Maurice's Musical Musings
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Montreal Memories
In my last blog post, I promised that I would be back with pictures and videos and a recap of all of the happenings at the Montreal Musician’s Meetup. Ok, so it took me a month and a half... but here it is, finally! After I got back, it took me some time just to process everything... I waited for pictures and videos to be posted and just tried to relive everything in my mind for a bit. I wanted to let myself calm down so that I wouldn't try to write while I was still all giddy from the experience. After a month and a half, I may actually still be a bit giddy but I have put off writing for long enough.
The entire experience in Montreal was fantastic from beginning to end. Friday night started out with everybody gathering at Dundees bar and grille. We had a good time as everybody had a secret identity that was secret only to themselves and we had to ask others yes or no questions to figure out who we were. After grabbing a bite to eat and a bit to drink, the music began. Montian, Freddy, Tamra and many others played some music there in the bar and the weekend was officially begun. We stayed there at the pub until around midnight before heading back to the dorms where we gathered in the basement for several more hours of drinks and music. JellyJellyJelly enforced the "everybody participates" rule, handing out egg shakers and tambourines to anybody without an instrument and we had a great time singing along to anything and everything that came to mind.
The next 2 days were a blur of music and community. The caliber of musicians at this Jam was just absolutely incredible... and it seemed like the music just kept getting better and better with every person who took the stage. Nobody played solo for long; everybody invited people up to play with them and the combinations of sounds that we had were fantastic. For those of you who may only have heard SL musicians in SL and never in person, let me tell you right here and now... as great as the sound is on a shoutcast stream, you need to hear some of these people play live the next chance you get. They all sound even better live. The combinations of sounds from all the different musicians playing together were greater than the sums of their parts. Each night ended with everybody gathering in Max and Kalie's dorm room where we drank and laughed and played music until about 4am. These nights were half the fun... It was just a great time hanging out with this whole group all day and then some more all night.
The highlight of the weekend for me came when unexpectedly I got to play a set myself for a little over an hour with a stage full of extremely talented musicians. When I signed up for the MMM, I was not yet performing in Second Life and thus I signed up as a spectator and not a musician. Because of this, there was no hour set for me to play. I tried to take any opportunity I had to play along or jam with people but in truth there was not a lot I could do because the musicians playing were just so good. I didn't know most of the songs they played, or the songs were in a key other than the key I play them in, and I am not at the level yet where I can look at what somebody is playing and hear what they are playing and just know the chords I need to join in. However, as fate would have it I was noodling with my guitar Sunday morning... we were supposed to be having "open jam" time but everybody was recovering from the night before and standing around sipping coffee and chatting. Nobody was playing. Bree saw that people were gathering in the venue that was schedule for that time expecting to hear music, but there was nothing to see or hear. She asked me if I'd go up and play something... so that's exactly what I did. I was joined immediately by JellyJellyJelly Benelli playing her flute to my right and ”Slim", the bass player from her RL band who joined us in Montreal played an upright bass to my left. I picked a song from my song book and started playing. First, I heard the bass... and then I heard the flute. That was it, my mind was blown. Jelly and Slim both were so good, they joined with my playing seamlessly.... one wouldn't know they'd never played with me before and had no idea what I might play next... as I played a few more songs with them I was joined by more musicians... Max Kleene joined me playing percussion on the cajon, Tamra Sands joined me with her viola, and Shannon McMahon and Gandalf Mornington eventually added their guitars to the mix. This hour I spent playing my own songs with all of these incredible musicians was an experience that I will never ever forget. I am used to playing my guitar all by myself.... and to hear these other sounds all melding with my own was a feeling that I honestly can't convey with words. Bree has slowly but surely been getting videos posted of sets from the jam. I cannot wait to see mine and hear what it sounded like from the audience side.
Sadly, all good things must come to an end... and all too soon I was back on the train heading home to rejoin my regularly scheduled life. Here are some of the links to pictures people have taken... videos that were posted.... just in case you didn't already see them on facebook or other places.
pictures:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/mmmusicians/
http://www.facebook.com/media/28046.580631171&type=1
http://www.flickr.com/photos/33484/
http://www.facebook.com/#!/media/set/?set=a.187260654674524.51504.100001717719548
videos:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=184873478246575
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=184881954912394
Bree's "official" MMMv2 videos:
http://www.youtube.com/user/br
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=montreal+musicians+meetup&aq=f
(just search for Montreal Musicians Meetup on youtube).
