Moon thingy jazz swing stuff

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VikingBlues
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Moon thingy jazz swing stuff

Post by VikingBlues »

I'm really not sure tonight. :icon_whoknows:

Maybe it's Sunday night blues. :tears:

I had a go at a backing track I started listening to two or three days ago. It's based on Van Morrison Moondance, which I believe would be classed as Jazz Swing? Please feel free to correct me if it isn't. however it's a style I don't usually do and I'm trying to stretch myself. :mercy:

It felt as if it went Ok when I recorded it. Now I play it back I'm not at all happy and am quite depressed by it. My Hagstrom has a beautiful clean tone - to fit in with the playing style of the backing track, where a clean tone doesn't really fit right, I've upped the volume and crunch. It seems to me, to my horror, I've turned her into a screeching harridan. :yikes:

download/file.php?id=214

Then i hear the exquisite tones and melodies of "After Holiday Jam" and it makes the feelings I mention above even stronger. :wall:

In some ways I wouldn't mind being told I'm right and it is bad - the alternative is my judgement is being clouded by the general state of my emotions - I'm not sure I like them getting in the way of my musical judgement. Or am I coming down from the high of "Trying for Less", "Blues Soul", "Waltz Montagne", "Too Blue" and the collabs with Blindboy, bluesinbflat and ElMano? :icon_whoknows:
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Hagstrom screeches over a BT.
moon tune.mp3 - (3.1 MiB)

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HalfBlindLefty
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Re: Moon thingy jazz swing stuff

Post by HalfBlindLefty »

Hey VB,

For what I could hear now, using my laptop, I would say the BT is filling to much space. Your guitar sound isn't that bad at all.
I will listen again this evening using my "normal" computer and comment some more.

you are still getting better by the song my friend :)
A long time ago, in the old forum : Registered: Mon, 27 Nov 2006. Wonder were the other old members all went....
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ElMano
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Re: Moon thingy jazz swing stuff

Post by ElMano »

Oke Viking Blues Keep your head up :D It is not bad at all. Maybe a bit bizzy. I have listen to the "original" and if i may give a you suggestion The guitar is like a butterfly in the wind, and follow the strong lines in the melody. The voice in the original fill just the holes when the wind is going down. If you use that space with your Hagstrom you take over the warm voice of Van the man! I hear in some of the parts a guitar that is in the track already thats maybe why you think, it is not good, as you like. And ( i think it is the biggest part of your droughts you became better at every song so you get more and more critical by listen it back ) Give yourself moor space to fool around. Pick up what you like and drop what you didn't. :alright: :high5:
So far the opinion of an grey old ragged up bluesman.
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VikingBlues
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Re: Moon thingy jazz swing stuff

Post by VikingBlues »

ElMano wrote:Oke Viking Blues Keep your head up :D It is not bad at all. Maybe a bit bizzy. I have listen to the "original" and if i may give a you suggestion The guitar is like a butterfly in the wind, and follow the strong lines in the melody. The voice in the original fill just the holes when the wind is going down. If you use that space with your Hagstrom you take over the warm voice of Van the man! I hear in some of the parts a guitar that is in the track already thats maybe why you think, it is not good, as you like. And ( i think it is the biggest part of your droughts you became better at every song so you get more and more critical by listen it back ) Give yourself moor space to fool around. Pick up what you like and drop what you didn't. :alright: :high5:
So far the opinion of an grey old ragged up bluesman.
:thumbsup: Thanks ElMano - I have been deliberately avoiding listening to Van the Man's real take on this as I was just trying to concentrate on fitting something out of my head onto the backing track (less copyright issues too - I'm hoping this post is OK with 12bar? - I'll pull it out if you feel it's a problem Gerd). You're right about too busy - I gave it a quick listen before work today and there's not enough breaths and pauses and not enough longer notes. The less familiar I am with the style of a backing track the more uncomfortable and less confident I feel and I think as a result the more I try and make up for it with too many notes. :think: I think for the next attempt I will also try and clean up the tone a bit, but try and make it fuller at the same time (if I can) :alright: . I'm so pleased with the clean tones of my guitars that I find it very difficult to listen to any significant level of distortion - I'm finding this in my listening to other "real" players too now - I'm tending to listen more and more to the ones playing the "cleaner" notes.

