12-String Musings

Track Stand, Matched Third Party Content

2012-01-28T18:47:00.000-05:00

I've been working on an arrangement of a Vivaldi piece over a few years - finally got something listenable and posted it on youtube. Now youtube's comment on my page is: 3:29 Track Stand, a piece for electric strings an… HD January 20, 2012 5:19 PM Matched third party content. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vykFpTsuoeA Clicking on the link to find out who this third party is shows: Your

Monetization

2012-01-28T18:12:00.002-05:00

Dear utuberowski, Thanks for submitting your video "Instrumental about 13 and a half minutes" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmuM6dJKltw) for monetization. We have disabled monetization on this video because we were not able to verify that you have the appropriate commercial use rights for all included content. If you can provide documentation that you have the necessary commercial use rights

Bicycle Descent of Paris Mountain, the steep side

2012-01-18T12:06:00.003-05:00

Paris mountain is about a half hour bike ride from here. It's not huge by real mountain standards, but it's difficult enough to weed out half of the riders in the US Pro Road Bike championships for the last few years. The pros go up the steeper side; you can see why in the twisty turning nastiness on the video. I took a tumble a few years ago - luckily it was into a row of arbor vita trees. This

Collaborate

2012-01-18T11:21:00.004-05:00

I wanted to add some drum tracks to my soundtracks (my Youtube Channel is here ). Hydrogen Drum Machine is a nice application, but I wanted a more "live" sound. I found Herl the Pearl on Youtube and grabbed the #2 video that he kindly offers for collaboration attempts. My video came out pretty good...just a few rhythmic flubs on my part. But I can't find Herl the Pearl anymore. He seems to have

Electric Instruments

2012-01-18T11:09:00.000-05:00

I'm having some fun this winter adding soundtracks to some of the video I shot from a bicycyle. Here's one that has a lot of fast cuts and video effects (via OpenShot Video Editor). The sound track is a lot of electric guitar, and some simulated brake and wind noises. The camera came loose from the mounting about half-way down the hill, and I had to keep adjusting it; I think it adds a certain

Gliding Down the Highway

2011-09-07T21:37:00.000-04:00

The best part of the bike ride - gentle downhills with enough turns to make me think I'm a racer. Here's a piece about gliding down from the Blue Ridge Parkway on route 215 in the Carolinas I spun around a bike wheel for some of the 5/4 rhythm. A single pickup solid body 6 string handles the bass and lead.

The Celtic Gig Book for Mandolin

2011-08-19T14:44:00.001-04:00

Allan Alexander has a new edition of The Celtic Gig Book for Mandolin. I've been listening to the tunes and they really are amazing. The pieces were composed before Western music became strict about tonic - dominant tonality that dominates right up to today, and these pieces have a refreshing freedom in the use of scales and chord progressions. Check out the piquant dissonance of The Song of the

Unified Theory of all (musical) things

2011-08-03T20:04:00.001-04:00

Four stinkin' views on my last music video...really chagrined. I mentioned this to my friend Gary Robinson who politely pointed out that he couldn't find it and wasn't sure where to look (and here I was thinking that people didn't understand my geniusissity). Groan, what with web sites, blogger, twitter, facebook, google+ and so on the music was getting posted here or there or sometimes nowhere.

I want to hide from the internet

2011-07-09T17:13:00.000-04:00

Oh, the irony: An anonymous reader writes "I've decided that the internet is no longer a positive influence on my life, and am interested in canceling my service. In the interest of not forgoing all digital conveniences, I plan to set up a small intranet, hosting a few resources that I think I'd like to have access to on a regular basis (e.g. a text dump of Wikipedia). I'll also still have

Weird

2011-05-19T19:08:00.002-04:00

New way for musicians trying to make a few cents - Pay Money To Be Heard. Isn't this supposed to work in the other direction?

things I've learned about a Taylor 12 string guitar

2011-02-12T18:17:00.001-05:00

Finger picking a 12-string is hard to do. The 12-string loses a lot of jangle when you use a classical free stroke (Tirando instead of Apoyando). I tried modifying the saddle so the fingers attack both strings in the course more equally. DADGADJohn also tried it a while with some success. He says it's all how you attack the strings - thumb to get the high octaves, fingers to get the lower strings

