Last Sunday Lee.
And most of the folks were folks I've not seen in at least a year, or longer.
I'm getting old enough where I can say stuff like this, but I think it's Love. Brotherly love. Love for the music. Love for the fellowship. Magic, yes. Absolutely.

It is the love of those moments in music, I have a banjo player that I play and sing with, that keeps me picking up my instruments and playing. Play on friends. R/

Yea, the magic is there consistently with my flute friend. WHen we play together, the music gets a relaxed rhythmic groove, a lift, a sense of breathing life, that I can not find with any other people (even players more technically skilled). I think they call it “musical chemistry”, and it just is unpredictable who will click!

Amen to the magic. Bout a month and a half or so ago, a fiddler from FLa visited our local BG jam, and he and I hit it right off, song and tune after tune, playing together, playing off each other, speaking the same 'language'. He was around these parts for a few days and each time was better then the last. Later I messaged him how much I enjoyed playing with him and admitted I was going to steal some of his riffs and licks - he said "same here"! And I'm privileged to play with my 2 sons in a band for over 25 years, where that 'magic' swirls around all the time, especially in the after show jams, where we can go away from The Brigands set pieces.

I meant to mention that my daughter and I play very well/tight together.. People say it is because she grew up listening to me..Well, there are many, many people who have jammed regularly with me over the past 35 years who don't sound a bit like me..So.. some people's fiddling clicks and some don't....Sometimes there is magic and sometimes there isn't...

I envy you guys who have musical magic with your kids! :-)

MY eldest is a good classical flute player and when we play together she’ll point out where mom counted wrong, where mom missed the B-flat, etc :-D. SHe is slumming it with me! (she’s way better than me in classical, which is her personal favorite genre….and she likes many of the modern composers, who just sound atonal to me…:-D

Yes, I’ve experienced that a number of times throughout my life with several other players. There are good players with whom you can make decent music, but then there are the players who just seem to be on the same wavelength and each time you play you seem to know exactly how to play together and pick up on cues.

My father taught me to play over 20 years and we performed together for most of that time. The familial bond and the fact that he was my teacher increased the chances of good musical collaboration of course, but we really did seem to fit together well in playing.

The fiddler who gave me some lessons was inspiring to play with. I wish I could have had more opportunities to play with him before he died. He played with me in a couple of my major recitals and I was thrilled that he was willing to do so. I have an especially fond memory of a rehearsal where we were playing a fiddle tune and he improvised an amazing accompaniment on the spot that fit perfectly and made the tune so much more interesting.

During one summer I took a fiddle with me to a pioneer-themed Boy Scout summer camp. In the evenings everyone had access to a trading post, and I was invited to play tunes there until they closed each night. I quite enjoyed being in a cabin in some of the most breathtakingly beautiful mountains of the Blue Ridge and looking out at an 18th-19th century campground and thinking about the pioneers looking into the same mountain ranges while playing fiddle tunes centuries before me. One night, a park ranger who was making his rounds through the reservation stopped in at the trading post. As it turned out, he was an avid Irish ballad singer. Since he couldn’t read music, he would listen to recordings as he was driving throughout the reservation to learn the songs. We spent the evening trading tunes and songs, and it was enchanting. After the trading post closed, we chatted for a while. Then we stood looking out over the camp as it was bathed in moonlight. To mark the end of the day and time for lights out in the camp, I played one last tune. Then the ranger sang an Irish blessing. It was hauntingly beautiful and it seemed as if the whole mountain range was vibrating in sympathy with the song (and it wasn’t sung loudly at all). Every time I play at the end of a day I think about that night.

A former violin student of my father who had gone on to teach at a music school came to visit us with her husband while I was in high school. We had the players for a quartet, so the idea of sight reading some quartets was raised. I was a bit nervous going into it because everyone else was so much more accomplished than I, but almost immediately it became clear that there was something beautiful happening, as everyone seemed to collaborate seamlessly. I’ve had good experiences in quartet playing since, but never anything quite like that one afternoon.


During Freshman year at college, I played in an impromptu jam with a few other students on the back campus one evening. One classmate really stood out as we played and we played  together regularly thereafter. We started busking frequently and performed at a number of gigs. He was an excellent guitarist and he had a great sense for everything we played. I also met an upperclassman when I was invited to collaborate on the music composition and performance for a Shakespeare play put on by the school. She was a folk player and she played songs with such deep understanding and musicality that they seemed to be her own. When we played together, we instantly clicked, and it never took effort to work together.

Singing in an eight-piece Renaissance choir during college was a wonderful experience. I was extremely lucky to get in in my Freshman year (there were parts with no vacancies for years at a time). I think everyone was in agreement that our performances of the Pope Marcellus Mass, both in the marble pendulum pit and in the 17th century great hall, were the high point in the choir’s history. We would sometimes just revel in the beauty of the overtones that would ring as we sang polyphony and plainchant. Rehearsals were on Friday afternoons right after classes until dinner. For me, the real meal of the day was in the rehearsal. When I’ve talked to one of the tutors during visits to the school in years since, he has always reminisced about those performances and reiterated his own sentiment that nothing has ever compared to them. We had a soprano whose voice was so pure and beautiful that it was like being assaulted to the soul with the full force of a battering ram. She was also an excellent pianist, one with whom every performance was magical.

