READIN

Sunday, April 9th, 2006

🦋 Singing and fiddling

Singing while I play is really coming naturally -- besides "John Hardy was a Desperate Man" I've now got a pretty good version of "Keep Your Lamps Trimmed and Burning", and this afternoon I played (on the spur of the moment) "Since I Laid My Burden Down". This is almost exactly the same melody as "Will the Circle Be Unbroken", which I have tried without much success to sing while playing.

Tonight I played the open mike jam at the regrettably named "Here's to the Arts" in Maplewood. It was just me and the owner of the bar playing electric guitar, and the audience was Ellen and Sylvia and the owner's wife; but we had some fun. We played "John Hardy" and "Trimmed and Burning", and a jazz tune that I had not heard before. I turn out to be able to sing into a mic while playing, which is a relief, and to jam to an easy but unfamiliar tune, which I already sort of knew but is always nice to get confirmed.

posted evening of April 9th, 2006: Respond
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Friday, April 7th, 2006

🦋 Song nostalgia

An idea for a meme! I have never started such a thing before but now I am going to try it out.

Here's the idea: list 4 songs (by different artists please) that meet the following criteria: (a) You have not listened to the song in a long time. I'm thinking like 2 years minimum but adjust this limit at your discretion. (b) You can hear the song in your head, just by closing your eyes and willing it. (Well you know what I mean; it's debatable how strongly "will" enters into this activity.) (c) You would gladly listen to it right now. Optionally, write a little squib about the song, why you like it, why you have not listened to it, where you know it from, etc. Here are my four:

• "Clean Steve" by Robyn Hitchcock: This is the song that came into my mind this morning and inspired this whole thing. I love, love the song but have never owned it, last time I listened to it must be home from college sometime hanging around with my friend Jer Egenberger who is the big Hitchcock afficionado and was my conduit to Hitchcocky goodness.
• "Hurricane" by Dylan: I like the "Desire" album a lot but when I go to listen to Dylan, that never seems to be what I put on the record player.
• "No Xmas for John Quays" by The Fall: "Live at the Witch Trials" was one of the first punk rock albums I ever owned and I think one of the finest. Don't listen to that music too much anymore.
• "Here I Go" by Syd Barrett: Barrett is another artist that Jer Egenberger introduced me to. This is a pretty song and the only Barrett tune that I know on guitar. (For some values of "know": I haven't played it in ages but could pick it out again pretty quickly I think.) (Aha: Here are the chords, which I worked out 2½ years ago.)

I want to forward this meme to: music snob extraordinaire Amanda Marcotte; Becks, who is learning to play guitar; Ben Wolfson, who has some interesting ideas about music; and monster of rock Roy Edroso, who is on a bit of a hiatus right now but will hopefully be back soon. Also I'd like to know NickS's picks, so maybe Becks or somebody will start a thread about it on Unfogged.

If you participate (is this the correct verb?) in this meme, let me know and I will link to your stuff. Update: Here are responses to this meme:

• Ben Wolfson: A complicated musical request

posted morning of April 7th, 2006: Respond

Thursday, April 6th, 2006

🦋 Fiddle Practice

Tonight for the first time I felt myself starting to get comfortable in the second and third positions. All along I have been trying to work them in to my playing without any real luck. On Tuesday, Bill and Aaron were saying how they'd really like to hear the high notes and advising me to practice scales up the neck -- aagh! my bane! repetitive practice! -- so I set out to try it.

Last night I was playing the scales but without any real clue what I was doing. But tonight I changed my strategy a little. First, I decided only to work on the key of G for now, since the songs I've been playing with Bill and Aaron are primarily in G. And second, I decided not to worry about the bottom string since I was having a lot of trouble there.

I started playing some scales, sounding a little better than last night; and after a little while I moved into playing melodies and solos -- mostly in third position. Still having to hunt for notes a bit and sometimes drifting away from the proper position. I'm trying to figure out how to move between positions now.

posted evening of April 6th, 2006: Respond
➳ More posts about 13 Scotland Rd.

Tuesday, April 4th, 2006

I was jamming again tonight with 13 Scotland Rd, and got a lot of good stuff on tape. Where last time I felt pretty up-in-the-air about whether I was playing with or against Bill, tonight I was starting to click and hear what I was doing right or wrong. Bill was also teaching me the songs in a way he was not doing last week, which was really helpful. Between Bill and Lisa Gutkin I feel like I have really happened on two ideal music teachers. We played:

• "Dream", which we had finished out the evening with last week, with me playing a really pretty intro. Had a hard time getting back there, but after a couple of times through I broke through and started getting it.
• "Used to be" -- just blew me away, a beautiful song. Aaron taught me an intro that I picked up fairly quickly. On the solo I'm having a hard time really going into it aggressively without also being sloppy.
• "If You Were Mine", which I've been practicing most of this week.
• "Always", which is really difficult for me to hear the key of.

