The One Thing I Wish I Had Done More of When I Started Playing Tenor Banjo

It's been over 19 years since I first got a tenor banjo. There are lots of things I wish knew starting out, including don't worry about when you will get "good", don't be afraid to change strings, don't let the fact that there are great musicians intimidate or de-motivate you, don't waste so much money on other instruments (banjo is where it's at), don't go on so many tangents and side trips, stay focused on things that help you reach your goal, know what your goal is, understand that music is more than just what you see as performance and entertainment on a stage, that there is a whole DIY hobbyist music community of peers, and more.

However, the one thing that I wish I had allowed myself to do more of is struggle. When I started playing tenor banjo at age 32 I quickly learned how to read mandolin tab fluently and sheet music on a basic level so I never tried to learn anything by ear. It felt like a seemingly insurmountable hurdle to have to learn entirely by ear with no notation or tab. But what I could have done is give myself like 30 minutes to try and learn or transcribe a tune by ear, then compare what I was playing to the actual notes on the page to see how far off I was. That 30 minutes would have been a struggle but if I had done this over and over and over again the unpleasantness of the struggle would have eventually subsided into a routine delivering positive outcomes. 

It was not until 2017, 11 years after I picked up the instrument, that I started to do something resembling this. In 2017 I became frustrated with almost everything I had been doing related to music. Instead of giving up entirely, I decided to create my own repertoire completely from scratch without any regard to genre, style, tradition, tune type, and so on. I accomplished this by listening to a wide variety of different sounds and then trying to write my own melody based on what I was hearing. I stopped playing anything I had ever played before.

Because of the freedom I gave myself this wasn't actually a struggle. Let's say that I was listening to a track like De La Montaña Venimos by Maso Rivera. What I would do is listen to this piece and then write my own melody inspired by it. I titled it "From the Hills I Go". From the Hills I Go became my tune and part of my personal repertoire. Emphasis on feeling as though it were my own. I never once saw sheet music and my goal was not to try and copy the existing melody. If I heard it a certain way I went with that. Then it would be on to something else. Maybe a track from a 1970's KPM library music LP, or a Jean Luc Ponty tune or a field recording from the Seychelles islands. Within months I had over a dozen of these little melodies to call my own and within a year I had "composed" over 50 of them. It was a fun and all consuming creative project and I can't believe I kept the momentum and focus in place for several years leading all the way into the pandemic.

The funny thing is, one day I actually paid a music transcriber on Fiverr to transcribe De La Montaña Venimos for me. I had my own tune that I was playing which was inspired by this melody but I didn't know how close it was to the actual melody. Lo and behold, I had almost transcribed the head melody to the tune note for note. My tune, the one that I supposedly wrote and felt ownership with and called From the Hills I Go, was essentially a plagiarized copy of De La Montaña Venimos. That was both good news and bad news. The bad news that I couldn't really claim it as my own. The good news was that it proved that you could learn something without needing sheet music! I didn't check the other 150+ tunes that I "composed" during this strange period of my life, but I'm guessing that many more closely mirrored the melody from which they were stolen from.

When I moved to Oregon last year and decided to get involved in the Irish trad community here I used this newly gained confidence to approach struggle with a positive mindset. Wish Irish jigs, reels, polkas, hornpipes, slides, slip jigs, and so on there are almost always going to be tunebook lead sheet transcriptions of the basic tune, but thanks to YouTube and other sources there are also always going to be audio versions to listen to. I treat the audio as my primary source and the notation as supplemental. I try to limit how often I allow myself to look at the sheet music. Resisting the urge to look at the music when you are stumped and letting your mind work through the issue does pay off in the long run. A tune is not static anyway. Your day to day interpretation of it is allowed to vary. One day your version may have a lot of "wrong" notes. Then as you learn the tune better, the wrong notes fade away only to be replaced by other notes that you hear in their place.

When I start a post like this I never quite know where it's going to end up. I think I'd rather go work on some tunes now than try to write anything else.

Poulsbo and Leavenworth - Exploring Washington's Euro-Themed Towns

We did a close to home "European" vacation this past week, visiting both of Washington state's European style towns: Poulsbo and Leavenworth. Here's a comparison of the two.

Poulsbo sits on the water at Liberty Bay about 18 nautical miles from Seattle. The downtown area offers many water views from its shops and restaurants. Poulsbo's maritime history relied on commercial fishing and seafood processing, plus logging with transport by water. Today, the town attracts recreational boating, sport fishing, kayaking, rowing, and day trippers from Seattle.

Poulsbo's Liberty Bay at night

Originally a bustling logging and sawmill town, Leavenworth is surrounded by mountains in every direction with some peaks reaching over 8000 feet in elevation. The town has cold, snowy winters and warm, dry summers. The surrounding area offers many outdoor activities including snowshoeing, mountain biking, and hiking.

Poulsbo has an authentic claim on its "Little Norway" nickname since it was actually founded by Norwegian immigrants in the 1880's. These Scandinavian settlers were drawn to the area's resemblance to Norway's landscape. Norwegian was the primary language spoken in Poulsbo until World War II. The town leans into this Scandinavian history and cultural identity with folk art, murals, and flags, an annual Viking Fest, and other Nordic aesthetics and traditions.

On the other hand, Leavenworth's German history only dates back to the 1960's when town leaders came up with the idea to turn the declining logging town into a Bavarian-themed tourist village. Existing buildings were remodeled in a German style and henceforth any new construction within the town limits has had to conform to these Bavarian design aesthetics. The marketing strategy was a success and Leavenworth was transformed into a major tourist attraction in an otherwise remote part of Washington state.

Downtown Leavenworth in a smoky haze

Poulsbo's most iconic shop/restaurant has to be Sluys Bakery. Located on Front Street in the heart of Poulsbo, Sluys is open everyday from 5am to 6pm. Sluys sells baked goods and traditional Norwegian pastries, including the Viking Cup, a cinnamon bun filled with cream cheese frosting. That's what I got.

If the lines to order are any indication, Leavenworth's can't miss eatery must be München Haus, an outdoor beer garden specializing in Bavarian sausages with a wide variety of mustards and other toppings available. We ate there one evening after the line had died down. It was worth it.

Painted steps in Poulsbo

The best place in Poulsbo for a tourist to grab a drink and mix with the locals is definitely The Brass Kraken, a lively no minors allowed bar/restaurant located directly on the water at Liberty Bay. They had a great pork belly taco and a welcoming atmosphere. Leavenworth didn't seem to have a Brass Kraken equivalent, but Blewett Brewing Company is a good place to get away from the tourists and enjoy craft beers and delicious pizza. It was a breath of fresh air only one block off the main drag.

