And do you suppose, Mr. Sandstone, that my professional reputation should be able to stand repeated forays into the hinterlands of telling the "truth" as I see it? I mean, there IS such a thing as karma. There seems to be a point where it all is meaningless in the scheme of things anyway, and all the motions made outside applying one's trade for the sheer joy of it are only an exercise in going backwards.
I suppose I could publish my answers without the questions. No harm there. Very well... Bill, Thanks for your questions. I'll make an effort to be economical in my answers... 1) So far, the main obstacle or "roadblock" as you called it, to learning Monroe style seems to be the right hand technique of the style. Many people have a hard time using tremolo as the main exponent to creating melody, to keeping the right hand moving and not giving in to the temptation to playing somewhat erratic right hand patterns. I have found that the fiddle kinship with Monroe's right hand technique seems to require that the right hand keep moving and making the motions, even when the string is not struck, sort of a phantom stroke to keep the notes emphasized the right way. The tendency in people not used to using this technique is to change pick direction only on the next note in the melody. There is sort of a going backwards in time that needs to be done, back to the time in string bands when fiddles were the main instrument of choice rather than electric guitars, when a bow stroke or tremolo was the means of playing a sustained tone rather than striking a note once and counting on an amplifier to do the rest. One of the other primary changes in thinking needs to come with an understanding of using chord voicings to find melody and harmony rather than using a more linear approach, playing more out of "boxes" rather than running lengthwise up and down the fingerboard. But to me, the hardest part and also the smartest part of the style is how Monroe could suggest passages to the listener without actually spelling the idea out. Dealing with abstract melodic ideas is a bit more challenging to understand I think. As far as mastering the style, I don't know that it's possible to really accomplish that feat in one lifetime. There's so much to know and really, I've only begun to scratch the surface myself. 2) I think that Monroe would be very proud to know that his music has maintained so much interest in the modern day that entire camps are devoted to better understanding and use the style he created. 3) You have made a number of references to "blues licks" in your questions so far. Sure, there is a lot of blues in Monroe's music. I think that it's one of the ingredients that I like the best, if not the one that effects me strongest. You refer to modern players as being very smooth and polished and I'll agree with your comments. I will say that I do not agree that Monroe was "always ragged and without polish". I suggest you listen to a lot more Monroe. There are plenty examples of his work that show impeccably clean technique. What you will NOT find is careful music. I do not think that perfection is necessarily the object of expression. Squeaky clean and careful music bores me anyway. I would rather have music that shows commitment and emotional content than all the spit and polish in the world. To each his own, I guess, but I'd rather the music I listen to be unpredictable. I wouldn't presume to know what was going through Monroe's head when he played. I'm sure that some of the Bluegrass Boys could more accurately describe his thought processes and intentions than I could. I'm sure Kenny Baker could. He's quoted as saying he knew what Bill was trying to do. I'd sure like to know what that is myself. I do think that Bill allowed his muse to take him wherever it led, that his take on melody was that of an impressionist and that he presented the melody the way he felt at any given time rather than working up a solo and recreating it note for note every time. There is ample evidence that there were outlines that he went by, but I think that he just used the outlines as a guide. His output is chock full of random phrasing, whether it be from day to day or show to show or version to version. A couple of things suggest themselves to me. One part of it seems to be an evolutionary process in regard to melody. The other part seems to suggest that there are a fair amount of notes and phrases that can be rearranged or deleted completely without really effecting the overall impression of the melody being played. 