h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Yes, they got a taste of their own medicine and as I remember they weren't obnoxious again for the rest of the holiday (well, on the dancefloor anyway).

I can't say I've been to many live bands. There were some I went to see several times, though. Jethro Tull, Ian Dury and the Blockheads (now sadly deceased), Groundhogs and King Creole and the Coconuts.

Mostly, I went to folk clubs - the likes of the Watersons, Mike Harding, Martin Carthy, John Kirkpatrick, etc. I don't think you are likely to have heard of any of them. I used to sing in my hometown folk club myself, unaccompanied English and Scottish folk tradition stuff.

I bought my self a banjo a few years ago, having seen a wonderful American singer, Sarah Grey, but I can only do a few tunes. I don't get much time for practice these days and as soon as he sees it, my offspring want to play too, so I get nowhere.

four string or five string? And which chord are you tuning it to?
Or are you tuning it like a guitar or a uke?

Five string and not tuned like a guitar. Mostly in the key of A. It's about 70 years old, I'm told.

I know a lot of banjoists have several keys, but my pegs need replacing as they do not allow very fine tuning and they are quite stiff.

I lost the book I was learning most of my tunes from in a house move and have been completely unable to find a replacement. It came with a tape, so I could tell what they were supposed to sound like. I've not got on so well with others.

If you disassemble the tuning machines and clean them, then coat them with a light coat of sewing machine oil, that might help.

You might want to look up the Mel Bay site. For the instruction book and tape.

Pete Seeger has one, too, I believe.

You sound quite knowledgeable about it. My machine heads are just pegs that you turn round, no cogs.

I have one by Pete Seeger, but not with a tape. I've heard of Mel Bay as well. I think my local music shop has his books and tapes.

I took my banjo on my first Sufi retreat (which I later found was probably not the right thing to do) and spent the breaks in one of the field playing and got the best practice in I'd had for ages. I had my tune book with me then. Apparently, you're not even supposed to bring books, as they distract you from the alchemical process.

Sufis and Quakers?

Ah, them there kind o' pegs. Well, I still suggest a bit of cleaning.
Though I'm not sure what kind.

I used to work in a music shop. And I've repaired and damaged a few instruments in my life.

Sufis and Quakers are quite compatible as far as I can see. I initiated as a Sufi before I joined the Quakers. Both are tolerant of other religious paths (well the Sufi order I belong to is - some other Sufi orders, I know, are not)and have a strong peace emphasis.

There's a banjo specialist somewhere uptown. I went to see them a long time ago, but didn't bring my banjo with me then. It would be good to get different pegs fitted. I was told it was possible and would solve my problems. They might even point me in the direction of a good teacher! So far, I've learned from a book and tape.

I did wonder about your knowledge. I think I would have been a little surprised if you had been a banjo player. In my mind, guitar would seem to be more your style - however, I could be wrong!

If it's got strings, I know just enough to make the dog leave the room with me playing it. I fingerpick with a level of facility. I have been known to torture a banjo as well as the acoustic and electric guitars, mandolins, ukes, basses, cellos, violins, and thumb pianos...

That sounds much more able than I am! I'd like to be able to do all those things, but that means practice, and practice means time, which seems to be in fairly short supply these days.

What I do best is sing. I've got a fairly strong voice, I remember words and tunes easily - legacy of going to folk clubs.

I heard an interview on the radio the other day (well, part of an interview) between Pete Seeger and Bob Copper of the Copper family, who have been singing traditional songs in harmony for at least 200 years. Both grand old gentlemen. I wonder what's on the web about the Copper family - to have a look.

My wife is a singer. She has trouble with the words, but she can sing harmony, antiphony, and rings around any tune.
She does a cappella bits from Proverbs and First Corinthians at the drop of a microphone.
Of course this creates a bit of a burden for me because I sing early and often myself, but my idiosyncratic style doesn't sit well in her ear.

I'd like to hear her! I don't know what sort of music Proverbs or Corinthians would be sung to. I can imagine proverbs being sung, but have a bit of difficulty with Corinthians.

