Friday, October 14, 2016

Band 101 October meeting

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.
 
 


White Ripple Community Band October 10th, 2016

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 CafĂ©, 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.


Friday, October 7, 2016

White Ripple Community Band October 3rd, 2016

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.