Thursday, October 11
This uke thing just gets better and better! We recorded some songs last night with the Ensemble and they sound really good. I'm strictly rhythm, of course, chunking along so that the real players can noodle and solo, and I'm happy to be there. I watch these good players play and it blows me away how casual and natural they make it look. I'm still at the "don't fuck up, don't fuck up" stage. I'm glad I'm mature enough now to know it takes a little more than a couple of months to get there. I wish I'd known about this practicing thing back in the day. I honestly don't think I ever did it. But now I really like it. My only problem is figuring which deficient aspect to work on at any particular time. I've got a wealth of choices at this point!
No matter, there's room for all skill levels in the group and the recording came out great. (I didn't fuck up!) We did the Peaceful Solution song and I can't wait until they put up the MP3. Not that it's a competition, mind you, but this version is so freakin' much better than the plodding dirge that the other uke group did. And we changed the lyrics; the Willie Nelson version wasn't quite anti-war enough, la la la. Some of my ideas made the cut...I'm so proud.
There will be a video, and they shot a bunch of footage of us clowning around. I'm told our heads will be digitally grafted onto animated things. Could be really charming, or not. We'll see what the animators come up with.
We did another song, too, a Uke original, which also sounded lovely (I didn't fuck up, and it's a much harder song to play than the two-chord hippie song), but I'm not sure what happens next with that one. I hope I at least get some MP3s of them both, and soon.
9:53 AM
