The Chris Talley Trio Plays at Bellerive Park

Just wanted to let you know that The Chris Talley Trio will be playing in Carondelet (St. Louis city) tomorrow evening at Bellerive Park from 7:00-9:00 p.m. This is right on the river and a great place to be! Click here to get directions. It's a free concert. Hope to see you there!

Physicist Alan Schoen Visits!

Wow! Did I ever have a treat this week! On Friday, I had a wonderful visitor to The Bluegrass Shack. I was working in the shop on instrument repair when Mike came in to introduce Alan to me. Of course, I had no idea who Alan was.

Alan is a very unassuming gentleman. He appears to be very much your average visitor...for maybe a full minute or two. Once we began to talk, it became obvious I was not talking to any "average" person. I gave up my instrument repair for the afternoon and spent the next 3-4 hours talking and playing music with Alan. During the course of this time, I learned that Alan is a published physicist who has lived an extraordinary life. He is 84 years old, but throughout our conversation, didn't seem a day older than me, though he is twice my age.

Alan studied languages when he served for our country, currently speaks more than 10 languages fluently, and is bilingual in English and Japanese. His published findings occurred while working for NASA. Although I don't entirely understand it all, he solved a mathematical equation that produced a geometric shape that he named a "gyroid." Even after reading the definition of gyroid, I am no closer to understanding it!! The shape is pretty interesting though. There is even a woman who produces sculptures of it. Here are a couple of links to look at. If nothing else, you should visit Alan's website (only if you have high speed internet) to view the fascinating geometric shapes. Alan is a mathmetician, so the equations of how to create these shapes (which is listed for each one) is lost on me...

Wikipedia Article

Sculptor Bathsheba's Website

MathWorld Website

Alan's Personal Website

Alan was trained as a classical violinist from an early age, but by his own admission, he didn't take it seriously at the time. It seems to me he was a born musician. He said he had played only a handful of times in the past 15 years or so, due to a wrist and shoulder injury which is now better. He actually came to our shop looking for a violin. (Yes, we do have a few of these!) He plays all classical music, and though he was out of practice, it was OBVIOUS he is a very talented guy! He played scales, arpeggios and movements of several different classical pieces for me, in between times telling me stories.

After a while, I suggested we play through some duets together. I pulled out a couple of my favorite books, and we played through quite a few pieces together. I don't get to do this too often, so I was having a blast! Alan was so taken with one of my favorite pieces that he bought the book. It is a book of Scottish Duets called "Scottish Airs for Pairs." I have a feeling the next time Alan comes we'll be playing some more!

Alan allowed me to take a video of him playing, so hopefully he doesn't mind that I'm posting it here. It's not an entire song, but I think you'll get the gist (of his expertise).

Independence, MO Jam & Jam Instruction

I received an e-mail this morning from Matt & Allen (the "dad") Wyatt of Wyatt Violin Shop in Independence, MO. They are having a jam session on July 26, and also several sessions on learning how to jam earlier in the day. I am posting his e-mail for you so those who would like to attend will have the information. Matt is a fantastic person & player, and I would highly recommend this session if you are able to attend. Here is the information:

We are having a jam session at the Wyatt Violin Shop on Sunday, July 26, 2009, between 2:00 and 6:00 p.m.

Bring an instrument and join in or just come to listen. Free classes will be held throughout the day for beginners to learn the art of “jamming.” Advanced jammers will break into groups inside and outside the shop. We look forward to seeing you.

We are located at 2418 East R.D. Mize Road, Independence, MO 64057.

If you have questions, feel free to call us at 816-252-5656.

Thanks,

Matt and Allen Wyatt

Courtney Wins the Fiddle!

The lucky winner of the fiddle in Sunday's fiddle contest was Courtney. She is just 9 years old, but already plays guitar and sings quite well. Now she gets to try her hand at another instrument! She had her first fiddle lesson this week. You'll have to watch for her in upcoming fiddle contests!

