For those of you living in Winlock, or near enough to come by, we host a monthly jam on the second Saturday of the month from October thru May. (We quit the regular ones thru the summer because of all the festivals.)

NEXT SLOW JAM

February 11, 2011 at the Hope Grange, 120 Antrim Road, Winlock, Wa  starting at 1 pm til 4pm.

Slow Jam starts at 1 pm and lasts till approx 4 pm. There is a snack type potluck inbetween so bring your favorite snack

For our tune of the month for February I have chosen "That was Before I Met You". I thought this most fitting for the month of Valentines.  A perfect tune to play for your sweetheart, or to your favorite pet :) There isnt anything difficult about this song and you wont have any problems with it. Tryi finding tremelos (mandolin) and double stops (Guitar). If you play this song correctly your sure to get an extra biscuit at your Valentines dinner. See you at the jam! 

Click links below. 

That was Before I Met You PDF File

 

That was before I Met You Sound Byte

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To Download our WAMA SLOW JAM CHORD SHEET (updated October 9, 2011) Please click here

WAMA Tune of the Month

This page will hold our tune of the month along with sound bytes as they become available. It will also hold the sound bytes from tunes in our newsletters that are exclusive to WAMA members. To get the music notation/tablature please consider joining WAMA. You get 6 great newsletters per year for a mere $15 and help support and promote  Acoustic Music.

Sound Bytes for WAMA  Breakdown Newsletter

Just click on Link to listen.  You can save the file by right clicking on file and then choosing "save target as" , name the file , and then download into your computer.

From our May 2010 Newsletter. A great Norman Blake tune of which I tried to capture as best as I could to Norman's arrangement.
Headlight Reel Slow
Headlight Reel Fast

From our July 2010 Newsletter, Planxty George Brabazon arranged by Robin Kessinger, but recorded by Marv Sobolesky with rhythm by John buck (sorry Robin, I tried my best to sound like you but I failed ...Marv)
Planxty George Brabazon Slow
Planxty George Brabazon Fast

From our October 2010 Newsletter, Hopscotch Polka my own person arrangment. You dont hear this one flatpicked very much , if ever, but is a good tune for helping celebrate Octoberfest.  It changes Keys three times and warrants an "oompah" style rhythm. Grab a Tuba player and your in business. You shouldnt have too much trouble with this one.
Hopscotch Polka Slow
Hopscotch Polka Fast

From our December 2010 newsletter, a rendition of Silver Bells with some great ideas from Dan Crary. It opens and closes with a beautiful Bell Harmonic sound on the guitar. I arranged a basic meloldy as best I could in the Key of E to facilitate using Dan's opening .  John Buck helped me record this and we did it in one shot and left the misakes in there to make it sound more real. Its only recorded at one speed. Enjoy!
Silver Bells

From our February 2011 newsletter, in honor of JS Bach's upcoming birthday, I have presented "Minuet in G" for Guitar, Mandolin, Fiddle, and Banjo. This is a great tune to add to your repetoire no matter what style of music you prefer. Classical music can be really tricky with its timing and note intervals. I added a 2nd guitar part to mimic a Cello, which can be quite hard to find in a Bluegrass/ Old Time Jam.  Have fun with this one! Tablature and Music Notation is only available to WAMA members via the newsletter. Its easy to join WAMA.

Minuet in G

From our April 2011 newsleter I thought it fitting to include a song from the Civll War. This year and month marks the 150th Anniversary of the start of this war. I recently rewatched the Civil War Series by Ken Burns and noticed that in addition to playing Ashoken's Farewell, there was another familiar song playing in the background. After a little research I discovered it to be "The Bonnie Blue Flag" which sounds quite a bit like "Coleman's March"    This is a great song to learn and easy to recognize that its from the time period of the Civil War.  Music Notation/Tab is available to WAMA members via the newsletter.

Bonnie Blue Flag Slow

Bonnie Blue Flag Fast


From our August newsletter here is "Harvest Home" sound file in celebration of this time of year when a lot of us are harvesting our crops and preparing them for the coming winter months. This is a common Celtic Jam tune and in its original state, pretty tricky to play with a lot of triplets. I arranged this song to make it a bit easier to play as comparted to the orginial, but still plenty of right hand work to make it a bit of a challenge. Learn this tune and get together and jam with other WAMA members. Its sure to make its way into your arsenal of songs. Have fun with it

Harvest Home

For our October newsletter, I thought another polka would be in order. After doing some research I found a great song entitled "Richmond Polka" that was recorded by Clark Kessinger in 1966. Using the ideas and tools that I learned from Dan Crary I used a slow downer program and did the best that I could in trying to interpet the notes. I think I got the basic melody. Clark put hundreds of "ghost notes" in his recording and I tried to decipher what notes were important. Amaziing stuff. The music notation/tabbed version is available to WAMA members who get the newsletter.


Richmond Polka


I chose Coventry Carol for our December WAMA Newsletter. I heard of this song many years ago but didnt learn it until about a month ago. It has a haunting sound to it but has a happy ending when it slips into a major chord. You will learn this one fairly quickly. Get together with some friends and have fun with it! Music Notation/Tab is included in the WAMA newsletter.

Conventry Carol