The Latest from the Pegram Jam...

Thanks for Six Great Years of Music!

It has been said that all good things must come to and end. We prefer to think that all good things can lead to new good things. After six straight years, we have decided to discontinue the weekly Tuesday night jam sessions at our home in Pegram. It has truly been an amazing six years, but we need to take a break from hosting the fun. Whether you attended the Pegram Jam one time or a hundred times, we sincerely hope that you had some fun, and perhaps even made a friend or two.

Some of you may know that Gretchen Priest-May purchased a building here in Pegram, which is to become the local old-time music center. It's likely that another Tuesday jam may take form there sometime this spring or summer. Stay tuned for more info.

Susie and I plan to take the extra time each week to focus on some other aspects of our music making. We also hope to do more playing with different groups of folks as opportunities permit.

The Pegram Jam web page will stay alive for at least another year. We will add content from time to time, and we hope to use it as a means of keeping in touch with all of our musician friends. Our love for old-time music has not dwindled a bit. We just need to let go of hosting the weekly jam, and focus our energy elsewhere for a while.

Thanks to everyone who has been a part of the Pegram Jam. It's been a great ride! It's been an honor and a pleasure to host the jam these last six years, and we wish all of our picking pals a prosperous and joyful 2008.

You can view our 6th anniversary "class photo" at this link.

It's all about the Tone

I had somewhat of a revelation the other day. I was reading an old quote about a fiddler who "knew a thousand tunes, but couldn't play one of them worth a darn." I think it's possible to spend too much attention on learning more tunes, and too little attention cultivating one's TONE. In the end, it's the SOUND that comes from our instruments that matters. I love learning new tunes, and hope to expand my repertoire until I'm no longer able to play. However, I am going to spend a lot more time concentrating on my tone from now on. I'm listening to my favorite players, paying special attention to the sound they pull from their instruments. I figure I have to know what good tone sounds like before I can try to create it myself.

In Search of the Ensemble Mind

Thanks to everyone who has been attending the Pegram Jam. The crowds have been smaller, which is historically what happens during the summer months. We've been chugging right along, with some more intimate sessions and of course, new tunes.

One concept which has been on my mind lately is the difference between playing for myself and playing for an ensemble. It feels like the ensemble sound has a complete mind of its own, and it will tell me what to do, *if* I listen for it. It's a little bit like surrendering to the flow of a river, or being on a sail boat. The great ensemble players have figured out that some approaches support the flow, while others wind up feeling like trying to swim upstream. Usually I find myslef having to listen more and play less, just in order to hear what the ensemble sound needs. When it's at its best, great ensemble playing feels to me like everyone is lifting a hot air balloon together. Each player is contributing just what the balloon needs, without weighing it down with anything extra. It is an exhilarating feeling when it happens!

Scorch Plug-in Update

The Sibelius Scorch web browser plug-in has been updated. The old Scorch plug-in will not play scores created after June 2007. In order to play all of the scores listed here, you must first install the latest version of Scorch. The Scorch plug-in is available at this link.