Response to my Big Money Making Plan

Just in case you haven't read my post about making lots of money on E-bay, you probably need to do that first...because this post is about a response I got in my e-mail to that post.

Cliff was reading through the blog and agreed with me! (I know, I know - it's pretty amazing.) Anyway, he sent this response:

Everybody needs an authentic Fuzzball. What more could you want for or need??? You can name it - "Fuzzy" or "Dusty" or "Mozart's Musical Menagerie" while it sits encased in a glass paperweight - a part of history. The perfect gift designed to intrigue friends and family alike as they imagine the noteworthy musical history brought forth in the dust of time.

Anyway, there is a buyer for everything, so go for it.

New Athens Homecoming Parade

This marks our 4th year of participation in the New Athens Homecoming Parade. Many thanks to Terry & Terry for providing the trailer, decorations, vehicle and great ideas! We actually had live rabbits on the float this year! We were probably the only float that had a 16-year driver (Zoey, you did great). Lots of folks helped us out by joining us on the float and throwing off candy, harmonicas, party squawkers, kazoos, cooly cups and gum. Bill & Zane also helped out with the PA. The Chris Talley Trio led the music from the truck that was pulling our float. Earl followed us in our newest Bluegrass Shack addition - a 1966 Ford pickup truck (can you find it in the pictures???). It is so inspiring to ride through the parade route and listen to people scream their support for the store and our music. Thank you so much! I owe a big thank-you to Cyndi for taking the pictures of the float for us this year. Here they are:

Bluegrass Shack 6th Annual Fiddle Contest

We had another great fiddle contest this year! This marks our 6th Annual July Contest, and it has grown so large that we had to move it to L&B's this year. We had a total of 40 contestants!

There are so many people that I have to thank. First of all, a big thank you to Marilyn, Verlan, Iggy, Chelsea and Janice for helping out at the doors. Our judges this year were Bill Barttelbort and Janice Nirscher, and Carla helped out the judges by adding all the scores and keeping track of everything. Bill took care of the sound system for me, and Iggy and Zane also helped out. LOTS of people helped us clean up afterwards -- WOW and THANKS! Also thanks to L&B's for hosting our event, and to the girls who work there who took care of all of us, especially Steph.

There were a few surprises, including having Geoff Seitz (of Seitz Violin Shop) come and enter the contest. Corrina is home for the summer and it was especially good to see her again. The Anderson girls and their mom (from Poplar Bluff, MO) also showed up. I met them at Grassy this year and it was a nice surprise to see them.

We had a quite a few new contest players this time around, with the biggest surprise being Flynn. Flynn has played less than a month on fiddle, and he won 4th place in his division! I really enjoyed watching Makayla and Allison. Kudos to Allison for coming out to play guitar. She did a great job, and it's really nice to see our youth get involved even when they don't play fiddle. We NEED good rhythm guitar players.

I cannot express to you how proud I am of each and every one of our contestants. So many of these folks I have known, even though they aren't all my students, and I am so impressed with their improvement and hard work. It makes everything worthwhile. Out of our 40 contestants, 30 of them were youth fiddlers. Our music is in good hands.

Here are the results and also some pictures.

9 Years & Under
1st - Millie Eisenhauer
2nd - Sophia Hasler
3rd - Brenden Wallace
4th - Nolan Neumeyer
5th - Nathanael Worthington
Most Entertaining - Libbi McClure
Youngest Fiddler - Josey McClure

10-12 Years Old
1st - Colton Dever
2nd - Paige Johnson
3rd - Rosemary Hall
4th - Caroline Stewart (Most Entertaining)
5th - Emma Neumeyer

13-15 Years Old
1st - Makayla Smith (Most Entertaining)
2nd - Dana Anderson
3rd - Emily Worthington
4th - Alex Skurat
5th -Aubrie Spinka

16-18 Years Old
1st - Rachel Neel
2nd - Charlie Hall
3rd - Joy Winkeler (Most Entertaining)
4th - Flynn Fauke
5th - Alyssa Lanham

Open
1st - Geoff Seitz (Most Entertaining)
2nd - Corrina Logston
3rd - John Bell
4th - Chelsea Perkinson
5th - Sylvia Mills

Senior
1st - Fred Pringle (Most Entertaining)
2nd - Bill Weiss

My Big Money Making E-Bay Idea...

