When I want to freak myself out, “I” think about “me” thinking about having an “I” The only thing stupider than puppets talking to puppets is a puppet talking to itself.
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Songs
Some songs I like to play. See also my Charts page.
READIN
READIN started out as a place for me
to keep track of what I am reading, and to learn (slowly, slowly)
how to design a web site.
There has been some mission drift
here and there, but in general that's still what it is. Some of
the main things I write about here are
reading books,
listening to (and playing) music, and
watching the movies. Also I write about the
work I do with my hands and with my head; and of course about bringing up Sylvia.
The site is a bit of a work in progress. New features will come on-line now and then; and you will occasionally get error messages in place of the blog, for the forseeable future. Cut me some slack, I'm just doing it for fun! And if you see an error message you think I should know about, please drop me a line. READIN source code is PHP and CSS, and available on request, in case you want to see how it works.
See my reading list for what I'm interested in this year.
READIN has been visited approximately 236,737 times since October, 2007.
I worked out a little melody on my viola this evening, and wrote it down! Thanks to the magic of ABC Notation, I can make it available here, in ABC format or PDF. I used ABCEdit to enter it, and boy is that useful -- I had thought the 3-note runs were triplets but ABCEdit's playback feature showed me that was wrong, and that I wanted two short notes and a longer one.
You can repeat the verse many times, there are a lot of rhythmic variations and note-order variations that are pretty easy to find. Also I think there was a bridge when I was playing but I could not find it when I was writing the tune down.
Update: Ok, I expanded it a little, found a part that sounds kind of like a bridge. Again, to make this sound at all interesting when you're playing it you will need to add in a lot of variations on your own.
Another fun thing about ABCEdit is it makes it pretty easy to play around with the time signature and stuff. I tried this out in 12/8, with a sort of swingy feel -- it sounds really corny that way.
posted evening of December 20th, 2007: Respond ➳ More posts about Fiddling
So I've decided to post working versions of songs I am learning and/or writing here. It will give me a point of reference, which is a handy thing to have. So far I have been recording with Windows Sound Recorder and my laptop's microphone. Ideally I would have a good microphone and a more usable piece of software -- I don't really know what software there is, but will look into it. Short of buying a microphone, Mike suggested that I could plug in my violin's pick-up into the computer -- all I need for this is a ¼"-to-⅛" jack converter.
posted morning of December 8th, 2007: Respond ➳ More posts about Music
This was fun. As always I find myself in need of a rhythm instrument behind me. If I were playing with a pianist and a singer or something, that could be a moderately long song with lots of verses and choruses. (And with fewer missed notes and beats.)
Update ...and in this tune, I go on without benefit of rhythm for a number of verses:
I figured out how to use the audio recorder on my computer; so here is the melody I came up with last night. Things it would benefit from: rhythm instrument like guitar/piano/drums; a bridge; lyrics; harmony. Still I think it is pretty nice.
posted afternoon of December first, 2007: 2 responses
I was happy tonight to write an actual piece of music down -- like I am getting notation enough that I can write in it as well as read. Mom helped me out with understanding the rhythm. I will post a picture of it once I learn how to get notation in my computer. (I may even post a sound file of it if I can figure out how to get sound into my computer.) Sort of a happy syncopated fiddle tune -- I wrote about 4 measures but they are basis for this improvising tune that one can play for a long time without tiring of it.
I started writing a song tonight (well technically last night I guess, the chord progression occurred to me last night and Ellen had an idea for some words tonight, which I fleshed out to a verse):
A E7 F A What do you know, what do you care A E7 F A What do you know, what do you care D D7 E F Last time I called you you were talkin bout your father E F D D7 And you wouldn't answer straight when I asked about the water A Flowin' by.
Needs more words and perhaps more sensible words but the rhythm of it is very nice.
Update: 2nd Verse
What do you know, what do you care What do you know, what do you care Last time I saw you you were thinkin bout tomorrow And you wouldn't even listen when I asked about the sorrow In your eye.
