Jam Report #6: 3/11/01
Mar. 11th, 2001 02:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
annathepiperAs originally posted to the OKP. Transcribed to Livejournal 10/2/05.
We actually make it through a take of "Jolly Butcher"; we do a lot of harmony work on "General Taylor". I figure out where to put the trill in the piccolo twiddles on "Mari Mac". Songs: "Chemical Worker's Song", "Jolly Butcher", "Consequence Free", "General Taylor", "Mari Mac".
Another reduced session -- down the Tewsons again, and at least for the initial part of the session we were down Monica as well. So this session started off with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
mamishka (Mimi) and Fred playing with the drum part on "The Chemical Worker's Song", and trying to see if they could get the tabla drums and the bodhran to play nicely together.
Then Monica showed up, so she andssha (Cyn) and solarbird (Dara) and I started futzing around with "Jolly Butcher". We actually had to go upstairs to futz separately from the drummers, since unlike Gaelic Storm, we can't play two songs at once while plastered and sound good doing it. Moreover, none of us were plastered.
We got Mimi and Fred back fairly quickly, though, so we came back downstairs again so that we could all futz with "Jolly Butcher" together. And for once we actually made it through the song, even though I'm still shaky on the high notes on Shine when we play the song up to speed. But we got through it, and even without anyone shouting profanities in the middle. This was a satisfying first.
Moving on to "Consequence Free", we discovered that we really, and I mean really, need to work on the bridge of that song, but we had a few scary measures in there where we actually sounded pretty good. We also had some scary measures in there where we sounded pretty awful, so this ditty is going to need some work. We're still not sure what key we think we're going to do it in, either, since our guitar tabs were in one key and the song on the disc is played in another -- though this little discrepancy was helped when Monica hauled out an actual capo! Then we kicked into A alright, as it was the key favored by the majority of our present singers.
(By now, though, my throat was starting to hurt -- because since we had nokathrynt (Kathryn), I wound up doing much more singing than I usually do. My voice started to crack a couple of times in the middle of "Consequence Free", and I determined that the key of A is not friendly to the voice of the Piper.)
"General Taylor" was arguably the highlight of this session, though, with five of us singing a capella and producing some credible harmony. Mimi sang the lead, Monica carried the harmony normally sung by Alan on the discs, and Fred and Cyn carried Darrell's part, while I waffled somewhat between what Monica was singing and what I think is the part sung by Bob on the disc. This was a good chunk of evidence, though, that we have enough decent singers among us to sound good if we work at it.
Lastly, we did "Mari Mac" again, though we were somewhat hampered by missing our alpha guitar and Kathryn, currently in possession of the best voice capable of belting out that ditty at speed. Mimi and Cyn handled the lyrics pretty well but they got somewhat overwhelmed by the instruments, so we need to figure out a better balance between our singers and our players on this one. Tempo's still shaky as are the breaks between chorus and verse -- we haven't yet managed to nail down whether we're doing two measures there or three. But on the up side, I have some piccolo twiddles I'm satisfied with, and I'm playing those while my partner takes the melody line on his flute. I've even managed to figure out a good way to trill where our boy Bob is sawing away on the fiddle. ;)
The pie: dutch apple, bringing us back around full circle. We have had votes in for key lime, but haven't been able to find any. Sob.
Next week: not happening, on account of on the 18th, we all plan to be exhausted and/or hungover following the Great Big Sea and Paperboys show at the Showbox. Watch this space for a review, all!
We actually make it through a take of "Jolly Butcher"; we do a lot of harmony work on "General Taylor". I figure out where to put the trill in the piccolo twiddles on "Mari Mac". Songs: "Chemical Worker's Song", "Jolly Butcher", "Consequence Free", "General Taylor", "Mari Mac".
Another reduced session -- down the Tewsons again, and at least for the initial part of the session we were down Monica as well. So this session started off with
mamishka (Mimi) and Fred playing with the drum part on "The Chemical Worker's Song", and trying to see if they could get the tabla drums and the bodhran to play nicely together.Then Monica showed up, so she and
ssha (Cyn) and solarbird (Dara) and I started futzing around with "Jolly Butcher". We actually had to go upstairs to futz separately from the drummers, since unlike Gaelic Storm, we can't play two songs at once while plastered and sound good doing it. Moreover, none of us were plastered.We got Mimi and Fred back fairly quickly, though, so we came back downstairs again so that we could all futz with "Jolly Butcher" together. And for once we actually made it through the song, even though I'm still shaky on the high notes on Shine when we play the song up to speed. But we got through it, and even without anyone shouting profanities in the middle. This was a satisfying first.
Moving on to "Consequence Free", we discovered that we really, and I mean really, need to work on the bridge of that song, but we had a few scary measures in there where we actually sounded pretty good. We also had some scary measures in there where we sounded pretty awful, so this ditty is going to need some work. We're still not sure what key we think we're going to do it in, either, since our guitar tabs were in one key and the song on the disc is played in another -- though this little discrepancy was helped when Monica hauled out an actual capo! Then we kicked into A alright, as it was the key favored by the majority of our present singers.
(By now, though, my throat was starting to hurt -- because since we had no
kathrynt (Kathryn), I wound up doing much more singing than I usually do. My voice started to crack a couple of times in the middle of "Consequence Free", and I determined that the key of A is not friendly to the voice of the Piper.)"General Taylor" was arguably the highlight of this session, though, with five of us singing a capella and producing some credible harmony. Mimi sang the lead, Monica carried the harmony normally sung by Alan on the discs, and Fred and Cyn carried Darrell's part, while I waffled somewhat between what Monica was singing and what I think is the part sung by Bob on the disc. This was a good chunk of evidence, though, that we have enough decent singers among us to sound good if we work at it.
Lastly, we did "Mari Mac" again, though we were somewhat hampered by missing our alpha guitar and Kathryn, currently in possession of the best voice capable of belting out that ditty at speed. Mimi and Cyn handled the lyrics pretty well but they got somewhat overwhelmed by the instruments, so we need to figure out a better balance between our singers and our players on this one. Tempo's still shaky as are the breaks between chorus and verse -- we haven't yet managed to nail down whether we're doing two measures there or three. But on the up side, I have some piccolo twiddles I'm satisfied with, and I'm playing those while my partner takes the melody line on his flute. I've even managed to figure out a good way to trill where our boy Bob is sawing away on the fiddle. ;)
The pie: dutch apple, bringing us back around full circle. We have had votes in for key lime, but haven't been able to find any. Sob.
Next week: not happening, on account of on the 18th, we all plan to be exhausted and/or hungover following the Great Big Sea and Paperboys show at the Showbox. Watch this space for a review, all!