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annathepiperIn which prodigal Jammer ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
mamishka returns to the fold, bringing her mighty pipes and drums with her; in which we are almost a full jamming house, lacking only stealthcello to make our numbers mighty indeed; in which solarbird has no voice but doesn't let that stop her from jamming; in which I learn that radarrider's guitar is quite mighty to play; and in which I use the word "mighty" a lot! Songs: "Mari-Mac", "Elf Glade", "Lukey", "Captain Kidd", "The Night Pat Murphy Died", Dara's new mandolin work-in-progress!
(And for the record, I had to go and get a new Séan With Bodhran icon, on the grounds that I damn well needed one anyway, but also because as The McCann is a deity of voice and drumming, it seemed fitting to honor the return of Mimi to Jam! This icon, like the rest of my GBS lovelies, is courtesy ofturple_purtle.)
Meems' return was the big news item with this Jam, though not the only one. Dara is unfortunately suffering from strep throat, so she wasn't able to sing a note today--though that didn't stop her joining in playing her instruments. And she hooked up a couple of speakers to her Mac so that she could type and have the computer talk for her--very clever, that.sutures1 rejoined us as well, so all in all we were very strong with seven people on tap to Jam today. Very, very cool.
And with Mimi back, it was pretty much absolutely necessary that we start things off with a bang, with an old TGM-era favorite: "Mari-Mac". Y'all who have been reading these Jam Reports since early on may remember that Meems was the Keeper of the Tempo in days of yore, and I am delighted to report that for all that we haven't played this song in ages, she was still pretty damn solid.
I had to share the chords (all four of them) with Nevada and Callie and Ellen, and we definitely need to work a bit to make this puppy solid. But oh my yes the potential is there. I'll have to think about whether to stay on guitar or break out the piccolo, since I do miss my piccolo part--but then, if Nevada and I are the only guitars, we need the guitar muscle too. Either way, this will be fun.
I must also say that after a few runs through "Mari-Mac", we were well and thoroughly warmed up. And I took the opportunity to show off Rags and his new strings and tuning pegs, which received due praise, and encouragement to jump into "Elf Glade".
Which we did! With Mimi's voice joining in, we wound up having her and Callie carry the lead, while I sang the responses. I need to practice on my own to come up with a decent harmony for the choruses, too, and I think I'm getting to the point where I have cycles free enough in my brain while I'm playing this song that I can spare some for thinking about singing harmony. We'll see where that goes.
technoshaman wound up being late to Jam since he was running an errand of mercy for another friend who's been afflicted by the Martian Death Flu going around. But he came in just as we were firing up "Lukey", by Ellen's request.
Meems changed the complexion of how we were going to tackle "Lukey", too. It meant I didn't have to sing lead, which meant in turn that we didn't have to do the song in D. But that meant in turn that we had some question about what the hell we wanted to do for a bridge. Mimi was comfortable singing in A, but Ellen wasn't comfortable playing "Staten Island" in A--and she doesn't know "Gone by the Board" yet either, the other bridge that GBS uses in versions of this song.
So we wound up doing a different bridge entirely, which was quite neat and which even tied again back into TGM-era Jam--because the song Ellen chose was "Little Beggarman"! Her way of playing it required a bunch of G and F chords, which were coming out as A and G since Nevada and I were capoing on 2. Deceptively simple chord line, this--because jumping back and forth between F and G at speed is tricky.
But there's potential here. It took a few rough passes to get through the song with this new bridge in there, but it was definitely fun to try. We had a little bit of roughness with me auto-piloting my way through the fourth chorus, too--the bit where I drop out the guitar on A HA ME BOYS A RIDDLE-AYE DAY. Live GBS performances do that and then jump straight into the bridge. I did that and threw Ellen right off. Oops. *^_^*;;
The good part of the whole exercise: Meems singing lead which allowed for me to sing harmony. Good places for my harmony: bits of the verses (but not all of the verses), and the choruses.
Next up, by way of giving Meems a taste of last week's piratey goodness: "Captain Kidd"!
This was nine kinds of fun. We're pretty well settled on doing this in D, since a majority of us sing comfortably there. I whipped out the recording to run through it once for Mimi's benefit, so she could hear where the drum dropout is in the last verse, as well as the bit in same where The Doyle holds out that one longer note. But I was pleased to see us then cheerfully going off and doing our own thing on the tail end of the song--where we do more layering than GBS! Muaha! Callie is starting to carry a nice little simple bridge to go in the middle, too, though we're not yet solid on remembering to drop out and let her play that bridge.
This, too, though, has potential.
Right about then Ellen had to go ahead and leave, so we called Pie. This week's: strawberry rhubarb from the Thriftway, which was polished off quite solidly by seven Jammers.
As it happened, though, that didn't actually end the Jam. I took a few to play the 1968 Comeback Special performance of "Love Me" by Glenn's earlier request, which prompted my announcing with general satisfaction that why yes, I could actually sing like Elvis, since I grew up singing along with him. ;) But after pie was eaten, several of us wandered back to our instruments.
