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kendaer and pocketnaomi take another couple rounds breaking in their new guitars; in which solarbird and I are seized by the irresistible urge to Bring It; in which I still can't sing "Lukey" in G even if I can play the chords in my sleep; and in which I inch ever closer to being badassed enough for "Elf Glade". Songs: "Captain Kidd", "Duncan's Dance", "Lukey", "Goin' Up", "Process Man", "Elf Glade".
This turned out to be another fairly small Jam: me, Dara,cflute, pocketnaomi, technoshaman, and kendaer. And since folks showed up in a bit of a staggered wave, we started off doing much the same thing we did last time. Which is to say, taking a slow and leisurely amble through "Captain Kidd" so that JT could practice the chord changes in it. I remind myself that when you're just starting on guitar, yeah, actually, even changing between D, G, and A can be pretty intimidating. And if it takes a while for your fingers to get the motions into muscle memory, it just takes a while!
I still snicker at the thought of having to channel The Doyle on Valium, though. Or perhaps more accurately for The Doyle, Alan at the End of a Tour. 'Cause yeah, left to my own devices, I will rip through "Captain Kidd" at speed. It's an amusing challenge for me to play it slowly and softly, just so that I can try to listen to JT on his guitar.
And, once Naomi and Callie showed up, Naomi on her new tenor guitar as well. It's hard for me to pick Belle's voice out from across the jam circle. Of course, I'm also now used to playing LOUD, which is another thing one has to just pick up while learning guitar. (Or at least, if you're me and you learned how to play guitar by watching members of Great Big Sea do it.)
Anyway, we took a couple of spins through that and that was all good practice. JT got a little adventuresome then and asked what other songs we've been doing involved chords that weren't crazy. I asked him to define "not crazy", and he said "no barre chords". Which is fair; as y'all may remember, I have often asserted that the B minor and F barre chords can blow me.
So this initially led us into discussing "Lukey", but we wound up playing "Duncan's Dance" first--this being the only bit of that three-part crazytalk fast instrumental by Alexander James Adams that doesn't involve the chord B flat, which I am not going to inflict on newbie guitarists. It does have that weird little hop with A minor in the syncopation of one measure in the C part. Which I still can't play, let alone JT and Naomi, but Callie did point out quite correctly that we can just ignore that chord and play D straight through it to the A minor in the next measure.
There's extra adventure here for Naomi as well since she doesn't actually read music. She knows enough to tell where the measures start in the songbook, but it's easy for her to get lost. Fortunately, at least with this particular song, just about all of the measures start with a G chord on the downbeat. I say "just about" because the last little bit of the C part starts on a C chord rather than a G. (Because Alec is all whimsical and puckish like that, doncha know.) This caused JT some consternation, too!
It should be noted that Dara whipped out Splinter, her big flute, to improvise some nice stuff to go along with Callie. That worked well; Splinter's got the depth and volume to add some muscle to the arrangement of instruments we're generally playing with these days.
Around, then, to "Lukey". This being one of the GBS songs I can do without blinking, I had to slow-strum my way through the intro, first verse, and chorus so that Callie could write out the chords for JT and Naomi on the printout of the lyrics. Trying to vocalize what chord falls where is surprisingly difficult for me; they're there in the fingers, but communicating that out vocally sometimes doesn't quite work. Which is why I had to strum through it slowly and be all "OH YEAH the C falls in this bit of the line" and such.
As with "Captain Kidd", we did a bit of slow work through this. The bridge is the complicated part since it changes keys--at least, in the version Dara and I are most familiar with--and Callie hasn't written out the chords for that for the others. Note to Self: dig up chords previously discussed in email and send around.
But Dara and I also got hit with an urge to blaze through "Lukey" at speed, too. My problem with this remains that GBS does it in G, so those are the chords Dara and I both know. But I can't sing it in G, not with enough volume and power to be heard over my guitar. This might change if I were miked, but until then, if I want my voice to actually carry, I need to capo up a couple of frets.
(Which has by the way taught me that in general, I seem to be happiest in the ballpark of B flat to D or so. With occasional forays up to F, if I'm feeling particularly frisky in the vocals.)
