There was some difficulty getting started on time on account of a couple factors. For one thing I had to load my huge amp out and then go uncover some parking several blocks away, then jog back in the misty philadelphia evening. Fortunately we only rarely rock out at the Ethical and our regular haunt has plenty of parking. For another thing my two earlybirds wanted to chill out a spell before getting into exerciese of any kind, even ZipZapZop. They preferred to wait until the Café du Monde was percolated.
That's right. I bring a -percolator- and fill it with the good stuff.
By 8:30 we had a total of five players, and this small turnout just means that each player gets to do more. Now only one player here had rocked with us before. For this reason we kept to familiar rock*u*bator exercises: Skat, Beastie Boys, Bizarro Boys (a rhythm-without-rhyming exercise), Human Delay Pedal, and Chorus Theory. I'd promised to do a couple new exercises but I wanted to get everyone interacting and being silly and singing, and the new drills could wait.
So here's my proudest moment. I won't name the player but I've sent a PHITblog password to this rockstar's inbox (i think) so perhaps we'll get some third-party perspective on this rock*u*bator thing.
okay wait, i'll do it thru the art of "quoting":
we were doing Skat, and Rockstar-To-Be was tripping over syllables and missing beats and stuff.
"I don't have any rhythm..."
"Of course you do. You can dance. I've seen you dance."
"Yeah but I can't do this."
"Man, sure you can." I snapped a beat with my fingers. "Just keep... a rhythm... like we doin' right here..." And now we were both snapping together. "okay... just talk... while... you keep... the beat... tell me... what... I'm wearing..."
There was definitely some beat-missing here. And just as much as before.
"Okay now keep... moving... from left... to right... Step left... and right... and left... and right.... Okay... we keep... just... dancing... Now... Tell me... what... I'm wearing..."
"you got a blue shirt... and a white tee shirt... and glasses... jeans... and sneakers..."
"Awesome. ...Now... Tell me... what's... behind me..."
"... There's a table... and a picture... and coffee and cups and a book... (...) And your amp, chairs, the wall... and a frame... "
"Awesome. Okay you got it now."
Okay, now you should have heard this verse that was created not even 90min later. We'd created a chorus about how lemons are so sour that you have to take a shower, and then it's MC No-Rhythm (yeah right) dropping this four-line verse about bartending for pseudo-intellectuals and then getting citrus oil all over your hands for your trouble. Or something even better it was amazing, it was on point, it was thematic, it was rhythmic, it rhymed. So awesome.
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