Vocal Ranges

Warren and I have been puzzling over the actual vocal ranges of people. Mostly, I suppose, due to my problem of pitching songs at Princess campouts so that both Dads and their Daughters can sing along. As always, the web tells all, of course. I found the standard choir vocal ranges, according to Rice University.

They did the staff notation, I drew it on a keyboard 'cuz I'm a visual kinda guy.

According to this then, C to C is the only shared range -- although, as theorized, that's with the guys (low-C to Middle-C) an octave below the girls (Middle-C to high-C). I guess there's only three notes (well, 5, if you count black keys) that are shared by everybody in absolute pitch, but that would make a pretty boring song.

I get the feeling that the shared part of the guys' two ranges is approximately the "inexperienced" guys' range, and similarly for the girls. Basically you cut off the low part of the basses, and the high part of the tenors, and you have a guy who's essentially neither. But, by experience, getting above Middle-C is tough for non-singers, so I'd say the low-C to Middle-C is pretty safe for, say, Indian Princess dads.

It's strange to me, though, that they expect basses and sopranos to span two octaves, but they go so much easier on the tenors and altos.

Anyway, the lowest note I (try to) sing at the coffee shop is in "Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground": a low-low-E, same as the lowest string on the guitar. I used to could sing it, back when I was a stock E-to-E bass, but only early in the morning, and before I got too warmed up. Since I've been singing so much, again, ('course, not as much as two hours a day, back in school), my range has been moving up (or, at least, the bottom end has), so I can't really hit it anymore. Fortunately, the guitar's bass note is kind of fortifying me when I aim at it, so I think it gets implied, if not enumerated.

Difficulty/Complexity and Music

Sometimes it strikes me that I have some great songs that are a lot of work (and/or are so hard that playing them is risky), and then when I drag 'em out, they don't even go over all that well. And then there are songs that you could teach a monkey to play ("Teach Your Children", "Peaceful Easy Feeling") that people keep asking for. Obviously, this is really just a truism, a song is good or bad *not* depending on how hard it is, but it makes me wonder if it's worth it when I undertake a new song that's hard (e.g., "Martha My Dear", which just laid there), when I could just find some more campfire-hack-favorites. I'm just saying...

Living Tradition Jam - 22Jan05

Geneva and I checked into the Living Tradition Folk Jam in Anaheim on Saturday night. I hadn't really thought she'd be interested, so I wasn't planning on going, but at 5:00, we were just sitting around, and I glanced at the clock and remembered that the Jam was that night, and asked Geneva if she wanted to go. She was all for it! So we packed up quickly and jumped in the car.

Anyway, it was pretty big fun -- especially, and amazingly, for Geneva. She snuggled up to the whistle-lady to her right (and her music stand), and sight-read as best she could. She did OK on the slower ones, but she didn't seem at all frustrated by the fast ones that she couldn't catch up on. Patty had a feedback form to fill out at the end, and Geneva just wrote "More slow songs!" in the comments section. Other than that, she had a great time.

I just strummed along on guitar. At first I thought I could keep up by watching another dude's hands, but a lot of the songs change chords too fast. The guitar guy on my left figured that out and moved his music stand over closer, and I did all right from then on. I figured that guitar players were a dime a dozen so they wouldn't really need me, but when Patty asked my guitar-neighbor what song he wanted to do, he chose "Golden Slippers" 'cuz he's learning to flat-pick the melody. All the other guitar players took the opportunity ("Easy song!") to get out their respective melody instruments (mandolin, etc.) so I found myself the only one playing rhythm!

Patty (who ran the jam) was kind of going around the circle, asking folks what they wanted to play, and after a while decided to notice Geneva, asked her her name, and if she had a song she wanted to do. When Geneva asked for "Ashokan Farewell", they were all totally thrilled (and impressed) (and, probably, relieved that it wasn't, say, "Hot Cross Buns").

Unfortunately, our glory was short-lived, as Patty's gaze turned to me next, and by way of explanation, I told her that I play with Warren (who's been going to these for a while) at coffee shops. She asked what kind of music, and I said mostly 70's pop -- "not this kind of stuff". "Like what?" "Well, 'Fire and Rain', and such." "Play it!" "Now?" "Sure!" "Well, it's a 'singing' song." "So, sing it!" "Well, OK." "What key is it in?" "Um, F?" "Go ahead!"

