Brubeck, Take Five.

Stumbled across this YT of Dave Brubeck's quartet performing "Take Five" only a few years after it was first released.

Most interesting.  My first impression is that it's too fast to let the tune really breathe.  For me at least, one of the many brilliances of "Take Five" as originally recorded is that it is just at the edge of as-fast-as-possible, but distinctly under it.  Whenever I sit down with the piece myself, I tend to like it slower and slower, regardless of my ability to play it.  There are so many little ridiculously tasty nuances that Desmond puts into both the melody and the blowing...and they necessarily race past, here.

Now, that said:  I quite love this.  You can get a much greater appreciation for Morello by watching him, and he is on fine display here.  Desmond does a great job at handling the higher tempo, although to my ear he sounds like he feels rushed, even when blowing.  It's great to watch Brubeck play, even though this tune is not a vehicle for him.  I don't know much about Gene Wright;  from long listening I would pay him the compliment that I never really notice the bass in Brubeck's recordings.  (I tend to think of bass players in three simple categories:  the ones who grate on me, the ones I never "notice", and the ones that may not in fact be human.  That middle category may be the working definition of excellence in craft.)  As a group:  pretty solid, to be sure!

Anyway, I wanted the YT to be available here.

Tuck Andress, ninja master.

Hotel Foxtrot Sierra, how is it that I have not paid any attention to Tuck Andress until now?

I need to document the series of YouTube videos that someone has made from what must have been a VHS tape.  They are phenomenally dense, in terms of what they present;  Andress has a master instructor's poise and delivery, which wholly aside from his jaw-dropping guitar mastery is simply impressive to watch.

The first video is here:

Other ones in the series seem to go to volume nine, and those were all just gold-mines of information.  This short captures an example that Andress makes of his technique of playing multiple parts at the same time:

The guy really is a Jedi Master of guitar-fu.  And in addition to all the instructional stuff, it's equally inspiring just to watch him play:

Well.  If it took me this long to discover this resource, I'll damn sure see if I can make the most out of the discovery now.  :-)

Diatonic scales with CGDEbGC

Another documentation post, really.  In working with this open minor-add-9 tuning (C-G-D-Eb-G-C) I've been exploring the top three strings somewhat methodically, which is a bit amusing since the intervals of Eb-G-C are the same as the standard tuning (G-B-E, two whole steps up), and I've never really studied the standard tuning yet.  Which has led to an observation I'll get to shortly.

First was triads on these strings, done within my usual "box" of three voicings per triad, advancing each string one chord tone to achieve it.  So, in this tuning, at the nut is C/E, C/G is at the fourth and fifth frets, and C in root inversion is at the seventh and ninth frets...et cetera.  Shortly I was running through a standard exercise that has me play, up and down, backward and forward, the C major scale in triad forms, from nut to octave.  So:  C/E, C/G, C, then Dm/F, Dm/A, Dm, then Em/G, Em/B, Em, and so on.  Along with each of the main forms I also tried to note where the sus4 would go, and I'm pretty comfortable that this will shortly become a standard part of the internalized chord library.

Then, I tried adding bass notes to these basic forms, to try and figure out where the fingerings should go.  This is an interesting exercise, since there is often a choice of where a bass note can or should be located, and I'm not by any means done with it yet.  Inadvertently, the little working I've done so far has suggested a specific approach to diatonic seventh forms, wherein the chord is constructed of an appropriate bass note and an appropriate top triad.  This brings back the "tertian arithmetic" idea in a very practical way, and I'm happy to think of a Cmaj7 as an Em triad over the C3 note on my fifth string, or the C2 open sixth...or maybe the Em triad in up-neck inversions over the C4 note on the fourth string.  And that's just with root inversions;  I think I'll dig into that a little more when the library of top-three-string triads becomes more purely autonomic.

It also suggests an interesting idea with respect to tunings:  if I really can master the basic triad and sus forms on the standard tuning's intervals in the top three strings, I might be able to shift the bottom three strings around more at-will, to make available a family of tunings with a common set of top intervals.  So...with a real mastery of "GBE" chord construction, I could take advantage of fifths in the bass with CGDEbGC or CGDGBE, fourths with EADGBE or DGCEbGC (or similar), or a combination like DADFAD.

Which brings me to today.  I was able to work out the seven modes of the major scale on the top three strings, which of course is a great exercise to start to help you to "see" all the notes of the key everywhere on the neck.  I've still got a few fingering decisions to work out, or perhaps to learn them all so that they'll all be available depending on what else I'm doing at the time.  More work on up and down, backward and forward:  my fingers should tell me what is going to be most efficient.  What was encouraging was that I also started to see how I could connect a "lower octave" scale from the bottom three strings, to the "upper octave" scale on the top three strings.  The basic concept here might do well with that "family of tunings with differing bass strings" idea.

