Squirrels @ The Roxbury

July 15th, 2008

We’ll be out at the The Roxbury Tavern so come on out for some of the finest food, drink and bluegrass in the Madison area. With no cover charge it’s like getting your first beer free!

Save Quicktime Movies Without Quicktime Pro

July 15th, 2008

These instructions work the same on Mac or Windows
Applications used in this demo

- Firefox 3.0
- Quicktime 7.5

Quicktime is a great free application if you’re not interested in coughing up $30 for Quicktime Pro. The main feature Pro gives you is the ability to easily download Quicktime movies from the internet but there is a way around this for the frugal.

To download a movie you’ll need it’s full address such as
http://www.seanray.com/movies/pikecountybreakdown.mov

Once you have entered this address into Firefox and allowed the video to load (wait for the grey progress bar to turn completely grey) select “Save Page As….” from Firefox’s “File” menu.

In the Save As window that will appear choose the destination where you would like to save the file and click save.

Now the movie will be stored on your hard drive and open with either version of Quicktime.

Pike County Breakdown

July 13th, 2008


Click image to play
QuickTime 7 required.



For download info & playback options refer to this article

Pike County Breakdown is a Bill Monroe tune that Earl Scruggs made popular. It has a single string lick that can be a little tricky but it’s an essential part of the melody. I use my thumb and index finger to play this lick though you could use thumb and middle or even incorporate a forward roll. The Chord structure is similar to Old Joe Clark and is played out of the G position with the capo at the 2nd fret. This tune tends to get butchered at jams since there are countless ways to play the backup. When in doubt play the tonic and avoid heavy accents.

New Camptown Races

July 13th, 2008


Click image to play
QuickTime 7 required.



For download info & playback options refer to this article

New Camptown Races is a Frank Wakefield tune that he played with Red Allen. It’s usually played in Bb or occasionally B natural. I play it in Bb (G position, capo at 3rd). The chords with the capo on are G, C, D, Em, A. The signature lick of the tune can be played by holding an Em7 chord and picking out the notes.