Over the last couple of years I composed 12 laments for guitar. I recorded them this past summer…
You can listen to them by clicking on the album cover above. The score/tab is available for free at my website.
Side note…last week we got 18 inches of snow where I live in Michigan. That alone makes me want to compose laments. There are still leaves on the trees!! To make matters worse, Facebook reminded me that I had played golf on this day two years ago. I am just hoping to play one more round of golf before 2019 is over. Chances are slim…
I’ve always loved the sound of reversing the sound of the guitar. It has a strong attack and a rather quick decay. When that is reversed it has a certain emotional quality that appeals to me. For this one, I wrote the melody first, rewrote it backwards, played that version and then reversed the audio. It was quite the process.
Etude 1. This performance is a big hot mess but at least it gives you an idea of what it should sound like. I am currently composing 10 etudes. The main reason I am composing these is to help me to become a better guitarist. I am currently working on the 7th and this one (etude 1) is by far the hardest.
Last night I finished a rough draft of my 6th etude. It primarily uses the tapping technique throughout. Here is the midi recording…
This is very much a rough draft. After I write all ten I will go through one by one and make some changes here and there as well as add more articulations and dynamics.
I started working on the 7th one today. For this one I want to explore different timbres on the guitar such as dolce, ponticello, glissandi, and so on. I improvised some ideas which you can listen to here…
You can hear in the recording that I am playing certain passages ponticello. Other passages I am plucking 12 frets higher than the left hand fingering which gives it a hallow sound. At one point I pluck the string on the left side of my left hand and then do a little glissando. A couple points I cross the strings which gives it a very percussive sound.
My goal is to get these 10 etudes composed by Christmas and hopefully will begin recording after that. I’ve got a lot going on so I’ll see. I have a commission for a piano trio that will be performed in April, I want to do another volume of easy arrangements (English/Irish/Scottish folk songs), as well as life (school, family, etc).
Side note….I took this pic a couple nights ago. The fog was rolling in and it looked really cool outside. Unfortunately the pic really doesn’t do it justice.
Wow, what an amazing couple of days for me. I went to Normal, Illinois to attend the Classical Mandolin Society of America‘s national conference. I was commissioned to write a piece for this conference and Magnificent Mountain was the piece I composed. It was inspired by a trip I made to the Smoky Mountains back in June (2019). My son and I took a trip up into the mountains one day. As we were going up one of the mountains it was amazing to watch the landscape change. At certain points it looked very mysterious because of the way the clouds surrounded the mountains. At other times the landscape looked very grand and magnificent when the sun came through the clouds. The music was composed to reflect these different moods and changes of character throughout.
This was a wonderful conference. I met a lot of really nice people who were very passionate about music. I ran a couple of workshops (one on composing and the other on recording), went to concerts and socialized. Guest performers included Naeim Rahmami, Sebastiaan de Grebber, and Fabio Giudice. They were all amazing artists and really nice people. The final concert included the En Masse Orchestra directed by Dr. Jim Bates. The En Masse Orchestra was made up of 140 convention attendees!!
A few pictures and videos…
Here I am giving a workshop on composing music.
Friday night concert
It was a wonderful event. I have to make a few adjustments to the score and then I will post it on my website for free. I would love for this to be performed by other orchestras as well. If you have any questions feel free to contact me.
