Music lessons don't have to end with high school band. There's a whole world of playing opportunities out there for Northwest Indiana folks, read on to find out more!
Hello December! This week we covered just two songs, and one of them was from last week but I wanted to break it down a little more.
Song 1: Sitting on the Dock of the Bay by Otis Redding.
We broke down the "whistle part" at the end of the song in two different ways. Here is Rich demonstrating it on the guitar...
...and here I am on the banjo. I love how it looks like I'm literally searching for the answers in my own brain while I do one of these.
The second song gets us into the holiday season, it being December and all.
Song 2: Children, Go Where I Send Thee. Traditional African-American spiritual. First we listened to Johnny Cash and The Carter Family to get the syncopated feel of it. Then we took turns singing it as I ran out of breath after Five Gospel Preachers.
And for a treat, here are some of the teachers at the Old Town School of Folk Music absolutely tearing. it. up. in rehearsal for the Songs of Good Cheer benefit they hold every year. Tickets are available now to see the show through Sunday, December 11th.
Pardon my lag in posting-- ever since November 8th it's felt like someone's been performing an autopsy on me without bothering to check to see if I'm dead yet. Stop cutting, please! I'm only dying on the inside.
What does make me feel a little more like a human being is making music. At the last Second Saturday we played This Land Is Your Land until Rich couldn't take it anymore, and last week I reconnected with old friends at The Grafton Pub for the Tuesday night folk jam. Playing and singing, learning new songs, becoming a better musician by showing others how to play, those are some of the ways I'm going to put one foot in front of the other.
Last week I brought out my little mountain banjo and we jammed in the key of E on these two old-time ballads:
Barbara Allen. Hedy West's version of this song is my favorite in life so far.
Pretty Little Miss Out in the Garden, performed here by the one and only Cousin Emmy. I love her to pieces.
From there we shifted gears to the blues and revisited Good Time Tonight by Big Bill Broonzy.
We broke up into banjo and guitar groups and learned new blues licks on our respective instruments and came back together to do Buckets of Rain by Bob Dylan, another blues in D.
"Life is sad, life is a bust, all you can do is do what you must."
We're back at Paul Henry's Art Gallery! I love holding Band 101 meetings at my house, but my living room can seem awfully tiny. It's good to be back.
We celebrated Sherry Kubiak's birthday at the gallery last night. Happy Birthday, Sherry!
Song 1: Rhiannon by Stevie Nicks. We did this one in White Ripple Community Band earlier in the week and couldn't resist doing it again. It's such a lovely song.
Song 2: The Monster Mash by the late great Bobby "Boris" Pickett. Check out this nifty interview with Pickett where he reminisces how Monster Mash came to be. Bobby Pickett was a good liberal all his life, and toward the end of his days recorded The Climate Mash out of his concern for global warming and climate change.
Song 3: Werewolves of London by Warren Zevon. This is the song to play if you want to go from D to C to G but don't want to do Sweet Home Alabama. (And his hair was perfect.)
One of the nice things about Band 101 is that you get to play the set you just learned the very next night at Paul Henry's Art Gallery. Here are some photos from practice and from last night's open mic. A big thank you to everyone who came out to play and to listen. <3
(I was having trouble with the saw last night. Operator error, most definitely.)
We will do it again on November 9th! All are welcome to attend.
In the days of mixtapes, remember when you would accidentally put together a side that sounded pretty keen? Two or three songs put together at random can be more than the sum of their parts. That's what happened this week.
Song 1: Rhiannon, by Stevie Nicks. As the story goes, Stevie read Triad by Mary Leader, was intrigued by the name, and the rest is a great song. Rhiannon is also the name of a goddess in Welsh mythology.
Song 2: Fields of Gold by Sting.
(Here are some melody notes for Fields of Gold.)
Song 3: Into the Mystic by Van Morrison.
And there you go! It was a nice, minor key vibe we didn't know we were shooting for.
White Ripple folks have a couple of chances to play these songs this weekend. One is the open mic tonight at Frida's Café, signups start at 6:15 and the open mic starts at 7 p.m. The other is the Saturday open mic at Tinker's Attic, which will be held outdoors as we enjoy a last breath of warm weather.
