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annathepiperIn which I get back in gear with the Jam Reporting now that I have my brain back, more or less; in which we have a noticeably reduced session just because of the heat, but also because of a few conflicting plans; in which ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
pocketnaomi joins us on some singing; and in which I break out the piccolo for the first time in ages. Songs: "The Clockwork Waltz", "The Shanty Formerly Known As General Taylor", "Captain Kidd", "Mari-Mac", "Chemical Worker's Song", "Pirate Bill and Squidly".
It has been stupidly hot in the Puget Sound region this weekend; it got up to 91 yesterday, and as I write this, it's 88 in Kenmore. The heat knocked the wind out ofsolarbird and me yesterday for Jamming, and it also drove sutures1 into hiding in her cool, dark basement, while stealthcello and her family allocated today for outside activities followed by ice cream.
Me, I was happy to have Jam in our relatively cool living room. And we did gettechnoshaman, cflute, pocketnaomi, and mamishka all coming over, too. So the Jam was kind of on the chibi side, but fun nonetheless.
First and foremost, since I'd worked out the chords for it, we went a few times through Dara's latest flute piece, "The Clockwork Waltz". This thing has a complicated structure to it, the way Dara's written it out, so it was good to get in some practice of it--because I need to be able to play backup guitar for her on it when we busk this piece. Meems brought in some nice drumming to help keep time, which was good in the bits where I lost track of what beat I was on; Callie, in the meantime, came out with some lovely descants to go along with Dara's melody line.
Second, we jumped over to Callie's latest contribution, which amused the hell out of us: alternate lyrics to "General Taylor", involving zombies. The formal title of this version is "The Shanty Formerly Known as General Taylor", and according to the lyrics Callie handed out, they were penned by Jim Partridge. This has already been shortened to "Zombie Taylor" in these parts, and Mimi had fun tweaking the lyrics a bit to get 'em to fit in with the song rhythm we're familiar with from the GBS version.
This, not terribly surprisingly, kept us in a GBS mood so we jumped over to "Captain Kidd". We had a bit of instrument uncertainty as I actually had my piccolo out--not that I expected to play it, really, since I was the only guitar this time around. Callie offered to play guitar so I could do something piccolo-y for this song, but since I don't actually have a piccolo part for it yet, I let her play the piccolo instead. This worked very well, especially on the final verse where she came out with a nifty trill where we hold out "sailed".
Meanwhile, Naomi asked for a bit of assistance just because she wanted to jump in with us on the words, which was nifty--more voices are always welcome--so I wound up singing through the first verse for her just so she could hear how the melody line works. AND! It should be noted that Dara was actually singing the lyrics while whipping out the chords on her mandolin. <3 She's been working on the "singing while playing" thing, which is a fine, fine thing indeed to pull off.
After that, since Mimi and I are always up for "Mari-Mac", we took a couple stabs at that. Which were great, grand, and glorious messes, because oh my yes we haven't played this coherently in too damned long, but it's just so fun to tear through this song at top speed. Dara got to whip out her long-dormant flute part for this song, too, and take care of the trill I used to do just after the fourth verse. Fun stuff.
By then my hand was starting to hurt a bit, letting me know in no uncertain terms that I've actually played quite a bit this weekend between practicing for busking on Friday night, actual busking on Saturday, and Jam today... so in order to give my fingers a break, we went to "Chemical Worker's Song" next.
Much love, of course, for "Chemical Worker's Song". Most of us were singing harmony with Mimi all the way through, while I focused instead on punctuating occasional lines, just because I like to give a bit more dramatic emphasis that way. I am having a bit of trouble still with proper harmony, though, and we had to spend a little time working out what I actually wanted to be singing. I'm going lower, down towards where Glenn was singing, while Callie and Dara are singing higher. Most niftily, Meems finished off with a very cool little drum riff that made the whole thing end quite tightly.
Callie put in a request for "Pirate Bill and Squidly", then, so we finished on that--therefore closing the Jam with an interestingly structured song as well as having opened with one. I had to remind myself how the riffs on the song work, so that Dara in turn could pick them up. Still some work to be done here since the bridge in 6/8 is still throwing me, but it's fun to play with nonetheless. Even if, as Mimi wryly observed, the song has a "Puff the Magic Dragon" vibe about it.
Then it was time for Pie, and because it's been stupidly hot, I got the Key Lime White Chocolate Tart thing from Thriftway, figuring that was an excellent thing to consume cold on a hot day. I was right. It was very tasty.
