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annathepiperIn which we have a small but surprisingly guitar-heavy Jam today; in which ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
kendaer and pocketnaomi get a chance to practice chord changes; and in which I learn that it's hard to channel Alan Doyle slowly. Songs: "Captain Kidd", "Process Man", "Elf Glade", "When You Leave", "Artifacts You'll Never See", "Zombie Taylor".
kendaer, pocketnaomi, cflute, and of course solarbird and I were the only attendees of today's Jam--but there turned out to be quite a bit of fun anyway, as both JT and Naomi showed up with guitars. JT's not been brave enough to contribute guitar playing on his instrument although he's had it for a while; this time, though, Naomi also showed up with a guitar. This was extra special neat as hers is a tenor guitar, actually about the size of Rags, but with only four strings, tuned to DGBE.
I particularly liked how the chords on Naomi's guitar (who, she informed us, is probably named Belle) are the same as regular guitar chords, only with the top two fingers missing. So this makes Em and G, really easy. (Thinking about it, I'm pretty sure I knew about this tuning in the context of one of the deeply obscure tunings for octave mandolin/bouzouki, too.)
In deference to the other guitars we spent quite a bit of time just letting first JT and then JT and Naomi both practice things slowly. While Dara and JT and I were waiting for the others to show up, we noodled around a bit with the intro chords to "Lukey", just so JT could practice the G-C-D chord changes, although we didn't wind up playing the song. When Callie and Naomi showed, though, we went ahead and did us some Great Big Sea anyway since they're our source of easiest chord changes. (In terms of easy chords, anyway. As I have said before on these reports, the chords to "Mari-Mac" are super-easy, you just have to play them at approximately 67,321 beats per minute.)
The easiest possible GBS song we could think of was of course "Captain Kidd", which has only three chords in it: a bunch of D, A, and G. We wound up playing through it a total of three times, which taught me this important lesson: it is extremely difficult for me to play and sing any Great Big Sea song sung by Alan Doyle slowly. I kept wanting to speed up.
"Alan has had no caffeine today!" I urged myself. "No no," said JT, "he's had valium!"
I tried briefly switching over to the octave mand, but that didn't help much as its strings are way brighter than Rags', so I couldn't hear myself sing as well--and, pretty much, I was the only voice since JT and Naomi were focusing on their chords, and Callie was mostly contributing recorder. We also tried playing with a metronome, only to learn that even with that, we kept trying to speed up the song. The moral of this story is of course that we desperately neededmamishka to keep time for us. Sniff.
The last take we did was instrumental, except for the final layered vocals. This actually helped since it let me pay better attention to what Callie was doing, and even though our tempo still wasn't consistent, we at least held it together. For this one Callie broke out a larger recorder, too, which worked pretty nicely.
Callie got in some nice noodling in between songs: a 15th-century ditty she told us she'd learned on that big recorder.
Naomi and JT were pretty strummed out after that, so we jumped over to do a take of "Process Man" by JT's request. I tried whacking out a rhythm line ontechnoshaman's drum Thumper, since Thumper was on hand even though Glenn himself wasn't. I like drumming; it's a nice switch from vocals and strings and the piccolo. I think bodhran may eventually become my true love there though.
"Elf Glade" was the last serious thing I did on the guitar for this session, since JT and Callie were interested in doing this one. Some negotiation was done as to where Naomi could jump in; this time around, she did the response lines while Callie did the main ones, and JT jumped in on the chorus. Callie, it must be noted, also got in some excellent harmony on the choruses and some good spooky flute bits. Dara took up the bodhran for this song, experimenting with rhythm.
And, Naomi asserted that she'd find it interesting to perform "Elf Glade" on a stage with Callie--specifically because of the aspect of two women doing the song rather than a female lead and male backup. She's right. That would be entertaining to listen to as well as to perform.
More good Callie noodling: a jig I thought I recognized, and, which made me go HEY, Haydn's "Serenade"--which I played as a solo piece in school. Recognizable classical music FTW!
After that Dara introduced "When You Leave", one of her newest pieces; this was well received for interestingly growly vocals, at least by me! Also, as per Dara's standard operating procedure, the chord structure is complex. "But it's only nine chords!" Dara protested. "ONLY?!" said JT. "You want me to put my fingers in how many places in six beats?" I said.
"Artifacts You'll Never See" is another Dara one, still a work in progress, although she did play all of its major elements for us. I made Dara show off the beginning to the others because it frankly impressed me. I'd told her before that I was dubious that you could get a mandolin to make noises with nasty intent--especially Summer, a mandolin that's bright and loud for a mandolin. Dara proceeded to prove me wrong by creating this atonal climb up and down the first eight to ten frets, and, well, wow. So yeah. Mad props to Dara there. And yeah, I told her cheerfully I was wrong and that she could do the Smug Dance.
We decided to close out on something nice and simple and silly: "Zombie Taylor". Brains!
The pie: apple, since I was feeling basic and simple with the pie flavors today, and the Kittyhugs Bakery apple really is quite tasty.