Dara played through a work in progress she's got going on the mandolin (about which I continue to be extremely proud!), which perked Callie's interest up; she told us she was hearing some long sustained things she could do on the Big Kid to go with that, which sounded full of fun. The idea of the deep bass flute contrasting with the high mandolin sounded pretty nifty, and it'll be cool to see what develops from this.
Meanwhile, though, I wandered back to an instrument I actually didn't get to break out during the main part of the Jam: the bouzouki! I'd thought about playing it for "Lukey", but since we wound up doing the "Little Beggarman" bridge, the zouk was right out; I still can't do F on that instrument. Not when it calls for a five-fret reach.
Instead, Meems and Nevada and I futzed around a bit with "The Night Pat Murphy Died", by way of me demonstrating the principle of "same chords as 'Lukey', only rearranged". Also, the principle of "Anna still can't play the bridge of this ditty at speed if you pay her". *^_^*;; Nevertheless, it was fun to experiment around with keys to try to find where Mimi's voice was happiest; we wound up with the capo up on 5, which kicked the song up to C. I played a bit with figuring out what base chords go under that bridge, which was simpler than trying to play the actual bridge. Especially when we went kind of by accident into the bridge of "Jolly Butcher". Oops. *^_^*;;
We even considered whether we ought to go to D--but if we do that, I'll have to transpose the chords, because otherwise I'll be capoed on 7 and that's just crazytalk. On the other hand, that'll make me have to re-figure where all my fingers need to be going for that bridge.
Nevada and I eventually traded guitars when we got tired of "Paddy Murphy"; he wanted to see Rags, and I wanted to check out his mighty Seagull acoustic guitar. It is indeed a mighty instrument, wider than a normal guitar, with quite the deep and brawny tone to it. That? That is a guitar that's nasty and powerful enough to play "Elf Glade" right.
I may have to make him switch instruments with me next time we Jam--at least until I get a new guitar of my own. New long term plan: Anna sells a novel, Anna gets to buy herself a new guitar!
But until then, I'll be happily jamming on Rags.
Next Jam in three weeks, sincetechnoshaman and cflute's household is hosting a housefilk on Saturday the 26th. So the next Jam will be May 4th!
mamishka returns to the fold, bringing her mighty pipes and drums with her; in which we are almost a full jamming house, lacking only stealthcello to make our numbers mighty indeed; in which solarbird has no voice but doesn't let that stop her from jamming; in which I learn that radarrider's guitar is quite mighty to play; and in which I use the word "mighty" a lot! Songs: "Mari-Mac", "Elf Glade", "Lukey", "Captain Kidd", "The Night Pat Murphy Died", Dara's new mandolin work-in-progress!(And for the record, I had to go and get a new Séan With Bodhran icon, on the grounds that I damn well needed one anyway, but also because as The McCann is a deity of voice and drumming, it seemed fitting to honor the return of Mimi to Jam! This icon, like the rest of my GBS lovelies, is courtesy of
turple_purtle.)Meems' return was the big news item with this Jam, though not the only one. Dara is unfortunately suffering from strep throat, so she wasn't able to sing a note today--though that didn't stop her joining in playing her instruments. And she hooked up a couple of speakers to her Mac so that she could type and have the computer talk for her--very clever, that.
sutures1 rejoined us as well, so all in all we were very strong with seven people on tap to Jam today. Very, very cool.And with Mimi back, it was pretty much absolutely necessary that we start things off with a bang, with an old TGM-era favorite: "Mari-Mac". Y'all who have been reading these Jam Reports since early on may remember that Meems was the Keeper of the Tempo in days of yore, and I am delighted to report that for all that we haven't played this song in ages, she was still pretty damn solid.
I had to share the chords (all four of them) with Nevada and Callie and Ellen, and we definitely need to work a bit to make this puppy solid. But oh my yes the potential is there. I'll have to think about whether to stay on guitar or break out the piccolo, since I do miss my piccolo part--but then, if Nevada and I are the only guitars, we need the guitar muscle too. Either way, this will be fun.
I must also say that after a few runs through "Mari-Mac", we were well and thoroughly warmed up. And I took the opportunity to show off Rags and his new strings and tuning pegs, which received due praise, and encouragement to jump into "Elf Glade".
Which we did! With Mimi's voice joining in, we wound up having her and Callie carry the lead, while I sang the responses. I need to practice on my own to come up with a decent harmony for the choruses, too, and I think I'm getting to the point where I have cycles free enough in my brain while I'm playing this song that I can spare some for thinking about singing harmony. We'll see where that goes.
technoshaman wound up being late to Jam since he was running an errand of mercy for another friend who's been afflicted by the Martian Death Flu going around. But he came in just as we were firing up "Lukey", by Ellen's request.Meems changed the complexion of how we were going to tackle "Lukey", too. It meant I didn't have to sing lead, which meant in turn that we didn't have to do the song in D. But that meant in turn that we had some question about what the hell we wanted to do for a bridge. Mimi was comfortable singing in A, but Ellen wasn't comfortable playing "Staten Island" in A--and she doesn't know "Gone by the Board" yet either, the other bridge that GBS uses in versions of this song.