Other notable places we went to in Poulsbo included Valholl Brewing, Tizley's EuroPub, and The Loft at Latitude Forty Seven Seven. Poulsbo also has a pleasant park for walking called Fish Park, a short drive from downtown. In Leavenworth we liked Icicle Brewing, Andreas Keller Restaurant, and the dog-friendly Bushel and Bee Taproom. And we liked that Leavenworth had walking paths right in town along the picturesque Wenatchee River as part of Waterfront Park.

Enzian Falls Championship Putting Course

Poulsbo's tranquil location on Liberty Bay reminded me of other harborside small towns I have visited such as Lunenburg Nova Scotia and Akureyri Iceland. Leavenworth had more like a Deadwood meets Telluride feel, with a little bit of old country Busch Gardens mixed in.

Between the two I probably liked Poulsbo better, even though Leavenworth has more tourist amenities including Enzian Falls Championship Putting Course (like a putt-putt but with real grass that looks like a tiny version of an actual golf course!). Poulsbo is worth an overnight stay so that you can have time to explore nearby Bainbridge Island. Leavenworth, with its middle of nowhere setting and multiple lodging options, is definitely a place you'll want to rest your head. You'll be driving through the mountains and then all of a sudden there you are!

Portland Oregon is a great city for playing Irish music

Portland, OR is a great city in general, but it's an especially great city for an adult hobbyist to engage with others under the auspices of Irish traditional music. Just this past week, I participated in 4 separate sessions over 5 days. Saturday was an outdoor afternoon session at a block party in an idyllic setting within the wonderful Mt. Tabor neighborhood. Sunday evening was a recurring session at a bar/restaurant in Vancouver, WA just across the river from Portland. (My presence at this one made no difference whatsoever but it was still a learning experience). Tuesday night was a lively session that happens every week at a brewery in Tigard, which is a town a little south and west of Portland. And Wednesday was a super fun gathering at a meadery in the "wow I wish I lived here" neighborhood of Sellwood where I was able to lead on several tunes. 

To top it off, I didn't even go to the session that I usually attend each Sunday afternoon in Northwest Portland at the Hostel Cafe. And that's not all. There were other open sessions happening on Saturday and Thursday that I knew about but didn't attend. Plus there are also closed or invite only sessions most nights of the week that you can go to as a listener. I'm still meeting people that I've never even seen before when I go to these things.

For someone like me who is at best a mediocre adult learner who has been putting in lots of work to get up to speed and increase my repertoire, it's very motivating to know that there are opportunities like this in abundance. At those four sessions in the last week not only was I welcomed to participate and play but I was in the same circle as some top notch musicians. I often still think that I am the least qualified participant at the table, but I also feel privileged to even be able to take part in the unison tune playing. Sometimes while driving to a session I make an effort to clear my mind and get into a really positive headspace before walking in.

I'm sure there are lots of DIY music communities in the area: bluegrass, old-time, ukulele clubs, trad jazz, guitar groups, early music, singing sessions, choro jams, and so on. But the Irish jigs n' reel clique seems like the only one that checks all the boxes...get to play tenor banjo (check), no chords/accompaniment or solo breaks required (check), all instrumental and no singing (check). I guess old-time also qualifies but there are no jigs, slide or slip-jigs in old-time so you miss out on a diversity of rhythms. Plus tenor banjo is not the right type of banjo for that.

Despite my focus on the Irish trad repertoire, I don't think of myself as having a style or playing in a style. What I want to do is play a banjo or banjo-like instrument. Tuned in 5ths. Played using a plectrum/guitar pick. And with this instrument and that plectrum I only want to play melodies 100% of the time. I don't want to have to play chords or even think about chords, or strum or sing or anything like that. Irish music completely falls within those whims/constraints.

It's great that I have this DIY Irish music community to be a part of. The above picture of Pure Hell - Noise Addition is of no relation to the topic of this post, but someone played this LP at the Rain Drop taphouse in Beaverton and it sounded awesome so I took a picture!

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Gold Tone AC-6 Mini Banjitar review

I don't play guitar, so for me getting a six string guitar (banjitar, guitjo) was simply a way to use an all 4ths tuning with a banjo sound. Before learning about the Gold Tone A-6 Mini Acoustic Composite Banjitar, I never actually considered getting a six string banjo because the neck would be too long for me. I actually played around with the idea of getting a Puerto Rican cuatro since that is tuned in all 4ths BEADG with a scale length of about 20.5 inches, which is in my comfort zone. 

The Gold Tone AC-6 Mini Banjitar has a shorter scale than most guitars or banjo-guitars at approximately 22.8 inches. As soon as I learned of this instrument's existence I tried to buy one but it looked like the left-handed ones were out of stock. I called Gold Tone and David said that they could set it up left-handed with side dots for no extra charge so I was sold.

The instrument arrived and played OK right out of the box. As I expected, the 22.8 inch scale was still a little bit too long for me. It's not the finger stretch that bothers me but the shoulder position. Anything longer than a 17-fret, 21 inch scale tenor banjo causes bursitis in my shoulder to flare up. So I got a Shubb capo and I use that on the 2nd fret which makes the scale length about 20.3 inches. Problem solved.

The open string tuning I use is E-A-D-G-C-F low to high, which is like standard tuning with the top two strings tuned up a half step to keep the 4ths ratio throughout all the strings. With a capo at the 2nd fret this becomes F#-B-E-A-D-G. I think this is going to work well for Irish tunes since the open string notes B, E, A, D, and G are found in almost every Irish session tune. I don't play chords or strum. Just melodies played with a guitar pick.

I took it to a local music shop over the weekend and they made a few minor adjustments to the neck angle and head tension which improved the action and playability. Now it sounds just fine, I think. My main instrument will remain the tenor banjo tuned in 5ths, but my goal is to learn a few tunes at a time on the banitar so that I can break it out at a slow Irish session. It's also good for ear training - trying to find where the notes are.

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Bend, Oregon - is it worth a visit?

My wife and I moved to Oregon last year but had not been the to the Central OR tourist town of Bend yet so we did a late summer mid-week trip to check it out. The 3.5 hour drive to Bend included a boring stretch of I-5 from Tigard to Salem and a scenic 120+ miles through mountains and alongside rivers, creeks, and lakes via OR-22 and US-20. I would not want to do that drive during the winter, but it would be a pleasant way to go during other times of the year.

Bend is described as breathtaking in marketing blurbs. The area around Bend may be breathtaking, but it's not a term I would use once you are in the town itself. The term I would use is walkable. There is a high concentration of shops, restaurants and breweries in the downtown area. Most are within a ten minute walk. Plus there are pathways and parks along the Deschutes River. As I mistakenly found out, there is no reason to walk all the way to the Old Mill District as it really is just an outdoor mall with big box stores and chain restaurants.