Next Jam's going to be in three weeks, since next week is Orycon, and the week after is the weekend after American Thanksgiving, so everybody in the jamming group is likely to be in a turkey coma. So we'll meet again on December 7th. Anybody wants in I'm not already emailing about this, sing out!
kendaer and pocketnaomi get a chance to practice chord changes; and in which I learn that it's hard to channel Alan Doyle slowly. Songs: "Captain Kidd", "Process Man", "Elf Glade", "When You Leave", "Artifacts You'll Never See", "Zombie Taylor".kendaer, pocketnaomi, cflute, and of course solarbird and I were the only attendees of today's Jam--but there turned out to be quite a bit of fun anyway, as both JT and Naomi showed up with guitars. JT's not been brave enough to contribute guitar playing on his instrument although he's had it for a while; this time, though, Naomi also showed up with a guitar. This was extra special neat as hers is a tenor guitar, actually about the size of Rags, but with only four strings, tuned to DGBE.I particularly liked how the chords on Naomi's guitar (who, she informed us, is probably named Belle) are the same as regular guitar chords, only with the top two fingers missing. So this makes Em and G, really easy. (Thinking about it, I'm pretty sure I knew about this tuning in the context of one of the deeply obscure tunings for octave mandolin/bouzouki, too.)
In deference to the other guitars we spent quite a bit of time just letting first JT and then JT and Naomi both practice things slowly. While Dara and JT and I were waiting for the others to show up, we noodled around a bit with the intro chords to "Lukey", just so JT could practice the G-C-D chord changes, although we didn't wind up playing the song. When Callie and Naomi showed, though, we went ahead and did us some Great Big Sea anyway since they're our source of easiest chord changes. (In terms of easy chords, anyway. As I have said before on these reports, the chords to "Mari-Mac" are super-easy, you just have to play them at approximately 67,321 beats per minute.)
The easiest possible GBS song we could think of was of course "Captain Kidd", which has only three chords in it: a bunch of D, A, and G. We wound up playing through it a total of three times, which taught me this important lesson: it is extremely difficult for me to play and sing any Great Big Sea song sung by Alan Doyle slowly. I kept wanting to speed up.
"Alan has had no caffeine today!" I urged myself. "No no," said JT, "he's had valium!"
I tried briefly switching over to the octave mand, but that didn't help much as its strings are way brighter than Rags', so I couldn't hear myself sing as well--and, pretty much, I was the only voice since JT and Naomi were focusing on their chords, and Callie was mostly contributing recorder. We also tried playing with a metronome, only to learn that even with that, we kept trying to speed up the song. The moral of this story is of course that we desperately needed
mamishka to keep time for us. Sniff.The last take we did was instrumental, except for the final layered vocals. This actually helped since it let me pay better attention to what Callie was doing, and even though our tempo still wasn't consistent, we at least held it together. For this one Callie broke out a larger recorder, too, which worked pretty nicely.
Callie got in some nice noodling in between songs: a 15th-century ditty she told us she'd learned on that big recorder.
Naomi and JT were pretty strummed out after that, so we jumped over to do a take of "Process Man" by JT's request. I tried whacking out a rhythm line on
technoshaman's drum Thumper, since Thumper was on hand even though Glenn himself wasn't. I like drumming; it's a nice switch from vocals and strings and the piccolo. I think bodhran may eventually become my true love there though."Elf Glade" was the last serious thing I did on the guitar for this session, since JT and Callie were interested in doing this one. Some negotiation was done as to where Naomi could jump in; this time around, she did the response lines while Callie did the main ones, and JT jumped in on the chorus. Callie, it must be noted, also got in some excellent harmony on the choruses and some good spooky flute bits. Dara took up the bodhran for this song, experimenting with rhythm.
And, Naomi asserted that she'd find it interesting to perform "Elf Glade" on a stage with Callie--specifically because of the aspect of two women doing the song rather than a female lead and male backup. She's right. That would be entertaining to listen to as well as to perform.
More good Callie noodling: a jig I thought I recognized, and, which made me go HEY, Haydn's "Serenade"--which I played as a solo piece in school. Recognizable classical music FTW!
After that Dara introduced "When You Leave", one of her newest pieces; this was well received for interestingly growly vocals, at least by me! Also, as per Dara's standard operating procedure, the chord structure is complex. "But it's only nine chords!" Dara protested. "ONLY?!" said JT. "You want me to put my fingers in how many places in six beats?" I said.
"Artifacts You'll Never See" is another Dara one, still a work in progress, although she did play all of its major elements for us. I made Dara show off the beginning to the others because it frankly impressed me. I'd told her before that I was dubious that you could get a mandolin to make noises with nasty intent--especially Summer, a mandolin that's bright and loud for a mandolin. Dara proceeded to prove me wrong by creating this atonal climb up and down the first eight to ten frets, and, well, wow. So yeah. Mad props to Dara there. And yeah, I told her cheerfully I was wrong and that she could do the Smug Dance.
We decided to close out on something nice and simple and silly: "Zombie Taylor". Brains!
The pie: apple, since I was feeling basic and simple with the pie flavors today, and the Kittyhugs Bakery apple really is quite tasty.
Next Jam's going to be in three weeks, since next week is Orycon, and the week after is the weekend after American Thanksgiving, so everybody in the jamming group is likely to be in a turkey coma. So we'll meet again on December 7th. Anybody wants in I'm not already emailing about this, sing out!
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no subject
Date: 2008-11-17 02:41 pm (UTC)ooooers.... that would be cool.
Tenor guitar... how very interesting!
no subject
Date: 2008-11-17 05:43 pm (UTC)a) the tuning Naomi is using is called "Chicago tuning," at least, when applied to tenor guitars and...
b) if you can make chords on a Chicago tuned tenor you can automagically play a baritone ukulele (its standard tuning is exactly the same) or any other uke (you'll just be in a different key, since the two standards are GCEA and ADF#B).
Sounds like a happy jam!
no subject
Date: 2008-11-24 04:43 am (UTC)And yeah, it was a cool Jam. Unusual new instruments FTW!