Here’s some improvisation I recorded one day on a standard Kamaka HF-3 tenor ukulele.The Kamaka tenor is a classic ukulele sound – for strumming of course, but also for single note lines.The strings are the stock Kamaka brand black nylon strings with a wound low G – the Kamaka nylon strings have a soothing, mellow, jazzy tone – but also some nice sparkle and definition.It’s a classic set that wears well.Hope you enjoy.
Recorded with a Kamaka Koa Tenor ukulele (Kamaka HF-3, low G with stock Kamaka brand black nylon strings and a Thomastik-Infeld CF-30 flat wound fourth string) and a Neumann TLM 103 microphone.
Nick Drake’s guitar parts (and music in general) seem to live in their own magical realm that we can tap into whenever listening to an album like Pink Moon.I was trying a new recording set up one day and decided to see how it would sound playing my version of the guitar part from “Which Will,” which is not really meant as a note-for-note copy of the original guitar part.Rather, I wanted to do a sort of meditation on the part and just enjoy the mellow vibes that Drake’s music always impart to me.Hope you enjoy.
Recorded with a Taylor 312ce (Sapele/Spruce, with Elixir Nanoweb Phosphor Bronze HD gauge set) and a Neumann TLM 103 microphone.
This song was born of my desire to improvise around some familiar ideas and possibly discover some new ones. Using familiar shapes and runs, perhaps I would come to appreciate them from a new angle, or juxtapose them in a way that I hadn’t before. I wanted to explore textures, try to accent some of the notes in a different way, give the strings a staccato strum or two, play some lush harmonics. Sometimes rather than trying to come up with something totally new, you want to explore the familiar ground of existing templates, maybe change them just a little – not to the point they’re unrecognizable, but to explore how they can be tweaked and see if it suits.
In addition to trying out some musical ideas, I wanted to see how they would sound with a microphone I hadn’t used lately, recording with a different sound. The mic I chose sounds crisp, picking up all the harmonic details and giving clear note separation. It’s quiet, and also good at gathering room ambiance. The bass is not as bold and the mid-scooped rosewood sound isn’t as prominent as another mic I had been using lately, but this mic would provide a nice, hi-fi, detailed sound – one I might now want to explore even more. Anyway, sometimes it’s important to try something a little different with your sound, to record an improvisation and see what happens. Hope you enjoy.
Recorded with a Taylor 912ce (Rosewood/Spruce, with Elixir Nanoweb Phosphor Bronze HD Light strings) and a Neumann TLM 103 microphone.