We skipped on Monday and I had some extra time to get ready for this rehearsal. I haven't touched my instrument since Friday and Saturday. I haven't worked on any of the songs. Let's see what happens.
Traffic is not too bad for this portion of the 405 freeway.
Temperature is reading at 81°F and I'm lucky to have AC if I want it. Window tinting and or AC can be very important when driving in the city. Sun and traffic get hot, the pavement radiates, and patience get thin without tinting or AC.
I arrive and parking spaces are abundant. I'm not sure why. Wow, it's slightly bewildering! I don't know what to do., but then I see my drummer friend and park next to them easily. It feels like we are on a @steelparade gig now parking next to Sandy Bus.
The new traditional receipt image is above and it is missing palm tees. (I committed to palm trees in the previous post.) Not much of a tradition since I missed the parking machine image and bass images bag image too. My plan was to do all of that again.
I was distracted by conversation with the guy in the GIF below.
I parked next to them. He is my percussionist friend. He decided to visit our big band rehearsal to practice marimba. He was talking to me outside while we were all unloading our equipment and while our long lost Steem neighbor @steelparade purchased parking for me. Thanks guys!
We tried some different songs for this second rehearsal. I thought the tunes from last weeks rehearsal would be the only tunes for every rehearsal until the mid-semester concert. I was wrong and that was a strange thought for this early in the semester.
Do you need background music while you work on your open source Steem project?
🎥 Click here if you're brave enough to start from the beginning of rehearsal 2: https://www.pscp.tv/w/cEchMTFtTUtQdldZa3lnRUd8MUJSS2pxRHBib3Z4d-csz9wfh65dZwljLjeIoM__1vNQz2fw3RYWwQJ-HQ4D?t=41s
🐣 Rant baby interruption:
Broadcasting is not easy for me. I want to do it, but sometimes there are barriers.
1️⃣ First of all, I'm holding something already. I usually only have one hand available. One of my hands is holding up my bass because it wants to "dive." That means that the headstock wants to dip down every time I let go of my instrument. When it dips down, my mobility decreases and I'll start bumping microphones and cymbals. It's a major disruption. I complain about this problem with my bass a lot. It's a problem that has plagued me for a while now. I have trick to compensate, but it's not enough anymore.
2️⃣ Second, not everybody wants to be on video all the time. I know we live in a day and age where you simply can't avoid it, especially in a city, but I still got to figure out how to get along with the people around me. I don't want them to think they can't dance because of the video.
3️⃣ Third, it's another physical limitation of my own. Adjusting the camera hurts my back if it's on the floor. Twisting at the waist will begin to hurt after too much bending to the ground. It's best for me to minimize... avoid that for while. (Yes, I am getting better.)
Great, done, let's never talk about that again. Thanks for your patience and understanding.
Broadcasts:
We start the rehearsal with the same song "That's Life". If you want to hear it click here: 0:38.
If you want to skip to the next song click here at 12:05 and listen to "The Dance Of Denial." This is a new one. I like it. It's like a "Caravan Lite." Listen for a change in the feel as it goes from Afro Cuban 4/4 to a Cha Cha 4/4 type of feel.
Next is "Blue Bossa" at 23:44. We played this last time, but today a new drummer wants to give it a go.
The next song is a new one and it's called "Eleanor Rigby". It's kinda like the song by the Beatles. Click here at 40:49 to listen.
The next song in our rehearsal broadcast is "Over The Rainbow" at 52:19.
I played it better, but it's still a weird version. Let's move on to our next rehearsal tune at 1:00:58.
This rehearsal is going over the one hour mark because we've been going over sections... a little. I almost wanted to use the word "repetition"... Solid repetition would do us some good.
The next tune wants to be funky at 1:13:00.
Up next is Freedom Jazz Dance at 1:21:38. It's the song with bass slap parts I mentioned in the previous post. This song also has a bass solo (it has lots of other soloists too).
The next tune is called "Joshua." We give it a go at 1:38:36. I don't think I've listened to the original Miles Davis recording yet. I will. (
)
We try Nutcracker Suit here at 1:46:26. I'm just not good at this song. That sounds dumb, but I don't like the song. Maybe if I loved Nutcracker... I guess it's cute that a big band is doing Nutcracker's ballet music... Maybe I'll like it more when I can actually count it properly. 😯 It's homework.
"Count Bubba" is the last song of this rehearsal. We've played it before. It sounds good if I count the rests correctly. Check it here at 2:12:00.
