Neandertallica

 

Disquiet Junto 0713 Airwave Workout

The Junto assignment this week is to "Record exercise music for an imaginary broadcast."

Nearly 30 years ago, when I went to the gym, there was an instructor who liked to play a tape with guitar arpeggios during the cool down part of the Saturday morning session. 

So, thinking of this music when the Junto arrived, I grabbed my guitar and asked ChatGPT to generate a calisthenics routine.

As I played and read aloud the exercises, I started to sing, so I asked ChatGPT to make the routine into lyrics with sensual language.

That was on Friday night and I wasn't sure it was the right interpretation for the Junto.

Then today, Sunday, I decided that I wasn't going to have a better idea and recorded three takes.

I liked my guitar solo best in the first, sang better in the second but didn't like the chorus.

So the third take has a chorus that I made up, which ended up as the outro for the song.

AFX

 

Patricia Lockwood on transmissions

“A poem is just something that happens. You have to follow it all the way through, and it constitutes its own event.”

naviarhaiku607 – Winter waterfall

 

Quick recording for the Naviar haiku prompt this week, using my pedal board with two Zoias.

Graham "Buzz" Bidstrup on the privilege of drumming

 “…[W]hen you're drumming, you're just sitting there watching everything go on.
"So, I could tell what songs went down well, because I could see people either bopping or not bopping, jumping up and down or not jumping up and down.
"So, I knew about tempo. I knew about what songs went off, what parts of songs went off, and I could also see what parts of the band weren't working.
"So, it's a very privileged position to be the drummer."

Hi, I'm Andy.

 

Disquiet Junto 0712 Zebra Code

The Junto project this week came from a post I saw online, where barcodes were being interpreted as riffs.

I shared the idea with Marc and he indicated it was an idea worth exploring.

So I began looking at products in the kitchen cupboards and found most were atonal, which suited metal and I began riffing to settle on the stripes I'd use.

This label from a local supermarket took my interest as it had a more musical key and I think the Junto projects are an opportunity to share something specific to my location, as it's often interesting to see glimpses of participants' lives from around the world.

Then Marc shifted the idea to be a rhythm, which made sense as the Junto is not just guitarists.

The barcode I'd chosen was interpreted with the longer lines as accents for the narrow lines, which I decided were kick drums as I'm so used to putting them on the "one".

You can see there's a cymbal for the wider line and I settled on a snare for another width.

I took this rhythm and found a chord progression from my folder of Live sketches, then began arranging the parts.

In the process I halved the speed of the drum part at the beginning and in a middle section, as well as reversing the chords in other parts to add harmonic interest. 

Finally, I like to add delay, so I took the grainy quality of the barcord to suggest a granular or glitchy effect. 

Classic Roland

 

Thoreau on living

“Live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influence of the earth.” 

Richo?

If you told me there's a guitar pedal named in my honour and used the right sort of accent, I might almost believe you.

The weirdest Fender guitar

The strange variations being produced by Fender have been on my mind ever since I bought a Meteora 

While browsing Facebook Marketplace I saw this "super sonic" model and am surprised it hasn't been on the lists of weird designs from the company that refined the electric guitar. 

It's not as bold as the reversed body, but there have been subtle variations in different iterations and in particular I draw your attention to the single angled pick-up of these more recent Japanese-built models which also lack the sparkly pickguard.

Given I have more guitars than I need, it's difficult to justify purchasing one; but the warmth of my Meteora's split humbuckers and wide neck has made it a favourite.

Tim Commerford on feedback

I am my own worst critic