hello if there are any readers
there won't be a rehearsal for a while. Louis and I are picking through the recordings and writing one long piece which should be notated and ready by the time the next two pianos arrive. So parts can be distributed and everything will be super.
Thursday 29 March 2007
Friday 9 March 2007
Thursday 8 March 2007
Dictaphones and stairs
NEXT REHEARSAL, FRIDAY - MEET 3.00 AT SIMPLE ON TIBB STREET
Our little jam last night went alright, not very many of us. We started with arpeggios on harmonicas and clarinet and then went on a musical stream of consciousness. I recorded with a crappy microphone onto the computer and onto 2 crappy dictophones, so the sound is brilliant ho ho. I tried syncronising the the recordings, but as I hoped, they go in and out of it depending where the musician was in relation to the two mics
Its a shame the quality is painful, but as an experiment it was good enough. Now I have to go through the recording and pick out the bits I like and write them down.
Later I dragged everyone to the stairs, and put a different musician on different landings with a dictaphone at the top and another at the bottom, Louis started a beat with the tin can and we improvised some rather creepy sounding music over the top. Again though, dictaphones are handy but very bad. Here's what the two recordings sound over each other
Well, lets hope its a nice day on Friday.
Our little jam last night went alright, not very many of us. We started with arpeggios on harmonicas and clarinet and then went on a musical stream of consciousness. I recorded with a crappy microphone onto the computer and onto 2 crappy dictophones, so the sound is brilliant ho ho. I tried syncronising the the recordings, but as I hoped, they go in and out of it depending where the musician was in relation to the two mics
Its a shame the quality is painful, but as an experiment it was good enough. Now I have to go through the recording and pick out the bits I like and write them down.
Later I dragged everyone to the stairs, and put a different musician on different landings with a dictaphone at the top and another at the bottom, Louis started a beat with the tin can and we improvised some rather creepy sounding music over the top. Again though, dictaphones are handy but very bad. Here's what the two recordings sound over each other
Well, lets hope its a nice day on Friday.
Tuesday 6 March 2007
plodding along
first:
NEXT REHEARSAL
WEDNESDAY, 4.30 MEET AT THE SALUTATION. i'm still not entirely sure what the street's called, HIGHER CHATHAM STREET
if you're late, phone 07742920083 and i'll let you in the studio
then
FRIDAY, 3.00 THE MULTI STOREY CAR PARK IN THE NORTHERN QUARTER, MEET AT SIMPLE AT 3.00 that way you can sit at their tables on the veranda and not have to buy a drink, though they do a good cup of tea.
I'm going to have to structure and take better control of the rehearsals now, so call me captain, or skipper. ok don't, anyway, i've got a clearer idea of how the music will be structured and i've started on a new piece for spring. For now we'll take it step by step -
to begin, one of the first experiments we did was based around simple arpeggios, moving on from 'Sisters! Brothers! small boats' by A Silver Mount Zion, which i recorded onto an imac and played back through different laptops, which sounded dreadful, but here is a summary -
it sounds awful, but listen to it all the way through or as much as your ears can take and you get an idea of somewhere we're going, well the crescendo idea. I found from doing this that, 1 laptops sound very bad, 2, imacs are very bad to record, 3 whistling and harmonica make irritating sounds, but once you get going, things turn out ok, its a great piece of music when its played properly
Anyhoo, Tim came round on Friday and we did some playing around with the arpeggios. I think it came out very well, shame that the clarinet drowns his fiddle out a little because he plays so beautifully and the clarinet does sound a little flat sometimes. Its given me some ideas to work with on Wednesday, its much better working with real musicians than it is on my own, if only i could pay them so they didn't have to leave.
Today and yesterday I used the sound studio to record some of my own attempts; they're alright, but just playing chords really, not using the cyclic techniques we were doing on friday. I wanted to see how the music could go from the arpeggios into a rhythmn and then a simple piece of music, i had to transpose the music so it could be played easily on harmonica, which is something i've not done for a while. I did it specially for the Creative Living Centre today, i also took some previous recordings and we all played along to them, it went really well, it was great to see people getting into the music. I didn't record what happened there but it was lots of fun, i'm glad I'm doing it and it'll be better next week.