JDL Bridge Doctor

2011-01-25T13:29:00.004-05:00

A couple of years ago I added some reinforcement to my Gibson B45 12-string guitar. A JLD Bridge Doctor was part of the fix, but yesterday it broke. I'm not sure why...I had medium weight strings and had the guitar tuned down a fourth. The tension was really too sloppy, rather than too much. Here is a link to a series of pics snapped during the project. The JDL Bridge Doctor is that piece that

Weird Weather

2010-12-17T11:01:00.003-05:00

Incredibly cold in the Southeast. Kerosene heater goes almost all of the time and the humidifier is working overtime, pumping moisture out to keep the guitars happy. Spring seems a long ways away.I saw these shoots today on the ends of the Dogwood trees out front. They won't bloom until the first week of Spring, but it warms me up to see this.

Good Reverbs For A 12-string Home Studio

2010-12-06T12:08:00.009-05:00

Most of the ones I've tried make my 12-string sound like I've got a buzz saw in it. I'm not confident enough to plunk down several grand for a hardware solution; all the ones I tried are free demos or open source free plugins. Here are a few that I've found that seem to work nicely on the complex sounds of a 12-string guitar: Note that all the software here is running on Linux (an Ubuntu

Bicycling for Health

2010-09-03T08:39:00.003-04:00

Helmets do help. I did a forward 360 degree somersault onto the road while braking to avoid a dog. Really sore back and shoulders, but didn't feel a thing on the back of my head even though I obviously hit the pavement pretty hard.

Bach Prelude 1 in C major, bwv 846

2010-05-21T07:30:00.015-04:00

Johann Sebastian Bach, Well-tempered Clavier BWV 846 - piano score, first 4 bars: Here are the last few bars, just before the flourish at the end: A professional musician told me that one of the defining characteristics of this piece is that during the course of it, the piece "transposes itself" down an octave. This is clear when you compare the first measure with the 32nd measure. In

Inner Voices

2010-05-07T12:37:00.003-04:00

Bach's Lute Prelude in Cm, here transcribed, as it usually is, to Dm. I was working on the fingering and noticed this nice descending line starting at E I think it is worth bringing out. At least one should be careful to finger it correctly - I usually mess it up. I think that it runs throughout. Back to practice!

My Oktava MK-012 is hissing

2010-04-08T15:41:00.005-04:00

And being fixed, I hope, at Oktavamod. Michael looked and listened and originally thought it was ok. So now I've sent both mics to him because maybe the other mic is the problem; they sure sound different from each other and that's just not right for a pair of matched capsules and upgraded electronics. In the meantime I'm looking at youtubes of how to record acoustic guitar. What a great

Versions of Bach's Cello Prelude

2010-03-25T18:19:00.003-04:00

This guy, Stephen Anthony, has a very nice version for guitar on soundclick - you can hear it here. His tempo is quite quick, his phrasing is really nice. It makes my version sound ponderous, I think. I like the way the 3rd, 4th, and 5th notes of the first 4 measures are emphasized, and you almost don't hear the bass notes that introduce the phrase. I think this takes advantage of the bright tone

Cello Prelude in G on SoundClick

2010-03-24T08:14:00.003-04:00

I posted my 12 string version on SoundClick here. No thumbpicks (yeah, my hands are getting better). An updated score with one more correction and some added fingering help is here.

Bach Preludes for 12-string

2010-03-11T16:57:00.010-05:00

While my fingers heal and things slowly get back to normal, I've arranged a couple of pieces for 12-string guitar. They are both preludes by Johann Sebastian Bach, and in this case, they are preludes that consist primarily of arpeggiated chords.Das Wohltemperierte Clavier I, Prelude 1 written by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) has a beautiful chord progression in C. You may also recognize it as

Mozart's Music helps babies gain weight

2010-01-10T20:23:00.002-05:00

Science Digest:While the scientists are not sure what occasioned the response, Dr. Mandel offers one hypothesis. "The repetitive melodies in Mozart's music may be affecting the organizational centers of the brain's cortex," he says. "Unlike Beethoven, Bach or Bartok, Mozart's music is composed with a melody that is highly repetitive. This might be the musical explanation. For the scientific one,

Frescoboldi - a lilypond front end

2010-01-08T07:32:00.002-05:00

This editor works nicely for managing lilypond editing.You have to know lilypond notation. But it provides the syntax highlighted editor and buttons for compiling and playing the piece. Installing under Ubuntu Linux was a snap using the Synaptic package manager. If you use lilypond notation, this will make your life easier.

