Derek, I thought your readers might be interested in a report I read on the Internet that went like this:

“I have just finished learning Bela Flecks See Rock City and I’ve got to tell you that it was some accomplishment to get that sucker smooth. I then went to a jam session with some friends and when I started whipping it off they all looked at me like I had three heads.”

Doesn’t that make you feel weird and embarrassed? I think what it is, is that most people are kind of lazy and don’t want to take the time and effort in a jam session to hunker down to the painstaking process of slowly learning a complex tune there on the spot. They just want to jam on stuff they already know. If you really want to get them to learn it, get together with the guitar player only. Invite him to dinner or something. Then patiently show him the chords to the first little part of the song and play it until he feels comfortable with the progression. It is extremely helpful if you write out an easy-to-read chord chart and present it to him for reference. Keep at it until he’s got the whole tune. Then, at the next jam, you and he will play the tune and everybody will want in on it. Have some more chord charts available. At this point, you may see the guitar player doing all the work for you, showing people the chords, etc! Sincerely,

David Crisler, Tampa, Florida, USA.
Write to David:  bopjo@mindspring.com

Where they’re playing that Bluegrass!!

I JUST HAVE TO TELL YOU about a TV program I saw recently. The show was about a joint Canadian - U.S. programme to reach the North Pole by boat. They were using two icebreakers (one Canadian and one U.S. Coast Guard) to achieve this. The show documented their progress and the scientific experiments and there were a great many ceremonies to mark each record-breaking aspect of their trip.

Close to the Pole the US ship ran into problems but was able to continue. Then it saw another ship appeared on the radar approaching from the other direction - a Russian, obviously! The Russian ship didn’t acknowledge radio communication so the others continued on to the Pole completing their trip. Before long the Russian ship showed up and opened communications. It turned out to be a nuclear powered icebreaker bringing a bunch of children on a school trip(!) and making a TV program to mark the International Year of the Child. The TV presentation then showed the Russian children performing on the ice at the North Pole, playing... Bluegrass instruments - banjo, fiddle, dobro, mandolin, guitar and double bass – and singing in Russian. Later they showed a Russian kid on banjo and the Canadian icebreaker Captain on guitar, picking out Wildwood Flower.

Bluegrass, first music at the North Pole, definitely played everywhere - even if it was the Russians who took it there!

Al Benner, Tottenham, Ontario, Canada.
Write to Al: cofac@idirect.com

Updated 23rd Jan 1999