Bend sits at 3,623 feet above sea level. This arid high desert climate is at just enough altitude to experience the effects of thin air. I normally wouldn't give this a second thought but the massive 23,000 acre Flat Fire was burning not far away in Sisters OR which made the air quality unhealthy. With daytime temps hitting 90 degrees plus unremitting sunshine, we weren't really motivated to do any of the outdoor activities that Bend is known for. Like I said, the town itself is walkable. The place we stayed had its own parking spot so once we parked we didn't have to move the car again for two days. Our main outdoor activity involved walking from one place to another! Consumer, consumer.

Bend did live up to some of its stereotypes. For example, there is a high concentration of tall, skinny, outdoorsy types who look like they just walked out of a Patagonia, Stio, or Carhartt catalog. These folks procreate so you can expect their blonde-haired 2.5 kids to be running wild at any brewery or restaurant you go to that isn't 21 and up. I don't think it was quite as bad as usual though since we were there mid-week when kids are supposed to be back in school.

Here are some places worth mentioning:

Jackson's Corner - a nice spot for breakfast, coffee or lunch in Old Bend. An excellent BLT sandwich. 

The Cellar - kind of like a basement speakeasy with a British pub theme. Featuring cask-conditioned ESB, red ale and porter from Porter Brewing Company in Redmond, and imported Kilkenny, Guinness and Old Speckled Hen on nitro. They have old-time Appalachian fiddle-style music on Wednesdays and an Irish session on Thursdays!

Spider City Brewing Downtown Tasting Room - a smaller, quiet space offering beer and wine. 

McMenamins Old St. Francis School Hotel - another one of the sprawling McMenamins properties that can be found throughout and Oregon and Washington. There's nothing else like it in Bend. See if you can find the hidden Broom Closet Bar!

Dudley's Bookshop Cafe - a two-story book store with a mix of new and used books. I always like going into bookstores while traveling and Dudley's was a pretty good one.

Pine Tavern and Bend Brewing Company - both of these places have outdoor areas along Mirror Pond, an impoundment of the Deschutes River. Both are better than you might expect them to be.

Mirror Pond, Drake Park and the Deschutes River Trail - Bend has made good use of its location along the Deschutes River by having green spaces and walking paths. Not much shade though!

Thai restaurants - Bend is not known for its diversity, but it does seem to have a different Thai restaurant on each block. What's up with that?

Cool poster in McMenamins Art House

River walk in Bend, OR

Our place had a welcoming courtyard

Tin Pan Alley in Bend

Was it worth the visit? Yes, although it's no match for the Oregon coast.

Would I go back to Bend? Maybe for a concert at the Hayden Homes Amphitheatre just across the river from downtown. 

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How to Change your Banjo Strings

One of my music goals for this year is to get better at and more comfortable with banjo string changes. I have a custom made 5-string tenor banjo with five equal length strings so at least I don't have to deal with re-stringing that short drone or thumb string, but otherwise everything else is the same. You hook the loop end of the string at the tailpiece and run it through the tuner at the headstock. Banjos and mandolins with floating bridges are similar in this regard.

Let me say this. I am not good at changing strings. I sweat and agonize over it, and I have to make an effort to remain calm while doing it. And it takes me like 45 minutes. But that is about to change with practice and a new mindset. This is not a post by me telling you how to change banjo strings because I am not qualified to do that. I am simply sharing some articles that I found helpful and will want to refer back to later.

Whenever I have had a luthier or shop tech do a string change for me, the instrument always came back with the new strings winded (wound?) two or three revolutions or more around the tuner. This looks pretty but I just don't see myself doing that. Fortunately there's a simpler method where you simply lock-in the string. 

Here's a link to a page demonstrating this step by step. What I like about this is it's written as an article with pictures. That works better for me than a video.

http://frets.com/FretsPages/Musician/Banjo/BanjoStringing/banjostr2.html

I actually think his mandolin restringing article from the same site is equally if not more helpful.

http://frets.com/FretsPages/Musician/Mandolin/MandoString/mandostring1.html

I'll be checking these out the next time I change strings!

All 4ths versus All 5ths Tuning

I'm most familiar with all 5ths tuning like on a tenor banjo. I have also experimented with all 4ths by tuning my Vagabond travel guitar in all 4ths EADGCF. To that end, I thought I would jot down some compare/contrast notes about each tuning.  

All 4ths

-Easier to play in any key.

-Utilizes closed shapes, doesn't rely on open strings.

-Pattern oriented.

-You can play melodies anywhere on the fretboard, not just first position.

-You have more fingering choices for how you want to play a melody and sometimes you might have the same note in two places.

-Due to the way the strings are spaced, you might have string jumps that you wouldn't have in all 5ths tuning.

-Due to the shorter range from string to string, it's better to have 5 or 6 strings like on a guitar rather than 4 like on a violin.

-Works for guitar length scale of 25 inches, although could also work for a shorter scale length.

All 5ths

-Suited to fiddle tune repertoire.

-Wider intervals means you rely on open strings to play melodies.

-You tend to stay in first position.

-Only needs 4 strings total or 5 at the most.

-Best for shorter scale instruments like 21-inch scale or shorter.

-Some say the 5ths interval has more resonance or a more pleasant harmony than 4ths.

If I Could Have Musical Influences, What Would They Be?

If I was going to take music lessons again, it would be on the subject of "what can I learn from these musicians?". I would work with an instructor who is willing to go over the playing styles and techniques of 3 or 4 musicians with me to see what I can learn or draw from their playing. 

As someone who is learning/memorizing Irish tunes on tenor banjo and then bringing said tenor banjo to Irish pub sessions and using it to play monophonic unison tunes in a group setting, it would make sense for me to be influenced by players who do that specifically. Those cats would include John Carty, Angelina Carberry, Kieran Hanrahan, Kevin Griffin, and Daithí Kearney. I especially like Daithí Kearney's playing since he does a lot of slides and polkas, which you don't always hear Irish tenor banjo players doing.

Surprise, surprise. None of these musicians in the subject of this hypothetical study with an instructor would be players of Irish music, even though my goal would be to take whatever influence I could extract and apply it to my hobby of playing Irish tunes. The first four musicians would be:

-Puerto Rican Cuatro player Maso Rivera. Suggested track: De La Montaña Venimos from Reyando Con Maso Y Su Cuatro.

-Kali, a banjo-mandolin(?) player from Martinique in the French West Indies. Suggested track: Bel Plesi from his Racines, Vol 1 & 2 CD.

