I was told that if I call this a sea shanty, it'll sound better.
http://fabricari.com/music/first-waltz.mp3

More Banjo Practice:
http://fabricari.com/music/banjo-practice-20071030.mp3

I made a video of me playin' some accordion. I'm far from qualified to say I can actually play the thing. So far, I've only recorded the left hand and right hand parts separate. Playing it live is a different matter.

I tried to work on a few lessons to day - it's a bitch to figure out. The most basic songs in the book are more advanced than what I'm playing here which is really just flailing the first five notes in A-minor. The base side is played with a real basic 1-4-5, too - they put all the buttons in a fifths progression.



The hardest part is keeping rythm with the push and pull of the bellows. I keep running out of air.

http://fabricari.com/music/october-2007.mp3

I spent a LOT of time this weekend workin' on banjo technique, learning songs, licks, riffs, stuff. Here's a 40 second snippet of what I ended the with.

I tuned the drone back down to A and played in A-minor. I wanted to apply some of the melody techniques I've been learning to that gothic sound I'd tried before. I'd love to just jam and record for an hour and share all the cool stuff I've learned, errors and all, but I think that'd get dull after a while. I get totally jazzed over a tiny little snippet of sound that probably would get missed in any recording.

The main thing I've been learning, though is how to make my melody notes more distinct. To the point that I can skip the strumming and drone for a few beats and just hammer away with the back of my middle finger for a great effect.

It comes down to learning that there's damn near nothin' you can't play with a frailing technique.

http://fabricari.com/music/red-river-valley.mp3

My eyes are still swimming with a head-cold. Hard to think straight. So I've been frailin' away some more on banjo. With tissue stuffed into each nostril, I went back to the basics and practiced some old folk songs from this great (free online) banjo tutorial called "The How and the Tao of Old Time Banjo". I recorded this live (no mixing), horrible raspy voice 'n' all.

I've been focusing more on The Mystic pages, so these sketches really amount to warm-ups. I spent the better part of last evening laying out the text on the page. There's quite a bit of dialog on this one. If I'd have laid it out using my old method of "draw first", "digitally letter later", I'd be screwed. It's a testament to hand-lettering, I think.

Chalk up to insanity, but it's been on my mind for a while to get an accordion. We sold some stuff recently and had some money to be stupid with, so I started shopping around. I found a bunch of low-end brands online, but really had no idea what I was shopping for. And I most certainly never could find one in any music shop locally. Well, as fortune would have it, one of America's only accordion museums was 15 minutes down the road! (http://users.ameritech.net/jackathy/MUSEUM.html)

He was also selling used beginner accordions that fit in my budget, so... I got an accordion!

I've got to admit, it's a bit overwhelming. This instrument isn't light like a banjo - you've really gotta build some muscles to play this thing. And there's a mess of 120 bass buttons on the side to make sense of. Then there's the weezing. Well, I found some eazy chords and played a simple melody against a recording of some banjo frailing. And, well, here's some "American Gothic" soundin' music.

http://www.fabricari.com/music/american-gothic-1.mp3

I'll practice more, but, I just had to hear how it sounds against the banjo. I really should try to find some locals who play the same kinda messed up music I play to jam with.

I went and bought a box of those Pitt brush pens; giving them a second chance. I love the lines, I find them easy to use, but the tips don't last for nuthin. Granted, there's a trick to flipping the nib to double their life. Works awesome, by the way. However, I think I'm pressing too hard breaking them out too quickly or something. Are they worth the long term commitment? I know a lotta folk here make beautiful art with them.

I learned what spats were the other day, and, well, I just hadta draw a robot with spats!