Jam Report #15: 7/1/01
Jul. 1st, 2001 12:31 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 stands in as Guest Jam Reporter, as I am in Kentucky for this session; Cyn breaks in her new fiddle part for "Mari-Mac", written for her by Kathryn; Dara plays her parts AND my parts on "Mari-Mac"; impromptu belting out of "O Canada" in honor of Canada Day, though nobody really knows the words; my twiddles are missed on "Jolly Butcher" and the dulcimer's presence is lauded; Kathryn breaks in a harp part on "Bushes and Briars".
Murkworks Jam report # Heaven only knows…
Today we realized just how much we appreciate Anna. We also realized how generally interdependent we have become when playing music, but mostly we realized how much we all rely on Anna. Not only did I totally forget I had volunteered to be our chronicler until pie time (and admit it, Anna leaves pretty big shoes to fill in this realm), with her twiddles’ noticeable absence we discovered that we all really cue off of her for a lot of stuff. Kathryn in particular noticed this when she suddenly had no idea when to come in on “Jolly Butcher.” But we’ll get to that in a minute. Like a good Presbyterian, I am going to try my darndest to do this “decently and in order.” (Okay, that’s only funny if you’re a Presbyterian in the states, but…well I am that.)
So. We started off with several takes, and several near-takes, of “Mari-Mac.” Today we had the added pleasure of a brand-spankin’-new fiddle part for Cyn, which Kathryn had faithfully scribed for her. Kathryn later said that the whole time she was writing out all those sixteenth-notes she kept saying, “I’m sorry, Cyn,” under her breath. But even though it was a very difficult part, Cyn loved it because it sounds totally wicked (very similar to what Bob does live, actually), and it really adds that one missing element to the song which will allow it to be absolutely kick-ass rather than just good. Now, if we can only all get over how cool it is to hear the fiddle as we’re playing and concentrate a wee bit more on what we’re supposed to be doing (me in particular—holy cow I sucked on this one today!), we might actually have something presentable.
I should mention that we didn’t miss Anna quite as much on “Mari-Mac” as we did on “Jolly Butcher” because Dar proved that she is indeed leading the double life of a superhero, carrying off both her and Anna’s parts with great aplomb. And I do mean aplomb in the sense of a ballet dancer having that perfect equilibrium and balance which enables her to maintain stability in a pose or movement; we were all a little worried that she was going to asphyxiate herself when she announced that she was going to attempt both parts at once, but she really carried it off well. Except for the added volume having two flutes enables, we could hardly tell Anna wasn’t right there with us.
I think it was about when we finished up with “Mari-Mac” (gave up is more like it in my case) that Fred piped up wishing us all a happy Canada Day. Oh, to have been in Halifax! Since we couldn’t be there to see the b’ys on Citadel Hill, we performed a rousing and impromptu rendition of “O Canada.” The only problem was that none of us knew all the words. So we ended up with something along the lines of:
Well, at least we tried. Our hearts are in the right place. And considering how few Americans actually know all the words to even one verse of our own national anthem (I think there are four), I figure we did pretty well with Canada’s.
Next it was on to butchering the “Jolly Butcher.” (I love saying that. Ask anybody in our group and they’ll corroborate, I say it every time.) Here we missed Anna more, because the first few times through nobody could remember what Anna did in between verses, and it quickly became apparent that Kathryn depended on whatever twiddles Anna did to cue her for when to come in. Eventually, though, Dar came to the rescue again (more super-hero-ness! I’m telling you this girl is leading a double life!), having pieced together an approximation of Anna’s twiddles between verses. On listening to the recording of this one, we noticed just how much Fred’s dulcimer really adds to the sound—yay, Fred!
We actually had a couple of takes of this song that were quite good. Near post-able one was, except for a few minor train-wrecks in the middle. But that’s the thing—when we started doing this six months ago (yes, it’s really been that long!), most of what we played was train-wreck, with three (or so) good measures spaced sporadically through the middle. Now we’ve reversed that. Further evidence that wonders will indeed never cease.