More on that as soon as I can.  With the ability to play all the triads and sevenths of a key, and the ability to play all seven modes of the scale, we're really getting somewhere important.  With that in hand, plus the ability to take advantage of the harmonic mayhem of a minor-second interval between fourth and third strings, I should become pretty dangerous in this wacky experiment.  :-)

Working with CGDEbGC

A bit of a documentation post here.  After some nice experiments with the DADFAD tuning over the summer, I somehow ran across the idea of CGDEbGC, and have been quite enjoying it.  This tuning has some interesting features:

• Top three strings are standard tuning intervals.
• Bottom three strings are the fifth intervals I know from Guitar Craft.
• The two three-string groups are offset by a minor second (D-Eb).
• Sixth and first strings are two octaves apart.
• Fifth and second strings are one octave apart.
• Open, the tuning is a Cm add9, which is nice.
• There is an entire G harmonic minor scale in harmonics available on the fifth, fourth, third and first strings;  if you omit the subdominant note (the first harmonic on the first string) this is extremely convenient to the fingers.

Obviously there are going to be some interesting options in chord construction, but I'm not fully there yet.  I think I might get around to it, though--some of the sounds are just gorgeous.  This last week I've turned my attention to the triads on the top three strings (remember, I'm actually new to standard tuning), and thought about how to incorporate a bass note intelligently.  In that regard, having the fourth string offset a whole tone above the first string (D to C), instead of below (as with D to E), it seems more comfortable to finger the three-string triad with middle, ring and pinky fingers and leave the index finger to find the bass note, rather than relegating that role to the pinky.

Melodically, I'm finding that I'm gravitating toward the "ignore the third string" philosophy, and thinking of the basic minor scale in terms of fifths intervals for the first octave and fourths intervals for the second.

The next step with chords, once I've really got the triads down, is to tackle sevenths.  I suspect that is where I'll find out whether this can be a general purpose tuning, or should be relegated to tunes specifically composed to take advantage of it.  Depending on how the fingerings work with that fourth string, I may look at solving the problem with a polychord approach, and I admit that forcing myself to use that concept as a core portion of my playing might not be a bad thing at all.

In addition to the ongoing tuning thoughts, I've been working a little bit more deliberately on a controlled three-string burst with the right hand, ascending (i-m-a).  For whatever reason, my fingers have always seemed to be pretty comfortable with such a cascade descending (a-m-i), but I've been impatient with the reverse and haven't given it the attention it deserves.  In trying to incorporate it into my triad work on the top three strings, my ear has something much more specific to focus on and it's suddenly started to improve. 

Yay!

Strength in Numbers on YouTube

More documenting.  Again from YouTube, this old jewel about newgrass supergroup Strength in Numbers, which features a rousing performance of "Blue Men of the Sahara" starting at 2:38.

I first saw it on a VHS in the early days of my attending the Telluride Bluegrass Festival, and of course what immediately struck me about the performance was the interplay between Edgar Meyer (bass) and Mark O'Connor (fiddle).  Edgar is full "goad mode on" here, and O'Connor just tears it up.

At the time, my wife (who wasn't exactly heavy into bluegrass) commented that that fella may look like a truck driver at first glance, but then he does things you don't usually expect truck drivers to do.

And then some.  O'Connor does things you don't usually expect mortal human beings to do.

Shakti on YouTube

Documenting.  By one of those glorious accidents, I ran across a YouTube of Shakti from 1974, and as one might imagine it deserves to be noted here.

God, I love YouTube.

And that's just about what I'd have expected to see, to go along with those precious and magnificent audio recordings.  The greatest fault with the original Shakti is that there was not more of it.

Among those things that came along and just knocked my musical ear right on its very ass, Shakti rates among the highest;  unlike most folks I know, I don't consider the Mahavishnu Orchestra to be the crown jewel of McLaughlin's substantial career.  No offense to that great project, but I'll take Shakti any day.

Still here...

...and for the first time in a long while I got some good time--that is, time enough actually to start listening--in with an instrument.  In this case it was the SoloEtte, still tuned in DADFAD, through the iPhone and the Line 6 MobileIn interface.  (The open minor seems to suit me pretty well.)