12-string Christmas Tunes

2009-11-30T20:10:00.003-05:00

dadgadjohn has a nice one; Scottish lilt and all capoed up.

Lilypond - parallel music

2009-11-30T19:50:00.005-05:00

Lilypond remains my preferred method for generating scores. It has tons of features, most of which I don't need, but I overlooked this one that goes back at least to version 2.8 - an easy way to notate multiple voices.\parallelMusic #'(sopA bassA) { \time 12/8 \partial 8 r8 | \partial 8 e,8~ | b'8 e'~e' e' b'~b' b bes a g b4| e,4 e4. e,4. r4. e,8~ | b'8 e'~e' e' b'~b' g e g d b,4

More Lightnin'

2009-11-05T20:03:00.000-05:00

I think a Lightnin' Hopkins album was the first blues record I ever purchased. The collection of songs, unavailable now, remains one of the strongest blues statements I have ever heard. I must admit to stealing a lot of the licks in those songs.This summer I found a 5 CD set of his Dallas recordings from 1946 to 1952. Most of the tunes from that old album were in this set, and it's been enjoyable

Karmic Ubuntu

2009-11-03T16:31:00.003-05:00

The latest Linux distributed by Ubuntu - 9.10 was released a few days ago, and like an idiot that never learns caution, I upgraded. It was so easy...just click the upgrade button...too hard to resist.But after a day or two trying to get sound working correctly, I've back ported to the previous version. Support for M-Audio Delta and Audiophile card is broken, at least for my setup, in the new

Long time, no write

2009-10-29T20:10:00.002-04:00

Hey, I'm still alive. An odd uphill bicycle crash delayed the guitar playing recovery, but a bike / music buddy, Mike McMillen and I have been trading CD's of old blues players. Between us we've purchased, among lots of other stuff, nine albums of Lightnin' Hopkins. I highly recommend anyone into blues who hasn't heard him to get some of his work. His earliest (and some of his best, I think)

Now that all the upfront is done...

2009-07-08T21:30:00.002-04:00

I'll go snooze.The whole operating system distro switch was to get a working system to implement an idea I got listening to Steven Reich's violin phases.Now that everything works, I don't have much energy to do anything about it.Oh well, maybe tomorrow.Or go bike riding.

Hello ma 'buntu, so long fedora!

2009-07-08T20:45:00.003-04:00

OK, I've been pretty faithful to Fedora for a long time, from the tail end of my career as techie, then boss of techies, and finally clueless boss of smart-asses. I liked Fedora: cutting-edge, always willing to test the margins.You get in this mode and life-force things that just shouldn't be allowed, creep into your narrow focus. You find yourself struggling more with the software. It used to be

Musings while not playing

2009-06-29T17:30:00.002-04:00

The giant finger still hurts - but on the bright side I get to listen up to lots of new music.My friend Mike, the musician who owns Sunshine Cycles and who turned me on to Nick Drake, lent me Alexi Murdoch's Time Without Consequence, eerily like Nick Drake, but really good in his own right. Listened once, will listen again. I like the dissonance in the simple arrangements. Mike knows music,

Fedora 11

2009-06-26T06:18:00.002-04:00

I just upgraded from Fedora 10 to 11. As usual the upgrade did not go well and I've spent a few days banging my head against the wall trying to get nvidia drivers loaded (It only works in single user, non-x display-mode without them), then getting sound to fully work.Without going into details, because everyone has a slightly different system, I think next time I will change my strategy and do a

Arthritis?

2009-05-12T20:38:00.004-04:00

Almost looks like my forefinger, doesn't it? Too bad, but it's my left pinkie. My doctor says the tendon on the bottom is shortening, so it hooks when you look from the side.I haven't played in a week. And I want to finish Three Pieces in the Shape of Erik Satie. Pieces one and two sound good, but two pieces don't make it with Erik Satie.

