Well, since you asked, some thoughts... First off, as far as my mando background, I have (as a few ppl said in their intros) "held" the mandolin since about 1993, but I'm entirely self-taught (I do own a few books and videos, but never have had a teacher) and have only played off and on since then (my pattern has been that I periodically get excited about mando playing, practice/ play a lot, but then due to lack of bluegrass players in whatever area I was living in at the time [PA-NJ] I tail off, and don't play for a while.) So I do know chords, can solo a little, but never really studied bluegrass (Monroe) mandolin style, even though I've appreciated his music since 1988, when I first really got into bluegrass. I finally did however find a monthly bluegrass jam a bit over a hour away in NJ, which I've been attending since last fall (NJ Bluegrass & Old-time Music Assn. in Little Silver NJ.) There I met a fellow some of you may know, John "Chubby" Conine, who is quite the Monroe-master on mandolin. Watching him and his buddies play awakened a desire to play Monroe-style mandolin, and when I later dug out an old Skip Gorman tape I had (Old-Style Mandolin) and went to his website to see what else he had, I found the Monroe-Style Mando Camp was happening over my birthday weekend (I was born the day after Bill, quite a few years later of course :) and signed myself up, hoping for all the secrets to be revealed... When asked at sign-up what I thought my skill level was, I answered "beginner-intermediate" since I knew I already knew the basics of playing mandolin, but was a beginner at playing the Monroe style.
Having never been to one of these camp-type things, I really didn't know what to expect. I was excited and quite a bit nervous, as I'm basically a shy person. So I started Friday with the Monroe Bros. class (intermediate level), and then did the next two beginner classes. The rest of the weekend, I did intermediate and advanced classes, as I found that the beginner classes had many ppl who were just learning to play mando, and the instructors kept it really basic for their sake, and I already knew what they were teaching. Looking back over the schedule, I see that I attended two beginner classes, four intermediate classes, and three advanced classes. So my basic opinion was that it was a great weekend, but I felt it was more geared to a) people who were just beginning to play mandolin, and b) people who had been playing bluegrass/Monroe style mandolin for years, and were there to just play and/or hang out with their peers and the instructors, or pick up the finer points of the style from the professionals. I was able to ask some specific questions to the instructors about how to play this or that, or what to study, and got some valuable advice there. There were also things I heard in each class I attended that were equally valuable. But on the whole, it was less playing, and more watching the instructors play and hearing them lecture. Somehow I thought there would be more playing involved, like the instructor demonstrating a technique or passage, and then the rest of us trying to play it. I attended Mike's class on Sat (Later Years/ Selected Solos) which was just what I thought the classes would be like, and hence was my favorite class. Like I said, I've never been to a music camp before, so perhaps I had unrealistic expectations. The museum was a great place to have the camp, and the staff couldn't be nicer. I thought there could have been a bit more organization at the beginning, however. The Friday nite BBQ/jam party was a blast, and I really enjoyed the concert on Sat nite, although I wish that they wouldn't have strung out all the thank-you announcements throughout the concert (it really disrupted the flow IMO.) I skipped the Sat nite jam since I was very sleep-deprived at that point, and my brain hurt :) They could have been more specific about the meals that were on your own, and provided a map of places to go in town for good eats (perhaps at different price levels.) On the private sessions that had more than one student at a time, I really wish that they would try to pair up ppl who are basically at the same skill level; I was in a session with someone who was just at the beginning of learning how to play mandolin, and the instructor had to split his time between us since we were at such different skill levels in our playing ability. I was glad to see that instead of being a lottery, that they made sure everyone got a chance to get a lesson. Wow, I'm sure there's more that I could say, but I see that I've already written a novel here :) Thanks for reading... Will On Sep 17, 11:37 am, mistertaterbug <[email protected]> wrote: > I'll ask the question now that we're done and hindsight begins to set > in; > What could we have done to make it better, more engaging, more fun, > more informative, more comfortable, etc.? I have a few ideas, but am > curious to hear from the rest of you. > > Potato --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ 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 -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
