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I play guitar and have dabbled a bit in writing music. I have linked here some of my music, most recent items first. There is an assortment of fully written/recorded songs as well as some raw, improvised jams. 6/30/2009: Some Raw Jams
These are some very impromptu and informal jams recorded on 4/4/2009 with bassist Lance Muhammad. We literally stuck a microphone on the floor in between our amps and played to a computer-generated drum track. We worked out a basic chord progression for each jam for about 5 minutes, then started recording. The only plan was to start and end with the planned riff, and fill the middle with lots of improv. Rock Jam (MP3)Hard Rock Jam (MP3) This song was written and recorded by Lance, except that I added an improvised guitar solo. All instruments are played/programmed (drums) by Lance except the guitar solo that begins at 2:26 and continues to the end. Lance's Song (MP3)This song has been hanging around forever, and I finally put in the time to finish it. The first part of the song is based around a bass riff that Lance Muhammad brought to one of our jam sessions. The song grew around that, and I worked on it in sporadic pieces over several years (I know, pathetically long!). For a while it sat on my hard drive needing an ending. I knew the basic acoustic chord pattern I wanted to use and just had to record it; I also used my "egg shakers" for percussion and wrote a bass part to fit (which came out really good!). So I finally finished it up and, for what it's worth, a fitful labor of several years is complete. The song has a slow, bluesy feel in parts that is accentuated by the use of organ and a variety of guitar tones, including some wah-drenched parts. It picks up intermittently and goes through some time/feel changes. Then there is a sequence of major chords with layered harmonies on top, and we land back in the blues for the guitar solo. The solo picks up steam and lands back in that major chord sequence, finishing on a high note and... Then the new acoustic part (named Starting Over) completes the song. All in all, I'm pleased with it as a whole even though there are certain parts that could probably be reworked/improved if I had the inclination. After a few years, however, it is time to move on to a new song. Too many ideas floating around...
Updated 8/1/2004!
The Green Room Groove (MP3) At long last I have done the necessary legwork to secure some better drum sounds for my recordings. I redid the drum parts (only) for this song and I think the whole song, with its complex rhythm parts, comes alive with the more authentic drums. Check it out! For the curious, the changes are roughly these: first, all drum sounds are replaced with better (similar) sounds; second, a verse drum part was re-written to be more tom-oriented; third, the drum part during the guitar solo was beefed up a little (it was very sparse) and a really cool fill was added. This song was written in bits of spare time from November 2003 to January 2004, and consists of a bunch of riff-type ideas that I had over that time. I also spent a good amount of time jamming with bassist Lance Muhammad, which helped to define the parts better. In the end, I recorded the guitar parts and the bass parts myself (after picking up a used bass to mess around with) and my computer provides the drums via MIDI. Entering drum parts in MIDI is tedious and time-consuming, but without a real drummer to record there was no alternative; I think my effort turned out reasonably well. So anyway, here it is. FYI, "The Green Room" is what I call my home studio and that's the origin of the name. The song is a hard rock guitar instrumental with some time changes and a good deal of syncopation. Of course it is rather guitar-centric, and I like it that way! I have a bunch of different ideas for what to work on next, but for now here is the tune. Unfettered (MP3) This is a slow, free-time acoustic piece; just a succession of interesting arpeggiated chords. I wrote this while studying music theory in college, in January 1994. It is the only song I wrote in college which has "survived" my memory (although I have several written down) and I think it's because it was the best. Interestingly, the title refers to the fact that I deliberately tried NOT to think about the music theory I was learning while writing the song. It was done by ear and with some trial and error. Sometimes the brute force method turns up a gem! Performance notes: Recorded 6/30/2004. I played several takes and selected the best one. The performance is a single take with no overdubs. I set the microphone in front of the guitar, higher than the guitar and pointed downward toward the guitar. I noticed when I placed the mic directly in front of the guitar I got an overly bassy sound which did not reflect what I hear when I play, so decided to put the mic closer to where my ears were picking up the sound. It came out better that way. NeilsGuideToSynthSequencerSamplerStuff.doc The process of finding and using better drum sounds for my songs was quite tricky, so I took some notes while doing the research. This document contains the info that I discovered along the way. Oh yeah, legal mumbo jumbo: All original music on this site may be downloaded for personal use only and may not be used for any other means without the expressed written consent of Major League Baseball - oops, I mean me. Hmm, that should be good enough. |