Riding with Louie

2009-05-07T21:19:00.002-04:00

Just got back from a ride with Louie Sanchez. The Wednesday night right with Mike was rained out, and tonight Mike and many others are heading down to Donaldson Center for a Time Trial. I hate Time Trials. A Time Trial is 20 to 25 minutes of pain that a body should not endure voluntarily. Imagine tensing one muscle in your leg for more that a few minutes. Multiply that muscle by a dozen. I've

RIP John King

2009-04-28T09:04:00.003-04:00

Mr. King resurrected a guitar technique from the time of Bach to play a piece that was almost certainly never before tried on a ukulele, Bach’s Partita No. 3, and went on to play other difficult classical works with dazzling mastery....The foundation of Mr. King’s achievement was reviving a Baroque guitar technique and applying it to the ukulele. The technique involves playing each succeeding

The Necessary becomes Magic

2009-04-12T16:55:00.004-04:00

I've written about the Bach Lute prelude BWV999 before. It is a really nice piece, suitable for beginners yet has depth that suited Segovia and many other masters.I have been playing it almost every day that I pick up the guitar, often more than once. It is a perfect warm up exercise. In the past, I used it for speed. Lately I play it more slowly, eliciting as nice a plucky tone as one can get

New Internet Connection

2009-04-01T02:00:00.001-04:00

The S.O. and I decided to upgrade our connection to teh Internets, so we ordered some giant T3 tubes. Like everything in life, there is both good and bad in the new high speed connections.First, the Good:Uploading and downloading is just incredibly fast. You can pirate music that won't be released until next year. And you can probably download more pørn than actually exists on the internets!The

Track Stand revisions

2009-03-27T08:54:00.004-04:00

I've revised the Track Stand piece during the past few days - making it sound more like a 12-string piece, sometimes by adding arpeggios, sometimes by taking advantage of the octave courses. In this example, you can see the bass theme repeated in each of the 4 measures. In this original fingering for measure 16. The two 'f's in the bass required some quick moving from up around the 8th fret down

Making Movies

2009-03-11T19:21:00.004-04:00

Since all you folks are into video now, here's a tip on how to get those 12-strings sounding good on YouTube. This article will explain how to record your sound separately and join it with your video using MPlayer and Mencoder .The Hardware The microphone in your camera is probably not music quality. It's made to pick up speech - so it has a peaky, treble emphasized response curve. Get a decent

Body Beat

2009-03-04T18:54:00.000-05:00

So I'm slow and have no sense of time. Let's see if a metronome will help.I went looking for some traditional type metronomes. Better to have one handy rather than have to trapse over to the computer to adjust the beat. I came across the "Body Beat" metronome that you can feel instead of hear. Hey, I can use it while recording!Here are the package contents. The "thumper" on the left plugs into

Action - how low can you go?

2009-03-03T06:44:00.000-05:00

I put the LKSM-12 down very, very low. Lower than most guidelines I've read. The 1st course is about .045 inches. The 6th course is about .055 inches.It doesn't buzz - as long as I don't pound the strings.Tension is also very low. Today I'm using heavy Elixirs; they are tuned down a fifth from concert pitch, thus they pull about 250 pounds. When I use Elixir mediums, I tune it down a minor third.

Guitar Expo

2009-03-02T10:09:00.003-05:00

Buddy Mike and I went to the Guitar Expo in Spartenburg on Sunday. We came back through the beginnings of a rare March snowstorm. The expo seemed to draw a middling amount of people, perhaps because of the impending storm, perhaps because of the recession. One of the dealers said the sales were not good.There were lots of Martins. The earliest I saw was a 1943. Most were in good, playable

Lack of Posts

2009-02-25T16:53:00.004-05:00

not because I'm not playing 12-string; more because I'm afraid of being read as an airhead. Too much tweaking, not enough composing.For example, I was so sure about the "Finally, the Sound I've been Looking For". Turns out, meh, not so much. I'm vacillating between 2 and 3 steps down using Medium Elixirs. 2 steps down rings pretty nice, 3 steps is easier on the old hands.Also gone is the notched

midi2ly - lilypond

2009-02-05T18:15:00.006-05:00

I like lilypond a lot. But it sometimes is disconcerting when you convert a midi to lilypond notation. Parts are missing, notes are wrong. This seems to happen when the midi is quantized, or made from a live performance. The converter seems to have trouble knowing which measure the note is in, and it sometimes gives up altogether.Still, lilypond is one heck of a music engraving program.

