Jam Report #46: 6/2/02
Jun. 2nd, 2002 01:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
annathepiperAs originally posted to the OKP. Transcribed to Livejournal 1/30/06.
In which Cheryl joins us to listen in, and provides pie; in which we run through a quick sampler of many songs for Cheryl, and in which Mimi is just generally fantastic, while Anna loses notes all over the place. ;) Songs: "Trois Navires de Ble", "You Woke Up My Neighborhood", "Mari-Mac", "Jolly Butcher", "Acres of Clams", "Dancing With Mrs. White", "Judas Cart".
In honor of us having a guest at Jam on 6/2 I was going to try to get the Jam Report actually composed on time -- but well hey, we all know by now how well I do that. Oh well. ;)
At any rate, the guest in question was![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
lyricae (Cheryl), who owns the bookstore at which both ssha (Cyn) and I are currently employed; Cheryl is not yet sure whether she will be joining us in any official capacity, but she may well be lurking at future sessions. Should she join us, she will be having another voice to offer, as well as a saxophone, which may do us very well for any takes of things performed by our Crime and the Forces of Evil selves.
Along with Cheryl we had the pleasure ofmamishka (Mimi) rejoining us for the first time since her most recent trip east, though sadly we were down daspatrick (Patrick), Fred, and Dana all today. So the rest of us in attendance were myself, Cyn, solarbird (Dara), and Monica. Nevertheless we did succeed in giving Cheryl a fairly decent sample of the sorts of things we usually play!
First up: "Trois Navires de Ble", as we were sort of in the mood for it, though Mimi asserted that she could not promise not to suck since she had not practiced in a very long time. We assured her we love her anyway.
Unsurprisingly, our first take came out way too draggy, and as is often the case with us we managed to pick up the tempo nicely in the latter takes. However, I kept dropping chords all over the place and have not yet succeeded in figuring out what the heck I am singing on the harmony. This time around I was in fact the only person trying to sing harmony, as Monica and Cyn sang along with Mimi to try to help get her back into the flow of rhythm of how the lyrics are supposed to go. In future work on this song we'll hopefully be able to aim for Mimi singing more actual lead and working more harmony into the vocals over all.
Cyn came in early on the final bridge on one take, but happily that was a one-shot accident; Dara, in the meantime, is working on trying to bridge together a couple of sections of her own part for this song but other than that is getting pretty comfortable with her flute part.
"You Woke Up My Neighborhood" was next, so I didn't have to switch instruments. Hurray!
I do have harmony on this song, but I still need to solidify it, some. Mimi reported that it was coming out sounding a bit odd, to her ears, and we were not sure as to whether this was because I was hitting my intended notes wrong or simply with insufficient breath and confidence. We had tempo and rhythm issues, too, but again, that wasn't too terribly surprising.
We also continue to have a difference of opinion as to whether Patrick's cheese is a Good Thing or a Bad Thing. ;) As we had no Patrick this time around, we really couldn't get definitive word on it, but we did wind up with some Lesser Cheese at the end of the song, which involved Monica doing a much shorter little arpeggio to take us out. We do need something on the end of the song, just to give us a sense of closure; otherwise, it just stops.
Mimi being back on her "till it grew cold" on the bridge was very sweet to have happen; also, I apparently am doing the Right Thing with coming in on low harmony coming out of the bridge, as the others are singing "eight years old", and "old" gets drawn out into four ascending notes.
Onward to "Mari-Mac", upon which we leapt with great eagerness, as Mimi's renewed presence meant we were able to do this song again. And it came out pretty darned nicely, considering we hadn't done it in many, many weeks! The difference Mimi makes on the drums to keep the time is so stunningly dramatic that really, it's almost silly to try to practice this song without her. Plus, she's doing a mighty fine job of belting out the lyrics, though she has not yet satisfied herself with practicing singing them without the lyrics sheet handy. Mimi also asserts, in the meantime, that shouldkathrynt (Kathryn) return from her personal sabbatical they'll have to duel for who gets to sing this song; discussing this, we did rather like the idea of them trading verses and speeding up on every verse, and not just the ones after the trill.
Our second take in particular smoked on the tempo, as Mimi mischievously attempted to see how fast she could take it; the rest of us kept up with her, barely, and afterward there was much giggling about how we had not done it that fast in quite some time and how cool it was that we actually managed it. Go us!
Cheryl, much to our satisfaction, dug "Mari-Mac" a lot.