Much like two weeks ago, we focused like a laser beam on one particular song and worked on ways to flesh it out. Like Wagon Wheel, this is one of those ultimate jam band songs that it seems like everybody knows, so knowing this will make you right at home at Paul Henry's Art Gallery, the Fox Gallery in Lake Station, and One Best Life at Tinker's Attic in Highland... and pretty much everywhere else across the United States of America.
You Ain't Goin Nowhere by Bob Dylan. There are so many good covers of this song (and the original is pretty nice, too) but Roseanne Cash's to my mind is the closest to what we're doing.
The chord progression is a simple one: G, Am, C, G-- four beats each, with verse and chorus the same. Simple songs like this one are sweet because everyone can add something a little different to the mix. Linda does a beautiful job holding down melody on the clarinet, which leaves the rest of us to fill out the rhythm of the piece. There are a couple of ways we can do that.
We can fingerpick.
The following are tricks I learned from Celebrating Tradition, a class at the Old Town School of Folk Music taught by the awesome Peggy Browning and Maura Lally. If you're not going to White Ripple Community Band on Monday nights you should be going to their class instead.
Anyway, here goes--
D shape on the 7th fret of the guitar = G chord. Play only the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd strings.
Fret the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd strings of the 5 fret = Am chord
C chord can be played as an open chord, but I think it sounds prettier as a C barre chord
Here's a video to demonstrate.
This Saturday night is Second Saturday at White Ripple Gallery & Co. We're going to start jamming at 7 p.m., and we hope to see you there! Lots of good folks, lots of gorgeous, thought-provoking art. 6725 Kennedy Avenue, Hammond, Indiana.
Hi folks, last Monday we decided to forgo the usual 3-song structure this week and focused in one just one tune. We also delved a little deeper into the blues, as you'll see in a moment.
Our song of the evening was Mustang Sally, written by Mack Rice recorded by a whole bunch of folks in the last 51 years, like the late great Wilson Pickett.
We did Mustang Sally in the key of C this week. Since Mustang Sally is a blues, we decided to do a C blues scale. We've heard this scale used in so many songs in the past, it is immediately familiar to us, and it contains some important differences between it and the C major scale.
A scale is a sequence of musical notes. There are many scales out there to try, but when you're first starting out we usually start with the C major scale because there are no pesky sharps or flats getting in our way.
C Major Scale: C (root), D (whole step), E (whole step), F (half step), G (whole step), A (whole step), B (whole step), C (half step)
In a C major scale, starting from the root note C, we go a whole step up to D, a whole step up to E, a half step up to F, a whole step up to G, a whole step up to A, a whole step up to B, and a half step up to C, an octave up from where we started. In a major scale there is always a half step between steps 3 and 4, and a half step between steps 7 and 8. All the other steps are whole steps.
C Blues Scale: C (root), D# (three half steps), F (whole step), F# (half step), G (half step), A# (three half steps), C (whole step)
In a C blues scale, we start with our same root note C, then go up three half steps to D#, a whole step up to F, a half step up to F#, a half step up to G, three half steps to A#, and a whole step up to C, the octave.
At the links are C scales to try on guitar and banjo. All of the notes in the scale are fretted, which is also called a moveable scale. As the name implies, you can move up or down the fretboard, keep the same sequence of notes, and viola! You will have learned another scale. Now you can play blues in any key!
We returned to class after a 2-week hiatus for Labor Day. It's also the band's one year anniversary, and Sue Ross from The Post-Tribune was there to interview band members about their experiences. Alan, Sherry, and Tom have been in the band since the beginning, and many others nearly as long. Some, like Janice Polka, Greg Brown, Rene Garcia and Beth Vega, pop in when schedules permit.
White Ripple Community Band: once in, always in.
Here are this week's songs:
Song 1: Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) by The Beatles. Rich thoughtfully provides the melody notes for guitar players in this YouTube clip.
Fwiw, Rolling Stone lists Norwegian Wood at #89 on its list of 100 Greatest Beatles Songs. I think it should be higher than that, and I think the arson theory is completely nuts, but follow the link and have a read-- it won't take long, and it's a good one.
