Alistair
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Learning Jakes Songs - 2005/02/27 10:58
I'd like to start some discussion about how to approach learning Jakes songs. I'm building a bit of a repertoire. There's a lot to consider, its not all over when you've worked out an intro the chords and a suitable ending.
There's plenty of words to memorise too and I would be keen to hear debate about how to approach the challenges.
My advice to others is to remember that Jakes somgs tend to be stories, so learn and tell the story . . . but it aint easy.
All the best,
Alistair
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aliasmacalias
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Re:Learning Jakes Songs - 2005/02/27 15:16
Hi Alistair
Good topic. I find that there are two distinct aspects of this: one is memorising the words for which I resort to tried and tested multiple repetitions until they are firmly lodged and even then they slip; the second is the accompaniment.
Sticking with the words, a lot comes down to confidence. At Torrington I started of the guitar intro to Side by Side and completely blanked the words. Luckily I was compering the first half so I could cut my losses and exit the stage smartly by introducing the next act. At Knutsford last week, where I did Side by Side again, I had a cheat sheet with key lyrics stuck on the top of the guitar but in the event I didn't need it.
The accompaniment poses an interesting question though: do you try and copy Jake or go with your own style. People on this board have different approaches. Sometimes this is forced upon you - a couple of the songs I do, Side by Side and Thomas Haverley, are in B on Jake's recordings of them but the limitations on my vocal range meant that I shifted them to C and this obviously necessitates a change. On the other hand I play Family Tree pretty much straight off the record. At Wallasey David Harris and I had a crack at the Policeman's Jig for guitar and bodhran and finished off the song by segueing into a couple of jigs, one Irish and one Scottish.
Other performers can speak for themselves but there are a wide variety of approaches taken by people here. I'm not sure if you've been along to one of the Jakefests or other events that we run but if you do you'll meet no end of people happy to talk about this at length! If you fance doing a song at the Jakefest in Edinburgh in September, drop me a private eMail and I'll add you to the list!
Cheers
Ian
I got boogie, boogie, in my socks |
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mcdonaldneal
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Re:Learning Jakes Songs - 2005/02/27 20:24
Tricky question when you think about it, and I'm sure you'd get a different answer from every performer here.
As for me, I learned to play the guitar in order to be able to accompany the Jake songs I (thought I) knew, and loved. Now, EVERYONE here will agree that's not as easy as it seems!
My approach usually evolves thus: pick a song I love and make sure it fits my vocal range (by singing along approx 15, 000 times in the car, typically). Then find out what the words really are from this or a similar site, then repeat stages 1 and 2.
Download the chords and any tips (also from this site), try a slow strum with appropriate timing along with the words you now have.
Give up, as the two usually seem incompatible.
Listen to the song again, realise it's in a totally different key and then try to work out what rhythm works. In order of difficulty you can make this work for strumming patterns, 'grabbing' the bass note and a 3 finger chord, alternating bass with the thumb, with or without increasingly complicated finger arpeggio-type patterns or, if it's a song where you can really hear Jake's guitar part try to copy that.
Giving up is a repeated stage inserted at any point in the paragraph above.
Once you're happy, just practice! (a lot)
PS the last stage should not be done in front of wives or partners, unless contemplating trial or actual separation. (Top tip!)
I hope some of the others can add technical detail but the above worked after a fashion for me!
Look forward to hearing you sometime...
Phil Neal
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mcdonaldneal
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Re:Learning Jakes Songs - 2005/02/27 20:36
Don't quite know why I was a 'visitor' there, but never mind.
I meant to add that the WORDS are a minefield, ESPECIALLY when you think you know them.
My personal tip is for the tricky repetetive bits is to have some way of remembering what letter the phrase starts with and link the sentences together
Eg: (Country bus)Rollicking, Frolicking... is followed by You're Rusty and you're dusty
and then Seats are rather spartan..... and Though you may stumble...
See, R, S, T
Well, that's the general idea, obviously doesn't always work, and I've probably got that example wrong anyway but see what you think...
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Malcy
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Re:Learning Jakes Songs - 2005/02/28 10:52
Hi ! Phil is spot on with the Initial Letters thing. Jake often does refrains, choruses or interludes with very small lyrical changes from verse to verse and they can be very off-putting – you try and remember them so hard that after you’ve got the next one out you’ve forgotten how to start the following verse !
Here are my similar tips for “The ballad of Billy Kershaw” :
…Spectacular but dodgy, so they say… matches …only the Silvery laughter that it caused
…which, in fact, had often harboured Billy’s Chin… matches …only the Common Comfort…
…the Potter’s wheel, which was steadily continuing to spin… matches …only the Passing happiness…
…Could be anywhere at all, or so they say… matches …only the Consolation...
…he worked as a Country ploughman, so they say… matches …only the Common Comfort…
You find this kind of matching initials occurs so often in Jake’s work that you’d suspect that he remembers his own lyrics that way…
Secondly, the fact that many of Jake’s songs are stories or jokes set to music, is often a hindrance rather than a help... because you have to get the verses in the right order for the thing to make any sense. Other songwriters are easier to cover, as any one verse of (say) “The Lady In Red” is interchangeable with another, or even repeatable by accident without ruining the overall point of the song : whereas, with the “Jolly Captain”, say, you can’t sing the “deathbed” verse before she’s fallen down her staircase, if you want to tell the joke properly. It would make no sense for the Blacksmith to pretend to be Jehovah before the Toffee-maker lady has actually gone to the church. And then there are Mary, Helen and Julie, the three daughters in “The Lodger”, whose names are so linked to the rest of their choruses that you start to sing the choruses and verses out of sequence if you get their names mixed up, and while you’re still trying to work out where you are, you find you’ve got to the point where you have to sing “she was chaotic, idiotic, quite exotic and ecstatic, acrobatic and emphatically fine”…
So with Jake’s lyrics, you more or less have to practice a lot. And when you’ve got the thing committed to memory, concentrate while you’re singing it. I’ve been singing “Jumble Sale” for nearly 20 years and it still gets away from you when you take your eye off the ball. Sometimes the songs are just too funny and you put yourself off. No-one ever said it was easy…
Lastly, even strumming through the simplest of Jake’s songs, you are sadly not going to be able to get away with just knowing C, G and the Other One – very few of Jake’s songs have less than three chords and even fewer of the rest will have chords that can fit into non-barred positions. Jake was a classical guitarist, a folkie and first and foremost a jazz-influenced guitarist, so his repertoire of chords was pretty comprehensive : and despite choosing a kind of guitar which is more unforgiving than most to play, he had longer fingers than most players too. Jake as a player is a tough act to live up to… and then you’ve got to get the words out too ! Maybe a career as a singer of Oasis songs would be easier… 
Eranu ! |
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Pam
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Re:Learning Jakes Songs - 2005/02/28 17:39
Sorry to interrupt - I know nothing about all this sort of thing.
Except that Jake got the words wrong himself sometimes - e.g. The Lodger on the Live Performance LP
Carry on!
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