NEXT REHEARSAL
WEDNESDAY, 4.30 MEET AT THE SALUTATION. i'm still not entirely sure what the street's called, HIGHER CHATHAM STREET
if you're late, phone 07742920083 and i'll let you in the studio
then
FRIDAY, 3.00 THE MULTI STOREY CAR PARK IN THE NORTHERN QUARTER, MEET AT SIMPLE AT 3.00 that way you can sit at their tables on the veranda and not have to buy a drink, though they do a good cup of tea.
I'm going to have to structure and take better control of the rehearsals now, so call me captain, or skipper. ok don't, anyway, i've got a clearer idea of how the music will be structured and i've started on a new piece for spring. For now we'll take it step by step -
to begin, one of the first experiments we did was based around simple arpeggios, moving on from 'Sisters! Brothers! small boats' by A Silver Mount Zion, which i recorded onto an imac and played back through different laptops, which sounded dreadful, but here is a summary -
it sounds awful, but listen to it all the way through or as much as your ears can take and you get an idea of somewhere we're going, well the crescendo idea. I found from doing this that, 1 laptops sound very bad, 2, imacs are very bad to record, 3 whistling and harmonica make irritating sounds, but once you get going, things turn out ok, its a great piece of music when its played properly
Anyhoo, Tim came round on Friday and we did some playing around with the arpeggios. I think it came out very well, shame that the clarinet drowns his fiddle out a little because he plays so beautifully and the clarinet does sound a little flat sometimes. Its given me some ideas to work with on Wednesday, its much better working with real musicians than it is on my own, if only i could pay them so they didn't have to leave.
Today and yesterday I used the sound studio to record some of my own attempts; they're alright, but just playing chords really, not using the cyclic techniques we were doing on friday. I wanted to see how the music could go from the arpeggios into a rhythmn and then a simple piece of music, i had to transpose the music so it could be played easily on harmonica, which is something i've not done for a while. I did it specially for the Creative Living Centre today, i also took some previous recordings and we all played along to them, it went really well, it was great to see people getting into the music. I didn't record what happened there but it was lots of fun, i'm glad I'm doing it and it'll be better next week.
Thursday 1 March 2007
getting more infinite by the day
Thankyou to everyone who came to the rehearsal last night and the creative living centre on Tuesday.
Yesterday those who braved the harsh weather met at the Sally and we rehearsed in the Interactive Arts studio again.
Instruments were limited to tin cans, a ukelele, bicycle wheel, the little frying pan gong, jaw harp, harmonicas, masking tape, voice and anything that could make a noise. We recorded some little improvised ditties onto the computer, though the microphone wasn't as good as the last one.
We then spread out over the rest of the studio; some in the meeting space, the rest of us at different points further away, with the dictaphone near the Ukelele and the computer and microphone near the tin cans. What I could hear while playing was very different from what I heard on the two recordings. I'm not going to put the recordings online this time because they are of such bad quality and maybe with a better piece of music it would sound better.
After flat refusals to go and experiment on the staircase we did some overdubbing of recordings from last week. Doing that started the rehearsal onto a vein akin to a night at Bedlam, music turning more into shamanic rituals and we were on our way to getting into trances. Brian's 'bass' voice did overpower the recording somewhat though. here it is for comedy value. should get some kazoos.
it does sound pretty silly, but it is the next step, moving music from one mood and direction to another.
This week was the first session at the Creative Living Centre, and it didn't go that well, but it was a learning experience, unfortunately nobody else could come with me, so already the main element of the project was missing, in the end we just banged along to a CD, which was dissappointing, but means I'm more prepared now and I have more of an idea about how to work. I felt a little patronising to the members, and I didn't explain what it was I'm aiming to do, curse being timid. If there is a next time, I'll put some of the recordings made from our rehearsals and bang along to them, and record what happens there, and then somehow overdub that with the members, Also hopefully I'll have other musicians to work with too.
Yesterday those who braved the harsh weather met at the Sally and we rehearsed in the Interactive Arts studio again.
Instruments were limited to tin cans, a ukelele, bicycle wheel, the little frying pan gong, jaw harp, harmonicas, masking tape, voice and anything that could make a noise. We recorded some little improvised ditties onto the computer, though the microphone wasn't as good as the last one.
We then spread out over the rest of the studio; some in the meeting space, the rest of us at different points further away, with the dictaphone near the Ukelele and the computer and microphone near the tin cans. What I could hear while playing was very different from what I heard on the two recordings. I'm not going to put the recordings online this time because they are of such bad quality and maybe with a better piece of music it would sound better.