"Ringing" 12-strings

2009-02-05T16:30:00.008-05:00

Why do they ring? Maybe one reason is the odd arrangement of octave pairs and unison pairs. The two highest courses are unisons ("e' e' and b b" at concert pitch). The other 4 courses are usually octave pairs. So when you play this:It sounds like this:Sweet!UPDATE: Just to clarify, I think the unisons on the first and second course enhance the effect of the octave courses. The intervals are more

I'm slow and have no sense of time

2009-01-17T12:10:00.005-05:00

I've been working on a piece called 'Track Stand' since June of 2007. It's an arrangement from Vivaldi's opus 3; I first heard it at a midi site years ago via a Sebastien Bach arrangement (Bach's Concerto No. 2 in A Minor BWV 593: 2nd Mvt- Adagio). The piece consists of a very familiar Spanish (perhaps originally Moorish) motif done in two alternating voices. It's very slow, and I find it

Compression

2008-11-10T19:01:00.005-05:00

I was checking the sound of some of my 12-string tunes on the car stereo; the soft notes were getting lost in the car noise. I wish car stereos had built in compressors. A compressor pumps up the quiet parts. Sometimes you can hear a really aggressive compressor on a radio announcer's voice; the background noise "pumps up" between each phrase. I usually can't hear compression when it's done right

Some Talking Pictures

2008-10-25T12:01:00.002-04:00

and The mics are in a slightly different position - one is pointing down at the neck join as usual, but the body mic is more out in front of the sound hole because I want to get more bass with the lower tuning. The sound is not from the camera, and I found it a little difficult to sync the audio with the video. Now I realize why movie makers click a sound board at the beginning of

Finally - the 12 String sound I've been looking for!

2008-10-02T16:15:00.003-04:00

Through a odd combination of events involving changing strings between the Taylor 355 and LKSM 12-strings, I ended up playing them both with heavy strings and tuned down 5 steps. The courses are tuned to B, E, A, D, F# and b. I've done this before, maybe more than a year or so ago, but this time the guitars sounded very juicy, very tubby and full, in a nice way. One had new strings, the other had

Aujourd'hui

2008-09-13T21:25:00.003-04:00

I've taken to playing a lot looser - messing around, really, with the 12-strings. Just whatever strikes my fancy - and posting them to Soundclick every few days.Take a listen if you like; this links to the latest.

Good-bye, Internet Radio?

2008-08-16T16:40:00.002-04:00

I hope they resolve this - but on balance I think SoundExchange works for me more than most Internet stations. But it's a shame that Pandora is getting hurt because they seem to be one of the good guys in the web radio universe.The transformation of words, songs and movies to digital media has provoked a number of high-stakes fights between the owners of copyrighted works and the companies that

Spaced out, again

2008-04-28T20:02:00.004-04:00

After playing with a Jecklin Array for a couple of months I've decided to go back to using a spaced array. I admit that the Jecklin allows me to create incredibly realistic recordings. If you listen to some of the raw recordings with headphones when I'm getting the guitar out of the case or walking to the mics you would swear someone was actually in the room with you. However, there are a

Hey You, Get Off My Lawn!

2008-04-21T12:09:00.002-04:00

Ray Charles really was a genius.People who score high on intelligence tests are also good at keeping time, new Swedish research shows....Researchers at the medical university Karolinska Institutet and Umeå University have now demonstrated a correlation between general intelligence and the ability to tap out a simple regular rhythm...Those who scored highest on intelligence tests also had least

Tone, tone, tone

2008-04-04T07:52:00.002-04:00

The guitarist Allan Alexander emphasized this above all to his students. And while I paid attention to "tone, tone, tone" while playing the classical guitar, I fear that I haven't been so faithful to this tenet on the 12-string. But I wondered why the recorded sound was so scratchy and shrill while the guitar sounded very nice while I'm playing. Either the guitar sounds significantly different

nerd fodder - browser and os shares

2008-03-23T19:11:00.002-04:00

I just noticed that the latest stats for my web site Sulger.net show that Microsoft browsers are down to 50% share. A few years ago they were over 90%. What gives?Their operating systems are down to about 85%. Weird. Maybe my site attracts non-establishment types, but I don't know why that would be.Here are the stats for the top 10:no.: reqs: pages: browser---: -----: -----: ------- 1: 11988:

