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Strays Dave

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About Strays Dave

  • Birthday 11/30/1999

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  1. I'm talking with a lady about forming a duo. In recent times she's been doing a solo thing with midi tracks. I'm not really familiar with this, but she said you purchase them for $3 and are multitrack, with easy key changes and muting certain instruments. I'm a pianist with a strong left hand bass sound. So I suggested a drum machine. It appears the market has been matured for some years. I found a nice YT video on using the Alesis SR18 in a live setting. Also it seems to allow some simple editing of existing patterns. She's hoping to book some happy hours in The Villages (in central Florida). BTW, she said the market for live music for dementia patients is booming in The Villages. I guess having a much higher ratio (than a random town) of aging boomers. So, does anyone have any experiences pro or con. Or other preferences - this is for live performance.
  2. There was some speculation that some in the Chinese group were maybe related to Chinese Communist Party officials. Looking at the video, there are some very high dollar fashionably dressed folks in the group. Of course this click-gold for Kavanaugh's YT channel. He said he'll appear on a UK TV show tonight - Talk TV , I think he said. And BTW, the Chinese handler said they have no problem with average user phone filming - their issue was with monetizing on YouTube. Interesting and puzzling.
  3. Brendan Kavanaugh is a London pianist with a lucrative YouTube channel. He records his videos on London's public pianos. Recently he was confronted by a Chinese handler for a travel group. It got weird. The confrontation begins at around 9 minutes in. Kavanaugh said in a later video that the Chinese (not sure who specifically) are trying to have the video taken down.
  4. I've recently been digging the Tiny Desk concerts. Specifically I've been made aware of Dodie (her performing name) , Coldplay (Chris Martin and the guitar player only, but with a 9 voice Love choir) , Jake Blount (with his touring group including 3 background vocalists), and Louis Cato (below). Each of the acts I just named blow me away. I read there are around 1,000 Tiny Desk sets. One thing I like is finding acts I was never aware of who inspire and impress me. I've long been a big fan of vocal harmony and inventive arrangements (thank you Beatles), and I keep seeing and hearing great music here. I told some friends about Louis Cato. They told me he replaced Jon Batiste on the Tonight Show. If anyone checks out Jake Blount's Tiny Desk, around 8 minutes in is a song named "City Called Heaven" with some very minimalist and (to me) brilliant guitar playing by Gus Tritsch - and he's playing what must be a vintage Silvertone guitar.
  5. I was the original poster here. I wound up creating a dedicated 3 ring binder notebook with plastic page inserters. I did maybe 12 songs - lyrics in the notebook arranged in performing sequence to avoid fumbling around. But since it was a concert format (people sitting in straight back chairs, someone introduced me etc. ) I practiced specifically for this performance. I found doing the preparation ended up being tedious - I practiced just those specific songs and singing them for several weeks - in order to try and do the best performance I could. Way too repetitive. Normally, my home practice routine is flexible and I play from my "menu" of options (playing jazz standards, playing and singing Beatles, sight reading some Bach and a few other things). The one upside is that although I'm not really a singer, all the preparation worked up and strengthened my singing voice. Then I went back to non-singing...mostly. Thanks for the suggestions.
  6. The baby seems to be enjoying playing. If he keeps this up over time he may be something akin to a Keith Jarrett, Jacob Collier, or even Erroll Garner. I think Erroll Garner started as a tot. With an older brother who played. But I'm thinking there's some sort of neurological advantages in starting very young, like 3 or so. I don't have knowledge about this, but there seems to be this pattern. Anyone know about very early brain development in this area ? Maybe I'll look for a YouTube video.
  7. https://youtube.com/shorts/JnRsoISN5n4?si=eQIMPjHBFdLR6eFv
  8. I've never been a jazz cat, but I play a lot of jazz standards. I play things like Over The Rainbow, Back Home In Indiana, Embraceable You and so on. I think of them as part of the Great American Songbook. But I also play things like The Tennessee Waltz, and How Much Is That Doggee In The Window. I use what you'd probably call jazz harmony with the appropriate songs (not the doggee type songs). But my playing these days is in assisted living facilities. To me the concept of "jazz" also involves extended soloing. And in general people aren't into that - unless they're in a bar talking over the the music and drinking. A lot of folks think of this as listening to jazz. I call my "holy trinity" The Beatles, Keith Jarrett's 70's quartets (both American and European) and Ellington. I play a good number of Ellington tunes (with the jazz harmony) and play and sing a good number of Beatles. I have a Beatles fake book and have transposed many of the songs into my vocal key. Lately I've been running thru Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds, Dear Prudence and Revolution. I'm wondering if they'll be usable as baby boomer age into the ALF's. I suspect the jazz cats are at colleges. Either the teachers and professors or the students. I've always identified as a musical eclectic.
  9. Regarding Adrian Belew in Zappa's and Bowie's bands, I stumbled upon Belew's anecdote about it.
  10. I'd say maybe accordians and banjos suffer from type casting. Accordians with Lawrence Welk and polkas. Banjos with country and bluegrass. But although I've not followed Bela Fleck, I caught him on (IIRC) Austin City Limits once playing some very progressive stuff. I'm left thinking hummm (?) regarding the cannabis thing. I have a medical card here in Florida - every 7 months I pay a pot doctor $150 to reapprove my license. It takes him less that 2 minutes. Decriminalization is way overdue.
  11. Mostly obscure because of it's age, 1932's "The Old Dark House" was directed by James Whale following his "Frankestein". It featured Boris Karloff, Gloria Stewart, Charles Laughton and Melvyn Douglas....in addition to some other British actors. It has some quirky dark humor in addition to the standard vintage horror fare. And it's available on YouTube. I have a YouTube premium subscription (about $15 monthly) and don't have interrupting advertisements. There's a wonderfully odd dinner scene at about 18 minutes in.
  12. I won't dismiss the whole song, but when I heard Gun and Roses do "Knocking On Heaven's Door".... it was his singing of the word "door" or "do-oh". I think I just generally dislike his vocal stylings.
  13. This is from about 11 months ago. Fran states that anyone (or any "company") can claim a copyright and the claimant of the copyright is considered to be in the right without evidence.
  14. I pay $12 per month for YouTube premium. I no longer suffer thru the advertisements. I don't have cable or Netflix or any other streaming. I think of YT Premium as a sort of poor man's cable TV. And these days there are so many digital TV channels available over the air I never miss cable.
  15. I ordered a couple of clips like your Proline clip. I also ordered some anti slip rings I happened to see. Thanks Kuru. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07RJN8LWL/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
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