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In early 2000 my parents divorced . While I wasn ' t angry with them it was really hard on me because I knew things were never going to be the same . I moved in with my mom and sister across town and , since I didn ' t have as many distractions , started pouring myself into the tenor banjo . Having become obsessed with single-note playing I would often practice seven-plus hours a day . I became friends with Juergen Kulus who sent me lots of Harry Reser music written in the old style octave notation . As this was confusing to me , I would listen to the recordings of Reser and try my best to play most of it by ear , only using the sheet music for the parts I couldn ' t get . I also began to buy up banjo LPs on eBay … Harry Reser , Eddie Peabody , Perry Bechtel , and others , staying in my room for hours absorbing it all . Although it was a hard time for me personally , that was a pivotal period in my banjo development .
For me , Buddy had bigger things in mind , taking me to some of the four-string banjo festivals around the country . My first such experience was at the Guthrie Jazz Banjo Festival in 1998 … I just remember being in awe of all the great banjoists that were there . Buddy is a great promoter and was really proud of me . Of course , being young got me a lot of attention which led to growing self-confidence . But then one day it hit me , ‘ I have to live up to all the hype !’ Understanding that only made me work harder as I wanted to make sure the product Buddy was promoting would deliver what he promised . I teamed up with another of Buddy ’ s star pupils , Sam Webb and we ultimately did a stint in Branson as The Banjo Boys . While those were great days , little did I know that a big turning point in my life was coming up …
While I was always aware that you could play any style of music on the banjo , it was much later that I began to appreciate playing musically and not just banjoistically . A big push to that conclusion came when I met Buddy Wachter . While he ’ s been a constant and tremendous influence on my music , it ’ s interesting to note that we had , and have only ever had , one formal lesson ( which lasted about five hours at the late Jim Stull ' s house back in 1999 ). I recorded the whole thing on VHS and have watched it countless times – seeing something new each time - and finally understanding some of the things he tried to teach me . In addition to helping me change a couple of bad playing habits , Buddy encouraged me to listen to some really incredible musicians - besides just banjo players … Django
24 ALL FRETS SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2020