12-string Interest Low But Steady

2008-03-23T07:15:00.005-04:00

New toy alert, Google Trends.Here's a comparison of searches for "12 string" or "12-string" compared to searches for "classical guitar" over the last few years:Here the searches are broken down by country:Nothing pops out particularly except that the Classical Guitar searches seem to be steadily declining despite a steady stream of news about the topic. The interest in the 12-string is steady

Installing Bass Traps

2008-03-20T14:15:00.004-04:00

One nice thing about bass traps that is better than absorbers is that they work best up against the wall where the wave pressure is greatest. At least that's what I read. Absorbers need to be away from the wall and rely on wave velocity. I'm not sure I understand that, but I'll go along with the acoustics experts. So I installed the 3 traps along the section of brick, near the corner, up close to

Building Bass Traps

2008-03-20T11:59:00.005-04:00

The bass traps I mentioned earlier this month are done. Here's how, adapted from Ethan Winer's plans:2x4 feet 3/8 inch plywood for the back4 inches deep 1 inch deep boards in the centerCaulk inside, it has to be airtight1 inch thick 703, 705, or mineraAttach the front and seal

The notched saddle, part deux

2008-03-19T19:20:00.003-04:00

I don't think the notched saddle is such a good idea anymore. Lowering the octave strings so the tops are even does make for more accurate unison strike of string courses, but it also tends to make the lowered octave string buzz unless you raise the action. I would rather have lower action.Update Thursday, March 20th - I just can't quit you. The notched saddle is back. I'll deal with the buzz,

New Theory on the Boom

2008-03-08T09:57:00.002-05:00

The dratted boom that haunts the studio is still around. I've been surrounding the recording area with more and more absorbent panels but nothinng seems to help. But after researching how to build some real bass traps that might attack the 90 to 95 hertz boom directly I noticed a post that explained how aborbent panels soak up the high frequencies even better than the low frequencies, and this

Mike Mods and the Persistence of Memory

2008-02-27T14:41:00.004-05:00

The Oktava MC-012 pair that I've used for the first two CD's have just been mod'd by Michael Joly at OktavaMod. While they were in his shop it's been a fun couple of weeks with the B45-12 Gibson with the Sunrise pickup, and I will be listening to some of the test recordings I did with that setup (mixed with a channel from an MXL 1006 LD Condenser) later to see if that combo really sounded as good

3am, the mother of invention

2008-02-18T06:30:00.007-05:00

I woke up at 3 am thinking about how Track-Stand should be recorded. It is based on a Bach re-working of a Vivaldi piece. It is very grand and static, like a giant cathedral, and difficult to detail the two lines that alternate in a dramatic and stately manner. Other things were spinning around also, like how to do a video for this piece. But first things first.I always heard this piece as a duet

Jack Rack - a nice fit with LADSPA

2008-02-13T08:32:00.003-05:00

The new microphone positions, spaced with omni capsules, sounds a lot closer to what I want the 12-string guitar to sound like. While using omnis, though, I've had to surround the recording position with acoustic absorbers to limit room echoes. The resulting recordings sound very close and detailed...perhaps too close. Compared to Leo Kottke's guitar, which sounds nicely placed about 3 feet

Frisson

2008-01-22T13:51:00.000-05:00

WHAT MAKES MUSIC THRILLING?fris·son /friˈsõʊ̃; Fr. friˈsɔ̃/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[free-sohn; Fr. free-sawn] a sudden, passing sensation of excitement; a shudder of emotion; thrill: [Origin: 1770–80; friçons (pl.) frictiōnem, acc. of frictiō shiver (taken as deriv. of frīgére to be cold), L: massage, friction]

12-String Shoot-Out

2008-01-18T10:38:00.001-05:00

Something I've been meaning to do for a long time is to put Light strings on the LKSM-12 and tune it up to concert pitch. With the Winter finally closing in it seems like the time to do this - so it's done.The LKSM-12 is a very nice sounding guitar at concert pitch. There is, obviously, a lot more jangle but it also seems more phasey sounding, more like the 12-string sound that everyone is

New study on human frequency descrimination

2008-01-15T19:37:00.000-05:00

From Science Daily:A single auditory neuron from humans showed an amazing sensitivity to distinguish between very subtle frequency differences, down to a tenth of an octave. This compared to a sensitivity of about one octave in the cat, about a third of an octave on average in rats, and half to one octave in the macaque.So that's why our cats like the way she plays the harmonica.

