My Nine Albums #my9albums

There's a thing going around called #my9albums where you select your nine most formative albums. Here are my nine.

Reckoning by Grateful Dead - Without this album, none of these others would have been as easy to come by. It’s the nucleus from which everything else springs.

Barren County by New Grass Revival - Before Leftover Salmon, before String Cheese Incident, before Yonder Mountain String Band, there was New Grass Revival. This album likely also led me to Norman Blake, Tony Rice, John Hartford, Red Clay Ramblers, and Hot Rize. And it also made me a fan of Flying Fish records.

John Prine by John Prine - Although I don’t listen to as much singer-songwriter music as I used to, there’s definitely a wide, wide cosmic portal that was opened just by listening to this CD on repeat, which has shaped my musical identity. I may not have gotten to Gillan Welch, Steve Earle, Nanci Griffith, or Cowboy Junkies without stopping here first.

Junta by Phish - What can I say? Thanks to my good friend Mike Goff, this was the first Phish album that I heard, before any live recordings. It was out of left field but it hooked me and almost 35 years later, and 70 shows later, has never let go! The four members of Phish set a standard of excellence by which all other music falls short. I’ve spent more time listening to Phish than any other artist or band. Just last night I watched their 3.5 hour+ live webcast from Huntsville, Alabama! Without Phish I may not have discovered Ween or My Morning Jacket. Who knows?

Telephone Free Landslide Victory by Camper Van Beethoven - Long before he opened Deep Groove records in Richmond, VA, Jay Leavitt made me a cassette copy of this album burned from vinyl. When I eventually started playing music of my own, the faux-ethnic instrumentals such as Yanqui Go Home, Mao Reminisces About His Days in Southern China, Border Ska, and Opi Rides Again would be very much in the back of my mind! And the irreverent and snarky songs would share a commonality with Richmond, VA’s Special Ed and the Shortbus who would later become a local live music favorite of mine.

Two Sevens Clash by Culture - This is another one that Jay Leavitt turned me on to. Not all reggae is good, but a few outliers such as this album stand out as exceptional. I consider it formative because it led me to Jamaican mento music as well as other music of the Caribbean islands. And it never gets old. Side A of the tape was Two Sevens Clash and Side B was Harder Than The Rest. It was just one big double album to me.

Lanquidity by Sun Ra - Henry Cook, a former co-worker of mine at Community Idea Stations, put this CD into my hands and forever altered my pathways. Henry also gave me a copy of Blue Breakbeats by Grant Green, which narrowly missed this 9 albums list. Lanquidity opened my mind as much as anything else I can think of. Sun Ra represents an eccentric, artistic freedom and a permission to follow creativity wherever it may lead.

Yvonne Casey by Yvonne Casey - This was my introduction to Irish traditional music*. Laura and I heard it playing at the Doolin Café during dinner on our first ever night in Ireland back in November 2004, bought the CD that night and then went to the CD release party the next night featuring Yvonne Casey, Eoinn O’Neil, Quentin Cooper, and many more. Even though lots of Guinness, Smithwick’s and Bulmers were drunk that night, I still distinctly remember the feeling that my life is changing RIGHT NOW. I wouldn’t start playing music until two years after this, but the ignition energy started here. *Not strictly trad, it also features some Camper Van Beethoven style instrumentals - Skatallites and Buena Vista Social Club covers - courtesy of Quentin Cooper!

Harlem Banjo! by Elmer Snowden - In 2006 I got a tenor banjo on a whim and didn’t know what to play on it. Peter Solomon, the WCVE-FM jazz host at that time, told me about Elmer Snowden, the Black 4-string banjo player who tuned his tenor banjo GDAE and made a legendary studio recording on December 9, 1960 that would become the Harlem Banjo! LP. Peter burned a vinyl to CD copy of this out of print record for me along with a George Guesnon CD. (Peter also gave me a Rufus Harley CD but thankfully that didn’t lead to bagpipes). Even though I ended up playing fiddle tunes and Irish jigs on tenor banjo instead of trad jazz, this recording proved that tenor banjo could be “cool” and now I had a buffer for all those banjo naysayers out there. Sticks and stones.

