Part 1: Impetus
I recently spent a week in West Virginia on the campus of Glenville State College, where I earned my certificate in Bluegrass Performance. It was the week of the Bluegrass Ensemble’s annual concert (for some reason it has always been held in the fall…) and I was asked to both take part in the concert and help the students prepare for the festivities.
The concert this year was a tribute to Flatt & Scruggs. I worked with a couple of the banjo players to get things straightened out, helped the ensemble with working around a single microphone, and rehearsed them for a little bit while the director, Megan Darby, was busy preparing for the concert.
I arrived on Tuesday evening, which happened to be the night of the Music Department’s Music Fest concert. Basically, every ensemble in the department plays one or two songs to showcase what they are working on that semester. Granted, the ensembles had only have two months to prepare for this event, but I was struck by two things: very few students were focusing on intonation and even fewer were getting good, if any, tone from their instruments. With the exception of the brass ensemble, this was a major problem all night, bluegrass ensemble included. I took note of this, but since I’m not a teacher there and none of the students really care what I think, I didn't say anything.
The next day, I and my former instructor, Buddy Griffin, had lunch with the adjunct brass professor, Harry Rich. This discussion eventually led to tone production and quickly moved to learning tone and phrasing through active listening.
Part 2: Finding Tone
When I was getting my Associate’s in Music, I was attending a college where banjo could not be my principal instrument. During these two years, I played upright bass in the school jazz band. It had always occurred to me that if you wanted to play an instrument, you should listen to the greats. The first record I picked up (and it was an actual vinyl record...jazz always sounds better on vinyl) was Ron Carter’s “Etudes.” His tone blew my mind. My first thought was, “How can I apply this to my bass playing.” My second thought was, “How can I apply this to my banjo playing?” Wait. Applying bass tone techniques to the banjo? Yeah, that’s what I thought.
During the aforementioned lunch, I told Mr. Rich that most banjo students think they can’t learn anything from trumpet players and most trumpet players think they can’t learn anything from banjo players so they don’t listen to each other. “Oh, no,” he said. “Tone, phrasing...you can learn a lot!” Indeed, most of what I learned about playing the banjo I learned just as much from Ahmad Jamal and Ron Carter and Pablo Casal as I did from Earl Scruggs and Sonny Osborne and J.D. Crowe.
After we left the restaurant, I started thinking about what we’d talked about and it occurred to me that maybe the problem I’d heard the night before at the concert wasn't so much that students had a lack of influence, it was that they didn't know how to properly listen to those influences.
Part 3: Active Listening
When I sat active listening, I don’t mean turning on music while you study for biology or while you’re cleaning house. I don’t mean listening to a little bit and then figuring out how to play it on your instrument (although that is important in a different context). I mean putting aside all distractions and actually listening to the music. When done properly, you can hear every breath, every corner of the recording space, and, in some cases, where the musicians are sitting in the recording space. You can hear the breath going in the mouthpiece, where the picks are hitting the strings, where a note is being fretted, and how a phrase is being made. But you have to listen properly:
Step 1: Turn off all distractions; cell phones, computers, television sets, radios. Ideally, you should be alone. It also helps to turn off the lights and close your eyes.
Step 2: Choose the album and find a good pair of headphones. Play it.
Step 3: Listen and pay attention. What’s on your right? Your left? What instrument is playing the melody? Who is playing backup or counterpoint?
Step 4: When the recording is over, play it again. Focus. Listen for things that catch your ear and try to know what’s going on.
Step 5: Try to use what you have learned.
It should be noted that active listening is a skill that requires practice. You won’t be great at it the first time, but you will get better the more you do it. Eventually you will do it without thinking and you won’t even have to focus very hard. You will find yourself paying attention to the little things in your playing like you never did before. You will hear every part of the ensemble and be able to focus in on certain sounds. You will be able to hear.
Part 4: The Aftermath
I always encourage banjo players to listen to Earl Scruggs. If they are my students, I require it. I want them to know EXACTLY what he did, where he did it, and why. They learn this by listening. When they figure this out, they can play almost any style of banjo. If they give this aural attention to other styles, musicians and ensembles, they can play anything on their instrument. The most important element of music is listening. More musicians should do it.
Post Script:
If you are interested in pursuing a bluegrass music degree, I highly suggest checking out the Glenville program. Information can be found at http://www.glenville.edu/academics/fa_bluegrass.php.
