Recordings on long car trips do wonders. There are a number of klez sound clips online that can be downloaded. Some old thread had a link. Can't find it for ya-- puder problems.

I'm doing that myself. Not with klez, but that is where all of our band's gospel material comes from... All styles, all forms of gospel-- started with LPs copied to car tapes, then went to tapes, then to CDs copied to car tapes, now it's MP3s copied to car tapes.... you soak them up till they take root in your head and take on a life of their own, and then you try to produce what you are hearing in your head.... not a copy of the original, but what your head has morphed it into. For instance there is a black gospel piece we want to do, and it has that strong back-chanting thing from the backup guys, behind the lead singer/testifier. We do not have such a backup force. But my autoharp can stride that part out, and the bom'pa-bom vocal line that does the bass, well our guitar player can do that part, and so forth. I can hear it now, so now we can start to work it up.

I imagine it should be the same with klez, really. But I would love to go to the klez camp and see how it's done there. If they allow a visit to see about a signup for next year, I'd go check it out.

Online Klez societies??? Annual klez fests?

And please-- post what you learn, here in this thread, so it's there for others later on!

~Susan