Date: 4/15/09
Location: Mt Prospect Studios
Mike: Bass
Kevin M: Vocals
Ryan: Guitar
Kevin C: Drums
Carl: Guitar
So, I missed the Jazz show at Fitzgerald's, but this was worth it. Kevin C invited his friend Carl to jam. Kevin vouched for him, but I gotta admit I was a little worried when he pulled out the acoustic. No worries. He was solid, even over Stooge. I definitely never heard an acoustic part in Stooge, but it sounded good. Hopefully, we'll keep him showing up with Kevin C.
While we were waiting on Carl, we jammed through a little riff in Dm. Good stuff. Even remembered to turn on the 8-track. Someday, I'll have enough time to develop some of this stuff, but in the meantime, it's just fun to jam through it.
We whipped through Tomorrow and some Stooge after Carl arrived. The Stooge outro was rag-tag, but it finally held together. I know Mike is going to want some clean transitions, but I kinda liked how we followed each other through the mixed-meter stuff. Okay, maybe it was five minutes too long, but I was digging it. Kevin M had the idea to jump back in on vocals after our musical adventure, which was something I had in the back of my mind as well. Great minds, eh? Ha ha ha...
After Kevin M left, we worked through some Cowboy Song. We have a few parts now that are pretty cool. We're going to have to try to work some melody into the fold in the near future. And I haven't even busted out the original bridge I wrote for the song.
When we got bored, Kevin C took the mic and I laid down a beat. It was an upbeat blues groove. Kevin was spewing gibberish, but I liked the sound. I'd love to keep going, but...God forbid these guys let me start switching instruments.
Oh, one more milestone: This was officially the night I realized that my back problems were from extensive guitar jams. The Gibson is by far the heaviest guitar I've played, and thinking about it, I've rarely played standing up for 2+ hrs straight. If it's just me, I'll take a break or sit down. I'm usually on acoustic for composing anyway. Anyway, hanging a 12 pound weight off one shoulder for 2 hrs is a problem. I'll have to figure out how to handle that going forward.
And to think I blamed ice hockey. For shame!
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Extra-curricular??!?
C had some NPR on this morning, and I'm not sure who the group was, but they were tearing up some jazz charts. All I caught was that they'd be at Fitzgeralds in Berwyn this Wednesday. Not that I'm pessimisstic enough to think we might not have a drummer again next week, but just in case...I might have to float the idea of catching a set in Berwyn instead of rehearsal this week. Hmmm....
Just used the power of the Interweb to find out who's playing that night: Rob Parton’s JazzTech Big Band.
http://www.fitzgeraldsnightclub.com/listings.html#Apr15
Just used the power of the Interweb to find out who's playing that night: Rob Parton’s JazzTech Big Band.
http://www.fitzgeraldsnightclub.com/listings.html#Apr15
10th Jam: Roll-back
Date: 4/9/09
Location: Mt Prospect Studios
Mike: Bass
Kevin M: Vocals
Ryan: Guitar
Our smallest jam in a while. Mike had a conflict on Wednesday, so we moved it to Thurs. Never heard from Kevin C...
Ran through the Door a couple of times. Still solid things happening there, still areas of improvement, but overall just some minor tweaks required. I feel like we're the closest we've ever been to remembering the break, so big ups to us.
We started talking about the random riffs I've collected. No one seems to pick up Jaunty without Ann around, so we moved on to the "Found You" riff. Didn't come up with any complimentary sections, but Mike did hear a different voicing for the last chord. Instead of an F5, he hears another Dm with a 3-5-Tonic voicing. It sounds good, but I guess it all depends on the melody and other sections we want to use.
We did some good work on "The Cowboy Song." Mike came up with a 6/8 rhythm, and I did a little lead line over Am-Am-C-Dm. After a few runs of that, we had something that modulated to Dm. Mike played a line Dm-Dm-A-F. However, with no drums, I heard it as A-F-Dm-Dm. We still haven't resolved what will constitute the beginning of the phrase, but we agreed it sounded sweet. I ended up playing an oblique line that created a lot of 4ths, and reminded me a very dark version of Westminster Chimes. How badass is that? Not very, I know, but it's kinda goofy regardless...
Kevin got bored, plinked around on the keyboard. If he continues to let Mike and I go off on our musical adventures, he'll soon learn an instrument (or two) to stay amused. To close out, we ripped through Tomorrow. Nothing too interesting there, except that Mike is going to revive the E-G-B-D feel in the song, which I think he was doing occasionally anyway. Now it's official!!!
