Jam Report #47: 6/30/02
Jun. 30th, 2002 01:44 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 Patrick displays amazing feats of flexibility, in which we all pretty much agree that erratic jamming makes us pretty rusty, and in which amusement with mangled lyrics is had by all. Songs: "Stray Cat Strut", "Acres of Clams", "Trois Navires de Ble", "You Woke Up My Neighborhood", "Jolly Butcher", "The Guitar", "Kiss Off".
Although attendance has been rather spotty as of late, we had a pretty good turnout on the 30th -- including myself,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
solarbird (Dara), ssha (Cyn), Monica, daspatrick (Patrick), and a bit of spazzkat (Paul). mamishka (Mimi) had had to keep sitting out while her smashed thumb heals up; hopefully, we'll have her back soon too. Because at least in theory some of us still want to busk, and boy howdy, we need the practice!
However, having Patrick around is always good for giggles as well as good guitar playing. In honor of Patrick's presence, and because we hadn't done it in a while, "Stray Cat Strut" turned out to be first on the lineup. This even got Paul to come join us, though Paul didn't want to sing, so Patrick got to sing lead instead while Cyn sang backup; the amazing thing about this, listening to the recording of ourselves afterwards, was that Patrick and Cyn even sang loud enough to be heard over the instruments. Something in our positioning of ourselves and the mike this time actually managed to achieve a good balance of instruments versus voices.
He had issues remembering the lyrics, though. When he popped out with "I got stray cows and I got cat style", this led to us deciding that at some point we are just going to have to write the "Stray Cow Plod".
I actually remembered to drop out on the guitar solos, though my parts where I actually want to play the flute were rusty due to us not having practiced it in a while. Patrick as also rusty on his solos along with the lyrics; we had to work out again where various instruments were supposed to come in and such.
Paul left us again as we moved on to "Acres of Clams" and determined we were pretty rusty on this, too. Patrick had to be reminded of the chords for the main body of the song as well as "Fisherman's Frolic". My embouchure was quite sucky; I kept playing rather breathily, and found tuning the piccolo an annoyance as well. Our second take was way too fast, letting Cyn play her bass line rather jauntily, but making Patrick and Monica on the guitars have to strum extremely fast, and making me run out of breath on my part as well.
However, it must be noted that Patrick sounded really cool singing along with Monica on the choruses. He is picking up his sister's ability to belt this ditty out without ANY! IRONY! WHATSOEVER! -- which is pretty much required for "Acres of Clams".
I have been all about "Trois Navires de Ble" as of late, but I've gotten used to practicing it on my guitar -- and suddenly had to switch back to my little mand, when we took on practicing this ditty next. This made for a bit of a weird mental transition, going from guitar chord fingerings over to mandolin chord fingerings; furthermore, I kept trying to play it at the tempo I've grown accustomed to in my practice, which was slower that how we played it the first time through, so I kept lagging behind Monica keeping the rhythm line going. I am still also having harmony issues, not yet being used to singing the harmony I want to produce in Jam -- i.e., what I belt out when I'm singing along with the recording. In Jam, I keep singing lower than I intend to, unconsciously following the notes I'm strumming on the mandolin. It's still harmony, but not what I'm aiming for! This requires more practice.
Onward to "You Woke Up My Neighborhood"; here, too, I kept having issues with lagging behind Monica, possibly due to Patrick on the Colonel being way louder than she was. So I switched from trying to follow her and watching her hands to trying to follow him instead. This didn't entirely work. It did improve my ability to keep up with the general rhythm line, but Patrick throws some lead-guitar-y twiddles into the rhythm here and there, going a bit off from the simpler stuff I'm hitting on the mand, so if I'm not paying attention he'll throw me off.
Chord and tempo issues abounded, and once again, Mimi's vocal and drumming absence was missed.
"Jolly Butcher" was next, and as a general reference, playing piccolo on this ditty when your hair gets into your mouth is quite difficult. Cyn opined that it was about as difficult as playing the violin when your hair gets caught on the strings, but according to Patrick, it was not as difficult as attempting to play the guitar with NO ARMS. Much laughter erupted over this, causing Patrick to moan that he gets no respect.
I informed Patrick that if he played the guitar without arms, maybe he would get more respect. At which point, he promptly stuck his pick in his teeth and attempted to hit the strings with one foot, which was quite impressive if nothing else as a feat of agility, even if he got little more than a twang out of his strings. ;)
After that the session more or less degenerated in tired giggles and calls for pie, which was strawberry rhubarb, on the grounds that that was what they'd had at Safeway. However, even as I was arranging to cut up and hand out the pie, Monica, Patrick, and Cyn did get in a few last twiddles playing with "The Guitar" by They Might Be Giants (which, several of us have opined, we must in fact officially try in Jam) and "Kiss Off" by the Violent Femmes (well hey, if the Paperboys can do a Celtic version of "Sexual Healing", why not?).