So, without my songbook open (you'd think that, by now...) I sang the first verse, forgot the words to the first chorus, sang the third verse, second chorus, and quit. Flipped open the book and found the second verse, which they implored me to go ahead and do, as some of the better fiddlers were starting to get the hang of something.

Anyway, it just kind of landed with a thud. Even if I hadn't completely blown it, I don't think it was very well advised. Generally regrettable. If she'd'a asked "Do you know any folk songs?", I could have pulled out "Tennessee Waltz", or something. But she asked "what we did" and drove me down the wrong street. Made a bit of a fool of myself, I'm afraid, though they're quite forgiving, or at least well-practiced at ignoring embarrassing events. Hopefully, at the next one, we can pull something a little better planned out, and redeem myself.

But, I only really only drove out there for Geneva's sake, and she loved it, and really pulled it off far better than I did. And, of course, they loved having her. I think she's definitely in for another go next month, and if she wants to go, I'm inclined to take her. Unfortunately, it's another RSM gig, so we'll have to bug out early again. (This one broke up at 6:50-ish.) And the month after is a Mission Viejo gig. At least that one has an 8:00 start time.

Acacia's School Bus Pinecar

Three years ago, when we went to build the annual pinecars, Acacia asked for a school bus. It turned out to look kinda cool, even though it's so simple. A bit of Monster Truck feel to it, because of the big black tires on the "outside" of the bus body.

I had half tried to talk her out of it, since it was too simple to be a Design Award winner, but that was the year that Acacia was in 1st grade, and she was pretty intimidated by the (real) school bus. It was loud, and there were Big Boys in it, and only the presence of her big sister got her into it every morning. I think maybe it was a subconscious plan to "conquer" the thing -- her own personal Moby Dick. Bringing it down to scale, and "owning" it probably helped her deal with it in Real Life.

"Paper Moon"

I've lately added "Paper Moon" to my song list. I was inspired, not surprisingly, by a James Taylor version from the movie "A League of Their Own", in his sweet and affable fashion. It's got that great old Tin Pan chord progression, which defied/challenged me to figure it out. I've been working on it for a while, actually -- my first downloaded version languishing on my hard drive was from September 2001. I've been poking at it lately again, trying to get it by ear, but could only catch parts. But, while searching for some Christmas tune, I encountered a batch of jazz-chord songs' sheets, and there it was again. Combining hints from there, and my own sensibilities (created by my limitations), I worked up a pretty passable chord-set.

I've also been poking at, less successfully, "As Time Goes By", which I can do the verse of, but the bridge needs work. The jazz-chord site's version works (for me) for a while, and then falls apart. Strange how these Internet songsheets (and, almost as much, paid-for commercial songsseets) just never seem to work as is. I *always* have to tweak them -- usually for the singable key, but almost always also to get 'em to sound right.

Maybe it's just me.

"Martha, My Dear"

My brother suggested "Martha, My Dear", which sounded kinda easy in my head (ragtime-y, should work with Travis picking -- or so I thought). Turns out to be really strange -- the first part is in Eb, and the middle section is in F (on the record). And the verse is played, twice, on just piano (as intro and as an instrumental verse).

So, first I had to find a (pair of) key(s) that were playable (and, hopefully, singable as well), and then I had to work up a passable instrumental verse, which, remarkably, is coming along pretty well. Noting Juber needs to be worried about, but pretty OK. I can't usually play it well on the first time through, but I'm working on it. I ended up transposing it up (!) a whole step, and capoing two. I'm singing down an octave from there, of course, so it's really down a 5th or so. A fun challenge.

"Blatz Reunion" performance evaluation

I couldn't really tell how anything went, with the lights so bright in my eyes and all. I really thought I was singing unusually badly, because of the cold, and extra nervousness. The bass player was also throwing me off on the songs he played on, since he blew it pretty badly, especially on "South of the Border", which sounds easy, but the changes aren't as obvious as you'd think (and he thought).

Anyway, it was darn fun. I don't know how we missed doing "Let it Be", and I was hoping to get to "Hey, Mister", re-worked up just for the nostalgia value, especially for my Aunt Sharon. But I reckon she went away pretty happy with what we did manage to get done.

My old roommate Kendall is (still) a mechanical monster on the guitar. His fingering is so precise, and he insists on getting every note exactly right. It's funny (and amazing) to me that he still dissects every James Taylor album, decrypting every new trick that James picks up. But having Kendall as a roommate definitely brought me up from being a three-chord-strummer to being able to play with some class. And every James song I do came directly from Kendall, or from the James-sensing-capability I developed from Kendall's tutoring. I'd sure like to sit with him for 6 or 8 hours sometime and learn some more tricks...

