Jam Report #37: 3/3/02
Mar. 3rd, 2002 12:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
annathepiperAs originally posted to the OKP. Transcribed to Livejournal 1/26/06.
In which Monica brings banana bread for our Extra Special Guest Snack; in which Dana sings louder, Dara does much flute and note investigation, and I wander all over the place with tempo; and in which I actually sing some backup. Songs: "Acres of Clams", "You Woke Up My Neighborhood", "Goin' Up", "Jolly Butcher", "Judas Cart".
On today's exciting episode of Three Good Measures Jamming Theater, our cast included myself and![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
solarbird (Dara), ssha (Cyn), Dana, and Monica. Dana much to her amazement actually showed up first; Monica, on the other hand, was specifically running late and called to let us know. On the other hand, she also brought banana bread to make up for her tardiness, so all was forgiven. Because mmmmm banana bread.
Dana finally acquired her long-overdue flaming bowling shirt, claiming one of the remaining teal-colored ones for herself. More discussion of whether we should all wear our flaming bowling shirts to the GBS show in April occurred, though Monica lamented that she would probably have to acquire a magenta-colored tank top to go with hers, on the grounds that black is just Not Her Color and she doesn't want to look entirely dead by wearing too much black. And once we got the sartorial conversation out of the way, we were on to...
"Acres of Clams". Our first take came out too slow, but we deemed it fine for a warm up. Without Patrick, we had to refresh our memory as to how exactly the intro of the song went as well.
While working on this ditty, we discovered that we can in fact manage to keep the song going if Monica drops her pick, even if she's the only stringed instrument playing. She did quite a fantastic job finger-strumming -- till Dana and Dara started giggling, and then we fell apart. Dana testified that she'd actually wondered whether she should reach over and pick up the pick for her, and that in her experience with other guitar-playing friends of hers it'd throw off their rhythm, so she wasn't sure. Monica, for general reference, has replied that yes, yes Dana should pick up the pick for her next time. ;)
I'm still having issues playing the initial triplets on "Fisherman's Frolic" in the wrong rhythm. I keep trying to syncopate them wrong, rather than playing what's actually written on the sheet music before me; one might suppose that perhaps since this is folk music, the song might just be trying to tell me something. If it is, however, it's not telling everybody else the same thing at the same time, so until it starts communicating with Cyn and Dara as well, it'll just have to cope! However, Cyn has decided she's going to try to tab out the bass part that goes with the "Frolic", so that she doesn't have to switch instruments between it and the main body of the song -- and moreover, Dara's doing some very decent harmony on the Frolic's B part, a variation on the part she's playing through the main song. So we do have some progress going on here.
In the spirit of continuing to practice things we need to keep up to speed on, and since I had not in fact played a single thing on the mandolin last time, we then went on to "You Woke Up My Neighborhood".
For this one, my suck bit was definitely on. I kept missing chords right and left and falling out of tempo as well; I think I've gotten used to playing the big mandolin, so now I keep overshooting the proper frets on the little one. Plus, I still can't do the two-fingered A chord on the big mand, and I'd gotten used to the three-finger bar chord version of A that I've been having to play on the big one, so going back to the two-finger A on the little one kept throwing me off. And for general reference, on our recordings, it is extremely easy for me to hear when I screw up on the little mandolin. Because boy howdy do I stick out.
Cyn is basically in complete and total improv mode on this song, since she doesn't yet know what she's doing with her fiddle on it. She did however remark to us that the first three held-out notes she's playing are the same notes that open up the *Theme from 2001* -- to which I naturally had to reply that that song is what Elvis Presley used to open up his concerts with back in the '70's.
It was very odd to be practicing this ditty without Patrick around, because we had neither his nummy electric guitar intro nor his little cheesy bit at the end. Monica confessed to almost trying to mimic Patrick's ending. Almost. ;)
Next up was "Goin' Up". I specifically wanted to try this one because "Goin' Up" seems to now hold the honor of being the Very First Great Big Sea Song I Can Actually Kinda Sorta Play and Sing at the Same Time. Sort of. I can now sing the chorus while I'm doing the chords, though the verses are still giving me problems.
