Jam Report #42: 4/21/02
Apr. 21st, 2002 02:19 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 goes plugged and Patrick goes electric the whole session; in which the Strut starts sounding like a Strut, rather than a Saunter; and in which we try an alarming new kind of pie. Songs: "Jenny's Jealous", "Stray Cat Strut", "You Woke Up My Neighborhood", "Mari-Mac", "Trois Navires de Ble".
In direct contrast to the teeny tiny session on 4/14, the session of 4/21 turned out to be one of the biggest we'd had in some time, with me,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
solarbird (Dara), spazzkat (Paul), ssha (Cyn), mamishka (Mimi), Monica, and daspatrick (Patrick) all on hand.
First item on the menu: "Jenny's Jealous", not surprisingly, since we had the electrics available and Monica had been making many noises about wanting to play with this ditty again. It had been so long, though, that the first take sort of fell apart during the bridge, since NONE of us really remembered what we were doing. The backup vocals didn't quite have their act together either; I didn't remember what I was doing, and Mimi hadn't sung with me before. Happily, though, on later takes we sounded much better; Mimi started harmonizing with me on the verses, and we wound up getting this nice minor thing going on there, versus singing unified on the choruses.
The ending is coming through a little ragged and needs some work, to try to make sure we close it out good and tight. We had some volume issues on the electric guitars as well, and had to adjust the Colonel to make Paul better heard.
Since we did in fact have the electrics on hand and Patrick and Paul, "Stray Cat Strut" turned out to be next -- and as Dara remarked, this is actually beginning to sound scarily like a song, coming out of us. We had some confusion at the beginning as to the order that the instruments come in -- but as with "Jenny's Jealous", this was mostly only because we hadn't played this in long enough that we had to work it out again.
Dara tried out her flute that I bought for her last Christmas, since it was in the right key, i.e., C minor. However, her hands aren't adjusted to this flute yet and so it was really a stretch for her to play it, and made her hands actively sore.
Once we did enough takes of the Strut for our satisfaction, Paul buggered off early, since he had to go to the grocery and make sure he had something to cook for dinner. Which left the rest of us to head on to "You Woke Up My Neighborhood".
I apparently am still having issues with getting too fast on the choruses here; Mimi and Dara and Cyn all noticed it. Mimi suggested that I tap my foot slower, not hitting every single little beat; I discovered that that messed me up a lot more though, so I stopped tapping my foot all together and tried to focus instead on Patrick and Monica's rhythm, which seemed to help a lot. Many jokes were made about me and my Evil Foot.
Monica plugged in her acoustic to better be heard against Patrick's electric -- and it was rather impressive how beefy her instrument sounded plugged in! Much was made over her Canadian-made guitar, a rather appropriate instrument to be playing in a predominantly Great-Big-Sea-focused jamming group.
I tried to sing harmony some more, which is working, at least when I can do it consistently. It's still a challenge for me to be singing suitably loudly while playing an instrument at the same time. I'm also trying to do an ascending arpeggio-ish thing coming out of the bridge, and had a bit of uncertainty as to whether I should keep singing under Monica going "Somersaults across the lawn". So far we don't seem to have a consistent consensus; clearly, I shall have to practice more.
Next was "Mari-Mac", for which Patrick opted not to switch to his acoustic. So for once, we had an electric guitar on this ditty, which was rather entertaining and a fun switch from how we usually hear it. Monica continues to sound quite good harmonizing against Mimi on the choruses, swiping Alan Doyle's backup singing off the live take on Road Rage. Our first take, as many of our first takes are in practice, was way too slow; on the other hand, we were also consistent on tempo for once! As was observed, sometimes there's something to be said for going a bit slower than usual.
Lastly was "Trois Navires de Ble", which actually broke our usual practice of too-slow first takes by having the first take be WAY TOO FAST (well hey, there's something to be said for being unpredictable). We also had some issues with how many measures get stuck in between this and that verse, and where Alan sings "dans l'île" on the recording... in fact, I wound up listening to the actual recording, just to verify where those little accent of Mr. Doyle's come in.
We wound up having a bit of an involuntary break in the middle of this song, because Paul got back from the grocery in the middle of it, and when he came in, the pungent odor of Ian doing linoleum removal in the basement wafted up into our section of the house. So we had to send Mimi down to make sure he was ventilating his work. Nothing like the good bracing scent of linoleum removal to musically inspire one, we always say.
Patrick kept with the electric through this song, too, just because.
The pie: rhubarb custard -- something new, courtesy of Monica! We found the color and texture of the innards of said pie a trifle alarming (the words "stomach acid pie" were uttered by Dara, who flat refused to try it), but at least amongst those of us who actually sampled it, no dismay was voiced as to the taste. I, however, do definitely prefer my rhubarb pie to also involve strawberry.
