Hello everyone.
As a guitarist who plays mostly finger style country blues, bottleneck, etc., I've been dipping in to Old Time music a bit, listening, and occasionally playing with a few other players and singers, and I've sat in on several jams. I'm becoming increasingly fascinated with the music, and the Older Timier, the better frankly. Anything with a drone has my interest!
As a guitarist, I'm almost exclusively a finger picker, and am not terribly interested in flatpicking, and given that, guitar in an Old Time context isn't the most interesting way of getting in to the music for me; and it's almost too easy. Plus, my thinking is, by keeping guitar oriented mainly for blues, and banjo mainly for old time, it keeps things a little more simple conceptually, at least for now. I can keep repertoires neatly divided in two.
I've always loved the sound of banjo, and have found myself rather haunted by some of the older repertoire that precedes anything being played on steel string guitar. I certainly have no interest in playing bluegrass.
As I've been reading and talking and learning, it's clear that clawhammer and/or other early styles are the sound I'm drawn to.
I played a tiny bit on a couple Goodtimes and Gold Tones, borrowing very basic instruction from online tutorials and talking to people...and...long story short....
...I think I want to take the plunge.
Should I? (why ask? :) )
And is there a recommended 'best available' means to getting properly introduced?
I'm a strong believer in one-on-one instruction with a teacher. I started playing classical piano at the age of six, and studied guitar quite seriously later on, as well as drums. I've been a musician for almost 40 years, sometimes semi-professionally, so aptitude and discipline are not lacking. Adequate time might be. I've already ordered both Art Rosenbaum's seminal Mountain Banjo book as well as Perlman's Clawhammer book. But I can't escape the feeling that I'll do best with some actual in-person instruction.
I'm in Los Angeles.
Thoughts? Ideas? Tips?