![]() I've been a Dan Hicks fan for a while now, the quirky tunes, weird harmonies and interesting arranging and staging of his performances have always inspired me. I was sad to hear of his passing, but glad that it was a catalyst to share his music with all of you. Check out the violin solo at the start of the first video, and the choreography in the second. Also in the second video notice how they focus in on the bassist during his solo, its a bit overboard, but still a really cool way to say "check out what they can do" Box charts and chord sheets posted here are for the Key of A... be warned that we will be learning "My Old Timey Baby" in 2 different keys so that both ladies and gents have a chance to sing the melody. I'm in the process of uploading the videos from NIFPA onto youtube, I'm not the best at navigating the Tubes, so it will take a while. I'll let you know when they are up.
Hey All, There will be an extra rehearsal for the NIFPA performance at our Studio at 2935 Muir on Saturday January 30th, 10am. I figured if we had a morning rehearsal that would leave the rest of your weekend free. If you can make it work to be there thats great, if not, we'll be holding a dress rehearsal on tuesday. Here's an updated As the World Turns Mp3.... it was raining when I recorded it, so there are lots of little clicks really faintly in the background, don't worry, your speakers aren't blown if you hear crackling. Ian, I played a solo over the fiddle break just to fill out the sound, but I really like what you were doing in class, so don't feel you have to do what I did here. If you'd like a version with no solo let me know and I'll send you one.
Brother Drop Dead was sounding so good last night! Yeeeeehaaawww! I'm hoping to get an Mp3 of the Gaucho arrangement together for ya'll today or tomorrow, I just need to organize my studio musicians to come in and lay down the parts. :P
Click the button below to be directed to the new summer camp we're putting on! cheers a Wow! we've had 2 classes since the new year rolled in and 2 more to go before the NIFPA Performance... things are sounding great, I know I'm going to be one proud mama hen at the festival again this year. I spent some time working on the Vocal assignments for A Love Like Yours, trying to make sure everyone got a chance to sing lead and back up through out the song. If you don't like the part you got, or you are unsure what your part is, I'm reposting the harmonies again, and we will review them in class next week. My plan is to teach the backup parts to the audience as well, hopefully we'll get the whole room singing along! Its probably a good idea to write out a vocal roadmap for yourself, so that you know when you're singing what and what you're singing where... Some people are having to jump from harmony to harmony, do your best, and we'll sort it all out in class. If the part feels like its out of your vocal range and you need to switch parts please let me know so that I can make sure the parts are balanced.
Melody![]()
Brother Drop Dead Boogiewe started writing riffs for this one last night, My thoughts for the festival as that we each would get 4 bars to play a riff, pre written or improvised (your choice) during the 2nd solo break. I've put together a recording and am posting 2 versions... the first has me playing an improvised solo on the guitar, then the fiddle, the second is exactly the same except I've left the solo area empty so that you can play along with the recording. I tried to make the recording as accurate to the arrangement as I could... the vocal map will be finalized next week. Remember that the melody on this one is pretty loosey goosey, So don't sweat it too much if you're not matching what I'm doing on the recording.... that being said, my entrances to the verses are counted out, so try to come in at the same time.
Gaucho (corta Jaca)Here's a version of Gaucho with some really cool trading of melody and harmony parts... See you next week!!!!
cheers a HI Folksies! Thank you for such a lovely start to the New Year. It’s really inspiring to have such a great group of musicians to work with. I had hoped to do a more in depth/higher quality recording of the new tune today, (my working title seems to be “As the World Turns”) but I’m headed to Fort Simpson this weekend to teach at a fiddle camp, so for now there are 3 tracks, with melody & harmonys split and full 3 part. I’ll be adding more instrumental parts, verses etc as we go. The lyrics are: Every day sun comes up Every day sun goes down As the world turns around Hold on to my voice we’ll sing through together Cause music makes the world turn Takes the burn in our hearts and lights a fire Music makes the world turn, lonely as it seems Hold on to my voice we’ll sing through together
The tentative set list for the North Island Festival of Performing Arts (NIFPA) is as follows: A Love Like Yours Brother Drop Dead Gaucho As the World Turns the actual performance is on February 4, 6:30 pm... location TBA Brother Drop DeadWe did some work on arranging Brother Drop Dead last night, changes will be made to this road map, but this will get you started. There are charts and Mp3s posted from september if you scroll down a bit on this page. The road map so far is: Intro: (Chromatic Descending) Lines 1 & 2 - Solo Lines 3 & 4 – Solo Line 5 – Gents Line 6 – Ladies (rhythm: single shot on Brother) Intro Lines 1 & 2 - Solo Lines 3 & 4 – Solo Line 5 – Ladies (when HE popped the question) Line 6 – Gents (Rhythm: single shots – only, brother) Group solo/transcribed instrumental Lines 1 & 2 - Solo Lines 3 & 4 – Solo Line 5 – Every one Line 6 – Every one (Rhythm: Double shots) Improvised solos/Riff solos Verse 3 – Small groups sing each line, everyone sings last line plus tag Intro A Love Like YoursWe'll be doing a new arrangement of this one for the festival, but if people want to brush up on it and download the Mp3s/lyrics check out the archives from February 2015, (Located on the right hand of this page just under my bio at the top of the page) GauchoHere's where my disappearing to Fort Simpson at the last minute makes things a bit difficult... I don't have the music for Gaucho, but if you don't have it and you realllllly want to get started on it this week, you can send me an email at [email protected] and I'll forward your request onto Wendy or Bob and get it to you, If you have their email already then just ask them directly.
hope to see you all again next week as well as new folks too! all the best, Ali Greetings for the Holiday season!
