Forum - Banjo Ben Clark

West Virginia my home

Howdy,
If anyone is looking for a project to add some things, this has been sitting for a few months waiting for me to finish it up. It needs a first half-break (starting at 1:55) and some noodling during the verses.

I haven’t gotten off my lazy bum to record, so I throw it out there for any who may wish to contribute.

Aside from me, my wife Carolyn did vocals, my friend Pam did backing vocals and Larry provided his dobro talents. I went to make a Kompoz project for it, but I lacked enough “reputation” to start a new project. I am not sure how they come up with a reputation, but it seems to have assigned one appropriate for me :laughing: :laughing: :laughing:

By the way, if anyone wants to do something already done go ahead and record it… we can fade parts in or out as necessary.

Man Mike why have you not invited your bride to sing on some of our other stuff? Lovely voice!

I’d add in something, but I am traveling around until for a month or so and am somewhat out of the loop on recording. I will however keep my eye out and if in a few weeks you are still looking I will toss in a break.

Thanks for the kind words. I passed them along to Carolyn and she appreciated it.

I hadn’t noticed the new Reputation feature on Kompoz. I’m locked out too, despite doing enough to earn plenty of reputation points. Guess the points aren’t retroactive.

Um I think Kompoz went to a pay site. I’ve had the membership for some time.

See it’s guys like you with bad reputations that ruin it for all of us!..hahaha!

So Mike do you want me to throw this up on Kompoz so we can work with it from there? I mean I want to work out a little guitar break and will add it either way. Just didn’t know if I can host it and you guys can add to it, or how Kompoz is working now…let me know.

Jesse

Sure, we might as well try Kompoz. You could also email me if you wish and I can mix it down and re-distribute (as long as it’s something compact like an mp3).

I didn’t look into it further, but it looked like I needed to have track featured or people follow me (or like me or whatever it is on Kompoz). If nothing else, we probably have enough people here to follow each other and be back in business. Failing that, I could get a common storage area somewhere and we could work from there. One guy suggested “Gobbler” as a good one.

I gave the song a listen the other day and “heard” a half break in my head. It’s pretty straightforward, but I haven’t recorded it yet. I tabbed it out to make sure I didn’t forget it overnight. There are two tracks on the attached tef. The half break is the guitar part. The mando was from when I tabbed out the intro.

I can’t seem to get the tef file to download. I suspect it’s my computer. Is anyone else having difficulty with downloads?

Hi Larry,
I can download it, but I don’t know if that proves anything. I sent an email to ya.

Downloads just fine for me.

MIke:

Did you work this out on piano and then transfer it to guitar? Reason I ask is that this sounds like a piano piece and would be relatively “simple” (but effective) to play on the piano.

I did it on guitar. I can see where one might think that it could have been born on a piano though. I can actually play something like that it much easier fingerstyle as opposed to crosspicking, but I “picked it out” with a pick. I thought of it while listening to Larry’s dobro half break. I thought it would set it up nicely. I played through it a few times earlier today. It’s nothing earth-shattering, but I like the way it sounds. The slide lick sounds much better on guitar than on tabedit, and I was doing a G chord light strum on the quarter note.

Seems that my download problems are being caused by IE10. I remember Windows doing some automatic updates a couple of days ago, so I’m sure that’s when the problem started. I switched over to Chrome and have no problem downloading now.

— Begin quote from "ldpayton"

Seems that my download problems are being caused by IE10.

— End quote

For having a company full of really smart people, Microsoft does some stupid things.

G’day fellas
Sorry I’ve been out of touch for a while. Got real busy with stuff at cave and home. However latest happy development is I put my laptop bag on the boot (sorry,trunk) of the car at night and, you guessed it, drove off. :blush:
By the time I got home and realised, went back to search, it was not to be found. Was a bit surprised as very quiet on the roads out here at night in winter. Anyways I’ve been hoping that it may turn up but now a couple of weeks so I guess I’m up for a new laptop (with a chain and handcuff attached maybe). The bugger is I had just finished my financials for the year but hadn’t backed up yet an external HD. :cry: :cry: :cry: So more work to do there!!
So of course I can’t do any music collab for while until I replace laptop and instal programs etc.
Sorry Mike was looking forward to getting a bassline down for WV , also had worked up vocals forHard Times so it may be a bit of a wait and you may want to move on.
I’m using my android tablet at present to access emails and the net but I only ever used it for music (all my charts are on it) so it is a slow learning curve working out how to do other stuff on it and it is much more limited and frustrating.

Anyways I guess these things happen as we get older and the memory gets worse, no point getting upset.
Just thought I’ fill you in as to why I dropped off the planet. Will keep following what is happening and jump back in playing asap.

By the way thanks for the Kompoz recommendations - tried to return the favour, not sure if it went through though.;

Thanks for the update ozzie. Good hearing from you and sorry about the laptop!

We did see your endorsements on Kompoz, and we returned the favor.

You working something up for this one, oldhat? Let’s finish it.

I might record that half break I put up at some point over the next couple of days. Wifey leaves on a trip tomorrow. If we end up with two parts for the half break spot, I can probably work mine into the verses.

Well, like Earl, I do believe in karma.

Last week I went into town to renew my lost driver’s licence and bank debit card. While I was there I decided to drop into the Men’s Shed. This is a community based thing that has become very popular in Australia - a group of blokes decide to establish a meeting place which doesn’t involve alcohol, somewhere they can go for company to chat and usually ends up with a workshop attached. More country towns are establishing them as time goes on, fuelled I think partly by wives who don’t want retired husbands hanging around complaining and getting under their feet etc.
Anyways this shed is fairly active and has program where a disability mob go once a week and the blokes help them do woodwork projects. As I was feeling generally a bit down about the loss of the laptop with all associated data I thought it might be a good thing to call in and I spent a few hours helping a young bloke on his clothes rack project, walked away feeling a bit better about life.

The next day I get a call from a local farmer’s wife I know who lives 15 miles from where I lost the laptop to say she had found it in a paddock beside the road. :open_mouth: It was only because they were moving stock and she was putting up roadside signs nearby that she noticed it over the fence. The wallet was gone with the cash of course but there was a bill with my name on it so she called me.
We have had about 4 inches of rain in the past few weeks so it was rather damp in the bag, but 3 days later after airing it then putting in a bag with rice to dry it out it booted up without a problem. So all is saved!!! :smiley: :smiley: :smiley:

Yes, I’ve already backed it up, so as soon as I get my paperwork up to date and tax stuff done I’ll be plugging into Audacity and Kompoz.

Hey Ozzie, that’s great that the laptop got returned. Good deal on helping out the young guy. That sounds like a cool place. When I lived in Southern Florida there was a commercial shop (Woodcraft) that had a club. For like $10 a month you could use all their cool tools. They had everything. I miss that place.

I recorded the half break I wrote last week. I also made a few tweeks on the mix Larry had suggested a few months ago (the last time I did anything with recording). The mix is attached. If OldHat or anyone else has a half break they want to record, please do so. I think I can easily tone down what I am doing a bit and play it in the verses, and it should work.

I feel kind of awkward doing so, but I feel compelled to pass along the news that Ben’s dad passed away. Visitation is Monday and services are Tuesday in Kilgore, TX. Please keep the Clark family in your thoughts and prayers. It’s obviously been a tough year for them.