad's friend I was sure I wanted to do bluegrass, but now I'm not so sure. The downside of all this wonderful information on the internet is that every time you answer a question you find three more you need to answer.

Friends Don't Let Friends Hunt Unarmed

A lot of friends of mine have told me they'd like to come hunting sometime, except not take a gun and just bring a camera. I have heard of some old timers who do this on a regular basis and I have nothing against it. For some reason when my non-hunting friends suggest that they want to go out with me gun less it rubs me the wrong way. There may be someone reading this that is a friend of mine and has made this very statement. If so don't get bent out of shape, I not judging anyone. The biggest problem I have with this is it seems like something someone wants to do so they can feel the coolness of hunting and not have to feel bad for killing the animal. This life and death struggle, prey predator relationship is what makes your pulse rise and your body shake uncontrollably with excitement. If you hunt without the intent to kill it’s just not hunting. So now you've heard my take on this, here is what I would like you, my non-hunting friends to do about your camera hunt. Come out with me! I would love to have you at my camp. The food is good and the scenery is better. If you want grill me on how I can justify killing animals the whole time, be my guest. If your a friend of mine just come on out, just make sure you get a hunting license. I'll bring along an extra shotgun or you can use mine if you want;)