Winter in the NorthEast

2008-01-13T14:38:00.000-05:00

My old buddy Kevin O is getting hammered with another Nor'easter tonight in Bean Town. I thought about him while out on my almost daily bike ride. It's been years since I've lived up North, but the memories of what Winter in the North is like linger on like Post Stress Disorder. Few people down here in Greenville ever venture far from home. There is a remarkable percentage of natives who go to

pami or pimi?

2008-01-12T19:55:00.000-05:00

I'm still working on the Tremolo Study (a former boss calls this 'polishing the turd'). I got rid of the finger brace and manage to keep a good right hand finger position except when doing the tremolo with pimi. So I tried pami and lo and behold my accuracy is much better. I'm not sure why.I'm doing the tremolo with a rest stroke so I can get the high octave ringing out better on the third course

New Mic Positions

2008-01-10T10:45:00.000-05:00

For the last year I've used a Jecklin disk with matched Oktava MC-012 omni-directional mics but the sound doesn't seem right. There is always a boominess in the playback that I don't hear as I'm playing. Even though the recorded sound might be natural for a listener, it's not the same sound I hear when playing. So I abandoned the idea of 'natural' sounding mic positions, such as x-y, ORTF, or the

Apparently it's dying

2008-01-07T14:10:00.000-05:00

..like a lot of other things in the United States, Music is dying:“This is a new song,” Natalie Merchant announced onstage at the Hiro Ballroom on Friday night, at her first full New York City concert in four years. “Try to absorb it here, now, ’cause I don’t know when I’ll make a record.”Ms. Merchant, who sold millions of albums in the 1990s, has an adoring audience and no record label behind

Lower Action

2007-12-09T12:47:00.000-05:00

As I suspected, the action at the 12th fret of the LKSM-12 is higher with the heavier strings. Luckily, although I didn't know at the time, I cut the bridge too low and had to add a bone shim. Do you know how hard it is to sand down a bone shim? You're lucky to have any fingertips left.While doing this project I modified the notched saddle. The two lowest courses (strings 10-12) are no longer

heavy, medium, or light?

2007-12-09T12:26:00.001-05:00

My hands are getting stronger now that cycling is winding down a little and I'm playing more. This means, of course, more fussing to get the perfect sound, the perfect touch. Last February I was obsessing about strings, and I'm back doing it again.The LKSM-12 sounds very nice with the heavy Elixir strings, but it is a bear to play. Even tuned from E to C it has 50 pounds more tension on the

Pay Me for My Content

2007-11-24T17:06:00.000-05:00

For all those who say "Yippee, Listen to me, I'm on Internet Radio!" Jaron Lanier, a computer scientist and a columnist for Discover, has a dose of reality for you:Pay Me for My Content - New York Times:INTERNET idealists like me have long had an easy answer for creative types — like the striking screenwriters in Hollywood — who feel threatened by the unremunerative nature of our new Eden: stop

Action Time

2007-10-25T12:11:00.000-04:00

Given the year round cycling and presence of world-class racers around here, it's difficult to spend a lot of time on the guitar. There's the time on the bike, of course. But the time off the bike is often spent vegging-out...staring at a computer monitor with a vacant expression - the result of glycogen exhaustion, I guess. You have to expend any energy remaining to keep up with the chores.

