Jam Report #12: 6/3/01
Jun. 3rd, 2001 12:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
annathepiperAs originally posted to the OKP. Transcribed to Livejournal 10/3/05.
Monica shows up with her brand new bodhran; no Patrick, as he has mono; time signature debates on "Bushes and Briars"; I startle Mimi by my version of "Eenie meenie minie mo". Songs: "Bushes and Briars", "Little Beggarman", "The Chemical Worker's Song".
Another comparatively small session and fairly laid back as well. Two out of our three guitar players were out --![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
spazzkat (Paul) for feeling, quote, "oogy", unquote, though poor daspatrick (Patrick) beats him out for having MONO. We're still much missing our wayward sailor as Fred is as sea, too. This did, however, leave the flute section, kathrynt (Kathryn), ssha (Cyn), Monica, and a somewhat belated mamishka (Mimi), drawn in by the promise of Monica's brand new bodhran.
We tried a new ditty first off this time -- something called "Bushes and Briars" off a CD compilation of Celtic music of Cyn's. Slower than some of us have a taste for, but it was kind of fun and different to do something in the key of C minor. I actually had to break out my silver flute for this since none of my bamboos could easily talk that key except for Finch, and little bitty Finch's voice was just not right for the song. Dara demonstrated that she actually is more comfortable playing accidentals on bamboo flutes than I am -- since I come from a flutes-with-keys background and she comes from a recorder one, she's more accustomed to the whole notion of half-covering the holes in one's instrument. So her big flute Schizoid, native key of C major, did JUST fine on this ditty.
We also had some time signature debates about this ditty, with Cyn and I coming down in favor of 4/4 (or 2/4) and Kathryn and Monica swearing up and down that it was 6/8. The piece actually kind of works in 6/8, as we proved on our initial run-through, but a double-check of the CD confirmed yep, that puppy's in duple and not triple. Cyn and I were vindicated. ;)
Kathryn worked out a chord progression for Monica, and our singers, armed with lyrics, started in. I wound up deciding to play low on my silver for the first two verses and kicked up an octave on the third and fourth -- at which point we also had the pleasure of Mimi coming in on her big djembe.
Monica came down in firm favor of trying to play this ditty Great Big Sea style -- "THIS is how they play this in Newfoundland!" -- and proceeded to whip through the chord progression at GBS-tempo. Which actually kind of worked, though we didn't do more than ad-lib a few bars. ;)
By the time we were done playing around with this song it was around four, but we decided to keep going anyway since we didn't want to have just one song in the session. Next up: "Little Beggarman".
We have to whip through this one pretty quickly, too. Kathryn says she can get out each verse on one breath, but she really has to smoke to do it, so we have to keep the tempo up. Cyn's trying to learn a violin part for it (and her current loaner violin sounded quite nice), and the tempo makes it a bit tough for her, but there is definite promise there. I kicked back to Shine for this ditty, though I'm still not entirely content with my twiddles.
Last but not least, "The Chemical Worker's Song", which we hadn't done in some time, and which was selected over "General Taylor" after a process of painstaking deliberation (read: "Eenie meenie minie mo", which also featured Mimi's blinking startledly when I recited catching a RABBIT by the toe instead of a TIGER). Monica and Mimi both sang melody on this, while Kathryn and Cyn and I tried a middle harmony (though the problem was that at least in some places, Kathryn and I were singing the SAME harmony and we need to work on that), and Cyn came in an octave below the melody. We did a couple of takes of this, once with Mimi playing around with the new bodhran and determining that it hadn't quite yet settled into a truly proper voice, and once with kicking back to the djembe.
We actually have started playing a couple different things faster than Great Big Sea does them, frighteningly enough. Even more frightening, this time around, we got closer than we ever have yet to getting something postable to the Web; our last take of "Chemical Worker's Song" was described by Dara as something she almost wouldn't have been embarrassed to put out in public. But with the volume on the djembe in comparison to all of us singing making it sound as if Godzilla had dropped by with a giant Jew's harp to play along with us, we have some issues to work out with our sound mixing. ;)
We all miss Patrick horribly and he has been sharing his frustration at his illness and graduation stress by posting haiku to our group's mailing list.
We will also be horribly missing Mimi, as as of this morning she has just taken off to the east coast to do some artwork for a dear friend of the Murkworks, so we will be down our alpha drummer until she returns in July.
In the meantime, the Murkjammers (though we're STILL vaguely fond of "Three Good Measures" as our collective name) may well be picking up a couple more people. Ben, one of our housemates who plays a number of guitars, is making interested noises about joining in on our efforts, and so is his significant other Euphoria, who plays violin. More bulletins on this as events warrant.