Update: Here is a bridge, and something like a 3rd Verse
Bridge: D D7 C C9 F E A
What do you know, what do you care What do you know, what do you care I'm always askin you how come you can't forgive her But you won't tell me nothin, always starin at the river Flowin by.
posted evening of October 27th, 2004: Respond ➳ More posts about Guitar
Monday, May 31st, 2004
At the jam today, we finally agreed on chords for "City of New Orleans" -- this is a bit historic as every time we have played it before, we've gotten bogged down in arguing about the correct chords. Here it is:
Intro:
| G / / / | G / / / |
G / D / | G / / / |
Riding on the City of New Orleans
| Em / C / | G / / / |
Illinois Central Monday morning rail
| G / D / | G / / / |
Fifteen cars and fifteen restless riders
| Em / D / | G / / / |
Three conductors and twenty-five sacks of mail.
| Em / / / |
All along the south bound odyssey,
Bm / / / |
the train pulls out of Kankakee
| D / / / | A / / / |
Rolls along past houses farms and fields
| Em / / / |
Passing towns that have no name,
Bm / / / |
freight yards full of old black men
| D / D7 / | G / / / |
And graveyards of rusted automobiles.
Chorus:
| C / D7 / | G / / / |
Good morning America, how are you?
| Em / C / | G / / D7 |
Say, don't you know me, I'm your native son.
| G / D / | Em Em7 A7 / |
I'm the train they call the City of New Orleans
| B♭ C D / | G / / / |
I'll be gone five hundred miles when the day is done.
Dealing card games with the old men in the club car
Penny a point ain't noone keeping score
Pass the paper bag that holds the bottle
Feel the wheels rumbling 'neath the floor
And the sons of Pullman porters
and the sons of engineers
Ride their father's magic carpets made of steel
Mothers with their babes asleep,
rocking to the gentle beat
And the rhythm of the rails is all they feel.
Nightime on the City of New Orleans
Changing cars in Memphis Tennessee
Half way home we'll be there by morning
through the Mississippi darkness rolling down to the sea.
But all the towns and people seem
to fade into a bad dream
And the steel rail still ain't heard the news
The conductor sings his songs again,
the passengers will please refrain
This train's got the disappearing railroad blues.
Update: what I mean to say is, the above is some chords that Jim found via a Google search when he was looking for the lyrics; they agree almost completely with the chords which we all had agreed on, independently of looking at that transcription. (The main difference is, we had F instead of B-flat in the last line of the chorus -- I think the transcription is probably correct here, though F sounds pretty good too.) Ignore most of the 7's and 9's in the transcription, which are good flourishes to put in but not an essential part of the song's chord structure.
Here is how you transition from "Palette" to "CAGWYW":
...G / B / C / / G / D / Em / / G / D / Em / C / G / D / Em / F / F / G7 / C / C C / / F / /...
Trust me -- it sounds sweet. In other jammin' -- I finally figured out how to tie "Stagger Lee" and "C.C. Rider" together; just strum the last chord of "Stagger Lee", rest for a measure, and start right in. That sounds a lot better than the noodling around I had been trying to do.
"Rag Mama" is finally together. Never before have I really been satisfied with how I played that song; but tonight the speed was right, the beat was right, I had the vocals down. (3 out of four times that I played it tonight -- hope I hit lucky tomorrow night on stage.) I am not talking about the Band song called "Rag Mama Rag" -- this is a tune by Blind Boy Fuller (which I originally know via Jim Kweskin and the Jug Band):
A7 I'm goin uptown with my hat in my hand D Lookin for de woman aint got no man G7 Just as well be tryin to find a needle in the sand C Lookin for a woman aint got no man
Chorus: Dwee-de-daw, dweedly-daw, Rag Mama, Come on, baby, do that Rag
Well you get yourself a woman you best get two, One for your buddy 'nother one for you, Got me a wife an a sweetheart too, Wife don't love me my sweetheart do
Took my woman down to Meeker St., Honey now, honey now, whatta'I see, Saw my woman with a man, she was holdin' his hand (that ain't right!) Aw, Pistol in my pocket, black jack in my hand, says I'm gonna get that so-and-so
Now, who'd'a thought my gal would treat me so, Love another man at my back door Mind, mama, what you sow, Cause you gots to reap just what you sow
A song was running through my head all day; tonight I figured out (roughly) how to play it. The song is "Tell old Bill", which I know in a performance by the Chad Mitchell Trio. Here are the chords:
G Tell old Bill, when he gets home, this morning, D Tell old Bill, when he gets home, this evening, G Tell old Bill, when he gets home, C G D To leave them downtown women alone G D G This morning, this evening, so soon.
The fingerpicking is kind of difficult to describe but basically you just play the melody. A lot of time is spent on open B, G string second fret, and open G; and in the alternate melody, a lot of time on E string third fret, open E, and B string third fret. A nice song.
Update: I'm playing it in D now, which is a lot easier on my voice, but I have yet to come up with as nice a picking pattern with the different shaped chords.
posted evening of December 15th, 2003: 2 responses
