What to take with you when you´re from home
Last week I attended an educational meeting of American/Canadian/German colleagues near Berlin. Learned a lot there.
As I was afraid of banjo withdrawal symptoms when leaving home for one week without my 5string I decided to take it with me. There should be an opportunity to play it in the garden during a break or wherever after the training, I thought. And indeed, I could use it some time or another.
But the last evening was a blast:
As I told some of the collegues that I had a banjo with me, they urged me to bring it into the local beer cellar the last evening (well, not much urging, it was just me who announced it :-)
Five days long we had discussed serious matters during the day and had some chats in the evening (plus were proud to have accepted an invitation to a very formal reception in the US embassy in Berlin). But when I entered the beer cellar this last evening with my banjo, they all waited for music. Everybody seems to have longed for foot tapping, hand clapping, whistling to the rhythm this night. The banjo was well received! Soon the whole crowd wanted to sing the old songs.
Unfortunatly I had no song book with me, so we couldn´t do "Puff the Magic Dragon". (We didn´t know the lyrics by heart but at least a collegue clarified us about the meaning...).
Soon everybody knew one or another song which we all sang together and by such we had a great time. My playing three or four instrumentals like "Cripple Creek", "Ragtime Annie" - to which the aforementioned colleague did some great clogging - and "Foggy Mountain Breakdown" was kindly received. But the whole crowd really loved to sing songs in the group. One highlight was "Frere Jacques" in three languages (English, French and German).
This night I learned:
Music unites people (more than football :-)
NEVER forget to take my banjo with me, wherever I go - well, almost everywhere.
NEVER again forget to take a songbook with me.
Thank you very much to all colleagues at this meeting for professional exchange of information and opinions - and for this last evening!
As I was afraid of banjo withdrawal symptoms when leaving home for one week without my 5string I decided to take it with me. There should be an opportunity to play it in the garden during a break or wherever after the training, I thought. And indeed, I could use it some time or another.
But the last evening was a blast:
As I told some of the collegues that I had a banjo with me, they urged me to bring it into the local beer cellar the last evening (well, not much urging, it was just me who announced it :-)
Five days long we had discussed serious matters during the day and had some chats in the evening (plus were proud to have accepted an invitation to a very formal reception in the US embassy in Berlin). But when I entered the beer cellar this last evening with my banjo, they all waited for music. Everybody seems to have longed for foot tapping, hand clapping, whistling to the rhythm this night. The banjo was well received! Soon the whole crowd wanted to sing the old songs.
Unfortunatly I had no song book with me, so we couldn´t do "Puff the Magic Dragon". (We didn´t know the lyrics by heart but at least a collegue clarified us about the meaning...).
Soon everybody knew one or another song which we all sang together and by such we had a great time. My playing three or four instrumentals like "Cripple Creek", "Ragtime Annie" - to which the aforementioned colleague did some great clogging - and "Foggy Mountain Breakdown" was kindly received. But the whole crowd really loved to sing songs in the group. One highlight was "Frere Jacques" in three languages (English, French and German).
This night I learned:
Music unites people (more than football :-)
NEVER forget to take my banjo with me, wherever I go - well, almost everywhere.
NEVER again forget to take a songbook with me.
Thank you very much to all colleagues at this meeting for professional exchange of information and opinions - and for this last evening!
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