More next time, whenever that next time winds up being,
Anna the Piper!
In which Patrick displays amazing feats of flexibility, in which we all pretty much agree that erratic jamming makes us pretty rusty, and in which amusement with mangled lyrics is had by all. Songs: "Stray Cat Strut", "Acres of Clams", "Trois Navires de Ble", "You Woke Up My Neighborhood", "Jolly Butcher", "The Guitar", "Kiss Off".
Although attendance has been rather spotty as of late, we had a pretty good turnout on the 30th -- including myself,
solarbird (Dara), ssha (Cyn), Monica, daspatrick (Patrick), and a bit of spazzkat (Paul). mamishka (Mimi) had had to keep sitting out while her smashed thumb heals up; hopefully, we'll have her back soon too. Because at least in theory some of us still want to busk, and boy howdy, we need the practice!However, having Patrick around is always good for giggles as well as good guitar playing. In honor of Patrick's presence, and because we hadn't done it in a while, "Stray Cat Strut" turned out to be first on the lineup. This even got Paul to come join us, though Paul didn't want to sing, so Patrick got to sing lead instead while Cyn sang backup; the amazing thing about this, listening to the recording of ourselves afterwards, was that Patrick and Cyn even sang loud enough to be heard over the instruments. Something in our positioning of ourselves and the mike this time actually managed to achieve a good balance of instruments versus voices.
He had issues remembering the lyrics, though. When he popped out with "I got stray cows and I got cat style", this led to us deciding that at some point we are just going to have to write the "Stray Cow Plod".
I actually remembered to drop out on the guitar solos, though my parts where I actually want to play the flute were rusty due to us not having practiced it in a while. Patrick as also rusty on his solos along with the lyrics; we had to work out again where various instruments were supposed to come in and such.
Paul left us again as we moved on to "Acres of Clams" and determined we were pretty rusty on this, too. Patrick had to be reminded of the chords for the main body of the song as well as "Fisherman's Frolic". My embouchure was quite sucky; I kept playing rather breathily, and found tuning the piccolo an annoyance as well. Our second take was way too fast, letting Cyn play her bass line rather jauntily, but making Patrick and Monica on the guitars have to strum extremely fast, and making me run out of breath on my part as well.
However, it must be noted that Patrick sounded really cool singing along with Monica on the choruses. He is picking up his sister's ability to belt this ditty out without ANY! IRONY! WHATSOEVER! -- which is pretty much required for "Acres of Clams".
I have been all about "Trois Navires de Ble" as of late, but I've gotten used to practicing it on my guitar -- and suddenly had to switch back to my little mand, when we took on practicing this ditty next. This made for a bit of a weird mental transition, going from guitar chord fingerings over to mandolin chord fingerings; furthermore, I kept trying to play it at the tempo I've grown accustomed to in my practice, which was slower that how we played it the first time through, so I kept lagging behind Monica keeping the rhythm line going. I am still also having harmony issues, not yet being used to singing the harmony I want to produce in Jam -- i.e., what I belt out when I'm singing along with the recording. In Jam, I keep singing lower than I intend to, unconsciously following the notes I'm strumming on the mandolin. It's still harmony, but not what I'm aiming for! This requires more practice.
Onward to "You Woke Up My Neighborhood"; here, too, I kept having issues with lagging behind Monica, possibly due to Patrick on the Colonel being way louder than she was. So I switched from trying to follow her and watching her hands to trying to follow him instead. This didn't entirely work. It did improve my ability to keep up with the general rhythm line, but Patrick throws some lead-guitar-y twiddles into the rhythm here and there, going a bit off from the simpler stuff I'm hitting on the mand, so if I'm not paying attention he'll throw me off.
Chord and tempo issues abounded, and once again, Mimi's vocal and drumming absence was missed.
"Jolly Butcher" was next, and as a general reference, playing piccolo on this ditty when your hair gets into your mouth is quite difficult. Cyn opined that it was about as difficult as playing the violin when your hair gets caught on the strings, but according to Patrick, it was not as difficult as attempting to play the guitar with NO ARMS. Much laughter erupted over this, causing Patrick to moan that he gets no respect.
I informed Patrick that if he played the guitar without arms, maybe he would get more respect. At which point, he promptly stuck his pick in his teeth and attempted to hit the strings with one foot, which was quite impressive if nothing else as a feat of agility, even if he got little more than a twang out of his strings. ;)
After that the session more or less degenerated in tired giggles and calls for pie, which was strawberry rhubarb, on the grounds that that was what they'd had at Safeway. However, even as I was arranging to cut up and hand out the pie, Monica, Patrick, and Cyn did get in a few last twiddles playing with "The Guitar" by They Might Be Giants (which, several of us have opined, we must in fact officially try in Jam) and "Kiss Off" by the Violent Femmes (well hey, if the Paperboys can do a Celtic version of "Sexual Healing", why not?).
More next time, whenever that next time winds up being,
Anna the Piper!