Excuses Excuses

These were the excuses from two of my teenaged banjo students last week. Logan you’ve already met.

So this is me: Okay, Logan, what are your excuses for this week?

So this is Logan talking. (My responses are in parenthesis.)

I had two prep sessions for the PSAT, from 6-9 in the evening. (What else?)

I needed to get a good night’s sleep. (Right. What else?)

And there was all the partying and drinking. (He’s just messing with me about this…)

Then Monday was a layoff day. (I took this to mean after a hard weekend of partying….)

My thumb still hurts and I lost my brace. (He’d sprained his thumb playing soccer injury. I give him points for this since the week before he did play with the brace on!)

In spite of all this, we had a good lesson. I’m showing him, piece by piece, how to create a simple break to “Faded Love.” We just did the same thing for “Amazing Grace” and “White Dove.” (This stuff is almost sure to show up on a DVD sometime!) Logan can absorb this because he plays in a regular twice-a-month jam session with some of my other students. They regularly play “Faded Love” and “Amazing Grace” because Patty (one of my Fiddle Sisters) plays them on the fiddle. When I heard from Bob (the Bass Player and a guitar student) that Logan routinely bailed on these and went to get a soda (or as we’d say in Georgia, went to get a Coke), I knew I had my work cut out for me! And because Logan already knew the chords to these tunes from repeated listenings, he was ready to absorb what I showed him. This would not have worked otherwise. The moral: Keep listening to this stuff!

Now for the excuses from Teresa, a younger sister to Gina, Malia, and Christina Furtado whom I have written about in Banjo Newsletter. (And Malia plays on both of our Slow Jam DVDs.)

This is Teresa talking. (My comments are again in parenthesis.)

I had to study hard for a test.

I was gone all day Saturday. (To a banjo contest where she won first prize! I tried to get her to split the money with me, but to no avail!)

What was I doing the rest of the time? (No answer….)

Besides, I’m taking another instrument. (This was news to me. What are you taking?)

Classical guitar. (You mean you’re two-timing me?)

Blank look. (Why are you taking classical guitar?)

My mother is making me. (Can’t fight that!)

We also went on to have a good lesson. All the practice she did for the banjo contest kicked her playing up to another level!

Tune in next time (or sometime) for even more excuses! But I don’t think any of my students will ever top this one: “I spent my pick.” Don’t even ask! (Offered by a student to our Florida friend and banjo teacher Bob Higgenbotham back in the seventies!)