I'm starting work on a new rock instrumental. This is the first one of those I've done in a couple of years. I'm sure it'll have some jazzy bits, but I've been getting some of the rock feel back in the last few weeks and have the need to express that. I'm envisioning something fairly lean and mean.
To get myself in the mood, I just listened to a big dose of Kansas on the stereo. Great '70s, man!
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Saturday, March 7, 2009
New songs: Millennial Muse Parts 1 & 2
Millennial Muse Part 1:
Millennial Muse Part 2:
Yet more guitar/drums duet stuff. These are the first pieces that I've recorded with my Heritage Millennium DC semi-hollow guitar. I used the same amplifier setting as the other guitar/drums duets, so see if you can tell the difference. Personally, I think the Millennium gives a richer, more lustrous sound, but takes away a little bit of the bite that the Heritage Les Paul adds. Two different voices, and both very cool.
I'll have more to say about the Heritage Millennium, and all of my guitars, in the coming weeks. The weather is finally getting nice enough to do some outdoor photography of all my lovely guitars. I still intend to do a "Guitar of the Day" feature soon. Maybe I'll start tomorrow.
Friday, March 6, 2009
New songs: Prehistoric Fish Parts 1-3
These are yet more guitar/drums duets, which I recorded last Wednesday but got too lazy to upload and glorify with artwork until tonight. Why call them "Prehistoric Fish"? Why the hell not?
I actually recorded all three guitar parts over the drum performance found on Part 1, but then recorded new drums for Parts 2 & 3, since I liked all three guitar performances and wanted them to shine separately.
Saturday, February 21, 2009
New song: Funkoverture
I hope you like this one. I recorded most of it months ago but procrastinated on programming and recording the final drums until today. It's got layers of guitars over a mid-tempo funk beat. I recorded the clean rhythm and recurring melody with my parts stratocaster, the lead in the left channel with my Heritage Les Paul, and the lead in the right channel with my KXK 7-string. This was a tougher one to mix down, since there is a lot going on in the same frequency range. I used some funny EQ on the melody part to better distinguish it from the lead parts going over it.
I normally hate the process of programming drums, but this is the first time it didn't seem like pulling teeth. The complicated sequencer in my Yamaha Motif ES-6 keyboard gets easier to deal with as you use it more. I'm starting to think that more of this type of drum programming lies ahead, along with the live drumpad performances that go with my free jazz improvisations.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
What the hell was that?
Do you like how I just dropped off those little audio and visual nuggets on you last night without explanation?
Perhaps I should do a little explaining now. Actually, it's pretty simple. It's guitar. And drums!
I took the concept of the drum/guitar duet from John Coltrane's album Interstellar Space, which was a collection of duets he recorded with drummer Rashied Ali on a single day in February, 1967. I like the idea of having endless freedom on guitar to go wherever my mood takes me. The difficult lies in making the part something more than a bunch of random noodling. Recording this kind of duet requires a lot of thinking on the fly if you want the results to be musical.
The two versions of "Decaffeinated" are simply two different guitar takes that I overdubbed over the same clangorous drum part. The first version I recorded without any prep or forethought. It has a certain inspiration to it and is perhaps the smoother take. The second version introduces a basic melodic theme that recurs at various points, giving it more of a finished feel. The playing is hotter in the second version, also. If I was still doing albums, that would be the version I'd use. But since I'm not limited by the album format, I figured I should throw both versions out there for your amusement.
I call it "Decaffeinated" to celebrate the fact that this is the week I quit caffeine cold turkey. The reasons for doing that aren't germane here, but it did inspire both the title and the artwork--which is just a photo of a coffee cup taken on my dining room table, and then heavily tweezed in Adobe Illustrator. Lots 'o fun!
As a final note, I was just too damned tired this evening to record another duet, but hopefully I will do so tomorrow, and then work on a more developed piece this weekend.
Perhaps I should do a little explaining now. Actually, it's pretty simple. It's guitar. And drums!
I took the concept of the drum/guitar duet from John Coltrane's album Interstellar Space, which was a collection of duets he recorded with drummer Rashied Ali on a single day in February, 1967. I like the idea of having endless freedom on guitar to go wherever my mood takes me. The difficult lies in making the part something more than a bunch of random noodling. Recording this kind of duet requires a lot of thinking on the fly if you want the results to be musical.
The two versions of "Decaffeinated" are simply two different guitar takes that I overdubbed over the same clangorous drum part. The first version I recorded without any prep or forethought. It has a certain inspiration to it and is perhaps the smoother take. The second version introduces a basic melodic theme that recurs at various points, giving it more of a finished feel. The playing is hotter in the second version, also. If I was still doing albums, that would be the version I'd use. But since I'm not limited by the album format, I figured I should throw both versions out there for your amusement.
I call it "Decaffeinated" to celebrate the fact that this is the week I quit caffeine cold turkey. The reasons for doing that aren't germane here, but it did inspire both the title and the artwork--which is just a photo of a coffee cup taken on my dining room table, and then heavily tweezed in Adobe Illustrator. Lots 'o fun!
As a final note, I was just too damned tired this evening to record another duet, but hopefully I will do so tomorrow, and then work on a more developed piece this weekend.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Getting ready for the aches and pains
I'm getting ready to do some actual recording tomorrow. I'm starting to feel mentally ready to tackle the challenges of a guitar/drum duet format. The main challenge is to make the guitar solo compelling enough to stand by itself with only drums clattering away in the background. What it really requires is absolute commitment and full attention. Playing a bunch of stock licks won't cut it. I think I'm ready.
I'm also finally starting to feel physically better again. I overplayed this weekend and gave myself a hell of a backache, as well as sore wrists and hands. Playing the way I do is taxing on a 41-year-old body. Add in the fact that I quit caffeine cold turkey yesterday (after several weeks of steadily decreasing my daily "dose"), and I was just a bloody mess yesterday. With the aches and pains, I didn't sleep well last night, so I was too tired to be musically productive tonight, other than an hour or so of getting into 'the zone' with the Les Paul. A nice confidence builder for tomorrow.
I'm going to be recording the Les Paul with a particularly nasty distorted setting on my Axe-FX preamp. Think Zappa at his best/worst. Of course, you the reader have almost no idea what my various guitars look like. To remedy that, I'm planning to start a Guitar of the Day series here with some pics of my babies. Some of which I may be giving up for adoption soon.
I'm also finally starting to feel physically better again. I overplayed this weekend and gave myself a hell of a backache, as well as sore wrists and hands. Playing the way I do is taxing on a 41-year-old body. Add in the fact that I quit caffeine cold turkey yesterday (after several weeks of steadily decreasing my daily "dose"), and I was just a bloody mess yesterday. With the aches and pains, I didn't sleep well last night, so I was too tired to be musically productive tonight, other than an hour or so of getting into 'the zone' with the Les Paul. A nice confidence builder for tomorrow.
I'm going to be recording the Les Paul with a particularly nasty distorted setting on my Axe-FX preamp. Think Zappa at his best/worst. Of course, you the reader have almost no idea what my various guitars look like. To remedy that, I'm planning to start a Guitar of the Day series here with some pics of my babies. Some of which I may be giving up for adoption soon.
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