A Busted Guitar & a Working Pen

Well, Old Twangy is pretty much in unplayable shape now, but it’s meant that I’ve had time to draw and I’ve reached a nice level of intensity with my drawing over the last several days, so I’ve decided to begin a drawing blog separate from this blog.

On a more personal note, I’ve started a new job and so soon I’ll have the cash to fork over to some random music shop for a new guitar, so I will at that point have more time for playing. I may be of a mind to create some slightly mangled tunes with OT, so if anyone is following this blog on any level, there could be more tunes before the new guitar comes into play.

In the meantime, check out my Sketching blog, Electric Sheep Dreams; you’ll probably find it interesting in some way.

Until later,

-Loosetoned

Two mp3’s from the past few days

I’ve been busy lately and haven’t had time to update the site. I’ve drawn together a couple cuts that I think are at least somewhat listen-worthy.

One is pretty standard stuff but I liked the sound and figured it was worth posting if only as an example of what is and isn’t possible for me on a guitar after a couple of beers (it’s also got an interesting sound, I think), Here it is:

Inebriated Cut – 11.3.07

This next cut is an example of what will come out of a guitar when the person playing it is bored and feeling like life is a pain in the ass not worth experiencing; this doesn’t mean that the cut is overly depressing or melodramatic, or not worth listening to; it’s more like Rachmaninoff on guitar, that’s what it seems like to me, if you feel like it, let me know what you think of it.

It picks up near the end if you want some action in your auditory sensatorizing; I feel like it’s pretty cohesive as a whole which I’m happy about, when I played music when I was younger it generally wasn’t cohesive, but then again I was trying to play by rote (play established songs), and improv is more my thing, but I’m digressing so here’s the cut:

Monotony – A Day Like Yestertoday (The Man on my Shoulder)

That’s all I have for now, ‘Ole Twangy’s strings are behaving strangely, lately my recordings have sounded as though they’re played on an electric guitar, the recordings sound much better than the guitar itself. I will buy a new guitar once I have sufficient funds, in the meantime it’ll be interesting to see how haggard OT gets, for a $48 guitar it’s been a good one, and it’s nice to be able to play, so I have no complaints.

Check out the cuts if you feel like it, I’m hoping that my playing is worth listening to, any comments on how the tunes sound will be appreciated.

That’s all for now, peace,

Loosetoned

$48 Guitar

I just picked up the guitar as I felt like playing something, but this is one of those moments when it doesn’t want to play in tune. It’s served me well in learning and it’s useful for that, but I’m thinking it’s about time to buy a new guitar.

I don’t understand why during one interval of time it’ll play beautifully, and at another time one or a few of the strings might as well be a rubber band tied to a 2×4; it might be a temperature thing or something, but I think it’s time to invest some real resources into a new guitar.

I had a dark brown Takamine in 1997 which I liked a lot; the one that I have now is smaller than the usual guitar, which has been preferable. I will probably shop around a bit before buying. In the meantime, I suppose storing up that creative energy when it begs expression may be preferable in some way, but then again probably not.

Using my current guitar has been an experience something like driving an old truck that only starts if you treat it just right, and while there is a certain charm to the idea of this, it isn’t very practical.

In any case, it’s this one for now, and a new one maybe a few weeks from now, which is okay. Anyway, this is basically just a ramble, but since it corresponds to the blog I figured it’s worth sharing here.

I guess the point is, there might be more music on the way in the next few days, depending on how this old guitar feels like playing; using a finicky guitar is fine for learning, but for presentable tunes something more dependable is needed, so if “old twangy” wants to cooperate I’ll belt out a couple more Moseys or something.

I’m realizing right now that O.T. plays best in the evenings, so it might be a temperature thing. Or moisture or something, it’s been foggy here in the mornings lately. I’ll try tuning at different times of the day and see how the strings sound. It’s like an old episode of “Mr. Wizard“, only I don’t have a bunsen burner. Mmmm, Science.

-Loosetoned

Improvisational Guitar Work – Nov 1st

Here’s the first audio sample for the blog, I will be recording my playing regularly and posting those pieces of music which I feel are probably worth listening to.

Smalltime Mosey – Nov 1st 2007 Improvisational Guitar

(It is 7Mb, so it will take a minute to download;  also, please let me know if there are any problems with playing this file, I created it in Ubuntu Linux with the program Audacity but it should be compatible with other systems.)

A quick note: It doesn’t really come together until :50 (it’s just over 7 minutes long), and there are a few parts where I repeated similar phrasing I think unnecessarily; I’ve enjoyed listening to it though. It’s a quiet recording, so you’ll need to turn up your speakers a bit.

This is my first time listening to my own stuff on a recording, and it’s quite interesting to listen to my stuff and sort of analyze it and assess the music without actually playing it at the time, I’m seeing that this will be very helpful for improving my playing.

Some historical background on my guitar experience: I played in a band in high school (10 years ago) as a bass player; I always knew I preferred regular guitar, and especially acoustic guitar, but at the time I wanted to play harder stuff (The Melvins, punk songs, others), and my friends’ band needed a bass player, so that’s what I played then.

I haven’t played an instrument since then, but I bought an $8 knockoff guitar at a garage sale last July (one of the local, seemingly well-versed luthiers knew about this model of guitar, said it was made in the 70s in San Francisco, was sold for about $100, and that it could be rated about 3 out of 10 in terms of quality/sound compared to other guitars.)

I bought it and fixed it up with $40 worth of parts. Since then I’ve been playing it maybe 8 hours per week, on and off. I also found a very, very good instructional book called “Fretboard Logic“, which I’ll make a future post about, which has helped me immensely in understanding the guitar.

Anyway, that’s the background on where I’m at, I’d be interested to hear what people think of the track, I realize that it may just sound like a guy plucking some strings, but I’d like to hear some impressions if anyone feels like it.

That’s all for now,

-Loosetoned

Quick Synopsis

Inspired by the encouragement of a friend, I’ve decided to chronicle the progression and development of my artistic endeavors. I’m going to keep this blog simple; I will be posting samples of my perhaps non-standard guitar playing, as well as scans of my drawings.

It’s easy to just make art & music and not do anything with it; I’ve considered trying my hand at being a street musician or really delving into drawing, but somehow I never really commit to it.

This blog is intended to keep me honest and to give me more of an impetus for artistic pursuit, and also I want people to hear/see what I create; I’d like to get feedback on it, beyond those few who have heard or seen my work.

I’m really a novice, but I also do not do anything the way it’s “supposed to be done”, so my art & music are perhaps non-standard. (for instance, I’m inspired by the guitar playing of John Fahey, though I’m nowhere near his technical aptitude) I’m not this way out of any rebellion or other such thing, it’s just the way that I do things.

So if you feel like it, pull up a chair and sit awhile. Hopefully it will be worth your time.