Jam Report #44: 5/5/02
May. 5th, 2002 02:45 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 although the number of attendees goes down, the amount of singing goes up; in which Monica memorizes chords but Dara loses her embouchure; and in which Fred finds F sharp on his dulcimer! Songs: "Dancing With Mrs. White", "Acres of Clams", "Judas Cart", "Old Black Rum", "Trois Navires de Ble", "You Woke Up My Neighborhood".
Okay, yeah, this is a new record in lateness for the Jam Reports -- but well hey. See earlier Jam Report commentary about me being one with my lateness; it's a good thing I am staying in the habit of actually taking notes during the ritual Listening To And Wincing At Our Session Recordings During Pie. ;) Otherwise, as late as I've been lately, I'd forget what the heck we did. But anyway, onward.
The 5/5 session was another four-person session, busking-style with me,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
solarbird (Dara), Fred, and Monica; we were down ssha (Cyn) as she had decided to take a break from music this time around. Still, the session was not without its advancements! And even with only a small number of us we still managed to use a pretty credible number of instruments between us.
First up was "Dancing With Mrs. White". A lot of work was needed on this, as we wanted to try to figure out what Fred should be playing on his concertina. Fred is having some issues with being inclined to play a lot of minor-flavored notes as he breaks in this instrument, which we don't want on many of our songs -- at least, not minor-flavored notes that don't actually go in the key in question, and so Monica and I worked with him to figure out some basic stuff for him to be playing while Dara and I take the melody line on the flutes. It is very tempting to try to have the concertina take over the melody just because Bob Hallett's accordion does the melody in the Great Big Sea version... but since the idea here is for Dara and I to do it as dueling flutes, we present ourselves with the challenge of how to have the concertina in there as well without it being redundant.
Fred also tried the dulcimer, and although the dulcimer is actually easier for him to play, we agree that this song is actually calling louder for the concertina just in terms of the overall flavor of the song.
And since Fred had yet to actually break this song in in a Jam, we did "Acres of Clams" next. Dara and I both had issues with our embouchures on this song, though; Dara completely lost hers on the last six measures of the Frolic and was having no noise occur whatsoever, and worried to herself as if she were playing in a totally different key, though we assured her that she was sounding fine from our vantage points around the room. Sounded fine on the recording as well.
Just to demonstrate that Fred is definitely more comfortable with the dulcimer than with the concertina, too, he found some nice F sharp bits on this song that worked well on his dulcimer. Yay improvisation!
We really missed the presence of Cyn when we took a stab at "Judas Cart", though. My vocals were off, though Monica sang lead and that worked pretty well, as did Fred coming in on his lowest notes to try to round out the harmony; we really need Cyn, though, because we blend much better with her in the mix. I started off pretty rusty on the fingerwork, too -- my fingers were a bit out of practice on the big mand, after spending a week and a half communing with my guitar.
One, count it, one obligatory take of "Old Black Rum" once again -- I'm still having issues with the syncopation on the verses, dang it, and also fell apart on some of the chords. But I'm also getting comfortable with singing this loud enough to be heard, which is satisfying. Projection is everything when you're belting out this ditty.
"Trois Navires de Ble" was next -- and I do have to say that I am finding it immensely satisfying being able to sing backup harmony to Monica. I can't always do it consistently; on this ditty I wandered around a lot trying to find a proper harmony, though I did more or less manage to come in on the choruses on each verse. Monica reported also that she is not having much recurrence of the one problem she had with sounding far too much like a ten year old to herself what with singing this in her upper range, too.
We did three takes of this, and I did all three of my instruments with strings: take one, which came out too fast, on the octave mand; second take, a bit slower, had me on the guitar and I decided that I liked Rags better than Autumn for this song. It made Fred on the dulcimer much more distinct and he had some niceness happening on the bridges, though we'll have to see if we keep catching that when we have Cyn back playing on the fiddle (which we sorely missed this time around). The last take was on Summer, which resulted in the conclusion that I liked the little mand best at least while we were playing with that session's instruments, even against Fred's dulcimer, which is not unlike it in sound. Plus, I can do the little accenty bits I want to do best on the little mand.
I wound up knocking the mike over during a take though. Oops.
Last was a single take of "You Woke Up My Neighborhood" even though we were missing a lot of our crucial people for it: read,daspatrick (Patrick) on the guitar; read, Cyn on the fiddle; read, mamishka (Mimi) keeping time on drum and adding in her lovely little backup vocals. Still, Monica was quite pleased to do it without looking either at the lyrics or at her chord sheet. Go Monica!
The pie: well, we had two of them as Fred showed up with some more of that lovely Hinterland Pie of the North, read, Snohomish Pie Company pie. And that pie, which was apple crumb, beats QFC's strawberry rhubarb hands down.
Next time: may be a while, as this coming weekend is the Street Fair, and the weekend after is Folklife, at which we are not busking, but oh well life's like that.
