Category Archives: Guitar

Guitar related

Plus des Frères Méduses

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This is an audio interview and music from Les Frères Méduses at the Radio Station KUTX

Benoît Albert andRandall Aver describe the quality of their collaborations as having the connotation of free flowing water, surrealism, and the slightly humorous title of their duo suited the music that they create together.

The French adjective médusé also translates to “mesmerized” or “dumbfounded”, the perfect words to describe the feelings elicited by this sensational guitar duo’s music. Albert and Avers both exhibit a formal education in classical guitar performance, composition and improvisation, and their combined skill will certainly leave you breathless. Aside from performing classical guitar music together, the duo has also written original film scores for silent films such as 1927’s The Unknown.

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Print your own guitar(lele)!

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An intriguing use of the increasingly popular 3D print technology.
James Fabian constructed this instrument in Sketchup and after several tries, decided to make a guitarlele with 9 frets! He had to buy machine heads though, as the printed ones wouldn’t play nice. I wonder if he printed his own strings as well…
Here is the link to his article and his plans, in case anyone wants to improve on the design.
Print your own Smallman, anyone?

Great Guitar Pieces Nobody Plays

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Some of the harmonics on the series would be quite out-of-tune if played on a regularly tuned, equal-tempered guitar.Tenney obviates this problem by retuning a couple of strings on the guitars responsible for each harmonic—and restricting the musical material for that guitar only to those notes that can be sounded accurately in tune.

The repertoire of American composer James Tenney (1934-2006) is among the most diverse and stimulating in experimental music.
He studied with, amongst others Chou Wen-Chung and John Cage.Tenney’s work deals with perception (For Ann (rising), see Shepard tone), just intonation (Clang, see gestalt), stochastic elements (Music for Player Piano), information theory (Ergodos, see ergodic theory), and with what he called ‘swell’ (Koan: Having Never Written A Note For Percussion for John Bergamo), which is basically arch form.

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Interview with Will McNicol

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Will in the shed
Will McNicol is a seriously gifted guitarist who playas and writes his own material. His concerts often include music by other musicians such as Thomas Leeb.
I gave him a couple of lessons when he was preparing for his Fellowship of Trinity College in London, where he was playing Bach’s Chaconne and Sor’s Sonata Op.25.
I was amazed with the facility with which he turned to playing steel string guitar, and the acoustic guitar is now his main instrument.
Will’s playing has won him numerous awards, most recently being Guitarist Magazine’s coveted UK Acoustic Guitarist of the Year 2011, held at London’s Southbank Centre.
Recently, I was lucky enough that he came and played in the shed – we had an evening of beautiful music and a great party afterwards! It was particularly gratifying that his first teacher, Maurice Albin was present,beaming in the front row.
Here is an interview with Will after that occasion, followed by a couple of candid videos.

The fleas that tease

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Do you remember an Inn,

Miranda?
Do you remember an Inn?
And the tedding and the spreading
Of the straw for a bedding,
And the fleas that tease in the High Pyrenees,
And the wine that tasted of tar?

So begins Hilaire Belloc’s mysterious mini-epic, Tarantella.

This is a justifiably famous poem from the person who penned Cautionary Tales for Children. He was known as a writer, orator, poet, sailor, satirist, man of letters, soldier and political activist. Originally French, he became a naturalised British subject in 1922, and was President of the Oxford Union and later MP for Salford from 1906 to 1910.

He was famous for his vigorously disputative nature and running feuds with various other strong minded personalities. H.G.Wells remarked that “Debating Mr. Belloc is like arguing with a hailstorm“.

What is less well known is that he actually wrote a bit of music and sang to his poems, including Tarantella.

I was naturally excited to see the following instruction on the top of the page, which was presented to me by Pam Spooner, one of Betty Roe’s singing students (at the age of 85!) and the possessor of a fine high soprano voice.

Miranda clip

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Could Google Glass replace stands and sheet music?

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Cynthia Turner, a conductor and a professor at Cornell University, is advocating Google Glass as a way of improving the conducting experience. “It could be a game changer for anyone who needs two hands to do something,”
For those of you new to Google Glass – it is a head-mounted device with a 640 x 360 display, a 5-megapixel camera capable of recording video and audio. It has Wi-Fi and Bluetooth built in, 12GB of usable on-board storage, and can be charged over Micro USB. It is also already causing controversy before its launch because of privacy concerns in public places.
Cynthia Turner paints an image of musicians all wearing Google’s headsets, no stands or scores cluttering their chamber, the composer’s point of view broadcast on a screen above them, and intermittent notes of text appearing on screen to explain to patrons what’s happening in a given musical movement.
Our own Vida Quartet are already using iPads with page turning bluetooth units instead of sheet music. Is this the future of music performance?
Of course, many musicians are used to memorising what they play, but i t isn’t usually the case with an orchestra.
What do you think about this deviation from tradition?
Read more about it here in The Verge