In case anyone is looking for more advanced/longstanding jam sessions, here you go~ Folk Jam keeps a current list.
Thursday, September 29, 2016
First River Jam Session 2016
September 29, 2016
First Fraser River Jam Session for Beginners.
Never been to a jam before? Want to get out to a session but unsure what goes on/if your skill level would suit? Come out to our jam! Geared for beginners and those who are still learning, featuring easily played group songs and repetition at various speeds to help get the ear up to speed too. Basically, the seed of this is a bunch of friends who have had that instrument in their closets for too long without any social way of playing it. We are Making Things Happen.
Guitars, drum, viola, voice, <insert portable non-electric instrument here>, tin whistle welcome. Mainly fiddlers right now though.
We play in a picturesque clearing beside the Fraser River, once a month, and sometimes at the VPL downtown when we want to record our sessions/the weather is bad.
This session is about having fun, practicing our skills, and learning to let go a little to enjoy the tunes instead of getting all cranked about not being "good enough" to play with other people. Tune types include Irish tunes, geek tunes, Greek tunes, and general horsing around.
Tunes that we tackle to follow.
First Fraser River Jam Session for Beginners.
Never been to a jam before? Want to get out to a session but unsure what goes on/if your skill level would suit? Come out to our jam! Geared for beginners and those who are still learning, featuring easily played group songs and repetition at various speeds to help get the ear up to speed too. Basically, the seed of this is a bunch of friends who have had that instrument in their closets for too long without any social way of playing it. We are Making Things Happen.
Guitars, drum, viola, voice, <insert portable non-electric instrument here>, tin whistle welcome. Mainly fiddlers right now though.
We play in a picturesque clearing beside the Fraser River, once a month, and sometimes at the VPL downtown when we want to record our sessions/the weather is bad.
This session is about having fun, practicing our skills, and learning to let go a little to enjoy the tunes instead of getting all cranked about not being "good enough" to play with other people. Tune types include Irish tunes, geek tunes, Greek tunes, and general horsing around.
Tunes that we tackle to follow.
Thursday, May 5, 2016
Practiced AND remembered to blog about it.
Today was a good practice day!
Started with scales of D G C major/minor, then triads.
Launched into Stitches and Britches for three rounds, then Paddy McFadden twice and Road to Lis'ten'verda once. Tried different speeds.
Tried Mary's Wedding without a refresher, then with it at various tempos. Fixed a crappy note progression I had misremembered, and then played around with phrasing.
Stretched and shook hands.
Bowing Exercises!
Then theory practise as I tried to transcribe one of the conservatory testing peices from grade 4 piano to be played on the fiddle. Got a LOT frustrated because the phrasing for piano isn't designed to have to think about when to shift strings, let alone be in a key that I can do it all from first position rather than the harder bit of switching up to second. Gave up. Just finished some positive self talk, and will try again tomorrow.
Feeling cautiously pleased with myself.
Still haven't made it out to the new live sessions. One day.
Also thinking about starting a slow session down at the VPL, once a month? The problem would be it would have to be on a weekend, or a weekday morning, because spending that kind of time not at home on a workday is not okay when you have pets.
Ah well, another day a little more gained.
Started with scales of D G C major/minor, then triads.
Launched into Stitches and Britches for three rounds, then Paddy McFadden twice and Road to Lis'ten'verda once. Tried different speeds.
Tried Mary's Wedding without a refresher, then with it at various tempos. Fixed a crappy note progression I had misremembered, and then played around with phrasing.
Stretched and shook hands.
Bowing Exercises!
Then theory practise as I tried to transcribe one of the conservatory testing peices from grade 4 piano to be played on the fiddle. Got a LOT frustrated because the phrasing for piano isn't designed to have to think about when to shift strings, let alone be in a key that I can do it all from first position rather than the harder bit of switching up to second. Gave up. Just finished some positive self talk, and will try again tomorrow.
Feeling cautiously pleased with myself.
Still haven't made it out to the new live sessions. One day.
Also thinking about starting a slow session down at the VPL, once a month? The problem would be it would have to be on a weekend, or a weekday morning, because spending that kind of time not at home on a workday is not okay when you have pets.
Ah well, another day a little more gained.
Monday, February 29, 2016
Feb 29 Practice Record
Time logged: 1 hour
Fingers lightly burning with reforming callus. Time to stop.
- Tuned Buttercup.
- Scales of G, D, C major for five minutes.
- Arpeggios of G, D, C major for five minutes.
- Three note successions, two note, one note bowing exercises
- Stitches in My Britches, from memory. (missed notes)
- Stitches in My Britches, played with tape, slow mode, then without tape
- Stitches in My Britches, played with tape, normal speed, then without tape
- Stitches in My Britches, played with tape, fast speed, then without tape
- Mary's Wedding, from memory (crappy, forgot a line and some tempo stuff)
- Mary's Wedding, played with tape, slow and then normal modes.
- Mary's Wedding, played without tape, normal modes.
- (bowing thumb hurting, reviewed hand grip and fixed DeathGrip error)
- South Wind melody review
- Played around for ten minutes.
It's Spring again, so let's give this one more try.
Welcome back!
It's spring time again, and so that means it's time to dust off our instruments and give this another go.
We now have a goal to work towards, in that there are now two sessions that have started up I would like to check out, once my skill feels minimally adequate:
1. Our Town Session -- hosted at the aforementioned coffee house, first Monday's of the month. Blues focus
2. Sparticus Bookshop Session - First Wednesday of the Month, all styles focus
3. (Previously known about weekly session on Thursdays in Kitsilano, Celtic focus)
So. Let's put a few weeks in polishing things back up to workable, and get out and be musically social!
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