Jam Report #40: 4/7/02
Apr. 7th, 2002 01:22 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 I jam while ill, and therefore lack sufficient breath to really play the piccolo properly; in which Mimi offers sage advice, while Monica and I hold a Chord Summit; and in which Cyn leaves early. Songs: "You Woke Up My Neighborhood", "Dancing With Mrs. White", "Acres of Clams", "Lukey", "Old Black Rum".
I have decided to stop being worried about posting Jam Reports late; instead, I will rejoice in something that is obviously a general part of my psyche. ;) Acceptance! It's the key to happiness!
However, the session on 4/7/02 was rather ragged arond the edges so far as I was concerned anyway, on the grounds that I had caught a bug pretty much right after we'd gotten back from Norwescon (i.e., the science fiction convention I mentioned in Jam Report #39) and had been fairly loopy for the rest of the week. Although it was an On Week, we wound up having low attendance; no![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
daspatrick (Patrick), no Dana, and no spazzkat (Paul). ssha (Cyn) wound up having to leave early because she was taking the train to go to Portland to see her father, and so this left us with (counting Cyn's partial presence) about four and a half Jammers: myself, Cyn, solarbird (Dara), Monica, and mamishka (Mimi).
We decided to start off with "You Woke Up My Neighborhood", and the initial take came out rather slow, even though I apparently was quite bound and determined to force the tempo. I seem to be developing a habit of doing that, and I don't know what to do about it quite yet. I was also pretty much all over the map for trying to strum out the proper chord progression here, between a) being sick, b) having my shoulder strap adjusted weird for my little mand, and c) having my left hand feel rather scrunched up playing Summer, since I've gotten used to playing Autumn. When I kept trying to come in on the choruses, since we need the added vocal strength, this frequently distracted me from paying proper attention to my hands, and so I kept either missing the proper chords, getting ahead of Monica's strum pattern, or both. Sigh. I also wound up having to trade out on picks because my chosen pick for Summer as of late has gotten pretty ragged around the edges (rather like this particular session was, for me), and it looked like I'd nibbled on the darned thing.
A small bit of confusion ensued on the lead-in for this song as well, since we were missing Patrick, whose opening riffs on the guitar usually sets the pace for us. We wound up expecting Mimi to set the tempo, and Mimi was not expecting us to set the tempo, so we had to work that out a bit.
After that we moved on to "Dancing With Mrs. White" -- and I was pretty all over the map on this song, too, thanks to not really having enough breath to handle it. It's a complicated song in terms of breath control for a flute/piccolo player to begin with, even when you're healthy, and even when Dara and I have split it up between us as we have to make it easier to play all the way through. I'm still needing to, for example, play both repetitions of the B part and then swing around and play the first repetition of the A part, in the early bits of the song, and that's still a lot of breath even though I sit out on the second repetition of the A part. Dara got a bit distracted, too, by my harmony on the B part. She wound up trying to follow me rather than play the melody, and also forgot that the A part is played twice before you swing on around to the C part.
(And I hope that makes sense to you, Gentle Readers, or at least those of you Gentle Readers who are actually familiar with "Dancing With Mrs. White" and understand the structure of the song. <ObShamelessGBSPlug> If you're not familiar with "Dancing With Mrs. White", go buy a copy of Rant and Roar. Right now! I just joined Great Big Sea's Street Team, does it show? </ObShamelessGBSPlug>)
We only did a little work on this song, though, as we were running out of time before Cyn had to run off and catch her train, and I was running out of breath.
On, therefore, to "Acres of Clams". Playing piccolo on this wasn't as much of a problem since my part through much of the song is pretty simple; Dara has a more complicated part than I do through the main body of the song. The Frolic, on the other hand, gave me a couple of problems. Monica had a bit of a problem completely forgetting the last chorus on our last take, too, which prompted Dara to suggest that perhaps "they can edit it back together in the studio".
At this point, Cyn had to take off for her train, and so that I could actually continue to play I opted to switch over to the big mand, and we decided to play with "Lukey" for a bit. But this turned out to be challenging, because Monica and I knew different sets of chords. Moreover, she was used to the version recorded on up, while I prefer to practice with the version on Road Rage or the one on Fire in the Kitchen, and there are some noticeable differences between the first and the latter two -- even aside from "Staten Island" being used as the bridge on the one and "Gone By the Board" being used on the others.
