I have been to all three Monroe Camps. Although I learned from all the previous instructors I got the most out of Tater, Butch Waller and Skip Gorman. All three had classes where you walked in, there was a brief introduction , then they started to pound a song into your brain. That is good learning. Frank is an amazing picker but is so scatter brained that you can hardly get a straight thought out of him. I had to verbally pin him down to show us a break to Blue Moon of Kentucky.
I enjoy the history and lore but am mostly there to get better in that style. Repeatedly I overheard fellow students say they wished more songs or techniques were taught. People get irritated when they sit through a class and never get to remove their mando from the case. My foremost complaint was that some instructors clearly had given no thought to what they would teach. Students appreciate when an instructor has given the class some thought ahead of time. I can remember several classes where the instructor came in and said "Monroe's Timing? I'm not sure how to approach this". Then by the time they figure something out to teach the class is over. I think parameters or suggestions along with the class titles may help guide them. For instance the class title may be "Monroe's blues" and the objective to present several songs that illustrate his use of the blues or themes that recur that are "blue". Or maybe a class that touches on a few songs that use the downstroke and tremelo. Or maybe one devoted to Gospel turnarounds. I don't see any probllem rehashing some of the previous camps concepts except with different instructors. I would like to see David McLaughlin, Ronnie McCoury, David Davis. Or how about some fiddlers that can also play mandolin, especially those familiar with Monroe's fiddlers. Perhaps Aubrey Haynie or Mike Cleveland. Although all talented I have no idea how good of teachers they are and that is an extremely important skill to have when in charge of a class. So many excellent musicians are not efficient teachers. Tater is an exception. Enough for now. I'm sure it will be a good one if Tater is at the helm. John On Jan 19, 11:49 pm, mistertaterbug <[email protected]> wrote: > I agreed today to take the administrative (uhm...or was that advisory) > duties for the International Bluegrass Music Museum's Bill Monroe > Mandolin Camp 2009. I understand that Mike Lawing doesn't work at the > museum anymore, so that leaves a gap. From what I can gather thus far, > the camp will basically be similar in format to the last few. It will > be on/around Monroe's birthday and will be Friday/Saturday/Sunday. > There will be at least 5 instructors and the topics will be somewhat > similar, but I am looking at other aspects of KY style bluegrass > mandolin that have not been touched on so much before. > > I know some of you on this here list have been to the camp, whilst > others have not. What I would like for you to do, beings we have this > forum, is to think about what it was you didn't get last time that > would have been welcome knowledge. What aspects of Bill's music did > not get looked at, either at all or adequately? Is there something > slipping through the cracks that I'm just not thinking of? What have I > left out? Are there artists currently working that have not worked as > instructors at the camp before that either loosely base some of their > work on Monroe's mandolin style or whom you'd like to see tackle KY > style mandolin with a more contemporary flair? The camp is, of course, > devoted to furthering and explaining Monroe's work and music, so I'm > not saying we need to get too far out on a limb. I am also looking at > possibly having the "before bluegrass" idea actively pursued, as well > as the black mandolin culture. Maybe we should go to Arnold Schultz' > gravesite. > > Anyway, I would welcome any suggestions/requests/complaints that may > be floating around. I think there needs to be some other activities to > do besides classes too, but right now at this early stage in the game, > I'm drawing a blank. Now's the time to have your say. > > Tater --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Taterbugmando" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/taterbugmando?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