Very percussive feeling today--most likely some frustration working itself out.  A few discoveries about the tuning's geometries, which hopefully I'll be able to follow up on soon.  Also some hand mechanics fell a little more into place;  based upon John Danley's Satori being stuck in my head, I learned a couple of things about the Preston Reed-style "over the fingerboard" left hand which are intriguing.  (I may have to study Tractor Pull a little more.  :-)

Episodes like this seem to serve two purposes.  First, they frustrate me greatly as I am reminded that the state of being "all ideas, no discipline" is severely limiting.  Gah! 

On the other hand, they also can fuel me so that I can survive these agonizingly long periods between sessions.

iPhone thoughts.

A while back, when I first found out about the Alesis iO Dock, I started thinking about the iPad as the centerpiece of a minimalist do-it-all rig, that would suit what I (think I) want to do.  I still think it's a pretty good idea, and Alesis' new AmpDock seems to be a step above the iO Dock in several very important respects.  Had I an iPad of my own, I'd probably already be down that path.

Here, about a year later, due to a couple of really interesting discoveries and my first week on the road in several years, I'm starting to think about the iPhone as well.  First, and the software centerpiece of the idea, is the FourTrack app from Sonoma Wire Works:

Now if I'm reading everything right, this is one nifty app;  it's not just an app in a vacuum but a framework for plugging in other related apps like loops, FX, etc., and hopefully (more on which in a moment) hardware.  It strikes me as well-designed and easy to use, based on the YouTube presence (just consider this one, done by a user rather than by Sonoma itself.).  Oh yeah, and it's five bucks for all the starter stuff.  (Thus far it does not appear that people have been complaining that you have to make lots of in-app purchases to do meaningful things, which can be a gotcha with iOS apps in general.)  Sonoma also offers GuitarTone (an FX/modeling app with a free core and available paid upgrade plugins, which both works standalone and as a "tool" within FourTrack), several variants of the InstantDrummer app (creates drum patterns/loops and is also a "tool" within FourTrack, at $3 per "style" specialty), and even a boutique partnership app called Taylor EQ (like GuitarTone, also a standalone app and FourTrack "tool";  this one offers EQ to emulate or cement the Taylor guitar sound).  The set of apps also has the capacity for "audio copy/paste" and offers a creative way to conveniently get at your sound files for reprocessing in a traditional software DAW.  (Being a software developer myself, some of these tricks not only promise great functional utility, but actually endear the company to my "scrapper-friendly" aesthetic.)

This seems to solve, for me at least, the problem of some sort of serious competition to GarageBand in terms of being able to do both FX and basic multitrack recording at the same time.  For this, it needs only a serious hardware interface, and although Sonoma's own GuitarJack seems solid and well-regarded, and truly able to do much of what I would want to do on an iPhone (especially on the road), last night I stumbled onto the Tascam iU2.  Check this out:

This little box, through some creative cabling and switching, offers two simultaneous inputs for either 1/4" or XLR cables, optional phantom power, internal preamps, mic/line selectors (or a guitar DI on the left channel), standard MIDI I/O, RCA and digital outs, direct monitoring--in short, a usable 2x2 hardware interface.  Here's where it gets really interesting, though:  this unit can deliver to an iOS device through an external dongle for the 30-pin dock, or can go via USB to a computer like a traditional recording interface.  When connected to the computer, it's powered by the computer's USB cable;  when connected to the iOS device, it's device-powered--and you can take the device's power brick and hook it into the iU2's USB port, in which case your device's AC brick recharges the device through the iU2.  Now that's clever, and useful. 

So:  if you have access to a computer for recording, you can use that (like the PreSonus AudioBox USB I'd figured I'd get someday, which offers basically the same input features);  if you are fully portable or on the road, use the same box to go directly into the device.  It seems to have a nice small footprint:  4.4" square and not an inch thick;  it looks to be hardly larger than the Pandora PX4 I carried around for so many years on the road, but coupled with the iPhone it's tremendously more powerful.  And at $150 or so, it looks like once again I may be able to pay less and get more.

I have not validated yet that the Sonoma apps will recognize the iU2, but I'm hopeful. If I'm on the road enough, it may be worth it to me to also get the GuitarJack and the recommended microphone just for the ultimate in compactness, but after playing a bit with Line 6's MobileIn interface, I'd always prefer a separate dock dongle to something that puts angular tension on the device's docking port.  (I'd make an exception for the iM2 stereo iOS microphone, which won't have a 1/4" guitar cable dangling off the end;  I'm also hopeful that the Sonoma apps will recognize that hardware as well...it should be great for minimalist acoustic instrument or ambient recording.

Food for thought.  It's exciting...and getting cheaper, smaller, and better.  Technology's fun, isn't it?

