https://banjobenclark.com/lessons/the-art-of-listening-with-michael-mark-intermediate
Hey all, Michael here! It was an honor and a blast to create a session for you guys. I decided to take a bit of an unconventional approach. This isn’t a lesson on how to play anything—we’re just going to listen through three exemplary tracks of amazing bluegrass and talk about what we notice in them that makes them so great. I hope you’ll pardon any disjointedness!
I’ve been awake since midnight, so I can’t start this now, but looking forward to checking it out tomorrow.
“Blue Railroad Train” is one of my favorite tracks. My first introduction to Tony Rice was when he was on the TNN show “American Music Shop” back in the 80s or 90s, and the song was “Blue Railroad Train”. I agree, that arrangement is awesome. The vibe of the song is so different than the 40s Delmore Brothers recording of the song (more mellow and restrained). I enjoyed this lesson.
As soon as I started watching I thought “Man I hope he uses the Bluegrass Album Band.” I was not disappointed.
I don’t really listen to Manzanita much, being a banjo player and all, but your take was as brilliant as expected. “It’s like the Chekhov’s gun of music” 
That was a great analogy!
I’d never heard that last song, but I can see why you picked it to study. It’s freaking brilliant. This may sound silly, but the thing that jumped out of that song into my ears the most was near the end of the fiddle break, right before that chromatic walk up back into the vocals, the whole band hits a passing C chord. I was like “WHOA! That wasn’t supposed to be there… but it sure sounded good!”
Great job, Michael! I hope a lot of folks take the time to watch your videos. You really know how to convey music appreciation.
This is a great, refreshing lesson. I always thought it was strange how when you start learning to play an instrument, you suddenly start to hear that instrument in songs you have listened too many times before but didn’t hear it before. It’s like when you buy a new car and then suddenly see the same make and model all over the road when you didn’t notice it before.
Great lesson! I appreciate the thought put into the lesson and pointing out parts of each song that I would not have paid attention to. Reminds me that I should listen more intently. Haven’t heard Nickel Creek before but will be a fan moving forward.
If IT is your thing, perhaps you’ll get my analogy. Every lesson on this site is GUI but this one is CLI. (with high compliments and my appreciation to both).
Ping TonyRice-GTR
Pinging TonyRice-GTR from JD-BJO with 32nd notes of data:
Reply from TonyRice-GTR
Reply from TonyRice-GTR
Reply from TonyRice-GTR
Reply from TonyRice-GTR
Reply from TonyRice-GTR <- (bluegrass measure)
This is great. Would definitely track this as a regular feature. Thanks!