Song 2: The Rose by Amanda McBroom. Not content merely to write the quintessential love ballad of the 1970s, McBroom is a prolific character actor who has guest starred in a number of TV projects. My favorite is her role as Captain Louvois in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode called "Measure of a Man." It's an hour spent on a central question: is an android a sentient being, with all the rights (and more importantly, the free will) of a human?
September's meeting was not quite the ice cream sugar high savage blowout of the previous month, but we made up for it by playing some beautiful music together. It may have been my very favorite Band 101 meeting just in terms of the good sounds we made and the camaraderie we shared.
Song 1: Done Laid Around.
According to Mark Dvorak, a Pete Seeger aficionado who has done a bit of research on this song, "In 1961 Pete Seeger reported that he "first learned 'Done Laid Around' from Larry Ehrlich of Chicago, who learned it from Paul Clayton, who learned it from Arthur Kyle Davis of the University of Virginia, who got it from a small booklet published by a now deceased French professor. His original sources, African American folk singers of Virginia, were not listed." Seeger recorded "Done Laid Around" as "Gotta Travel On" in the 1950s with the popular folk singing quartet, The Weavers. It was a hit record for them and became one of their many signature pieces."
The version of the song I heard first is Paul Brown's Summer's Almost Gone, off his excellent old-time album Red Clay Country, and it's still my favorite.
Song 2: People Get Ready, by Curtis Mayfield and performed by The Impressions. Agnostics love gospel music, too.
Song 3: Blowin' in the Wind, by Bob Dylan, performed here by the luminous Joan Baez.
Playing these at the Hammond Innovation Center with Linda, Gary, Janice, Sherry, Rene and Rich was such a treat, but that will be our last jam at the Innovation Center for a while, because Dave Mueller is back! I know I'm looking forward to being back at Paul Henry's Art Gallery again. It's this Thursday starting at 7 p.m. if you're interested. $5 cover, $3 if you're performing or bringing something to the potluck.
This week we addressed an issue that has plagued us at open mics all over the county; namely, no one knows how to play Happy Birthday. Which is kind of a problem, since any time there's a birthday at Paul Henry's (which happens at least every week), Dave has to hunt Rich down from whatever hidey-hole he's crept off to and has him bang out the chords. Basically, knowing how to play Happy Birthday will enable Rich to hide out more successfully.
Here's Happy Birthday in a nutshell. In class we did it in F, but on the video I do it in G.
If F is your I chord, then the V chord is C and the IV chord is Bb.
If G is your I chord, then the V chord is D and the IV chord is C. It all depends on where you want to put home base.
I V
Happy Birthday to You
V I
Happy Birthday to You
I IV
Happy Birthday dear ______________,
I V I
Happy Birthday to You!
Next we did another one that comes up fairly often, especially in July and around the Summer Olympics: The Star-Spangled Banner. This is Rich's favorite rendition in the whole world.
We've going to take this Monday off for the Labor Day holiday but will be playing Second Saturday's event on the 10th and will be back to class on September 12th for a brand spanking new session, which will also mark our 1-year anniversary. Sue Ross from the Post-Tribune will be there to talk to band members about your experiences this past year as a musician and as a performer in a community band.
I'm so happy to get to the chance to teach this class every week. Teaching and music are my passions, and I hope I get to combine my two favorite things for a long time to come.
Rich says this week we have songs guaranteed to dissatisfy everyone: folks who like Song 1 are bound to dislike Song 2 and vice versa. I say, why hate one or the other when you can hate both?*
Song 1: Two Princes, by The Spin Doctors. I didn't realize until I started to play this one how weird the cadences were. The chords were C, Am, G, and F ("50s chords," as Tom pointed out), but we found while playing that the song really starts more on the A minor chord than anything else. This unexpected-ness, that little bit of novelty, it must've contributed to its popularity. That and the scatting.
Song 2: Shenandoah by the very prolific Traditional. (Almost as prolific as Anonymous.) Here's Pete Seeger singing it off his excellent Smithsonian Folkways recording American Favorite Ballads volumes 1-5. If I know any verse of an American folk song, it's probably because I heard Pete Seeger sing it to me. If you get a chance to go to Simon's Tavern in Andersonville, check out the Steven Hashimoto Quartet/Quintet/Sex-Sept-Octet on Sunday nights sometime; it surprised me to hear a jazz band cover a folk song, and they do such a beautiful job with it.