__________________________
For anyone who might stumble across this post:  if you have contributory opinions I'd love to hear them.  How are Tascam preamps regarded, compared to PreSonus'?  Any serious loss of quality expected from the "converter" cables that take MIDI and XLR  to 1/4"?  And for that matter, how about the RCA line outs;  any difficulties or problems with those?  Anyone have personal experience or knowledge about the Sonoma apps?  Are the above ideas totally off the rocker?  What is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?  (We never did get a good answer to that, did we?  :-)

Phil Keaggy - County Down

For anyone who, for whatever reason, might stumble across this post:  I would humbly implore you to improve your life just a little bit by stopping what you're doing and watching this performance.  Get up close, play it through the best audio system you have available, and let yourself get into it--you won't be disappointed.

Well...actually, you may be disappointed...by the way the video ends.  (I, for one, really would have wanted to see how he ends the piece.)

I find it difficult to overstate the sheer musicality of Phil Keaggy's acoustic instrumental music, and this is not a genre that is exactly bereft of massive talent.  Here, you can see a pretty full range of his gifts:  aside from some of the obvious technical facility and "unusual" (for anyone outside the genre) techniques, I am most struck by his command of dynamics and the exquisitely beautiful arrangement.  Simply fantastic.

There are uncountable great musicians, and then there are some who, it seems clear, are on a temporary loan program from something bigger than us.  Although I came to Keaggy late and still need to explore more of his work, it sure seems like he may have a place in that latter group.

Chalk one up in the "needed to hear that today" category.

Wankery with BbFCGDG

Spent a little time with Bb1-F2-C3-G3-D4-G4 again today, both open and with partial capos (003333, 033333, 001111, and 444400.  I think I'm going to like this tuning.

Started working with Scott Tennant's Pumping Nylon, and I think that book is going to be a big eye-opener for some right hand techniques.  My fingers are starting to find some comfort in scale runs, but studying Tennant's work may be a quicker path there.  Very well, exercises then.  Not a bad thing.  :-)

Tried to pick up the G-major Bach Cello Prelude again and some of it fell quite naturally into the fingerstyle idiom.  I think it may be good for me to get a couple of old tunes back into the fingers with this new style, in addition to the structured exercises and some good old fashioned wankery.  At some point (soon, I hope) I'll start to put some recording mojo into place.  (The upstairs office is only a session or two away from this possibility, and I'm starting to taste it.)

Anyway, to document.  Tonight I spent most of my time in minor mode, trying to feel fingers, rhythm, transitions, and movement between techniques (slap harmonics, straight notes, popped harmonics, rasgueados, etc.);  there's a lot just in there that I'll have to pay attention to.  But it's coming.

Thoughts: 

• Keep the classical in standard tuning, at least through working with Tennant's book.  
• Until reconfiguring as a 5-string, string the Guitalong in 6 nylons, D3-D2-A2-E3-B3-E4, standard string set with "4th string" on 6,  "6th string" on 5, and "5th string" on 4.  Give that a shot.
• I'm liking the idea of working up the SoloEtte as "do-all" instrument, with GraphTech Ghost system and one or two mag pickups for ebow.  That could be a nice arrangement.

Now:  sleep.

Still here.

Lots of ideas right now, but little discipline.  That should change fairly quickly, as I was reminded that there is an ongoing open mic at Alice's recently, and it would be wise of me to make sure that the girls, at least, start to see more of Dad up on stage.  That may be an adequate rallying cry to get things moving;  whatever it is, I'm game. 

Recently got hold of a Planet Waves "Trio" partial capo, which is good for either four or five outer strings:

Based on the limited look I've given it so far, this may become a real workhorse.  Capoed 001111 in the C2-G2-D3-A3-E4-B3 tuning I've had the Ovation in lately, that makes a really nice open Cm11 with roots on sixth and first strings, with some lovely minor intervals for the offset harmonic nodes.  Then, today, testing out a new tuning Bb1-F2-C3-G3-D4-G4 capoed 003333 on the SoloEtte (for a Bbsus across open strings and more open intervals across the offset harmonic nodes), I was struck again at how nice it is to have predictable notes above the capo.  Going back to the Ovation, I turned things around and capoed 444400 (which would be what, E6/9 I think?  It's late) and quickly found some really nice major mode territory to play with.  Yeah, I think I'll like this 4-stringer.

Need to order the 1- and 2-string "G-Bands" for capoing one and two outer strings, and get the Shubb "Esus" partial capo for stopping three adjacent inner strings.  With those four capos in the arsenal, along with the Third Hand, one should be able to do everything that you can do with a partial capo, and I'm looking forward to trying them all out.  It's a nifty idea!

