I'd rather be playing my ukulele: Week four

 

Also, I wish that the ukulele was bluegrass friendly.

My current thoughts on playing mandolin:

Finding confidence and pursuing passion.

So far, my experience with learning how to play mandolin has been frustrating. Tonight I took out my list of songs and tried to look up some chords for them. It was impossible to decipher because my band has changed the key of certain songs. I don't understand how to change keys. My neighbor tried to explain it and changed a few, but the chords started going out of my range of ability. So, my mind started to drift and I found myself looking across the room at my ukulele case. The ukulele is my comfort instrument. When I get aggravated with mandolin, I take out my ukulele and play songs I have memorized. I sat there tinkering with some chord progressions and picked out some melodies. It boosts my confidence. I yearn for my ability with each to be equal. I am passionate about that little hunk of Hawaiian wood and I have two years of experience without proper instruction. In other words, I taught myself at my own pace.

I feel like everything with mandolin instruction/band is going too fast. I will admit that I haven't taken proper notes in band class, so I can't practice those twelve songs yet on my own. I plan to change this on Wednesday. I'm struggling to find confidence in myself as a musician. I've never been in a band or played music with other people before. It was enough to sit back and watch the first few weeks. I'm so mentally ready to join in, but my ability prevents that. Even if I don't seem prepared now, I'm confident that by Oct. 8 I will be ready to deliver. I'm hoping frustration will soon fade to confidence. All I need to do is maintain focus and be passionate about mandolin like I am with the ukulele.

Chord shapes and scales - Week three

During individual instruction my teacher, Lee Bidgood showed me all of the chord shapes. My homework was to learn how to play the G scale and here's my progress over an hour:

I took it slow at first:

This is the fastest speed I can do without messing up too terribly:

I'm working on finger placement and the tension in my wrist while holding the difficult G shape. It looks like this:

 Lee informed me that moving this shape up two frets turns it into an A chord which looks like this:

If you move it two more frets then it becomes a B chord:

This is where he introduced me to some music theory. The pattern ends with B because there is only a half step in between B and C. So, you would only move it up one fret for the C chord.

I was in and out of the program's office a lot this week. I was writing another article about the Bluegrass Half Marathon that is going on this weekend. Read my article here.
So,  I finally figured out that my band is called The Roan Mountaineers. The program names new bands, so we had no options. Also, our adviser informed us that we are set to play in two weeks at an elementary school in Gray. October 8 from 1 p.m. until 3 p.m. I'm nervous because I am having a hard time keeping up with them during band class. I've got to crunch in twelve songs and keep up with my classes, work etc. The people in my band have made arrangements to get together and 'pick' each week outside of class time. This just means working on solos for our twelve-song set list. I wasn't able to meet with them on the days/times they announced. Of course I won't have any solo parts but I wanted to be there. I want to be included. It's not intentional. I know it's merely a matter of conflicting schedules but I don't feel like I'm a part of the band right now.

Getting to know the faculty - Week two

Class Assignment - See note below!

In response to the recent expansion of the ETSU Bluegrass, Old-Time and Country Music Program new faces have emerged and the chain of command has shifted.

Director Dan Boner says the growth of the program is in the amount of people showing interest. “We’ve had an increase of students by 10 percent from last semester and 220 people enrolled in individual instruction,” said Boner.  

Dan Boner was selected in July as director after a year and a half search.  He held the interim director position since the fall of 2007 and worked closely with the former Director Raymond McLain. Boner has reorganized the program for students by condensing syllabi and bringing in new faculty members, says Jane Bond, the program’s executive aid. “We have two assistant professor positions that replaced the assistant director position,” said Bond.

Roy Andrade and Lee Bidgood were hired to fill the assistant professor positions in early August. Andrade has been on staff for four years, was the former lecturer and notices change this semester. “It [the program] feels different, but in a good way,” said Andrade. “The staff is bigger and younger. It’s exciting that there are lots of new students and we are retooled for that.”

Bidgood, one of two new members of the program’s staff, moved to Johnson City, TN from Chapel Hill, NC in July to secure his position. He is a multi-instrumentalist, founding member of the Steep Canyon Rangers and he teaches: Survey of Contemporary Bluegrass, Bluegrass Seminar I, individual instruction and is advising two bands. “Lee is personable and extremely knowledgeable,” said Jeff Elkins, a junior at ETSU and member of the Roan Mountaineers, a band Bidgood advises. “He shattered my preconceptions about the band class. He challenges us all to be prepared and focused, and expects us to work to be the best we can be.”

Bidgood’s qualifications lie within his academic endeavors. “What is different about Lee is that he will be getting his Ph.D. in ethnomusicology,” said Boner. Bidgood says that ethnomusicology is the study of music’s relationship with people and their culture and he is currently working on a dissertation through the University of Virginia about bluegrass music in the Czech Republic.