We carried out a lengthy chord negotiation, debating specifically whether the chords under the first line of each verse (e.g., "Lukey's boat is painted green, ah me boys") were G - C - G - G or G - G - C - G. This appears to be one of the aforementioned differences between the various recorded versions of "Lukey", and Monica and I did not quite agree as to which we thought sounded better. We settled at last, however, on the first sounding better if you're performing a more up-like rendition of the song, while the latter sounds better if you're doing more of a Fire in the Kitchen flavor. (It seems to have something to do with how Mr. Doyle performs the latter version; I really dig the C chord right under the "ah" in "ah me boys". Your mileage may vary, as Monica's does!)
During the Chord Summit, Dara and Mimi wandered off for a bit to do other things, and Mimi wound up performing a battery-ectomy on her stuffed Devil Bunny (which is a long story). We dickered a bit as to which bridge we would do, too, and finally settled on "Staten Island" as that's the one Monica knows the chords too (even though I know the chords to "Gone By the Board") and it's the one we can all kind of hum as well if we have to fake our way through the bridge due to lack of anyone present who can actually play it. Dickering even occurred on how many measures to play between chorus and verse, since the up and Fire in the Kitchen/Road Rage versions are different on that, as well. The long and short of it is, we appear to be gravitating towards an up-style performance of this particular ditty.
Lastly, "Old Black Rum", which I could still more or less sing and strum even though I was waning in strength. We wound up belting it out in D as it's the key I can belt it out best in. I'm having some issues still with the syncopation on some of the verses, places like "I asked her for a dance". I want to sing it like Mr. Doyle sings it, but I can't quite manage to pull that off yet while keeping a consistent strum rhythm going. More work is obviously required.
Since I was ill we called a fairly early Pie, and the pie in question was blueberry. For which I also bought whipped cream, which was tasty, though I have unfortunately determined that I personally don't care for blueberry pie. It went over well with everybody else, though!
More again soon,
Anna the Piper
In which I jam while ill, and therefore lack sufficient breath to really play the piccolo properly; in which Mimi offers sage advice, while Monica and I hold a Chord Summit; and in which Cyn leaves early. Songs: "You Woke Up My Neighborhood", "Dancing With Mrs. White", "Acres of Clams", "Lukey", "Old Black Rum".
I have decided to stop being worried about posting Jam Reports late; instead, I will rejoice in something that is obviously a general part of my psyche. ;) Acceptance! It's the key to happiness!
However, the session on 4/7/02 was rather ragged arond the edges so far as I was concerned anyway, on the grounds that I had caught a bug pretty much right after we'd gotten back from Norwescon (i.e., the science fiction convention I mentioned in Jam Report #39) and had been fairly loopy for the rest of the week. Although it was an On Week, we wound up having low attendance; no
daspatrick (Patrick), no Dana, and no spazzkat (Paul). ssha (Cyn) wound up having to leave early because she was taking the train to go to Portland to see her father, and so this left us with (counting Cyn's partial presence) about four and a half Jammers: myself, Cyn, solarbird (Dara), Monica, and mamishka (Mimi).We decided to start off with "You Woke Up My Neighborhood", and the initial take came out rather slow, even though I apparently was quite bound and determined to force the tempo. I seem to be developing a habit of doing that, and I don't know what to do about it quite yet. I was also pretty much all over the map for trying to strum out the proper chord progression here, between a) being sick, b) having my shoulder strap adjusted weird for my little mand, and c) having my left hand feel rather scrunched up playing Summer, since I've gotten used to playing Autumn. When I kept trying to come in on the choruses, since we need the added vocal strength, this frequently distracted me from paying proper attention to my hands, and so I kept either missing the proper chords, getting ahead of Monica's strum pattern, or both. Sigh. I also wound up having to trade out on picks because my chosen pick for Summer as of late has gotten pretty ragged around the edges (rather like this particular session was, for me), and it looked like I'd nibbled on the darned thing.