Christmas Tunes

A lot of the Xmas songs are trivial, especially the kids' ones: Frosty, Rudolph, Housetop. But the old-time jazz standard types are a lot more interesting than most current (and by that, I mean "20 year old") pop tunes. Working those out is what got me to the level that I can do things like "You Don't Know Me", "Someone to Watch..." etc. (whether or not that's a good thing).

I'd be tempted to do only the jazz classics at Moxie Java: "Have Yourself...", "I'll be Home...", and maybe (if I can pull it off), that Eagles "Please Come Home for Christmas" blues tune. Seems like I learned two Elvis tunes: " Santa Claus is Back in Town" and "I'll Have a Blue Christmas" last year, as a joke, but they both worked pretty good. I'd expected to be embarrassed to do them, but they sound good, so I wasn't.

I guess I'd want to have the lamer songs handy, just for the kids, if any, by request -- that always bumps up the tipping.

I've had a spurt of new song learning this week (already) -- "Homeward Bound", "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" (in D, I think), "Mister Postman" (haven't settled on a key yet -- maybe C (i.e., C, Am, F, G, all the way through)), and "All I Have To Do Is Dream" (in C (hey, it's C, Am, F, G, too!)).

The latter three are all trivial, but I thought they might be fun, in the vein of "Standing There". But "Homeward" is deceptively tough. Maybe I'm trying to play two guitars (and the bass) at the same time, but the chorus is hard (and fast). The verses are easy, at least half of the way through. But that intro/outro riff has to be right on the first try, which will take some practice, and luck. The original is too high, of course -- it's in G, capoed three, but if I just leave the capo off, I think I'll be OK.

Borders -- It's Working Out!

Last night I went by Borders RSM to drop off some posters, which I augmented by taping a copy of the "Round the Rancho" newspaper article to the bottom, with the "You could find a treat at Borders tonight" modified by "X-ing" out the "to" in "tonight" and writing "Saturday" above it, in red Sharpie. I don't know if anyone will read the whole article, but it might help to have the endorsement of an authority, an Actual Newspaper.

Cidne wasn't there, but I handed them over to Tom (the "event manager"), who very gladly put them both up immediately -- one taped to the window by the front door, and the other installed in a pre-made poster-frame that's up on a pillar in the middle of the store, pre-empting a "Something Percent Off Sale" poster (!). He said something like, "It's nice to finally get some *good* music in here", which was pretty nice of him. He also wanted me to bring posters in for the next one (Nov 26) when we come in on Saturday, and he'll put them up, too.

He showed me the November Borders Official Newsletter, which has, as he put it, "a pretty nice write up". I had to admit that it's "pretty nice" because we wrote it ourselves, but it prominently occupies the whole middle column of the three column page -- they used our "release" in its entirety. I suppose it helped that, because of the holiday, there are few events, so they needed to fill some space...

Thoughts About Playing at Borders

I was feeling intimidated by Russian-born, Hollywood-store playing, multiple Real (looking) Album recording, gorgeous, "Marina V", and noticed that she was playing at, of all places, RSM on Friday, so I stopped by. She sings pretty well, plays a big electronic piano and has a guy playing guitar along but mostly inaudibly. Writes her own songs -- I listened to 4 or 5, and they all sound pretty alike. I wonder if it's because they *are* alike, or if it's because the "sound" (her voice and the piano) is the same, or if it's because they're all songs I've never heard so they just run together. Mostly, they're all very earnest, very serious, very somber. She introduces each song with a little story about it ('cuz she wrote 'em), and they all have some very serious Meaning to her ("I wrote this song while thinking about my little brother, back in Russia, who I miss very much..."). I was hard pressed not to shout "Lighten up!" at her. The place was very sparsely populated -- probably only 4 or 5 people in the coffeeshop itself (and one guy was clearly working on some kind of chemistry term paper on his laptop). I think she essentially sombers people right out of the room.

She did commandeer a table at the "back" of the coffeeshop (by the magazines) (which she could afford to do, since there was almost nobody using them), and had a little display of CDs, a tip jar, some small posters, and a little sign: "Marina V CDs, only $10". I guess this allowed people to just serve themselves. It looked a little better than a table dedicated to holding just a tip jar (as our analog would be). I'd be very surprised if she'd sold any, though. Or made any tips, for that matter.