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Taking the Ferry from Port Townsend to Coupeville on Whidbey Island

My wife and I recently spent a week enjoying the Pacific Northwest, dividing our time between Astoria, Oregon and Port Townsend, Washington, using each town as a home base to explore the surrounding areas. By far, the most fun day we had was when we walked from our hotel cottage in Port Townsend to catch the 11am ferry to Whidbey Island. I just bought walk on tickets when we got there which were only $5 per person each way. We timed it just right - walking up just as the last cars were loading. It was also timed so that when we got off the ferry at the Coupeville Ferry Terminal we only had to wait about 5 minutes for the free no charge Island Transit shuttle bus to pick us up for the 20 minute route into the town of Coupeville, where the original Practical Magic movie was filmed. The ferry from Port Townsend to Whidbey Island takes about 30 to 35 minutes and pedestrians are the first ones off. I saw either a small whale, dolphin, or sea lion on the ride over.

It was early October so Coupeville was already leaning into the Halloween theme, with witchy decorations all over town. The weather was absolutely perfect. A crisp, clear, and warmish early fall day. After a brief look around at the picture perfect Front Street, we went into Toby's Tavern for lunch and a beer or two. Toby's is the kind of place that you could settle in to, but we managed to escape after only about 90 minutes, LOL! We took more pictures and walked around a bit more. We had some time to kill before taking the shuttle > ferry back, so we got a glass of wine from Vail Wine Shop and Tasting Room and savored the incredible outdoor view from the little porch behind the building.

After about 30 minutes, it was time to go back because we didn't want to leave our dog alone in the hotel room for too long. The shuttle was late picking us up (or had it been early so we missed it???). It finally arrived only about 8 minutes late and we still made the same ferry back to Port Townsend that we had intended to. We saw sea lions in the water on the ferry ride back.

Let me back track a bit. We spent the first part of our trip in Astoria, OR. We had been to Astoria many times before, but it was still fun to spend a few days off in our favorite town in Oregon with its rugged river views and blue collar feel. We went to many of the breweries, including Fort George and Buoy of course. We had some good breakfasts and we also discovered a well established but new-to-us restaurant called Silver Salmon Grille that we'll be returning to on future visits. While in Astoria, we drove across the bridge into Washington state to visit Cape Disappointment and take in the expansive views and the lighthouse there.

I had never been to Port Townsend, WA before so I wasn't quite sure what to expect. I thought it would be similar to Astoria but it was actually quite different. Both are small maritime cities of similar size and populations, but Port Townsend has a more artistic, well preserved, upscale thing going on. With calmer waters. While Astoria is a great no nonsense hub for craft beer and pub food, Port Townsend is more suited to cozy bistros and quiet lounges where you can enjoy small plates with a glass of wine or a cocktail and imagine yourself living there. It's a place where rich, older people go to retire. It took a minute to warm to Port Townsend's charms, but I ended up liking it a lot!

We did the touristy things in Port Townsend like walking along Water street, catching the shuttle to uptown, visiting Chetzemoka Park, Fort Warden Historical State Park, and Fort Townsend Historical State Park, and driving out to Finnriver Farm and Cidery. It was also fun to just sit with our dog outside The Old Whiskey Mill on Water Street and watch people walk by. Port Townsend had some great breakfast spots (Hudson Point Café and The Courtyard Café) as well as some good places for dinner and/or a nightcap (Mezzaluna Lounge and Alchemy Bistro and Wine Bar), plus a good old fashioned locals bar bar (Anchor).

I'm looking forward to returning to Port Townsend and spending more time on Whidbey Island!

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Rhythm and Timing vs. Ear Training vs. Technique

My musical practice is all based around repertoire - learning and re-learning the tunes that get played at the Irish sessions and contra jams that I attend. Within that overarching repertoire practice, there is room for focusing on rhythm and timing, on ear training, and on technique. 

Of those three sub-categories, I'm realizing that rhythm and timing is most important. No matter how fast or slow you play, maintaining good rhythm and timing = having good feel. Most of us have a tendency to speed up. I know that I do. To work on this, I'm really valuing the metronome in a way I never had before. I have played a lot with a click and/or a drum beat, but usually the clicks or beats are so frequent that it's really difficult to get off track. 

