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solarbird, cflute, pocketnaomi, and I hold a tiny but quite effective Jam, and in which it is an afternoon of new instruments all around, including violin and piano! Songs: "Captain Kidd", "Brian Maru", "Duncan's Dance", "Clockwork Waltz", "Cherry Tree Station", "Stars".
Several folks had to RSVP in the negative this time around, but that didn't stop Callie and Naomi from coming over this afternoon with tasty, tasty pie for tasty, tasty music. We saw them their pie and raised them a PIANO!
This was the coolest thing: some neighbors of ours announced they were giving away a piano. For FREE. So Dara came to me andspazzkat and said, "So should I get this piano?" And Paul said "Are you kidding? FREE PIANO!" And he and I proceeded to quote Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam all over the place, while Dara said "okay sure" and arranged to lay claim to the piano.
It wound up not being really free, of course, because we had to pay some guys to move it. Since the Murkworks is situated upon a Hill of Mightiness (all the better to hold out against the inevitable zombie apocalypse), it wound up taking four guys to get the piano up our front steps. As far as I'm concerned, it was well worth the few hundred bucks we gave them to do it, because there would have been no earthly way we'd have gotten it up here ourselves. So yeah. Now we have a piano!
And it was in fact showed off and played during today's Jam. Callie and Dara geeked out a bit about it for a while, and Callie went through a piece that let her go all the way up and down the keyboard just to test out its sound. Meanwhile Naomi and I were over there holding our guitars and going "So are we going to play something, or what?"
That Something wound up being, not surprisingly, "Captain Kidd". At least, after the false start of me starting on the second damn verse again. We went through it okay a couple of times after that, though I had tempo issues as always. Mimi on her drums was sorely missed, I'm tellin' ya. Dara switched from mandolin to bodhran for the latter takes, which helped me some--once I started actually trying to hold to her tempo. I do however still have issues singing this song slow.
In between takes of the Captain we noodled around with "Brian Maru" mostly because Callie just launched into it, and I wound up jumping in on chords while Naomi tried to nail down how to do Em and D on Belle. We didn't stick with that one, though, since Naomi was in "Captain Kidd" mode and wanted to focus on that. All to the good, though; we'll revisit Brian later, I'm sure.
"Duncan's Dance" was next by Naomi's request, since it remains one of the other pieces we're doing with a simple enough chord line. Callie worked with Naomi to help her follow the music since Naomi doesn't actually read music, which makes going off the songbook an interesting challenge. Meanwhile, Dara actually broke out her violin for the first time, and started trying to noodle along on that. She wasn't following the songbook either, but as she asserted, she was able to hang out on the G scale to "minimize the damage". Which wasn't actually that bad. She hit a few stretches of interest on the strings, though she does of course sound very, very much like a violin beginner right now.
(Which will change eventually, I'm sure; I'm just thrilled she broke out the thing in Jam. And as perstealthcello's advice, she put the beginner tape on it to mark out where the fingers go, which should help with her getting all the proper motions into muscle memory.)
After that we jumped over to play some of Dara's things, which we hadn't done in a while. Callie asked for "Clockwork Waltz", and while Dara gamely tackled that briefly on the violin, it's still very much flute-oriented so she had to switch over. Naomi had reached her quota of chording, so that left me over there on the guitar to provide backup noodling.
"Cherry Tree Station" had nothing for me to do either, but that was fine, because we finished up with "Stars".
I am very, very satisfied to play backup guitar for Dara on this. This is by far one of the strongest things she's written, and it's also one of the most complex things I've tried to learn how to play. To my pleasure I actually managed to mostly keep up with her on her changes, even the very fast Am->Dm->A bits that are way easier on the mandolin than they are on the guitar. (Those were the bits that, before, I'd fallen over hard on with the lament of THIS SONG HAS TOO MUCH AWESOME!)
Bonus points to me for managing to more or less hold a rhythm line while pointing the guitar upwards so I could see the chord sheet, which also meant I couldn't see my fingers. This made hitting Bm and F a bit of a bitch sometimes, but only sometimes. And, I also managed to hit a couple of places where I was not only holding the rhythm line for Dara, but also even sounding good. There's a fine balance here that I have to hit between providing her enough rhythm muscle and staying out of her way; the mandolin owns this song, after all. But I figured out that if I hit my chords with more emphasis on the lower strings, that particularly rounded out the sound.
I'm very much looking forward to not only learning this, but learning it well. It is ridiculously good to play music written by my spouse. <3
The pie: key lime! Because we hadn't had any in a while, and even though they were only four of us, we almost killed the pie between us. Mmm, pie!
The next Jam is again in three weeks by Callie and Naomi's request, since they're about to get hit with a very busy schedule. So we're aiming for March 1st. As always, any locals on my Friends list want to come by, ping me. There's always room for more. Special note for next time, though: Callie and Naomi are hosting!
solarbird, cflute, pocketnaomi, and I hold a tiny but quite effective Jam, and in which it is an afternoon of new instruments all around, including violin and piano! Songs: "Captain Kidd", "Brian Maru", "Duncan's Dance", "Clockwork Waltz", "Cherry Tree Station", "Stars".Several folks had to RSVP in the negative this time around, but that didn't stop Callie and Naomi from coming over this afternoon with tasty, tasty pie for tasty, tasty music. We saw them their pie and raised them a PIANO!
