I just released an EP with modern solo guitar arrangements of two traditional carols. (For those so inclined, “God Rest You Merry Gentlemen” is arranged in two-voice bimodal counterpoint and “Les anges dans nos campagnes” (“Angels We Have Heard on High”) is a chord-melody arrangement drawing on jazz harmony; both have improvised solo sections. “Les anges” was recorded last year and put out on Soundcloud but it is properly mastered here.

Thanks again to Adriana Ciccone for including a piece from Electric Currents on CKCU’s Hexon Bogon for the second week in a row.
https://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/544/58548.html?fromedit=1

Thanks to Adriana Ciccone for including “Processional” on the playlist for tomorrow’s episode of the post-rock etc. programme Hexon Bogon on CKCU (93.1 FM in Ottawa, 9:30-11:30 am Friday): https://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/544/58465.html

I recorded this version of Hoagy Carmichael’s “Nearness of You” some time ago (ahead of my wedding!), trying out a couple of new effects I’m working on. Single take, no comping:

On the weekend, I recorded these pieces from the standard classical guitar repertoire. Please get in touch if you are interested in lessons or event performance.

Spontaneously jammed out this solo version of this classic jazz ballad to celebrate my birthday on Saturday in appropriately middle-aged fashion. It’s slow and a bit rubato; had fun with the harmony and voice-leading.

In other jazzy endeavours, I took advantage of a broken thumbnail a little while ago to work on my flatpicking on a steel string and finally got this bit of Django Reinhardt’s “Minor Swing” solo up to tempo for the first time:

I am grateful and honoured to receive an Ontario Arts Council Music Creation grant for the composition of a new guitar work, commissioned for performance and recording by Emily Shaw.

Although I’ve known (and loved) the song most of my life, I just noticed the other day how clever the key change to the solo is in the Blue Öyster Cult’s “Don’t Fear the Reaper” – it goes from A minor to the chromatic mediant key of C minor using common pitches. The song is in an Aeolian A minor, with a pedal point on G natural (a minor 7th above the tonic – similar to the pedal on E in F# minor in “Wonderwall” a couple of decades later) throughout most of the song, ending on a fermata Am7 chord just before the solo enters with a G in the right speaker.

When the lead guitar enters, unaccompanied, playing arpeggios, the C from the Am7 chord is reinterpreted as the 5th of an Fm chord in the first arpeggio (F Ab C) . Guitarist Buck Dharma then moves to a G7/F arpeggio (F-G-B) keeping his bass note (in the guitar line – there’s no electric bass yet) consistent – these become iv and V[4/2] in the new key. We then get a solo in a functional C minor when the full band re-enters, where leading notes are raised (i.e. using the harmonic minor scale). It ends with a sustained G natural (^5 in C minor) – the pedal point in the main A minor riff – as we return to the song. 

It’s pretty tricky rhythmically as well – it all lines up in 4/4, or at least adds up to multiples of 4, if you count the arpeggios as eighth notes starting on 1, which means the cymbals enter on 1 after four bars and the full band enters on 2 after another four bars + one beat. The trick is that the arpeggio pattern is a three-note pattern accented in 4/4 so the barlines and chord changes always land in different spots in the pattern and it actually runs for a total of 33 eighth notes (eight bars + one beat). The drums are a bit unpredictable during the ensemble playing under the lead guitar but the bassist mostly keeps us anchored with the quarter-note pulse. (One can compare the intro of “Dust in the Wind”, where the melody line on the second string is a six-beat, three-note pattern C-B-D but the C-Am chord changes under this melody only occur every eight beats so the melody-harmony relationship is constantly changing.)

I arranged and recorded a multitracked electric guitar version of an excerpt from Schubert’s Bb Piano Sonata (D. 960) for the intro of this new Chantal Akerman podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/00BFDrhXhoLMEZI0MEmJdQ?si=kwwGkkd-Tk-ECkNS14nTjA

My complete recording can be heard here:

Thanks again to Gregory Kampf, host of CHUO’s francophone/bilingual progressive rock and modern jazz show La Villa Strangiato for playing “S(h)immer” on last week’s show. The show has been archived here: http://lavillachuofm.blogspot.com. The piece appears towards the end.

Merci encore, Gregory Kampf, de diffuser « S(h)immer » sur l’émission de rock progressif et jazz contemporain La Villa Strangiato sur CHUO la semaine passée. On peut écouter l’émission (du 5 août) ici: http://lavillachuofm.blogspot.com . Mon morceau se trouve vers la fin de l’émission.