Oh, and the pie? We finally found key lime. YUM. ;)
More again in two weeks!
Monica shows up with her brand new bodhran; no Patrick, as he has mono; time signature debates on "Bushes and Briars"; I startle Mimi by my version of "Eenie meenie minie mo". Songs: "Bushes and Briars", "Little Beggarman", "The Chemical Worker's Song".
Another comparatively small session and fairly laid back as well. Two out of our three guitar players were out --
spazzkat (Paul) for feeling, quote, "oogy", unquote, though poor daspatrick (Patrick) beats him out for having MONO. We're still much missing our wayward sailor as Fred is as sea, too. This did, however, leave the flute section, kathrynt (Kathryn), ssha (Cyn), Monica, and a somewhat belated mamishka (Mimi), drawn in by the promise of Monica's brand new bodhran.We tried a new ditty first off this time -- something called "Bushes and Briars" off a CD compilation of Celtic music of Cyn's. Slower than some of us have a taste for, but it was kind of fun and different to do something in the key of C minor. I actually had to break out my silver flute for this since none of my bamboos could easily talk that key except for Finch, and little bitty Finch's voice was just not right for the song. Dara demonstrated that she actually is more comfortable playing accidentals on bamboo flutes than I am -- since I come from a flutes-with-keys background and she comes from a recorder one, she's more accustomed to the whole notion of half-covering the holes in one's instrument. So her big flute Schizoid, native key of C major, did JUST fine on this ditty.
We also had some time signature debates about this ditty, with Cyn and I coming down in favor of 4/4 (or 2/4) and Kathryn and Monica swearing up and down that it was 6/8. The piece actually kind of works in 6/8, as we proved on our initial run-through, but a double-check of the CD confirmed yep, that puppy's in duple and not triple. Cyn and I were vindicated. ;)
Kathryn worked out a chord progression for Monica, and our singers, armed with lyrics, started in. I wound up deciding to play low on my silver for the first two verses and kicked up an octave on the third and fourth -- at which point we also had the pleasure of Mimi coming in on her big djembe.
Monica came down in firm favor of trying to play this ditty Great Big Sea style -- "THIS is how they play this in Newfoundland!" -- and proceeded to whip through the chord progression at GBS-tempo. Which actually kind of worked, though we didn't do more than ad-lib a few bars. ;)
By the time we were done playing around with this song it was around four, but we decided to keep going anyway since we didn't want to have just one song in the session. Next up: "Little Beggarman".
We have to whip through this one pretty quickly, too. Kathryn says she can get out each verse on one breath, but she really has to smoke to do it, so we have to keep the tempo up. Cyn's trying to learn a violin part for it (and her current loaner violin sounded quite nice), and the tempo makes it a bit tough for her, but there is definite promise there. I kicked back to Shine for this ditty, though I'm still not entirely content with my twiddles.
Last but not least, "The Chemical Worker's Song", which we hadn't done in some time, and which was selected over "General Taylor" after a process of painstaking deliberation (read: "Eenie meenie minie mo", which also featured Mimi's blinking startledly when I recited catching a RABBIT by the toe instead of a TIGER). Monica and Mimi both sang melody on this, while Kathryn and Cyn and I tried a middle harmony (though the problem was that at least in some places, Kathryn and I were singing the SAME harmony and we need to work on that), and Cyn came in an octave below the melody. We did a couple of takes of this, once with Mimi playing around with the new bodhran and determining that it hadn't quite yet settled into a truly proper voice, and once with kicking back to the djembe.
We actually have started playing a couple different things faster than Great Big Sea does them, frighteningly enough. Even more frightening, this time around, we got closer than we ever have yet to getting something postable to the Web; our last take of "Chemical Worker's Song" was described by Dara as something she almost wouldn't have been embarrassed to put out in public. But with the volume on the djembe in comparison to all of us singing making it sound as if Godzilla had dropped by with a giant Jew's harp to play along with us, we have some issues to work out with our sound mixing. ;)
We all miss Patrick horribly and he has been sharing his frustration at his illness and graduation stress by posting haiku to our group's mailing list.
We will also be horribly missing Mimi, as as of this morning she has just taken off to the east coast to do some artwork for a dear friend of the Murkworks, so we will be down our alpha drummer until she returns in July.
In the meantime, the Murkjammers (though we're STILL vaguely fond of "Three Good Measures" as our collective name) may well be picking up a couple more people. Ben, one of our housemates who plays a number of guitars, is making interested noises about joining in on our efforts, and so is his significant other Euphoria, who plays violin. More bulletins on this as events warrant.
Oh, and the pie? We finally found key lime. YUM. ;)
More again in two weeks!