Next we took a little break wherein we discussed just how much we were realizing our need of Anna, and how we really notice it whenever any member of our group is missing from a session—we were also missing Paul today, as we allowed him to ditch us in favour of doing laundry (can’t have the boy running around in unwashed clothes…), and of course Mimi’s been gone for a couple of weeks. Missing members of the group when they aren’t present is just one more piece of evidence telling us we are becoming more and more like a “real band.” I think it was last week that we realized that the majority of us are now unemployed (we all used to be employed, but between dot-com layoffs and the general nastiness of other employers, namely my former employer, now only three amongst us have jobs). This week’s biggest revelation was regarding me, though, so I think that makes it extra-important: I begin each day with a handful of pills—a sure sign I am destined for stardom. Granted, most of my pills are of the vitamin variety, but they’re pills nonetheless!
Following our interlude of revelations, we moved on to other musical explorations, this time in the form of a piece called “Bushes and Briars.” Cyn introduced us to this one a few weeks ago, having found it on a “celtic” compilation cd, and we are managing to make a rather lovely arrangement. This is a much slower piece, which is hard to do after GBS stuff, but also kind of a fun challenge, as there is ample room for just about everyone to noodle around and do interesting melodic thingies, weaving them in with the melody as carried by Cyn’s yummy alto.
Kathryn actually worked out a part for herself on the harp for this one—very cool, considering she’s only been playing it for three months! We’re all enjoying playing this one, except for during the first two verses, which are 1) just Cyn with Kathryn on the harp, and 2) Cyn, Kathryn’s harp, and a flute right now. I argued for bringing in one guitar (me!), just strumming chords on the second verse, and I think I won because I spent a lot of time making faces at Cyn while I was waiting for my turn to play, and she said if I do it again she’ll smack me. So now she’ll only have to keep from looking at Patrick and Fred through those first two verses (Patrick was pantomiming some great rock-star guitar solos a-la Jimmy Page and so on, just generally being goofy, and Fred was just giggling silently and making funny faces). Incidentally, we figured out that the chord progression for “Bushes and Briars” is quite like to that of “Stairway to Heaven,” hence the Jimmy Page imitations.
And finally, the pie! Marionberry, again from the Snohomish Pie Company—gee, golly they do it well up there in the hinterlands!
Well, I think that about covers it. (Wow, look at how much I wrote! So there was a good reason I majored in writing in college…) We’re taking a break next week, because just about everyone is going to be out of town, but never fear we’ll be back at it the following week!
;)
Monica
Monica stands in as Guest Jam Reporter, as I am in Kentucky for this session; Cyn breaks in her new fiddle part for "Mari-Mac", written for her by Kathryn; Dara plays her parts AND my parts on "Mari-Mac"; impromptu belting out of "O Canada" in honor of Canada Day, though nobody really knows the words; my twiddles are missed on "Jolly Butcher" and the dulcimer's presence is lauded; Kathryn breaks in a harp part on "Bushes and Briars".
Murkworks Jam report # Heaven only knows…
Today we realized just how much we appreciate Anna. We also realized how generally interdependent we have become when playing music, but mostly we realized how much we all rely on Anna. Not only did I totally forget I had volunteered to be our chronicler until pie time (and admit it, Anna leaves pretty big shoes to fill in this realm), with her twiddles’ noticeable absence we discovered that we all really cue off of her for a lot of stuff. Kathryn in particular noticed this when she suddenly had no idea when to come in on “Jolly Butcher.” But we’ll get to that in a minute. Like a good Presbyterian, I am going to try my darndest to do this “decently and in order.” (Okay, that’s only funny if you’re a Presbyterian in the states, but…well I am that.)
So. We started off with several takes, and several near-takes, of “Mari-Mac.” Today we had the added pleasure of a brand-spankin’-new fiddle part for Cyn, which Kathryn had faithfully scribed for her. Kathryn later said that the whole time she was writing out all those sixteenth-notes she kept saying, “I’m sorry, Cyn,” under her breath. But even though it was a very difficult part, Cyn loved it because it sounds totally wicked (very similar to what Bob does live, actually), and it really adds that one missing element to the song which will allow it to be absolutely kick-ass rather than just good. Now, if we can only all get over how cool it is to hear the fiddle as we’re playing and concentrate a wee bit more on what we’re supposed to be doing (me in particular—holy cow I sucked on this one today!), we might actually have something presentable.
I should mention that we didn’t miss Anna quite as much on “Mari-Mac” as we did on “Jolly Butcher” because Dar proved that she is indeed leading the double life of a superhero, carrying off both her and Anna’s parts with great aplomb. And I do mean aplomb in the sense of a ballet dancer having that perfect equilibrium and balance which enables her to maintain stability in a pose or movement; we were all a little worried that she was going to asphyxiate herself when she announced that she was going to attempt both parts at once, but she really carried it off well. Except for the added volume having two flutes enables, we could hardly tell Anna wasn’t right there with us.