White Ripple Community Band (along with a whole bunch of other open-miccers) is playing at Susan and Wanda's wedding this Saturday at Tinker's Attic. We've been practicing and are looking forward to sharing in their happy day with all of our friends.
*I'm partial to Song 2 but I like both just peachy.
I made a really amateurish mistake in one of the videos I posted to YouTube earlier this week; namely, I mistook up from down on the neck of the banjo. (That's probably why Romeo Katt was yelling at me.) My only excuse is that someone replaced my perfectly functioning brain with scrambled eggs this week. Scrambled eggs are delicious, but they don't exactly fire on all cylinders.
So here's a picture I made for myself demonstrating the difference. It's not exactly what you'd call drawing but it gets the basic idea across:
Song 1: Big Yellow Taxi by Joni Mitchell. In 2007, Joni changed the line from a dollar and a half just to see 'em to an arm and a leg just to see 'em to keep up with inflation.
Song 2: Wonderful Tonight by Eric Clapton. Written for Pattie Boyd. If you get a chance, check out Boyd's biography Wonderful Tonight, which is the thing to read if you want to experience swinging 60's London through the eyes of a genuine It Girl. The book includes a photo of a rather intense looking Eric Clapton in the pursuit of his best friend's wife, which is great if you're as much of a fan of awkward moments as I am.
Song 3: Little Brown Jug, written by Joseph Winner and played here by the Glenn Miller Orchestra. Probably the happiest song about alcoholism you'll ever hope to hear. I got so caught up in the 'ha ha ha's' and 'ho ho hee's' that I had absolutely no idea which verse we were on... which then made it awkward when Rich suddenly yelled, "Mary, you're up!" and I had no idea where we were. But I'm a fan of awkward moments, as you now know.
Even the president's summer playlist is impeccable. I listened to it on last week's WHAM Ride and loved it, although I thought the Night playlist was a bit too mellow to get my blood pumping (hardly its fault, really).
Take a listen on Spotify as we wind summer to a close.
Still a bit of Romeo Katt in this video, but not enough to hurt. Just don't let him sit on you-- the dude weighs something like 15 pounds. Anyway. Enjoy!
I tried to make a video of myself playing the melody notes to Wonderful Tonight, but then all of a sudden my cat Romeo decided that he needed some extra attention. So here he is, in all his dorky glory. Take one...
Hi folks, in our last class we took a look at one chord progression and how it was used in three different hits from the 1950s.
Here it is: the I, vim, IV, V chord progression. In the key of C, which is the key we used in all three songs, the I chord is C. From there we count up six places-- C, D, E, F, G, A. Since it's a sixth up from the root, we know it's going to be a minor chord, so A minor it is. (More music theory stuff you can ask us about in class.) All that's left is F, our IV chord, and G, our V chord.
Here you are, the Fifties in four chords:
C, Am, F, G
These are the three songs we played:
Song 1: Earth Angel, by The Penguins. We got lots of practice with 12/8 time on this one.
Song 2: Runaround Sue, by Dion
Song 3: Why Do Fools Fall in Love, by Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers. I haven't heard it in ages, and I absolutely love it. Maybe it has something to do with the impossibly high vocals, I don't know.
And that's it! Hope to see some of you fine folks at the Second Saturday jam at the White Ripple Gallery or the Band 101 Ice Cream Social at my house this Wednesday. Have a great week!
Hi folks! This week we continued our study of verse and chorus (more Moose and Squirrel!) with two classic songs:
Song 1-- Another Saturday Night, by Sam Cooke. We got some good singing out of this one, with Cindy, Sherry, and Alan doing the verses and all of us coming in on the chorus.
Song 2-- Lay Down Sally by Eric Clapton. I agree with Rich when he said the title is the song. I like the third verse, but the other two are interchangeable for me, but then everything snaps into focus when we all belt out the chorus like we do.