Thank you for taking the time to listen and advise - it's much appreciated. :D
HalfBlindLefty wrote:For what I could hear now, using my laptop, I would say the BT is filling to much space. Your guitar sound isn't that bad at all.
I will listen again this evening using my "normal" computer and comment some more.
Thanks HBL - look forward to hearing more from you. As I was saying in response to ElMano above I've got a bit of a problem with this sort of guitar sound - I'm just not very comfortable around it at the listening stage. Oddly it's OK at the playing stage - maybe it's a different part of the brain being used as the critic and as the player? :icon_whoknows:
An improv a day keeps the demons at bay!
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VikingBlues
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Re: Moon thingy jazz swing stuff

Post by VikingBlues »

Still probably too many notes, particularly later on, but the tone is better. I think. :roll:

Is guitar slightly too high in mix? Aaaaargh! :wall:

download/file.php?id=218
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Less screechy
moon tune 2.mp3 - (3.1 MiB)

An improv a day keeps the demons at bay!
bluesinbflat
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Re: Moon thingy jazz swing stuff

Post by bluesinbflat »

They both sound fine to my ears....To me, it's all about staying in the pocket and not losing your concentration because why pore over what you've played when the next time you record to this bt you're going to come up with something entirely different. Good stuff VB.
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VikingBlues
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Re: Moon thingy jazz swing stuff

Post by VikingBlues »

bluesinbflat wrote:They both sound fine to my ears....To me, it's all about staying in the pocket and not losing your concentration because why pore over what you've played when the next time you record to this bt you're going to come up with something entirely different. Good stuff VB.
Good point. :thumbsup: I just felt really bad about the first one when I first heard it play back - maybe it was the Sunday night Blues. I like the chords and musical ideas of the BT, but I'm not convinced that the performance on the BT itself is able to give me quite the right sort of mood to fit in with that I was looking for though. I'm having difficulty finding those really special BTs at the moment. :sad:
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HalfBlindLefty
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Re: Moon thingy jazz swing stuff

Post by HalfBlindLefty »

HalfBlindLefty wrote:Hey VB,

For what I could hear now, using my laptop, I would say the BT is filling to much space. Your guitar sound isn't that bad at all.
I will listen again this evening using my "normal" computer and comment some more.

you are still getting better by the song my friend :)
Well I took another listen using my main pc and the only things I can think off is the somewhat thin guitar sound (just slightly) and a drop to much grid/grain in the od.
I still like it :)
A long time ago, in the old forum : Registered: Mon, 27 Nov 2006. Wonder were the other old members all went....
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HalfBlindLefty
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Re: Moon thingy jazz swing stuff

Post by HalfBlindLefty »

VikingBlues wrote:Still probably too many notes, particularly later on, but the tone is better. I think. :roll:

Is guitar slightly too high in mix? Aaaaargh! :wall:

download/file.php?id=218
Well done, in this rendition I think there is just a little to much reverb present. The BT is so busy itself that the combined song gets over filled.
A long time ago, in the old forum : Registered: Mon, 27 Nov 2006. Wonder were the other old members all went....
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VikingBlues
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Re: Moon thingy jazz swing stuff

Post by VikingBlues »

HalfBlindLefty wrote:
VikingBlues wrote:Still probably too many notes, particularly later on, but the tone is better. I think. :roll:

Is guitar slightly too high in mix? Aaaaargh! :wall:

download/file.php?id=218
Well done, in this rendition I think there is just a little to much reverb present. The BT is so busy itself that the combined song gets over filled.
Thanks for checking it out so thoroughly HBL. I think your mention of the BT is key - it is very busy - and I think it's preventing me from putting the more slowly flowing notes on it that I feel should be there - I can't get the sound to compete stongly enough for that style to work. Certainly the BT seems much busier than the accompaniement to Van Morrisons song that it's based on (I have now given that a proper listen). You should hear the reverb on the beginning of the BT when it's just doing the count in - sounds like 5 hi hats playing at once. Add that to my reverb too and .... :sad:

Still, it let me try something a bit different, and I'm not as unhappy about it all now as when I first posted. The tone the second time around was not hugely different but it stopped my wanting to hit the off button - as you said just too much od. :D
An improv a day keeps the demons at bay!
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Blindboy
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Re: Moon thingy jazz swing stuff

Post by Blindboy »

I agree with HBL, the BT is awfully busy. That makes it difficult to play a tasteful part. I thought that your tone in the first take had a bit much od, would have been good for something else... The second was quite nice. Playing was good too. I can hear you stretching... Good job. :thumbsup:
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