Wanted to document the tunings I'm currently working with, so I don't forget:

• C2-G2-D3-A3-E4-B3.  All fifths, but with the wrinkle of the first string being lower than the second.  Jury's still out on this one in the melodic sense, but harmonically it is really nice having three four-string groups all in fifths, and the top four strings now put the third degree on top in the most convenient "root inversion" shape.  And that 001111 partial capo is intoxicating.
• Bb1-F2-C3-G3-D4-G4.  Huge range, but starting to get funky with string gauges.  Even with a 59 on the sixth string, that's a bit floppy, and on the other hand that high G (the same G that the Guitar Craft uses for the first string and twelve-stringers use for the third-string octave) is either too tight for good slap harmonics, or might start to lose real volume with a suitably tiny string gauge.  (The second-octave and major-third harmonics on the G string, capoed up to Bb, are some high notes.  :-)   Jury's out on this one too, but I'll play with it some more.  Melodically I do like that fourth "on top", because if your root note is the open first string, the second string is the fifth degree, down.  That's got some conveniences.
• D3-D2-A2-E3-B3-E4.  This one occurred to me today, for nylon-string instruments, whose string-gauge requirements are much more of a challenge than steel-string ones.  The idea is to have a core four-string group, all fifths, in the middle, for melodic work and basic chord construction, letting the sixth and first strings perform outlier tasks.  The first string is a fourth up from the second, giving that V-I option that is such a strength of standard tuning, and also enabling both convenient power chords as a 3-string barre over 1-2-3 and also convenient octaves on 1 and 3 (that latter sounds nice).  The sixth string, on a nylon, is just not going to go down to G1 (nor is the first string going to go much above E4), so why not make that an octave too, a la the "Aerial Boundaries" tuning but in reverse?  I'll string up the beater classical with that arrangement and see how it goes.

Okay, time for sleep.  Got some ideas for re-purposing the instruments into different roles, and it seems that the next instrument that I will need will be a twelve-string--based on a little poking I did while on a recent trip Outside.  Again, many ideas, little time, and less discipline.

Time to change that.  Some of these ideas are worth pursuing.  :-)

Sartori in Tangier: documenting a wee bit o'Crim.

Ran into this late last night, when I needed some real, honest-to-God noise.

Wow.  Robert delivers.

I've always loved this tune, even before I ever heard a live recording of it.  And then, when I finally did...well, there is just no preparing for what you see when you watch the 80s King Crimson do this piece live.  The first time I did, my internal monologue went something like this:

Wait, Belew's on drums?  But the whole theme is there...no, Robert's not playing anything yet...holy shit, that's all Tony?  What the...yes, yes it is.  Okay then, who's going to play the keyboard part?  Okay, there it's winding up, but who's doing it?  Robert's nowhere near a key-...oh, he's playing it through the guitar?  Yeah, well, that's kind of like the sound on the record, or rather it was a minute ago before he added another power grid's worth of "live wire" sound on his way up the ramp...and HFS, just look at him go!  Either he's going to pop an aneurysm, or I am, because this is just unbelievable.

At the time I had no idea what a guitar synthesizer was, and the only live Crimson I'd heard before was of the '70s band, which featured an actual keyboard (Mellotron), so I was just not ready for those sounds to go with that picture.  But hell, there they were, and anyone who has heard both the studio recording and any live performance from that period can tell you they are two completely different animals.  While absolutely being the same tune.

There's a lot of King Crimson that works well--really well--when my head needs to just light off a flamethrower and torch noise with noise.  "Sartori" is at least near the tippy top of the heap, and may actually rest there.  Here it is, as a document, if nothing else.

Soul food...for a week, at least.

Pardon my French, but fuck a duck.

Just listen.  Closely.  With attention.  And marvel at what human beings are capable of.  The phrase, "that band is tight" is simply wholly inadequate to describe what happens here.

The unaccompanied piano solo is a masterpiece;  by itself it will eat your brain while it feeds your soul. The band's re-entry and continued piano feature is magnificent;  these gents are smooth.  Then, just when you think they're spent, there's one of those capital-M moments between Cohen and Guiliana, even with the rock'n'roll style crescendo:  you get both!

This performance is much less about the tune than about the improv, which in one way is a bit of a shame, since "Nu Nu" is such a strong melody and groove, but hell, there are other performances that showcase that.  (For the original recording with "lead oud", go here;  for a great balance between the tune and the blowing, try this one.)  It's not every band that will really hang it out there on the improvs, but this trio will do it--bless 'em--and if YouTube is any indication, they can smoke.

This is one of the strongest groups I've seen in a long time.  Check out their command of eleven in this thoroughly beautiful piece:

I have got to get the chance to see them live.  Gah, now I'm inspired.

For at least a week.  :-)