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I've played it. Nice mandolin. I still love playing mine. Hans and Maureen are the best of folks

Play them wherever you want for yourself or at a jam that supports whatever speed you enjoy.

But if you ever play for a dance, you need to do reels (4/4 time tunes) at about 110 or up in order...

Skype lessons can be wonderful, too. I teach (skype and in-person here in MN) so I do have a financial interest. I have had a number of adult learners who come to me after the "guitar teacher who...

Interesting suggestions Bertram. I'll mess with those!

Need a little help with this new jig of mine. The B-part is fine: Dm and C will do nicely. But the A-part...well, I'm curious to see what the board can come up with for chords. I've got a guitar...

Thanks for the feedback, folks. I'm merely in the role of helping here. Nothing you've said would lead me to any other conclusion than a fault in manufacturing, whether it's accidentally having...

The builder has seen the mandolin and has admitted it's "serious" and "could cause cracking if not addressed." I should have said that, sorry.

EDIT: He's never used anything but medium-gauge...

Hey all:

Got a friend with a well-known, national brand mandolin. He's owned it 14 years and the top is sinking under the bridge. I will not mention the model or anything else. I've seen it,...

The term "roots music" definitely encompasses a wide variety of music depending on how far back in time you wish to look.

I realize that I stretch the boundaries from time to time but I definitely...

Video unavailable now :(

If you really mean "take a lesson" for 5 days per week, I'd have to say that sounds like more than a person's brain can absorb :). Speaking as both a student and a teacher, once per week is more...

The charm of the show for me resided in the fact of an insider--a Minnesotan--defining and commenting on Minnesotan and Midwestern life. Seems like for marketing reasons they won't change the title...

Charlie, there are some aspects of this I agree with and some I don't. And there are a few things that need to be clarified or we'll wind up comparing apples and oranges.

1. I do agree that the...

I know more and more local folks doing what I did: putting their music up for sale on their own site, physical product and digital. I used to do CD Baby and digital distribution until I figured out...

Yep, by Norman. http://tunearch.org/wiki/Cairo_Waltz

Mr. Brentrup told me once that the ideal relative humidity is 45%. That's the humidity level at which the wood is kept before and during an instrument's construction.

No real chance to get other people involved. That would change the parameters of the grant. But yes, there are opportunities to do some simple dancing I should think. I've been researching play...

Hey folks, I'm doing an Artist-In-Residence week at a local school focusing on roots music (everything that I do: Appalachian, fiddle tunes, bluegrass, blues, Tin-Pan Alley stuff) as well as...

I do teach, yeah. If you can make Thursday afternoon or evening, I can get you in easy. I have every other Thursday at 6 open (starting 3/3). Otherwise, before that or 7:00 and after are open.

Tuesdays they have a beginner old time jam--people go really slowly and learn the tunes together with sheet music. Thursdays are not really fast and we've had a couple beginners there. It's also...

Oh, and there's a jam every Thursday night at 7 at Blackbird Music, 35th and Cedar Ave (kitty corner from Matt's Bar) in South Minneapolis. We're laid back, not hard core, and have a steady...

check out the MBOTMA website: they have a HomeGrown Fest in late May/early June. Lakes Bluegrass Fest up by Nisswa got started back up again a couple years ago. There are a few but they're months...

There are lots of us--Check out the Social Group of MN mando pickers. There are a number of good luthiers in the Mpls area depending on what you need. I suggest Charlie Hoffman's shop: Kevin does...

Haven't posted here in a while but this video comes from an appearance on Duluth, MN, radio station KUMD a couple weeks ago. Song is mine, a little blues I wrote imagining Creeping Charlie as a...

Garrison should have folded it and Chris should have started his own show. It's good, but the aspect that I will miss the most is the Midwestern character of it, the very Minnesotan flavor. It...