I had a good number of accompanists over the years as I gave recitals. There were many who played well, and I enjoyed the performances. But there were a few with whom the magic happened when we played. When we would finish a piece, it would seem as if time skipped a few beats before resuming again as we felt the impact of what had been played. That feeling came across in performances as well, and there were occasions where we could sense the audience experiencing that as well.

8 piece renaissance choir…gorgeous!!

yep music is always one of my top happy memories (can be some of my worst memories too, LOL)…One factor is basic skill (like, you can play in tune with steady rhythm) and then there’s listening (like being able to listen and respond while in the flow of playing) and then there’s style (which is probably the hardest thing to click on, it’s a personality thing like finding a friend or a spouse!) I’ve played with people that “shout” at me (playing louder, overwhelming) or people that take over the wheel (speed up/slow down tune I started) … and I’ve wondered if that carries over into ‘real life’ …like these are the same people that talk the most about themselves and never ask you a question…
ok sorry - that sounds harsh, I’ll stop now!!

Not trying to derail the thread, but it made me think of a time where the magic did NOT happen.

I was playing Vieuxtemps’ Yankee Doodle variations for a summer concert series with other young musicians in town. There was a pianist who accompanied everyone, and we rehearsed several times over the weeks before the concert. Everything was going fairly well, so I was ready for the concert.

When it was my time to play, I began. The piece has a solo violin opening that’s an introduction, sort of a dramatic cadenza or recitative, then it launches into the theme as the piano joins in on a VERY clear cue. I was just finishing the last few bars and I looked over at the pianist to make eye contact ahead of time. He was staring at the sheet music in a daze. I got to the lead-in to the theme and he was still miles away. I tried to vamp a little to make the cue even clearer but he was still dazed. So finally I launched into the theme. A few measures later he came back to earth and started playing—at the beginning of his part. I had to improvise a bridge back a few bars to get to where he was. My father of course realized what happened, but the audience thankfully never caught it, even the violin players and teachers. The rest of the performance went on without a hitch. We played together in several recitals after that over the years and the problem never recurred.

right cheer...

https://youtu.be/E34f0mv8M-I?list=RDE34f0mv8M-I

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Originally posted by ShawnCraver

right cheer...

https://youtu.be/E34f0mv8M-I?list=RDE34f0mv8M-I

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We play that tune often, but not that fast and not that smooth.. Yep.. Magic..

quote:

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Originally posted by ShawnCraver

right cheer...

https://youtu.be/E34f0mv8M-I?list=RDE34f0mv8M-I

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That's it right there!  Back in the 90's sometime, Art walked into our little midnight jam session way out in the campgrounds of a Wiggins, MS, bluegrass festival.  He took my fiddle to "show me something" and played tunes for two hours straight before complimenting the guitar player, handing back the fiddle and walking off into the night.  Might be the best jam I've ever been in and I didn't play a note.

I had a magic jam with Hangout member Gapbob.. I hadn't met him yet and it was 10 at night at Clifftop.. I was ready for bed..Suddenly a ten foot tall man (seemed that tall) was standing next to me and said, "Let's fiddle".. He and I played 'off' each other for a while and then my daughter joined us.. It was one of my all time great jams.. Bob is an amazing fiddler..

What an incredible memory bacfire. Art truly had a special, magical talent for playing on the fiddle. Wish I could've been there for that!

Last night's jam was great/magic.. We had the usual suspects, banjos, fiddles, guitars. We also had a Guest who hadn't been at one of my jams for almost ten years.. A WASHBOARD PLAYER. Man did he raise the energy level of the entire group without being obnoxious!!! I'm going to put him on the 'short' list!!!

Lee, you were lucky! Last time a washboard player showed up at the L.I. Bluegrass Club jam, he lasted exactly 1 song before he was asked to not play - but he was LOUD LOUD LOUD!

I'm bringing in my washboard from the shop.. Be warned..
Last night was another magical jam.. the magic was a BASS player.. Wow, did that add a lot to the music.!

Good bass playing definitely is magic in a jam.

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Originally posted by TuneWeaver

I'm bringing in my washboard from the shop.. Be warned..
Last night was another magical jam.. the magic was a BASS player.. Wow, did that add a lot to the music.!

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I was encouraged to bring my bass. Here's what happened: Person who's turn it was to call and lead a song, plays quieter, and plays a different timing than another contributor. So whom do I follow? After this happens three or four times, I put the bass away. This is in a living room, yet folks can't hear from one side to the next. Sometimes it doesn't help. There's a loud thumb player, never in time. It tuff, by thunder.

There are three people in my life, we played in sync from the first time, either my banjo and their fiddle or my fiddle and their banjo. Absolute heaven!