Upcoming fun things--
White Ripple Community Band will be playing at the gallery's Second Saturday event on August 13th. Kathy Los-Rathburn is having a moving sale that day, and I'm going to miss having her watercolors to look at each month. I love the way Kathy mixes nature and industry-- she paints all facets of Chicago... and Indiana, for that matter.
Band 101 ice cream social is happening August 17th! Band 101 is our once-a-month version of what we do at the White Ripple Art Gallery, only not at the gallery, but at my house. This month the Band 101 price of admission is ice cream and/or ice cream accessories. I'll have non-dairy ice cream options (hooray for nut milk), and Rich and I will run through a set of songs we can perform at the Game/Jam/Potluck Night the following evening at the Hammond Innovation Center. Rhythm instruments are available to folks who don't have anything to play.
It's always a good time showing off what we did the night before. Hope you can make it!
Two weeks ago we discussed chord progressions, last Monday it was verse and chorus. Verse and chorus go together like Moose and Squirrel, only more musical! And we demonstrated the concept with three Beatles songs.
Song 1: Drive My Car
Song 2: Ticket to Ride. George's adorable top hat!
Song 3: Come Together (post-Beatles clip)
Next week starts a new session of White Ripple Community Band. If you've always wanted to play in a band, here's your chance! No matter the voice or the instrument, you have a place in the band. We meet every week at 7 p.m. at the White Ripple Gallery & Co., 6725 Kennedy Avenue in Hammond.
White Ripple Community Band played an acoustic jam at the Fox Gallery Festival this past Saturday. It was a beautiful, and HOT, but beautiful time getting to make music with good friends.
I was on vacation last week, a glorious computer-free time, so now I'm going to catch up on two weeks worth of work on my lunch hour. Here goes....
On July 18th's class we talked about song structure, demonstrating with three different songs that have the same chord progression.
Song 1: Careless Love
Song 2: Red River Valley
Song 3: Mama Don't Allow
The chord progression looks like this:
IVII
IIVV
IIIVIV
VVII
I think of chord progressions as something like song skeletons. Chord progressions are the bare bones of the song that we can add melody, harmony and rhythm to. Once you know the chord progression, and then the key, you're off to the races!
For example, here's Careless Love. We did it in the key of A. In the key of A, our I chord is A. Four up from A is D, our IV chord. Five up from A is E, our V chord.
A E A A Love, oh love, oh careless love
A A E Love, oh love, oh careless love
A A D D Love, oh love, oh careless love
E E A A You see what love has done to me.
Here's another example: Red River Valley. This time our I chord is D.
D A D D From this valley they say you are leaving
D D A A We will miss your bright eyes and sweet smile
D D G G For they say you have taken the sunshine
A A D D That has brightened our pathways a while
So while I think of chord progressions as song skeletons, I think of our I chord (pronounced "one chord") as home base. When we change home base, we change the relationship of the notes to one another.
So now that we're in the key of D, now D is our I chord. We've changed home base, so now the relationships to the other notes will also change. So now, four up from D is G, our IV chord, and five up from D is A, our V chord.
Hello, guitar players! Here are the melody notes for the bridge part of Up on the Roof. That's what they look like to me, anyway. (I hope a big fight breaks out in the comments!) It's a C scale ending on a G and then back into the rest of the song.
Song 1: Ripple, by The Grateful Dead. I can't believe we've gone almost a year of White Ripple Community Band without doing Ripple! Rich says we have to do all songs with 'white' in the title now, watch out.
This clip is the last scene of a long gone but not forgotten TV show called Freaks and Geeks. "I wish I'd never heard this album so I could hear it again for the first time"-- talking about the Dead's incomparable American Beauty.
Song 2: Up on the Roof, by Gerry Goffin and Carole King. We're singing the James Taylor version. This is Rich's favorite music video ever, thank you Sesame Street.
Song 3: Sweet Home Chicago. Sweet blues in A.
It's good to have a break, but it's even better to get back to doing what you love.
First off, please wish Linda Gutierrez a speedy recovery from the emergency appendectomy she had on Thursday. Email me if you want to send her a get well card.
And now-- Alan Lee, Cindy Contractor, Greg Brown, Janice Polka, Linda Gutierrez, Maria Reyes, Sarita Reyes and Sherdes Kubiak, this is for you...
