TOPIC: The school of Zen Bluegrass Music

Some advice on the "new" group and song selection process in class:

Woe to those that park in Dave's spot.
Woe to those that request not to be put in the cold practice room.
Woe to those that do not post.
Woe to those that come to class late.
Woe to those that chat in class.
Woe to anyone that is not prepared to play every song with any group combination.
Woe to anyone that thinks that they have an input into the process(ie. pick a song they practiced all week).

Remember, even Steve Ring's Zen philosophical dissertation did not help him last week.

With all that, actually the "new" process is good. I know that it is a challenge to set up the groups so that the practice, performance and group interaction are valuable to all. Dave has done well to come up with various processes to achieve this goal. In addition, the humor and interaction (Dave and students) during the selection process is great.

All I can say is "Oh woe is me"....when it comes to the cold room But other than that, I do much better when I don't know what I'm supposed to do, nerves wise....."Hey, I didn't have time to practice...so what do you expect mentality sets in" which calms my nerves....In teaching I always preferred impromptu observations by the principal rather than having advance notice....people expect more then.... Guess I'm still applying this...But this doesn't mean I play better....I'm just less nervous.... so I can enjoy it more....

Tigerpaws - You're always looking at the postive side. That's good and we know that only the cold weather, cold practice rooms and tendonitis slow you down. I don't have a problem with the selection process, in fact, I love the patter and retort between Dave and us students. It always cracks me up. Dave deserves a lot of credit for trying to set up the groups for the learning experience.

I also like the impromptu sessions that Dave sets up after the performances.

Too funny. I am missing you all and class tonight as I am typing this from the top floor lounge of the Hyatt Regency in Chicago. On a business trip. Hope you're all having fun in class. See you next week.

I agree with Tigerpaws. I do a lot better when I don't know exactly what's coming up. And I have more fun that way as well because I guess I let go of some of my expectations of myself. Hey, it really is Zen Bluegrass.

All i gotta say is woe to those like myself that don't practice at least the rhythms on all the tunes. I feel that i should be able to hear any of the tunes in my head, and at least play the rhythm for them. It's too bad i don't have a CD i can play during the day to hear the tunes, i guess i could pop in the student CD....haven't tried that.