I think it points up the strong symbiosis between venue/audience-type and band/music-type. K&W and RSM "match". Marina V and RSM don't. Perhaps she's a big hit at, say, the Hollywood store. We may be completely humiliated in Hollywood tomorrow night. But, hey, it'll be a story to tell, whichever way it goes.

Name That Tune

This is pretty cool...

http://www.name-this-tune.com/

a.k.a. "Musipedia" (.org)

It's a music encyclopedia, built on-the-fly by its users, on the Wikipedia model. Uses a clever tune searching method called "Parsons code", where a tune is described only by its changes, up, down, or repeated. Seems to work -- I found "Over the Rainbow" with it. The tune was detail-described by another notation method called "Lilypond", which had the tune, but sans rhythm, so in the spirit of public interest, I figured Lilypond out and went ahead and put some rhythm cues in.

Good fun, and potentially useful someday -- check it out.

P.S. Here's the Parsons Code for "Rainbow", just to get you jump started:

*UDDUUUDUD

K&W - South Coast Plaza - 08Aug04

Inexplicably, the South Coast Plaza Borders has their music on Sunday afternoon. We were greeted by a room full of intensely studying Asian college kids, some of whom had earplugs in even before we got there. Since virtually all of them were (a) too young, and (b) from another culture, the response was, shall we say, underwhelming. On top of that, the Muzak wouldn't stay off -- we had to keep asking them to kill it, and it would reappear 10 minutes later. It was a pretty big waste of time, but I always say, "A bad day playin' is still better'n a good day watchin' TV". (And certainly better'n waxin' the car!)

A year or two ago, I'd'a been deeply annoyed, probably, but these days I'm pretty confident that we're Good, and the lack of response just felt like their *inability* to respond, not our lack of talent. So, it wasn't really painful, just surreal. What's hard to imagine is who decided that Sunday afternoons was The Time to do that -- both being Insanely Wrong, and bucking the rest-of-stores trend of doing music on Friday and Saturday evenings. I imagine that, even at that store, the vibe is completely different on weekend evenings than on Sunday afternoons.

Clearly, although it was amusing once, I'd rather not repeat the experience, but that store isn't even on the September listing, so there's no danger there. And none of the other gigs are afternoons, either, so hopefully we won't encounter that kind of environment again. And, clearly, we've learned another lesson -- stand staring at the Manager until the Muzak demonstrably goes off. They need to know that if the Muzak don't go off, the Band don't play.

In retrospect, and without the pressure of actually standing there, I think I might have been a bit more aggressive, too. That's easy to say now... At the time, it seemed prudent to be a even swap for the Muzak. Along the lines of a string quartet at a garden party -- just music wafting by. I figured the kids couldn't have more issue with us than they'd already have had with the speakers. At least three of them were wearing earplugs even before we got there. Still, even if I had been *able* to dislodge the kids from their books, I'm not sure that that would be doing any of them a favor. Even kids that would have rather been listening to music were probably aware that what they *ought* to be doing is knuckling down. So I felt better just fading back, and letting them be OK with ignoring me.

Anyway, however a gig goes, it makes for at least one good story. This one yielded two -- the "Day of the Dead" gig itself, and the skimpily-clad college cutie who sat right in front of me and leeeeaaaaned over, multiple times, to get into her book bag -- all while I was trying to play "You've Got a Friend" -- probably the most concentration-challenging song I play. That there was a Test sent by the Devil hisself!

JT Night?

I took Geneva over to Del Lago on Sunday morning to check out the "Neil Diamond Tribute" karaoke. It's not "come up and sing" karaoke -- it's a guy with all the Neil Diamond karaoke CDs and a system, and (only) he sings. He's actually pretty good, and the old ladies were groovin' to it. He doesn't really "imitate" Neil, but he sings a lot like him, and wears a fancy shirt and gold chain. He's probably 55 or so himself, pretty close to Neil's current age, I'd guess.

Counting us, there were probably a dozen people there at the peak (all *not* his wife and friends). The interesting part is that he got people out there (and his "steak house in Dana Point" gig, and a private party in the condo complex across the street later that day) on the strength of his "come hear Neil Diamond songs" promo. If the poster had said "guy singing along with karaoke box", nobody would have been there. But these folks showed up 'cuz they knew what to expect.