The Live in the Ville and the Hammond Public Library concerts could not have happened without you. Thank you for all the time you put in learning songs and performing-- it was a busy month!
Classes start back up again on Monday, July 11th. Linda, get well soon and you all have a safe & happy Fourth of July!
Here is the setlist for our last Live in the Ville concert. Let's go out with a bang! This will also be the setlist for Monday's concert at the Hammond Public Library.
Rhythm of Love
I’m a Believer I Hear You Knocking Margaritaville I Saw the Light Fortunate Son Fire Hey Soul Sister Circle Brown-Eyed Girl Keep on the Sunny Side Roll Over Beethoven
At the link is a folder with the song sheets and notation for our different instrumentalists. I have copies printed out for our players, if you want to stop by to the library to pick them up.
And here is a picture of us from last Saturday. My dopey grin tells you what a fun time I was having.
Hi folks! Here is the setlist for Saturday, June 18th. We go on at 9 p.m. in front of the White Ripple Gallery this time.
Everyday People (key of C)
The Way You Do the Things You Do
Jamaica Farewell
Hey Soul Sister
Summertime Blues
I Saw the Light (Todd Rundgren)
Brown-Eyed Girl
Starfish & Coffee
Love Me Do
Lean on Me
Wagon Wheel
This Little Light of Mine
Hi folks! Happy Sunday night almost into Monday morning. Here's a short video of me strumming the guitar holding down the G, C, and D chords. (Warning: contains loud pajama bottoms.)
Hey folks! Here is the Live in the Ville setlist for Saturday, June 11th:
Summertime Blues
Rhythm of Love
Some Kind of Wonderful
Drift Away
Margaritaville
Moon River (Rich & Linda duet)
Where Are You Going
Sloop John B
Stand By Me
Roadhouse Blues
Everyday People
It's going to be a great night! Let's all meet at 8 p.m. in front of the White Ripple Gallery. We go on at 9 p.m., same as last time. You all did beautifully last week, and it's just going to get better and easier each time we perform.
I hope you all can come early to hang out at Live in the Ville as well. Brabant Lenting is having an artist talk at the White Ripple Gallery, all the studios will be open, and there will of course be a lot of things happening outside for us to enjoy. See you Saturday!
White Ripple Community Band is going to be busy in June, with the first of our public performances starting this Saturday at Live in the Ville.
If you haven't been, you're in for a treat. June 4th features a food truck throwdown, Rick Therrio will be giving an artist talk, and there's just dancing and Hessville merriment all around.
Band members, bring your library concert setlist from April for this Saturday. We go on from 9-10 p.m., so plan on being there an hour early so we can get set up to play.
Housekeeping note: There will be no class on Monday because of the Memorial Day holiday. We will meet up to make music again on June 6th.
Last Monday we went around the Circle of Fifths and did two very different songs with the same chord progression.
Song 1: I Will Survive by Gloria Gaynor
AmDmGC
At first I was afraidI was petrifiedKept thinking I could never liveWithout you by my side FDmE But then I spent so many
nightsThinking how you did me wrongAnd I grew strong
E
And I learned how to get along... Annnnd repeat as needed! Now try the same chords and swap out the disco beat with something a bit more swingy.
Song 2: Fly Me to the Moon by Frank Sinatra.
AmDmGC
Fly me to the moonLet me play among the stars
FDmEAm Let me see what spring is
likeOn a, Jupiter and Mars
Am, Dm, G, C, F, Dm, E. Amazing. We talked a little bit about music theory (not enough to hurt) about why those chords sound good together, and why is it that those same chords in the same order sound very different from one song to another.
A big thanks to WRCB for coming out and playing for the opening of Rick Therrio and Brabant Lenting's new exhibit, "Subconscious Symmetry." Check out the exhibit at the White Ripple Gallery when you get a chance-- it'll be up for another few weeks.
We were small but mighty last night, cranking through a whole bunch of good stuff. Linda, Sherry, Tom and I warmed up with The Plain White T's before settling in to our songs of the evening:
Song 1: Summertime Blues by Eddie Cochran. We played with sliding from A-flat to A, then that classic riff: A, A, A, D...E, E, E, A... A, A, A, D... E, E, E, A. You can find those notes anywhere on your instrument, but I find I like them on the higher strings because the higher pitch carries better.