The major adventure we had with this ditty today, though, was trying to figure out what the heck key we want to do it in. With Cyn singing lead, the song's native key of G isn't really comfortable for her, but if we switch the key around it starts giving Dar problems with which of the bamboo flutes at our disposal we can try. So we wound up trying it in G as well as in D, A (playing the G chords capoed on the second fret), and G (G chords capoed on the fourth fret).
I discovered I did rather like the sound of my octave mand playing with the capo on the fourth fret, too. It made for a sound not quite as high as my little mand, but noticeably higher than my big mand's usual sound. In fact, it might well have been doing a decent mandola impersonation at that point. The others also rather liked the sound of us in B, though it's an odd key for us, and it's not a comfortable flute key for Dara either. We don't have any small flutes that can talk in a proper key for the part she wants to play and let her not have to do weird wrappy thingies with the fingerings; based on what she wants to play, she needs a flute whose native key is a step up from what we're playing in. Dara wound up even experimenting with a couple of my flutes, like my E major bamboo and the glass piccolo. The E major may work for her if we do the ditty in D, but the piccolo is definitely too small for her to comfortably play. Its mouth and fingerholes are all very tiny.
Onward to, as we like to say, "butcher the Butcher". We were -- no, let's get real here, I -- was all over the map with the tempo on "Jolly Butcher" today. I particularly had issues with the very beginning, coming in too late and too slow, until I realized that what I was missing was Kathryn belting out "HEY!" to signal when the music was supposed to kick in right after the harmony vocals.
Dana opted to stand up for singing on this ditty as well, since we all observed that while she was singing, it was difficult to make her out over Monica and Cyn and the instruments. Having her stand up helped a lot in making her audible.
Dara also decided to start trying to improvise a new part for herself to play on this song. As it's one of the first ones we ever attempted to play, she mostly wound up playing melody on it, which is a) boring to Dara to play, and b) not needed, by her assertion. On "Mari-Mac" she does need to play melody, because by the end of it the singers are shouting rather than actually singing, so she is all that's still there carrying the melody; I'm over there playing a backup part, so I can't help her out. On "Jolly Butcher", though, the singers go strong all throughout and Dar isn't adding anything on the melody by playing along.
Lastly, since I've been working pretty heavily on "Judas Cart", and since in fact it gets the title of First Actual Song Anna Can Play and Sing at the Same Time, we decided to come back to this one again. For the first time I tried it on the octave mand rather than the small one, which was deemed preferable by all; I liked it better since the sound of the little mand makes it almost too music-box-ish, and Monica commented that she liked the warm, dark sound of the bigger mand as well.
I had tempo issues here, too. "Judas Cart" as performed by 30 Odd Foot of Grunts isn't particularly slow, though it is supposed to be a sweet little number, and it's supposed to flow. Because of my general nervousness about being lead instrument on this song, not to mention tempo weirdness I'd had earlier in the session, I kept managing to speed up on all the takes we did of this, where I shouldn't have sped up. On the other hand, we did more or less manage to keep a decent tempo every time we took a stab at it, which was reassuring.
Also definitely reassuring was that I am fairly sure now that I can sing as well as play on this, but I'm going to try to sing harmony while the others take melody and/or other harmony lines. We need all the vocal strength we can get, and if we can get more harmony going, all the better. So I'll be needing to work on that, as well as on trying to make the discreet notes I'm fingering out be clearer, along with the chords I'm strumming. I'll have to work more on the part for the third verse that I've worked out as well, which I don't know as well as the earlier parts of the song yet, so I can't sing over it as easily.
Dara doesn't know yet what she wants to play on the flute, though. This will require further investigation, though having a nice counterpoint on the flute while the guitar and the octave mand are going would be very grand indeed!
After a few takes of "Judas Cart" we called it Pie Time, and broke for apple pie as well as more of Monica's banana bread.
The busking contingent amongst us is now on a one-week schedule, all, so look for more frequent Jam Reports for a while... and hopefully sometime this summer as well, Busking Reports!
