Recording Blog

Working on a new riffing concept I call “joint shifting” for a song that has a working title called “Candle Power” (the name will probably change). This is where various notes on various frets are stretched while other notes in the chord are held. It requires a whole new set of brain and finger muscles that utilize finger independence. For me it’s very difficult but the resulting sound is unique. I had to work a week to get even 8 bars of this technique to sound the way I imagined it. The challenge is the finger strength that’s necessary and the independence of moving various finger joints that seem attached to other fingers. It’s a little mind boggling at first. Plus, it wreaks tremendous havoc on your fingertips. I thought my calluses were in good shape until I started working on this. Now they are all torn up and throbbing, but for some reason that always feels good to me. Feels sort of like accomplishment. I’m very eager for people to hear this and hope that some players are moved enough by this technique to take it to a whole new level. In my minds eye and ear I can imagine a piece of music consisting of the heavy use of these joint shifts. I’m sure there are players out there that are doing this, I just haven’t seen any. I know that it would create a melodic movement that doesn’t sound like anything I’ve ever heard. Please… go for it!

I’ve been thinking about these records for quite some time. I enjoy creating parameters to work within at times and for these records I decided to only use a trio with no guitar overdubbing, meaning that all guitar takes would consist of one guitar. But I also wanted to experiment with looping in ways that can fill out the track at times. I started to imagine some of the things I wanted to do with looping and started to look for a looper that might be able to do what I was envisioning. None of the conventional loopers would do it and some people pointed me in the direction of Ableton. I didn’t know anything about this program but I took some online classes and hired this very amazing gal, Laura Escude, who is an absolute Ableton wizard, to teach me the program. I explained to her what I wanted to do and asked if it was possible, and she said yes! Yesterday she showed me how to do it and now my imagination is bursting.

Just trying to chip away at the guitar parts. Very many distractions.

Candle Power/My Name is Mud

Woke up this morning and was hit by a wave of reality when it dawned on me how much work is involved with this project. But then I thought, “hey… what am I here for”. And jumped out of bed. It takes 4-5 hours every day to take care of business, work out, bla bla bla. then I’m in the studio hot seat. The chops are being stubborn and my fingertips are throbbing a bit because the calluses have not had a chance to harden. I like the pain though. Feels like progress. Right before bed, I picked up the guitar ans started playing this very cool riff I am calling “Loving Matilda” as a working title. Today I chipped away at Candle Power a little bit and started getting “My Name is Mud” under my fingers.

Song: Candle Power/My Name is Mud

This is the first entry. I’ve been conceptualizing this record for quite some years now. I took a break from playing for a few weeks to fast out old ideas and let news ones come to the surface. I’ve spent time over the last 3 years pulling together tons of snippets of ideas from the infinity shelf. The goal is to create 3 instrumental guitar records that are trio based, with no overdubs, but using complex looping at times. I’m not sure how all of it will end up turning out but I’m diving in head first and just hunkered down in the studio to start playing again last week. My fingers are a bit behind the curve and I’m going to be focusing on getting them back up to speed this next few weeks. I’m so excited about this whole idea. I know many of the folks that have been following the music through the years are attracted to the guitar playing and these records will focus heavily on that. Join the journey with me!

Song: Candle Power