-Another banjo-mandolin player...Dennis Pash of the Etcetera String Band and the Ragtime Skedaddlers. The super obscure CD Bonne Humeur - in which Pash plays his interpretations of the early dance music of Haiti, Trinidad, Martinique, and the Virgin Islands - may have already been a big influence on me.

-Sylvester McIntosh, also known as "Blinky", who was the band leader and alto saxophone player in Blinky and the Roadmasters plus other scratch music bands in the United States Virgin Islands. Anything from their 1990 Rounder records release Crucian Scratch Band Music. 

I suppose four is enough of a start. Three of those four are stringed instrument players - Maso Rivera, Kali, and Dennis Pash - who each use or used some type of pick/plectrum to pluck/flat-pick the strings. The only non-string instrument player is Blinky, so I'm not exactly sure what I'd be trying to get from his playing but that's where an instructor could help.

An extended list of musicians who I'd like to draw from would include Norman Blake, Jerry Garcia, Elmer Snowden, Michael Kang, Don Vappie, Tiny Moore, and Jamaican mento 4-string banjo players in general. Once again, not to play their styles of music per se, but to continue playing Irish tunes albeit with the feel of those musicians in mind. 

One thing you wouldn't hear in most of these influences,  I am guessing, is some of the rhythmic qualities that show up in Irish trad, such as the 6/8 jig, the 9/8 slip jig, and 12/8 slides. Those are some of my favorite types of tunes! So it could be a bit of a leap to go from listening to Maso Rivera, for example, and then apply those picking techniques to an Irish jig. But it could be done I suppose.

Does this make any sense at all?

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What I Like About (Tenor) Banjo

I've mentioned why I play tenor banjo* several times, but I'm not sure I've covered what I like about banjo. I had to give it some thought. Here's what I like about the (tenor) banjo.

-Stringed instrument played with a flat-pick. At least the tenor banjo is. If I wasn't playing a stringed instrument with a pick my second choice would probably be a chromatically tuned mallet percussion instrument such as a marimba.

-Scale length between mandolin and guitar. Mandolin feels too short and cramped. The guitar neck is too long for me and my shoulder. A short scale tenor banjo is just the right fit.

-Single course strings. I don't like the feel of double course strings on instruments with a similar scale length such as an octave mandolin or Puerto Rican cuatro. 

-Ergonomics. No big guitar-like body to have to reach your arm around and wrestle with. 

-Lots of sound in a relatively small package. My newest banjo has a 10-inch, open back rim and that's still plenty loud. You can't get that same amount of projection or volume with an acoustic tenor guitar.

-5ths tuning. The tenor banjo is tuned in 5ths which makes sense to me. The other tuning I like is all 4ths, but that wouldn't work as well for playing Irish traditional tunes up to speed. So I'll stick with all 5ths. 

-The tenor banjo is generally accepted at Irish music sessions. It may still be looked at askance by a few naysayers, but it's closer to being in the norm than clarinet or saxophone would be.

-Not as common as fiddle or other instruments. At the Irish sessions I go to, I am usually either the only person playing tenor banjo, or one of two. This uniqueness suits my personality.

-Ability to play melodies with no need to re-tune for certain keys. In Irish session music, tenor banjo is one of the melody instruments. No matter what instrument I was playing, I'd be wanting to only play melodies so I like that it can hold its own in that department.

-Something about the sound of it. I do love the sound of a flat-picked guitar or tenor guitar, but if I have to choose one over the other, banjo ultimately wins that competition at least from my own playing perspective. One of the benefits of an open back is if I'm practicing at home and want to muffle the sound I can always stuff a t-shirt or towel into the inside of the banjo pot.

*Why I chose banjo. I had never played any instruments before but back in May 2006, when I was already in my early 30's, I called Elderly Instruments to order CDs by old-time banjo players Riley Baugus and Dan Gellert**. The woman on the other end of the line asked "do you play" and I said no. She said that I should, that's it's fun, so when I got off the phone I researched what type of banjo to get and learned about the tenor banjo, which I had never quite heard of. I chose tenor banjo because I'm left-handed and online forum commenters told me that a vintage right-handed tenor banjo like a Vega Little Wonder or a Bacon and Day can be set up left-handed. I also realized that tenor banjo is the type of banjo used in Irish traditional music and that it's tuned like a mandolin for Irish, so learning how to play GDAE tenor banjo is kind of like secretly learning mandolin. To top it off, I quickly located two local teachers - Josh Bearman and Cleek Schrey - who helped make sure I stuck with it and advanced beyond the awkward beginner stage when so many adult learners give up. There was also a welcoming community of DIY fiddle-tune musicians in the Richmond, VA area that I quickly fell into. 

**Next question: why was I buying a couple of old-time CDs if I didn't play that music? Well, I had already been listening to bluegrass such as Old and in the Way, Hot Rize, New Grass Revival, Tony Rice and Yonder Mountain String Band for several years by that point. Then in 2004 and 2005 I visited Ireland, heard Irish trad for the first time, and brought back CDs by West Clare musicians Yvonne Casey, Eoin O'Neill, Quentin Cooper, and Mary Custy. So when I called Elderly to order those old-time CDs I was probably thinking that old-time Appalachian music was the bridge between the bluegrass I had been listening to and the instrumental Irish trad I recently discovered. It had not yet occurred to me that this was something I should try and play. It took a stranger saying I should play to flip that switch!

Zach Hoyt 5 String Tenor Banjo update

Here's an update on my custom made Zachary Hoyt banjo now that I've had almost two weeks of playing it daily and taking it to Irish sessions.

Build Quality

This banjo played great right out of the box, but soon after getting it I took it in-person to master banjo luthier Brooks Masten's basement shop in Portland, Oregon to get his take on it and to do any additional setup work that might be needed. Brooks was very impressed by the build quality and materials used. He said that ash was a very stable neck wood. He even uses ash in some of his banjos. The only adjustment Brooks made was to slightly lower the action at the nut. 

Sound Quality

I have already played this banjo at four Irish sessions over the last two weeks and have received compliments on its sound. I even got to hear another lefty play it for a moment so I could experience it from that perspective. Someone also happened to make a short recording of an outdoor session I was in at a park and I was shocked at how clearly the banjo stood out amongst tin whistle, concertina and fiddle. I don't hear any compromise in the sound at all by having an open back (no resonator), a very short scale (19.75 inches) and a smaller than usual pot (10" rim as opposed to 11").