Till next time,
Anna the Piper
In which Monica brings banana bread for our Extra Special Guest Snack; in which Dana sings louder, Dara does much flute and note investigation, and I wander all over the place with tempo; and in which I actually sing some backup. Songs: "Acres of Clams", "You Woke Up My Neighborhood", "Goin' Up", "Jolly Butcher", "Judas Cart".
On today's exciting episode of Three Good Measures Jamming Theater, our cast included myself and
solarbird (Dara), ssha (Cyn), Dana, and Monica. Dana much to her amazement actually showed up first; Monica, on the other hand, was specifically running late and called to let us know. On the other hand, she also brought banana bread to make up for her tardiness, so all was forgiven. Because mmmmm banana bread.Dana finally acquired her long-overdue flaming bowling shirt, claiming one of the remaining teal-colored ones for herself. More discussion of whether we should all wear our flaming bowling shirts to the GBS show in April occurred, though Monica lamented that she would probably have to acquire a magenta-colored tank top to go with hers, on the grounds that black is just Not Her Color and she doesn't want to look entirely dead by wearing too much black. And once we got the sartorial conversation out of the way, we were on to...
"Acres of Clams". Our first take came out too slow, but we deemed it fine for a warm up. Without Patrick, we had to refresh our memory as to how exactly the intro of the song went as well.
While working on this ditty, we discovered that we can in fact manage to keep the song going if Monica drops her pick, even if she's the only stringed instrument playing. She did quite a fantastic job finger-strumming -- till Dana and Dara started giggling, and then we fell apart. Dana testified that she'd actually wondered whether she should reach over and pick up the pick for her, and that in her experience with other guitar-playing friends of hers it'd throw off their rhythm, so she wasn't sure. Monica, for general reference, has replied that yes, yes Dana should pick up the pick for her next time. ;)
I'm still having issues playing the initial triplets on "Fisherman's Frolic" in the wrong rhythm. I keep trying to syncopate them wrong, rather than playing what's actually written on the sheet music before me; one might suppose that perhaps since this is folk music, the song might just be trying to tell me something. If it is, however, it's not telling everybody else the same thing at the same time, so until it starts communicating with Cyn and Dara as well, it'll just have to cope! However, Cyn has decided she's going to try to tab out the bass part that goes with the "Frolic", so that she doesn't have to switch instruments between it and the main body of the song -- and moreover, Dara's doing some very decent harmony on the Frolic's B part, a variation on the part she's playing through the main song. So we do have some progress going on here.
In the spirit of continuing to practice things we need to keep up to speed on, and since I had not in fact played a single thing on the mandolin last time, we then went on to "You Woke Up My Neighborhood".
For this one, my suck bit was definitely on. I kept missing chords right and left and falling out of tempo as well; I think I've gotten used to playing the big mandolin, so now I keep overshooting the proper frets on the little one. Plus, I still can't do the two-fingered A chord on the big mand, and I'd gotten used to the three-finger bar chord version of A that I've been having to play on the big one, so going back to the two-finger A on the little one kept throwing me off. And for general reference, on our recordings, it is extremely easy for me to hear when I screw up on the little mandolin. Because boy howdy do I stick out.
Cyn is basically in complete and total improv mode on this song, since she doesn't yet know what she's doing with her fiddle on it. She did however remark to us that the first three held-out notes she's playing are the same notes that open up the *Theme from 2001* -- to which I naturally had to reply that that song is what Elvis Presley used to open up his concerts with back in the '70's.
It was very odd to be practicing this ditty without Patrick around, because we had neither his nummy electric guitar intro nor his little cheesy bit at the end. Monica confessed to almost trying to mimic Patrick's ending. Almost. ;)
Next up was "Goin' Up". I specifically wanted to try this one because "Goin' Up" seems to now hold the honor of being the Very First Great Big Sea Song I Can Actually Kinda Sorta Play and Sing at the Same Time. Sort of. I can now sing the chorus while I'm doing the chords, though the verses are still giving me problems.
