Here is my take on a Study in Em by Francisco Tárrega. This is a song I have taught in the past to students interested in learning a little fingerstyle or classical. To make the arrangement a little more fun for some students, I took some liberties and added a few flourishes here and there. This version of the study has also found its way onto some of my setlists over the years. Hope you enjoy.
Recorded with a Taylor 414ce-NR (Rosewood/Spruce nylon string) and a Neumann TLM 102 microphone.
Appearing as a sort of interlude on the Pink Moon album, Horn is a fascinating little study of a song in its own right. I love the simple melody and the atmosphere created by the space between the notes. I also really like the way this song works on nylon string guitar. (Apologies for the intonation in places – still getting a feel for this guitar and nylon again.) Of course, Drake apparently used really old, beat up steel strings, so his guitar work translates well to nylon. I don’t know what it is about the deceptively simple genius of his guitar parts, but they get me every time. Hope you enjoy.
Recorded with a Taylor 414ce-NR (Rosewood/Spruce nylon string) and a Neumann TLM 102 microphone.
Here is a video featuring a couple of relatively recent purchases for me – a Taylor 414ce-NR (nylon string, rosewood/sitka) and a Fishman Loudbox Artist. This is meant to serve as a sound demo for what the Loudbox sounds like with a nylon string guitar and what the Taylor nylon pick-up (ES-N, not the ES2) sounds like. I close miked the amp to get a truer representation, but you get a little bit more open sound when you hear it from across the room.
Recorded with a Taylor 414ce-NR (Rosewood/Spruce nylon string) into a Fishman Loudbox Artist amp miked with a Sennheiser e906 dynamic microphone. Reverb is from the amp, not an added effect.
Up until now, you’ve mostly heard me play steel string acoustic guitar. “Tranquility” is a song I recorded a years back on nylon string guitar. It’s a mellow, contemplative, and relaxing song. My friend Chris in Kona (no slouch on guitar himself) says it’s his favorite thing he’s heard me do. With that vote, I thought I would dig this out from the vaults for you.
Anyway, I haven’t had a nylon string guitar for going on 10 years… up until recently that is. I’ve made several recordings with it so far, and I hope to have them edited and posted before long. Meanwhile, please enjoy this song.
All rights reserved to this song, however students may perform it in public.
Here is a song from the vaults called “Sarah”. I wrote and recorded this song quite a few years ago and recently listened to it for the first time in years when I dug out an old CD. I forgot how much I was into tapping on the guitar, including trying to harmonize myself – something I hardly ever do anymore… must have been listening to a lot of Victor Wooten that year. (Show of Hands anyone?) Anyway, it’s kind of an interesting song, though I don’t plan to revive it for my setlist anytime soon. 🙂 Hope you enjoy.
All rights reserved to this song, however students may perform it in public.
Here is a strum intensive song from the vaults called “Make”. The louder strumming in this song was meant to provide a counterpoint to some of the mellower fingerstyle and slack key songs I was playing at the time. I recorded this while living in an ohana unit with a large, tiled room that I kept mostly empty because I enjoyed the acoustics. (Plus, I didn’t own a lot of furniture.) Hope you enjoy.
Recorded with a Taylor 310ce (Elixir Polyweb 80/20 Bronze) and a matched stereo pair of Shure KSM 141 microphones in Holualoa, Hawai’i, 3/19/08.
All rights reserved to this song, however students may perform it in public.
Here is a rendition of Pua Lililehua from the vaults. I always enjoyed this song because it is mostly sweet and mellow, but still has a bit of tension that creates a sense of yearning in it. I recorded this while living in an ohana unit with a large, tiled room that I kept mostly empty because I enjoyed the acoustics. (Plus, I don’t own a lot of furniture.) Hope you enjoy.
Recorded with a Taylor 310ce (Elixir Polyweb 80/20 Bronze) and a matched stereo pair of Shure KSM 141 microphones in Holualoa, Hawai’i, 2/27/08.
Iris has a lot of harmonics, which creates a light, chimey atmosphere. A thunderstorm rolled in while I was recording and gave some interesting punctuation to the take. I’ll probably try to record another version of this song, but thought the lightness of the song coupled with the thunderstorm left an interesting contrast. Hope you enjoy.
Recorded with a Taylor 412ce LTD (Rosewood/Spruce, Gotoh 510 tuners, strings are Elixir Nanoweb Phosphor Bronze HD gauge set) and a Neumann TLM 102 microphone.
All rights reserved to this song, however students may perform the song in public.
Not long ago I picked up the Polytune Clip from TC Electronic and have since been very pleased with the way it works on acoustic guitar in particular. (Of course it also works on electric guitar and other instruments as well.) I do a lot of open and altered tunings and this tuner handles them like a champ. In addition to latching on to notes quickly and accurately in chromatic mode, the Polytune picks up the low 6th string bass notes well (I tune down as low as Bb). Tracking is great and you can see the note steadily move into tune as you turn the tuning pegs. Of course the polytune mode doesn’t really work with open / altered tunings, but the Polytune Clip works so well as a chromatic tuner that it’s worthwhile for that alone. Highly recommended.
With all of the major acoustic guitar builders coming out with ‘pre-aged’ tops, I thought I’d compare some of the benefits that come with torrefied versus naturally aged guitar tops. Many guitar builders are now baking their spruce top wood to accelerate the aging process – this goes by various names such as torrefied/torrefaction, thermal treatment, and thermo treatment. The idea is that new guitars with treated tops will sound more like vintage guitars right out of the box. While some people think a guitar has to age over 50 years to sound ‘vintage’, aging is not just a function of time but also of how much a guitar is being played. For a guitar that’s being played regularly, I think the first and most significant amount of break-in often occurs between 2 and 8 years – give or take. I hear an interesting sweet spot in a guitar while it’s in the middle of this transition, as the top ages but before the top would be considered fully aged. It’s a matter of taste, I know, but somewhere around the 4-8 year mark I think the guitar will have a good combination of ‘new’ and ‘old’ qualities to its sound. I understand the desire for a ‘broken in’ and ‘vintage sounding’ guitar and agree that torrefied tops sound good on some models. Generally, though, I would prefer to break in the top myself, naturally, so it can meld to my playing and I can meld to it. I enjoy the natural aging process of the top and hearing, at least to my ears, the sweet spot in the aging process that occurs before the top is fully aged. Of course, it also depends on your style of music. If you play old-timey string band music, bluegrass, or old school blues/folk, then a torrefied top could be a plus. I’ve also played some guitars with torrefied tops that I really like, such as Taylor’s 612ce. Overall, it’s probably best to go on a case by case basis and chose a guitar that appeals to you.