Oda kell szuletni, nem a mi hibank hogy nem :-))

Ezt Chris Quinn irta, egy igen jonevu kanadai banjos - szep iras, iderakom..




If you live far away from the land of bluegrass or banjos, it can be very difficult to sincerely learn the art that speaks to your heart. If you live in a place where nobody plays bluegrass, or plays banjo, or even cares about the music that you love, it can be very discouraging. I know this very well.

I know this because I grew up in rural Quebec in the 1970’s; before the internet, before DVD’s, before so much was available to help aspiring players. Although he won’t remember, Sonny Osborne; upon hearing my sad, sad story; told me, “You actually know what it was like in the late 40’s when this music was new and folks had no one to learn from.” That got me to thinking, “So, how did I do this? How did I learn? Why can I somehow play without lessons, without tablature and without teachers?” Nobody in my family plays a musical instrument. Why am I a musician today?

One thing that I did was try to take in anything I could that I thought would help me to get closer to the music; that coupled with the open-mindedness of an 11 year old boy helped me to create a climate for banjo, bluegrass and music. I read books about places in Kentucky, North Carolina and Virginia. I sought out books by Mark Twain, Will Rogers, and anyone else who might scribble the word banjo in a paragraph. I looked at photographs. I watched movies and television. I listened to how the people from the south talked. I noticed their clothes. I learned about the period in history in which bluegrass evolved. I spent my allowance on the few bluegrass or folk records I could find in Montreal record stores; and that wasn’t much.

My father, with little idea about how to help me, did everything he could to get me around music and musicians. He would awkwardly introduce himself to anybody who played a stringed instrument and then try to get them to talk to me.

At age 12, when I got my first banjo, I put in countless hours of practice; a lot of it without direction and very little idea of anything musical. I didn’t understand the 5th string. I didn’t know anything about capos or keys. I wore picks on my thumb, index, middle and ring finger; after all it said on the back of an Osborne Brothers record that Sonny played “three Finger banjo”. To top it off, the one book I had was Pete Seeger’s instruction book; which I found confusing if not entirely useless. (I did like the photos of people like Roscoe Holcomb and Samantha Bumgarner.)

In the beginning, I had two records; “Flatt and Scruggs at Carnegie Hall” & John Hartford “Aereoplane”. To this day, I can hear those entire albums, in their LP format, in my head. I listened to those albums obsessively! I knew every detail.

One at a time, I added new LP’s and learned every tune so that I could imagine them from beginning to end. (I think that helps; don’t try to listen to every record that comes out. Buy one. Digest it completely, and then buy another. Don’t buy ten CD’s at once and hope to take it all in. You can’t.) Even though I couldn’t play the banjo yet, I knew what it was supposed to sound like. When I finally began to find rolls on the banjo, lights began to turn on, and the instrument began to open itself to my hands. I gradually met other musicians, moved to Toronto at age 23, and began traveling south to the U.S. whenever I could. One weekend at a time, one lick at a time, one song at a time; I began to learn.

I genuinely believe that all the preliminary reading, listening and soaking in the climate of this music and culture has helped me to become a banjo player. I have my own sound and I don’t sound like my heroes; I never will, but I have a stronger connection to this music because I created this climate for myself. Now, when I play with some of my heroes and other musicians, I feel closer to the music than I think I might have if I hadn’t tried so hard to understand what surrounded the sound of a banjo.

I hope this will inspire some of you that you can do this. You just have to want to, that’s all.


Chris Quinn

www.foggyhogtownboys.com