Gibby

Finally found you all! For some reason I thought this thread would be in the Television Forum...that's what I get for thinking logically!

Kim

Are you saying that we're illogical?

YAY for 300,000!! That's an excellent piece of change.

Yeah, I read that later, too, laughn. But I reserve the right to believe it anyway. I'm happy in my delusions.

And maybe Clay really is doing well, ya know? Hopefully we will know soon in the next few minutes.

ETA: EEEEEEE! Top of the page! I'll take it as a good omen.

From lylekira at CV:

people in the Audience are texting people on the OFC

she heard clay is doing really well

Welcome home, Lucky! :F_05BL17blowkiss:

Here is my find of the day. Honest to God, this picture made me want to go to OFC and post in the what 3 words would you like to say to Clay? Can you figure out which 3 words I might use? I'll give you a clue:

1. F

2.M

3.C

Oh there is a thread at CB of the best of the best pics from the tour. That is where I found this one. I would love to have it autographed.

Now I'm off to the spoiler thread............

GORGEOUS pic. And I think I know which three words you want to say to Clay. If you ever had him sign that pic, would you put those words on the pic, even on a little sticky note, so he could read them?

I'm going to have to pick up my daughter from school here in a minute. I hope Couchie calls soon, too!

Welcome, turtle! We're passing around barf bags in the spoiler thread if you want to join us. Doesn't that sound appealing?? BWAH!!

Look for the 'Fast Forward' heading.

BWAH, bottle!!

If we're going to smut, we need some illustration:

Thanks for the positive thoughts, bottle & jmh. Sigh. Waiting has never been one of my stronger points.

This post has absolutely no point, except that I want to post right after cindilu. We both have such excellent taste in avatars. High-five, cindilu!!

More spoilers, please! Soon!!! AAAARRRRRGGGGG!!

:nana:

Yeah!! Go, Clay!!!

ETA: Oh, how funny that his 5th grade teacher is there! I'll bet she would have some interesting stories about Clay.

ETA #2: The Eagle has landed!! couchie has arrived in LA safe and sound, and will be going into the studio in about 30 minutes. She said she'd call again later after the show.

Woot! Woot! So glad she's there, safe and sound. Can't wait for reports.

:nana:

The 'bedazzlers' - too funny, play!

I'm wondering if the extra measures against cameras at Clay's concert might have been due to the orchestra. Some orchestras are really strict about prohibiting recording and pictures of any sort.

speaking of Atlanta...that show sure had very little clack...what happened??? and I guess that will be the funny version of Without You...cos thats when he sang about can;t live without a car...hee

I read at CV that someone who isn't a regular clack-gatherer took video of almost the entire Atlanta concert. She hasn't uploaded it yet because she doesn't know how to do so. The vault queens are trying to help her out, so hopefully it will be uploaded soon sometime.

I'm sorry, CG - I just went and looked at the site, and it's a windows program. Darn it!

Muski, there's another freebie out there that can rip audio from video, and I find it very easy to use. It's the IM Too Mpeg encoder. It's a windows based program, too, but I seem to recall that you have the Mac with the Windows capabiity. Anyway, if you're interested, here it is:

http://www.imtoo.com/mpeg-encoder.html

But if it's easier, like jmh said, someone could rip it for you.

AAIT is trying to kill us. WHOA!!!

Have a fantastic time at 5th grader, Couchie!

Gibby, I'm just learning chords, so I do it by ear. I've found when I can't figure out the arrangement, create your own! So, I'm gonna try that!. Listen closely to the melody- many similarities to Pachelbel's "Canon". There are scales going on. I'm gonna try to dumb it down for my own performance purposes. It's worked with other songs I play....On the other hand, if you figure it out , send it to me- I"m moving along in my chord course!

Yeah, it's fun to make your own arrangements! I'd love to hear what you figure out.

I join play in interrupting the intelligent conversation with this GLORious tongue picture I saw on CH:

Yes, please. I'll have what HE'S giving!

And dear Lord. Just imagine THIS coming at you, knowing that the previous tongue action would soon follow!

Pucker Up! And then......

Yummmm!

I saw these pics, and just had to share them here. They all invite creative captioning:

This one's hawt:

This one just totally melts my heart:

ETA: I'm on the top of the page!! Heeeeee.

BWAH, play!

I've been trying for the longest time to pick out the piano accompaniment by ear for LAA and it's complex and murderous. It sounds deceptively simple but there are many subtle chord changes going on. ARGGGH! And hi everyone. :F_05BL17blowkiss:

I've tried, too, and it's harder than it sounds. I think a lot of the chords aren't all that simple. There are sustained chords, chords with seconds, sevenths, and maybe even ninths. I've been trying it in the key of E flat. But I can't just play the piano accompaniment alone. Since Clay's not here to sing it with me (darn!) I'm playing the melody with the chords, cuz the melody just begs to be included to my ear. But I'm not satisfied with it by a long shot. I don't think it would be that hard to play if I saw it written out - it's just guessing at what it is by ear that's hard.

ETA: play, you took it away! I thought it was really funny!

CG - ooooh, yummy tongue pics!

Shit! I knew that Woof! wasn't unduck-like enough!

Er, um, ok.

Heh. I'll try to do as little as possible. /FCA mod creed

That woof really cracked me up, even though it wasn't unduck-like enough. CONGRAGUTATIONS, YSRN!

Ikeep thinking this subject is past and I can't comment on it, but someone else always brings it back - well, if you like baseball, I guess you could like that film, they are both snoozers for me. The only thing I liked about baseball was drinking beer. The only movie worse than F of D was the baseball movie with Robert Redford, I actually tried to sit through the whole movie , but just could not take it when the girl in the white dress appeared - too much symbolism. I would rather watch Plan 9, at least I can mock it.