Makes me wonder about, at least, the Marketing/wording on our "poster", and, at most, possibly doing something similar but with a James Taylor spin.

To start with, I can replace "Family-friendly classic pop" on the poster with something more specific, like a list of Featured Artists. Sorting the List by artist yields clumps of James Taylor, Beatles, Paul Simon, and Willie Nelson. I'm willing to leave Willie off the list, since although I think people like his songs (or these few, anyway), most folks around here probably don't think of themselves as Willie Nelson Fans. Maybe something like " James Taylor, Beatles, Paul Simon, and many more". Maybe stick Chris Isaak in there, for the young(er) ones.

Or, more extreme, we could do some kind of "James Taylor Night". On the Long List, there are 15 JT songs, some of which we don't *really* do, but which I can kinda do, and might could be worked up better (Mexico, Sarah Maria, Daddy's Baby). And I can probably work up a batch of the easy but not compelling (to me) ones. We could advertise a "Tribute", do all the JT songs in one "set", and see if the folks roped-in thereby (if any) would hang out a little longer for some non-James-but-along-the-same-lines tunes. That JT hook sure seems to work on coffee shop owners, as an intro line...

Autoharp Progress Report

I finished the chordbars, but haven't built any buttons yet. I've tried two temporary solutions, and actually my first-try little yellow buttons were better than the current bigger green ones. It also sucks that I labeled the sticks on the stick, not the button (with little peel-and-stick labels). If the buttons are the labels, it's obvious which label applies to which button (duh), but you have to lift your fingers to see the labels. This way you can see the labels all the time, but it's hard to correlate which is which. Dilemma. I think the original machine's solution is that the labels are on the (slanted) front surface of the (quite tall) buttons. I think I like that approach, but it won't work with the "T-shaped" buttons I'm thinking of -- unless I'm significantly cleverer with the table saw than I think I am...

I was thinking that the buttons are typically way taller than they need to be, as evidenced by the mighty-thin yellow ones I made. But now I'm starting to think, conversely, that really tall buttons my relieve some of the wrist-tweak problems. You can rest the heel of your hand on the "deck" of the bank of chord bars, and if the buttons are, say, 3/4" tall, your wrist won't be so bent to push 'em. I'll have to experiment with that before I start cutting wood.

Autoharp Remodel

Well, over the long weekend, I had time to build the new chord bars for my autoharp. It took longer than I thought it would, 'cuz although they're "just sticks", they need to be (reasonably) *accurate* sticks. Also, since I lowered the "action" (a lot), it mattered that the bass end strings ride higher than the treble end (because they're wound and really thick) -- so I had to taper the sticks to compensate.

Anyway, I ended up using "fun foam", which is a 1/16" thick, really cheap, "Arts-n-Crafts" material -- basically a modern equivalent of Construction Paper for kids to make flowers and butterflies with. It's about the right softness, though I'd have liked it to be a bit thicker. It seems to be working at least as well as the original felt.

Of course, I suddenly couldn't play with the theory anymore, I had to "cut bait", so I decided on a final (for now) layout. I moved the "long row" (8 buttons) to the "bottom" (as seen by the incoming left hand, when the 'harp is held upright), and the "short row" (7 buttons) to the top. This is opposite to default, but it put the 2m and 6m under the thumb when the 4, 1, 5 are under the three strong fingers. The 6m is a bit tucked under the index finger (on the 4 chord), but it's easily workable, having (now) tried it. The picture makes it pretty clear (but discount the apparent location of the pinky -- that's accidental, the pinky isn't used except for long leaps to "accidental" chords).

Building the chords themselves wasn't hard -- I had just glued a slab of Fun Foam to a chunk of wood, and sawed the whole thing up into sticks, with the Foam already on 'em. I just had to trim little "V"s out of the Foam where I wanted a string to sound. The chords worked out OK, except the G#m is pretty weak. The two top octaves are "complete", but the bass octave is missing the D#, G# and A#. This leaves the G# chord without not only a Bass 1, but also a bass 5. I cut it anyway, and figured it'd be OK since it's not used much. But I'm thinking that if, in fact, it's not used much, I might decide to replace it with, say, D#dim or something. Or, maybe, C/b -- though those are pretty far-fetched, too. I do have three spare un-notched sticks, so I can experiment.