Song #4 in our running sample of Stuff Played by Three Good Measures (we zipped through a lot of our songs, as Cheryl had to leave relatively early and we wanted to give her a decent sample of what we have been recently doing) turned out to be "Jolly Butcher". Monica and Cyn continued with their dual lead on this, and Mimi gave them vocal support on the choruses, which worked well. What did not work well were my embouchure issues; yet again, not too terribly surprising.
The embouchure issues kept up during "Acres of Clams", as well. I completely dropped out of places in the Fisherman's Frolic -- though I did at least please myself by being able to know where to come right back in when I needed to. Mimi was able to get in some work on this ditty as well, trying to find some good harmony to sing against Monica's lead. We do still miss Kathryn singing on this, though, due to her marvelous ability to sing this song with NO IRONY WHATSOEVER!
I am still totally all over the map on "Dancing With Mrs. White"; I keep telling myself I need to practice this more, and keep not doing it. Bad Anna! Especially since Monica wants us to play this at her wedding in September! (I have, at least, practiced this since the last Jam Session; we'll have to see if I can actually keep it up. Particularly since Great Big Sea plays this ditty so much faster than I'm able to keep up with, quite yet.) Monica had some guitar issues on this song as we practiced it, but she wasn't nearly as noticeable as my COMPETELY MISSING SEVERAL MEASURES OF THE THING. Just because I spazzed, and for no other good reason. I can't even blame it on hard-to-read sheet music. (Though this is a problem I can and should fix; I've got my harmony part strewn out across three pages, which makes it quite tough to read.) Mimi, on the other hand, continues to be a much-welcome addition on the bodhran.
Last but not least we took on "Judas Cart" again -- and perhaps to make up for majorly sucking on many of the previous takes for this song, thanks to Mimi, we actually achieved four-part harmony! More or less. There were some places where Mimi may have been hitting the same notes I was, but her voice on the high end of the harmony sounded quite stunning. This will require a bit of tweaking to make sure we're actually getting true four-part harmony... but the potential for what we can do with this song now has increased quite satisfactorily. And now we have it nailed down as to when Cyn sings by herself, when I come in, and when everybody else comes in as well.
Now all I have to do is make sure I don't screw up the mandolin part. ;)
The pie: two of them, courtesy of Cheryl! Apple and cherry, purchased from a bakery of her acquaintance from which we had had no prior pie experience.
More again soon,
Anna the Piper
In which Cheryl joins us to listen in, and provides pie; in which we run through a quick sampler of many songs for Cheryl, and in which Mimi is just generally fantastic, while Anna loses notes all over the place. ;) Songs: "Trois Navires de Ble", "You Woke Up My Neighborhood", "Mari-Mac", "Jolly Butcher", "Acres of Clams", "Dancing With Mrs. White", "Judas Cart".
In honor of us having a guest at Jam on 6/2 I was going to try to get the Jam Report actually composed on time -- but well hey, we all know by now how well I do that. Oh well. ;)
At any rate, the guest in question was
lyricae (Cheryl), who owns the bookstore at which both ssha (Cyn) and I are currently employed; Cheryl is not yet sure whether she will be joining us in any official capacity, but she may well be lurking at future sessions. Should she join us, she will be having another voice to offer, as well as a saxophone, which may do us very well for any takes of things performed by our Crime and the Forces of Evil selves.Along with Cheryl we had the pleasure of
mamishka (Mimi) rejoining us for the first time since her most recent trip east, though sadly we were down daspatrick (Patrick), Fred, and Dana all today. So the rest of us in attendance were myself, Cyn, solarbird (Dara), and Monica. Nevertheless we did succeed in giving Cheryl a fairly decent sample of the sorts of things we usually play!First up: "Trois Navires de Ble", as we were sort of in the mood for it, though Mimi asserted that she could not promise not to suck since she had not practiced in a very long time. We assured her we love her anyway.
Unsurprisingly, our first take came out way too draggy, and as is often the case with us we managed to pick up the tempo nicely in the latter takes. However, I kept dropping chords all over the place and have not yet succeeded in figuring out what the heck I am singing on the harmony. This time around I was in fact the only person trying to sing harmony, as Monica and Cyn sang along with Mimi to try to help get her back into the flow of rhythm of how the lyrics are supposed to go. In future work on this song we'll hopefully be able to aim for Mimi singing more actual lead and working more harmony into the vocals over all.
Cyn came in early on the final bridge on one take, but happily that was a one-shot accident; Dara, in the meantime, is working on trying to bridge together a couple of sections of her own part for this song but other than that is getting pretty comfortable with her flute part.
