Back from augusta

[Jim Rowland]

Got home yesterday from the best Mando week of my life where I had the great privilege and pleasure of spending 15 or so classroom hours with the wonderful Roland White,plus,a 20 minute one on one lesson. He is all you have heard as a teacher/player..relaxed and friendly,patient to the nth,entertaining,and knowledgable in all areas of Bluegrass music and mandolin. He also gifted folk with an SRO talk about his career,family,and all the great players and characters with whom he has worked. I learned a lot from all vectors,and I believe he got me over a couple of obstacles which have bugged me for years. He knows and he can show. I'm impelled to go on and on for pages,but this isn't a place for that.
Got some great concerts,a great lecture from Dr.Banjo himself and saw and heard some utterly fantastic players up close..many famous,some on the cusp. I have to tell you that Matt Flinner and Danny Knicely blew my socks off,as did new to me flat picker Tyler Grant. Great place,great people and the cafeteria is pretty good.
Jim

[sstiner]

Grow fill us newbies in on where it was that you went. I assume that it was a camp but which one? Thanks in advance-Shawn http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mandosmiley.gif

[Brad Weiss]

Augusta's great! I went for Swing week in '05 with our own Seth Rosen. #It's held at Davis & Elkins College in Elkins WV. #Each week is a new theme (BG, Swing, Blues, Irish) There's something for everyone!

[Jim Rowland]

Sorry I'm late getting back to you,sstiner. What Brad said.
Jim

[otterly2k]

I just went during Blues/Swing week a couple of weeks ago... but I went for the instrument repair class with Bob Smakula.

I didn't spend much time doing music, but my impression was that the quality of the instruction and also of the jamming was very high indeed.

[soccerdr]

Hey Jim,

I took mandolin with Orrin Star this year at Augusta. Funny guy-good instructor. Helped me immensely with rhythym. He spent considerable time on playing double-stops and presented it in a fashion that opened my mind to universe of double stops on the fretboard.

Playing on the Halliehurst porch late at night...now that's why I go. And of course those wonderful hills. That campus is the only one I know where everywhere you want to go is UPHILL!

Sully

[Jim Rowland]

I hope to be ready for the likes of Orrin in a year or two,Sully. I did enjoy his work at Roundup and the big concert. His remark concerning the fabulous young violinist (whose name escapes me)..."the bird of love landed on (name's) feeder this year" cracked me up. My wife and I didn't participate in the late night jams at Halliehurst because we didn't feel we could keep up,and we needed some rest. We ain't young any more.
Jim

[Orrin Star]

Augusta was really great this year.

Spending a week immersed in music (or any other craft pursuit) with so many other like-minded folks always makes for a special environment so unlike one's usual daily life.

And one thing that isn't often commented on is how we instructors benefit from the many collegial interactions that such an environment fosters. #Mid-week, just prior to the morning-session break, I was discussing the rhythm chop with my class. #During the break I wandered next door to Matt Flinner's class and said "hey, why don't you come visit my class with yours after the break so we can rap about chopping?" #He agreed. #Then I saw Roland's calss door open and extended the offer to him as well. #So we had an all-mando calss conclave for the first 15 minutes of the next session - and I (as well as all present) learned a few things about the variety of ways #different players approach the chop. #(We also played a couple tunes together.) #A very nice and productive interlude.

The other big thing for me was hearing Pete Wernick's provocative ideas re bluegrass instruction and what he thinks works best (for example, focussing initially on basic songs and singing rather than instrumentals with an eye to getting students out there and playing with others - something they pretty much all want to do but often end up not for many reasons). #I agree with much of what he said and plan on tweaking my teaching approach in light of what he had to say. For the full monte on this see http://www.drbanjo.com/news-ne....sic.php (http://www.drbanjo.com/news-newsarchive-anewdirectionforteachingandlearningbluegrassmusic. php)

Lastly, re the line you liked it was "the bird of romance alighted on his feeder"
(and was in reference to Tyler Grant, not some violinist).

Orrin
www.orrinstar.com
(next mando workshop week: Nov 4-9, Nauvoo, AL)

[Gutbucket]

Got back myself. What a blast. Had a week with Matt Flinner. And yes, he played us "Little Wing". Very cool.