Playability

Having this banjo in my hands seems to have bolstered my confidence. The high B-string means that I don't have to make that leap to the 7th fret of the E-string. This has definitely made my playing more fluid. The shorter 19.75" scale is not a problem at all. It's actually part of what makes this banjo easier to play. I was initially worried about the chunky feel of the neck, but I don't think this has hindered me at all. It primarily feels chunkier due to the width of the neck since it has 5 strings at the nut instead of 4. Brooks Masten assured me that a chunky neck is a good thing for a banjo's resonance and for keeping it in tune.

  

Supports Guitar Fingering

I was always a one-finger-per-fret type of 4-string Irish tenor player. I never adapted to the more common and more recommended mandolin type fingering. Irish tenor banjo players are taught to slant their fretting hand at an angle and use mandolin fingering, which means pinky on fret 2, middle finger on frets 3 and 4, ring finger on fret 5 and 6. Saving the pinkie finger for fret 7. Having that angle allows you to do this fingering. I don't do this angle though. I like to keep my fingers almost parallel to the frets like a guitar player would. This banjo allows me to fully embrace my preferred way of holding my fretting hand and fingering the notes one-finger-per-fret.

More Range in First Position

This GDAEB all 5th tuning from low to high gives me more range. That extra string tuned to B has a 5th fret E note. That's the equivalent of a 12th fret E note in standard EADGBE guitar tuning or GDAE mandolin/Irish tenor banjo tuning. This means I can play "up to the 12th fret" without having to leave first position since I have the equivalent note on the 5th fret. I haven't quite figured out what to do with this extra range yet. For some tunes it'll mean that I can play the melody in a higher octave. It could also open up some interesting higher-pitched harmonic opportunities if I make small chords incorporating notes on that high B string. 

Tab and Staff Paper are the same

I realized yesterday that having 5 strings tuned in 5ths means that "mandolin tab" for this instrument could be written on tab representing 5 strings instead of four. It just so happens that traditional sheet music staff paper already has five lines. I do still write out the occasional tune in tab or notation so that I can see it more clearly, and now I can use regular sheet music staff paper for tab or for notation!

With 5 strings this works for both tab and notation!

Inspiration from other instruments

I believe the late jazz tenor banjo player Eddy Davis had a tenor banjo with a 17 inch scale and 10 inch rim custom made by Joel Eckhaus of Earnest Instruments. That helped me feel OK with a sub 20 inch scale tenor banjo mandola. At first glance, my banjo could be mistaken for baritone banjolele, which is not a bad thing. The design also draws characteristics from the old-time banjo world simply because that is the type of banjo Zach Hoyt usually makes. The additional range potentially places this banjo into banjo-mandolin sonic territory, which is cool. If/when I can play a melody an octave up it'll double the fiddle and mandolin octave. Lastly, an inspiration for 5 strings tuned in 5ths with a similar scale length comes from the Puerto Rican Cuatro, which has 5 (double-course) strings tuned in all 4ths BEADG on a 20.5" scale, the exact opposite of my all 5ths GDAEB tuning.

***

My New 5-string Tenor Banjo made by Zach Hoyt

Las month I emailed banjo maker Zachary Hoyt with an idea for a one-of-a-kind banjo, and now that banjo has arrived. That might be a record time for a custom made instrument! My idea was to make a tenor banjo with 5 strings instead of 4 so that it can be tuned in 5ths GDAEB from low to high. Zach has made that dream a reality. In a matter of weeks!

Zachary Hoyt banjo #391

My main inspiration for this banjo was so that I wouldn't have to deal with the 7th fret high B note. About half of all Irish tunes have this high B note in them and that reach or shift up to the 7th fret of the E-string is something I never got comfortable with even after years of playing tenor banjo in the "Irish" GDAE tuning. This banjo has one more string of equal length tuned to B, which is a 5th above the open E string. Problem solved. It turns out that this actually isn't a totally new idea. Michael Kang of the band The String Cheese Incident has been playing a 5 string electric baritone mandolin tuned FCGDA or GDAEB for years now.

Getting an open string to tune up that high B (B4 octave) is a bit of a gamble. Tenor banjos were originally designed to be tuned CGDA with A as the highest note, and that in-and-of-itself is pushing it. This B is a whole step higher than that A. On a regular 19-fret tenor banjo with a 23 inch scale, it would be asking a lot of a string to get up to that pitch without breaking. So what I did was reduce the scale length to 19.75 inches, which is a scale length that Zach already uses on his A-scale 5-string clawhammer style banjos. An .008 or .009 string can be tuned up to B at this 19.75 inch scale length.

For the other four strings - the GDAE strings -  I simply need to use slightly heavier gauges than you would normally use on an Irish tenor banjo. For the low G string, something like a .046w gauge will work. I don't mind a heavier gauge for the low G. Only about 10% of Irish tunes even have a note lower than D, so the main reason you'd ever be playing anything on that G string is to harmonize with a melody note in the D string. I can live with that. It's better than not having that string at all.

The banjo pot is an openback ten inch block wood Ash rim with a walnut rim cap. Featuring brass hardware and 12 total brackets like you might find on an old-time banjo. Zach prefers 10 inch pots for his 19.75 inch scale banjos and I agreed that a 10 inch rim is the proper aesthetic and ergonomic ratio for this scale length. It probably puts the bridge in a better position than a larger rim would have. I think the 10 inch rim gives it a punchier, more direct sound. The use of a Waverly style tailpiece instead of a no knot tailpiece puts more break angle on the strings, which should also help brighten up the sound.

The neck is made of ash with a walnut center stripe. Zach recommended ash even though it may not be as pretty as other wood options because he thinks it has a bit of extra volume and projection over maple or cherry. The width at the nut is about about 4 centimeters (1.6 inches). Not bad considering that it's got 5 strings across there. The fretboard wood is jatoba and the headstock showcases a stunning walnut peghead overlay.

The tuning pegs are individual Gotoh Schaller-style knobs that I picked out. These have a 16:1 gear ratio. I happen to like the looks of guitar style tuners over regular banjo tuning pegs. The headstock is a special design I requested inspired by the shape used on Mann mandolins and some five string bass guitars. It has a 10 inch Renaissance head and a wooden arm rest.

As a personality type, I'm pretty individualized and not one to always go along with the conventional thinking. For example, I don't buy into the belief that playing Irish tunes on a tenor banjo requires a 19-fret, 23 inch scale vintage banjo with resonator. I happen to like lighter weight, no frills, openback banjos mainly for the comfort factor, and I've found that the shorter scale length of a 17-fret 21 inch scale tenor banjo is easier to play and doesn't cause any bursitis in my shoulder. At 19.75" this Zach Hoyt banjo is even shorter than that which makes it an absolute joy to play!

