Future Now
The IFTF Blog
Marina Gorbis guest blogs for BoingBoing.net: Kids on Bluegrass
In today's BoingBoing guest blog, Marina discusses bluegrass festivals, and the young and old musicians who gather, teach, learn, and play at them. Below is an excerpt from the post, which can be read in full here:
The title of this post is actually the name of the program started by the California Bluegrass Association, an organization that brings together young pickers, ages 3 to 18, to play at various bluegrass festivals. Before I, or more precisely, my son and his friends, found bluegrass, I could never imagine that this traditional American music genre could be the epicenter of young musical talent. And when I mean young, I mean very young. I've seen some amazingly hot pickers who are under 10! What I love about bluegrass festivals is that there is as much great music offstage as on, in the campground where small and large groups, many including very young musicians, jam together. Bluegrass is the ideal medium for these musicians. The basic chords are easy to learn, bluegrass jams are cross-generational affairs with pros often happy to share their skills with novices, and the music is highly social and ad hoc, i.e. you can play acoustic instruments virtually anywhere without any major set up. Although the chords are easy, the possibilities for virtuosity in this genre are immense (think Chris Thile , Bela Fleck , or Bryan Sutton). I also love the fact that at most any bluegrass festivals you can see the "stars," mixing with the audience or standing in line for coffee just like anyone else. Imagine such a thing at a huge rock festival.
Links to Marina's previous BoingBoing posts:
Personal Transformations in the Internet Age
Socialstructing: Statement of Social Currency
Collecting dead souls in social media
Socialstructing: Bringing social back into our economy and organizations