I think it was about when we finished up with “Mari-Mac” (gave up is more like it in my case) that Fred piped up wishing us all a happy Canada Day. Oh, to have been in Halifax! Since we couldn’t be there to see the b’ys on Citadel Hill, we performed a rousing and impromptu rendition of “O Canada.” The only problem was that none of us knew all the words. So we ended up with something along the lines of:
Oh, Canada
Our home and native land
Something and something
La la la la la la!
…
Oh, Canada
We stand on guard for thee…
Oh, Canada
We stand on guard for thee!
Well, at least we tried. Our hearts are in the right place. And considering how few Americans actually know all the words to even one verse of our own national anthem (I think there are four), I figure we did pretty well with Canada’s.
Next it was on to butchering the “Jolly Butcher.” (I love saying that. Ask anybody in our group and they’ll corroborate, I say it every time.) Here we missed Anna more, because the first few times through nobody could remember what Anna did in between verses, and it quickly became apparent that Kathryn depended on whatever twiddles Anna did to cue her for when to come in. Eventually, though, Dar came to the rescue again (more super-hero-ness! I’m telling you this girl is leading a double life!), having pieced together an approximation of Anna’s twiddles between verses. On listening to the recording of this one, we noticed just how much Fred’s dulcimer really adds to the sound—yay, Fred!
We actually had a couple of takes of this song that were quite good. Near post-able one was, except for a few minor train-wrecks in the middle. But that’s the thing—when we started doing this six months ago (yes, it’s really been that long!), most of what we played was train-wreck, with three (or so) good measures spaced sporadically through the middle. Now we’ve reversed that. Further evidence that wonders will indeed never cease.
Next we took a little break wherein we discussed just how much we were realizing our need of Anna, and how we really notice it whenever any member of our group is missing from a session—we were also missing Paul today, as we allowed him to ditch us in favour of doing laundry (can’t have the boy running around in unwashed clothes…), and of course Mimi’s been gone for a couple of weeks. Missing members of the group when they aren’t present is just one more piece of evidence telling us we are becoming more and more like a “real band.” I think it was last week that we realized that the majority of us are now unemployed (we all used to be employed, but between dot-com layoffs and the general nastiness of other employers, namely my former employer, now only three amongst us have jobs). This week’s biggest revelation was regarding me, though, so I think that makes it extra-important: I begin each day with a handful of pills—a sure sign I am destined for stardom. Granted, most of my pills are of the vitamin variety, but they’re pills nonetheless!
Following our interlude of revelations, we moved on to other musical explorations, this time in the form of a piece called “Bushes and Briars.” Cyn introduced us to this one a few weeks ago, having found it on a “celtic” compilation cd, and we are managing to make a rather lovely arrangement. This is a much slower piece, which is hard to do after GBS stuff, but also kind of a fun challenge, as there is ample room for just about everyone to noodle around and do interesting melodic thingies, weaving them in with the melody as carried by Cyn’s yummy alto.
Kathryn actually worked out a part for herself on the harp for this one—very cool, considering she’s only been playing it for three months! We’re all enjoying playing this one, except for during the first two verses, which are 1) just Cyn with Kathryn on the harp, and 2) Cyn, Kathryn’s harp, and a flute right now. I argued for bringing in one guitar (me!), just strumming chords on the second verse, and I think I won because I spent a lot of time making faces at Cyn while I was waiting for my turn to play, and she said if I do it again she’ll smack me. So now she’ll only have to keep from looking at Patrick and Fred through those first two verses (Patrick was pantomiming some great rock-star guitar solos a-la Jimmy Page and so on, just generally being goofy, and Fred was just giggling silently and making funny faces). Incidentally, we figured out that the chord progression for “Bushes and Briars” is quite like to that of “Stairway to Heaven,” hence the Jimmy Page imitations.
And finally, the pie! Marionberry, again from the Snohomish Pie Company—gee, golly they do it well up there in the hinterlands!
Well, I think that about covers it. (Wow, look at how much I wrote! So there was a good reason I majored in writing in college…) We’re taking a break next week, because just about everyone is going to be out of town, but never fear we’ll be back at it the following week!
;)
Monica