So we wound up doing a different bridge entirely, which was quite neat and which even tied again back into TGM-era Jam--because the song Ellen chose was "Little Beggarman"! Her way of playing it required a bunch of G and F chords, which were coming out as A and G since Nevada and I were capoing on 2. Deceptively simple chord line, this--because jumping back and forth between F and G at speed is tricky.
But there's potential here. It took a few rough passes to get through the song with this new bridge in there, but it was definitely fun to try. We had a little bit of roughness with me auto-piloting my way through the fourth chorus, too--the bit where I drop out the guitar on A HA ME BOYS A RIDDLE-AYE DAY. Live GBS performances do that and then jump straight into the bridge. I did that and threw Ellen right off. Oops. *^_^*;;
The good part of the whole exercise: Meems singing lead which allowed for me to sing harmony. Good places for my harmony: bits of the verses (but not all of the verses), and the choruses.
Next up, by way of giving Meems a taste of last week's piratey goodness: "Captain Kidd"!
This was nine kinds of fun. We're pretty well settled on doing this in D, since a majority of us sing comfortably there. I whipped out the recording to run through it once for Mimi's benefit, so she could hear where the drum dropout is in the last verse, as well as the bit in same where The Doyle holds out that one longer note. But I was pleased to see us then cheerfully going off and doing our own thing on the tail end of the song--where we do more layering than GBS! Muaha! Callie is starting to carry a nice little simple bridge to go in the middle, too, though we're not yet solid on remembering to drop out and let her play that bridge.
This, too, though, has potential.
Right about then Ellen had to go ahead and leave, so we called Pie. This week's: strawberry rhubarb from the Thriftway, which was polished off quite solidly by seven Jammers.
As it happened, though, that didn't actually end the Jam. I took a few to play the 1968 Comeback Special performance of "Love Me" by Glenn's earlier request, which prompted my announcing with general satisfaction that why yes, I could actually sing like Elvis, since I grew up singing along with him. ;) But after pie was eaten, several of us wandered back to our instruments.
Dara played through a work in progress she's got going on the mandolin (about which I continue to be extremely proud!), which perked Callie's interest up; she told us she was hearing some long sustained things she could do on the Big Kid to go with that, which sounded full of fun. The idea of the deep bass flute contrasting with the high mandolin sounded pretty nifty, and it'll be cool to see what develops from this.
Meanwhile, though, I wandered back to an instrument I actually didn't get to break out during the main part of the Jam: the bouzouki! I'd thought about playing it for "Lukey", but since we wound up doing the "Little Beggarman" bridge, the zouk was right out; I still can't do F on that instrument. Not when it calls for a five-fret reach.
Instead, Meems and Nevada and I futzed around a bit with "The Night Pat Murphy Died", by way of me demonstrating the principle of "same chords as 'Lukey', only rearranged". Also, the principle of "Anna still can't play the bridge of this ditty at speed if you pay her". *^_^*;; Nevertheless, it was fun to experiment around with keys to try to find where Mimi's voice was happiest; we wound up with the capo up on 5, which kicked the song up to C. I played a bit with figuring out what base chords go under that bridge, which was simpler than trying to play the actual bridge. Especially when we went kind of by accident into the bridge of "Jolly Butcher". Oops. *^_^*;;
We even considered whether we ought to go to D--but if we do that, I'll have to transpose the chords, because otherwise I'll be capoed on 7 and that's just crazytalk. On the other hand, that'll make me have to re-figure where all my fingers need to be going for that bridge.
Nevada and I eventually traded guitars when we got tired of "Paddy Murphy"; he wanted to see Rags, and I wanted to check out his mighty Seagull acoustic guitar. It is indeed a mighty instrument, wider than a normal guitar, with quite the deep and brawny tone to it. That? That is a guitar that's nasty and powerful enough to play "Elf Glade" right.
I may have to make him switch instruments with me next time we Jam--at least until I get a new guitar of my own. New long term plan: Anna sells a novel, Anna gets to buy herself a new guitar!
But until then, I'll be happily jamming on Rags.
Next Jam in three weeks, since
technoshaman and cflute's household is hosting a housefilk on Saturday the 26th. So the next Jam will be May 4th!![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2008-04-15 03:41 pm (UTC)There are a number of people who capo their ukuleles. I keep my (online) mouth shut mostly but inside I'm thinking, "Oh fer crissakes! It's only got 12 frets. There's only four, nice and soft nylon strings, one for each finger. Just learn the freakin' chords!"
Jam happy!
no subject
Date: 2008-04-15 04:16 pm (UTC)And yeah, seriously--something as small as a uke? Learn the chords, indeed! :)