Recently I've been experimenting with slowing the metronome down but playing at the same speed. For example, set the metronome at 80bpm and play along with it. Once you're comfortable with that, change the metronome to 40bpm but still play at the same speed you were when the metronome was at 80. This will make it a little harder to stay in sync. Once you have that going smoothly, change the metronome to 20 bpm but still play at the same speed as before. This will be much more difficult, requiring a conscious effort and an internal sense of rhythm to stay on the beat. Most over the counter metronomes don't go that "slow", but you can find metronome apps like Time Guru that allow for 20bpm or slower.

Of course ear training or learning/remembering the tune by ear rather than sheet music is a struggle that gets easier over time. Michael Eskin describes a method of ear training that I've started to adopt. In a nutshell you listen to a slowed down section of a tune like just the A part for a period of 10 or 15 instruments. You can sing along like a "dubba dubba" muttering of the melody, but don't try to play along. Just listen. Then go do something else for a while like chores or taking a walk. When you come back, pick up your instrument and try to play as much by ear as you can recall just from memory alone. It might be nothing at first, but try for at least five minutes before giving up. Then listen to the recording again and repeat the process. This is not a quick fix but over time you can learn the tune this way.

Another thing you can do is take a tune you're on the cusp of learning, like one you almost have, and play it from memory without looking at the sheet music. If you do need to listen to jog your memory, only listen to the very being as an aural insipid. Then sing it to yourself at a speed that you can easily play. If you have metronome that you can tap, tap at the speed that you are singing to set the click tempo. Maybe that happens to be 60 bpm. Then play it from memory to the click of the metronome. Play it in real time filling in any notes or measures you can't quite recall, but staying on the beat. 

Or take a tune that you know really well, note for note, and play a completely improvised version of it applying melodic variations, triplets, double stops, or other ornamentation/embellishments...as much as you can think of while still staying in time with the metronome click. Keep the actual sound of the tune in your head and know where you are at any given time with regard to the AA/BB structure, but otherwise play freely. 

Of course technique is all part of this as well. I sometimes have a hard time defining what exactly technique is, but I think it qualifies as everything from how you hold your instrument, to how you sit balanced with good posture and no tension in the body, to pick direction, to economy of motion, to dynamics (loud vs quiet, straight vs swung), to staccato versus legato, to how and when you breathe. I think it all comes down to being present and mindful of the movements you are making and how you are holding your body. 

I kind of rambled but the point of this post was to convey my belief that rhythm and timing is the most important element that needs work right now. However, within that work there is also the opportunity for ear training and being mindful of technique, all under the broader aspect of increasing repertoire and fine tuning or re-tooling the tunes you already know under the construct of this newfound internal sense of rhythm.

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Playing In Sessions May Have Had A Negative Impact On My Timing

Today is Tuesday. Over the 8 day span from this past Sunday to the Sunday before that, I played in 7 different sessions. That's a lot. Technically one of them was a tune learning session, but it was still playing music with others in a group setting. Not to mention that since I moved to Oregon two years ago I've probably logged over 500 hours of session playing, and that's likely a conservative estimate. 

All this time playing Irish tunes at pubs and cafés has been great for increasing my repertoire, exposing me to session speeds, and gaining experience playing with others. At the same time, I'm starting to think that it may have had a negative impact on my rhythm and timing. Something is off and I think it's because I've been relying too much on group tempo instead of working on developing my own internal sense of rhythm. Or it could be that all this time spent adjusting to the fluctuating speeds of a session environment has caused my own sense of time to erode. 

I also think that going to all these sessions may have forced me to play at speeds faster than I was ready to, hoping that my fingers would eventually catch up. I've often had to sacrifice playing cleanly to in order keep up with the session speed, glazing over trouble spots and being in a constant state of speed up/skip notes, speed up/skip notes, just to hang on.

I do spend a fair amount of time playing and practicing tunes at home, but I've mostly been doing this by playing along with recordings or drum machine tracks. When you're playing along with a click or backing track it's difficult to notice any rhythm or timing issues you might have because the constant beat keeps you in place like training wheels on a bicycle.