I don't know how many of you out there ever look at E-Bay, but just watching Jay Leno when he was hosting the Tonight Show has created a burning idea in my mind. Did you ever see his spot "For Sale on E-bay"? He would pick out these ridiculous items that were for sale on E-Bay and then the audience would guess as to whether the item actually sold or not.

As I work on instruments, I come up with all these GREAT ideas. Here is my big money-making plan. The fiddles that are 100 years old or more have, for the lack of a better work, "fuzzballs" inside of them. This is a collection of wood chips, dust, dirt, and who knows what that forms a nice little ball inside the fiddle. It is usually too large to come out of the f-hole without some help. I generally use a soundpost setter to get it out. If I sold 100 of these nice little fuzzballs in a year, I would really have something, wouldn't I??? I think my E-bay ad would look something like this:

100 Year Old Violin Fuzzball For Sale!!!

Guaranteed Authentic!

Up for auction is this genuine 100+ year old fuzzball that came from the inside of a genuine 1650 Stradivarius (see picture of violin and label). Just think of the history that this fuzzball carries with it -- and it can now be yours! We will include with your purchase a picture of the violin and violin label that the fuzzball came from.

Your genuine 100+ year old fuzzball will be protected carefully during shipment. It will be encased in a small plastic pinbox that has been wrapped with bubblewrap and sent insured mail. We want to protect your investment!

The starting price is only $10.00. Shipping/insurance/handling will be $100; more if you live outside of the continental US. Bid now before it's gone forever!!

Neat Trick for Fiddle Players Wanting to Learn Mandolin

For all those fiddle players out there who have been wanting to learn mandolin, here's a really nifty trick to get you started! Not everyone will need this, but it's easy to setup and will be very helpful to at least a few of you out there!

Gray Eagle Part A on Fiddle

I just uploaded this to YouTube for Millie, but maybe someone else out there would like to start learning this difficult tune. It's not for the faint of heart, but it's sure a great song! Good luck!

Parade and Fiddle Contest Reminder

Hi everyone! This is just a reminder of this Sunday's events. We will be having our fiddle contest starting at noon at L&B's Eastend. You can get directions and more information from my earlier post:

Fiddle Contest

At 4:30,the parade lineup will begin. For those of you who would like to join us on The Bluegrass Shack float, arrive at the Shack by 4:00 p.m. so that you will be able to find a place to park. Bring your instrument, or you can use one of our inflatable banjos if you don't play an instrument but you want to join us.

We hope you'll join us for both events!

String Changing Rant

I would bet that all of us have felt this way before, and some still do (including myself). Stacey, an every-once-in-a-while banjo student from Poplar Bluff, sent me this e-mail about why he hates changing strings. I got a kick out of it because it rang so true. I hope you enjoy it!

Hello Chris,

It is time once again to change the strings on my banjo. I love my banjo but must admit that I put off changing strings as long as possible because I hate doing it. I have several things that make me hate changing strings:

1. I almost always break one string for some strange reason and thus must open a second box of strings to finish the job.

2. I usually poke the tip of my fingers at least 3 or 4 times with the end of the string and sometimes draw a drop of blood. For some strange reason it hurts for a long time when you stick the end of a metal banjo string through the end of your finger.

3. I have a terrible time making the looped end of the string stay on the nub on the tail piece. It always wants to slip off as I try to attach the other end to the tuning pegs. I bend the looped end some and that helps but it is still an annoying process. (ed. note: this can cause the string to break)

4. I have a hard time getting the metal strings through the little hole in the tuning peg. The strings are thin and the hole is silver and I cannot see it well. It's like trying to thread a small needle with thin thread. This is usually where I poke the end of the string through the end of my tender finger tip.

