Joe Mendel
May-10-2004, 11:17am
I am recovering from Niles Hokannen's Rhythm Boot Camp this weekend at the 4-H ed. center in Front Royal, Va. It will take me years to apply all the stuff Niles showed us. Thank God for mini-disc recorders & paper handouts, I'd never remember 1/4 of the stuff he showed us. Niles knowledge of music in general and mandolin in particular is amazing. There was something for every musical style & he showed how to take something from one genre & use it to flavor other genres, & thinking rhythm in terms of the function of different parts of a drum set. Really quite an amazing workshop. Plus, hearing Iron Man sound like it belongs on the mandolin was very entertaining.
Don Kawalek, our very own "Luthier" came down Saturday & showed several of the instruments he's built & he stayed for the jam session afterward. He's a really nice guy, who builds very nice instruments & plays well, too. Lance & the other 4-H folks were great, also, they made everthing run smoothly & took good care of all of us. Rooms were not overly ostentatious, but they weren't bad and the beds were comfortable. Plus, there's lot of wineries and other things to do in the area. I'd allow an extra day or two if you want do any of the tourist stuff, Niles really packs the weekend full, I'm still worn out. I'd recommend these workshops to anyone.
Don Kawalek, our very own "Luthier" came down Saturday & showed several of the instruments he's built & he stayed for the jam session afterward. He's a really nice guy, who builds very nice instruments & plays well, too. Lance & the other 4-H folks were great, also, they made everthing run smoothly & took good care of all of us. Rooms were not overly ostentatious, but they weren't bad and the beds were comfortable. Plus, there's lot of wineries and other things to do in the area. I'd allow an extra day or two if you want do any of the tourist stuff, Niles really packs the weekend full, I'm still worn out. I'd recommend these workshops to anyone.