I am going to address this head on by working more diligently with a metronome - using it as a tool and not as a crux. One example is setting the metronome to click once per bar, or once every other bar, or once every 4th bar so that you're not constantly being kept in place by a click. You have to start by getting the feel of playing along with the metronome at say 80 bpm. Then set it to 20 bpm but still play as if it were 80 bpm so that the clicks only happen every other measure. Once a tune is in sync, like Lark in the Morning played at 72 bpm over an 18 bpm metronome, try transitioning to another jig like Willie Coleman's without missing a beat! (I mention this specific example because I was able to do this successfully today just before beginning to write this post). 

Another idea is to use Soundslice to create practice versions of tunes where the sound of the melody is interspersed with silent measures where you have to play on your own for a while before the music comes back on in time. Yet another idea is to set up a play along track at a low volume. Start playing along with the track, then keep playing as you walk to another part of the house where you can't quite hear the play along track anymore. Play a little while out of ear shot then walk back into the room where the backing track is playing and see if you are in sync.

And do all this while being mindful of ergonomic movement without stress, having proper posture, and maintaining a relaxed feel while playing. Tension in your shoulders and hands can cause adrenaline to spike, which makes you rush. I think my main problem is speeding up. I've ordered Bruce Arnold's The Big Metronome book, so I'm hoping that has some exercises that I can adapt as well! 

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A New Way of Using a Metronome - Very Slowly

I really need to work on my timing. Speeding up or slowing down - not playing in a steady time - is an issue for me at sessions. I was listening to an interview with music teacher Robb Cappelletto, who has become known for being Billy Strings’ guitar teacher. In the interview Robb said (regardless of what genre or style you might play or want to learn), “We always need to talk about technique. We always need to talk about time and rhythm. We always need to talk about ear training. We always need to understand harmony. We always need to (talk about fingering patterns). Whatever level the student is at, we can always talk about all of these. There's always a higher level to take something to.”

The one that stood out for me is timing and rhythm. Later in that same podcast, Robb says:

You can use the metronome like bumpers and bumper bowling to keep nudging you back to the center. Or you can use the metronome like an electric fence. And the latter is far more helpful.

If your metronome is playing on every beat, you're not keeping time. The metronome is keeping time for you. There is so much clicking that there's no way you could possibly go out of time if you actually know how to play.

(I'm going to paraphrase some more things that Robb said in that interview)

Make the click one beat per measure. Now you have a lot of opportunity to speed up or slow down and get off with the metronome because you're playing eight eighth notes per click now. Continually cut the metronome in half. If your metronome is at 120, then you cut it to 60, but you're still playing the same speed. There's just less metronome to keep you on track. But there's still enough metronome to remind you if you are keeping time enough. You're testing your ability to keep time rather than using the metronome to keep human time.

You have to start with enough click to train a pulse. You need to train your ability to hear and have a reference of what even time is. You can't just put the metronome on 5 (bpm) and play 150. You can't just do that right away. It's gonna be frustrating and probably not very beneficial. So, you start with the metronome as an eighth note, and then you cut the metronome down to a quarter note. And then you cut it down to a half note. And then if you can get to the point where the metronome is once a bar, or once every 2 bars, or once every 4 bars.

If you can get to the point where you can do that, the metronome did not keep time. It was just there to let you know if you kept time or not. The metronome is not keeping the time for you. Continually cutting your metronome in half is something that everybody can build up to. Cut the metronome in half and make sure you're still keeping the time.


Robb also cautions, if you can't sing it, you can't play it.

If you try playing it before you can sing it then you're essentially just guessing and hoping the frets are gonna remind you what it sounds like. You’re just remembering the order of operations and what it looks like, but not actually thinking of the sound.

You should be able to dubba dubba dubba your way through anything before you try to play it. Because if you don't know what it sounds like, you don't know the rhythm, you don't really know the shape of the melody. You're just hoping the confusing matrix of strings and frets is going to solve this problem for you, and it won't.


