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annathepiperIn which I apparently spaced completely on posting the Jam Report from 3/1, so this one skips numbering; in which I really don't have the vocal muscle for "Mari-Mac" yet; in which zombies make yet another appearance; and in which I get the delivery of the final chord of "Stars" right on the dot. Songs: "Mari-Mac", "Fine Brains for Zombies", "The Chemical Worker's Song (Process Man)", "Duncan's Dance", "Elf Glade", "Pirate Bill and Squidly", "Stars".
It's been a while since I posted the last Jam Report, and that's entirely my bad; this is the fault of the last one we had being right before my surgery on the 5th, at which point my brain went right out the back of my head. Like it does when surgery is involved.
This Jam was delayed a week as well due to having to come back from that surgery. And it was on the small side as well since![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
pocketnaomi was down due to feeling poorly. cflute too was feeling under the weather, although she was able to join us, albeit with limited vocal power. Still, we had enough folks to have a credible little Jam.
First up: "Mari-Mac". Mostly because we were waffling around about what to start with, andkendaer deferred to me on song choice, so I decided to see if I could make it through a coherent take of "Mari-Mac" while playing guitar and singing lead. Not so much. Especially given that I'm transposing the thing on the fly to A minor, and I'm still not entirely convinced that my range likes that key any better than E minor. Plus, the E minor chords just sound more badassed on Rags, a quality that's diminished if I capo up. The best part of this exercise though was solarbird breaking out her violin to see if she could start improvising a part. I encouraged her to channel her inner Bob.
Safe to say, though, we didn't come close to opening the portal to Hell that Jamming Group Mark I always feared we would if we ever got Bob Hallett's "Mari-Mac" fiddle part correct.
Callie gave us a sample of one of the better zombie ditties I've encountered in a bit: "Fine Brains for Zombies", a nice little chorale all about fresh, chewy brains.
Then we had in a request for "Process Man", which worked out well enough; we didn't have enough real vocal power for it, since we were down some folks, but it was good to get an opportunity to work on beating ontechnoshaman's drum anyway. Trying to get better at following Dara on the bodhran so that I can give her an underlying rhythm while she does more complicated things than I do on Thumper.
"Duncan's Dance" gave JT a chance to work on his guitar chords. And since Dara'd been waffling around as to which instrument she actually wanted to play on this song, she tried mandolin this time--which had the added benefit of me hearing from her how the little hitch of a chord change in the C part works. She picks these things up better than I do, and once she'd played it, I was able to bend my brain around it better. I'll still need to work at it though. And I'm starting to have visions of properly stringing this little ditty up with "Napoleon's Rant" and "Chickies in the House" and trying to play it all the way through, like unto how Mr. Alexander James Adams actually wrote it.
I'm feeling more comfortable with "Elf Glade", go me! Even when singing lead on it and trying to play the guitar at the same time. I was really rather pleased with myself for managing to hold out long notes over the beginning part of the connector riffs.
We took a stab at "Pirate Bill" with Dara singing lead, since Callie didn't have the voice for it and JT and I didn't know it well enough yet. That came together in places, although Dara's way more used to playing mandolin on this song than singing the lyrics. It'll be interesting to try the song with that configuration of people some more.
Last but not least, "Stars", since JT asked for it (due to liking the drum part) and I wanted to play it anyway (due to trying to get my brain around the chord changes). I haven't adequately memorized the chords yet, but I did amuse Dara by how my chord hand automatically swung up on hitting the very last chord. She gave me her official approval on that little gesture and said it was entirely Correct. Hee.
The pie was apple, since I was feeling fairly traditional about Pie.
Next Jam will be April 5th. As always, if any locals would like to come by and hang out for casual music and pie, let me know!
It's been a while since I posted the last Jam Report, and that's entirely my bad; this is the fault of the last one we had being right before my surgery on the 5th, at which point my brain went right out the back of my head. Like it does when surgery is involved.
This Jam was delayed a week as well due to having to come back from that surgery. And it was on the small side as well since
pocketnaomi was down due to feeling poorly. cflute too was feeling under the weather, although she was able to join us, albeit with limited vocal power. Still, we had enough folks to have a credible little Jam.First up: "Mari-Mac". Mostly because we were waffling around about what to start with, and
kendaer deferred to me on song choice, so I decided to see if I could make it through a coherent take of "Mari-Mac" while playing guitar and singing lead. Not so much. Especially given that I'm transposing the thing on the fly to A minor, and I'm still not entirely convinced that my range likes that key any better than E minor. Plus, the E minor chords just sound more badassed on Rags, a quality that's diminished if I capo up. The best part of this exercise though was solarbird breaking out her violin to see if she could start improvising a part. I encouraged her to channel her inner Bob.Safe to say, though, we didn't come close to opening the portal to Hell that Jamming Group Mark I always feared we would if we ever got Bob Hallett's "Mari-Mac" fiddle part correct.
Callie gave us a sample of one of the better zombie ditties I've encountered in a bit: "Fine Brains for Zombies", a nice little chorale all about fresh, chewy brains.
Then we had in a request for "Process Man", which worked out well enough; we didn't have enough real vocal power for it, since we were down some folks, but it was good to get an opportunity to work on beating on
technoshaman's drum anyway. Trying to get better at following Dara on the bodhran so that I can give her an underlying rhythm while she does more complicated things than I do on Thumper."Duncan's Dance" gave JT a chance to work on his guitar chords. And since Dara'd been waffling around as to which instrument she actually wanted to play on this song, she tried mandolin this time--which had the added benefit of me hearing from her how the little hitch of a chord change in the C part works. She picks these things up better than I do, and once she'd played it, I was able to bend my brain around it better. I'll still need to work at it though. And I'm starting to have visions of properly stringing this little ditty up with "Napoleon's Rant" and "Chickies in the House" and trying to play it all the way through, like unto how Mr. Alexander James Adams actually wrote it.
I'm feeling more comfortable with "Elf Glade", go me! Even when singing lead on it and trying to play the guitar at the same time. I was really rather pleased with myself for managing to hold out long notes over the beginning part of the connector riffs.
We took a stab at "Pirate Bill" with Dara singing lead, since Callie didn't have the voice for it and JT and I didn't know it well enough yet. That came together in places, although Dara's way more used to playing mandolin on this song than singing the lyrics. It'll be interesting to try the song with that configuration of people some more.
Last but not least, "Stars", since JT asked for it (due to liking the drum part) and I wanted to play it anyway (due to trying to get my brain around the chord changes). I haven't adequately memorized the chords yet, but I did amuse Dara by how my chord hand automatically swung up on hitting the very last chord. She gave me her official approval on that little gesture and said it was entirely Correct. Hee.
The pie was apple, since I was feeling fairly traditional about Pie.
Next Jam will be April 5th. As always, if any locals would like to come by and hang out for casual music and pie, let me know!