[Dixielandjazz] RE. Selective Hearing Loss - "SUGAR" WILLIE on BANJO PLAY...

[Gluetje1 at aol.com]

Hi Nancy,
I was way too interested in Sugar Willie's comments to be  offended.  
Thanks, especially since I don't receive the STJS  newsletter.  Whacker, huh?  
Sort of surprising to read that about  Turk.  Maybe he lost a few rounds in 
his preference battles since he  had some fine banjoists work with him, and I 
have some CDs from  records of his with solo banjo lines or choruses I quite 
 appreciate.  But at the same time I recall some appearances here in St.  
Louis on the old Goldenrod Showboat when I wondered why Turk's banjo player  
never soloed (at least while I was watching).  Maybe now I know.
 
"Whacking" reminds me of the time I did get offended until I took the time  
to follow-up with questions.  I had just played a short Dixie set with a  
community hobby band, when the baritone player came up to me and said there 
was  something wrong with his banjo because his "rang" and mine didn't "ring" 
 like that.  That was my point of offense since I had invested  
significantly to own a "ringing" banjo.  But as I asked him to  clarify, he was in fact 
talking about the fact that I was lifting  (releasing) immediately after 
strummed chords to provide a short  driving beat.  The gent had no idea this 
was something the player could  control. 
 
That brings me to my next point. Yes, there are self-taught horn players,  
but they are few and far between compared to banjo players.  So with an  
instrument (the banjo) that is actually very complex to purchase wisely and  
set-up well, not to mention actually learning to play, there is very limited  
instruction available.  Certainly, never through the schools.  Who  will I 
offend if I claim the banjo is not just a tambourine?  It  is indeed 
complicated to build, then after building get all parts  that affect tone set-up 
well.  Strings, frets, head, bridge, tailpiece,  resonator, etc. all affect 
timbre differently on each banjo.  So part  of the problem is that a lot of bad 
sounding banjos are getting played.   Add to that all the hard-headed 
(brains not instruments) that figure they can  learn anything they need to know 
all by themselves.
 
It's interesting to listen to some of the kids in my banjo band  who play 
several instruments talk about the challenges of trying to learn banjo  
compared to guitar, piano, sax, etc.  Actually I suspect ALL instruments  are 
very hard to learn well --but your odds of getting some good learning  
experiences are much higher with any of the other OKUM instruments than they are  
with banjo. 
 
Ginny
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
In a message dated 9/18/2009 4:00:14 P.M. Central Daylight Time,  
nancyink at surewest.net writes:

Please,  don't take offense, banjo players. I myself wanted to play banjo 
as a kid, so  I'm not sharing this in a bad way. I just think it's classic 
"Sugar"  Willie.

Love and  hugs,
Nancy