rorykl 3Speak Podcast

https://3speak.tv/watch?v=rorykl/fjcbegxezm
funny, I didn’t ***choose*** to do this on September 11th. Honestly, to me September 11 will always just be my sister’s birthday…yes I said Happy Birthday to her ;)

These lyrics have been crumpling up in my backpack since I printed and prepped them like a month ago…today was just the day so finally got the chance to try playing it, pure chance…but because it seems to potentially apply, I’m tagging the vets I know on here, and repping Hawk Troop 1st Cavalry Regiment, 1st Armored Division, 3rd Brigade Combat Team myself.

Also, this song has been posted in the Acoustic Lounge community. It’s a free-range, no rules/anything goes music club, post any music any time, whether practice or performance - or even questions/help requests etc. Shit, if you wanna sell your Fender Bassman or your Line 6 pedal board - post it, no one’s gonna say shit…unless you get a nibble that is ;)

@wesphilbin

@coinjoe Uploaded using 3Speak Mobile App

https://3speak.tv/watch?v=rorykl/ryhrjqbtoj
I’m changing the naming structure of my videos to prioritize the song name! Uploaded using 3Speak Mobile App

https://3speak.tv/watch?v=rorykl/rethopcuju
Honestly I’m working remote today due to Tropical Storm Debbie, I stopped to take a lunch break, and this song popped into my head!

I listened to this album 1000’s of times in high school, and probably hundreds more times over the years, but never played really anything off of it myself before (I did play *Pretty Pink Ribbon* last year, but that’s from a different album ;)

Anyway, I had forgotten about the bridge part so that got a bit sticker, but otherwise I think we got ourselves a decent storm jam!

Uploaded using 3Speak Mobile App

https://3speak.tv/watch?v=rorykl/tyxynrym
Summer 2024 officially begins! Today I am home with my youngest; it's her first day off for summer so we're having daddy daughter time. She said, daddy are you gonna do some guitar? So I thought, yeah let's dust off the old axe!

Starting off with a little rust, haven't played much since last summer - but this has morivated me to step it up and crank out some solid tunes this summer!

https://3speak.tv/watch?v=rorykl/ovoraxtuvi
Greetings, Hive family! I feel I must start today with an apology for everyone who commented on last week’s video and didn’t see a response – I was travelling all last week and didn’t find myself at any point with enough free time to read and respond to comments, but I value them and will be filtering through them all once I get settled back into things.

In the meantime, I did squeeze in a quick recording opportunity when we got back, so I’m going have to do things a bit out of order here as I will be posting the week two video before I get the chance to respond to week 1 comments – but I will be coming back to cover all the bases!

This week I watched Leo with my wife and two little daughters. I personally loved it, but I always love Adam Sandler. Well, this Adam Sandler connection is what brought about my song selection for this week, Billy Idol’s *Rebel Yell*…remember The Wedding Singer? In the end of the movie, Billy Idol steps in with the other passengers from first class and helps Sandler win the girl? Yeah all that stuff! I know the connection is a loose one at best if I were trying to sell it, but in fact, that really is what made me want to play this song…I watched Leo, heard Sandler’s voice in the lizard, thought of The Wedding Singer, thought of Billy Idol, played Rebel Yell…lol not bad, right?

Although I *have* played this song on Hive before, that was an unrehearsed practice round…this differs in that it is an unrehearsed performance round hahaha – because of the travelling, I didn’t get time to practice and perfect this number, but even without dedicated practice, I think just having tried it once before gave me an advantage and enabled me to do it better the second time around ([here]( https://3speak.tv/watch?v=rorykl/ktgolczb) is the original first recording from 3 months ago).

https://3speak.tv/watch?v=rorykl/wqzzfmjmtc
Man, oh man! I really didn’t realize how long a 3 week break would feel, but I swear by week two I was getting antsy and kinda regretting my decision lol! Although I think I probably will wind up alternating cycles here, the first week and a half felt like such a wasted opportunity! …As the time passed, I came to value that disconnected period. It was a great opportunity to practice new songs without the pressure of trying to spot read them; it was an opportunity to look into some new songs and actually practice them a few times before committing them to video – and that really felt good. On the flip side of that coin however, it also feels very good to be back.