"You Woke Up My Neighborhood" was next, so I didn't have to switch instruments. Hurray!
I do have harmony on this song, but I still need to solidify it, some. Mimi reported that it was coming out sounding a bit odd, to her ears, and we were not sure as to whether this was because I was hitting my intended notes wrong or simply with insufficient breath and confidence. We had tempo and rhythm issues, too, but again, that wasn't too terribly surprising.
We also continue to have a difference of opinion as to whether Patrick's cheese is a Good Thing or a Bad Thing. ;) As we had no Patrick this time around, we really couldn't get definitive word on it, but we did wind up with some Lesser Cheese at the end of the song, which involved Monica doing a much shorter little arpeggio to take us out. We do need something on the end of the song, just to give us a sense of closure; otherwise, it just stops.
Mimi being back on her "till it grew cold" on the bridge was very sweet to have happen; also, I apparently am doing the Right Thing with coming in on low harmony coming out of the bridge, as the others are singing "eight years old", and "old" gets drawn out into four ascending notes.
Onward to "Mari-Mac", upon which we leapt with great eagerness, as Mimi's renewed presence meant we were able to do this song again. And it came out pretty darned nicely, considering we hadn't done it in many, many weeks! The difference Mimi makes on the drums to keep the time is so stunningly dramatic that really, it's almost silly to try to practice this song without her. Plus, she's doing a mighty fine job of belting out the lyrics, though she has not yet satisfied herself with practicing singing them without the lyrics sheet handy. Mimi also asserts, in the meantime, that should
kathrynt (Kathryn) return from her personal sabbatical they'll have to duel for who gets to sing this song; discussing this, we did rather like the idea of them trading verses and speeding up on every verse, and not just the ones after the trill.Our second take in particular smoked on the tempo, as Mimi mischievously attempted to see how fast she could take it; the rest of us kept up with her, barely, and afterward there was much giggling about how we had not done it that fast in quite some time and how cool it was that we actually managed it. Go us!
Cheryl, much to our satisfaction, dug "Mari-Mac" a lot.
Song #4 in our running sample of Stuff Played by Three Good Measures (we zipped through a lot of our songs, as Cheryl had to leave relatively early and we wanted to give her a decent sample of what we have been recently doing) turned out to be "Jolly Butcher". Monica and Cyn continued with their dual lead on this, and Mimi gave them vocal support on the choruses, which worked well. What did not work well were my embouchure issues; yet again, not too terribly surprising.
The embouchure issues kept up during "Acres of Clams", as well. I completely dropped out of places in the Fisherman's Frolic -- though I did at least please myself by being able to know where to come right back in when I needed to. Mimi was able to get in some work on this ditty as well, trying to find some good harmony to sing against Monica's lead. We do still miss Kathryn singing on this, though, due to her marvelous ability to sing this song with NO IRONY WHATSOEVER!
I am still totally all over the map on "Dancing With Mrs. White"; I keep telling myself I need to practice this more, and keep not doing it. Bad Anna! Especially since Monica wants us to play this at her wedding in September! (I have, at least, practiced this since the last Jam Session; we'll have to see if I can actually keep it up. Particularly since Great Big Sea plays this ditty so much faster than I'm able to keep up with, quite yet.) Monica had some guitar issues on this song as we practiced it, but she wasn't nearly as noticeable as my COMPETELY MISSING SEVERAL MEASURES OF THE THING. Just because I spazzed, and for no other good reason. I can't even blame it on hard-to-read sheet music. (Though this is a problem I can and should fix; I've got my harmony part strewn out across three pages, which makes it quite tough to read.) Mimi, on the other hand, continues to be a much-welcome addition on the bodhran.
Last but not least we took on "Judas Cart" again -- and perhaps to make up for majorly sucking on many of the previous takes for this song, thanks to Mimi, we actually achieved four-part harmony! More or less. There were some places where Mimi may have been hitting the same notes I was, but her voice on the high end of the harmony sounded quite stunning. This will require a bit of tweaking to make sure we're actually getting true four-part harmony... but the potential for what we can do with this song now has increased quite satisfactorily. And now we have it nailed down as to when Cyn sings by herself, when I come in, and when everybody else comes in as well.
Now all I have to do is make sure I don't screw up the mandolin part. ;)
The pie: two of them, courtesy of Cheryl! Apple and cherry, purchased from a bakery of her acquaintance from which we had had no prior pie experience.
More again soon,
Anna the Piper