4)Yessir, I do have a signature model pick with Red Bear called the "Taterbug Special". Dave Skowron suggested the idea and sent along a sample in the mail one day and from there we've worked on making a pick size/shape that I like. I'll say that they're just about right now. I don't use any one thing all the time, though I have used the last pick I got from Dave pretty much exclusively. I have a few tortoise shell picks around that people give me and I like them fine, but I don't use them much because they cost too much and require some amount of maintenance. I have other things I'd rather be doing. I have a couple of the Blue Chip picks and they seem to be really fast and clean, but they're sort of like the tortoise; I really can't get enough good out of them to justify the price. I do know that a lot of folks like them. As for Monroe, no, I don't think he had a stash of tortoise shell picks laying around for special occasions. I've heard too many people say that he used this pick or that pick. After a number of years of speculating on everything "Monroe" that I could get hold of, it seems to me he played with just about anything he had in his pocket that came his way. I think his focus was more on music he was making and not on equipment and gadgets. He sounded pretty much like Bill Monroe no matter what pick or string or mandolin he had in his hands. If you listen to his recordings close, I think you'll hear a number of different mandolins being played there. 5) Right now I'm using a couple Gilchrist mandolins, an F5(#536) and F4 (#565), and a Duff H5(#13307) mandola. The F5 I have now is the fourth one of Steve's I've owned and by far the best suited for what I like. The F4 was sort of an experiment on Steve's part in that he used the same woods that he uses on the F5's to build it. I think there are a couple other modifications, but minor. Steve told me that he was completely satisfied with the way it works. The Duff 'dola is made from PA maple I think. Not sure really, but I do know that Paul's instruments rank with some of the best these days. This one is the traditional Gibson scale, made onto an H4 box design with f-hole top. Paul's making another with 17" scale to give it a bit more mandolin- like "pop". I reckon that'll be an experiment too. I've got a couple more things I bang on around here, a late 30's Kalamazoo Oriole and an Old Kraftsman florentine and a Kay electric I got from TBone Burnett. Fun stuff with their own voices. It takes a number of different voices to get it all done for me. I suppose that's because I'm not quite good enough a technician yet to get it all out of one box. 6) You must have talked to Dawn Bradbury. She's quite an accomplished musician(piano) in her own right. The webcam lessons idea was presented to me by Brian Ray, an ex-Apple employee and self-proclaimed expert on all things orange(including mandolins...I keep telling him that "orange" is a fruit, not a mandolin). Currently, I have over 160 people on the webcam contacts list. Of those, about 30-35 of those take lessons weekly. Some of the others take twice a month and a few others take occasionally. When I'm not on the road I usually spend from about 8am-8pm weekdays giving webcam lessons. I start about 8am and go until just after noon and break for a few hours, then resume around 3p-4p and go through the evening until 8:30-9pm. Most people take 30 minute lessons, but I do have a couple who take for an hour. Really, I think 30 minutes is about max, but it depends on what the request is. The webcam idea works pretty good as long as there's plenty of bandwidth to go around and each person has a reasonably up-to-date computer. Audio/Video chat uses a lot bandwidth and the computer equipment needs to be able to process the info fast, do it's pretty much limited to cable and ethernet. Sometimes even then it's a crapshoot. On a good day, it's almost like watching television, though there is lag time, so there's no jamming capability. On a bad day some of my customers look like a Jackson Pollack painting and the lag time is seconds, not fractions of a second. It can get pretty awkward. But, I'll have to say that we've all sort of gotten used to the shortcomings of the technology and just keep moving on, plus, the quality has improved over the last couple years. Even with the improvements, some folks just never quite get the hang of it or can't get comfortable with the technology and back out. It's interesting that you ask what I think Monroe's reaction would be to the webcam conference idea because that topic has come up quite a few times. I think we're unanimously agreed that he'd probably recite his now famous phrase "it ain't no part a 'nuthin", although if somebody could've gotten him to sit down in front of the camera and gotten him comfortable with it he might have been at least a little curious. But this is all purely speculation on my part. I have no earthly idea. 7) As for projects, right now I have a few things on my list that I want to do, but it seems like there's always more on the list that is getting crossed off the list. The Nashville Bluegrass Band is still working up new material, more in the recent past. I think we're