- Thurday Night: Busking For Bus Downtown
- Friday Night: Busking For Bus to New Orleans
- Hop To Hop A Train Out Of Here
I started thinking about it, as I walked around Scotlandville; deciding to vocally do the opening riff and recurring motif, similar to what The Offspring did to open one of their songs, back in the 90's.
I started thinking about all the dead artists that I cover; very few living artists find their way onto my set list, I realized just lately
All I had recorded was an acoustic rhythm guitar, no percussion at all, and a vocal wherein I couldn't help but channel some of Jim Morrison's spirit -the minimalistic setup that I thought that I had decided upon as my vehicle for posting these songs; but; it just seemed a little too minimalistic, and so I wound up with about seven of myself playing; and a clap of thunder, provided by Mother Nature.
The Harp
The harp was something that had been avoiding a bit, lately.
My Lee Oskar has some malfunctioning notes, which are in the middle register, and, hopping from the low to the high register adds one more layer of required proficiency on the thing, as, the two registers are played differently, with notes being over-bent or merely just bent, depending upon the register...
But, using the G Hohner Golden Melody, which I was free to hold in my hands (it won't fit in the neck harness) and which has no malfunctioning notes, I tried to get back on the horse, and not only that; play the harp again.
One note: The key of G harp fits the Doors song uncannily. The notes are all there -only two notes to half bend.The Guitar
The guitarist stays around a G arpeggio in his recorded solo. I was going to mimick that solo, but decided to drift off into space, instead. I mimicked the mode that he was creating by using a tonal center of G, while the accompaniment jumps from F#minor to A minor, never actually landing on G, and hence, the "tune in; turn on and drop out" flavor of the solo.
The solo section was way too short for my tastes, but, 12 minute songs take 12 minutes each time you re-do them or add something.
This one ran a little over 4 minutes...
More Of A Clap
I was trying to put a cap on the harmonica solo, which was caught off guard by the changing to the motif, after so many bars of its solo, and hadn't really crescendoed to any real point -no problem.
All I needed basically, was "a high note to end the solo on," and so, I just plugged in and tried to wail out a high note.
It was a little wavery, but what it lacked in polish, it made up for by causing the skies to thunder; thunder which I ran through compression and equalization, in order to give it a little more of a clap.
No Trace Of Howard
There has still been no trace of Howard, nor signs of him.
He very well could be at the LSU campus; if only because their Jack In The Box restauraunt is better to go to at 6:05 every morning than the one here.
As I get used to not having him around, I am actually excited about the prospects ahead of me.
The Train Hobo
In exchange for giving a train rider some smokes, he gave me detailed information, to include maps, and hand drawn by him diagrams.Times and places were mentioned; along with instructions to wait between the 4th and 5th rows of cars, to see which one the power unit is switching towards, whereupon I will have a full 30 seconds to hop up on the appropriate grain car.
Oh ouch make it stop!
ReplyDeleteDee dee dee dee ... really?
OK, enough.
I have decided to put the dang digi piano onto Craig's List for a few reasons, those being just plain old financial liquidity, it's just not as easy to grab and play like a harp or a small guitar etc., and lastly ... it is really not a piano. An actual, physically-operated, piano has a living feel to it that one of these will never have.
I dunno if I mentioned my friend's car dying on me in Campbell, but today I went and got it un-died and drove it home by way of Guitar Center. I fondled various guitars and the one I like is called the "Little Martin", it's sort of a camping guitar, or one you'd give your 12 year old who plays football, or that you want to keep around in your tollbooth for those slow times. It's not the best, or the most beautiful, but it has a surprisingly good sound, gets tons of good reviews, and looks like a nice friendly guitar for me to learn on.
I think I want to learn how to strum and sing just because it's fun. I find myself singing along with YouTube videos these days. I probably can fit in a vocal class at the jr. college here in the fall. I think I will buy it when the keyboard sells, which will be in the next day or so. I want to sing silly stuff like "The Cat Came Back" and all kinds of goofy gospel that musicians like Johnny Cash started out on.
And I'll start a blog about *that* and get some audio/video on there ASAP. Because I rag and bag on your playing incessantly so I have to put my stuff up as a target for *you* to take potshots at lol.
A few days ago I inhaled some chemical fumes and I'm hackin' up all kinds of yellow stuff and my voice is pretty shot. I sang some in the car so no more for me tonight wah.
Damn, every once in a while, my palm drags across the mousepad thing, moving the cursor out of the editing box and the next key that I press is some kind of shortcut key that takes me to another screen and I lose my whole comment...
ReplyDeleteSo, I haven't risen to the level of the expectations of European tourists, to whom all rock-n-roll sounds the same, yet.
I'm perfecting my formula, though. Got to admit, I'm mixing the sound better, have learned that with digital, you don't have to bring the levels up to near clipping; just pass a certain threshold, (make it a one instead of a zero; and you can't do more; only ruin it if you clip the input..)
Part of me wants to spend a month perfecting an original; adding the LSU church piano; spending a whole day mixing and EQing; and another part wants to knock out three songs in an evening; I guess the Doors song is in between somewhere...
My formula is to sit in front of the recorder and play and sing all the way through the song, and then use that track to guide me in doing another guitar, then another seperate vocal, and then deleting the original guide track; the vocal is great for keeping "everyone" together...
Still, I was a little disappointed to produce only three songs, two of them cover songs, and I could actually just post a list of my best money songs, instead of actually performing them; unless a potential busker wants to know how well you have to do them to *at least* make the 'kind' of money that I do...
Well, if your recordings are indicative of how you sound on the street, it's less of a mystery why you get paid so little.
ReplyDeleteOf course them's fightin' words, so I am now the proud owner of a "Little Martin" guitar, a 3/4-size one that just strikes me as friendly and fun and something to learn on. And the Mel Bay book. And a can of Fast Fret (because it really does make a difference, I think it and Finger-Ease are the same thing actually). And said Martin is going to live hanging right by my computer here, for whenever I get the urge to noodle around.
What I really want, I think, is an excuse to sing. Well, those fumes really got me, right now I sound like ... you know the stereotypical cracking, "country hick" voice you hear in TV cartoons? Well I sound like his grandpappy. I'm hoping it will clear up in a few days, meanwhile I can strum and harmonicate. And I will set up my little $20 garage sale camera that seems to have a pretty good mic and record myself, it may end up being video. Then I can hear all about how awful I sound, it'll be fun.