After that the Urge to Channel the B'ys wasn't quite done with us, either. Because Dara and I also whipped through "Goin' Up". (Same vocal codicil as "Lukey", but ah hell, I didn't feel like bothering with the capo.) I give Dara particular bonus points for achieving actual Vertical Movement while Bringing It on the mand. As is entirely right and proper playing anything by Great Big Sea. Except maybe "Clearest Indication" and "Boston and St. John's". ;)
(General apologies to the rest of the Jammers who I suspect were probably looking at us funny the whole time. What can I say? When The Doyle moves me, I am moved. (And I am apparently quite parenthetical in this Jam Report. (But I digress.)))
I think it was around then that Naomi's and JT's fingers said "OKAY DONE NOW". So we jumped over to something vocal for a change of pace: "Process Man". The arrangement was pretty much similar to last time, with JT and Callie doing the singing, only this time we had Glenn on shakers. I took over his big drum Thumper, just because I'm starting to get a bit of a taste for it. I'm not as good as Mimi by any stretch of the imagination, but it's oddly satisfying to me to bang on a drum. I still need to learn how to properly mesh with Dara when she's doing the bodhran, though.
Last but not least: "Elf Glade", about which I will basically say that I still endeavor to be as badassed as possible, to achieve that "with nasty intentions" notation at the top of the page in the songbook. Rags is a valiant little guitar and does his best to help me out. It'll work better though if I play those damn between-verse riffs correctly.
Also: I still need to work something harmony-flavored to do on the chorus. We have multiple singers at our disposal here for this song. We need to use them!
The pie: pumpkin, since I didn't get to have any pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving due to being all distracted and stuff by Dara's Portal Cake.
The next Jam is tentatively pencilled in for the 28th, the first weekend after Christmas. A mini-Jam is expected, but any of you local types out there with instruments are welcome to show if you're around. Just give me a heads up if you want to join in!
kendaer and pocketnaomi take another couple rounds breaking in their new guitars; in which solarbird and I are seized by the irresistible urge to Bring It; in which I still can't sing "Lukey" in G even if I can play the chords in my sleep; and in which I inch ever closer to being badassed enough for "Elf Glade". Songs: "Captain Kidd", "Duncan's Dance", "Lukey", "Goin' Up", "Process Man", "Elf Glade".This turned out to be another fairly small Jam: me, Dara,
cflute, pocketnaomi, technoshaman, and kendaer. And since folks showed up in a bit of a staggered wave, we started off doing much the same thing we did last time. Which is to say, taking a slow and leisurely amble through "Captain Kidd" so that JT could practice the chord changes in it. I remind myself that when you're just starting on guitar, yeah, actually, even changing between D, G, and A can be pretty intimidating. And if it takes a while for your fingers to get the motions into muscle memory, it just takes a while!I still snicker at the thought of having to channel The Doyle on Valium, though. Or perhaps more accurately for The Doyle, Alan at the End of a Tour. 'Cause yeah, left to my own devices, I will rip through "Captain Kidd" at speed. It's an amusing challenge for me to play it slowly and softly, just so that I can try to listen to JT on his guitar.
And, once Naomi and Callie showed up, Naomi on her new tenor guitar as well. It's hard for me to pick Belle's voice out from across the jam circle. Of course, I'm also now used to playing LOUD, which is another thing one has to just pick up while learning guitar. (Or at least, if you're me and you learned how to play guitar by watching members of Great Big Sea do it.)
Anyway, we took a couple of spins through that and that was all good practice. JT got a little adventuresome then and asked what other songs we've been doing involved chords that weren't crazy. I asked him to define "not crazy", and he said "no barre chords". Which is fair; as y'all may remember, I have often asserted that the B minor and F barre chords can blow me.
So this initially led us into discussing "Lukey", but we wound up playing "Duncan's Dance" first--this being the only bit of that three-part crazytalk fast instrumental by Alexander James Adams that doesn't involve the chord B flat, which I am not going to inflict on newbie guitarists. It does have that weird little hop with A minor in the syncopation of one measure in the C part. Which I still can't play, let alone JT and Naomi, but Callie did point out quite correctly that we can just ignore that chord and play D straight through it to the A minor in the next measure.
