See the Old Folks Safely Home

[VikingBlues]

I hope there's some blues feel to this at least to merit it's posting in the Blues Room.

Wonderful Backing Track in C Major - my thanks to Losaavedra for the BT.
My recording is an early draft pehaps but I love it's sound so much I wanted to share it.

It's the Hagstrom Viking Deluxe on lead, which is playing sweetly just now. Through the Vox Tonelab LE (also playing sweetly - what a bargain buy it's been) - a Vox AC30TB setting but with low gain and bridge pickup on the Hag for a cool laid back jazz sound. No tweaking of sound at all in the DAW, just what the Tonelab produced, and a one take lead recording only edited for one slightly mis-hit note.

I've tried to let the piano share the limelight when it comes in stronger mid way through the piece.

Hope some of you like it - I've so enjoyed playing with this tonight after a very long and stressful week at work (worst one this year so far) - when I woke this morning I was convinced wheels would fall off very badly at work, but fortunately and to my surprise my hunches about what needed done seemed to be proved right. So I came home in one piece but feeling very tired and beaten up - I loved the way the sounds of this BT just poured over me in such a soothing way and let me float some lead lines along the gently flowing waters. Poetic or what!

Isn't music just wonderful!!!!

http://www.box.net/shared/aak5xok1hyzu6foikcjt

download/file.php?id=1097

[MikeJackal]

Yes music sure is wonderful, has a "As Time Goes By" sort of feel to it, very melodic and easy to listen too, once again I'm impressed by your sheer range of genres and your ability to play along with nearly all styles. Well done.

[Blindboy]

Nice!
Very smooth and tasteful. As Mike says, you are sounding good in all the genres you are playing.
I didn't comment, but I listened to, and enjoyed both of the other tunes you posted earlier.

[2WheelsOfBlues]

VB you did it again....
I like the sound, smooth and tasteful, easy lisen to, withe my feet up on a table, or someting like that

[losaavedra]

Good stuff Mark ... that bunch of BTs were the ones I'd frequently try to work my way through on alto sax. I fear I tended to skip over the key of C ones ... the only way to get a low C on an alto is to bung yer kneecap into the bell (the lowest official sound otherwise being C#) and at my advancing years playing with one leg in the air just to get an elusive blown note is just a trifle risky!!!

Anyway, you've done an excellent job on 'old folks'. But just so you don't relax too much into that jazz comfort zone I'm mailing you yet another CD (when I get a round tuit!) with a heap of blues riffs (played slow and played normal speed) ... and a kind-of BT challenge to go with it that I'm sure you'll have a go at here eventually!

Keep up the good work. I'm very tempted to go get the sax out and blast through that lot again myself having listened to your interpretation.

[VikingBlues]

Yes music sure is wonderful, has a "As Time Goes By" sort of feel to it, very melodic and easy to listen too, once again I'm impressed by your sheer range of genres and your ability to play along with nearly all styles. Well done.

Thank you Mike - melodic is my only weapon on these sort of tracks as I have NO idea what they're doing chordwise. I was lucky in the music flowing so well last night - I think I got a good focus, maybe as a reaction to escaping from the weeks stresses.

Nice!
Very smooth and tasteful. As Mike says, you are sounding good in all the genres you are playing.
I didn't comment, but I listened to, and enjoyed both of the other tunes you posted earlier.

Thanks for your encouragment Blindboy and thanks for opening my eyes up to these sort of possibilities in the first place. I found your recent journeys into jazz influenced playing great to listen to and it sparked off some exploring into that genre.

VB you did it again....
I like the sound, smooth and tasteful, easy lisen to, withe my feet up on a table, or someting like that

I did feel very relaxed playing it - glad you picked up that sort of mood.

Good stuff Mark ... that bunch of BTs were the ones I'd frequently try to work my way through on alto sax. I fear I tended to skip over the key of C ones ... the only way to get a low C on an alto is to bung yer kneecap into the bell (the lowest official sound otherwise being C#) and at my advancing years playing with one leg in the air just to get an elusive blown note is just a trifle risky!!!

Nice image I will admit this happened to be just one of the random picks I did when I first listened to any of the BTs and something spoke to me. I don't know the original - but I prefer to be in that situation as it allows me to make note choices with no subconcious influences. Though I usually find when I listen to the original that I'm missing a lot of the possible musical ideas. But I'm glad I've been working on major key stuff with David Wallimanns tracks over the last few months as most of these Jazz ones seem to be major.

Anyway, you've done an excellent job on 'old folks'. But just so you don't relax too much into that jazz comfort zone I'm mailing you yet another CD (when I get a round tuit!) with a heap of blues riffs (played slow and played normal speed) ... and a kind-of BT challenge to go with it that I'm sure you'll have a go at here eventually!