posted evening of April 4th, 2006: Respond

Tuesday, March 28th, 2006

🦋 Joining a band

Tonight I practiced with 13 Scotland Rd, which is Bill Binford on guitar and vocals and Aaron Seglin on harmonica, flute, percussion and vocals. I have jammed with Aaron before at Bob and Janis' house, but had never heard him playing 13 Scotland Rd songs, and never met Bill. The music was just lovely. I played coherent, pretty solos with two of their songs, and less together stuff with a couple of other songs. I did "John Hardy" with Aaron. Anyway -- they were happy enough with what I was doing, to ask me back -- so I will be practicing with them for a while, and if it goes well, performing with them! I'm very excited about this -- I've wanted to be in a band for as long as I can remember.

posted evening of March 28th, 2006: Respond
➳ More posts about Jamming with friends

Sunday, March 26th, 2006

🦋 That was pretty exciting

Yesterday morning I went to Sylvia's school to help build a garden for the students to cultivate flowers and vegetables. Fun working and meeting some other parents. And by a stroke of luck one of the parents I met was Matt Hauser, drummer for Felt. We got to talking about music and I asked if his band could use a fiddler. He responded pretty enthusiastically and said they were playing at St. James Gate in the evening, I should come by and check it out.

So when I got there, Matt's bandmate Tarquin asked me "Where's your axe?" I hadn't been thinking I was going to play and begged off, but Tarquin talked me into it (pretty easy to do actually.) I drove back home and returned with my fiddle. I ended up playing two songs with them, "Pass You By" by Gillian Welch and "Deal" -- I haven't really figured out how to play into a microphone though, so I was totally inaudible on "Pass You By" -- on "Deal" I was getting it a little better and people in the audience could hear at least some of what I was playing.

Leaving aside the issue of whether anyone off the stage was able to hear it, I was able to keep up with the band and improvised some really nice licks. They asked me to play with them again. (I need to get a pickup!) And: 13 Scotland Rd was in the audience and played a couple of songs at the intermission -- I have jammed with Aaron and have their CD, but have never listened to them live -- they just blew me away! And Bill was interested by what he could make out of my fiddling, and asked me to practice with them.

posted morning of March 26th, 2006: Respond

Tuesday, March 21st, 2006

🦋 Second lesson

This evening I am having my second fiddle lesson with Lisa Gutkin, who impressed me favorably at our first meeting. What I want to work on: blues; "John Hardy"; vibrato; "I'll Fly Away" and a couple of similar folk songs. I was going to go to a lecture on Robert Musil beforehand, but the schedule switched around and I will not be able to make it.

Got my midterm back in Network Systems last night -- I scored 62/100, which in the wacky world of Professor Rubenstein's curves is an A. (Class median was 44.)

We worked on vibrato and blues, and a lot of bow hand exercises. And toward the end of the lesson some work on "John Hardy" and on playing drone notes while I am singing. I can do some really nice stuff jamming on "John Hardy". It is time that I should start keeping a book of what songs I play. Offhand:

• John Hardy was a Desperate Little Man
• Shine On
• I'll Fly Away
• The Louisville Burglar
• St. James Infirmary
• Will the Circle be Unbroken

Anything else?... as I say, time to start keeping a book.

posted afternoon of March 21st, 2006: Respond

Saturday, February 18th, 2006

🦋 Keep your lamps trimmed and burning

Some friends were over this afternoon, among them Eileen Eliot, who recently learned "Keep your lamps trimmed and burning" (the Hot Tuna version) from tablature. I was interested because I learned the song a few years ago in the only Woody Mann workshop I ever took, and promptly forgot it. So Eileen showed me the fingerings a couple of times through, and handed me my guitar. I surprised myself by playing a pretty recognizable version straight off the bat, but in first position rather than the fingerings Eileen had been showing me. I was pretty happy about being able to shift it into first position so easily -- it made me feel like I understood the music pretty well -- I have always preferred to play in first position rather than learning new finger positions and playing up the neck.

And, "Keep your lamps" turns out to be a totally addictive tune to play on fiddle. I was whistling it all evening after Eileen showed it to me, and I finally picked up my fiddle to try it out, and the notes just rolled off my bow.

posted evening of February 18th, 2006: Respond

Tuesday, February 7th, 2006

🦋 John Hardy was a Desperate Man

This evening I played the version of "John Hardy was a Desperate Man" I'd been thinking about all day, and it was really nice, for a first attempt. I wasn't able to do some of the fast, trilling variations I had been thinking about, and didn't have the vocals integrated into the song very well; but I did have a nice degree of variety between each repetition of the verse. And I actually played a couple of verses in second position, without it sounding awful!

posted evening of February 7th, 2006: Respond

🦋 Finally, an ear-worm I can get behind

I woke up this morning singing "John Hardy was a Desperate Little Man" and it's been with me all morning. I was singing it on the street as I walked to work. And wow! I think I have come up with a harmony to it, which I will be able to play on my fiddle, simple with interesting variations. If this works out (I will try it when I get home, hope it stays in my head that long), it will be the first song that I know an actual fiddle part to rather than just playing the melody with ornamentation.

posted morning of February 7th, 2006: Respond

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