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NEAR-Fest Archives - Message Boards and Posting from Previous Events. => NEAR-Fest XIX - April 29 & 30, 2016 => Topic started by: N1ERF on March 22, 2016, 11:19:11 AM

Title: Welcome to the Near-Fest 2016 Spring Season Ham Jam!
Post by: N1ERF on March 22, 2016, 11:19:11 AM

Welcome to the Near-Fest 2016 Spring Season Ham Jam!

Well here we are again! Another musical event is upon us and it's time to start planning and to get ready to share your musical passion with friends and the Amateur community.

ALL musicians are welcome to come in and play and be part of the Near-Fest musical community.

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Generally, nothing is formal. If you wish to play certain songs, let us know ahead of time! There?s no guarantee that it will be played, but it will give those who are interested and motivated, time to learn that particular song. Don?t be shy, speak up!

Any and ALL genres or musical styles are welcome. The dominant trend (but not exclusively), has typically been rock?ish ? But THAT really depends on who shows up and plays! You as a participant make it what it is! The most important thing is to show up and play.

If what you play is different than what may be currently playing, or is solo, you must speak up and we will try to put you in. Even if it requires kicking everyone off. It's a learning process for us so we'll do our best to accomodate everyone.

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The general common courtesy guidelines below apply:

• Have Fun!
• Show up early to both set up, and assist anyone who needs help with their equipment
• When playing, do your best to keep the volume down ? It effects all of us and even moreso, those who aren?t amplified.
      I?ve also observed in the past, the crowd thinning out because the volume was too uncomfortable for them.
      Make it good for everyone!
• It?s best to keep the 100-Watter?s at home. It?s a small room and you don?t need much to be heard.
• Give others a chance to come up and play. It may require one to either not play, or just to sit back for a while and enjoy the entertainment.
     It can get really crowded at times.
• Accommodate those who have quieter or acoustic instruments. Adjust accordingly.
• At the end of the night, it?s everyone?s responsibility to help our sound person take down and pack up the PA equipment.
       He volunteers his own equipment and time at no cost to others. We need to show our appreciation to make it worth his time.

...And did I mention? Have Fun!


If you have any questions, just post it here and we?ll try to respond.

Title: Re: Welcome to the Near-Fest 2016 Spring Season Ham Jam!
Post by: KB1NZN on March 23, 2016, 08:27:11 AM

Hello again.

I am enjoying the early spring and hope to see you all there!

-Ben, KB1NZN

Title: Re: Welcome to the Near-Fest 2016 Spring Season Ham Jam!
Post by: Bri on April 14, 2016, 05:49:29 PM

Wow
The board silence is deafening.
Usually there's a ton of chatter going on days/weeks before the fest.
Who's a yes, a maybe or a no?
I'm still on the fence but I'm working on it.
I was told through a friend of a friend who knows someone who is a friend that Rush might be there.
Actually... come to think of it, I wonder if he meant Mush.
No matter.

Bri

Title: Re: Welcome to the Near-Fest 2016 Spring Season Ham Jam!
Post by: DrOptigan on April 16, 2016, 12:55:13 AM

With any luck at all, I will be there with the Farfisa and other cheesy comestibles, errm, keyboards in tow! Been busy working for the Tax Man (hey, there's a song for me to sing at the jam...), but hopefully, things will slow down before too long. Anyway, here's my (un)usual list of some songs we could do:

Badfinger - Baby Blue, No Matter What
Beatles - anything
Black Sabbath - Paranoid, Iron Man, whatever
David Bowie - Ziggy Stardust, Suffragette City, whatever
The Guess Who - No Time, No Sugar Tonight, American Woman, etc.
Led Zeppelin - Whole Lotta Love, Communication Breakdown, etc.
Pink Floyd - Comfortably Numb, Wish You Were Here, etc.
Joe Walsh (WB6ACU!) - Life's Been Good or Rocky Mountain Way (others)
Yes - Roundabout or I've Seen All Good People (might need to bring along helium for these ones...)

Can't wait!  8)
-Adam

Title: Re: Welcome to the Near-Fest 2016 Spring Season Ham Jam!
Post by: N1ERF on April 18, 2016, 12:41:21 PM

I can handle most things you can throw at me (at least on bass anyway). This season, time has been difficult to try to learn stuff on guitar. It requires extra time, which has been in short supply - since I'm a bass player. Been extra busy.

Adam - Just for fun, I just started to try to learn the slide guitar on Rocky Mountain Way. Don't know if I'll be ready by then, but I can probably rough it in enough to sound something like it. Won't be able to do the talk-box though. Don't have one and he switches to standard tuned guitar for that.

Can do American Woman on bass already. Need guitarists...
Can do Badfinger on bass, but still need guitarists...


I can try to offer up songs on guitar that we've played before:

The Stolling Rones - Jumping Jack Flash (Eb - or E if given enough time)
Free - All Right Now
The Hollies - Long Cool Woman (In A Black Dress)

Update: 25-Apr-16:

I also wanted to add Eric Clapton - Cocain, and Joe Walsh - Rocky Mountain Way to the list for guitar (or even bass). I'm going to try to learn it this week...

Anybody else want to add something so we can learn it ahead of time?

Will amend this list later.

Any one else have songs that they want to play? It's helpful for others so there's enough time to learn the stuff...

You should speak up here! Quiet leaders, Take-a-chance'ers and Wisher's, Please let us know!!! Put it out there.