Plan 9 is the funniest bad movie out there. My God, it's rife with mistakes, inconsistencies, and horrible dialog. The paper plates put on fire and thrown across the camera make me roll on the floor with laughter. Hubby and I occasionally watch it just so we can laugh our asses off.

What I'd really like to do is see the score for LAA. The piano is what holds that song together. Jesse is keeping a pretty steady beat which allows the two soloists to bend the beat somewhat. After four nights, Clay and the cellist probably could "take liberties" more than usual, JMO.

I agree that, on occasion, Clay does have some harsh tones, perhaps when he pushes his voice/instrument to its capacity before reigning it in. Sometimes it's beautifully done, sometimes not quite. With his upbringing, he can no doubt attain a country sound/twang at the drop of a hat. "Tractor" was not a stretch for someone growing up in NC.

Caro

I'm not a pundit, either, but I've also noticed that Clay takes liberties with the timing on the live version of LAA. On the recording, he's very precise with his timing, but when he sings it live, he takes liberties. (oooohh, that sounds sexy - I'd better not digress into smut...) Ahem. Anyway, I think he's just using some rubato, which he has the perfect right to do as a soloist.

Definition of rubato - Rhythmic flexibility within a phrase or measure; a relaxation of strict time. Having certain notes arbitrarily lengthened while others are correspondingly shortened, or vice versa.

As Caro said, it's Jesse's job as the pianist to keep the beat and the rhythm going, and Clay can then play around with the vocal timing as he pleases to suit the mood of the piece. Soloists do this kind of thing all of the time. It's sort of like melisma, only with rhythm. There may a little room for the cellist to use some rubato, too, but overall I think the cello part should be played as written, with perhaps a little bit of relaxation of the beat now and then. IMHO, YMMV, etc.

Yep, Clay does hit some harsh notes now and then. That he can produce such amazingly beautiful tones with so little training is amazing to me. He really has a natural gift. The harsh tones don't happen that often, but are off-putting to me. I usually just keep clack that doesn't have those tones so it isn't distracting.

YIKES, this was written before I saw Gibby's -- just corrected that from Giddy, LOL! -- question about my favorite orchestras of the tour. I didn't download all of them, so I'm counting on you guys. For sure, the last one because they were together for four shows. I think I remember that Chautauqua was really good. Seems like I remember that Raleigh was not, probably due to some of those heat-related tuning problems.

Caro

Oooh, I enjoyed your entire post! And I agree with all of your points. Your 'Giddy' typo is hilarious!

I'm an instrumentalist, too - I play piano and keyboards. But I've also taken voice lessons, and I sing back up quite a bit. And since I play for lots of vocalists, I get to hear their voice coaches talking to them about technique and performance all of the time. Makes me appreciate Clay's instrument so much. I mean, his voice. *snerk* I had to clarify that because of all of the smutty people around here.

:F_05BL17blowkiss:

jmh was talking about 5 against 4 - yeah, I've always just called that 5 against 4, too. What I find even harder is playing one rhythm on the piano or keyboards, and singing a slightly different rhythm. Another difficult thing is to sing a slightly different harmony from what you're playing, when the music is written with a little dissonance. Makes me crazy, but I enjoy the challenge.

jmh also mentioned 5/4 time. A really good example of 5/4 time is in the Lord of the Rings soundtracks, in the music for the Orcs. It was a great 5/4 beat, with beats 1 and 4 accented, like this:

1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5

I believe in the third movie the accents were changed to beats 1 and 3. Once you learn how to play in 5/4, it's great fun.

No, I'm not nerdy at all!! Why do you ask? :eusa_whistle:

Do you have fanfic here? Hee.

Yeah, but it tends to be short, to the point, and photo-related - i.e. see the posts on page 42.

There's an even better story on page 39.

Hey, Caro, speaking of orchestras - which ones did you like the most on this tour, as far as quality?

I think I love this board. Really, I do. It reminds me of how Eayor used to be over at RHT. Do you have fanfic here? Hee.

It figures I would find this board just when I'm going to start working full time. I've been part time for the last four months and was just offered a full time position. I start it on Friday and we can NOT go on the Internet at all at work. I do have a Blackberry that I use to keep up a bit.

There just aren't enough Clay hours in the day.

Many of you already know me from RHT/Eayor. I do post some at CV but I'm not well known there.

I'm nice and smutty, too.

~Paulette

*hugs the smutty Paulette*

Congrats on getting a full-time job! On days that I work, I'm hardly on the boards at all. It sucks, doesn't it?

Speaking of which, Carolina Clay, when are you going to share your expertise on the orchestras and arrangements this tour??

Orchestra expertise in a nutshell -- some were better than others. Heat and humidity do a number on all instruments, make tuning a bitch, and play havoc with pitch. However, professionals learn to deal with it, some better than others. All of this is based on watching videos/listening to audio since I didn't actually attend a live performance this time around.

About the arrangements, I thought they kicked ass; and I read at least three blogs by tour musicians that said as much.

Thanks!! More more!! I promise to whomp anyone who expresses boredom. What would you suggest our listeners listen for as they evaluate?

I'm doing the cello, I mean LAA. There's something about that solo that makes it really hard. A lot of the cellists seemed to me to be off in their timing. What is it about that solo that makes it so challenging?

I LURVE all kinds of musician talk. So I'll join you in whomping whoever says they're bored!

And as far as some of the cellists having problems staying in time during LAA - it's probably because the vocal and piano parts have some syncopation. That's one of the many things I really like about this song.

Definition of sycopation - A shift of accent in a passage or composition that occurs when a normally weak beat is stressed.

It's not that difficult to play songs with syncopation if you count and if you're used to it, or if you practice. More than likely the cellists didn't have a chance to practice with Clay and Jesse much ahead of time.