Brrrr. Feels like Winter!

Hi! Remember me? The Trad? I'm still here. I haven't forgotten you, I promise! It's already November. I can't believe it! Where did the time go?

I guess when it feels like summer all the way through October, you can't be faulted for not realizing it's nearly winter, can you? But the heat in our house is on, and I cannot ignore reality for much longer. I wear long johns now when I sit at the computer. I'm thinking about breaking out the fingerless mitts my folks gave me for Christmas last year...

Friendly note: If the heat is on in your house, put your dampit in your case or your instrument right away! I gave you this lecture last year, so I'll spare you, but if you need one: for fiddle/mandolin http://www.musiciansfriend.com/navigation?q=Dampit; for guitar/bouzouki http://www.musiciansfriend.com/navigation?q=guitar+humidifier&src=00630&247SEM; for flute: http://shakuhachi.com/Q-Acc-Humidifier.html. For accordion? You wanta go in there and scrape the rust off?

Rick (in Eric's guitar class) keeps his home humidified and leaves his guitars out on stands or the wall. I envy him, frankly, because that means he lives in a more modern dwelling. We live in a 150 year old home. There are gaps in the floorboards. Everything shrinks up in the winter. It's easier (and probably cheaper) for us to slather ourselves with lotion and put dampits in the instrument cases. The cat and dog disagree, but they're not paying the bills, now are they?

Anyway, Slow Session is next Wednesday, Nov. 14 at 7:30 PM. Roger Mock will be finishing up his guitar class at about 7:15, so if you come in early, please just mill around and let them finish up! I will be working on pulling together versions of tunes tonight and will post them on a page on my website. I'll also bring the spots for the tunes. Julie and Jennifer had a great idea in September: they both had binders with their tunes in them. That's one way to keep track of what we've worked on, or tunes you'd like to recommend. I'd still like to get away from using the spots DURING the session, though, as much as possible! I love the idea of having a reference book for tunes, and we should have that before Christmas, but let's keep the session focused on playing tunes slowly, and not using the music so much, ok?

Now that we're picking tunes the month ahead, and posting them, everyone should have time to practice the tunes before coming. We still want to keep tunes as a slow pace. There are other opportunities, such as the Comhaltas session or the Jose Malone's session to try out your tunes in a regular session setting. This is the repertoire building opportunity! And I thank you all for making it possible. I love learning new stuff, going over old stuff, and developing my ear thanks to you guys. I hope you're enjoying it too.

See you next week, and until then, stay toasty!

The Trad