Song of the week #46 is Big Yellow Taxi, my third Joni song in the series. I guess this is all Luc and JRJ's fault, they've got me thinking about Joni and all are her wonder. Even though this song is from one of her earlier albums, I would love to learn something off of Turbulent Indigo.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turbulent_Indigo

I have been really enjoying discovering Turbulent Indigo - thanks for turning me on to that album you two.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdPHiFgvPEM[/youtube]

Happy Thursday!
Gene

Another great rendition and arrangment Gene. That song has a very distinct strum signature on the guitar, you captured it on the Stick. Excellent!
I'd really like to know a bit more about your learning method, it's amazing that you turn out a new tune every week. I've been struggling with Bob C's 'Star of the County Down' for three weeks and although I can play both bass and melody seperate, unfortunatly when I try to put it together........... AAAaaRRRRggggg!! I'm beginning to think my muscle memory has amnesia.

Thanks for posting this,

Eric

Indeed. And, to me, the strumming technique is something pretty difficult to transpose from the guitar to the stick, and you did it well. Congrats!

Hey Eric, thanks for the good word man. We are all putting in our 10,000 hours on the Stick, I am certain that you will find some sort of compromise between your hands - that's been my experience for certain.

Thanks to you too grozeil. My experience has been this - the strumming bit can be emulated through the natural redundancy prevalent in the upper registers of the left hand. The right hand provides the initial downward strike which is quickly followed by the left hand, emulating the upward strum on a guitar. I spend a lot of my unstructured practice time on finding patterns in the left hand I can set against scales in the right hand - it's like an Escher painting - you never get to the top of the staircase!

My end game is this - to learn to play unaccompanied, to carry a melody set against chords with the occasional solo. I would like to add singing to my structured practice time and play out more in duos or trios, as this is a fantastic way to expand your musical palette, which I am confident will happen in time.

Thanks for listening and for your positive feedback.
Gene

Yeah, Gene, you really need to do something about that hair next time...
Like we give a crap.
My journey of Joni was opposite yours; you knew her earlier stuff and are just now getting into some of her more recent stuff. Although I knew her older hits, I got into Joni's music starting with Chalk Mark in a Rain Storm, Turbulent Indigo, and Taming the Tiger, and worked backwards.
One of my future projects is going to be "A Case of You". True to form, I only first heard this tune in its rearrangement on her recent Both Sides Now album - and it just slays me every time. I only heard the original after I got a copy of Blue just over a year ago.
Anyway, enough about me - this was a really cool arrangement. Rhythmically accurate, totally captured the vibe. Really well done, Gene.
If you were to learn the title track off Turbulent Indigo, man that would be something. But "Sunny Sunday" is a worthy tune, and I think would translate well to the Stick.

Great rendition. Keep moving forward.
At my steady solo saturday gig someone last week asked for some Jonii. Wasn't in my repertoire. I'll have to fix that.. Thsnks for the inspirstion.

Gene,
I am glad you did Joni's version and not the trite rip off by Counting Crows featuring flavor of that month/one hit wonder Vanessa Carlton "ohhh bup bup bup, ohhh [la la la la] bup bup bup" Joni's brilliant understated song with toungue in cheek meaning did not deserve that treatment.

I thought with the chords you were going to segue into "Love the One You're With" by Steven Stills- here's the connect the dots- Steven Stills dated Joni Mitchell, - see not too far fetched. All members of the legendary Laurel Canyon.

Here's some of the standouts- your chorus moves into a different feel almost carousel-like which really nicely sets it off; octaves are popped for the melody and chords which is another nice arrangement tool; there's a nice percussive rhythm between the one and a one suspended chord ( or a four chord I've heard it played like E- Esus4-E or E-A-E) finally the
staggered gliss at the end nice way to end a steaming locomotive of an arrangement of Joni's tune.

Sometimes on the Stick you have to work at it and go for it to get a particular sound. This post is a great example that that effort is worth it. You never hear "I enjoyed that artist- they were so off and lazy"!

I love the stop at "don't know what you got 'til it's gone" I thought what was gone was your memory of where the song goes next ( hey we all have been there- just sustain the chord and use a little vibrato and look pensively up into the sky all the while saying " what the h@ll is the next chord... oh yeah, then go on- audience eats it up with a spoon as a "live artist emotional moment", meanwhile you had two wheels good and got back on the road, and didn't make em see sweat and most of all -DON'T MAKE THAT FACE" the face that says I just made a mistake, sortof like grapefruit and milk or horseradish and a really sour pickle)

This was a really fun tune that brought a big smile! You have a great way of conveying musically a tune that makes it listenable. That's what it's all about!
Another one of Gene's Gems!
Dave Brosky

my favorite line -"They took all the trees, put 'em in a tree museum
And they charged the people a dollar and a half just to see 'em"
hope it never comes to this or to the movie Silent Running

As someone who has played the Portal video game series and the Poker Night at the Inventory video game series, and loves Silent Running, I just heard GlaDOS say “Huey, you really should have folded.”

Thanks for making my mind even more awesome.

EDIT: That was great, Gene. I fear I may have never heard the original.

Ah nice job Gene! Bad hair and brain farts too boot!!!

excellent dude,

cheers,
k

Complètement cool, Gene, bravo!

Kind of a strumming feel can also be achieved by "rolling" the chord from one hand to the other (in any order L>R or R>L). As we say in french, I use and abuse this method