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Haiku
Dec 4, 2007 8:27:29 GMT
Post by Ptarmigan on Dec 4, 2007 8:27:29 GMT
Hello Haiku
Welcome to the Old Time Music Forum.
We are all delighted that you are now a member and we look forward to your contributions to the discussions here.
Please tell us a little bit about yourself, your music & your Old Time Instruments.
Then, why not hop over to our Where do you live & play your Old Time Music? poll and click on your own area!
Cheers 'Ptarmigan'
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haiku
Old Time Spoons Player
Posts: 14
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Haiku
Dec 4, 2007 12:36:14 GMT
Post by haiku on Dec 4, 2007 12:36:14 GMT
Howdy everybody! Thanks for the warm welcome, and many thanks to Ptarmigan for building this forum up. Well, here I am: I'm Mathieu, aka Haïku (or Haik', or Ike, depending of the mood!) I've been playing music since 15 years, playing mostly bass guitar and a bit of guitar in various rock bands, but, in the summer of '06 I saw the light: I took up the 5-string banjo. And that was the beginning of the journey - I got to confess I seldom play others instruments now. I felt in love with Old-time music, with all its variations (stringband music and fiddle tunes, old mountain songs and murder ballads, railroad and mining complains, and so on...) That's why I'm trying to stay "open" with the banjo, not just limiting my playing to Clawhammer - I'm trying to be on my way with thumb-lead, index-lead or 3-finger lead. My main concern these days is, well I live in France. Great country, but a total Old-Time desert. Little chance for me to find a fellow fiddler! In the meantime, I took up the harmonica, but that's a whole new, long journey for me! Ok, I'll end by saying that my next stop will probably be a Mountain Dulcimer - I love those things ;D. And I probably get myself a Limberjack in a few weeks (did anyone now if I can find one anywhere in Europe?) Cheers! Btw: you can hear my poor skills on my MySpace page
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Haiku
Dec 4, 2007 13:08:58 GMT
Post by Susi on Dec 4, 2007 13:08:58 GMT
Haiku, I think your banjo playing sounds awesome!! Welcome to the forum. I live in Sweden and play some fiddle and some mandolin and a whole lot of other instruments but I'm not great at anything really. At least I'm having fun with it. I guess France is quite oldtime deserted but there should be someone somewhere, there are some bluegrass bands and a bluegrass festival somewhere in the south I think. And northern Italy has a bluegrass belt, that goes from Torino in the west to Verona in the east (close to Venice). They have at least two bluegrass festivals but I'm not sure about oldtime... You should check out www.bcmai.it/bcmai/ and www.bcmai.it/tlj/ and look for contact info, maybe them Italians will know something about the bg/ot world in France. I wouldn't be surprised if there was something hidden down there, I know when I lived in Italy I was surprised how much of this stuff they actually had active.. I hope you'll find someone to jam ot with - I know how frustrating it is to look for nonexisting musicians!
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haiku
Old Time Spoons Player
Posts: 14
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Haiku
Dec 4, 2007 14:09:13 GMT
Post by haiku on Dec 4, 2007 14:09:13 GMT
Thanks for the links! The Italian border is about 100 miles (You can hear the whistle blow....) from here - I'll check on them!
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Haiku
Dec 4, 2007 17:47:40 GMT
Post by Ptarmigan on Dec 4, 2007 17:47:40 GMT
Haiku, You say France is a Gobi Desert for Old Time, but I wonder if you live anywhere near these guys? Les Old Timey Messengers - France Also, I see you are also a Bass player, so I'm wondering what you think of my Son's playing. That's him playing Bass on the YouTubes on this Forum's MySpace. MySpaceGood Luck with the Harmonica, our member Lasse here certainly makes it sing with: Big Hungry Joe - Denmark As for the Mountain Dulcimer, you might find more answers & info on that instrument on the sister forum to this: Dulcimer Players Forum Unfortunately, the sound system on my Mac is down right now but as soon as my new speakers arrive, you can bet I'll be checking out your playing again. Cheers Dick
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haiku
Old Time Spoons Player
Posts: 14
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Haiku
Dec 5, 2007 13:32:22 GMT
Post by haiku on Dec 5, 2007 13:32:22 GMT
Ptarimagn: I don't live near the Old Timey messenger, they're in Paris, while I'm in the Center-Est of France... About your son bass playin: Sure it is a darn good playing. But I'm sorry, that's not what float my boat (bass is not made for solos )
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Haiku
Dec 5, 2007 14:35:03 GMT
Post by deleuran on Dec 5, 2007 14:35:03 GMT
Hey Haiku. Welcome on board. Mighty fine banjo picking you are doing. It happens so that I made a myspace profile a couple of days ago. Maybe you would like to be friends? You can find me here: www.myspace.com/hungryjesperAnd the band I play in has a myspace profile as well here: www.myspace.com/hungryjoe
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Haiku
Dec 5, 2007 16:02:08 GMT
Post by Ptarmigan on Dec 5, 2007 16:02:08 GMT
Haiku, Yes, I must admit, I can't get my head around a lot of that Jazz Fusion Music that he plays. There are just too many key changes in each tune for me & as for all those weird time signatures ...... too much for my simple little musical mind to understand! Still, I am glad there are always so many musicians out there who are prepared to break the rules & push the boundaries & use so much lateral thinking. As we say over here, there's more than one way to Skin a Cat! Rules are just there to be broken & let's face it, without innovation, you Banjo guys would all just be playing one of these: The Original Banjo ;D Cheers Dick
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haiku
Old Time Spoons Player
Posts: 14
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Haiku
Dec 6, 2007 10:41:20 GMT
Post by haiku on Dec 6, 2007 10:41:20 GMT
Well, I agree with you: there's more than one way to Skin a Cat (haven't heard this phrase before, i'll keep and use now Actually, with my cover rock band we used to make our own songs, in a "progressif hard rock" style (lots of key changes, weird time signature that kept changing...). But I never felt confortable with this. probably cause I never been good enough a musician for that !
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Haiku
Dec 6, 2007 13:21:40 GMT
Post by Ptarmigan on Dec 6, 2007 13:21:40 GMT
Aye Haiku, it's a well loved expression among Cat Lovers! ;D It's actually an old expression all right & goes way back to at least 1678! ... as you'll see from the info below. I know this doesn't have much to do with Old Time Music but although the expression appears to have started out in England there are a couple of American references to it below, which you might find interesting. Cheers Dick
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haiku
Old Time Spoons Player
Posts: 14
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Haiku
Dec 6, 2007 15:17:41 GMT
Post by haiku on Dec 6, 2007 15:17:41 GMT
Well, apparently, There's more than one way to nail a catfish to a tree ;D
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Haiku
Dec 6, 2007 16:59:16 GMT
Post by Ptarmigan on Dec 6, 2007 16:59:16 GMT
Yipsurreebob!
...... Or should I say - YipsurreeHaiku! ;D
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