December 19, 2012
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Off

I took the day off work today – a vacation day. The day began as usual, with the cats going into their early morning circus act, running and jumping and chasing and pouncing. All this to make sure we get up on time for feline breakfast. After looking after their needs and downing a piece of toast and a coffee I considered my options for the day and settled down on the sofa for a nap. It was a beautiful thing.

This set the tone for the day. I managed to get a haircut and treat myself to lunch at California Sandwiches but mostly I just goofed around for the day. I meant to finish off a couple paintings down in the studio but I didn’t even go in there. I meant to write a chapter or two of the Great Canadian Novel, that has been screaming at me for more attention lately. I didn’t do any of that. Instead I spent a good deal of time learning to play The Can and then stepped away from that and practiced the Mrs. Ronald MacDonald’s Reel on button accordion. Unconfirmed: there may have been another short nap involved.

Meanwhile, the blog template I changed to the other day just wasn’t doing it for me. In some ways it isn’t a big deal. These days I haven’t been getting all that many visitors in any case (I don’t have expectations on that front…I’m sometimes surprised that anyone pops in). On the other hand, some of the visitors I do get have stuck with me for years and have become friends and I like to keep the joint looking good for when they come by.  I tried on a bunch more templates and messed with each one, changing around colours and fonts. Of course if I knew what I was looking for it would be easier to find it. For now I’ve settled on a variation of a template I’ve used before on this blog and it’s going to have to do until I stumble across one that screams, ”this is it, this is the one I’ve been looking for”.

So that was my day off. The day went by in a blink of an eye yet I felt like I was going in slow motion. Maybe that’s how you know you needed a day to simply hang out.

December 19, 2012
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The Can

I’ve started messing about with my home-made oil can banjo, which here-to-for I will simply refer to as The Can. Although I’m convinced it will be easier when I’ve grown my nails out a bit more, I’m starting (and I mean just starting) to be able to strike the string I want to strike. When I hear how clearly some players can enunciate their notes with the clawhammer approach, I realize I have a lot of practice ahead of me. The can has a short-scale neck which really means it likes to be tuned in an open A instead of G, and that’s fine by me. I see there are other tunings some people use in general and on specific tunes, like sawmill tuning (whatever the hell that is) and double C tuning. I’ll just ignore that for now and start with an open A tuning and work on building some skills. I’ve been looking at a bunch of tabs (it seems regular notes aren’t good enough for banjo pickers so they use tabs) and listening to accompanying clips and trying to play bits and pieces. As I familiarize myself with the fretboard and begin to get used to the various pull-offs and hammer-ons and slides that characterize old-time banjo music, I’ll try to focus on a song or two. One of the things I want to do eventually is incorporate slide into the whole business and to that end I have an 11/16th socket that fits nicely on my chunky baby finger.

On YouTube, there must be hundreds of guys out there all hustling lessons and tabs and dvds and whatnot, including all kinds of free stuff. Even with my limited exposure to this material, it’s clear that some is much much better or at least more useful than others. Imagine, people learned to play music for thousands of years without YouTube. In the longer run, its biggest value to me will be the opportunity to see scads of players in action.

I will try to avoid growing a bushy white beard and developing a taste for corn liquor along the way, but anything can happen.

 

 

 

December 18, 2012
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The Model Railroad Club of Toronto

The Model Railroad Club of Toronto has been in the same location since 1946 but soon they’re moving. The club has been in existence for 75 years. There is still an opportunity to see their railroad before they dismantle it for the move.  I’m planning to go during the holiday show December 29 or 30. Here’s a taste from the YouTube machine…video uploaded by capabilitygray.

December 16, 2012
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Oil Can Banjo is complete

Last week I had the oil can banjo together but I wasn’t completely satisfied. I particular, the holes in the tail-piece were off-line, pulling the strings toward the bottom of the fretboard. Yesterday, I visited my local Goodwill and bought a selection of forks, and rebuilt the tailpiece. DSC01815

This is much better. You can see in the photo that the positioning of the neck was a matter of some trial and error (the error demonstrated by the extra holes in the bottom of the can.  Notice there are two screws. I used a piece of 1X2 maple as a dowel stick and created two points of connection top and bottom. Going into the neck, I used two dowels, and through the tailpiece, I used two screws. This should give the instrument added stability. My next challenge is growing a couple fingernails so I have something to strike the strings with! All in good time.

December 15, 2012
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Upheaval

This morning I started messing about with the look of this blog for the umpteenth time. I guess I have a restless imagination. I tried on about a dozen themes and I’m still not satisfied, so please be patient because I’ll likely make more changes until it feels right. I was looking at one very minimal theme that presented posts as coloured bars – very clean. I almost settled there but it was so minimal it didn’t have the share feature. I share many but not all of my posts on FB so I like to have that button on my posts. I’ve got to go deal with other things this morning, but I’ll be back at this later.