I have no concerns about volume with this banjo. Up 'til now I've always stuffed a towel or t-shirt into the back of my banjos to muffle the sound out of a fear of being too loud or abrasive. I'm not planning on doing that with this banjo though!

Specs:

Tuned in 5ths GDAEB from low to high

10 inch openback pot with twelve brackets

19.75 inch scale length

Approx. 4cm (1.6in) width at nut

Ash neck with walnut neck stripe

Ash block wood rim with walnut rim cap

Jatoba fretboard wood

Brass hardware

Two way truss rod

Wood tone ring profile in top of rim

Renaissance head

Gotoh Schaller style knob individual tuners 16:1 gear ratio

Mann style headstock shape with walnut peghead overlay

Waverly style tailpiece

10 inch Renaissance head

Side dots on left-hand side and fretboard dots

Recommended string gauges: .044w or .046w G2, .034w or .036w D3, .022w or .024w A3, .013 E4, and .009 B4

GDAEB - An Irish Banjo High B Workaround

High B

I've been playing 4-string tenor banjo tuned GDAE long enough to know that tunes with that high B note are always going to be an issue (for me). Maid Behind the Bar, Ships Are Sailing, Star of Munster, Mug of Brown Ale, Connaughtman's Rambles...sometimes it seems like every other tune has that 7th-fret high B note in it. Well, now I have a solution: an open B string. I surrender.

One of my tenor banjos is a Gold Tone AC-4 tenor banjo, which is a surprisingly good banjo for the money. Being my 3rd of 3 banjos, I don't play it much so I decided to tune it up DAEB. I used the DAE strings from a regular Deering Irish tenor banjo string set and then used a .008 gauge string for the high B string. The scale length of this banjo is 22.5" so that was really pushing it but it didn't break!

In DAEB tuning I can play an open note B on the highest string instead of having to reach or jump up to 7th fret of the E-string. The fingerings required to play tunes in the same keys that I already know them in can remain the same in DAEB tuning when compared to GDAE tuning. I simply have to move everything down a string since the DAE strings have shifted. The only thing you give up is not having a low G string. The lowest note on a tin whistle is D so it's not that big of a deal.

Nonetheless, I've been working with banjo maker Zach Hoyt to create 5 string tenor banjo that can be tuned GDAEB, low to high. The scale length will be shorter, around 19.75 inches to accommodate the two extremes: a very light gauge like an .009 for the high B string and a quite heavy gauge string like a .046w for the low G string. This will offer the best of both worlds. I think the musician Michael Kang of the band String Cheese Incident uses this tuning for his 5-string electric baritone mandolin.

Even though I've only been playing in DAEB for a week, it has already helped with my ear. On a GDAE tuned tenor banjo, I never quite got the fingers and the ear to sync up on sections involving the high B note. With DAEB tuning I can now effortlessly play through sections that had always tripped me up and can now finally play those sections more by ear since I don't have fingering difficulties to get in the way.

I don't know why I didn't think of this sooner. 

Make Your Practice More Effective

Last summer my goal was to familiarize myself with the local Irish tune repertoire so that I could play along at sessions. For the most part, I have met that goal. Starting now, my goal is to take that one step farther and be able to actually start (lead?) sets at the session and play a set of three tunes all the way through without stopping. The mistake I made over the last year, if you can call it that, was to spend most of my practice time playing along with recordings rather than trying to recall the tune from memory. As a result, I "know" dozens of tunes well enough that I can join in at the session if hear them being played, but left to my own devices there are several murky sections that remain in these tunes. Here's now I plan to fix that.

View sets as one entire piece of music. Practice the transitions between tunes. Don't waste time practicing what you've already learned well, but focus on the tunes, or sections of tunes, within a set that still need work. Ultimately being able to play the entire set from memory without stopping.

Struggle to recall before looking at the music. I don't think looking at the sheet music for an Irish tune is such a bad thing, especially if you're stuck on one section that you can't figure out by ear. What I don't like though is being completely dependent on the notation or using it as a crux. To help deplete that even further, I have started doing something that I didn't do at all last year and that is just play a tune without having the audio or notation handy. If it's a tune that I'm already quite familiar with the sound of, struggling to find and re-find those notes on your instrument can be a good thing. Practice completely from memory. Don't constantly check the music.

If/when looking at the music, try and make note of things for the purpose of not having to look next time. Get your eyes off the sheet music as soon as possible and limit your return looks. When looking at the music, try to recognize something memorable about every single measure if possible. Notice things like the structure of the tune, patterns within the music, scalar runs, arpeggiated sections, familiar note sequences that show up in a lot of tunes, and repeated measures or sections. Take note of quirky things about the tune, like a section starting from a note that is not part of the tonal center chord. When recalling the tune later, bring to mind these things you noticed about it in the first place.

Record yourself playing a tune slowly and cleanly. After you learn a tune, record yourself playing a good version of it and then upload that recording to an app like the Amazing Slow Downer. Create a playlist of these recordings. Use the app to speed up the recording so that you can "hear" yourself playing cleanly at speeds faster than your current ability. Then visualize making that increased speed a reality. This will teach your brain to process faster speeds and possibly trick your brain into believing you can play this fast. If it helps you to look at the music or tab while making this recording that is fine, but put the tab away as soon as you make the recording and use the audio sound as your "visual" source.

Practice playing from anywhere in the tune. Don't always start a tune at the beginning. Maybe start at the end and work your way backwards. Give equal time to all parts of the tune. Learn the B-part as well as the A-part. If one part of the tune is weaker than another, focus on that weaker area until it is your strongest part of the tune. Focus on areas of weakness until they become areas of strength.

Practice improv and variations. Can you play the tune differently each time through? Can you play each measure a little differently each time through? How far can you purposefully vary from the melody (while still hearing the melody in your head) and still get back on track? Not only is this great preparation for "owning" the tune, but it's also a lot of fun!

Visualize yourself playing through the tune while away from your instrument. "Hear" the melody in your mind as you imagine yourself playing. This allows the brain to build associations between the sounds you imagine in your head and the movement of your hands. Could you write out the tune for someone completely from memory with no instrument handy? Can you recite all the notes of the tune?

Practice Spaced Repetition. Revisit a tune right before you're going to forget it. This means that even when you're learning a tune you don't have to play it every single day. Take a three day break and see if you still remember it. Take a 7 day break and see if you remember it. If you can't remember it after 7 days go back to every 3 days. If you can remember it after 7, go to 14 days between playing it.

Divide practice time. Don't just sit there and play one tune for 30 minutes. Play it for a few minutes then switch to something else for five minutes. Then go back to the tune you were playing before. And so on. Break it up into little mini chunks.