This was the coolest thing: some neighbors of ours announced they were giving away a piano. For FREE. So Dara came to me and
spazzkat and said, "So should I get this piano?" And Paul said "Are you kidding? FREE PIANO!" And he and I proceeded to quote Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam all over the place, while Dara said "okay sure" and arranged to lay claim to the piano.It wound up not being really free, of course, because we had to pay some guys to move it. Since the Murkworks is situated upon a Hill of Mightiness (all the better to hold out against the inevitable zombie apocalypse), it wound up taking four guys to get the piano up our front steps. As far as I'm concerned, it was well worth the few hundred bucks we gave them to do it, because there would have been no earthly way we'd have gotten it up here ourselves. So yeah. Now we have a piano!
And it was in fact showed off and played during today's Jam. Callie and Dara geeked out a bit about it for a while, and Callie went through a piece that let her go all the way up and down the keyboard just to test out its sound. Meanwhile Naomi and I were over there holding our guitars and going "So are we going to play something, or what?"
That Something wound up being, not surprisingly, "Captain Kidd". At least, after the false start of me starting on the second damn verse again. We went through it okay a couple of times after that, though I had tempo issues as always. Mimi on her drums was sorely missed, I'm tellin' ya. Dara switched from mandolin to bodhran for the latter takes, which helped me some--once I started actually trying to hold to her tempo. I do however still have issues singing this song slow.
In between takes of the Captain we noodled around with "Brian Maru" mostly because Callie just launched into it, and I wound up jumping in on chords while Naomi tried to nail down how to do Em and D on Belle. We didn't stick with that one, though, since Naomi was in "Captain Kidd" mode and wanted to focus on that. All to the good, though; we'll revisit Brian later, I'm sure.
"Duncan's Dance" was next by Naomi's request, since it remains one of the other pieces we're doing with a simple enough chord line. Callie worked with Naomi to help her follow the music since Naomi doesn't actually read music, which makes going off the songbook an interesting challenge. Meanwhile, Dara actually broke out her violin for the first time, and started trying to noodle along on that. She wasn't following the songbook either, but as she asserted, she was able to hang out on the G scale to "minimize the damage". Which wasn't actually that bad. She hit a few stretches of interest on the strings, though she does of course sound very, very much like a violin beginner right now.
(Which will change eventually, I'm sure; I'm just thrilled she broke out the thing in Jam. And as per
stealthcello's advice, she put the beginner tape on it to mark out where the fingers go, which should help with her getting all the proper motions into muscle memory.)After that we jumped over to play some of Dara's things, which we hadn't done in a while. Callie asked for "Clockwork Waltz", and while Dara gamely tackled that briefly on the violin, it's still very much flute-oriented so she had to switch over. Naomi had reached her quota of chording, so that left me over there on the guitar to provide backup noodling.
"Cherry Tree Station" had nothing for me to do either, but that was fine, because we finished up with "Stars".
I am very, very satisfied to play backup guitar for Dara on this. This is by far one of the strongest things she's written, and it's also one of the most complex things I've tried to learn how to play. To my pleasure I actually managed to mostly keep up with her on her changes, even the very fast Am->Dm->A bits that are way easier on the mandolin than they are on the guitar. (Those were the bits that, before, I'd fallen over hard on with the lament of THIS SONG HAS TOO MUCH AWESOME!)
Bonus points to me for managing to more or less hold a rhythm line while pointing the guitar upwards so I could see the chord sheet, which also meant I couldn't see my fingers. This made hitting Bm and F a bit of a bitch sometimes, but only sometimes. And, I also managed to hit a couple of places where I was not only holding the rhythm line for Dara, but also even sounding good. There's a fine balance here that I have to hit between providing her enough rhythm muscle and staying out of her way; the mandolin owns this song, after all. But I figured out that if I hit my chords with more emphasis on the lower strings, that particularly rounded out the sound.
I'm very much looking forward to not only learning this, but learning it well. It is ridiculously good to play music written by my spouse. <3
The pie: key lime! Because we hadn't had any in a while, and even though they were only four of us, we almost killed the pie between us. Mmm, pie!
The next Jam is again in three weeks by Callie and Naomi's request, since they're about to get hit with a very busy schedule. So we're aiming for March 1st. As always, any locals on my Friends list want to come by, ping me. There's always room for more. Special note for next time, though: Callie and Naomi are hosting!
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no subject
Date: 2009-02-09 11:44 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-09 12:47 pm (UTC)I KNEW there was a reason I liked you on sight!
no subject
Date: 2009-02-09 03:01 pm (UTC)Then I told Dara just to make sure she never played "Those Endearing Young Charms" on it. We do not after all want the living room to explode.
no subject
Date: 2009-02-09 11:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-10 04:31 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-10 05:19 am (UTC)Bugs: I speak softly, but I carry a biiiiiig stick!
Sam: Oh yeah?! Well, I speak LOUD! And I carry a BIIIIIGGER STICK! And I USE IT, too! *WHAM*
Hee hee hee...