Chicago
No school today? Then, let’s go visit Ella Jenkins!
Eventually, something inside me clicked and I thought, “Oh. The kids don’t have school. We should go visit Ella!”
Eventually, something inside me clicked and I thought, “Oh. The kids don’t have school. We should go visit Ella!”
When I think of the ways that I’ve grown, I know I couldn’t a’ made it alone.I owe a lot to the sharing, caring, daring wonderful friends that I’ve known. Pete Seeger and Dave Bernz Up and Down the River with Friends Introduction from the crew At the jam Lots of smiles! The Captain (on the left) and a crew member Picking some tunes before we embarked. Tunes on the sloopl The rudder The deck. Not much space to sit, huh? It was a lot of work to hoist sail. I’m obviously very glad to be done. Kate and Janet The main sail of the Sloop Clearwater! Most, if not all, of these photos were taken by Mary Zerkel. Miss you and your family, Mary! Thank you! Lyric and Chord Charts Bountiful River Down By the Embarrass Sailing Down My Golden River Wonderful Friends In August of 2014 some dears ones, in particular Judy Higgins, and I caravaned from the greater Old Town School of Folk Music region of Chicago to Beacon, NY to sing and sail on the Sloop Clearwater; Pete Seeger’s boat on the Hudson River. Such a trip had been on my mind for a year or two and the swirl of good feelings in our musical community after Pete died on January 27, 2014, blew the idea from my daydreams into reality. “Sailing Up and Down the River with Friends” began. About 20 of us made the trip for this very memorable voyage. The boat was “a real, functioning sloop,” as the crew let us know during introductions. It wasn’t uncomfortable, but it definitely wasn’t designed for tourists. There was ropes, pulleys and other boat hardware covering every inch of the deck. Where were we going to sit for our jam?!?!? The crew lead us in the sea shanty, Paddy Works on the Railway, as we pulled together to hoist the main sail. I’m not sure why they chose a railroad song, rather than a sea faring song, but it was a perfect fit. They instructed about 10 of to take hold of the halyard and pull to the beat of the song. The crew counted off an incredibly slow tempo, which made sense immediately when it became apparent how difficult it was going to be to hoist the sail. Slow and steady, with my arms burning, the sail was up and we continued on our way. I was already exhausted! And, I never heard a sea shanty the same way again. It was a quite, beautiful afternoon on the river with mostly sunny skies. As we embarked there was this one small dramatic dark cloud that sauntered right over us. It loosened a handful of raindrops and for one moment I was nervous that our jam was going to be rained out. But, the cloud quickly carried on, and we didn’t feel another drop. Later I thought, “Ah, that cloud was Pete saying hi in his own particular way.” As the excursion continued, we had a fantastic jam. It was clear from the crew introductions that they had expected us to follow their lead during the music portion of the ride. But, without much notice, instruments were unpacked and the sound of our music filled the air. We all took turns leading songs, and the crew eased back to enjoy the jam with us. We probably played for an hour or so. Then, instruments were packed, ropes were wound back up and we headed back to shore. Ten years. Wow, a lot has changed in ten years and that on the Hudson River feels both very far away in my memory, and also much nearer. The time from the Sloop trip to my last teaching day at the Old Town School was five years. Then, my last class at OTS to today was also five years. Hard to imagine that those two stretches of time were equal. Life is so different. I wonder if I’ll ever lead another event like that. Not that I want to! I’m very happy these days with my slower pace. It’s been a tearful experience to look through these photos, many of which I haven’t seen since they were originally taken. In that time, Zelda, who was a member of the Young Stracke All-Stars, completed her undergrad degree. I live with Grace and Maria now, which has been the most delightful surprise of the past 10 years. I was able to have lunch with Anthony and Dana, who I hadn’t seen at least five years, earlier this summer. Many of the others I see on an occasional virtual jam or concert. We all played a lot of music together during my Chicago years and I feel so lucky that, even if we don’t get to play together very much anymore, I still consider them close friends. I know that, if the opportunity presented itself, we could jump right into a version of Pete’s Sailing Up and Down the River, just like old times.
Musical Dreaming – it’s a practice that I took part in, but had never really considered until some great chats with my old friend John Donahue. I think about John and his musical dreaming a lot when I meet with frustrated students. https://vimeo.com/949795666?share=copy Dreaming with Your Guitar .pdf They wanted to play more. They’re just too busy. They’re frustrated with the pace of their progress. They’re overwhelmed and don’t know what to practice. I get it. I feel that way about music all the time. Thankfully, I’ve developed some strategies to get me out of such a funk and this is one of them. Next time you don’t know what to play, or are bored or frustrated with the same old songs, try some dreaming. The video is the best description I can make of this process. I’ve also made a .pdf that has some drawings that can be useful, but there’s very little instruction on it. I hope you find this useful.
