Playing in public

We went to a feast on Easter day, on a horse farm in Hadley. The horses were in the fields around the house, not on the menu, I am happy to report.

What was a little more stressy was that we were on the menu. We were sitting down with a musical household, and part of the deal was that we should bring along our banjos and take part.

I have played the banjo for decades, and used to play in public fairly frequently; but for the past 15 years or so I have played mainly for my own pleasure. I am mine own iTunes service. Rebekah has just taken it up this past year, although she has made much more progress in that time than I have in all my years of playing.

Even when I was playing in public it was mainly to enable group singing. Not for me the lightning three-finger plucking or power frailing you hear from "real" musicians.

I have rarely played with other musicians. There are two main reasons. The first is that I know clearly and painfully how very, very good I am not. I don't practice rigorously, and I follow no plan for improving my skills. I just plink.

The second reason has to do with repertoire. Banjo players often form part of bands that play lovely, lively pieces while everybody else swings their partners. For the musicians and the dancers to really lose themselves in the event, everybody needs to know three music really well, and to be confident about what will happen next. You could put an eye out with a fiddle bow or an elbow, otherwise.

So there is a quasi-mythical list of The Hundred Songs You Have To Know. And I know maybe three of them. On the band platform, I am mainly useful as ballast.

So tensions were a little higher than was ideal when we set out for the feast. But the resident musicians were gracious, and we even got to play a couple of our party pieces that are not on The List, but that we actually know.

And the whole experience reminded me that, while I definitely should not play my banjo at every unprotected ear, there are occasions when it, and I, can actually adorn the pleasure of an event. And that I should definitely dare to be an adornment more often.