Not playing much the last few days... listening and reading about world events, mostly. Getting some practice on bones and spoons, but this is a long process... I don't yet have control over the number of bounces. I'm considering practicing drum rudiments on these, to get more control over the number of bounces, approach. Spoons were pretty fast to get the backbeat, but I have to get beyond that to make it an interesting sound.
Got some time on box this morning. Have been playing "Busted" (1962, Harlan Howard)... very influenced by the Ray Charles version of this tune... playing counter lines in both left hand and right hand, as needed. I've been able to sing the three verses from memory, but am not yet sure I can call this up on demand... need a couple dozen more repetitions to feel comfortable about it. It's written in 12/8, and I'm getting good subdivisions in both top and bottom. Also succeeded in playing "Swipesy Cakewalk" from memory. Brought back "The Morning Dew" and "Shaskeen Reel" from internal memory.
It's an interim period, though. Best wishes to the Iraqi people... they deserve it.
posted by macromed5 at 8:53 PM
Had a rare night off last night... came home, watched presidential address, in bed before 9. This morning I pulled back Pixinguinha's "Naquelle Tiempo" from memory... I had some of the cadences wrong, but considering that I hadn't played it in six months I was surprised at how some of the runs and progressions were still available. Something that changed my idea of the bass for Brazilian choro came up in a percussion book, where it discussed the straight-eighths feel but without a backbeat... so simple, but it works. I accent bass notes on 1 and 4, and the other six beats can either be chord brushes or bass notes or tacet. I'm not smooth and reliable on it yet, but this way of thinking about it is a lot better than the patterns I had before.
Other Brazilian choro I've been pulling back into memory are "Vou Vivendo"... it still takes me awhile to remember the changes each time I haven't played it in a while. "Segura Ele" has been in repertoire about every three weeks, and it's getting a lighter touch, but is still not reliable. "Apanhei-Te Cavaquinho" has always been easy to pull back into memory, although at the tempo that it usually runs I don't often finger it correctly the first time out.
Yesterday I was listening to Proper's 4-CD set "Farewell to Ireland". I like the mix there, and how these are clearly American recordings rather than an emulation of something which was never recorded... I know there are "Irish" Irish recordings where the person has actually played only that, and listened to only that, but with most of those recordings I'm always left wondering how much someone is trying to sound like someone other than who they really are. Those early American Irish recordings are who they are... I haven't seen any evidence of post-modern pretending. "I'm Leaving Tipperary" is a great tune, and I like some of the other songs too. I noticed this time around how modern Patsy Touhey sounded... he's a lot looser and bouncier than a lot of the stuff I've heard around town.
"St. Louis Tickle" is back in the playlist this week, and I'm going back-and-forth between playing-as-written and playing-as-heard. The latter is more fun, but I don't want to risk getting too far afield from the score... I have to keep going back and burning in the written version, to make that sound interesting without any of the extra syncopations, bass jumps or alternate lines that I use when I play it from what I hear internally. The latter makes it more real, more musical, but I want to keep a deep connection to the original score too.
One thing I need to do is to figure a way to learn and retain more lyrics. I've got a lot of fakebooks, and a lot of tunes I sorta know, but I forget which ones I know, and then am not sure I've got all the lyrics. A PDA would help, but would take a lot of work to set up. Still, that logically seems like the best long-term solution.
Arbiter Flats drums should arrive Saturday or so. Not playing for a bit is good... things come back fresher than before... but not-playing is only a complement to regular practice.
posted by macromed5 at 8:17 AM
Main tunes of practice this weekend have continued to be Pineapple, New, and Magnetic Rags. I haven't been getting each of these each session, but right now these are the ones I try to work on a few times each day. I also took on Paragon Rag, a late Joplin rag which sounds like an early one.
Another tune I brought back today was Irving Berlin's "Always", which I first heard through Patsy Cline. It's a verse/chorus tune in F... the verse temporarily modulates into A minor, and the chorus has a cadence in the key of A major. I used to play this a lot during my first year back (1998-9), but haven't thought of it for quite awhile. The change in handling was very interesting... I heard Irish ornamentation, Norteno syncopation, Cajun shuffles and ragtime voicings against a New Orleans style bass. I can't pull it off as consistently as I like, but it's great to see such a discrepancy with the last way I played it.
posted by macromed5 at 12:51 PM 