“This is a great solo to start on—it’s simple, clear, and articulate; it will teach you how to hear clear phrases and how to hear bends (which make up a significant part of the solo). It will teach you a couple of fairly sophisticated ideas while being very simple and satisfying to play.” John Mead We’ve been working on Dead Flowers in some recent Guitar Crew meetups and recently a student asked “Do you know how to play the guitar solo?” I thought, I don’t but I know EXACTLY who does. Check out this killer lesson from one of my very closest friends, and a truly gifted educator, John Mead. Sure missing hanging out with this guy! Download the pdf. You’ll notice that John makes the point that, “THERE IS NO SUCH THING as a ‘pentatonic major scale.’ Now, if you know me and my teaching, you’ll know that soloing with the major pentatonic scale is a core skill of my introductory improvising lessons. Ha!But, I totally get where he’s coming from and there’s a lot of truth to it. If you’ve had those introductory lessons from my, I highly recommend digging into this lesson to put some of those concepts into practice and to take you’re playing to a new space. John is an incredible teacher, player and music philospher. Give him a shout if you’re looking to turn up your guitar playing. John’s there to help you make that happen. Contact John
The song began with a gentle and cyclical guitar part. A jangly loop.
It was standing room only at Books on the Bosque yesterday for the launch of Bosque Press‘ ABQ inPrint #7. Grace was one of about 15 writers who read part or all of their piece which is published in this years’ edition. She wrote about meeting famed Chicago muralist Hector Duerte. The piece which she speaks about, Corazón Remendado (Stitched Heart), can be seen here. Thank you to everyone at Bosque Press and Books on the Bosque for creating such a welcoming, inspiring event.
I think probably everybody has some sort of healing dream. And so as you journey through the different songs, maybe little, little parts of the dream are falling into place or coming true.
. . . standing backstage at our album release show and hearing the sold-out crowd stomping and chanting,
“It’s a Gril! It’s a Girl! It’s a Girl!”
I’ve been looking into some of my limiting beliefs about both my ability to create art and about how we all create art in general. This memory – a mix of good and bad feelings – is prominent enough that I think about it often. In the 3rd grade I read a book called Dominic, by William Steig. I don’t remember much about it, except that I really, really liked it. Turns out, it’s a book about a dog who kind of hits the road. That the book resonated so much is interesting in and of itself, considering how my life has taken shape. We made diorama for the book we were reading. It was during this process that my dad showed me how I could draw a graph over a drawing and then draw the same graph on another piece of paper and use it to copy the original. I drew a bunch of the books’ characters that way and handed in my diorama. I was thrilled that I could replicate the characters in a way that made the diorama look like a pop-up version of the book. I remember very strongly that the teacher asked, “Did you draw those yourself?” I remember that she seemed skeptical when I answered yes; like she thought I was lying. I don’t want this to be the story of an evil adult squashing my creativity. I liked this teacher, and she liked me. Looking back, I assume she was surprised at what I had made because I had probably never made something that looked like that before. Why does this memory, of all the moments, stick so strongly in my mind? It’s strong enough that I’ve thought about it many, many times over 35 years. This memory has affected choices I’ve made a beliefs I have about what tools I am “allowed” to use when I create art and how much I can say that a piece of work is mine. That, “Yes, I made this.” How will this story change now that I’ve brought it out into the light?
I’ve been playing guitar for a long time. And, I teach a lot of guitar players that haven’t played for very long (comparatively). Learning to play is a lot of work, and for the most part it’s very solitary work, so “the public” only sees the “finished” product. As a teacher, I can tell that it is difficult for students (especially adult students) to believe that I have had, and continue to have, all those same challenges that they have. I’m not special, I’ve just been doing it for a long time. The work isn’t any easier, I just know how to do the work. Here is a short excerpt of a tune I recently wrote. It has a part right in the middle where my fingers need to make a move that they are not familiar with. Now it’s time for me to take my own advice! Slow down. Play with intention. Don’t let your habit take over because your habit doesn’t know it. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve played this very short section over the past couple days. Finally, it’s starting to come together. It’s taken a lot of work. The work is the thing to do.
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