5. It takes me quite a while to get the banjo tuned again. I tune each string as I go, but when I play it for the first time after the job is done it usually sounds quite awful. I then have to spend some time getting it to sound just right again.

I hope you all enjoyed this! I think Stacey covered everything I hate about changing strings. I would be interested if anyone has anything to add to this. Surely someone out there does!!!!

Band Instrument Season - Your Help is Important

Just a reminder that band season is right around the corner, and we can use your help to spread the word about our used band instruments! Word of mouth is the best reference, and we appreciate all the help you can give us.

Many band directors like for their students to purchase or rent only brand new instruments. I am not sure why, as I used to be a band director and I was more interested in getting ANY working horn in the hands of an interested student.

There are a number of reasons why we don't rent, but the two foremost are: 1) it's not good for us (very large initial investment); and 2) it's not good for the person renting (you end up paying WAY more for a rental).

With the economy in such poor shape, it only makes sense to purchase good, used band instruments for students. We have brand name flutes, trumpets, clarinets, trombones, saxophones, and more in stock right now for great prices! We guarantee all we sell, and we repair what we sell. Many times you can purchase the instrument for the same price as one year (or less) of rental -- and the horn is yours to keep! Why pay for rental? If the student drops out of band, you are left with NOTHING. If you own the instrument, you can at least resell it for SOMETHING and recoup a little bit of the money you spent.

We hope that you'll remember us for band instruments this year!

Smithville Jamboree

A couple of weekends ago, Earl and I decided on a whim (and I do mean a whim) to travel to Smithville, TN for the Anuual Smithville Jamboree. I had been working with Chelsea all week on a few fiddle tunes because she was planning on going. None of us had ever been there, but it just seemed like a fun thing to do for the 4th of July weekend. Friday morning, July 3, we decided we would go. So did Sylvia and Dave. (Sylvia is one of Chelsea's fiddle students.) We all drove down separately and actually stayed in three separate towns all near Smithville. We were texting each other and planning the next day on the fly.

One of the funnest things that we planned was to enter the band competition. Since Sylvia and Dave attend the beginner's jam every other weekend, I thought it was only fitting that we put this practice to good use. Earl and Dave played guitar, Sylvia and Chelsea played fiddle, and I played the banjo. No bass. We ended up with four part harmony and we did the song "Hot Corn Cold Corn." I showed Sylvia a quick 2-note harmony part to Chelsea's fiddle break, and we were ready to go! We practiced for all of 20 minutes and prepared for our BIG stage debut. We named ourselves the "First Time Out," because it was. I wish I had a video of this, but since we were all on stage, there was no one left to do this. I understand PBS was there, so maybe we were captured on LIVE television. Not so sure if this is a good idea or not! We did great, though we didn't place. More than anything, it was a whole lot of fun.

Chelsea and I entered the fiddle competitions. They had rather strange divisions and also strange contest rules. You only get to play ONE song unless you make it to the finals. I think it would be very difficult to pick winners without a waltz and a hoedown at least! The Junior Division of Old Time Fiddle was ages 13-39 years old. The Senior Division starts at 40 years old (for yours truly). Then there was an Open Bluegrass Division for all kinds of fancy fiddling, jazz, Texas swing, and pretty much anything else you can think of. This was a brand new division and was the first year for it. I believe it transpired from a multitude of fiddle players who couldn't understand the placement in the Old Time Style Division. Now the "fancy" fiddlers have their own division.

Chelsea chose to play "Lost Indian" for the Bluegrass Division and "Whiskey Before Breakfast" for the Junior Old Time Division. She played very well in both divisions and I think put New Athens on the map for us (at least in Smithville!). Check below for some video clips.