During the time away, I pretty much stayed off social media all together, and while I enjoyed (and will again enjoy) to solace of silent presence found in the absence of various doings, I also enjoy engaging here on Hive and seeing/hearing what the other musicians here are up to. In other words, for me, returning to social media feels just as good as taking a break – all things in moderated cycles!

Today I tried Chris Stapleton’s *Fire Away*. This one has been in the folder for a while, but there were a couple of elements that tripped me up during my first couple practice attempts on this song, which ultimately resulted in my setting this song aside as a “learn this one later” kinda deal…but being more focused on present moment experience (as opposed to recording videos) gave me the opportunity to slow down and practice the song a few times. I think usually I tend to lean towards songs I can pull out of the binder and play without ever learning/practicing, so this cycle will be a different animal than my usual submissions have been.

Anyway, I love this song. I know my version doesn’t replace the original, but hopefully I’ve managed to do it justice here today.

Thanks for checking it out, and I hope you enjoy the rest of the Hive Music Festival!

https://3speak.tv/watch?v=rorykl/pcbmckpuyq
upload test. thanks @sagarkothari88!

https://3speak.tv/watch?v=rorykl/bseayfdmkq
upload test. thanks @sagarkothari88!

https://3speak.tv/watch?v=rorykl/begloabzuz
I guess I unconsciously chose to make “experimental” the running theme for these three rounds.

Today I am doing Dos Oruguitas, by Lin-Manuel Miranda...en Español. This is super

experimental, particularly because I am not fluent in Spanish. I can read/pronounce characters,

but I don’t often know what the words I’m saying actually mean.

I’ve been trying to learn Spanish for decades now, but my progress has been extremely slow.

One method I’ve been using to better my pronunciation/comprehension is listening to music in

Spanish, and attempting to learn to sing along and understand the words – but site-reading in a

new language is a far greater challenge than doing so in one’s native tongue...so I must give

much props to all the great artists on Hive who are singing songs in a second language – you

have my admiration!

I chose this song, honestly because I wanted to stick with the theme of trying new and

challenging things, but also of course because I think this is such a beautiful song. Although I

don’t know a lot of the words in Spanish, I actually printed the chords out with Spanish *and*

English. Mostly I did this in case I got stuck and needed to switch over to English to finish the

song, but as it turned out, this was a great way for me to learn a lot of new words.

I appreciate so much all the kind words and support that I’ve gotten from the Music Zone

community here on Hive – this truly is a place like no other. I will be taking a break next cycle,

taking some time off from recording/posting in general, in order to clear my mind and try to

keep things fresh – but never the less I will be looking forward to seeing the great music put

forth by all the other awesome and talented participants here in the Hive Music Festival, and

also to coming back to jam some more in the future!

https://3speak.tv/watch?v=rorykl/jueyblvprv
Paul Simon’s *Graceland* album came into my life during a par�cularly special �me in my young development. The unique rhythms and melodies, paired with the very powerful voices of Ladysmith Black Mambazo (a contemporary South African a cappella group) touched me in ways no other music ever had. The songs accomplished myriad different sounds and archetypes, with melodies feeling light and free, yet o�en �mes lyrically heavy. The tracks on this album have a wis�ul, light and bouncy feel, while touching on darker corners of life’s turmoil in the lyrics – a sort of beau�ful irony in that the music is charged with whimsical spontaneity in it’s *feel*, but much of the lyrical content points to darker themes of pain and loss. I don’t know what Paul’s inten�ons were in wri�ng these songs the way he did, but to me it feels a lot like mindfulness in mo�on...seeing, feeling and acknowledging and holding our awareness on painful concepts, but having enough presence to recognize that there is also happiness and fun in these moments if we allow enough space within ourselves to maintain an awareness of both...but Paul might read this and say I’m ***way*** off :)

To be honest, if I were going to speak in more technical terms with regard to this album and its crea�on, I’d just end up whipping up another version of what @jasperdick has already done so well, so might as well just point you in the direc�on of his recording of *Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes* if that’s something you’d like to read more about – he not only gave a fantas�c breakdown of the album and its history, but has also covered several of the songs from this album with tremendous precision, skill, and innova�on...if you haven’t already, I’d recommend checking that out!

