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Music
I've had a pretty complex relationship with music over the years... ought to write about that sometime. Anyways: I listen to a lot of it, in genres like "rock" and "pop" and "folk", and play some of it, primarily in the genres "old-time" and "classical".
Some miscellaneous stuff for you tonight, with annotations.
The first two tracks are "Weary Day" and "The Louisville Burglar", from my and Jerry's set at the open mic last week. Still haven't got the video sorted out. Track 3 is my arrangement of "K.C. Moan" by the Memphis Jug Band (and famously covered by the Dead, a-and I know this song first and best in its performance by Jim Kweskin and the Jug Band) -- this is a song we are working on, Jerry sings it much better than I do so just think of the vocals as a placeholder.
Track 4 I would like to know what you think about: It is the next iteration of the song I posted the other day calling it "a variation on Dvorák's 'Humoresque'" -- that description was not a very apt one then and it is works even less well with the current version. The song is definitely a different one from the source. I am calling it "Creepy Charlie" and I just have no idea what kind of music it is. So if it makes you think of anything could you leave a comment? Thanks.
Hmm... and looking at them side by side now, I notice that my "K.C. Moan" part is almost note for note the same as my "Bed on Your Floor" part in a different key and with two extra bars inserted. Which, well, they are pretty similar songs I guess.
posted evening of January 4th, 2008: Respond ➳ More posts about Songs
I worked out a fiddle part to "Bed on Your Floor" -- here is ABC format, here is PDF. I try to write out as close as possible to what I'm playing on my fiddle; it puzzles me that so few of the notes actually start on a downbeat. (Well this has been true of the songs I have transcribed in 2/4 and 4/4 time; the songs in 3/8 and 12/8 seem to be more dominated by downbeats.) Nearly every note of this song that is not the first note of a measure starts on an upbeat or a quarter-beat. -- Well maybe that is an exaggeration. But still, there is a lot of syncopation. I don't think I've ever seen the rhythm pattern in the first, 3rd and 4th measures written out.
So I came up with a melody that's quite different from the ones I have been playing, and just wondering whether it's actually original with me. I know I hear a lot of jazz tunes that I forget the name of and maybe even that I have heard them before -- indeed I thought of this tune while I was whistling to myself an old Dixieland standard that I do not know the name of. (I have included a short, rough recording of that tune at the end of the tape -- if anyone could clue me in about the title I'd really appreciate it. I don't know what it is about jazz that makes it difficult for me to retain information about the songs.) My question to you: is this tune (which I'm calling "Looking for David" for the time being) a new song, or something I am lifting from elsewhere?
Exciting -- the DVD of me and Jerry playing last Thursday arrived in the mail. Thanks, Vinnie! If I can figure out how to convert DVD to MPEG and edit it, and get Jerry's permission, I will post a copy of the performance. Some of it sounds very nice.
Update: Rob has helped me convert the DVD files to AVI format -- this evening I will post a couple of them.
Gee, I hope I have more than a single melody in my head. The one I wrote out this evening is very similar in structure to "Sally's Sleeping" and "Sally Woke Up"; I am calling this one "Sally's Dreaming" (ABC format, PDF). Here are the three of them together:
So I was working on a short air for viola this morning and I went to write it down; and I realized it was almost exactly the same song as Sally's Sleeping, except in 4/4 time instead of 12/8. That one difference makes it sound like quite a distinct song! (Well also I'm playing it in a different key and faster.) Here they are together:
Update: added a new melody to the Sally cycle. See new post for the recording.
Looking at the two side by side a little more, I realize there is another distinction: "Sally's Sleeping" starts on the tonic, and "Sally Woke Up" is a similar pattern of notes but starting on the third. This distinction must be something like an inversion but I'm not sure what words I would use in talking about it.
(Sylvia says, "So you mean, it's like Junie B. Jones and then Junie B., First Grader?" Exactly.)
Thanks for reading, everybody! See you next year. (Expect the recent accelerated rate of posting to slow back a bit, there will be stuff to do at work.) Here ya go:
posted afternoon of December 31st, 2007: 2 responses
Wow, look! This is my nine-hundred and ninety-ninth post to this blog. The counter's about to roll over. Fun! Just in time for the new year.
So I came up with a little air for viola; I am inaugurating my new policy of giving my songs titles, by calling this one "Sally's Sleeping"; as Mr. Fritz observed in comments a few days ago, fiddlers name their tunes "after any damn thing". This is my first song (a) in 12/8 meter and (b) for which I was able to correctly work out notating the rhythm without help from ABCEdit's playback feature.
I found a streaming music player which is not dependent on Windows MediaPlayer, so I am going to try using it. Please let me know if either you were not able to play my music files before, and now you are, or you were able to play them before and now you are not. Thanks!
Here is the music for it, ABC format and PDF. Note that I didn't play exactly the same fourth bar that is written down; the whole point is to play a different variation every time.
posted morning of December 30th, 2007: Respond ➳ More posts about The site
The Luddite Robot has a video of some very fine jazz violin playing by Joe Venuti. In comments, twindowlicker posts a link to some recordings of Stuff Smith.
