Joined a band

 A different and most enjoyable learning experience started for me about six weeks ago. We have a local group that plays Old Time Appalachian - we call it Old Timey down under. A good friend of mine has been playing with this group for some time and she’s often raved about what fun it is.

I’d been to some Old Timey jams a few times and while the music is enjoyable, it never really grabbed me.

I went to my first rehearsal with this group six weeks ago and it was heaps of fun. The leader of the group is a retired professional musician and he puts up large chord sheets for each song on an easel. This helped a lot as the other Old Timey jams I’d been to relied on you being familiar with the songs. We typically have 15 to 20 musicians show up for rehearsal, it’s once a week.

Two things make the experience there really great. First is the vibe of the people, it’s positive, enthusiastic and up beat. They enjoy being there and are reasonably social. Several times some of us have gone to lunch afterwards.

Second is the speed of the music. We have typically 3 fiddles up the front and they keep it moving along. The chords are all very very easy cords, D A G Em E, that sort of thing, only once has a song had a barre chord in it (I’m very comfortable with and able to play barre chords). Old Timey songs tend to have 2 sections, A and B. Each section typically is 8 measures. Each section is played twice and this repeats numerous times till the song is over.

What makes the Speed so good is many times the A section with be simpler with each chord played for one or more measures (4 beats per measure). But my fav songs are where the B section is full of chord changes every 2 beats. Really gets the heartbeat going and feels so good.

This scenario wouldn’t be suitable for the early beginner. If you have to look at the fret board for every chord change, you lose track of where you are in the song. The songs move fast. Since the chords are all pretty easy and you can initially just strum once every other beat, beginners shouldn’t avoid Old Timey.

Last night we played at a “15 minutes of fame” open mic at a community hall with a great audience.

It’s FUN FUN FUN


Old-Time music is a genre within folk music, here in Australia it gets called Old-Timey

Definition of Old Time from Wikipedia

Old Timey song Porters Reel (not by Fiddle Faddle)

Fiddle Faddle gathering



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