band website has been purchased, and el is working on content - with suggestions from all of us, I will probably be writing the blog for it, mainly because I do enjoy writing about the band and the music. We have a twitter feed for the group, and its an exciting time because a website is a definite step further than tgme, and to be honest, I am glad that tgme had a limited profile, not that I wasnt proud of some of the work, but we were unfocussed and in denial of the issues that should have been resolved, which ultimately destroyed it. TGME was a sullen democracy, SL is a cheery dictatorship in so much as El and I drive things, but even that is changing as the others all have valid ideas and bring into play textures that make the music better.
Textures, which El uses, is a good way to define what SL is about, in terms of the writing and concept, not so much notes as sounds and emotions - we're not huge theorists, but there is enough general knowledge of it to provide a framework so that it sounds good to the ear. I use chord progressions, scales and such for my bass playing, even if I stay on a single chord, or even a single note I consider the possibilites of where it can go.
I will continue to post here, need to go practice and wait for the skip to arrive so i can get the garden sorted.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Hip Hop
Like the Erykah Badu song, its probably the love of my life. From NWA and Public Enemy, to The Roots, MF Doom and Saul Williams, I have always been drawn to the rhythm and the noise, let alone how it can be elevated to the rarefied heights it has in recent years.
I love the repetition of it, the structure and how it can be both organised and yet seeming to be random scraps of other instruments, vocal sounds and other ephmera. I love how it incorporates so many other genres, and makes them its own. I love how it allows for chrome stadium grandstanding and avant-beat poetry, and I love how it makes your heart race and your mind delight.
I have my favourites, and there is as much safe and uninvolving hip hop as there is in any music form, but it is a form of music as valid as jazz or classical. Its DIY origins came from necessity, from hunger and that informs greatness, without argument.
I love how it works with live instruments, both as a listener and as a musician, it seems to have something although I doubt I will ever approach the depth and genius of Jay Dilla or Danger Mouse, but I reach for the best Surge Lounge I can, the one that lives in my head.
I love the repetition of it, the structure and how it can be both organised and yet seeming to be random scraps of other instruments, vocal sounds and other ephmera. I love how it incorporates so many other genres, and makes them its own. I love how it allows for chrome stadium grandstanding and avant-beat poetry, and I love how it makes your heart race and your mind delight.
I have my favourites, and there is as much safe and uninvolving hip hop as there is in any music form, but it is a form of music as valid as jazz or classical. Its DIY origins came from necessity, from hunger and that informs greatness, without argument.
I love how it works with live instruments, both as a listener and as a musician, it seems to have something although I doubt I will ever approach the depth and genius of Jay Dilla or Danger Mouse, but I reach for the best Surge Lounge I can, the one that lives in my head.
Bass
I constantly reach with my bass playing, but in terms of making it groove. I like to work on a chord, or a fitting chord sequence, and with the metronome on, work it over and over, constantly reaching for that sequence of notes where it does what it needs to do, and from there, can evolve without breaking the back of it.
My influences tend to come from a number of sources: hip hop, and not necessarily the live stuff, although the approach tends to inflect what I do, Motown for Jamerson, because he was fearless, inventive and yet in complete control of the low end(thats not to discount Babbitt, who was equally powerful) and the funk, or at least the idea of funk, that lives in my head.
I know it when I hear it, sometimes its simple, sometimes its intricate and melodic, but when I hear it, I repeat it over and over, until I kind of go away, listening with all of my attention but feeling it, until I can register the precise set of sensations and emotions. It has to be music, I am tough to please when I practice alone. Oddly with El, I tend to make my choices even simpler, sometimes locking in with the kick is all I need, to the point that sometimes El wants me to go crazy, which by that point, I am grateful to do.
I practice chords and scales, but not as much as I should because I tend to get more developing my ear, but that will change from now.
My influences tend to come from a number of sources: hip hop, and not necessarily the live stuff, although the approach tends to inflect what I do, Motown for Jamerson, because he was fearless, inventive and yet in complete control of the low end(thats not to discount Babbitt, who was equally powerful) and the funk, or at least the idea of funk, that lives in my head.
I know it when I hear it, sometimes its simple, sometimes its intricate and melodic, but when I hear it, I repeat it over and over, until I kind of go away, listening with all of my attention but feeling it, until I can register the precise set of sensations and emotions. It has to be music, I am tough to please when I practice alone. Oddly with El, I tend to make my choices even simpler, sometimes locking in with the kick is all I need, to the point that sometimes El wants me to go crazy, which by that point, I am grateful to do.
I practice chords and scales, but not as much as I should because I tend to get more developing my ear, but that will change from now.
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Neglectful
Been lazy lately, am itching to get something done, got the jazz gigs on sunday, but with El mid-move, its been slow on getting the band together, so sundays and my practice sessions are the only playing I get done. Am reinstituting the blog as an outlet, will be posting stories and opinions, and general rants about my home life!
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