Rudi

My old standby use to be 'Naked Ladies & Electric Ragtime' (in C) by Michael Chapman (album: Fully Qualified Surviver) Sometimes it was the Davy Graham-esque arrangement of 'Goodbye Pork Pie Hat' by Charlie Mingus (in E) Now it is 'The Entertainer' by Scott Joplin (in C) Occasionally 'Soldiers March' by the Rev. Gary Davis (in F)

A wife accuses her husband of being unromantic. A friend advises the husband to place a notice in the local paper to publicly express his feelings. Saying "that will really please her, women love that kind of thing." He phones in a message. He is told he can have 10 words for £10. The message he dictates is this: ‘James Broughton likes his wife very much.’ Thats fine sir, but you have used only 7 words. You can have 3 more if you wish! Eventually the message appears in the Evening News. ‘James Broughton likes his wife very much. - Shed for sale.’

Fool Yourself - Little Feat

Interesting stuff. On listening to the Beatles "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds", John Fred (John Fred & the Playboys) mistook the line 'Lucy in the Sky..' for 'Lucy in diguise', and was most disapointed when he discovered the true lyric. He thought it sounded far more interesting as 'Lucy in disguise'. Inspired by his own mis-understanding, John Fred and Andrew Bernard co-wrote "Judy in Disguise", a successful chart hit of the 60's. I think it may have been Miles Davis who said that the audience 'had to work as hard as the musicians' (true for much of non commercial music) to get anything out of it. or was it Daniel O'Donnell?

I take it this is for patrons of fcuk right?

I have a song idea. The lyrics are an early draft. Unusually, I have begun with the title; something I must have picked up from the 'title challenge' thread we have used so much here on SS. The subject runs thus: Its when your girlfriend tells you all the things you are supposed & expected to do 'because now we're a couple'. The title is Just Another Cucumber. Im stuck on a verse that wont come right. Its when the song narrative takes us to the library to study up on these 'responsibilities'. I may have to abandon this verse because it stubbornly refuses to work. I have invoked no muse, maybe I should.

Pride of Man - Quicksilver Messenger Service

I am unable to view youtube from my location, but would wish to endorse what Nightwolf said about the matter of experience. It should not prove a problem.

Even faster than Dave Holland. Now I know who to call when I write that 35 notes per second bass line. Cheers neo

Performance - Failure & Success. Sometimes the band plays well but I am unhappy about my personal contribution to the music at a gig. This is what I am talking about here. To my own standards, my success rate is quite low. I feel good about perhaps 40% of my performances. I’ve never felt like giving up, but I do feel pretty bad after some gigs. I could improve my success rate by being less demanding of myself. The trouble with that is, I would probably eventually get bored and give it all up anyway. Most of the time I just fail to live up to my potential & end up playing blandly. It can be down to several variables. 1/ Sound quality : timbre & acoustics can restrict what I will attempt to play. 2/ Fatigue : tired hands & fingers due to extensive chord work 3/ Losing place : phrasing problems due to wrong tempo or plain clumsiness. The re-entry problem. The absolute worse thing I do is to drift into the wrong key. Now, it happens extremely rarely, but it does happen. Usually I can correct it after a bum note or two, but I have on occasion soloed in the wrong key without realising it. This can only really happen when the acoustics are so poor that I cant hear the band properly. Again, I could eliminate this problem quite easily. It’s just a question of discipline. The reason I don’t is because I happen like the way of playing that gets me into this sort of difficulty. What happens is this. During a solo, sometimes I will literally let go of the understanding I have of the music. This is not when things go wrong, in fact this is the ‘sweet space‘ that appeals to me. It during the return to musical structure that these mistakes occur. Anxiety at the moment of needing to remember where I am in the song is the first & only sign of trouble. It happens (fortunately) more during practise rather than in the short solos I tend to do play in the band; but happen they do. Hopefully I still have enough years of playing in me to see some improvement before I have to stop altogether. There remains some satisfaction in the struggle to improve. 19-Nov-08

Welcome to SS Justin

Al Fresco? I think thats a more 'off-the-wall' sort of A Cappela isnt it?

It is perfectly possible to convey emotion with words only. Sometimes its worth trying to write without music. You can either have a rhyming scheme in mind or not; though if not it can be a challenge to edit into the music later.

I know what you mean. Sometimes the whole-sound thats in your head is not always what you end up recording. It can be for several reasons. 1/ You just record a piece of melody without the accompanying harmonic and/or time context. 2/ You dont phrase the melody precisely. What works & what doesnt can be very subtle. 3/ The translation of timbre wasnt effective. The best way to hear your music correctly is to keep it in your head. Its when you record & gig that it gets difficult.

love it !

me too !

At last. A successor to Le Pétomane

um.... dieting. My diet that began in April 2007 ended in September 2008. I lost 4.5 stone (thats 63 lb to the colonists). Im now a steady 11 stone

Forever Nightshade Mary - The Latin Playboys

and I thought tuperware parties were dull!

Whats the difference between a frog? ANS: One leg is both the same.

Hi Veronika Welome to SongStuff. Theres a mass of useful info to be had here. My dad was Polish too. Best of luck to you Rudi from Portsmouth UK

Something similar was in development here, but got bogged down. I too think the idea has great potential. Welcome to SonStuff Fiona.

I didnt get any lessons, but would recommend them anyway. If you do get lessons, try to get them from the best teacher you can find (this is not always the best stylist), one with a good all round musical knowledge. Dont try to ecconomise on lessons. If you do go it alone. prepare to spend half your life re-inventing the wheel. On the plus side, the wheel you end up with will be unique (mine has invisible spokes and hardly any tread).

Johan Sabastian Bach & the Reverend Gary Davis are two biggies for me.