Poltergeist Prison Blues
January 26, 2008
Here’s a good one from close to home.
Our buddy Matt from the jam session at Dr. Danny’s writes:
Probably not suitable for posting on your blog, the quality is awful. But I know you like it when people send you videos and I had an epiphany this morning in regards to transposing Folsom Prison Blues from the key of E to the key of G(so I could play it at the next jam session) I thought you would appreciate it. And thanks again for teaching me something that I apparently already knew..
The video quality is kind of iffy. For a second there I thought I was watching a remake of Poltergeist.
“Don’t go into the light, Matt!”
But once you get past that there is some pretty good information here on how to transpose songs at a jam session.
Thanks, Matt! See you at the next jam session!
Cool Hand James
January 26, 2008
James sings Plastic Jesus.
Tim and Roger’s Excellent Adventure
January 26, 2008
Tim in Korea writes:
Hi Patrick,
When I sent my first youtube video of me playing guitar, you gave me the advice to take my guitar out in public and have some adventures. I have to admit that this advice seemed crazy to me and frankly scared me. Well, I have to say now to everybody out there that this is solid advice now matter how crazy it sounds to you, but you won’t understand why until you actually do it.
Roger and I jammed to Oh Susanna on a subway car on our way to the open mic. It felt quite strange at first, and we got a few stares but we also put smiles on some faces. At the pub, we went out into the hallway to warm up and tune before our set. People were walking by either on their way out of the pub or on their way to the bathroom, and we started to draw a crowd. We were both playing banjo and singing I saw the light. The hallway audience was very enthusiastic about the banjos.
After that I was running through Rovin Gambler on banjo by myself, and I had an enlightening experience. An American guy came right in front of me leaned back against the wall and closed his eyes and listened to me play the banjo and sing. It was the first time anyone voluntarily listened to me. After the song he said, “For about 4 minutes there, you made me believe I was back in America.”
As you all know I’m just a beginner on the banjo, and Rovin’ Gambler is about as simple as a song gets. But it doesn’t matter, you can still reach people as a beginner. So, my point is to follow Patrick’s advice and get out in public and play some songs no matter how crazy it sounds to you. You won’t understand it from reading this, but you will understand it when you have your first satisfied listener.