Cheers all,
Anna the Piper
In which although the number of attendees goes down, the amount of singing goes up; in which Monica memorizes chords but Dara loses her embouchure; and in which Fred finds F sharp on his dulcimer! Songs: "Dancing With Mrs. White", "Acres of Clams", "Judas Cart", "Old Black Rum", "Trois Navires de Ble", "You Woke Up My Neighborhood".
Okay, yeah, this is a new record in lateness for the Jam Reports -- but well hey. See earlier Jam Report commentary about me being one with my lateness; it's a good thing I am staying in the habit of actually taking notes during the ritual Listening To And Wincing At Our Session Recordings During Pie. ;) Otherwise, as late as I've been lately, I'd forget what the heck we did. But anyway, onward.
The 5/5 session was another four-person session, busking-style with me,
solarbird (Dara), Fred, and Monica; we were down ssha (Cyn) as she had decided to take a break from music this time around. Still, the session was not without its advancements! And even with only a small number of us we still managed to use a pretty credible number of instruments between us.First up was "Dancing With Mrs. White". A lot of work was needed on this, as we wanted to try to figure out what Fred should be playing on his concertina. Fred is having some issues with being inclined to play a lot of minor-flavored notes as he breaks in this instrument, which we don't want on many of our songs -- at least, not minor-flavored notes that don't actually go in the key in question, and so Monica and I worked with him to figure out some basic stuff for him to be playing while Dara and I take the melody line on the flutes. It is very tempting to try to have the concertina take over the melody just because Bob Hallett's accordion does the melody in the Great Big Sea version... but since the idea here is for Dara and I to do it as dueling flutes, we present ourselves with the challenge of how to have the concertina in there as well without it being redundant.
Fred also tried the dulcimer, and although the dulcimer is actually easier for him to play, we agree that this song is actually calling louder for the concertina just in terms of the overall flavor of the song.
And since Fred had yet to actually break this song in in a Jam, we did "Acres of Clams" next. Dara and I both had issues with our embouchures on this song, though; Dara completely lost hers on the last six measures of the Frolic and was having no noise occur whatsoever, and worried to herself as if she were playing in a totally different key, though we assured her that she was sounding fine from our vantage points around the room. Sounded fine on the recording as well.
Just to demonstrate that Fred is definitely more comfortable with the dulcimer than with the concertina, too, he found some nice F sharp bits on this song that worked well on his dulcimer. Yay improvisation!
We really missed the presence of Cyn when we took a stab at "Judas Cart", though. My vocals were off, though Monica sang lead and that worked pretty well, as did Fred coming in on his lowest notes to try to round out the harmony; we really need Cyn, though, because we blend much better with her in the mix. I started off pretty rusty on the fingerwork, too -- my fingers were a bit out of practice on the big mand, after spending a week and a half communing with my guitar.
One, count it, one obligatory take of "Old Black Rum" once again -- I'm still having issues with the syncopation on the verses, dang it, and also fell apart on some of the chords. But I'm also getting comfortable with singing this loud enough to be heard, which is satisfying. Projection is everything when you're belting out this ditty.
"Trois Navires de Ble" was next -- and I do have to say that I am finding it immensely satisfying being able to sing backup harmony to Monica. I can't always do it consistently; on this ditty I wandered around a lot trying to find a proper harmony, though I did more or less manage to come in on the choruses on each verse. Monica reported also that she is not having much recurrence of the one problem she had with sounding far too much like a ten year old to herself what with singing this in her upper range, too.
We did three takes of this, and I did all three of my instruments with strings: take one, which came out too fast, on the octave mand; second take, a bit slower, had me on the guitar and I decided that I liked Rags better than Autumn for this song. It made Fred on the dulcimer much more distinct and he had some niceness happening on the bridges, though we'll have to see if we keep catching that when we have Cyn back playing on the fiddle (which we sorely missed this time around). The last take was on Summer, which resulted in the conclusion that I liked the little mand best at least while we were playing with that session's instruments, even against Fred's dulcimer, which is not unlike it in sound. Plus, I can do the little accenty bits I want to do best on the little mand.
I wound up knocking the mike over during a take though. Oops.
Last was a single take of "You Woke Up My Neighborhood" even though we were missing a lot of our crucial people for it: read,
daspatrick (Patrick) on the guitar; read, Cyn on the fiddle; read, mamishka (Mimi) keeping time on drum and adding in her lovely little backup vocals. Still, Monica was quite pleased to do it without looking either at the lyrics or at her chord sheet. Go Monica!The pie: well, we had two of them as Fred showed up with some more of that lovely Hinterland Pie of the North, read, Snohomish Pie Company pie. And that pie, which was apple crumb, beats QFC's strawberry rhubarb hands down.
Next time: may be a while, as this coming weekend is the Street Fair, and the weekend after is Folklife, at which we are not busking, but oh well life's like that.
Cheers all,
Anna the Piper