White Ripple Community Band February 29th, 2016

WRCB is always good, but Monday night, wow-- must've been the bongos. There's something about a hectic work day that makes playing music together all the sweeter.

Last time I teased a bit about the melody being in the scale. A scale is a set of musical notes arranged according to pitch. Monday we played songs in two different keys: C and G. Songs in the key of C use a C scale. Songs in the key of G use a G scale.

C scale: C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C (octave)

G scale: G, A, B, C, D, E, F#, G (octave)

The scale is where you will find your melody notes and really, you can start on any C or G and walk up or down your instrument until you hit the octave (except for saws, you can just slice them in half), but for simplicity's sake I mapped out suggested scales for guitar, banjo, and ukulele.

Here is the C scale.

Here is the G scale.

First we tried out our fancy C scale on last week's song, Jamaica Farewell. Here are the song's melody notes. Try practicing the C scale, then the Jamaica Farewell notes in relation to the scale.

(A small aside: people who can bust out the melody notes during a solo break are treated like gods and get all the chocolate and cute people they can fit on each arm. Just so you know. I can't do it, but I gaze at Mount Olympus, sigh wistfully and plot strategy.)

Next, we revisited a song from an earlier session, Clem Snide's Find Love in the key of G. I wrote more about the post here and it includes a sound clip.

Lastly, we ditched melody and scales and went to town on Hank William's I Saw the Light. That was so much fun! I find that I want to practice melodies and scales the more I get into music, and yet at the same time I feel really fortunate that my first music lessons as an adult didn't start with scales or else I would've died of sheer boredom. Starting with the song's chords, then unpacking that song, figuring out how it ticks and adding your own spin to it, that's been the key to keeping my interest.

White Ripple Community Band February 22nd, 2016

WRCB is for adults, but hey, adults have kids. Cool kids, who hang out with us band members and play pianos and tambourines and musical saws. Have fun, no running, and don't cut yourself playing that chord.

Last Monday we welcomed a new player and a brand new instrument: Kody, I apologize in advance for misspelling your name, but am so happy to have you and your violin in the band! We played Groovin' and Crystal Blue Persuasion to introduce our newest band member into the mix. It may be the first-ever guitar-banjo-violin- musical saw-tambourine combo-- I just wish I had a recording of it. Next time.

We played Jamaica Farewell after we got nice and warmed up. Jamaica Farewell is a traditional song, but most of us (myself included) associate it with Harry Belafonte. And when I think of Harry Belafonte, I also think of the civil rights movement and all he did for it. Mr. Belafonte could be reliably counted on for financial support, playing benefit concerts and lending a hand wherever he could. He is one of the good guys.

At the end of class I handed out melody notes for the song. The song is in the key of C, and the melody notes can be found in that scale: C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C-- no sharps or flats. I've talked before in class about how the melody is within the chord; it so happens that the melody is in the scale as well.

Yeah, that's great Mary, but where is the scale?  You'll see on Monday. :)