This is of course Jam #77, since Jams #74, 75, and 76 went unreported. For those of you keeping track, the next Jam will be July 13th!
pocketnaomi joins us on some singing; and in which I break out the piccolo for the first time in ages. Songs: "The Clockwork Waltz", "The Shanty Formerly Known As General Taylor", "Captain Kidd", "Mari-Mac", "Chemical Worker's Song", "Pirate Bill and Squidly".It has been stupidly hot in the Puget Sound region this weekend; it got up to 91 yesterday, and as I write this, it's 88 in Kenmore. The heat knocked the wind out of
solarbird and me yesterday for Jamming, and it also drove sutures1 into hiding in her cool, dark basement, while stealthcello and her family allocated today for outside activities followed by ice cream.Me, I was happy to have Jam in our relatively cool living room. And we did get
technoshaman, cflute, pocketnaomi, and mamishka all coming over, too. So the Jam was kind of on the chibi side, but fun nonetheless.First and foremost, since I'd worked out the chords for it, we went a few times through Dara's latest flute piece, "The Clockwork Waltz". This thing has a complicated structure to it, the way Dara's written it out, so it was good to get in some practice of it--because I need to be able to play backup guitar for her on it when we busk this piece. Meems brought in some nice drumming to help keep time, which was good in the bits where I lost track of what beat I was on; Callie, in the meantime, came out with some lovely descants to go along with Dara's melody line.
Second, we jumped over to Callie's latest contribution, which amused the hell out of us: alternate lyrics to "General Taylor", involving zombies. The formal title of this version is "The Shanty Formerly Known as General Taylor", and according to the lyrics Callie handed out, they were penned by Jim Partridge. This has already been shortened to "Zombie Taylor" in these parts, and Mimi had fun tweaking the lyrics a bit to get 'em to fit in with the song rhythm we're familiar with from the GBS version.
This, not terribly surprisingly, kept us in a GBS mood so we jumped over to "Captain Kidd". We had a bit of instrument uncertainty as I actually had my piccolo out--not that I expected to play it, really, since I was the only guitar this time around. Callie offered to play guitar so I could do something piccolo-y for this song, but since I don't actually have a piccolo part for it yet, I let her play the piccolo instead. This worked very well, especially on the final verse where she came out with a nifty trill where we hold out "sailed".
Meanwhile, Naomi asked for a bit of assistance just because she wanted to jump in with us on the words, which was nifty--more voices are always welcome--so I wound up singing through the first verse for her just so she could hear how the melody line works. AND! It should be noted that Dara was actually singing the lyrics while whipping out the chords on her mandolin. <3 She's been working on the "singing while playing" thing, which is a fine, fine thing indeed to pull off.
After that, since Mimi and I are always up for "Mari-Mac", we took a couple stabs at that. Which were great, grand, and glorious messes, because oh my yes we haven't played this coherently in too damned long, but it's just so fun to tear through this song at top speed. Dara got to whip out her long-dormant flute part for this song, too, and take care of the trill I used to do just after the fourth verse. Fun stuff.
By then my hand was starting to hurt a bit, letting me know in no uncertain terms that I've actually played quite a bit this weekend between practicing for busking on Friday night, actual busking on Saturday, and Jam today... so in order to give my fingers a break, we went to "Chemical Worker's Song" next.
Much love, of course, for "Chemical Worker's Song". Most of us were singing harmony with Mimi all the way through, while I focused instead on punctuating occasional lines, just because I like to give a bit more dramatic emphasis that way. I am having a bit of trouble still with proper harmony, though, and we had to spend a little time working out what I actually wanted to be singing. I'm going lower, down towards where Glenn was singing, while Callie and Dara are singing higher. Most niftily, Meems finished off with a very cool little drum riff that made the whole thing end quite tightly.
Callie put in a request for "Pirate Bill and Squidly", then, so we finished on that--therefore closing the Jam with an interestingly structured song as well as having opened with one. I had to remind myself how the riffs on the song work, so that Dara in turn could pick them up. Still some work to be done here since the bridge in 6/8 is still throwing me, but it's fun to play with nonetheless. Even if, as Mimi wryly observed, the song has a "Puff the Magic Dragon" vibe about it.
Then it was time for Pie, and because it's been stupidly hot, I got the Key Lime White Chocolate Tart thing from Thriftway, figuring that was an excellent thing to consume cold on a hot day. I was right. It was very tasty.
This is of course Jam #77, since Jams #74, 75, and 76 went unreported. For those of you keeping track, the next Jam will be July 13th!