to begin on another recording soon, get the songs we're doing on the set that are new. I've had a solo recording rumbling around in my head for a few years, but just haven't felt an overwhelming urge to get it done. I don't know why. It just doesn't seem urgent somehow. But that one will basically be all original tunes by me with various combinations from solo to full band. I would like to put out a duet recording of Narmour and Smith tunes played on mandolin and guitar to pay homage to one of Mississippi's greatest duets in the string band field. I'm looking at probably getting Chris Sharp to play the guitar on that one. Recently, the fellow who first pushed me towards Monroe's playing, Raymond Huffmaster, bought back the Randy Wood mandolin that I brought to Nashville with me in 1977, so we're looking at putting out a project of tunes played on that mandolin. I'm really looking forward to going back down to Mississippi and playing tunes with a bunch of my old friends and influences. I've been wanting to go back and hang out a while there and just soak it up, and this will give me the perfect opportunity. I'm still working with NBB as a regular member of that band. I usually do a few shows a year with David Grier and David Long and have been doing more solo sets, which is really a test on a number of fronts, but fun to do regardless. I recently did a show with Joe Newberry, a very prominent fixture in the oldtime scene. That was a fun gig and we're talking about doing a lot more of that. There are a couple other ideas rumbling around in the works, but right now they're only in the speculation stage. Didn't go to Japan this year, didn't go to Australia, but that's a couple other things I'm looking at making a regular yearly thing of. This year, we're touring an Elvis Costello recording we did last April '08. The tour goes for a couple weeks in June and a couple more in August, coast to coast. I am happy to be included on that one. I'm involved with about five camps and workshops this year and am plugging away at staying on top of all that. I've had a few nibbles regarding doing some work in Italy before long, so we'll see. Who knows? I just keep plugging away and I really don't know what's coming around the bend. 8) You ask what the qualities of a good teacher are, what helps students progress. I think the answer you'd get to that question would depend on who you ask. I have talked to a number of teachers regarding their methods of conveying information. Of those outside music, all were professional educators with degrees in the field. They were pretty well unanimous in the way they approach teaching information. Most all those that were involved in music were professional, but were not necessarily trained as teachers. Methods vary in this group. Non- musician teachers seem to say that presenting the same information over and over in different ways is best. Musicians seem to favor the way they learn personally as it relates to the kind of music they're in. I find it all very confusing, really. I agree with both groups. In an ideal situation one-on-one, the teacher knows how the student learns and presents the information to him/her that way. A group is a lot harder, mainly because the skill levels vary as do the learning styles. But, as a bottom line, I think that a good teacher has a definite purpose or goal in each lesson and follows a logical, methodical course in getting there. I don't know Bill, I just want to feel more connected to what I'm playing. I'm still working at making sense out of it myself. Can you show me how to do that? Alright, there's that. Spuds On Mar 21, 11:46 am, Fred <[email protected]> wrote: > It's simply bad form, old bean, to dangle such dripping red flesh in > front of us only to hoik it away at the last moment. Give--we want the > unexpurgated version. > > mistertaterbug wrote: > > For instance, there are a few things that would piss off Monroe fans > > that don't appear in the article... Or should I say, they illustrate > > once again that a lot of people don't get it. > > Tater > > > On Mar 21, 11:29 am, mistertaterbug <[email protected]> wrote: > >> For instance, there are a few things that would piss off Monroe fans > >> that don't appear in the article... > > >> On Mar 20, 1:44 pm, Steve Cantrell <[email protected]> wrote: > > >>> It's a good article. That Narmour and Smith project leaves me all > >>> a-twitter. > >>> ________________________________ > >>> From: Don Grieser <[email protected]> > >>> To: [email protected] > >>> Sent: Friday, March 20, 2009 2:31:13 PM > >>> Subject: Tater on the Cafe > >>> For those needing Mo'Tater, he's featured in the Bill Graham article > >>> on the Mandolin Cafe homepage. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ 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 -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
