Break's over!

Actually, it's been over for a while. I took a couple of days off to let my hand rest, and then promptly injured my middle finger in the same way from which my index finger had just recovered. This time I decided to play through it (though more gently than usual) and it got better soon enough. Last weekend's travel played havoc with the banjo, but now that we're all home, I am back in my groove.

Actually, we celebrated the family unit all being home by grooving to Foggy Mountain Breakdown. Is it possible to hear that song and not be instantly filled with glee and inspired to dance around the room with one's spouse and child? I don't believe so.

But with a little time off, and then with a healthy dose of listening to the CD that came with my method book, I am quite unsatisfied with my progress. Yeah, "Good Night Ladies," even the crazy new version with slides and a forward roll, sounds like what it is, but everything else . . . I couldn't recognize what I have been playing as the "Old Joe Clark" on the CD. Not even close. Of course, part of that is because I was reading the notation wrong (it's been probably 20ish years since I last had to think seriously about notation), but that is only a very small part of the problem. Even playing it through properly, it sounds like something from space. Which would be lovely if I was Struck by Moog. My plan for that song, is to listen to it much, much more, mark the notes I really need to play the hell out of, and then re-learn it.

But in the meantime, I also find myself frustrated with yet another plateau. I just have to keep plugging away, but it's hard to be motivated to play as long as I need to move along. My tactic is to keep it simple. I'm focusing on the two songs I know that feature slides ("Good Night Ladies" of course and the somewhat more complicated version of "Cripple Creek" that's got slides and pinches *and* sounds very pretty, even when I play it), and then filling in with all the baby songs. I return to "Hard, Ain't It Hard" sometimes, but that's another one like "Old Joe Clark" that needs way more thought on my part before it will sound right.

Another thing that inspires mixed feelings in me is that I found the tab for Tom Waits's "Gun Street Girl." The trick is that it's arranged for clawhammer (which is not the style I'm learning) and fretless banjo. I have no doubt that I'll dig frailing when the time comes, but I don't think I've got another banjo in my future for quite a while. From what I understand, the fretless arrangement lent a more strange, somewhat dissonant edge to the song, which I suppose means that playing it on a fretless banjo will make it sound more on-key and crisp? I have no idea. I still plan on trying it out soon, just to play around, but it's another song that won't sound right for a while. At least I know that tune by heart. That's a big plus.

Still, I love my banjo. I love playing, I love learning, I love building my callouses back up. It's all good. So I sound like I started playing two months ago. No big deal, as long as next month I sound like I started playing three months ago.