Rollin’ (draft)

I heard a blow-away great concert by one of the greatest fiddler-innovators ever, Darol Anger. His violin playing was a huge inspiration to me in high school (okay… so it was a long time ago…), so much so that my wife when she hears him play, says, “he sounds like you.” I always correct her and say that no, I sound like him, after years of imitating him.

Anyway, his ability to make a violin groove, with chops and rhythmic parts is still great all this time later. I came home and had to finish working up a song, a happy-go-lucky tune I’m calling Rollin’ for lack of a better name.

[Edit: Download removed... see more recent version]

7 tracks A section, 4 tracks B section, all live, single pass. I’m switching back and forth between microphone and pickup, and throw a chorus on the melody. It gets me closer to a distortion guitar sound without going all the way there. The ‘feedback’ sound at the end of along note is produced by playing very close to the bridge. Classical violinists call it ponticello, but I use the effect as though I was a screaming guitar. And the bass, as in many of my pieces, is played first at normal range, and then dropped down 2 octaves when the loop repeats.

The performance isn’t quite where I want it, so I’ll post another version before long.

[Edit: remixed the piece on April 4]
[Edit: re-recorded the piece on June 11 and posted]

A New Twist on Bach

Many people have tried to modernize Bach, perhaps by adding a rock beat, synthesizer, or distortion guitar to classic Bach pieces. I have a different idea in mind, though.

I want to keep the feel as I think Bach intended, but still apply many of his musical sensibilities to current technology and style. He obviously reveled in the power of the violin as an instrument, so I am staying the the ‘acoustic’ instrument as the source of everything you hear. Bach liked to build chordal progressions though single-note instrument lines, which I’ve enhanced with a beat-synchronized delay, to bring out the harmony without losing the line.

And particularly, Bach liked to improvise, and all the melodic lines in this piece are improvised (full disclosure… I predetermined my first few notes, referencing Piu Jesu). So here’s my Preludium, based on Bach’s Prelude I from from Well Tempered Clavier:

Preludium

( right-click here to download, touch to hear on iPhone/iPad)

This consists of 4 tracks, one pizzicato track and three improvised violin tracks, where I tried to remember prior tracks in order to harmonize or build counterpoint lines. And once again, this is performed live in a single pass, no edits, with footpedals controlling the record/playback of each track.

Sorry this is two slow pieces in a row… the next one will be more upbeat!

Tuning – rough draft

It’s about time to hear what I’m talking about… I’m posting a rough draft of a piece that right now I’m calling simply “Tuning”, since it starts with nothing but open strings. Everything you hear is produced on a violin. I lay down 7 background parts for the A section and 5 parts for the B section, and of course play the melody and improvise over that.

Tuning:

( right-click here to download, touch to hear on iPhone/iPad)

And remember, its ALL live: one take, one pass through, controlling the computer and all the parts with a footpedal controller which I’ve programmed to manipulate (record, play, stop) each part independently. Hopefully it has a pleasing ‘shape’: much more than just a bunch of parts thrown together, but a meaningful progression of form from start through build though conclusion.

This is a real moody piece, appropriate for a long winter, with hints of Spring trying to peak through. There is so much to explain about what I’m trying to accomplish, but for now, just listen.

Enjoy- and really, really, do leave comments here.

Updated 3/27: remixed with a bit more bass

Heavenly Tambre

I soldered together the jack for my new Ithaca Strings bridge pickup tonight… started playing violin and 3 hours of heaven later have dropped from exhaustion. Here’s what it looks like:

And here’s the handy jack and attachment mechanism I came up with:

It has a slightly “electric violiny” sound, still very pleasing, and particularly satisfying for my pizzicato and strumming parts, and blends nicely with an additional lavaliere microphone I mount behind my bridge.

Since I’m using Abelton Live as I lay down many tracks (I’ll describe all this later), each track can be set to pull in either the microphone or the pickup, and I’m building a nice orchestration by mixing the different tone quality on different tracks.

It was hard to stop playing, but the back and arms would do no more tonight….

Welcome to the ride

Welcome to my adventure, pretentious as it is, to try to touch people with music. I feel that I have something to offer emotionally and intellectually to explore new musical territory, boldly to create something that has never existed before, blending acoustic, earthy, improvisation with digital technology. I’ll explain it a thousand times before I’m through, I’m sure, but you’ll really have to hear it. So, raise a toast to a this new adventure: welcome to the ride.