By Jon Peik

February’s first-Tuesday facilitated Beginner Bluegrass Jam will meet Tuesday, 2/2/10 from 7:30-9:00pm at the Germania parlor area (youth friendly) of The Up North Bar, 514 E Wilson St. Madison, near the Essen Haus at the corner of Blair and Wilson streets. There’s plenty of free parking behind the Essen Haus. Formal instruction and facilitation will run from approximately 7:30-8:30pm (as soon as I get there after my lessons at Spruce Tree Music)

This month we will start with the following songs. If we have time we will also go around the circle with song suggestions from you.

Take Me Back to Tulsa, key of G, (2 chords, G, D); My Home’s Across the Blue Ridge Mts, key of G, (2 chords, G, D); Crawdad Song, key of G (3 chords, G, C, D); Long Journey Home, Key of G, (3 chords G, C, D); Nine lb Hammer, Key of G, (3 chords, G, C, D); Cripple Creek, key of A, instrumental (3 chords, A, D, E); Sitting Alone in the Moonlight -key of G, waltz time (4 chords, G, C, D, & Gb).

Tune into 89.9FM WORT to hear an interview with Jim Hurst by John Fabke Tuesday, 1/19 at 11:00 a.m. on John’s show Pastures of Plenty. Then tune in again on Friday, 1/29 at 11:00 a.m. for a live studio appearance by Jim on Chris Powers’ Mud Acres Bluegrass Show.

Don’t miss Jim Hurst’s concert January 30, at 8 pm at Mother Fools Coffee House, 1101 Williamson St., Madison, Wisconsin. And if you’re a flat-picker who needs a little fine-tuning, take advantage of the best flat-picker in bluegrass today at Jim’s guitar workshop on the 30^th from 1 pm – 4 pm at the Wil-Mar Center, 953 Jenifer St., Madison, WI. Contact Julie Cherney at cherney@uwalumni.com or 608-244-2184 for more information and a registration form.

Once again this Tuesday Jon Peik will be leading his popular Beginners Jam at the Germania parlor area (kid friendly) of The Up North Bar, 514 E Wilson St. Madison, near the Essen Haus at the corner of Blair and Wilson streets. Formal instruction and facilitation will run from approximately 7:30-8:30pm.

Jon writes: “This month we will go around the circle with song suggestions from you-so please bring a song to suggest and share. Remember if you sing it, you get to pick the key.  Instrumentals are also welcome.”

By Jon Peik

Next Tuesday (12/1/09) will be our annual Christmas and holiday song Beginner Bluegrass Jam Class. We will meet Tuesday from 7:30-9:00pm at:

The Germania parlor area (kid friendly) of The Up North Bar, 514 E Wilson St. Madison, near the Essen Haus at the corner of Blair and Wilson streets. There’s plenty of free parking behind the Essen Haus.

Formal instruction and facilitation will run from approximately 7:30-8:30pm (as soon as I get there after my lessons at Spruce Tree Music)

This month we will play primarily from the following list:

Christmas Time’s a Comin-key of G (3 chords G, C & D)
Silent Night (waltz time)-key of G (3 chords G, C & D)
Jingle Bells-key of G (4 chords G, C, D & A)
Silver Bells-key of D or G (3 chords D, G, & A  OR G, C, & D)
Auld Lang Syne-key of G (3 chords G, C & D)
Away in a Manger (waltz time)-key of D (3 chords D, G, & A)
We Wish You a Merry Christmas-key of G (6 chords, G, C, D, A, B, Em)

And. . . don’t worry if you don’t already know these songs, part of the fun is learning how to play along even if only one person knows the song.

The jam exists to encourage beginning bluegrass players and to help each other learn.  The goal is to enjoy playing music together.

Hope to see you Tuesday!

By Dave Nance

The 3rd Tuesday Beginner’s Bluegrass Jam, sponsored by SWBMAI (Southern Wisconsin Bluegrass Music Association), and hosted by yours truly, Dave Nance, will be held this Tuesday evening, November 17, 2009, at the Up North Bar at 514 E. Wilson St.

I’ll be there by 7:30 P.M.;  we’ll start the jam by 8.