🍩☕️Addictions☕️🍩:
I already had a nitro cold brew from Starbucks. If you haven't tried a nitro cold brew yet, be sure to get the smallest size. Cold brew coffee is always stronger. I'm proud to say that this was my one and only coffee serving of the day.
That nitro cold brew stayed in my system for a while. It's almost a little bit too much for my new tolerance. My hands were sweaty and slippery for the entire rehearsal. Normally, I hate that. Since it's rehearsal, I tried to use the moisture to my advantage.
I was stinky. Our drummer friend @steelparade said he stinky too. He was correct. I felt sorry for the students that had to be near us. They look tolerant in the videos. It probably smelled like a locker room in that rehearsal room. I'll work on that too.
Random Big Band Meme!
This meme was inspired by a request to do an interview. I was scared. No offense intended.
That image comes from Star Wars. I only added the word "DRUM SET" to it. I think we call that stolen... @jaguar.force? I know you would be repeating yourself, but that is just a necessary burden while serving the community. Anyway, I would appreciate your opinion here.
My bass is the same. I lowered the action a few months ago... last year... Anyway, I like it for now. The sweet spot for slapping is small, so there may be some changes down the road. Oh yah and the dive thing sucks.
It's the only bass I have. I let people play it all the time. Especially children. Very few people have touched a bass guitar that is amplified and loud. I let audience members experience a bass guitar whenever possible. They can't really break it. I don't care about scratches and dings. They bless it without even knowing it.
Caution! Bass Solo:
The song Freedom Jazz Dance has a "16 bar" bass solo in it. The same 16 measures repeat and then the rest of the band comes in (ff) big to finish the song.
I could solo for the entire song if I wanted... I want to play the parts though. I want to make the bass solo sound like a solo that groves with lots of long full notes. I have not worked on it yet. My goal seems simple, but it's not for me. I want to do what Davie504 asked bass players to do in one of his videos. He asked them to play a solo that uses three techniques. The techniques are Slap, Tapping, and Finger style.
My bass solo should tell a story. I want to start-out extremely soft and get louder towards the end while holding back just enough of my dynamic capacity to get even louder when the band comes in. I want to tap some of the long notes or maybe chords and then finger style like Jaco style for the 16th notes that will get sprinkled in. Slap should probably start and end the second set of my 16 measures. That's scary. I gotta work on it.
Click here to skip to my Freedom Jazz Dance bass solo attempt: 1:32:16.
WTF is this song called "Freedom Jazz Dance?"
https://www.youtube.com/user/Davie504
Fender rumble bass amp review.
Managing the bass amp is part of every bass player's job. The bass amp topic came up a few times last series. For this series I'm going to talk about the replacement bass amplifier our director purchased.
We will talk about this little amp more, but for now, I want to say that I am extremely grateful for the light weight of this bass amp.
This bass amp is only 36lbs. That's awesome for being a 500 watt bass amp. My personal rig weighs much more. The previous bass amp at the school weighed a lot. These are good times. I am grateful.
Did you see the marimba in the GIF above? I'm really sorry I didn't take more pictures of it.
Here, take a look, buy me a few immediately, thanks... https://www.bing.com/shop?q=Marimba&go=Search&qs=n&form=SHOPSB&sp=-1&pq=marimba&sc=5-7&sk=&cvid=3AE15B1156D94FC08E2E38694C522E34
The marimba is considered a percussion instrument. That makes it part of the rhythm section. Those blocks of wood, the notes/keys on top are expensive. It's never a table. Percussionists will also kill you if you smack the soft wood key with the wrong mallet.
It's not a good idea to use the top of your bass guitar to strum along the marimba's wooden notes. It's not a good idea to use the top of your fingernails to strum along down the wooden nots of a marimba either. It's probably not a good idea to get good at playing one unless you have a lot of money, privilege, and storage.
Enough cynicism... do you remember the other instruments that are common to a rhythm section? Bass, piano, drums, bongos... guitar... vibraphone, and marimba are a few. Can you think of any more?
💰 Costs include gas, parking, last-minute food, equipment needs, and hopefully nothing else.
In the previous series, I estimated my gas and parking costs to be about $8. Add that to this weeks $8 to get a total of $16 for an education.
I'm grateful.
💰
"Big band Rehearsal 3 September 16th 2019: Does this Crime Scene Aftermath Make Me Look Ghetto?"
🌻 THANK YOU for reading, leaving comments, and upvoting! 🐢
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has new music on BandCamp here: https://tetrahedroseph.bandcamp.com/music