But my two bigger concerns at this point are (1) I don't have any push buttons -- the ShopSmith burned through a belt just as I finished the sticks, so I couldn't build the button stock. As an interim solution, I used little rectangles of peel-and-stick (bright yellow) Fun Foam (!), which, since my action is so low, work pretty well, despite being only 1/16" "tall". I also just wrote the chord names on 'em with fine-point Sharpie, so that was handy.

The second problem is inherent in Autoharp design -- it seems to be perfectly designed as a carpal-tunnel-syndrome generator. The left hand reaches around the thing, cranks 90 degrees at the wrist, and tries to push the buttons, hard. Worst possible thing you can do to your hand/wrist. And it hurts, too, even before you get any permanent damage. Not sure what to do about that -- possibly better positioning across the chest, maybe hold the left elbow out from the body? With a small pillow? (At the risk of making people think you have some soft of bagpipe-autoharp hybrid...)

Final layout

More Thoughts On Autoharp layouts

Despite my sister's adherence to "old" autoharps, presumably with 15 bars (as opposed to the really old 12s), the Real autoharpers all seem to use the 21s, though seemingly always modified for better chords and chord layout. Unfortunately, there seems to be as many "correct" layouts as there are guys to opine on the topic. Part of the attachment to 21-bar harps is, obviously, more chords, but also the bars are narrower, so the buttons are closer together, and there are three rows of buttons, rather than the 15-bar harp's two.

So, I'm tempted to try a three row layout on my 15-bar Chromaharp (which showed up on Friday) -- though the rationale seems to be Majors in one row, Minors in another, and the 7th in the third. Since I won't have any 7ths, that doesn't necessarily make sense for me.

What worries me now is the matter of playability when it's laid on a table versus held up against the chest. Upright leaves the right (strum) hand in the same place, but reverses the incoming direction of the left. Apparently the idea is to be able to use the fingers and thumb (oops -- didn't think of that!) to chord, with "touch type-ability". I think this means that I'll have the Majors on the top row, so the 1, 4, and 5 are under middle, index and ring finger, and the Minors in the bottom row where my shorter thumb can reach 'em -- and shifted right so the 2m and 6m are *under* the thumb, not necessarily "near" the 1. Or maybe that won't work out 'cuz it throws a lot of the minor chords off the end of the rack...

On further thought, I don't think three rows makes any sense for my scheme, since I won't have any 7ths. The real hang-up now is this left-hand coming in from the top, or bottom, problem. I talked to my sister this morning and she said that she Never plays it laying flat (lap or table). She distains the crossed-over wrists thing you get when it's flat (though that's the way it's pictured in the booklet that came with my ChromAharP). This might explain why the playing position is never mentioned in the FAQ -- it's Presumed Upright by all the Regulars. But it obviously makes a big difference if you're gonna lock your three main fingers on 1, 4, and 5 -- where your thumb ends up (to the left or right of that), is gonna determine where you want to put 2m and 6m. I suppose I'll build it "right" (i.e., meant to be held upright), and my daughters will figure out that it works better that way soon enough. It is, mainly, for them -- but I want it to "bring 'em up right" chord-relationship-wise, so I want to put in the logical chord bars before I let 'em play it much. I can picture them playing along with me on some of my guitar songs, once the requisite chords are available.

Thoughts On Autoharp chords

Well, I tried a lot of chord layouts, but logic brought me inexorably to the good ol' Circle O' Fifths. But does the Way Music Works drag you to the Circle, or does the Circle make music work?

There are little pockets of logic in the Oscar Schmidt autoharp layout, but they evaporate pretty quickly. I can only presume that Oscar thought that nobody cared what key they were actually in (i.e., no one ever played with anyone else on a different instrument), and so being able to shift over and play in, say, Ab, seemed like a great idea. This is even more prevalent on the 21 chord model. And clearly, 7th chords were a lot more fashionable in the Olden Days than they are with me, now.

But, if you're gonna play with other people (or, maybe more importantly (to me), use other people's sheet music), you only need to aim at reasonable guitar keys and chords. My layout is gonna let me play in C, G, D, A, and E, with all the normally required chords available. I can't play in any flat or sharp keys, nor in F or B, but I'm pretty sure I can live with that <grin>. Even if my kids need to transpose a song to put it in their singing range, E is close enough to F, and C to B.