Anybody have any ideas for songs they’d like to try out, work on, and/or play for fun this week? Here are mine, w. some links to versions on youtube to remind you how they go:

Blue Ridge Mountain Blues   4/4 time,  Key of G (G, C, D)
(here’s a nice rockin’ version by John Fogerty: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHuBr8nGktk )

Cripple Creek    4/4 time,  Key of A (A, D, E)
(here’s Flatt & Scrugg’s version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4sqishGuYw )

Green Pastures   3/4 time,  Key of A (A, D, E) (we did it last month, but I like it a lot so I’m suggesting it again!)
(here’s a nice version by Allison Krauss: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwQD-rCJMYw)

I’ll Fly Away   4/4 time,  Key of G (G, C, D)

Late Last Night   4/4 time,  Key of D (D, G, A)

Reuben’s Train   4/4 time,  Key of D (D, A)
(here’s a nice version highlighting banjo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eugbMWhU26I)

I hope you’ll each bring an idea for a song you’d like to try

HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE!

By Chirps Smith

World-Class multi-instrumentalist from Finland, Arto Järvelä, is coming to the Kettle Moraine State Forest!  He plays fiddle, mandolin, mandola, guitar, kantele, etc and plays with several groups including JPP, and the Helsinki Mandoliners.  He will be teaching workshops in the afternoon- one for fiddle and one mandolin (other string instruments are welcome too- main focus is mandolin).  The workshops will be followed by a concert in an intimate setting.  Here is your chance to see and learn from a master musician.  For more info about Arto Järvelä and music samples see his MySpace page:  http://www.myspace.com/artojarvela

Reservations (it would be nice to have an idea how many folks might show up), more info, directions: send email to:   LPFConcerts@gmail.com

We are located in the Town of LaGrange, WI, 1.4 miles north of the intersection of US Highway 12 and County Road H on the west side of County Road H.  We are immediately south of the entrances to the Nordic Ski & John Muir Mountain Bike Trails.

Buy a raffle ticket at Saturday’s SWBMAI Bluegrass Jamboree and you could take home one of scores of prizes donated by local businesses and music instructors. SWBMAI will be raffling off over $2,000 in prizes throughout the Jamboree tomorrow (see the article below for details).

Included in the prizes are free music lessons, valuable gift certificates, bluegrass CDs, and much much more! Raffle tickets start at just $1, so you could win big!

Plus, the Jamboree is featuring three silent auctions — two gorgeous hand-quilted wall hangings donated by local artist (and SWBMAI board member) Sharon Manion, and a stunning  ”drum style” gourd banjo donated by Junior’s Banjo Farm.

All that, plus eight hours of some of the best Bluegrass entertainment  you’ll find anywhere. So what are you waiting for? We’ll see you at the Jamboree tomorrow!

Frog On A Lily Pad in the key of C (standard G tuning). The chords are C, F & G. It’s a great tune and a good exercise in closed position licks. To hear Bill Monroe’s version click here.

Visit www.seanray.com for more great banjo and guitar videos!

Here is a close representation of the intro break to Fire Ball Mail as played by Earl Scruggs on the Foggy Mountain Banjo album.

Bluegrass is known for it’s hot pickers, playing faster than ears can hear. It can make learning tunes a bit difficult. Luckily, we no longer have to ruin our records and needles, or stretch out our cassette tapes with endless rewinds. If you have iTunes on your computer, then you already have a great tool for slowing down music… AND video! It’s a little known fact… but Apple’s free QuickTime Player (installed along with iTunes) is great for slowing down your favorite audio and/or video clips. It even allows you to change the pitch so you don’t have to retune your instrument! Here’s how to do it:

1. Choose an audio or video file and open it in QuickTime Player (mp3s, wav, aif, mov, mp4, etc…)
2. In QuickTime, choose cmd-k (Mac) or ctrl-k (PC) to open the A/V Controls (or from the Windows menu)
3. Adjust the speed and/or pitch to your liking

If you don’t already have QuickTime, you can download it for free for your Mac or PC from Apple’s website. In addition, QuickTime Pro ($30 upgrade) allows you to easily set in and out points, loop edit files and more.