Location: Mt Prospect Studios
Mike: Bass
Kevin M: Vocals
Ryan: Guitar
Our smallest jam in a while. Mike had a conflict on Wednesday, so we moved it to Thurs. Never heard from Kevin C...
Ran through the Door a couple of times. Still solid things happening there, still areas of improvement, but overall just some minor tweaks required. I feel like we're the closest we've ever been to remembering the break, so big ups to us.
We started talking about the random riffs I've collected. No one seems to pick up Jaunty without Ann around, so we moved on to the "Found You" riff. Didn't come up with any complimentary sections, but Mike did hear a different voicing for the last chord. Instead of an F5, he hears another Dm with a 3-5-Tonic voicing. It sounds good, but I guess it all depends on the melody and other sections we want to use.
We did some good work on "The Cowboy Song." Mike came up with a 6/8 rhythm, and I did a little lead line over Am-Am-C-Dm. After a few runs of that, we had something that modulated to Dm. Mike played a line Dm-Dm-A-F. However, with no drums, I heard it as A-F-Dm-Dm. We still haven't resolved what will constitute the beginning of the phrase, but we agreed it sounded sweet. I ended up playing an oblique line that created a lot of 4ths, and reminded me a very dark version of Westminster Chimes. How badass is that? Not very, I know, but it's kinda goofy regardless...
Kevin got bored, plinked around on the keyboard. If he continues to let Mike and I go off on our musical adventures, he'll soon learn an instrument (or two) to stay amused. To close out, we ripped through Tomorrow. Nothing too interesting there, except that Mike is going to revive the E-G-B-D feel in the song, which I think he was doing occasionally anyway. Now it's official!!!
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Ideas?
Haven't found a lot of time for the musics the past couple of weeks, beyond rehearsals. Still have some ideas floating around...
Need to continue to makeover the lyrics to Keepsake, add Song About Myself, remove MWB, and get out the CD.
Also had a few ideas to further tweak the Door. To start, keeping it really sparse, and passing it around to each instrument for 3 bars (plus the downbeat of the 4th.) Even the vocals could get in. I think I'm hearing two bars of the theme in E, then switching to B--B--B-G- for the 3rd bar. Vocals would be "(E) Come----with (E) me. We'll (B) go for a (E) ride."
Eh, we'll figure it out Wednesday
Need to continue to makeover the lyrics to Keepsake, add Song About Myself, remove MWB, and get out the CD.
Also had a few ideas to further tweak the Door. To start, keeping it really sparse, and passing it around to each instrument for 3 bars (plus the downbeat of the 4th.) Even the vocals could get in. I think I'm hearing two bars of the theme in E, then switching to B--B--B-G- for the 3rd bar. Vocals would be "(E) Come----with (E) me. We'll (B) go for a (E) ride."
Eh, we'll figure it out Wednesday
9th Jam: Full-on
Date: 4/1/09
Location: Mt Prospect Studios
Mike: Bass
Kevin M: Vocals
Kevin C: Drums
Ryan: Guitar
Had pretty good instrumentation finally. Started out by playing around with Stooge. Still working on what we want to do as far the Outro theme, but we had some good instrumental stuff going on post-bridge.
The Door got its requisite tweaking, all good stuff. A sparse guitar opening, elongated bass progression, before finally kicking in with drums, then switching over to a distorted guitar line before having the vocals come in. The last bridge also had less guitar before coming in with a lead line, whereas the doubling of the rhythm on guitar led to 2 repeats into the outro. It's gonna be sweet.
Hit Tomorrow with Kevin C. for the first time. Being that it keeps to the 4/4, Kevin picked it up pretty fast. That one is sounding pretty good, with the drums complimenting the switches between the clean and distorted channels.
Location: Mt Prospect Studios
Mike: Bass
Kevin M: Vocals
Kevin C: Drums
Ryan: Guitar
Had pretty good instrumentation finally. Started out by playing around with Stooge. Still working on what we want to do as far the Outro theme, but we had some good instrumental stuff going on post-bridge.
The Door got its requisite tweaking, all good stuff. A sparse guitar opening, elongated bass progression, before finally kicking in with drums, then switching over to a distorted guitar line before having the vocals come in. The last bridge also had less guitar before coming in with a lead line, whereas the doubling of the rhythm on guitar led to 2 repeats into the outro. It's gonna be sweet.
Hit Tomorrow with Kevin C. for the first time. Being that it keeps to the 4/4, Kevin picked it up pretty fast. That one is sounding pretty good, with the drums complimenting the switches between the clean and distorted channels.
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