That said, it's true that since I'm not gonna use B as a I or IV, it can be a 7th chord. I can at least give it a high-octave 7, and maybe the middle one, too. Seems like the chords towards the left and right edges of the layout are "not gonna be I" chords, and can be 7ths -- like the Dm, too, perhaps. Still, I'm always a lot happier to leave a 7th out than to have one in that doesn't belong. Maybe they all can receive the high-octave-7th-only treatment, just in case. At the least, maybe I should re-scan a stack of songs to see which appears more often, B or B7, Dm or Dm7, C#m or C#m7, etc.

Bought an Autoharp

Whoops. Up and bought an autoharp on eBay. It's actually a "ChromAharP" (pretty wacky capitalization!)

While I wait for it to arrive, I got to mess with my mother-in-law's (real) Autoharp. It's a new one, with the plastic box covering the 21 chord bars. I tuned it (it was a half-step off near the top -- obviously not getting much use) and messed with it a little. No Bm! No F#m! 21 chords and I can't play any songs that are in D (which is *lots* of 'em)! E7, but no E! No C#s! Who dreamed this thing up?

I was starting to think that since they've built a few million of 'em, they must work for somebody, so maybe I could live with the native set up. But even on the 21 chord model, there's no black-key chords except for Bb7 and Ab. Huh?

So, clearly, I'll have to rebuild the chord bars. Not sure how I'll re-label 'em, but that's the least of my worries. First, to find suitable "felt". I wonder if some alternate material would work on the chord bars: some dense foam like flip-flops, or artificial chamois, or something. I also don't know if I'll rebuild the existing bars, or just replace them with duplicates -- might seem safer, and let me do some experimentation without doing any permanent damage. For one thing, I did layouts with three and even four "rows" of buttons (like the way the 21-chord boxes have three rows of 7). And to make matters worse, I read some guy talking about re-tuning some strings, as well! Turns out the low-end is non-complete, and he wanted a low G# to fatten up the E chord he was adding. More options to worry about! (Personally, I'm not terribly attracted to adding a low third to a chord...)

Chordie.com

What an Amazing Thing this is! These guys find tab/chord sheets in text format on any/all Internet sites, analyze it, and format it *on the fly* into that clever x-by-2 line table format to keep the chords where they belong! Who even thought it would be possible!?! An amazing parsing job, considering how many nearly-randomly-formatted chord files are out there.

And just for fun, since they've auto-detected the chords versus the words, they put little chord diagrams on the right. And on top of that, they do on-the-fly chord transposition, too. I am totally impressed.

They even "extra format" any found-in-the-text, 6-number, chord "diagrams", with the little string numbers over the fret numbers. Careful, though, it's still all the "OLGA-quality" (oxymoron alert!) files that are being presented. Just 'cuz the format's nice doesn't mean that the chords/words are right. Cool, anyway.

http://www.chordie.com/index.php

Tully's Dead

The manager at Tully's (where we've been playing nearly every Saturday night, for two years, for free) called and asked us not to come back, citing "customer complaints" about not being able to study while we're there.

Sounds like a pretty lame excuse to me, though. We weren't bogarting any "study" tables. "... not enough table space"?!? Isn't that an architectural/furnishing problem, and doesn't it imply that the place is full, and isn't that a good thing? I suppose we were deleting the use of two chairs, but they weren't "study chairs", since they didn't have any writing area anyway.

I guess I could buy the argument that we were too noisy to do group study around. But how many study groups come down there on Saturday nights, anyway? And do students that showed up and were chased away by the awful racket then return in the daytime, ask for the manager, and complain? Hard to imagine...

But, whatever -- whether it's a bogus excuse or a real one, we're out of a job. I wonder if, after a week or three, he were to get several complaints from people who had shown up hoping to hear some music, and were disappointed, whether he might reconsider. Of course, that would require the Music Fans to have the same determination as the study-fiend Philistines -- they'd have to show up on Sunday morning expressing their disappointment to Dave in person, since it's unlikely that any "Hey, where's the band?" complaints would be accurately and diligently relayed by the Saturday night staff.

But, frankly, as much as Tully's is (was) the highlight of my whole week, this just makes me angry.

I guess we'll get an occasional gig at Del Lago, and we could (and should) get back in touch with Jill at Moxie and see if she wants us to do a Friday (paid, and attended) night over there once in a while. And we can send another CD in to Diedrich, possibly with material recorded on Saturday -- though they seem a long shot to me now. (I did listen to a tiny bit of Saturday's file, and it sounded really "boomy" -- possibly not usable at all).

Or maybe I'll just have some Saturdays at home with the family for a while.