OK, so I tried this exercise described above where you put the metronome at like 20 bpm, but play at 80 bpm so that you’re essentially playing two measures of music per click. It's really hard! This is going to take some practice, which is good. However, this concept inspired me to create these play along practice tracks for the jig Lilting Banshee and the reel The Maid Behind the Bar. In each case there are long gaps between melody where you have to fill in the blanks yourself and then hopefully sync back up with the music at the right time. Give it a shot!

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Contra Dance Tunes Might Just Be My Favorite Types of Tunes

I'm an amateur, pedestrian musician. More of a participant than a leader. Not an authority in any way. Just someone who likes plucking melodies. I often play in Irish sessions, but I think my favorite types of tunes happen to be New Englandy contra tunes more than straight Irish trad session tunes.

There is some overlap of course, but I feel like contra tunes are less notey than Irish ones, with more emphasis on melody, beat, rhythm, and groove, and less about ornamentation and a constant stream of notes. This works for me because I like simple, basic versions of tunes. Even though I play tenor banjo - an instrument known for trying to fill as much space as possible with triplets and embellishments - I prefer to play a more sparse version of a tune, if possible. 

My experience with contra tunes is somewhat limited. I've never played for a contra dance, however, I have attended some contra tune jams where the pace is more jam speed than dance speed. I've been taking note of my favorite tunes as they come up and these include All The Way to Galway, Doon the Brae, Road to Boston, Jamie Allen, Scotty O'Neil, McLenon's Reel, Hut on Staffin Island, Riding on a Load of Hay, Walls of St. Malo, Horace Hanesworth, Robertson's Reel, Rose Tree, Shoes and Stockings, and William Blake's Dead, as well as Fair Jenny's Jig, Camp Pleasant Jig, Early in the Year, Flowers of Autumn, Moon and Seven Stars, and Maison de Glace. The 3/4 time tunes Crested Hens and Far Away also fall into this category. I think if you had to classify these tunes, the non-jig ones would be like polkas or marches. Very distinctive melodies that are easy to sing/hum/mutter and hear in your head. 

Here are some other things I like about contra music:

-The piano accompaniment. It stays right on the beat, providing a steady rhythm.  

-How the tunes can come from a wide variety of traditions, including Ireland, Scotland, England, Appalachian, Québécois, Cape Breton, New England, and more. Agnostic in this regard.

-Lots of "modern day" tunes (written within the last 50 years) are part of the active repertoire by composers such as Bob McQuillen, Randy Miller, Larry Unger, Keith Murphy, Brenda Stubbert, and Judi Morningstar.

-The music slightly less beholden to the diatonic keys of the Irish flute and D-whistle, so you see more sharps and more flats in the key signature, and tunes will include notes on the low G string of a fiddle.

-There's a wider variety of acceptable instruments. Like I said, there's the piano element. But I've also played in contra jams with saxophone, trombone, and silver concert flutes. You might also hear clarinet, marimba, or bass guitar. Instruments that would be controversial in a more strict Irish trad idea of appropriate instrumentation.

-Recordings by bands such as Wild Asparagus, Hillbillies from Mars, and Supertrad are really fun to listen to!

Anyway, that's it. 

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Having Fun With Soundslice

I titled this post Having Fun with Soundslice, but Obsessed is probably more like it. I can't believe I'm actually tearing myself away from this web-based interface for a few minutes to write about it. Here's what I've been using Soundslice for:

-To upload sheet music from pdf or photo and turn it into notation that can be sped up or slowed down, looped, converted to mandolin tab, transposed to a different key, and so on. There's a whole slew of Irish tunes that aren't on Trailjams.org that and I'm using Soundslice to upload the dots and create my own library of these jiggy, slidey, and reely tunes. I also have some sheet music for Caribbean tunes that I've collected and I have also been uploading those. This practice is teaching me a lot about timing and the sheet music symbols for quarter notes, eighth notes, rests, et cetera. Irish music is pretty much on-the-beat, even if that beat happens to be a 6/8 rhythm, but Caribbean melodies have some crooked measures and syncopation going on. You can only do 100 uploads per month which sounds like a lot but I've already maxed out for the time being. One of the reasons I had time to write this is because I need to wait a week or more before I can do the next round of 100 uploads!