Brandon Green was hired, alongside of Bidgood, to fill the role as lecturer. “He is a great example of excellence in musicianship,” said Boner. Green studied classical music with focus on banjo at the Concord University in West Virginia and was also a student at ETSU in 2002.

He has performed on banjo with Canada’s Abrams Brothers and is an endorser for Prucha Banjos, says John Lawless of thebluegrassblog.com. Green’s title as lecturer means he is full time and is teaching Intro to Bluegrass and Country Music Theory I and II and Bluegrass Harmony Singing. Boner feels that Green is an asset to the team because of his hands-on ventures. “Brandon has real world experience with being on the road, owning his own business and making ends meet with that income alone,” said Boner.

Bidgood and Green are the newest members of what Jane Bond describes as “a family.” The list of accomplishments of every person involved in the Bluegrass, Old-time and Country Music Program is extensive. Much like a standard family dynamic, each person within the program offers a different kind of expertise, but they all have a common goal, says Boner. “We all have a common love for music and our biggest goal is to pass on the music as it was traditionally learned by our ancestors.”


Edit- I wrote this for the writing assignment Lise gave us and it's unedited. I didn't mean to leave this sitting here without commentary. I must have gotten distracted while I was posting. I wanted to request feedback and opinions from the class. It would still be great to get some feedback on this story and how it can be improved. Lise is finished editing, but there's always room for more improvement.

Recap of week two: That week in particular was interesting because I was researching for that story, but also getting to meet the amazing folks involved in the program. I had an opportunity to sit down with Jane Bond, Dan Boner, Lee Bidgood and Roy Andrade. We had some great conversations about the program that really boosted my desire to graduate with a Bluegrass minor!

Realization of my obstacles - Week one

Week one of my bluegrass experience at East Tennessee State University was strenuous. My work load consists of a band class once a week, individual instruction once a week, Survey of Contemporary Bluegrass at 8:15 a.m. twice a week and Bluegrass Seminar once a week. It doesn't sound like much of a class load and it didn't to me either when it was merely illuminating from my computer screen. Now that I am immersed in the program - I feel overwhelmed.

My first realization of how far I had to go in this field of study was when I went to my first session of Survey of Contemporary Bluegrass. We sat down to converse about bluegrass and what we thought the definition would/should be. I sat quietly and listened to others speak, which is completely opposite of my personality when I am excited about something. I am more than excited to learn about bluegrass and I didn't know why my mind and tongue were paralyzed. When the professor instructed me to speak I admitted my ignorance on the topic. I explained that I had no idea what bluegrass is and that I have a narrow view about its characteristics musically. I went even further to explain that I was there to learn about what it was and to learn how to play it, unlike my fellow classmates who are there to simply improve upon their already seemingly immaculate talent.

My second dose of reality was in my bluegrass seminar class. This class is dedicated solely to keeping up with everyone's progress and instilling the importance of knowing the culture. We are learning about different aspects of appearance on stage, listening skills, finance, practice habits and music as a lifelong endeavor. The instructor started by having all of us introduce ourselves. I went first and basically explained I was a beginner right from the start. After I stopped talking I could feel the eagerness building in the classroom. One by one the other people explained their lifelong endeavors with bluegrass. They expressed their experiences in everything from family bands at the age of two to having a natural affinity for the style since they were a tot. I wanted to throw up.  

My final moment of realizing my inadequacy was in bluegrass band. I entered a room with six other students who were now my new bandmates. As soon as I sat down someone said, "Who knows Whiskey before Breakfast?" Everyone awed at this selection and on they went with their performance. I sat there dormant to the point of rigamortis. I had only taken two months of lessons on my mandolin and I wasn't about to crank out something magical. I noticed people staring at me with my lack of ambition and what they saw as laziness. When the tune ended I explained myself and I could see an array of facial expressions that ranged from oh-no-this-is-going-to-be-awful to aw-poor-thing-she's-new-and-has-no-idea. I wanted to crawl inside the huge bass standing triumphantly behind me and die. These people made me feel like I was in the middle of a bluegrass hurricane and never had a survival drill in my entire life.

After class I scurried off to tend to things that I am already comfortable with like: writing and working on the campus newspaper. I waited for my next Survey of Contemporary Bluegrass class to circulate around for the week and that morning I unloaded my feelings of fear and sorrow onto my instructor. He reassured me that with ample practice and insurmountable ambition that I will be able to fall in line with the others.

In summation, the week ended with me on the verge of tears. I realized that my visualization of what the program was like was far off from the actuality. I learned that the students involved in this program eat, breathe, walk and talk bluegrass. I have to learn the history, the culture and style in a matter of weeks and my only fear now is that they will reject me for trying to conform.

Click here for a video of what 'Whiskey Before Breakfast' sounds like:
Whiskey Before Breakfast