Contra Dance

On Sunday I attended an event for my church in which we had an old time band and a contra dance caller. There was not a banjo in the band but a mandolin which can have a similar sound. There was a fiddle and Mr M has told me that the fiddle leads the group so I was listening to that and it was really interesting to hear how the other players followed.

All of the dancing made me think about the origins of the banjo (from Africa) and the origins of contra dancing (England) and how now they are closely associated. I would like to know more about how the dancing goes along with old time music and where exactly the intersection is.

Wise last week

Last week in WISE class we went over some presentational material. After class I talked to Ms G about my presentation and what should be included, and how I'm feeling a little anxious that I don't have enough done for a presentation. I think a lot of my presentation will be about how I've learned how to better estimate what is a reasonable task in a finite amount of time and what is not. More to come on my presentation thoughts.

Also, I will be evaluating Luke's presentation today and Shelby's later in June.

Last night we all attended Luke's sample presentation on playing the harmonica. I was a student evaluator and got a first hand look at what is expected of the presenters and how the feedback comes to be.

Some overall reactions: "Wow, that was great." "Wow, I hope my presentation is that interactive or else I'm going to put everyone else to sleep." "Wow, I don't know nearly as much banjo as he does harmonica." "Wow, that was really nice" "Wow, all of my materials are due Tuesday. I present in a week and a half."

So.. yeah wow. Needless to say I had nightmares about WISE all night and how the end of it has crept up on me way too quickly. But alas, is this not just another example of real life situations? I talked to Ms. Maddren in gym and she suggested I go through my blog and read all of my posts, and come up with three themes that I want to focus on. I am capable of talking about each theme in my project for about ten minutes, so that adds up to 30 minutes. Piece of cake! Except for all of that organizing and including interactive sections and including all of the things that must be in my presentation. Then I started thinking about how I had two different projects and wondering how I am going to present them. I decided first I'm going to make a list of every step along the way and what fueled it or made me make a certain decision. That way I can go through and see the growth in my project even though I may not have the final product that I originally had wanted.

Okay, maybe I will survive it. First off is these written materials, then more outlines of my presentation. At this point I have to think back on why I originally chose wise: I get to do something I love! So even though it's a lot of work it will be worth it because I get to share something that I am passionate about and that's one of the most rewarding things you can get out of a class in my opinion.

New research

Mr McMahon sent me an article about the history of old time music and specifics relative to the Ithaca area. It's interesting to compare the history of the banjo itself to the history of old time music because they are so closely associated but actually have many differences. Old time music comes from English and Scottish roots while the banjo derives from Africa.

Another interesting thing I am reading about here is a bit of the folk revival in early 1960s. This article has a lot in it and I haven't gotten through all of it yet (so maybe it answers my question) but I want to know more about the folk revival and why it happened. Why was old time music "primitive" and then all the sudden popular? A topic for tomorrow's mentor meeting I have no doubt.

http://www.fieldrecorder.com/docs/notes/ithaca_fenchel.htm

(Link to the article)

Mentor meeting

Mr McMahon and I had a great mentor meeting last week where we worked on a tune I'm learning and went over some goals. The past couple weeks I haven't been totally doing everything I should be and it has occurred to me that WAIT I actually have to do a presentation! Have no fear, there is still time. Here's my list of goals for the week:

-learn the first line of the new tune (much harder than it seems)
-make up some new exercises and work on hammer on technique
-speed up tune to actual tempo
-get sources for history of banjo (compile what I already have)
-make a history blurb to use in my presentation
-research Doc Boggs and Scruggs

Here's the next week!

Morning practice

I was exhausted last night so I skipped practicing and woke up early this morning to practice instead. And yes, my slumbering family was ecstatic. Lately I've been having a lot of wrist pains and I thought it was from shotput but it was strange because I've been shot putting for 6 years and never had this before. But this morning when I started playing I realized that claw hammer style uses so much wrist! Now I'm thinking maybe that in combinations with shotput is what is causing it. It's definitely not a problem that will keep me from playing but it's just an example of unforeseen obstacles. I actually saw a similar entry in the Gleaning assignment that I read about duct tape art. The girl got some sort of carpel tunnel from too much duct tape shading because it was such a repeated motion. She found a way around it, but it's just another example of how wise is a series of little obstacles (and of course some big ones) that you have to figure out. If it weren't, it probably wouldn't be worth doing.

Presentation Scheduled!

Tuesday, June 4th, 5:00pm I will present my wise project! Very exciting and a little nerve wracking. Granted I don't know yet the format of the presentation or specifically what should be included, but I worry I won't have enough material to present. With switching projects I had a bit of transition time which slowed me down and I'm just now feeling like I have a bit more of a routine. I talked to Ms G about this and she said that basically I should just dive into my project in the next few weeks. I wish I could magically play like Mr M but I also do enjoy the work that leads to little successes. I just worry that what I see as success will be insignificant for the people who are reviewing my project. The bottom line is, though, that I should make the most progress I possibly can in the time I have left!