-To write out variations of tunes. For example, I can upload a basic Trailjams arrangement of a tune such as Wind that Shakes the Barley and then edit it to add triplets and double stops wherever I see fit. I prefer to figure this stuff out on my own rather than by simply copying others and this functionality allows for lots of creativity. I don't know how to program hammer-ons, pull-offs, and other embellishments yet but I'm sure there's a way.

-Composition and Compositional Study. My initial reason for signing up for Soundslice was to notate an original melody I had written and then try to add chords to it. I've been wanting to learn how to use a music notation software with this purpose in mind but I've always been hesitant due to the perceived learning curve. I wanted to play my banjo, not work on a computer. However, with Soundslice it is pretty easy and I've realized that, when used the right way, it can actually enhance my musical knowledge. I like seeing how tunes are constructed - noticing patterns and repeated motifs - and Soundslice is helping with that. Getting the syncopation of a melody to land at the right place within a measure is a challenge that gets easier the more you learn about timing and how it is sub-divided.

-To create Slices from scratch. You can do an unlimited number of these. Sometimes you don't have a good source for the sheet music or maybe it's just a hand-written transcription or a piece you've learned by ear. Soundslice allows you to create notation from scratch. Or perhaps it's a straight-forward contra dance tune and you don't want to max out your monthly upload limit, so maybe you just type it in from scratch. It only takes a few minutes to get it straight. One of my primary roles at the job I've worked at for the last 20+ years is trafficking broadcast and digital orders. Basically, a fundraiser/salesperson submits an advertising/sponsorship contract from a client and then I make that campaign a reality by flighting it to run in whichever way it was described on paper - TV, radio, podcast, streaming, web ads. What I've realized is that creating a Slice from scratch is not that different from this skill set which I have already honed through years of work-related practice. It's fun for me.

-Creating Ear Training and Scale Exercises. This is an unexpected use, but Soundslice has been great in this regard. One exercise I created was to notate the D-Ionian, D-Dorian, D-Lydian, D-Mixolydian, and D-Aeolian modes and have those play over a second instrument which is essentially just a D note drone. In another case I wrote out arpeggios and then added scale numbers and solfège syllables to the notes.  Yet another exercise I created was to figure out the chord voicings for every chord in the D-major scale: D- major, E-minor, F#-minor, and so on. My instrument has an unusual tuning - GDAEB from low to high, sometimes referred to as "baritone 5-string electric octave mandolin tuning". Michael Kang of String Cheese Incident helped popularize this tuning. I use it for my custom-made tenor banjo. Soundslice has a lot of pre-set tablature settings, however, GDAEB isn't one of them. Fortunately you can create your own unique tablature tuning. It took me a while to get the pitches correct but I figured out a way to do it. I have not really practiced chord voicings at all on this instrument so I was able to create custom tablature for this tuning with that type of learning in mind.

That pretty much covers how I've been using it this first month. I'm sure there are other features that I haven't explored yet. One example: I haven't synced any audio to the notation/tablature. I don't know if I'll need to do that because the built-in instrument sounds in Soundslice are sufficient. Don't get me wrong, some are horrible sounding but I've found a few that I like such as harp, vibraphone, marimba, and ukulele. These work for my needs, which is basically just creating a library of music where the audio matches the notation. 

I'll end by sharing an example of an original arrangement of what I think is a Haitian melody called Bonsoir Dame. I found this song years ago on Spotify by a group called Zantalino y su Orquestra. It's a cheesy recording in the first place, but I had it transcribed by Nick DiSebastian and I've been holding on to that sheet music for years. The recording was in the key of C# (that's a key signature of 7 sharps for those keeping score) so the first thing I did upon uploading it to Soundslice was change it to a more congenial key such as G. Upon analysis, I realized that the actual melody had some timing challenges that were going to trip me up so I started tweaking the melody until it resembled something more like an Irish jig or slide. It almost became the pre-existing tune Going to the Well for Water in the process! That in and of itself was a study in how melodies come together. This one won't win any awards and I probably won't bust it out at the Irish session, but try to imagine a wizened Sliabh Luachra fiddler playing this in the corner of a cozy pub!

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