Schmee

I’ve been waiting around until I felt like blowing $40 on each DVD box set. Then it finally dawned on me: Why don’t I add them to my Netflix queue? Duh! So there they are in queue position 5 behind both discs for Greg the Bunny, SNL: Best of Christoper Walken, and Beetlejuice.

Perhaps I’ll get to them by summer. :)

I went to my first Jam Session last week. Man, I felt akward. Of course, I’ve never been afraid to make a fool of myself so it wasn’t too bad. Playing with other musicians is VERY different from playing by yourself or with an instructor.

You’ve got to move outside your comfort zone if you want to grow, so I’ll keep going. The guys are pretty laid back and very welcoming. They don’t play to fast which is good for me. Everything is either in G, C or A which helps me a lot – especially G. They play most of their stuff out of The Bluegrass Fakebook. I’m going to pick up a copy on Saturday. I’m sure that will keep me busy for the next decade at least. :)

I started back to lessons again. I’m spending half an hour a week with a guy who is a very well respected bliuegrass and JAzz bajo player. His approach is short practice rolls and chord progessions. He stresses playing tunes that you enjoy. That can be a few tunes that you continually practice and arrange in several different ways.

I’ve decided to concentrate on 2 tunes only: Foggy Mountain Breakdown and Little Maggie. I’ve also decided to practice with a metronome which seem to be both a blessing and a curse. I’ve set aside an hour a night to practice and I’ve done fairly well at actually doing it.

I think the next step might be attending some beginning jam sessions. We’ll see.