White Ripple Community Band, February 15th (aka The World's Longest Blog Post)

First off, I want to thank all WRC band members, current and former, for playing and singing and raising a sweet ruckus at last week's Second Saturday event, where there was wine tasting, Valentine photos and surrealism. What more could a community band ask for?

Monday's class was on President's Day, but we had nothing presidential on tap as it was also the day after Valentine's Day. We decided to do one sweet, one conflicted, and one just downright sad love song. Here goes...

Song #1: Your Love, written by Dixie Jones and performed by Common Thread. Just a wonderful, straight-up, no-holds-barred, you-are-the-bee's-knees-on-sliced-bread kind of love song. It's on the CD A Bushel and Peck, and it's got a sweet mix of traditional and original tunes, performed by people who really care about music. It's ten bucks well spent, and the song deserves to be heard more.

Guitar folks had an option for their Your Love solo break. Take the D shape, shown here...

...and move it up two frets.

(Up meaning towards body of the guitar.)

Doing that, and only striking the top three strings of the guitar, gives you an E chord. Move that shape up five more frets, strike only the top three strings, and you have an A chord.

In conclusion:

D shape, second fret = D

D shape, fourth fret = E

D shape, ninth fret = A

And... viola! A,D, and E are the three chords you need to play Your Love. That A is a wee bit high, but it's nice to be able to play all the chords in the song without changing the shape of your fingers.

Song #2: If I'm Still in Love With You by Hank Williams. Linda Ronstadt's version is just beautiful.

This time the challenge was thrown down to the banjo players.

Strike the third string with your thumb:  3

Strike the second string with your index finger:  2

Strike the first string with your middle finger:  1

Strike the second string with your index finger:  2

3, 2, 1, 2. Do that over and over again until it's nice and smooth like banjo butter. (Ew.) Keep the same roll pattern and hold down C and D chords. You're picking while the rest of the band is strumming. It sounded really nice Monday night!

And finally...

Song #3: You Are My Sunshine by Jimmie Davis and Charles Mitchell. I copied the lyrics and chords from Rise Up Singing, which was in D, a key that managed to be exquisitely uncomfortable for all involved. Here is the song redone in G.

That's all for the world's longest blog post! Hopefully I'll see some of you fine folks at Hammond's 219 Day tomorrow, should be a good time. If not, Monday it is!