A small bit of confusion ensued on the lead-in for this song as well, since we were missing Patrick, whose opening riffs on the guitar usually sets the pace for us. We wound up expecting Mimi to set the tempo, and Mimi was not expecting us to set the tempo, so we had to work that out a bit.
After that we moved on to "Dancing With Mrs. White" -- and I was pretty all over the map on this song, too, thanks to not really having enough breath to handle it. It's a complicated song in terms of breath control for a flute/piccolo player to begin with, even when you're healthy, and even when Dara and I have split it up between us as we have to make it easier to play all the way through. I'm still needing to, for example, play both repetitions of the B part and then swing around and play the first repetition of the A part, in the early bits of the song, and that's still a lot of breath even though I sit out on the second repetition of the A part. Dara got a bit distracted, too, by my harmony on the B part. She wound up trying to follow me rather than play the melody, and also forgot that the A part is played twice before you swing on around to the C part.
(And I hope that makes sense to you, Gentle Readers, or at least those of you Gentle Readers who are actually familiar with "Dancing With Mrs. White" and understand the structure of the song. <ObShamelessGBSPlug> If you're not familiar with "Dancing With Mrs. White", go buy a copy of Rant and Roar. Right now! I just joined Great Big Sea's Street Team, does it show? </ObShamelessGBSPlug>)
We only did a little work on this song, though, as we were running out of time before Cyn had to run off and catch her train, and I was running out of breath.
On, therefore, to "Acres of Clams". Playing piccolo on this wasn't as much of a problem since my part through much of the song is pretty simple; Dara has a more complicated part than I do through the main body of the song. The Frolic, on the other hand, gave me a couple of problems. Monica had a bit of a problem completely forgetting the last chorus on our last take, too, which prompted Dara to suggest that perhaps "they can edit it back together in the studio".
At this point, Cyn had to take off for her train, and so that I could actually continue to play I opted to switch over to the big mand, and we decided to play with "Lukey" for a bit. But this turned out to be challenging, because Monica and I knew different sets of chords. Moreover, she was used to the version recorded on up, while I prefer to practice with the version on Road Rage or the one on Fire in the Kitchen, and there are some noticeable differences between the first and the latter two -- even aside from "Staten Island" being used as the bridge on the one and "Gone By the Board" being used on the others.
We carried out a lengthy chord negotiation, debating specifically whether the chords under the first line of each verse (e.g., "Lukey's boat is painted green, ah me boys") were G - C - G - G or G - G - C - G. This appears to be one of the aforementioned differences between the various recorded versions of "Lukey", and Monica and I did not quite agree as to which we thought sounded better. We settled at last, however, on the first sounding better if you're performing a more up-like rendition of the song, while the latter sounds better if you're doing more of a Fire in the Kitchen flavor. (It seems to have something to do with how Mr. Doyle performs the latter version; I really dig the C chord right under the "ah" in "ah me boys". Your mileage may vary, as Monica's does!)
During the Chord Summit, Dara and Mimi wandered off for a bit to do other things, and Mimi wound up performing a battery-ectomy on her stuffed Devil Bunny (which is a long story). We dickered a bit as to which bridge we would do, too, and finally settled on "Staten Island" as that's the one Monica knows the chords too (even though I know the chords to "Gone By the Board") and it's the one we can all kind of hum as well if we have to fake our way through the bridge due to lack of anyone present who can actually play it. Dickering even occurred on how many measures to play between chorus and verse, since the up and Fire in the Kitchen/Road Rage versions are different on that, as well. The long and short of it is, we appear to be gravitating towards an up-style performance of this particular ditty.
Lastly, "Old Black Rum", which I could still more or less sing and strum even though I was waning in strength. We wound up belting it out in D as it's the key I can belt it out best in. I'm having some issues still with the syncopation on some of the verses, places like "I asked her for a dance". I want to sing it like Mr. Doyle sings it, but I can't quite manage to pull that off yet while keeping a consistent strum rhythm going. More work is obviously required.
Since I was ill we called a fairly early Pie, and the pie in question was blueberry. For which I also bought whipped cream, which was tasty, though I have unfortunately determined that I personally don't care for blueberry pie. It went over well with everybody else, though!
More again soon,
Anna the Piper