#1
|
|||
|
|||
10 things I learned at the 2019 RockyGrass Academy
Here are, in no particular order, some of the take-home lessons from my week at the RockyGrass academy in Lyons, Colorado. Purely subjective and debatable, obviously.
1) The rhythm is not in your tapping foot, but in your hips. Therefore, you should have a plain, uncushioned chair for practicing, so you can move while you play. 2) Never look at your guitar when you play. The music goes where you look, so look at your audience, not at the fretboard. 3) Henderson guitars sound nice and very balanced across the fretboard, but my undiscerning ears didn't really hear anything to write home about. 4) Only play when you have something to say musically. Otherwise, don't play, but listen. 5) The Krüger Brothers not only are two of the most talented and skilled musicians around, but also some of the most wonderful and down-to-Earth human beings I've ever met. They started out as poor street musicians decades ago, and unlike many other accomplished musicians, they have somehow managed to preserve that same level of "Spielfreude" from those days until today. (The German word translates to something like "joy of playing") 6) Uwe Krüger gave me the best one-on-one guitar lesson I've had in my entire life of playing guitar. 7) You really need to learn every note on the fretboard to be able to make music freely and speak through your instrument. 8) Tortoise shell picks are vastly overrated. The tone is so dull that I wouldn't trade any of my casein or BlueChip picks even if given the opportunity. 9) Playing guitar is all about staying relaxed at all times. As soon as any part of your body tenses up tense up, you can't play well. 10) Being a good musician is much more about being a good listener than anything else.
__________________
"I've always thought of bluegrass players as the Marines of the music world" – (A rock guitar guy I once jammed with) Martin America 1 Martin 000-15sm Recording King Dirty 30s RPS-9 TS Taylor GS Mini Baton Rouge 12-string guitar Martin L1XR Little Martin 1933 Epiphone Olympic 1971 square neck Dobro Last edited by DesertTwang; 08-01-2019 at 11:20 AM. |
#2
|
|||
|
|||
Quote:
A wonderful and very true list!!! Thank You for this terrific post! BUT...what did Uwe teach you? Are then any words of wisdom from that lesson...or techniques from that lesson that you could at least try to explain to us?!, so we might gain some small portion of the benefit/insight that you were able to gleen from Uwe...PLEASE!!! {:-) #2 #9 and #10 are especially important lessons to learn and live me thinks duff Be A Player...Not A Polisher |
#3
|
|||
|
|||
Your list is fantastic. I may need to print it out.
__________________
2007 Indiana Scout 2018 Indiana Madison Quilt Elite 2018 Takamine GJ72CE 12-String 2019 Takamine GD93 2022 Takamine GJ72CE 6-String 2022 Cort GA-QF CBB 1963 Gibson SG 2016 Kala uke Dean A style mandolin. (Year unknown) Lotus L80 (1984ish) Plus a few lower end I have had for years |
#4
|
|||
|
|||
Quote:
__________________
"I've always thought of bluegrass players as the Marines of the music world" – (A rock guitar guy I once jammed with) Martin America 1 Martin 000-15sm Recording King Dirty 30s RPS-9 TS Taylor GS Mini Baton Rouge 12-string guitar Martin L1XR Little Martin 1933 Epiphone Olympic 1971 square neck Dobro |
#5
|
|||
|
|||
Thanks for posting. I think all of it is good information but the report on TS picks doesn’t match the experience I get with mine. Not the overrated part, that’s certainly up for debate, but my TS pick is anything but dull and far more in-your-face than either my BC’s or Casein picks which actually do sound muffled and dull to me. I love them for recording because they are subdued and quiet.
But a great post and thank you again.
__________________
McCollum Grand Auditorum Euro Spruce/Brazilian PRS Hollowbody Spruce PRS SC58 Giffin Vikta Gibson Custom Shop ES 335 '59 Historic RI ‘91 Les Paul Standard ‘52 AVRI Tele - Richie Baxt build Fender American Deluxe Tele Fender Fat Strat |
#6
|
||||
|
||||
This is in my topmost loved posts ever! Great list!
I am reminded of the movie Mr. Hollands Opus when the young girl couldn't play a musical note on her clarinet. He said something like "Close your eyes and play the sunset". Voila! She played musical sounds. It's so cool when someone points out ways to 'let go' and just play music.
__________________
Martin DC-18E (Ambertone) Martin HDC-28E Martin D-18 (2015) Collings D1 Traditional Emerald X20 Fender CS '63 Telecaster Custom Collings I-35LCV Collings I-30LC Collings 290 www.heartsoulaz.com |
#7
|
|||
|
|||
This is wonderful!!! Thank you for sharing.
__________________
Eastman E8OM Eastman E1OOSS-LTD |
#8
|
|||
|
|||
Great post, Daniel. Thanks for writing it.
Wade Hampton Miller |
#9
|
|||
|
|||
Quote:
Added su8ggestion - NEVER stop learning.
__________________
Silly Moustache, Just an old Limey acoustic guitarist, Dobrolist, mandolier and singer. I'm here to try to help and advise and I offer one to one lessons/meetings/mentoring via Zoom! |
#10
|
|||
|
|||
8a) All Tortoise shell picks are different.
|