Why is it a problem for you? Does your style clash? Does your wife have a different idea of what is 'in tune' than you do?

BTW, since I posted the earlier message, I have been *very* busy. I've done an entry on the Copper Family, which I'm quite pleased with. I'm fairly certain I wouldn't have done it if I hadn't posted to you!

Glad to be of service.

There is an old Presbyterian habit of only singing actual verses from the Bible as opposed to singing 'hymns' that assert the pride of the author... The rules apparently did not apply to the tunes involved, as they were likely to com from anywhere. This was also a reaction the chanting of liturgy.

No, she has a natural ear and I have an unnatural ear.
She hears the way songs are supposed to be sung and I hear the way they are actually sung.

I'm afraid I am still stuck in a fiction mode and I am fighting my computer to keep it from committing suicide. It keeps swallowing pieces of the registry and declaring its own actions illegal.

That sounds quite serious. I had registry problems with my computer after I installed AOL, which were only resolved by upgrading from Windows 95 to Windows 98. Nothing my maintenance package could do about it.

I can remember seeing Sacred Harp singers from the South coming to play near the Barbican on the South Bank in London. They were interesting (but not as interesting as the six piece gospel group from Alabama - all *huge* men with gorgeous voices, and the Fiddle Puppets, an Appalacian Clog team).

I earlier did a shape not workshop at the National Folk Festival, which was really goo. However, as these were actual hymns, it's not the same thing, it it?

Is not a problem. I am not Prebyterian.
Prefer older styles of hymn singing to modrin style of 'pop' church singing found around here now, with cds providing karaoke background...strings and choruses and such...
We got some old-fashioned folk at the church who do zithers and chromatic harmonicas and guitars and mandolins...including the preacher, who also plays trombone....

I tend to agree with you there. Mind you, a trombone-playing preacher sounds cool.

We Quakers do not have music in our meetings - they're mostly held in silence. A funny thing happened the other day, though according to my friend who works for the Quakers. We were approached by 'Songs of Praise' - a BBC TV programme and asked to appear. Accordingly, people are getting together to do a singing service! Not very Quakerly, though!

Any time one attempts to box the Quakers neatly, they fail to fit.
There is an undercurrent of intelligence in Quaker history that is hard to equate with the noises of their enemies.
Religious history rarely deals with the personalities involved in the core of a movement.
On the other hand, there are those who do something because they have always done so. Sometimes, tradition can be deadly.
I admire the courage of the producers, though I am too ignorant on the subject of Quaker music to guess if they are ignorant, too.

By the way, I'm working on something you might want to peek at.
It's called 'Somebody's Mother...' and it's on my space.
It's one of the fiction things I been messing with in response to some of the heavy stuff the kids at AGG/GAG have been selecting.

There is a Quaker Songbook, I'm told, although I've not got a copy. Certainly, it's never used in meeting.

I did once sing at a Quaker funeral, which I think surprised some people and pleased the widow. I sang 'Sleep on beloved', which did sound really nice, thanks mainly to wonderful accoustics.

A call has gone out for singers and I could be one of them, but it depends on how faw away it is. I'll probably watch it on TV. It'ss be interesting to see what they do.

Had a look - what sorts of other things have the kids been doing? How long did it take you to do? There are some really nice bits it it. It's much more disjointed than my style.

Have a look at <./>A696936</.>. Both my entries are not getting comment at the moment. Perhaps it's the time of year, being halfterm.

I don't know what my fingers have been doing today, but they're dyslexic. I went to the osteopath today. Maybe that's something to do with it. I'm on a detox diet and she reckons that I'm processing a lot of grief at the moment. I'll be glad when it's over. I really want to move on.

I'll read all through the Copper thing tonight.

I have the dates that I did the various chapters typed into the entry.
I think I have been working on it on and off for almost a month.

AGG/GAG has been digging in the corner of the site looking for strange and wonderful stuff and some of it is apparently too wonderful for me. Dark, intense, moody broodings about vampires and shepherdesses and life...and psychology!

A detox diet...woo..I'd have nothing to eat.