# John Brown's Dream Back in September I attended an Old-time and Folk Music festival in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia called John Brown's Dream. This was my first time attending an Old-time festival, and my first time playing Old-time music in a group setting. Here are some observations and notes about the experience. I'm not an authority on the scene or folk music generally—the purpose of this entry is autobiographical and synthetic. I'm writing from memory to strengthen recollection and process reflections into intentions. ## Old-time Music To give some background and save some effort on my part, I'll just quote the introduction from Wikipedia's page on "Old-time Music". >Old-time music is a genre of North American folk music. It developed along with various North American folk dances, such as square dancing, contra dancing and buck dancing. It is played on acoustic instruments, generally centering on a combination of fiddle (see Old-time fiddling) and plucked string instruments, most often the 5-string banjo without a resonator pan, guitar, and mandolin. Together, they form an ensemble called the string band, which along with the simple banjo–fiddle duet have historically been the most common configurations to play Old-time music. The genre is considered by some to be a precursor to modern country music, but it also has a contemporary active subculture of musicians in various parts of the United States. Old-time music can generally be distinguished from the more widely known bluegrass genre by the use of cross-tunings on the fiddle, by all melody instruments playing in unison, by a lack of individual instruments taking breaks to improvise, by sessions remaining in one tun ing or key for an extended period (because fiddles and banjos are tuned especially for that key or even for one tune), and by banjos being frailed instead of finger-picked and lacking resonators, giving them a softer, mellower sound. In contrast, bluegrass banjos usually have a resonator pan attached (making them louder) and are typically played 3-finger-style with steel finger picks. => https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old-time_music Wikipedia ## Jams Jams are a loosely hierarchical collection of people playing tunes (in the scene they are called tunes, not songs). The central unit of a jam is 'the circle.' These are the experienced members of the jam, and generally they pick tunes and lead them. Folks in the circle are expected to know what they are doing. They should know the tunes or know how to fake them. There are also players 'outside of the circle' who function like a participatory audience. If someone isn't comfortable sitting in the circle and leading the jam, they would sit outside the circle and play along quietly. I sat outside of the circle in every jam I played in. ## Instruments Typical instruments in a jam would be fiddle, upright bass, banjo, mandolin, and acoustic guitar. Members can vary. Sometimes you could have two fiddlers, two banjos, etc. Instruments have specific roles and frequently do double duty. In approximate order of necessity, those are: * Fiddle - lead melody, fiddler signals the end of a tune * Banjo - melodic accompaniment and rhythm * Upright Bass - bass register and rhythm * Mandolin - melodic accompaniment and rhythm * Guitar - rhythm While a jam really needs a fiddle—more on that later—a fiddle alone does not make a jam. A fiddle and a banjo is the minimum composition as they can cover melody and rhythm. Usually you need at least one other instrument to really fill things out. Upright bass, mandolin, and guitar seem pretty interchangeable as a third member. As a matter of personal preference, a trio of fiddle, banjo, and upright bass makes for a full sound. Percussion instruments aren't typical or expected. I didn't get the sense that they are excluded; there just weren't many around. Thus, several instruments double as rhythm. Banjos and mandolins have short sustain and can provide a staccato backdrop for a fiddle even when playing melodies. Fiddlers are centrally important. Jams without fiddlers are functional, but I got the sense they were 'incomplete.' A fiddle joining a group was heralded as the real start of the jam. While a banjo player fumbling through an unpracticed B section of a tune can be forgiven, a fiddler is expected to actually know the tune. Fiddles are loud and they can't do chords. Fundamentally they can't fill a rhythm role; their only job is to play the recognizable melody lines that define a tune. ## Tunes Tunes have simple, repetitive structures. A tune typically has a binary structure like [AABB]. Sometimes there are C sections and sometimes sections repeat more than twice. John Brown's Dream, the tune for which the festival is named, goes [AABBCC]. Another tune I like (though regrettably didn't hear at the festival) is called Cumberland Gap and the version I play goes like [AAAABBCC]. To start, someone in the circle calls a tune— > Do you guys know Molly Put the Kettle On? —if the circle feels they know it well enough, someone counts off and folks start playing. The tune is played repeatedly as the jam locks into the fiddler's tempo and phrasing. At some point (3 or 4 repetitions) someone will call "one more," and the tune is played one last time. Usually "one more" is called by the fiddler or the person who called the tune initially. A jam usually plays in a specific key for an entire session. Old-time music has idiosyncratic tunings for fiddle and banjo, so changing keys frequently requires re-tuning. Historically, banjos and fiddles had friction pegs for tuning and tuning took time and effort. If you're joining an established jam, the first question you'll ask is what key everyone is in. Most tunes are in D or A. Sometimes G or C. ## Tunes heard This isn't exhaustive—this is just what I wrote down. ### Key of D * Minnie Put the Kettle On * Farewell Princeton ### Key of A * Jeff Sturgeon * Hunt the Buffalo * Jimmy Shank * Sweet Marie * John Brown's Dream ## Motivations, Experiences, Takeaways, and Regrets Now I'm writing to intellectualize all of this. As I said, this was my first experience actually participating in Old-time jams. I've dabbled in music my entire adult life, but have never really played out or played with others. I've always gotten anxiety about things like being in tune, playing in time, picking up tunes by ear, and understanding all of the jargon and the social cues. Attending this festival in general was an act of exposure therapy for me in that regard. Old-time music is particularly appealing because the music is simple and the community is accommodating. When I joined jams, I would sometimes lead with self-deprecation and say things like "sorry, I'm new" or "just a heads-up: I'm not very good." I pretty quickly learned that this wasn't needed. Either folks were explicitly welcoming and told me not to worry about it, or I just got blank looks that seemed to say "okay; I don't plan on knowing you well enough to give a shit." In hindsight, the self-deprecation was (as usual) a waste of time. I was just obligating folks to assuage me. No one was going to tell me to leave. What I was really looking for is explicit confirmation about what I should actually be doing. I spoke to a couple of other banjo players about this. One shared this advice with me that I want to carry forward: > "I struggle to pick out melodies, and I feel like I spend most tunes just kind of hammering down on notes that I think are in key. Is that normal?" > > "Yes, that's what everybody does. The thing that really opened up the world to me was to stop worrying about fucking up." My biggest general regret was just not carving out more time to attend and engage with the festival. The crucial opportunity for me here was to get exposure to the music and process as an unregarded stranger. Meaning I could play poorly all weekend in the name of getting over my own anxiety (a learning process I've come to call "cranking out the bad ones"), but at the end of the festival I just go back home and forget the uncomfortable bits. If someone thinks I was the worst banjo player they've ever seen, who gives a shit? I'll never see them again. A more specific, actionable regret is that I missed the instructional clinic on Saturday. This was advertised as focusing on "Cross A" tunes. Cross A is a fiddle tuning, so I mistakenly inferred that this was a fiddle-only clinic. I'm sure it wouldn't have been a problem if I attended with my banjo. I also neglected the clinic because I was focused on participating in jams. The lesson here to carry forward is that jams are performances first and discussion beyond the name and key of a tune is secondary and incidental. In a jam, people want to play music, not talk about it. Overall, the festival was a very positive experience. I learned a lot and connected with a few musicians from my hometown that I will keep in touch with. I'll make an effort to attend next year if it's feasible, and in the meantime I will keep trying to get into the local jam scene (without being self-deprecating). I have some personal things that are taking a lot of my attention at the moment, but the most productive strategy I've found so far is to just keep interacting and keep exposing myself to the material. ## Misc If you don't know about John Brown, you should read about John Brown. => https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Brown_(abolitionist) John Brown