I'm happy to announce that after two months of tour with the Fugitives in UK/Euro that I will be planting my roots down in the Comox Valley for the coming year. I will still be touring off and on in the new year with my own project, Fugitive and Fringe shows. But fear not! with such great co-directors to take the reigns for those dates that I will be away FolkHarmonic should continue uninterrupted until May 2016! Term 1: Jan 12, 19, 26 Feb 2, 4*, 9, 16 *NIFPA fest 6:30pm Term 2: Feb 23 Mar 1, 8, 15, 22, 29 Term 3: Apr 5, 12, 19, 26 May 3, 10 Rates are $15/class drop in or $81 for the full term. Tuesdays, 7:30pm Therapeutic Riding Barn Lounge, 4875 Headquarters Rd, Courtenay BC hope to see you there! all the best, Ali I'm so excited about the great turnouts we've been having at FolkHarmonic, the possibilities are growing as we add in harmonies and layers and instruments. Thank you for being a part of our community! So, I recorded all of Brother Drop dead then realized that I'd played a different intro than the one on the hand out. So I re-recorded it. Then I realized the intro that I'd just re-recorded didn't work with the outro, so there will be some variation to what your chart says. We'll go over it in class next week. Moral of the story is I should follow my own advice more.
UKULELES Below are 3 different ways to play a Major 6 chord. The sound that is most "Western Swing" A6 is the first shape, placing the YELLOW dot (root note) on the 2nd Fret. If you are using the 2nd shape put the Yellow dot at the 5th fret, or if using the 3rd put the yellow dot at the 9th. I'd like everyone to try to use the first chord shape for Brother Drop dead if possible. IF you're finding it too much of a struggle, keep practicing the new shape, but feel free to use the others until you get more comfortable. More advanced players should be using the first. (you know who you are :) GUITARS once you've got that solo line in your head try experimenting where you place it on the finger board and what octave its in. On the recording for FolkHarmonic theres one guitar doing what is tabbed out for you, another is playing the whole riff up the octave. Hint: Start solo one on the 5th fret of the hi E string to get the upper octave. OR Hint: Start solo one with your 2nd finger on the 7th fret of the D string. Improvising kickstarters - Scales and RiffsWe'll be using an A Major Pentatonic scale as a FRAMEWORK for improvising in this tune... if that name seems like a bunch of gobbledygook/mildly terrifying to lets break it down into a more manageable concept. A - is the starting note & key Major - its a happy sounding!!! Yay! Penta - Five Tonic - Note Scale - Group of notes so basically what we've got is a group of five notes that sound happy... (this is a very simplistic definition... my theory teachers from uni might be a bit scandalized at this explanation) ![]()
Using a transcribed solo to figure out the rules (and where you need to break them)Now that we've got a frame work we need to be aware that while these notes sound right MOST of the time, there are certain places where we need to break the rules. For example when we are playing the D7 chord in Brother Drop Dead there is one note that clashes a bit. Check out the Guitar solo transcribed below, as well as the original recording (NOTE: if you want to play along with the original recording you'll need to move everything up a semi tone ... or one fret, or use the 2nd file posted here. NIFH KEY: ORIGINAL KEY:
Girl in the War... Updated Mp3's & Polka DotsBelow are is the score for the vocal harmonies, as well as each individual part and MP3s with Ukulele and one voice. Please ignore the Soprano/alto/tenor markings... they are just to keep things organized, but don't actually indicate which voices should be doing what. Listen through and sing along with the parts to find the one that is best suited for your voice... if you'd like to challenge yourself try learning more than one. Note the I've given harmonies for the whole song here, we won't be singing harmony on every line, but this allows us to pick an choose the lines best suited to highlight. BASSES.... There is a line here that should be a sung underneath during the epic vocal breakdown... I don't know if its something you'll actually be able to do. have a listen through and try it. I'm open to suggestions.
Western swing classic... Shut up and drink your beer.
Charts & Chords for Western Swing![]()
Moveable swing chords handouts:
Thank you everyone for such a stellar turnout tonight! FolkHarmonic is off to the races, I can't wait to hear what we can build over the next 6 weeks. We started the term off with a Josh Ritter tune called Girl in the War, from his album 'the Animal Years'. Here's what the original sounds like: FolkHarmonic arrangement:Below are the lyrics and chord chart as well as 2 recordings. One is just ukulele and the melody, the second is the "full arrangement"
Here's a quick recording of the counting exercise we did today as well. I tried to use different mice and pan the tracks so you can hear each part in the mix. ![]()
|
Ali RomanowFolkHarmonic Director Archives
May 2020
Categories
All
|