Song 2: Starfish and Coffee by Prince. Something cool happened on this song. I didn't have a B-flat chart for Linda, so I was just going to introduce it to the guitar players and pick it up more fully next week when Rich got back, but she got right on with it while Sherry and Tom kept up an effortless syncopated beat, and that left me no choice but to start singing. It's like we're an actual band or something!
This is the Old Town School of Folk Music's 'Song of the Session' for the next couple of months, so be sure to download a free chart while it's available.
White Ripple Community Band will be playing this Saturday as part of the gallery's Second Saturday event on the 14th. Rick Therrio and Brabant Lenting have a new show, the artists will have their studios open to all comers, we'll be making a nice noise, and did I mention that Kathy Los Rathburn will have snacks? Good times. It's from 7-10 p.m. this Saturday.
Now, on to last Monday: We've been Plain White T's crazy! This week we went over Hey There Delilah for our warm-up, then on to our two songs for the evening:
Song 1: I'm On Fire by Bruce Springsteen. Not to be confused with Fire, the other Springsteen song we did a couple of weeks ago. I chose to go with a mashup of Bruce plus Johnny Cash's cover of the song because it has a punchier ending-- it's hard for a live band to fade out, after all...
Song 2: Margaritaville. ("Salt! Salt! Salt!") Do I even need to include a YouTube clip? I will anyway. It's my own damn fault.
I thought I'd do a little something different this week with the songs. I'm going to send out the YouTube clips as usual to get the songs in your head, but this time I'm adding a couple of videos to demonstrate techniques talked about in class. (Pink fluffy bathrobe warning.)
Here's how you can transition from the G to the C chord:
And here's a quick video demonstrating that string pinchy-thing (that's the technical term) you hear on the Plain White T's recording:
Song 2: Fire by Bruce Springsteen. I'm not sure what I can say that won't get me teased mercilessly by the rest of the band, so here he is, in all his hunky breathy gorgeous glory:
Well, that's all for now-- if you need me I'll be in my bunk. Have a nice weekend!
Last Monday we gave Where Are You Going another go-round because it's complicated and worth doing and it sounds cool when we do it. That took up a lot of our time, but we managed to work on two new tunes...
Song 1: Rhythm of Love by The Plain White T's. I'm not used to any music that's ten years old or less (I stopped listening to new stuff after Nirvana) but darn this is catchy and Rich and Tom sing it great.
Song 2: I'll Be Around by The Spinners. I grew up listening to the music of my parent's generation so I feel a bit more at home here. Rich threw us a curveball tonight: the song is a measure of C and a measure of D, but the key of the song is actually in G.
Next weeks starts a new session of White Ripple Community Band. We are open to all voices, all instruments, and all experience levels, with beginners especially welcome! Playing music together is one of the things that makes life so sweet. See you Monday!
White Ripple Community Band played The Garden Song last week, as a tribute to the spring which I know will arrive in Chicago sooner or later...anyway, as I was jotting down the lyrics from my copy of Rise Up Singing I saw the words to (what else) The Anti-Garden Song.
I like to think that The Garden Song is how we feel about our carefully tended flower and vegetable beds in May, and The Anti-Garden Song is how we feel about the same weed patch come late August. Enjoy!
The Anti-Garden Song: A Parody
Written by Eric Kilburn
CHORUS
Slug by slug, weed by weed, my garden’s got me really teed All the insects love to feed on my tomato plants Sunburned face, scratched-up knees, my kitchen’s choked with zucchinis I’m shopping at the A&P next time I get a chance
The crabgrass grows, the ragweed thrives, the broccoli has long since died
The only things left still left alive are some radishes & beans My carrot plants are dead and gone, hear the rabbits sing a happy song Until you’ve weeded all day long you don’t know what boredom means
You get up early, work till late, watch moles & mice get overweight
They eat their dinners on a plate from the hard work you have done As ye sow, so shall ye reap, but I smell like a compost heap I’m gonna get that lousy creep who said gardening was fun