There's extra adventure here for Naomi as well since she doesn't actually read music. She knows enough to tell where the measures start in the songbook, but it's easy for her to get lost. Fortunately, at least with this particular song, just about all of the measures start with a G chord on the downbeat. I say "just about" because the last little bit of the C part starts on a C chord rather than a G. (Because Alec is all whimsical and puckish like that, doncha know.) This caused JT some consternation, too!
It should be noted that Dara whipped out Splinter, her big flute, to improvise some nice stuff to go along with Callie. That worked well; Splinter's got the depth and volume to add some muscle to the arrangement of instruments we're generally playing with these days.
Around, then, to "Lukey". This being one of the GBS songs I can do without blinking, I had to slow-strum my way through the intro, first verse, and chorus so that Callie could write out the chords for JT and Naomi on the printout of the lyrics. Trying to vocalize what chord falls where is surprisingly difficult for me; they're there in the fingers, but communicating that out vocally sometimes doesn't quite work. Which is why I had to strum through it slowly and be all "OH YEAH the C falls in this bit of the line" and such.
As with "Captain Kidd", we did a bit of slow work through this. The bridge is the complicated part since it changes keys--at least, in the version Dara and I are most familiar with--and Callie hasn't written out the chords for that for the others. Note to Self: dig up chords previously discussed in email and send around.
But Dara and I also got hit with an urge to blaze through "Lukey" at speed, too. My problem with this remains that GBS does it in G, so those are the chords Dara and I both know. But I can't sing it in G, not with enough volume and power to be heard over my guitar. This might change if I were miked, but until then, if I want my voice to actually carry, I need to capo up a couple of frets.
(Which has by the way taught me that in general, I seem to be happiest in the ballpark of B flat to D or so. With occasional forays up to F, if I'm feeling particularly frisky in the vocals.)
After that the Urge to Channel the B'ys wasn't quite done with us, either. Because Dara and I also whipped through "Goin' Up". (Same vocal codicil as "Lukey", but ah hell, I didn't feel like bothering with the capo.) I give Dara particular bonus points for achieving actual Vertical Movement while Bringing It on the mand. As is entirely right and proper playing anything by Great Big Sea. Except maybe "Clearest Indication" and "Boston and St. John's". ;)
(General apologies to the rest of the Jammers who I suspect were probably looking at us funny the whole time. What can I say? When The Doyle moves me, I am moved. (And I am apparently quite parenthetical in this Jam Report. (But I digress.)))
I think it was around then that Naomi's and JT's fingers said "OKAY DONE NOW". So we jumped over to something vocal for a change of pace: "Process Man". The arrangement was pretty much similar to last time, with JT and Callie doing the singing, only this time we had Glenn on shakers. I took over his big drum Thumper, just because I'm starting to get a bit of a taste for it. I'm not as good as Mimi by any stretch of the imagination, but it's oddly satisfying to me to bang on a drum. I still need to learn how to properly mesh with Dara when she's doing the bodhran, though.
Last but not least: "Elf Glade", about which I will basically say that I still endeavor to be as badassed as possible, to achieve that "with nasty intentions" notation at the top of the page in the songbook. Rags is a valiant little guitar and does his best to help me out. It'll work better though if I play those damn between-verse riffs correctly.
Also: I still need to work something harmony-flavored to do on the chorus. We have multiple singers at our disposal here for this song. We need to use them!
The pie: pumpkin, since I didn't get to have any pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving due to being all distracted and stuff by Dara's Portal Cake.
The next Jam is tentatively pencilled in for the 28th, the first weekend after Christmas. A mini-Jam is expected, but any of you local types out there with instruments are welcome to show if you're around. Just give me a heads up if you want to join in!
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Date: 2008-12-10 06:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-12-28 12:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-12-28 01:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-12-28 01:07 am (UTC)Dara also says she doesn't like coconut or banana. (She would say this AFTER I sent the comment. *^_^*;;)
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Date: 2008-12-28 01:22 am (UTC)See you tomorrow!
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Date: 2008-12-28 02:15 am (UTC)