Title: Re: Welcome to the Near-Fest 2016 Spring Season Ham Jam!
Post by: DrOptigan on April 18, 2016, 10:56:39 PM

I know we've done Rocky Mountain Way a few times, usually with Richard singing lead. I generally try to approximate the 'talkbox' with my own voice, in conjunction with the Farfisa. Maybe I can try feeding the mic through one of my Leslie speaker simulators for a similar-ish effect... ;)

I know we did Long Cool Woman at the last jam. Good song, though I'm not the biggest fan of singing it due to the rapid-fire lyrics. I equate it to "ten pounds of lyrics in a five pound song"! Still think I did OK in spite of my cold, even though I got a bit flustered on the last verse. :D Not quite sure what The Hollies were thinking.......... :-\

Hopefully, we can get more suggestions. It seems like most of these jams we do are 'by the seat of our pants'. We'll just have to remember to wear our belts...  ;D
-Adam

Title: Re: Welcome to the Near-Fest 2016 Spring Season Ham Jam!
Post by: Whoz Your Daddy on April 18, 2016, 10:58:39 PM

Ham Jam? EEEWWWWWWWW!
I'm only going if Brian is!

Title: Re: Welcome to the Near-Fest 2016 Spring Season Ham Jam!
Post by: W1RC on April 19, 2016, 07:53:32 AM

I ran into Bri at MIT.  He was "undecided".

73,

MisterMike

Title: Re: Welcome to the Near-Fest 2016 Spring Season Ham Jam!
Post by: Bri on April 25, 2016, 11:15:38 AM

Yo Ham-jamsters,
I will be there!
Not sure what songs I'll be playing so I'm gonna follow John D's lead.

See you soon.

Bri

Title: Re: Welcome to the Near-Fest 2016 Spring Season Ham Jam!
Post by: N1ERF on April 25, 2016, 12:15:13 PM

Brian,

If there was a Thumbs Up "Like" button here, You'd get a double, plus the big toes!  ;D


So I think that "Ham-Jamsters" can be shortened to "Ham-Sters"! What do you think?  8)


Note (song update): See my previous reply for song updates/possibilities/wish list.

Title: Re: Welcome to the Near-Fest 2016 Spring Season Ham Jam!
Post by: Bri on April 25, 2016, 05:47:42 PM

I like the Ham-Sters! It's better than the Ger-bil-ers. Don't go there.
Also, I think I've got a talk box for Rocky mountain way. I need to get new tubing for it tho.
I can do JJ flash in B. The Stones did it in several keys but my dumb ass only knows it in B. See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCMrXC8D05Q or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psC6mk9ZTP4
I'll work on no matter what  and a few others as well.
Hopefully they're 'll be a few surprises along the way as well.
Hell I might even put on new stringz.

Bri

Title: Re: Welcome to the Near-Fest 2016 Spring Season Ham Jam!
Post by: N1ERF on April 27, 2016, 12:25:16 PM

Hey Bri,

I'm not going to have enough time to try to get JJFlash to B. I originally learned it by the record in Eb(or E - or what ever the origninal tuning was as it was recorded). On guitar, I'm still a visual person because it is out of my normal comfort zone. If I had to capo it or retune, I'd be all EFFerred up and would be totally lost. Is your Line 6 able to tune your guitar to that or is it manual tuning/capo for you?


J

Title: Re: Welcome to the Near-Fest 2016 Spring Season Ham Jam!
Post by: KB1NZN on April 28, 2016, 08:42:55 AM

See you all there soon. I'm excited because I get to debut some new toys!   ;D ;D

Title: Re: Welcome to the Near-Fest 2016 Spring Season Ham Jam!
Post by: N1ERF on April 28, 2016, 11:07:16 AM

Woot!

Title: Re: Welcome to the Near-Fest 2016 Spring Season Ham Jam!
Post by: N1ERF on May 01, 2016, 11:24:53 AM

A super big THANKS to everyone who participated in this season's Ham-Jam!

Thanks to the accordion player who also attended (didn't get your name).
Sometimes it's difficult to compete but we we really do appreciate your attendance! You sounded great!

Thanks to Ben (KB1NZN) for being such a "Sound Guy". Your new toys worked great!

Additional (Mucho) thanks to Mr. Mike and the Board of Directors for allowing this event to continue.
Without them we wouldn't have the opportunity to participate in this event.

Hope to see y'all in the fall!

BTW: If anyone got pictures or video, please share! We'd like to see them!

Title: Near-Fest 19 Ham-sters recording
Post by: Bri on May 02, 2016, 07:21:57 PM

Ok, Here it is. Warts and all.
Things to note:
I mounted the recorder above the audiences heads in the ctr. of the room. Should have been what the audience heard. (Unless they were wearing ear plugs)
What this means is if you can't hear what you were playing.. then you weren't loud enough or others were too loud.
What ever. It is what it is.

The only thing I did to the file was cut out most of the chatter and normalize it.
You've been warned.
Also, it's 385mb

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BxaeguxOQivjajQ4SnQwQndMdU0


Thanks,

Bri

Title: Re: Welcome to the Near-Fest 2016 Spring Season Ham Jam!
Post by: DrOptigan on May 04, 2016, 12:38:31 AM

Another great jam in the books! Thanks to everyone who showed up and made it fun, as always. Thanks also to everyone who put up with my singing; got a bit ragged near the end, but I think I held up OK. A shame the Farfisa didn't show up too well in the mix; guess I'll have to crank it louder next time!  ;D
-Adam

Title: Re: Welcome to the Near-Fest 2016 Spring Season Ham Jam!
Post by: W1RC on June 02, 2016, 01:33:15 AM

John, Bri and the rest of the Ham-Jam Crew:

Thank you all for making the "Ham Jam" one of the most popular events of the NEAR-Fester.  I regret that I am not always able to attend but I am sure that you all understand that by Friday night at 8:00 PM I am pretty well toasted and need to crash because Saturday still looms.  However now that I am handing much of the responsibility and work onsite to John, N1JAF, hopefully I will be able to attend the Jam regularly. 

Looking forward to Number XX in only a few months.

73,

MrMike