LOA-10 Songwriting
Hi, Dave:
When your students write their first instrumental in 2nd position, you require them to use all of the chorus forms. When submitting original songs for LOA-10, do you require students to use all chorus forms in each instrumental, or should we just use whatever chorus forms sound best for the song? I ask just to make sure... I'm pretty sure you want whatever sounds best for the song.
Also, for the 3rd position instrumental, does it need to be on a diatonic harmonica or could it be on chromatic harmonica?
Thanks,
Marc
#1: I am brainstorming ideas for the solo harmonica piece. Could I use a looping pedal to create a bassline, and then play over myself?
#2: You require the videos to be uploaded to YouTube. Since I will be playing these songs at jams, and since jam hosts usually limit their guests to 2-3 songs, my songs might be from different dates and venues. Is it okay if my songs are recorded on different days? (I can't imagine any jam allowing 4 harmonica instrumentals in a row.)
Hello Marc.
#1: No, just you... no electronics
#2: It's okay if your songs are recorded on different days. As a student of School of the Blues I'm sure I can speak to the owner and work it out for you to perform these songs all together at the next student concert :-)
That's a good idea, Dave. Would you please speak to the owner of the School of the Blues about this?
I humbly accept your challenge to play four songs at the student concert.
It's a plan
I'm probably 95% done with my three instrumentals (not the solo harmonica piece), and they're each 7-10 choruses long. If I'm going to play these at the student concert, I might add lyrics to them. For example, one of them is in a tramp groove, so I might sing "Tramp" or "Ti Ni Nee Ni Nu" and use my original instrumental as an extended solo in the middle of the song. I think this would be more interesting than just playing a set of four instrumentals, which could get tiresome. The point of LOA-10 is the performance, right?
Just making sure you're okay with this.
Glad to hear your instrumentals are moving along Marc. Thanks for the questions, these are all good things to think about. One of the requirements for you is to back a singer, so simply put the vocal tune in the middle. Entire nights of instrumental music is common, don't feel that you have to put vocals in to keep the interest of the audience.
I meant that I wanted to do the singing! I didn't even think about accompaniment, because I thought I'd subjected you to enough of that. Guess that brings my total up to five songs (three originals, harmonica solo song, & accompaniment example). Let's hash out the details at our next lesson.
I understood that you wanted to sing Marc, but the assignment is for instrumentals... keeping the audience's attention with your fantastic blues harmonica skills :--) Yes, five tunes.
I'd like to start working out the performance aspect. I want to decide on song order and the accompaniment tune, and I also want to send rough recordings out to members of the house bands. Might I request a particular house band to work with? I've spent some time in the past working with Tom Gray, Guy Agnew, and Al Bettencourt, so I'd like to perform with their house band. Is this okay for you?
Also, I am not a member of the house band, but a student performer. Am I right to assume that my 5 song set would not come out of their setlist?
"I've spent some time in the past working with Tom Gray, Guy Agnew, and Al Bettencourt, so I'd like to perform with their house band. Is this okay for you?"
Sure
"Also, I am not a member of the house band, but a student performer. Am I right to assume that my 5 song set would not come out of their setlist?"
Correct
Hello Marc. Yes, "use whatever chorus forms sound best for the song." 3rd Position on the chromatic is okay with me.