After flat refusals to go and experiment on the staircase we did some overdubbing of recordings from last week. Doing that started the rehearsal onto a vein akin to a night at Bedlam, music turning more into shamanic rituals and we were on our way to getting into trances. Brian's 'bass' voice did overpower the recording somewhat though. here it is for comedy value. should get some kazoos.
it does sound pretty silly, but it is the next step, moving music from one mood and direction to another.
This week was the first session at the Creative Living Centre, and it didn't go that well, but it was a learning experience, unfortunately nobody else could come with me, so already the main element of the project was missing, in the end we just banged along to a CD, which was dissappointing, but means I'm more prepared now and I have more of an idea about how to work. I felt a little patronising to the members, and I didn't explain what it was I'm aiming to do, curse being timid. If there is a next time, I'll put some of the recordings made from our rehearsals and bang along to them, and record what happens there, and then somehow overdub that with the members, Also hopefully I'll have other musicians to work with too.
Monday 26 February 2007
Not feeling very infinite yet
I haven't put the recordings from Sunday onto the computer yet, they sound a wonderfuly terrible quality, recorded on an antique dictaphone on Fletcher Moss. I've made a new instrument which will see its first jam session at the Creative Living Centre tomorrow. I'm quite nervous about it, its times like this I wish I was actually musical, well I'm sure it'll be fun.
That's one of the songs recorded on Wednesday's rehearsal, and here's another
they were made up on the spot, and i think they're pretty good, well shame about the clarinet and the recording quality. but it bodes well for future rehearsals.
NEXT REHEARSAL MEET AT SALUTATION PUB ON CHATHAM ST AT 4.30, then on to interactive arts studio at 5 until 7
That's one of the songs recorded on Wednesday's rehearsal, and here's another
they were made up on the spot, and i think they're pretty good, well shame about the clarinet and the recording quality. but it bodes well for future rehearsals.
NEXT REHEARSAL MEET AT SALUTATION PUB ON CHATHAM ST AT 4.30, then on to interactive arts studio at 5 until 7
Friday 23 February 2007
thankyou musicians
Another succesful session, thankyou Jonathon, sarah (for some reason it won't let me do capital s), and Brian, for joining in. A pity Louis and Tim couldn't make it, maybe next time. Thankyou Josh for teaching me how to finaly put music on the internet
here it is
it is only an experiment and continuing an idea from a riff I made up and subsequent piece of music about Alison, who is amazing, and visiting her in Germany, which was a wonderful long weekend.
well if we can make it a regular spot infinite tin can band members how about meeting at the salutation pub every wednesday at about 4.30 and then moving on at 5 to wherever we choose to have a musical session? quite convenient because if its a nice day we can go to the motorway roundabout or around the bridges in hulme, or the Interactive arts studio, or the various staircases around, so
EVERY WEDNESDAY, 4.30 SALUTATION PUB ON HIGHER CHATHAM ST
next rehearsal will meet
SUNDAY 25TH FEBRUARY AT THE DIDSBURY PUB (IN DIDSBURY) AT 1:00 PM and then onto Fletcher Moss meadow if its a nice day, if it isn't nice, there's probably more insentive to stay at home or we could battle the families in the Didsbury for a drink.
and bring someone else along each time.
thankyou tin canners
here it is
it is only an experiment and continuing an idea from a riff I made up and subsequent piece of music about Alison, who is amazing, and visiting her in Germany, which was a wonderful long weekend.
well if we can make it a regular spot infinite tin can band members how about meeting at the salutation pub every wednesday at about 4.30 and then moving on at 5 to wherever we choose to have a musical session? quite convenient because if its a nice day we can go to the motorway roundabout or around the bridges in hulme, or the Interactive arts studio, or the various staircases around, so
EVERY WEDNESDAY, 4.30 SALUTATION PUB ON HIGHER CHATHAM ST
next rehearsal will meet
SUNDAY 25TH FEBRUARY AT THE DIDSBURY PUB (IN DIDSBURY) AT 1:00 PM and then onto Fletcher Moss meadow if its a nice day, if it isn't nice, there's probably more insentive to stay at home or we could battle the families in the Didsbury for a drink.
and bring someone else along each time.
thankyou tin canners
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