The major adventure we had with this ditty today, though, was trying to figure out what the heck key we want to do it in. With Cyn singing lead, the song's native key of G isn't really comfortable for her, but if we switch the key around it starts giving Dar problems with which of the bamboo flutes at our disposal we can try. So we wound up trying it in G as well as in D, A (playing the G chords capoed on the second fret), and G (G chords capoed on the fourth fret).
I discovered I did rather like the sound of my octave mand playing with the capo on the fourth fret, too. It made for a sound not quite as high as my little mand, but noticeably higher than my big mand's usual sound. In fact, it might well have been doing a decent mandola impersonation at that point. The others also rather liked the sound of us in B, though it's an odd key for us, and it's not a comfortable flute key for Dara either. We don't have any small flutes that can talk in a proper key for the part she wants to play and let her not have to do weird wrappy thingies with the fingerings; based on what she wants to play, she needs a flute whose native key is a step up from what we're playing in. Dara wound up even experimenting with a couple of my flutes, like my E major bamboo and the glass piccolo. The E major may work for her if we do the ditty in D, but the piccolo is definitely too small for her to comfortably play. Its mouth and fingerholes are all very tiny.
Onward to, as we like to say, "butcher the Butcher". We were -- no, let's get real here, I -- was all over the map with the tempo on "Jolly Butcher" today. I particularly had issues with the very beginning, coming in too late and too slow, until I realized that what I was missing was Kathryn belting out "HEY!" to signal when the music was supposed to kick in right after the harmony vocals.
Dana opted to stand up for singing on this ditty as well, since we all observed that while she was singing, it was difficult to make her out over Monica and Cyn and the instruments. Having her stand up helped a lot in making her audible.
Dara also decided to start trying to improvise a new part for herself to play on this song. As it's one of the first ones we ever attempted to play, she mostly wound up playing melody on it, which is a) boring to Dara to play, and b) not needed, by her assertion. On "Mari-Mac" she does need to play melody, because by the end of it the singers are shouting rather than actually singing, so she is all that's still there carrying the melody; I'm over there playing a backup part, so I can't help her out. On "Jolly Butcher", though, the singers go strong all throughout and Dar isn't adding anything on the melody by playing along.
Lastly, since I've been working pretty heavily on "Judas Cart", and since in fact it gets the title of First Actual Song Anna Can Play and Sing at the Same Time, we decided to come back to this one again. For the first time I tried it on the octave mand rather than the small one, which was deemed preferable by all; I liked it better since the sound of the little mand makes it almost too music-box-ish, and Monica commented that she liked the warm, dark sound of the bigger mand as well.
I had tempo issues here, too. "Judas Cart" as performed by 30 Odd Foot of Grunts isn't particularly slow, though it is supposed to be a sweet little number, and it's supposed to flow. Because of my general nervousness about being lead instrument on this song, not to mention tempo weirdness I'd had earlier in the session, I kept managing to speed up on all the takes we did of this, where I shouldn't have sped up. On the other hand, we did more or less manage to keep a decent tempo every time we took a stab at it, which was reassuring.
Also definitely reassuring was that I am fairly sure now that I can sing as well as play on this, but I'm going to try to sing harmony while the others take melody and/or other harmony lines. We need all the vocal strength we can get, and if we can get more harmony going, all the better. So I'll be needing to work on that, as well as on trying to make the discreet notes I'm fingering out be clearer, along with the chords I'm strumming. I'll have to work more on the part for the third verse that I've worked out as well, which I don't know as well as the earlier parts of the song yet, so I can't sing over it as easily.
Dara doesn't know yet what she wants to play on the flute, though. This will require further investigation, though having a nice counterpoint on the flute while the guitar and the octave mand are going would be very grand indeed!
After a few takes of "Judas Cart" we called it Pie Time, and broke for apple pie as well as more of Monica's banana bread.
The busking contingent amongst us is now on a one-week schedule, all, so look for more frequent Jam Reports for a while... and hopefully sometime this summer as well, Busking Reports!
Till next time,
Anna the Piper