Playing Fiddle

Other than my lessons, I haven’t played with other people all summer. I have a small group I play with but we fell apart during the summer. I have been playing, with records and on my own and at my lessons. But there’s a big benefit to playing with other people that are right in the room with you!

Joe, a mandolin/guitar/fiddle player, was the only guy that could play tonight but we decided to still play, even if it was just the two of us. He brought his mandolin and we set about getting reacquainted, seeing what the other had been working on the past few months.  We played a few familiar pieces then branched into one he was learning that I used to know. Of course, it wasn’t fresh in my mind so we both stumbled a bit.

But we did the backwards building bit and started with the third part of Billy Wilson, just playing it over and over until we were comfortable. Then we played the 2nd part a few times, then played the 2nd part and moved into the third. Finally we started on the first part, where he was the roughest because it was the newest to him. But we just played it over and over and I could hear him relaxing into it and I fixed a few errors in my playing as we kept going.

On the one hand, it’s nice to play with folks who are much better than you are. You learn a lot. Yet… playing with someone who’s comfortable playing the same thing over and over until you’re both comfortable is quite valuable!  I think we both benefited from just trying to play fewer songs for longer periods and relaxing into learning together.

Next week I’m hoping we have a larger turnout but it will be nice to play “in real life” no matter who shows up.