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Songs
Some songs I like to play. See also my Charts page.
READIN
READIN started out as a place for me
to keep track of what I am reading, and to learn (slowly, slowly)
how to design a web site.
There has been some mission drift
here and there, but in general that's still what it is. Some of
the main things I write about here are
reading books,
listening to (and playing) music, and
watching the movies. Also I write about the
work I do with my hands and with my head; and of course about bringing up Sylvia.
The site is a bit of a work in progress. New features will come on-line now and then; and you will occasionally get error messages in place of the blog, for the forseeable future. Cut me some slack, I'm just doing it for fun! And if you see an error message you think I should know about, please drop me a line. READIN source code is PHP and CSS, and available on request, in case you want to see how it works.
See my reading list for what I'm interested in this year.
READIN has been visited approximately 236,737 times since October, 2007.
So I came up with a melody that's quite different from the ones I have been playing, and just wondering whether it's actually original with me. I know I hear a lot of jazz tunes that I forget the name of and maybe even that I have heard them before -- indeed I thought of this tune while I was whistling to myself an old Dixieland standard that I do not know the name of. (I have included a short, rough recording of that tune at the end of the tape -- if anyone could clue me in about the title I'd really appreciate it. I don't know what it is about jazz that makes it difficult for me to retain information about the songs.) My question to you: is this tune (which I'm calling "Looking for David" for the time being) a new song, or something I am lifting from elsewhere?
posted evening of January second, 2008: Respond ➳ More posts about Fiddling
I worked out a fiddle part to "Bed on Your Floor" -- here is ABC format, here is PDF. I try to write out as close as possible to what I'm playing on my fiddle; it puzzles me that so few of the notes actually start on a downbeat. (Well this has been true of the songs I have transcribed in 2/4 and 4/4 time; the songs in 3/8 and 12/8 seem to be more dominated by downbeats.) Nearly every note of this song that is not the first note of a measure starts on an upbeat or a quarter-beat. -- Well maybe that is an exaggeration. But still, there is a lot of syncopation. I don't think I've ever seen the rhythm pattern in the first, 3rd and 4th measures written out.
Some miscellaneous stuff for you tonight, with annotations.
The first two tracks are "Weary Day" and "The Louisville Burglar", from my and Jerry's set at the open mic last week. Still haven't got the video sorted out. Track 3 is my arrangement of "K.C. Moan" by the Memphis Jug Band (and famously covered by the Dead, a-and I know this song first and best in its performance by Jim Kweskin and the Jug Band) -- this is a song we are working on, Jerry sings it much better than I do so just think of the vocals as a placeholder.
Track 4 I would like to know what you think about: It is the next iteration of the song I posted the other day calling it "a variation on Dvorák's 'Humoresque'" -- that description was not a very apt one then and it is works even less well with the current version. The song is definitely a different one from the source. I am calling it "Creepy Charlie" and I just have no idea what kind of music it is. So if it makes you think of anything could you leave a comment? Thanks.
Hmm... and looking at them side by side now, I notice that my "K.C. Moan" part is almost note for note the same as my "Bed on Your Floor" part in a different key and with two extra bars inserted. Which, well, they are pretty similar songs I guess.
It is starting to sound to me like an actual song. (See a couple of posts down for the fiddle part.) -- like just now I was mulling over what the lyrics to it might sound like, if they were written and I were singing them. I think the genre is probably rock or rockabilly.
...A song about memory, I think -- with lots of references to Modesto and to the Central Valley if I can swing it. Mostly because those Valley city and town names have got the exact right cadence for this melody -- Sacra-ment-o, e.g. -- the line in my head is "Driving up the high-way, north to Sacra-ment-o," possibly followed by "Don't know what I'll do there" or "Haven't seen my ba-by" or, not sure. Memory and being bored -- these two are tangled together pretty inextricably in my world view.
Here are Jerry and me playing at the Maplewood open mic:
(YouTube is being a little unresponsive today; if one or both of the videos do not show, try again later.)
Weary Day
The Louisville Burglar
Thanks to Vinnie Video for taping the show, and to my co-worker Rob for helping me figure out how to get clips on YouTube. (The process: Handbrake to convert DVD to AVI, and AVITrimmer to extract clips.)
Just thinking about this song. Quick and simple to write, the theme allows for a huge amount of improvisation. It is written out with a straight, even rhythm but is should be slightly "swung", assuming you can do that with waltz-beat music and that it means what I am thinking it does by extension from the meaning of "swing" applied to four-beat music.
ABAC structure seems to work pretty well for me, and not to be as limiting as I was thinking it might. (Not sure why the B line always ends on Re -- the C line of course ends on Do and the A lines usually also end on Do.)
Update: There is a lot of room for variation in rhythm when playing this song. Keeping the same time signature you can play it very straight, very "swung" (with above caveat), or in between, and put the accent on various beats. Change what is legato and staccato a-and etc.
So I've been writing these short fiddle tunes over the past couple of months with "Sally" in the title. (You can listen to some of them here.) The new one tonight is called "Sally's Reel", though I'm not totally sure what conditions a song has to meet for a reel to be danced to it; I just sounds kind of reelish. ABC Format or PDF.
Update: renamed to "Sally's Dance" -- Gabe let me know that reels generally have a more even rhythm than this tune. And suggested chords for it!
The Luddite Robot has a video of some very fine jazz violin playing by Joe Venuti. In comments, twindowlicker posts a link to some recordings of Stuff Smith.
