SF Free Folk Festival, Day 2
Jun. 17th, 2007 09:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gurdymonkeyI started my day with Chris Caswell's "Deep Listening." THIS was more like it: exercises designed to teach the participants to hear the harmonic relationships and overtones when singing single notes and building chords over them - along with some basic music theory to go along with it. There is something very, VERY physically satisfying about hitting a gorgeously harmonic chord with other voices. When you all just nail it, it's just - indescribable. Very well taught and well worth an hour of my day.
I ran into the lady who had sung the Ladino piece yesterday. She took one of my cards and said she'd email me the music. I was also approached by a young lady who had heard me sing and asked what living history group I was involved in - turns out she played SCA in the Midrealm and just relocated to the Bay Area. I gave her a card and told her I'd be happy to shoot her the necessary local contact info for Cloondara if she emails me.
Second period was my chance to explore a corner of the hurdy gurdy repertoire I have not previously examined - French dance and folk tunes. At this jam session, mine was the smallest, softest, most primitive gurdy in the room - which meant I had to trade off to pennywhistle for some pieces my instrument just didn't have the range for. Didn't know a single tune, so I was completely dependent on my ear and ability to pick things up as fast as possible. Despite feeling like I was madly dog paddling at the deep end of the pool, I got invited to hang out with some of the core players and jam in the lunch area after we had to vacate the classroom, so I didn't go to a class third period. Cards have been exchanged as Mitch says they occasionally get together to play in Berkeley.
I was going to take Alan's English Country Dance class, but I walked in, he said something and I walked back out again. His headset mike was set so loud it was bouncing off the cement walls of the gym in a positively painful way. So I went back outside, found a sunny spot on the sidewalk and began to play. A few people came by, as always, to listen and ask questions. At one point I looked up and my listener said, "Please to, what is?" in a heavy Russian accent. It turned out he had about five words of English. Feeling like Kevin Costner crawling around on the floor pretending to be a buffalo while the Indians mutter, "What the f***?" among themselves, I made a violin bowing sort of gesture - he nods and cries something in Russian. I point to the flywheel inside the gurdy, give it a turn, then make the bowing gesture again. Fortunately at that point, another man walks up, who turns out to speak some Russian. We get a three sided conversation going for several minutes about hurdy gurdies and music and coming to Amerika and so forth.
Ellen and I headed to the stage to check out the Faux Hawaiians - a trio specializing in Hawaiian pop music from the 20's and 30's, and Craig Ventresco and Meredith Axelrod performing ragtime guitar duets.
Fifth period was Pam Swan's hour on mouth music. It was fun, but did we really need to spend most of the period on TWO "name game" songs with thirty people in the game? I can teach a half a dozen multi-verse songs in Latin in that time. Dammit, when the class description says "Explore Appalachian chin music, Scottish puirt-a-beul, Brazilian coco, Georgia Sea Islands playsongs, African dance songs, Irish diddles and more in this world tour with a musical passport" I expect more than what we got.
I was fighting a headache, so Ellen and I came back to the East Bay and had gourmet burgers at Barney's in Berkeley. Bleu cheese, bacon and an excellent burger on a chewy crusted baguette was just what I was in the mood for.
I ran into the lady who had sung the Ladino piece yesterday. She took one of my cards and said she'd email me the music. I was also approached by a young lady who had heard me sing and asked what living history group I was involved in - turns out she played SCA in the Midrealm and just relocated to the Bay Area. I gave her a card and told her I'd be happy to shoot her the necessary local contact info for Cloondara if she emails me.
Second period was my chance to explore a corner of the hurdy gurdy repertoire I have not previously examined - French dance and folk tunes. At this jam session, mine was the smallest, softest, most primitive gurdy in the room - which meant I had to trade off to pennywhistle for some pieces my instrument just didn't have the range for. Didn't know a single tune, so I was completely dependent on my ear and ability to pick things up as fast as possible. Despite feeling like I was madly dog paddling at the deep end of the pool, I got invited to hang out with some of the core players and jam in the lunch area after we had to vacate the classroom, so I didn't go to a class third period. Cards have been exchanged as Mitch says they occasionally get together to play in Berkeley.
I was going to take Alan's English Country Dance class, but I walked in, he said something and I walked back out again. His headset mike was set so loud it was bouncing off the cement walls of the gym in a positively painful way. So I went back outside, found a sunny spot on the sidewalk and began to play. A few people came by, as always, to listen and ask questions. At one point I looked up and my listener said, "Please to, what is?" in a heavy Russian accent. It turned out he had about five words of English. Feeling like Kevin Costner crawling around on the floor pretending to be a buffalo while the Indians mutter, "What the f***?" among themselves, I made a violin bowing sort of gesture - he nods and cries something in Russian. I point to the flywheel inside the gurdy, give it a turn, then make the bowing gesture again. Fortunately at that point, another man walks up, who turns out to speak some Russian. We get a three sided conversation going for several minutes about hurdy gurdies and music and coming to Amerika and so forth.
Ellen and I headed to the stage to check out the Faux Hawaiians - a trio specializing in Hawaiian pop music from the 20's and 30's, and Craig Ventresco and Meredith Axelrod performing ragtime guitar duets.
Fifth period was Pam Swan's hour on mouth music. It was fun, but did we really need to spend most of the period on TWO "name game" songs with thirty people in the game? I can teach a half a dozen multi-verse songs in Latin in that time. Dammit, when the class description says "Explore Appalachian chin music, Scottish puirt-a-beul, Brazilian coco, Georgia Sea Islands playsongs, African dance songs, Irish diddles and more in this world tour with a musical passport" I expect more than what we got.
I was fighting a headache, so Ellen and I came back to the East Bay and had gourmet burgers at Barney's in Berkeley. Bleu cheese, bacon and an excellent burger on a chewy crusted baguette was just what I was in the mood for.
