The Elysian Fields

Contact Juggling: I can do a few rounds of the butterfly. Right hand is pretty good, almost getting the roll vs. throw; left hand is weaker because I mostly forgot it existed when I first started learning, even though I know better. The back-to-back transfer of it eluded me mostly completely up until I tried it today and it actually worked. Whaddayaknow. Need to keep at it of course, clean it up, and get more consistent. Focusing a bit more on some isolations. Also a couple of holds. And the enigma. That's the next big trick.

Flute: Worked on a little melody aequitaslevitas wrote. Fumbled through the fingerings as it was a) the first time I tried the proper fingering to get a certain note; and b) the first time I tried to deliberately string a series of notes played properly in a particular order. So yeah, since I first "picked up" the flute back in 1992 or so, I actually did something other than raw improvisation and went beyond just getting sounds. The tune, as it stands thus far, is scored for flute and cello, although the phrasing and speed possible on the keyboard are slightly out of range of my breathing, although I'm getting a bit better at it. The other day, in an effort to go completely insane, I played the first two bars of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition. Two different octaves of F in that, and thus the first time I've attempted to play two different octaves on purpose.

Bass: I've been working on some different rhythmic stuff, some ideas from Afro-Cuban percussion work. I've come up with a bunch of neat parts - mostly simplistic stuff - for playing along with one or more of the kids. aequitaslevitas did some nice piano improv along with a slow n' slinky bass line. If you closed your eyes you might think he was playing a grand and I was on an upright acoustic bass. Of course, than I did some Jaco-ish bits with lots of harmonics - and a bit of slap - and it was pretty clear it was an electric fretless.

Djembe: Played the aforementioned Afro-Cuban percussion stuff. Worked on a few clave rhythms just to get the basic idea, and some of the conga parts as well. Someday I might even get a decent sense of rhythm. Layering duple and triple meters on top of each other might do that, although I'm convinced it will leave certain people thinking I'm missing the beat. Have to admit, even my hacked rendition had echoes of a more traditional sound, so I did something right. I think.

Guitar: Just learned the main melody of Vernon Reid & Masque's Flatbush and Church Revisited - a reggae piece by Living Color's guitarist's instrumental band. aequitaslevitas figured it out and worked through it with one of the guitar sounds, and as I learned it, I helped tweak it a bit. Based on memory (last heard the tune maybe three months ago), we were off on two points, both easily changed. Hopefully he has the bass part figured out by now.

Speaking of figuring out tunes, Rachel picked out a portion of the melody from Michael Hedges arrangement of What Child Is This?.

Justin comes back tomorrow - hopefully not too late, although I'd be surprised if they made it to the house before I get home from work.

My brother will be driving them down ("them" being Justin and patrixa). They ("they" being my brother and patrixa) will be staying a couple days and then heading back to the Nearly Great White North.

Some musics happened this weekend, but mostly solo type stuff with a quick - but productive - duo taking place on Sunday.

We have a drummer who will be working with us - I hesitate to say "trying out", as it's much more of a two-way process. Probably won't be able to get together with him until the Labor Day weekend.

Worked out a bit of a "new" tune. I've still got to fiddle with the slap bass line and the horn arrangement, but it shouldn't be all that complex. We're doing the tune to help get Rachel to make the jump from "Middle School Band" to "music" by taking one of her practice tunes ("Mary had a Little Lamb" - some of you may be familiar with the melody... =) and jazzing it up a wee bit. I played the melody with Rachel as part of the Sunday duo, although I did my part as a nice, clean jazz guitar octaves ala Joe Pass. Most of the work was done Saturday, when I wrote the bass line under Mr. B's guidance.

The arrangement we'll use will be simple - I play the melody on the bass, go into the slap bass bit, and the wind section will take the melody over the top of that, go through a quick little riff, and then I'll play the melody while one of them solos; repeat until all three make it through. noone234 will take the first solo, Rachel the second, and Justin will wrap it up at the end. Just a simple little thing: 1) to get us playing; 2) to provide a break while we work on writing our own tune; 3) gets each one to improv a bit; and 4) just for fun.

Phone conversations with noone234 and Justin discussed some possibilities for other tunes. We're going to expand the Jack Sparrow/A Jug of This tune Justin and I had worked out to include an alto sax intro with a recognizable bit of a certain little ditty about what to do with drunken sailors. I'll swap the guitar melody I had been doing over Justin's staggering grand piano line with the same thing an octave lower, played on the fretless bass. This will bring it back closer to the original line, which is performed on the cello. Not sure what else will happen with that tune(s) once we start playing it(them).

We're also looking at doing something with The Kraken. Justin and I liked the Nightwish-like treatment we gave that on keys & guitar. I'm also not sure where sax will fit in to the mix, so noone234 doesn't know it yet, but we're going to try to convince him to give the bass a whirl for that one. The clarinet - doing select bits and pieces - will work nicely with it.

I also asked Justin if he wanted to learn the guitar part - fingerstyle acoustic - for one of my tunes, Talent Lost. Years ago, a bass player I worked with came up with a line for it, some of which I remember as I became so used to it that, in his absence, I merged it into the guitar part. As the tune was written in memory of two friends - both bass players - I'd like to take the fretless through its paces and give them a fitting tribute. If I don't scare off the other band members, I may even consider doing the vocal part, as well. It never really had any drums or percussion set to it, although it would definitely require a light touch, maybe hand drums or something?

During the time spent on Sunday, Rachel and I did a Dm jazz improv, and she came up with a bit that just might make it into a tune - a nice line that flowed and really sounded beautiful. When I asked her what she had played, she said she had gone from a low Bb to a high Bb. We talked for a bit and I showed her how playing that robotically - Bb₁... Bb₂ - sounded like the way she's supposed to play in band, but playing it the way she had - Bb₁... D F Bb₂ with the D & F slurred into a single breath with the high Bb - is what gave it character and turned it into music.