Create flash cards and group them into categories. In my case, I spent the last two days writing the names of all the sets that get played at the TrailJams session onto little notecards. One set per card. This gets back to my first item above, which is to view a set of three tunes as one piece of music. I am now going to break these sets into one of five different categories: 1) sets I don't know at all (none of the three tunes are familiar yet), 2) sets where I know 1 of the 3 tunes, 3) sets where I know 2 of the 3 tunes, 4) sets where I can fake my way through playing all three tunes but maybe not at speed and/or not without hearing the music, and 5) fully memorized sets that I can play through from memory at speed with or without a backing track or drum beat. Obviously sets I don't know at all or where I can only play 1 of the tunes need the most attention, whereas sets that I am close to being able to play all the way through at speed just need a little periodic polishing or refreshing.

Years ago, before sheet music was handy and before there were audio recordings, you had to use your own memory, imagination and creativity to recall a tune and make it your own. Maybe simulating that inconvenience can lead to being able to play more tunes from memory!

That should do it. This list is mostly for my benefit in case I get stuck! 

Irish Tunes Are Like Bob Ross Paintings

Remember Bob Ross? He was the guy with the big hair who had a PBS show where he would do paintings of landscapes with mountains, trees, ponds and skies. Bob Ross would paint from his mind. He wasn't looking at anything. He wasn't looking at tab or sheet music. Could he paint that exact same painting again? Probably not an exact copy, but he could paint one very similar if he wanted to. Or he could paint a completely different one in that same style if that was his goal.

An Irish tune is like one of those paintings. You play from your mind just like how Bob Ross paints from his mind. You hear the tune in your head and then play it. Fortunately it takes us about 30 seconds to play the tune once through, whereas Bob Ross took 30 minutes to paint his. 

When you play that same tune again next week, it's like painting that same painting all over again, maybe with a few variations from last time but not so much to make it a completely new painting. Each tune is like that. When you move on to play a different tune, it's like Bob Ross painting a different painting than that other one. But when you play that tune again, it's like painting that painting again. Perhaps it comes out a little better than last time you played it at the session.

My first attempts to pick out simple melodies by ear were similar to what I would have gone through had I tried to forge a Bob Ross painting. I had no skill in this regard, so the melody I came up with didn't bear much resemblance to the original version. These were very bad paintings when compared to what Bob Ross would have done. They ended up being "original" compositions instead of a transcription of a pre-existing tune. Which isn't such a bad thing!

Eventually I got better at it, to the point where instead of painting a different painting than the one that I was trying to mimic, I was actually painting a similar painting to the one Bob Ross did. If you are trying to learn Maids of Ardagh and you are getting 90% of the notes correct, and the other 10% are just a result of misunderstood notes or not having the motor skills to pull it off, then technically that's still Maids of Ardagh. Just an amateur version of it.

Anyway, this "Irish tunes are like Bob Ross" paintings thing made a lot of sense to me last night as I was going to sleep. I waited 18 hours to write about it and now I don't really know if I understand the comparison. Ha! 

In Appreciation of Jonathan Lay's Trailjams Site

I've dedicated the past 12 months to reacquainting myself with Irish session tunes, with the goal of being able to participate in sessions, and a big part of that has been Portland, Oregon musician Jonathan Lay's TrailJams.org site.

There are now over 150 tunes on the site with both the notation and the audio at different speeds. All the tune types are represented: reels, jigs, hornpipes, polkas, slides, slip jigs, and more. The audio is very clean and clear and exactly matches the score, which ironically I think is great for ear training and ridding yourself of tab dependency. 

You can try playing the tune by ear based on the audio and then compare your version to the sheet music. It's like having a cheat sheet. In addition, there are links to recordings and other resources for each tune. The idea is not to simply learn the basic Trailjams version and stop there, but to use these bare bones versions as a stage in your learning toward building your own interpretations and variations.

I also like that he does a Tune of the Week, with the Tune of the Week being part of a Featured Set where it is either the first, second or third tune in a medley. At any given time, TrailJams has 10 of these featured sets. About every third week one of the sets comes off the featured list, while a new one comes on. At that rate, every six months or so there's a completely new group of 10 featured sets, with it taking about 25 to 30 weeks for any one set to go from new to old and then rotate out. If you've been keeping track, by the time a set drops off it should, hopefully, be in your long-term memory. The old sets remain available on a master list even after rotating out of featured status.

If you are fortunate enough to be able to participate in-person at one of the sessions Jonathan hosts in the Portland metro area, then the work you put into learning any of the featured sets (or individual tunes within the featured sets) will pay off because there's a strongish likelihood of these being played. There's no hard and fast rule about that, but the idea is for the featured sets to be in heavier rotation than others. The repetition helps with learning. At the in-person session tunes and sets are not drawn exclusively from the TrailJams list, but it forms the basis for the repertoire. Often, the reason that a tune makes it onto the site in the first place is because it was already being played a lot and therefore earned the TrailJams treatment. Other times, more obscure tunes are brought in that are new to a lot of us.

Some naysayers might think that having predetermined sets takes aways some of the spontaneity that is inherent in an Irish session, the not knowing what tune is coming next part of the experience. There's some truth to that, but Jonathan's approach is arguably more welcoming to intermediate level trad musicians who might be intimidated by a more fly by the seat of the pants approach.

Trailjams.org is completely free, although for a small monthly fee as low as $6, Jonathan offers a Patreon > Soundslice version which allows you to slow down or increase the speed of a tune, loop sections, hide the notation or change it to mandolin tab, play along with a backing track, and more. You can even transpose the audio playback to other keys/modes. Only minutes ago, I used this feature to move Lilting Banshee over to G-dorian instead of A-dorian to see if I could play it that way. What a great brain teaser! 

All in all, TrailJams.org is quite a service to anyone interested in learning Irish session tunes! Just imagine the amount of work Jonathan has put into this. Not long ago you would have had to purchase Irish tune books with play along CDs to have both the audio track and the matching notation. Here it is now, all in one place online. Bravo!

Envision Yourself Playing Faster

Learning to play Irish traditional music as an adult is funny. As soon as you start to feel confident or think that you're making progress, you're made to feel like you don't know anything. Two steps forward, one step back. This happened to me the other night. I went to a session that I've been to at least a half dozen times before, but this time everything felt too fast for me. I couldn't get my fingers - or brain - to keep up. 

Granted, everything was speeded way up this night, and as a result I struggled through most of it and was often embarrassed by the offensive sounds coming out of my instrument. When I got home later that evening, I noticed that my arm and wrist were sore and fatigued from all the extra tension and exertion I must have been going through.

