Laura’s place

I kind of disappeared last week because I wasn’t on my computer at all and I was about 144 miles away from my phone all week. But it was worth it it!! We went to the Father’s Day Bluegrass Festival up in Grass Valley. It’s the festival you’ve probably heard about where hardcore bluegrass fans camp out for four days in the woods to watch a bunch of famous bluegrass acts. I was there for the entire week, though, because for the first three days it’s a music camp where professional musicians instruct groups of aspiring musicians separated in groups by the instrument they play. I was taught by Roland White, a mandolin player. Dad was taught by Bill Evans, a banjo player. We were both in the beginning level of our group.

It was so much fun! I learned so much! Turns out I was doing my right hand all wrong. I’m supposed to anchor with the flesh of my thumb, not my pinkie. It gives you much more flexibility. I also learned how to read tab. Believe it or not, I did not know how to read tabliture. But now I know! I sight-read East Tennessee Blues from tab. Slowly, but I did it!

We also lucked out on our camping spot. We found a place across a grassy field from everybody else. It was a few yards away from a water spout so we wouldn’t have to go far to wash our dishes. We were under this cover of trees which was really nice. There were also several stumps which we used for tables and on which we put our camping stove. But, of course, it turned out come Wednesday we had “stolen” it from this other family who go to the festival, but not the camp, every year. So they camped next to us and it turned out they were really nice. There were two kids, one about my age and one about my sister’s age. Their mom kind of played guitar so we jammed on…uh…Thursday or Friday and I learned some cool tunes. Oh, and I got my own tent! Which was awesome.

On Saturday and Sunday we went to the Yuba River to swim. It was this fast river but we were at a spot surrounded by rocks so it was calm where we were. The water was really clear too. At the deepest part you could still see the bottom. Me, Dad, and my sister went a little upstream where the water is a little fast and we climbed on the rocks a little, then we floated down on the water to the calm part again. I forgot my swim suit so I did it in my clothes. It was weird swimming in my clothes…There were also fish! It was awesome!!

Another great part of this festival is that everybody there is a musician. There were two “sections.” One was just for tents and the other was for tents and RV’s. If you stood at the edge of the parking lot there were RV’s as far as you could see. They were shaded by the trees and they all had lawn chairs and blankets outside. At night you could wander the RV’s and under about every other one there was a group of people just jamming. People would stay up until about three in the morning just jamming. They only slept so they would have enough energy to jam the next night. Me and my dad still aren’t good enough on our instruments to jam with the good people but we watched and made mental notes of what we had to learn. But we did participate in the slow jam, at which people play any songs but slowed down so everyone could play along. We also attended a class called Jamming 101 at which we learned etiquette and techniques of jamming. We learned about the five levels of jamming (rhythm, root, chords, melody, lead) and did a little organized jamming. There’s something called the Ten Jammandments that lists the rules of jamming, such as “thou shalt tune away from others” and “thou shalt not sing unless thou knowst the words” and “thou shalt not take a break (or solo) at the same time as another.”

Um…I’ll finish this later. I have to do homework (for ATDP, school is out)