Keep Me Away From You (two versions)

First update for the year and it's only January :)
Sometimes when I have the time I join in a jam on the internet, known as a collaboration.
Anyways, every now and then as song gets "published" which basically means that that tune is now declared finished.
This recently happened with Keep Me Away From You (solo vocal version) which is a fork of Keep Me Away From You by Danny Milligan and was originally conceived as a duet.

The original tune

was published last year but dazzle fly, the female vocalist, liked it so much she decided to do her own solo version, so here it is.

Anyways, both versions have the same music, tho' I think I prefer the solo version.
I was kinda hoping for a re-mix as a bit of a timing issue crept in somewhere as the bass isn't quite as tight as I played it, especially near the beginning, and this (timing issue) was carried over into this project .... oh well, 'tis a small thing, tho' it irks me ... but on the whole I'm pretty proud it, and I guess most won't hear what I am, so excuses aside here it is.

Here are the links once again.
Keep Me Away From You (solo vocal version)
Keep Me Away From You (original version).

Any comments are welcome :)

Dodgy Diagonal D-flat Ditty

Dodgy Diagonal D-flat Ditty

Ok, this post follows on from the last I'm just seeing how SoundCloud shares things directly.... 2 posts in one day ..... amazing :)

Anyways, this is just a fretless workout, should be technically called a C# Locrian thingy but that doesn't illiterate as well.... anyways enjoy. Hmmm, the preview doesn't seem to include the player, so here you are ... the fancy one :)

A few more tunes

Here are a few more tunes I've been playing with. as well as just getting something up on SoundCloud. Firstly a couple more with Mood Indigo both of which are guitar and piano tho' we are working at more bass and piano pieces ... stay tuned :)

Summer Song by Mood indigo

Low C Boogie by Mood indigo

Mood Indigo

Yep, I've been a little busy lately ... unlike this blog :) but anyways Muriel (my wife) and I have been working at getting a jazzy duo together, we should have done this looong ago, but hey we're doing it now.

It's pretty interesting as she is from a classical background and reads really well while learning to improvise and I'm from a blues/funk background, can jam 'till the cows come home, but have to work hard at getting my reading up to scratch.
Anyways between us we are getting a rather a unique sound together, and it is evolving quickly which is very nice - no backing tracks, drum machine etc. just electric piano & guitar or fretless bass.

So if you'd like to hear what we sound like, book us for a gig in Cape Town (South Africa) or whatever, you'll find all our info on our new website Mood Indigo.

Clearing a little Confusion :) hopefully

Another rare blog update has been kinda forced on me ;)

As a musician I've always had a problem with being tied down to any one particular band or genre.

A band I play in was recently asked to play at a street party and whilst the party went REALLY well I came to realize that there's the possibility of my assuming the wrong band for an event :)

So to clear up any potential future confusion (and hopefully NOT come across as an ego-freak) here's a bit of a break down of my current musical projects...

Tip of Africa : An afro/fusion type project playing only original material

SHA : A blues/rock type project playing mostly original material but also a few covers (eg. Muddy Waters, Hendricks etc.)

Acoustic Art : A piano/guitar duo playing mostly light ambient music.

Three very different to each other gigging projects hence the potential confusion when "my band" is asked to play. :)

To add to the mix I also get involved in various collaborations both locally and internationally. These are just recordings for the sake of it.

Her Slave

Just a quickie :)

Well SHA one of the bands i play in entered a Music competition recently ... (we came 4th ;) ).

Anyways one of our fans, Mike Berry took this vid, so this is just a little post to put it up there.





My wife Muriel on keyboards, my bro-in-law Clive on guitar and vox and my good buddy Craig on drums, and me on bass of course :) .

Enjoy

A little study in E Flat

Ok, I'm back with a study just before X-mass.

This is in Eflat Major (as the title says :) and has three main parts.

1) A bit of "clawhammer" with the Right Hand to start with.
2) A "tapping" section
3) Lastly finishing off with harmonics.

This is still a work in progress, and that's my excuse for some of the rough edges on the mp3 example that you can find here.

Eflat Major study mp3




pdf is here

Tone wise I have VERY old strings on ... not my fault I can't seem to get D'Addario EXL165 bass strings anywhere in Cape Town for some reason (quite miffed) and this is what I use ... any donations welcome :) .

I use a GT-PRO into REAPER, the latter I've mentioned before, and I'm still blown by what it can do ... everything I need so far and more besides, for the GT-PRO I tweaked a patch I found somewhere on the net GT_Pro-Jazz.mid GT_Pro-Jazz.gtl and kicked off the delay.



There are a few gotchas in this piece.

Section 1) I use my RH index, middle and thumb for all but the string skipping section where I use my ring finger instead of my middle.

Section 2) Apart from where it goes down to B it's a "Victor Wooten" type pattern that recurs in major and minor arpeggios.

Section 3) I really struggled and failed with my software to notate this nicely, so you'll just have to do the best you can listening to the mp3.
The first harmonics can be natural at the 5th fret ...or... fretted at 5 and pinched at 24 which you need to do anyways for the others (ie. fret at 6 and pinch at 25) the high harmonics are pinched near around 32 or so ... near my neck pickup, you'll just have to find it for yourself. The LAST harmonic may be resolved easily by fretting the G# and pinching the high note ... or in a more flashy manner, reach over with your RH and a) tune up the string : b) grab the string behind the fretted note and bend (it's surprising how FAR you have to bend it for a semi-tone)

If anyone reads, and can make sense of this, have fun with it, comments appreciated.