Don't worry - there's no danger of me relaxing in a comfort zone Mike - I listened back to this this morning with a slightly baffled feeling of not understanding how this could be me playing. I know how fleeting it all can be and how the inspiration often doesn't show up. I love guitar playing and at the moment it is too good to be true - the music's flowing, the sounds through the Tonelab LE are just what I'm looking for, the new Tonerider pickups in the PRS are better than I hoped they'd be. I'm very grateful for all that as it helps to balance a bit with so much that is unsatisfactory on the work front over the last few months.

Keep up the good work. I'm very tempted to go get the sax out and blast through that lot again myself having listened to your interpretation.

I'm very interested and keen to work through these BTs, though one or two I've listened to in a bit more detail are rather more complex and might well be a challenge too far. If any of it encourages you to make great music then that make sme even happier. Thanks again for the BT.

[HalfBlindLefty]

Tasteful, subdued playing, you execute these smooth jazz pieces with ease and craftmenship !

Now I wanna get hold of that BT, I got a Epi begging for some attention here.

[VikingBlues]

Tasteful, subdued playing, you execute these smooth jazz pieces with ease and craftmenship !

Now I wanna get hold of that BT, I got a Epi begging for some attention here.

Thank you HBL - I appreciate the comments. Oh ... your epi might want you to check your gmail.

BTW - Any ease you might hear is like seeing the swan serenely moving in the water while under the water all hell's breaking loose with legs going everywhere!

If anyone can stand the excitement I'm just posting a couple of links to Box.net below, with another couple of recordings in the same genre. I've done box.net as I don't think I should use of too much space on 12bar for stuff that's hardly anything to do with blues. It's just that I've done 3 tracks all in C and tried to make them sound a bit different and not try the same melodic ideas on each. I'd be interested to know if I've I've had any success in doing that?

"Once Again" - Imorov on "The Second Time Around" in C (103 bpm - a step up from the "Old Folks" 70 bpm). Hagstrom (neck) then PRS (neck) then "Strat" (neck/mid) then PRS again.
http://www.box.net/shared/ki62tj8la7jyh8bvgerq

"No One Else" - Improv on "All of Me" in C (160 bpm - can VBs figers stay the course!!??). PRS on this one (neck pickup).
http://www.box.net/shared/t9dp27olv5bxjeixa1ov

Anyway - they are all works in progress - I need to put half a dozen or so on a disc and just keep practicing with them every day for sevaeral weeks to get the sound of them and the way the progressions work stuck in my head to help the note choice. Hopefully I'll get a more finely tuned result then.

NOW - I PROMISE NO MORE RECORDINGS FROM ME THIS WEEK. Will be too busy as I'm having a couple of weeks off work at the end of the week and I need to clear my desk.

[oneeyedslide]

ohhh yeahhhh,,,, When they find out what you're doin' VB, They'll pass a law against it!

Very nice!!

[Golfxzq]

Very nice sounds there, VB. I do believe that your classical training is showing through. It's interesting to hear a bit of your Blus sounds intermixed with the more mellow tune. You certainly have a great feel for your music.

[VikingBlues]

ohhh yeahhhh,,,, When they find out what you're doin' VB, They'll pass a law against it!

Very nice!!

Very nice sounds there, VB. I do believe that your classical training is showing through. It's interesting to hear a bit of your Blus sounds intermixed with the more mellow tune. You certainly have a great feel for your music.

My thanks to both of you - it's great to get encouragement when you try out something new.

These three jazz tracks have been good to play along with in that they don't modulate away from the basic major - that makes an improv much more feasible for me. A lot of the Jazz BTs lose me completely - there's often several scales of various shades of major and minor you need to modulate between and even if there's detail of what all those scales are I find it too much for me.

The "feel" factor for the music is gradually evolving and I've learned a lot about that here from reading advice and from listening with awe to the highly skilled playing of other members. I spent a lot of years with no "feel" at all in my playing - even just going back to when I joined the forum a year and a half ago I can listen to the recordings I made back then and hear how stilted the phrasing is and how little I strayed from the "safe" notes.

Interesting thought about the classical training showing through - think you might be right there - though the "feel" factor was probably held back by the classical training - I remember disagreements with my classical teacher - they were very keen that all notes should be played exactly as they are printed on the page and rubato was considered a crime.

I like to try out different styles - as a distraction from my frustrating failing to really get to grips with the "feel" of the real blues - the authentic sounds that I hear in others recordings seems a very long way off still. I don't think I've listened enough to blues (or carefully enough) to be aware of a lot of the nuances. Ahhh - there's so little time for all these things, especially when I enjoy playing so much.