This did knock me back a rung or two. Fortunately though, I'm at a point in my development where instead of getting discouraged, I get motivated after an experience like this. Last night I was reading through Josh Turknett's The Laws of Brainjo book and came across a tip that I adapted into a practice technique this morning, which I think is going help. That is to envision yourself playing faster.

Take a tune that you are learning but don't have completely down yet. Record yourself playing a slow version of this tune. Play it slow enough so that you can get through it smoothly; slow enough so that maybe you can even add in some triplets. It's OK to look at the sheet music or tab when making this recording if that helps. 

Then put down your instrument and simply listen to the recording you made. As you listen, visualize yourself playing it, matching sound to movement and movement to sound. Think about the movement required to play this tune. How it felt. How those movements made that sound. This visualization practice + muscle memory practice + auditory practice combined. 

The next step is to transfer that recording to an app such as the Amazing Slow Downer that allows you to speed it up. Speed it up by 150% or 170% or 180% or 200% (200% = twice as fast) and listen to the recording now. Visualize yourself playing it smoothly at this speed. That's you playing on the recording, and now as you listen that's still you playing it this fast. It might be difficult to visualize it this way at first, because your brain may not able to process the tune being played at this advanced speed. Give your mind time to catch up!

In your imagination, visualize the pick strokes and fingerings you used to make this recording, and now visualize those movements at this increased speed. For me, this is different from "seeing" the score/notation/tab in your mind. What I'm picturing is the perspective of myself looking at the fretboard as I play the tune. Where my fingers have to go to play it. Keep that in mind as the speed increases.

When you're ready, turn off the recording and continue this exercise silently and internally, hearing the sound of the tune in your mind and feeling the movements required to play it. When you later pick up your instrument to play this tune, do you not only have it memorized better but can you now play it faster as well?

Oregon Move - One Year Update

It's officially been one year since Laura and I made the move to Oregon. We bought a townhouse last fall in a quiet neighborhood that happens to be directly adjacent to the apartment we had rented. It takes a few minutes longer, but we can still walk to the MAX light rail stop at Orenco Station. And we're still only about five miles from where Laura's sister and her family live so we get to see them a lot. We even child sat for our ten year old nibling recently. We just watched a Disney show and ate snacks and pizza so it was pretty easy.

Laura and me at the Celtic Fantasy Faire

Laura has been able to continue working for the same parent company as in Virginia, and basically just transferred to a new veterinary hospital owned by that company in Beaverton, OR about 8 miles from where we live. It's an all new staff but she's adjusted well. After one year she's no longer a newbie and is probably a veteran there now! I was able to keep my east coast job and work entirely remote, which has worked out great, although I miss not being there in person some of the time. I sold my car before we left Virginia and so far we've managed to get by with just one vehicle.

Trees in the neighborhood this spring

I've gotten involved in the Irish traditional music community here. I had taken about 5 or 6 years off from playing Irish music, so it's been a challenge getting back up to speed, but it's been fun. It's really well organized here, which I like. I try to practice every day and there are opportunities to play in sessions each Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday and sometimes Saturdays here. I can't go to all of them all the time but I get around and the people seem to like me even though I'm struggling to keep my head above water.

Skittles enjoying sun on the patio

Laura enjoys gardening in the small back patio space we have, and she recently got a Weber Q series grill and has been grilling out every chance she gets, which I get to reap the benefits of! She is also enjoying having her sister nearby so that they can get together for breakfast or just to hang out. Laura and I both continue to be avid readers, with Laura consuming fantasy novels, while I like the mystery fiction of writers such as Robert B. Parker, Richard Stark, Michael Connelly, Lawrence Block and Max Allan Collins. I can't tell you how many times I've been to the local library this past year.

Skittles is doing well. She turned eleven this year. I take her on daily walks around the neighborhood, and we often take her to local trails or paths that allow dogs. Not all parks allow dogs here because they say that the presence of dogs distresses the local wildlife. Even friendly pups like Skittles! There's a pet store I walk Skittles to about every other week to stock up on locally made treats, which is her favorite recurring thing to do by far.

Skittles in chair

For actual hiking, we learned that the northern terminus of Portland's famed Forest Park Wildwood Trail is at a trailhead only about a 15 minute, mostly rural, drive from our house. We don't get there as often as I'd like, but there is some great hiking nearby. There's also a brewery about a ten minute walk from our house called Vertigo that we like to go to. It's about the closest thing we have to the community that was built up around Origin Beer Lab in Ashland, VA.

We've gotten into local sports and have been going to one game a month, either for the minor league hockey team The Portland Winterhawks or the minor league baseball team The Hillsboro Hops. When one season ends the other begins, so there is never a break in the action. We can take the MAX right to Veterans Memorial Coliseum where the Winterhawks play, whereas the Hops' stadium is only a couple miles from our house. So it's either a short drive or Uber, or we can even take the bus there and have in fact done that.

Hillsboro Hops baseball game, 6/13/25

We love visiting the Oregon Coast and have done excursions to favorite towns such as Yachats to the south and Astoria to the north. We've also ventured into Washington state to check out the McMenamins Kalama Harbor Lodge, which is beautifully positioned on the banks of the Columbia River. And we've done some some day trips to nearby Oregon towns, including Silverton and St. Helens. 

Last month we did our first real week-long vacation since moving here and went to the San Juan Islands off the coast of Washington state, near Victoria British Columbia. That was a great trip and I can't wait to go back. This fall I am planning a local "European" vacation for us. There's a Norwegian themed town (Poulso, WA) and a Bavarian themed town (Leavenworth, WA) that we're going to visit. Leavenworth looks like a German mix of Deadwood, SD and Telluride, CO. Should be fun!

Moran State Park - Orcas Island, Washington

As far as live music performances and concerts, I'm not going to as much of that as I used to, but that's OK. We saw Leftover Salmon on New Year's Eve at Revolution Hall and Phish when they came to the Moda Center in April, plus Irish guitarist John Doyle at a jazz club in Portland, and The Murphy Beds (Jefferson Hamer and Eamon O'Leary) at a house concert in Portland last January. There's a local Phish cover band called Shafty that is really good. Upcoming, we have tickets for Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings, and for Béla Fleck and the Flecktones.

Local Irish group Kate and Lads performing at McMenamins Rock Creek Tavern

Our first winter here was a fairly mild one, the locals tell us. With lots of rain from November through March as expected, and one day of snow. It stays dark a lot during the winter, but that didn't bother me. Spring took a while to get here with lots of false starts, but now it's starting to feel like summer. If this year is like last year, there will be all sun, blue skies and almost no rain from now into October.

A rainy spring day along the river in Portland!

😄