I entered both the banjo and the fiddle contests. For banjo, I probably played the worst I have ever played in a contest. It wasn't that I made a lot of mistakes, because I didn't. I just didn't know I was going to enter a contest so I didn't prepare. I am used to playing things slow all day, every day, for my students. I don't play fast enough unless I prepare several weeks in advance. For fiddle, it turns out I was the youngest in the Senior Division. It kind of made me feel bad competing against folks that were 20 and 30+ years older than myself -- until I heard them play. Wow! They were all VERY good! I was the only female in that division. In the bluegrass division, I played my grandma's favorite tune "Draggin' the Bow." Although I didn't place in the Bluegrass Division (my song wasn't hard enough), I was the only one to get audience applause in the middle of my performance. I placed third in the Old Time Division, though I didn't play in the finals because of a LONG rain delay. We had been there since 7:30 a.m., and it started raining around 8:30 p.m. The contest was delayed until 11:45 p.m. At that point, there were 5 square dancing teams to go and 10 more individual instrument finals to go.

Thanks to Earl, Chelsea and Danny for playing guitar for me in the various contests and divisions! Here are some videos from the contest of Chelsea and me.

How Often Should Strings Be Changed???

This is a question that often remains unasked until a string gets broken. String changing can be time consuming, confusing, and often just plain forgotten. To keep your instrument sounding its best, recommended string changing is as follows:

Banjo - Every 2-3 Months
Guitar - Every 2-3 Months
Mandolin - Every 2-3 Months
Dobro - Every 2-3 Months
Dulcimer - Every 2-3 Months
Fiddle - Every 6-12 Months
Upright Bass - Every 1-3 Years

Does this mean that you can't wait longer, or that you might need to change sooner? Certainly! If you are a heavy sweater or if you have high acid content in your sweat, you may need to change much more frequently. If this is the case, I would recommend an anti-rust string, like Elixer Anti-Rust. (Regular coated strings will not protect against rust -- you need anti-rust protection.) If you don't play much at all, then you might be able to get another month or two out of your strings. Even if you don't play a lot, the strings will be affected by the weather and the humidity. To maintain an optimum sound, you need to change those strings!!

Will it hurt your instrument if you don't change strings? No! I've seen people bring instruments in that have had the same set of strings on for years. They usually brag about how long the strings have lasted and that the instrument "still sounds great"! Well, I think that's a matter of beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. Believe me, the instrument would sound even greater with a new set of strings!

Does it matter what kind or brand of strings you use? Yes it does! I'm not into recommending certain brands of strings per se without talking to a person first, but different brands and different metal contents of the strings really DO make a difference. Some strings last longer than others, some sound bassier, some brighter, some are easier on the fingers, etc. In general, medium gauge strings are louder than light or extra light. Light gauge are easier on the fingers. Anything heavier than medium might cause damage to the neck of an instrument, so you need to check with your instrument manufacturer for recommendations if you are unsure. Phospher bronze tends to be slightly brighter than regular bronze. Coated strings last longer, but cost more (not everyone needs these, either).

For upright bass, steel strings are the hardest on your fingers. They are not greatly affected by the weather, they are economical, and they are also the loudest. Gut strings are quite costly and are the most affected by weather, but they give a nice, warm sound. They are not very popular with bluegrass/folk for both of the aforementioned reasons. Nylon strings are easier on the fingers, but tend to be "rolly" and are not as loud. They tend to be popular because they are easy on the fingers and economical. Tape-wound strings (like LaBella 7710 Jazz Strings) are great for bluegrass and folk because they are made for finger picking (instead of bowing), and they are somewhere in between steel and nylon. MUCH easier on the fingers, great full tone quality, and pretty much as loud as steel. They do not hold up quite as well as steel or nylon and they are pricey, but you'll get a nice feel and a good sound that won't cause as many blisters as steel. They are also less affected to humidity.

Closed for the 4th of July

Just wanted to let everyone know that The Bluegrass Shack will be closed on Saturday, July 4, 2009. Happy 4th of July! Hope you have an awesome weekend!