December Jam

Hi everyone,
At the intermediate jam in December, I intend to call the following three songs:

Wildwood Flower - D
Canaan's Land - F
Auld Lang Syne - G

In preparation for the Jan. 12th intermediate jam (and the subsequent intermediate jams in February and March), I would like to create a new main song list for the jam that consists mostly of songs that the regulars and semi-regulars at the jams intend to call during the first half of the evening at the jams.

So, if you are a regular or semi-regular at the Intermediate jams, please email me back with a short list of two, three, or four songs that you especially like to call at the Intermediate jam.

A copy of the current handouts for the intermediate jam may be found here (scroll to the bottom of the page in the link for the handouts):
Idaho Bluegrass Association - Jason's Intermediate Jam Blog 2021 - 2022

Song of the week write-ups, melody sheets, etc., and jam videos for the songs of the month can be found on the IBA website by clicking on the following links:
All of Jason's Songs - Idaho Bluegrass Association 
(write-ups for Canaan's Land and Auld Lang Syne)

(Here is an updated link to the Bill Keith recording of Auld Lang Syne, since the one I gave in the write-up no longer works: Auld Lang Syne - YouTube)

Category: Wildwood Flower - Idaho Bluegrass Association (write-up for Wildwood Flower)

Jason’s YouTube Links – Alphabetical Listing – Parisology (cyberplasm.com) (jam videos for Wildwood Flower and Canaan's Land)

Beginner Bluegrass Jam 12/12/2020 | Jam Along | Idaho Bluegrass Association | Jason Homey - YouTube (jam video for Auld Lang Syne: starts at 13:06)

In addition to listening to at least one of the recordings in the Recordings section of the write-ups for each of the three songs of the month, I recommend that singers review the Harmony & Lyrics section of the write-up for Canaan's Land and the third paragraph of the 'Vocal or Instrumental?' section of the write-up for Wildwood Flower, and that guitar and banjo players review the 'Guitar & Banjo Melody Tabs' section of the write-up for Wildwood Flower, and that banjo players review the 'Banjo: Capo & Tuning Options' section of the write-up for Canaan's Land.

As regards 'Auld Lang Syne': 

We will play this mostly as an instrumental, but perhaps sing a verse and chorus near the end of it.
Progression
The chord progression I use for Auld Lang Syne is:
1155
1144
1155
4411
Each break will run through the progression twice (32 measures in total) so that each instrument gets to play a break based upon the melody for both the verse and the chorus.

Additionally, I recommend that banjo players check out the following videos on Wildwood Flower:

Wildwood Flower played in 4 different keys on banjo:
Wildwood Flower in G, C, D, and F! // Bluegrass Banjo Lesson - YouTube

Wildwood Flower played in D tuning on banjo:
Wildwood Flower - D-Tuning - Walk Thru and Demo - Bluegrass banjo - YouTube

Finally, for a live performance of Auld Lang Syne that is arranged in the same kind of manner as how I will lead it at the jam: check out the following:
Jason Homey & The Snake River Boys (starts at 20:39)
Jason Homey and the Snake River Boys, IBA Open Mic, 12_16_19 - YouTube


Bluegrass Christmas
At the intermediate jam on December 8th, I welcome you to call Christmas songs at the jam that you would like to play that you believe would be a good 'fit' for the intermediate jam group. And you need not wait until the second half of the evening to call these. 

If you have tried adapting Christmas carols to bluegrass, then you may have noticed that some carols adapt more easily and naturally than others. Most of the ones in 3/4 time are good candidates for attempts to play them with a bluegrass feel; but of these, the ones that tend to adapt best have fewer melody notes (on average) per measure and fewer quick chord changes relative to the ones that don't adapt quite as easily.  For example, Silent Night, Away In A Manger, It Came Upon The Midnight Clear, and We Three Kings are more 'bluegrass-friendly' than The First Noel and We Wish You A Merry Christmas.  

The carols that are either in cut time (2/2) or in 2/4 (e.g., Jingle Bells, Good King Wenceslas) are natural candidates for being given a bluegrass treatment; while, on the other hand, most of the 4/4 carols (e.g., O Come All Ye Faithful,  O Little Town Of Bethlehem) need to be converted to a cut time feel in order to be played as bluegrass songs; but this can be challenging to do if one is not yet very familiar with how this kind of conversion works. Being able to do this conversion is useful not only for creating bluegrass arrangements of Christmas carols, but also for many other songs from various different genres.

Christmas/Seasonal songs that have been played in past years at the December through early January jams include:

Angels We Have Heard On High
*Auld Lang Syne
*Away In A Manger 
*Beautiful Star Of Bethlehem
Christmas In Prison
Deck The Halls
The First Noel
Go Tell It On The Mountain
*God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
*Good King Wenceslas
Ihr Kinderlein, kommet
*Jingle Bells
Lasst uns froh und munter sein
Let It Snow
*O Come All Ye Faithful
*O Little Town Of Bethlehem
Santa Looks Alot Like Daddy 
*Shepherds In The Field 
*Silent Night
*What Child Is This

For the songs marked with asterisks, there is information on the IBA website: in some cases complete song of the week write-ups (with melody sheets and recordings), while in other cases, only the chord progression is given. All of Jason's Songs - Idaho Bluegrass Association (Chord progressions for several Christmas songs are given in the O Little Town Of Bethlehem song of the week write-up on the website. Intermediate Bluegrass Jam Songs - Idaho Bluegrass Association)

In addition to the jam videos available here Jason’s YouTube Links – Alphabetical Listing – Parisology (cyberplasm.com) for Away In A Manger, Beautiful Star Of Bethlehem, God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, Good King Wenceslas, O Little Town Of Bethlehem, and Silent Night, I have also made a jam video that includes Jingle Bells, Shepherds In The Field, and Auld Lang Syne (Beginner Bluegrass Jam 12/12/2020 | Jam Along | Idaho Bluegrass Association | Jason Homey - YouTube), and a jam video that includes Joy To The World, We Three Kings, and What Child Is This Intermediate Bluegrass Jam 12/12/2020 | Jam Along | Idaho Bluegrass Association | Jason Homey - YouTube

Finally, here is a live performance from the December 2019 IBA open mic of 6 Christmas/Seasonal songs (O Little Town Of Bethlehem, Away In A Manger, Good King Wenceslas, Silent Night, Shepherds In The Field, and Auld Lang Syne) by Jason Homey & The Snake River Boys:
Jason Homey and the Snake River Boys, IBA Open Mic, 12_16_19 - YouTube

Happy Pickin',
Jason