Scorchio

July 2006 Guitarist Recording Collective task enty.

The task was to take a supplied melody and create a whole song with it as a main theme.

I immediately thought of a ’spanish’ vibe and improvised around the main melodic theme coming up with ‘Scorchio! reflective of the ‘hot hot hot’ summer.

Scorchio [ Download MP3 - 4MB]

Gear Used:

Lead Guitar: Fylde Magician -> Shure SM58
Rhythm Guitar: Fylde Magician -> Shure SM58
Drums: Fxpansion BFD

Bliss

The task for August’s Guitarist Home Recording Collective was:

…compose a piece of music where the main melody/lead part/ must have a minimum number of two notes played at all times.

After purchasing the August edition of Computer Music magazine, which came with various Chilled and Lounge samples, I decided to create a piece with an ambient vibe using some of the supplied samples, and came up with ‘Bliss’.

All guitar parts are played with a minimum of two notes, with triads on the Rhythm guitar, octaves and double stop on the melody parts. Various ambient guitar effects were done with double stops played with a slide and chordal tapped harmonics.

Bliss [Download MP3 - 4.1 MB]

Conflict

July’s Guitarist Home Recording Collective task was to:

Compose a tune where the melody or lead bit if you want can be played no faster than 120 bpm. In other words two notes per second is your speed limit. Obviously this doesn’t apply to the drums but to the guitar, bass, keyboards etc.

Had the idea to tackle the 120 bpm limit by coming up with a heavy riff, so I dug out the 7 string, the 5 string bass, fired up BFD, searched the web for some relevant audio and came up with the piece entitled ‘Conflict’.

Conflict [Download MP3 - 2.7 MB]

Cafe de Leith

The Guitarist Home Recording Collective task for May 2005 was to create a recording using at least one of the supplied Jazz samples.

I had been trying to incorporate a jazzy style into my playing and this task was the perfect opportunity to create an original Jazz piece.

I was aiming for a summery laid back Jazz Café vibe with this piece, using the acoustic for all rhythm and lead parts over just the supplied drum loop.

Finally finished on a sunny day in Leith I named the song ‘Café de Leith’ as a tribute :).

Cafe de Leith [Download MP3 - 3.3 MB]

Nosce te Ipsum

A piece for the December Task from the Guitarist Home Recording Collective which was:

“You have 60 seconds to express your personality as fully as possible through the medium of music. “

A tricky proposition, but I finally opted to write a piece that reflected the side of my personality where I can appear quiet and shy when meeting new people, but become my more usual chirpy self once I get to know them .

‘Nosce te Ipsum’ is Latin for ‘Know Thyself’.

Clean guitar parts recorded with Jem 7VSBL through clean channel of Legacy, mic’ed up. Drum loop from Computer Music disc used in middle section, bassline played on my Peavey Dynabass. Final climatic section drums programmed by myself with ns_kit and Battery, lead guitar once again Jem through Legacy with an Eko Acoustic providing some backing with clean guitar track with Dynabass again.

Nosce te Ipsum [Download MP3 - 1.6 MB]

November Noodle

A long overdue recording for the Guitarist Recording Collective. The November task was to play over a backing supplied by one of the fellow members and was too tempting for me to resist having a go.

Usual haphazard one take recorded with Jem 7VSBL through mic’ed up Carvin Legacy.

November Noodle [Download MP3 - 2.5 MB]

Pure

Another first :), this time for the Guitarist Recording Collective. This piece was recorded for the August 2003 task which was to record a piece in the Minimalist style, whatever ‘minimal’ means to you.

I opted to record a piece using only a solo guitar using a small number of chords with minimal amount of fuss ;). In other words recorded in a single take on a single track. Chords wise I decided to play around with just three, Em, G and C. With a wee bit of ornamentation ;).

Recording was done using my old trusty Sanchez Nylon through a Shure SM58 into the Behringer Mixer into my Dell laptop running of course Cubase SX.

Pure [Download MP3 - 3.14MB]

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