Cheers all,
Anna the Piper
In which Monica goes plugged and Patrick goes electric the whole session; in which the Strut starts sounding like a Strut, rather than a Saunter; and in which we try an alarming new kind of pie. Songs: "Jenny's Jealous", "Stray Cat Strut", "You Woke Up My Neighborhood", "Mari-Mac", "Trois Navires de Ble".
In direct contrast to the teeny tiny session on 4/14, the session of 4/21 turned out to be one of the biggest we'd had in some time, with me,
solarbird (Dara), spazzkat (Paul), ssha (Cyn), mamishka (Mimi), Monica, and daspatrick (Patrick) all on hand.First item on the menu: "Jenny's Jealous", not surprisingly, since we had the electrics available and Monica had been making many noises about wanting to play with this ditty again. It had been so long, though, that the first take sort of fell apart during the bridge, since NONE of us really remembered what we were doing. The backup vocals didn't quite have their act together either; I didn't remember what I was doing, and Mimi hadn't sung with me before. Happily, though, on later takes we sounded much better; Mimi started harmonizing with me on the verses, and we wound up getting this nice minor thing going on there, versus singing unified on the choruses.
The ending is coming through a little ragged and needs some work, to try to make sure we close it out good and tight. We had some volume issues on the electric guitars as well, and had to adjust the Colonel to make Paul better heard.
Since we did in fact have the electrics on hand and Patrick and Paul, "Stray Cat Strut" turned out to be next -- and as Dara remarked, this is actually beginning to sound scarily like a song, coming out of us. We had some confusion at the beginning as to the order that the instruments come in -- but as with "Jenny's Jealous", this was mostly only because we hadn't played this in long enough that we had to work it out again.
Dara tried out her flute that I bought for her last Christmas, since it was in the right key, i.e., C minor. However, her hands aren't adjusted to this flute yet and so it was really a stretch for her to play it, and made her hands actively sore.
Once we did enough takes of the Strut for our satisfaction, Paul buggered off early, since he had to go to the grocery and make sure he had something to cook for dinner. Which left the rest of us to head on to "You Woke Up My Neighborhood".
I apparently am still having issues with getting too fast on the choruses here; Mimi and Dara and Cyn all noticed it. Mimi suggested that I tap my foot slower, not hitting every single little beat; I discovered that that messed me up a lot more though, so I stopped tapping my foot all together and tried to focus instead on Patrick and Monica's rhythm, which seemed to help a lot. Many jokes were made about me and my Evil Foot.
Monica plugged in her acoustic to better be heard against Patrick's electric -- and it was rather impressive how beefy her instrument sounded plugged in! Much was made over her Canadian-made guitar, a rather appropriate instrument to be playing in a predominantly Great-Big-Sea-focused jamming group.
I tried to sing harmony some more, which is working, at least when I can do it consistently. It's still a challenge for me to be singing suitably loudly while playing an instrument at the same time. I'm also trying to do an ascending arpeggio-ish thing coming out of the bridge, and had a bit of uncertainty as to whether I should keep singing under Monica going "Somersaults across the lawn". So far we don't seem to have a consistent consensus; clearly, I shall have to practice more.
Next was "Mari-Mac", for which Patrick opted not to switch to his acoustic. So for once, we had an electric guitar on this ditty, which was rather entertaining and a fun switch from how we usually hear it. Monica continues to sound quite good harmonizing against Mimi on the choruses, swiping Alan Doyle's backup singing off the live take on Road Rage. Our first take, as many of our first takes are in practice, was way too slow; on the other hand, we were also consistent on tempo for once! As was observed, sometimes there's something to be said for going a bit slower than usual.
Lastly was "Trois Navires de Ble", which actually broke our usual practice of too-slow first takes by having the first take be WAY TOO FAST (well hey, there's something to be said for being unpredictable). We also had some issues with how many measures get stuck in between this and that verse, and where Alan sings "dans l'île" on the recording... in fact, I wound up listening to the actual recording, just to verify where those little accent of Mr. Doyle's come in.
We wound up having a bit of an involuntary break in the middle of this song, because Paul got back from the grocery in the middle of it, and when he came in, the pungent odor of Ian doing linoleum removal in the basement wafted up into our section of the house. So we had to send Mimi down to make sure he was ventilating his work. Nothing like the good bracing scent of linoleum removal to musically inspire one, we always say.
Patrick kept with the electric through this song, too, just because.
The pie: rhubarb custard -- something new, courtesy of Monica! We found the color and texture of the innards of said pie a trifle alarming (the words "stomach acid pie" were uttered by Dara, who flat refused to try it), but at least amongst those of us who actually sampled it, no dismay was voiced as to the taste. I, however, do definitely prefer my rhubarb pie to also involve strawberry.
Cheers all,
Anna the Piper