Instead of atemp�ng to redo what I feel has already been done really well, I thought I might use this space to talk about this par�cular song, its connec�on to me, and why I chose to use it for today’s performance.

As a young teen, I had travelled a good bit with my family and gone along with many moves around the world resul�ng from my dad’s career as a member of the army band...but s�ll, I would not consider myself as having been worldly at the �me. This song – and a lot of the album – felt like a window into another world (ironic, no? *Losing love is like a window in your heart*).

My musical interests went in phases throughout my years. In the first years, I liked the kid music that prety much all kids like. As my developmental focus shi�ed from the emo�onal to the mental, I began taking on the music of my parents in that natural subconscious early age drive to please them. Next, when my developmental focus shi�ed once further, from mental to physical, and my need to please had changed from trying to please my parents to reflec�ng and projec�ng them onto others/”fit in,” I began making musical choices that jived with the other kids I was mee�ng. I had just moved to New York, and the first friend groups I tried ge�ng in with were all punk rockers or metal heads, so naturally, that’s what I got into. I hadn’t found my own music or my own way, I had just found a group to conform with that wasn’t my parents...so when the Graceland album flowed and �ckled my tympanic membrane, it excited me with the promise of something different and special. There was no group of kids in my high school who would want to be caught jamming to this, but somehow to me it felt so authen�c.

Listening to this song, I could close my eyes and *see* Joseph. In my mind’s eye, he strolled like Andy Dufresne through the prison yard; surrounded by wilderness and a poten�ally hos�le environment yet, focused on the beauty of nature around him and the stars above, his face looked serenely content, his resolve unwavering, and his path unobscured. As I struggled to make friends and fit in in my new environment, I drew strength from my vision of Joseph and, somehow, I believed this song had been writen, performed and released in the past...just so it could be here for me in this �me.

The Graceland album gives me great joy and inspira�on to this day, so recently I printed off the chords and set out to learn this song (among several from the album). A week or two ago, I began prac�cing a technique I’ve never really worked on before, using the body of the guitar as a percussive instrument. When I first start prac�cing a new technique, I tend to gravitate towards finding songs that will meld with the new technique organically and rela�vely easily...this helps me turn the “new technique” into a standard tool in my tool box, and once it reaches that point it’s usually fairly easy to adapt the technique to other (more challenging) applica�ons. For the percussive playing technique, that meant finding a song with minimal chord changes, minimal nuances, and hopefully no challenging chords...that meant that *Under African Skies* would be a great test bed for the percussive technique, and I believe that proved to be an accurate analysis.

This song is just | C F C G | repeat...the whole �me. Verse and chorus share the same rhythm and melody, dis�nguished only by varia�on of overtones. When I set out to play/record this song, the inten�on was only to use the kick drum (the palm against the body of the guitar gives a bass-like “kick drum” sound) – but when I got to the chorus, something in me just ins�nc�vely chose to try doing kick and snare drums together (snare drum is emulated by smacking the E and A strings with the side of the thumb). I didn’t plan that or anything, so it kind of threw me off when it happened, but when I saw what I was doing and realized I had subconsciously changed the percussive sound to accent the chorus, I knew I’d have to stay focused and remember to (A) switch back to only the kick drum when returning to the verse, and (B) switch again back to the kick/snare combo for the second chorus...this certainly impacted my �ming and thought process during recording, as it was a wildly unplanned modifica�on, but it came out surprisingly well, so I’ve decided to keep this rough version with its imperfec�ons. Also, no�ce a�er the first da oomba oomba part or whatever, there was a cool accident that happened where my fingers got caught up in the strings and accidentally played a 16th note! As I prac�ce this song going forward, I will be trying to repeat that and spread it throughout to give the melody a more well-rounded feel. There are also many other percussive techniques I have yet to try/learn, but currently I feel that these basics should be prety well mastered before I try to move on and add further complica�ons.

Anyway, sorry this got a litle longer than required...extra points if you read the whole thing!