The entire experience in Montreal was fantastic from beginning to end. Friday night started out with everybody gathering at Dundees bar and grille. We had a good time as everybody had a secret identity that was secret only to themselves and we had to ask others yes or no questions to figure out who we were. After grabbing a bite to eat and a bit to drink, the music began. Montian, Freddy, Tamra and many others played some music there in the bar and the weekend was officially begun. We stayed there at the pub until around midnight before heading back to the dorms where we gathered in the basement for several more hours of drinks and music. JellyJellyJelly enforced the "everybody participates" rule, handing out egg shakers and tambourines to anybody without an instrument and we had a great time singing along to anything and everything that came to mind.
The next 2 days were a blur of music and community. The caliber of musicians at this Jam was just absolutely incredible... and it seemed like the music just kept getting better and better with every person who took the stage. Nobody played solo for long; everybody invited people up to play with them and the combinations of sounds that we had were fantastic. For those of you who may only have heard SL musicians in SL and never in person, let me tell you right here and now... as great as the sound is on a shoutcast stream, you need to hear some of these people play live the next chance you get. They all sound even better live. The combinations of sounds from all the different musicians playing together were greater than the sums of their parts. Each night ended with everybody gathering in Max and Kalie's dorm room where we drank and laughed and played music until about 4am. These nights were half the fun... It was just a great time hanging out with this whole group all day and then some more all night.
The highlight of the weekend for me came when unexpectedly I got to play a set myself for a little over an hour with a stage full of extremely talented musicians. When I signed up for the MMM, I was not yet performing in Second Life and thus I signed up as a spectator and not a musician. Because of this, there was no hour set for me to play. I tried to take any opportunity I had to play along or jam with people but in truth there was not a lot I could do because the musicians playing were just so good. I didn't know most of the songs they played, or the songs were in a key other than the key I play them in, and I am not at the level yet where I can look at what somebody is playing and hear what they are playing and just know the chords I need to join in. However, as fate would have it I was noodling with my guitar Sunday morning... we were supposed to be having "open jam" time but everybody was recovering from the night before and standing around sipping coffee and chatting. Nobody was playing. Bree saw that people were gathering in the venue that was schedule for that time expecting to hear music, but there was nothing to see or hear. She asked me if I'd go up and play something... so that's exactly what I did. I was joined immediately by JellyJellyJelly Benelli playing her flute to my right and ”Slim", the bass player from her RL band who joined us in Montreal played an upright bass to my left. I picked a song from my song book and started playing. First, I heard the bass... and then I heard the flute. That was it, my mind was blown. Jelly and Slim both were so good, they joined with my playing seamlessly.... one wouldn't know they'd never played with me before and had no idea what I might play next... as I played a few more songs with them I was joined by more musicians... Max Kleene joined me playing percussion on the cajon, Tamra Sands joined me with her viola, and Shannon McMahon and Gandalf Mornington eventually added their guitars to the mix. This hour I spent playing my own songs with all of these incredible musicians was an experience that I will never ever forget. I am used to playing my guitar all by myself.... and to hear these other sounds all melding with my own was a feeling that I honestly can't convey with words. Bree has slowly but surely been getting videos posted of sets from the jam. I cannot wait to see mine and hear what it sounded like from the audience side.
Sadly, all good things must come to an end... and all too soon I was back on the train heading home to rejoin my regularly scheduled life. Here are some of the links to pictures people have taken... videos that were posted.... just in case you didn't already see them on facebook or other places.
pictures:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/mmmusicians/
http://www.facebook.com/media/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/3
http://www.facebook.com/#!/media/set/?set=a.187260654674524.51504.100001717719548
videos:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=184873478246575
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=184881954912394
Bree's "official" MMMv2 videos:
http://www.youtube.com/user/br
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=montreal+musicians+meetup&aq=f
(just search for Montreal Musicians Meetup on youtube).
posted by Maurice at 11:26 AM
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