Yearly Archives: 2019

Etude #6 Work-in-Progress

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Currently working on my 6th etude. My goal is to write 10 etudes. I am writing these for a couple of reasons: to make me a better guitarist and to explore the different sounds (extended techniques) you can get from the guitar. For this one I am incorporating tapping. This technique involves “tapping” a right hand finger on the fingerboard to produce a sound which is usually followed by pulling off to an open string or a note with the left hand. Eddie Van Halen made this technique popular in his piece, “Eruption”…

Eddie Van Halen was/is a HUGE influence on me. Pretty sure if EVH had never been born I would have been a recorder player instead of a guitarist.

Here is what I’ve got so far….

You can listen to it here…

I recorded this last night and I worked on the piece some more today so the audio doesn’t quite match up to the score.

Subject change…..

Last weekend I played the South Haven Jazz Festival. My combo was made up of myself and two Lake Michigan College students (where I teach) and my oldest son. It was a blast and the weather was perfect. Here are a few pics from that concert (courtesy of Marissa Hoard)

Change of subject………

Friday was an AMAZING day because it was hot and muggy and I was able to go golfing. Golfing is pretty much my most favorite thing to do ever and I live in Michigan where in late September the weather can not be great so that fact that I went golfing on Friday and it felt like summer was…….let’s just say it was perfect.

Change of subject (last time)….

I’ve not been good lately with listening to the Buckethead pikes. In my book, Buckethead is a genius and I want to check out all of his pikes (all 200+ of them!!). Last week I finished the 44th one. I keep a list of what I have listened to on my phone as well as songs from the pikes that I like a lot and will want to check out again.

That’s all I’ve got for today.

-Rob

La Guitarra (Red Guitar Suite)

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La Guitarra comes from my Red Guitar Suite. I composed these pieces back in 2012-2013 inspired by my 1972 Ramirez given to me by my uncle. Unfortunately, I am not playing that guitar in this video but, if you have watched any of my videos, you have probably seen it. It is the darker guitar. Score/tab is free here.

-Rob

39/275

Jellyfish Music

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Earlier this summer (June 2019) my family and I vacationed down in Tennessee. Ended up going to Ripley’s Aquarium of the Smokies and it turned out to be a fabulous aquarium!! I took a really short video of the jellyfish and decided it would be really cool to add some music to it. I ended up slowing the video way down. The video was still too short so I added a credit at the end. Here is the original video:

I improvised the music using my Yamaha electric/acoustic nylon string through a crybaby wah wah and then into my computer. I then added a ton of reverb.

Here are a couple more pics from the aquarium:

A shark!! There was a section where you were actually underneath the aquarium.

They also had real, live mermaids!!!! Grace (my daughter) was sooooo impressed!

Speaking of Grace…

This was taken somewhere in the Smoky Mountains. She is a total ham.

Also went to an interesting guitar shop while there. You could purchase a guitar that had been shot with a shotgun!!

Hopefully nobody was playing it at the time.

I got sidetracked. Back to the aquarium….I would totally recommend it.

36/275

-Rob

My Birthday

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Today is my birthday. 45 years. Halfway to 90. The goal is to get older so at least I am doing that!

I don’t necessarily look forward to my birthday but I always end up enjoying the day.

I was able to go golfing with my dad which is always fun. Didn’t score particularly well but I normally don’t. When I golf I just try and hit it as far as possible.

Unfortunately I have played zero guitar today. I plan on making that up tomorrow.

-Rob

Black is the Color of My True Love’s Hair

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This is one of my favorite melodies of all-time, ever, in the history of all of the music I have heard in my 44 years, soon to be 45 years. I first heard this when I came across Nina Simone playing this. What a powerful performance!!

I have made two arrangements of this melody. The one posted above I consider to be a more advanced arrangement. You can find the score/tab here. The other arrangement is an “easy arrangement.” That can be found in my first volume of easy arrangements.

-Rob