White Ripple Community Band September 19th, 2016

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!

White Ripple Community Band September 12, 2016

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?

Band 101 September meeting

Hi folks, we're back!


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.



White Ripple Community Band August 29th, 2016

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.

Song 3 was Across the Universe by The Beatles, which we're going to play this Saturday at Tinker's Attic. I hope you can join us!

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.