New Hearing Mechanism Discovered

2007-10-13T15:28:00.000-04:00

More goodness from Science Daily: Vertical waves and horizontal waves...resulting in an interference pattern?It has been known for over half a century that inside the cochlea sound waves are translated into up-and-down waves that travel along a structure called the basilar membrane. But the team has now found that a different kind of wave, a traveling wave that moves from side to side, can also

That ringing is just in my head

2007-10-08T19:56:00.000-04:00

For years I've had an annoying buzz at about 10,000 hertz. It seems to be a ceiling beyond which I can't hear. Lot's of us have it; it's called tinnitus and there is no cure, and, until now, no one knew where the sounds come from.Researchers at the University at Buffalo have discovered tinnitus -- phantom auditory sensations -- originate somewhere in brain, not in the ear. However, I don't think

Cycling in Greenville

2007-10-06T21:11:00.001-04:00

I'm sometimes tempted to make this a cycling blog, because it seems that I spend more time on my bike than playing the 12-string. Our move from upstate New York to Greenville, South Carolina was an escape from the cold and it's worked out really well. I feel sorry for my old buds up North who have to deal with the weather while down here we have glorious year-round cycling and fantastic roads.A

Pro-Choice?

2007-09-27T12:41:00.000-04:00

One of the most divisive issues here in the States is the Abortion issue. But no matter which side you come down on, should your Internet Service Provider be involved?Saying it had the right to block “controversial or unsavory” text messages, Verizon Wireless has rejected a request from Naral Pro-Choice America, the abortion rights group, to make Verizon’s mobile network available for a

Landis Found Guilty

2007-09-20T14:48:00.000-04:00

Warning - cycling, not 12-string post.by 2 to 1. No surprise at all except to those who followed the case closely and were justifiably appalled by the shoddiness of the evidence. Best follow-up quote has to come from Pat McQuaid, the head of the Union Cycliste Internationale:"It's not a great surprise considering how events have evolved. He got a highly qualified legal team who tried to baffle

Net Neutrality

2007-09-07T13:37:00.000-04:00

One can always count on the current US administration to stand behind its citizens...with a knife.Read Justice Department opposes Net Neutrality.

Music Bidness

2007-09-06T09:26:00.000-04:00

R.J. Eskow makes some interesting comments about the woeful state of the Music business. It's at the Huffington Post. He makes some proposals to fix it, the outline of which is:1) Create a Mission Statement for the music industry,2) convene a Brain Trust of the best minds he or she can find, and3) understand and surf "the velocity of music."The Mission Statement?To enrich and bring joy to as

US needs bigger tubes

2007-08-29T10:31:00.000-04:00

The home recording explosion is fueled in a large part by a fast Internet. Here in the States people with money have access to some pretty fast connections. But it seems that most other countries in the industrialized world are moving ahead of us. Japan's Warp-Speed Ride to Internet Future - washingtonpost.com:...speeds on fiber of up to 100 megabits per second -- 17 times as fast as the top

Closed for the Summer

2007-07-15T16:46:00.000-04:00

When I was a kid Autumn was the time for football; I had no interest in anything else except to get together with the gang and play in whatever field we could find. I remember wondering what happened to my interest in baseball.In the Spring we played baseball. I didn't want to play football; I remember wondering how I could have enjoyed it so much.Now it seems that Summer is for bicycling. The

Working on a new piece

2007-06-08T17:25:00.001-04:00

A piece of Bach's that knocked me out with its possibilities years ago - it should be done with screaming electric guitars and a rock drum set, but I found the original Vivaldi piece in Dm and it feels pretty good on the 12-string. The double course strings might hide the fact that the range of a solo guitar is just not wide enough for this music.So I'm inspired enough to shake off the cycling

One of world's top spammers arrested

2007-05-31T13:01:00.000-04:00

A 27-year-old man described as one of the world's most prolific spammers was arrested Wednesday, and federal authorities said computer users across the Web could notice a decrease in the amount of junk e-mail.Oh happy day - they should declare May 31st a holiday. Oh wait, they already did.One of world's top spammers arrested - USATODAY.com

BMI, ASCAP, SESAC, oh my!

2007-05-28T18:21:00.000-04:00

I don't perform in public any more, but the Richard Phillips vs BMI Story might be interesting to anyone who does. The licenses demanded by ASCAP or BMI (and also SESAC, I assume) can be a burden on, for instance, an open mike kind of establishment, or a lounge. But if you don't perform covers of copyrighted songs you can tell the owner that ASCAP and BMI cannot force them to get a license.

Thought Control

2007-05-22T09:46:00.000-04:00

Abu Gonzales proposes increased penalties for thinking about non-profit copyright infringment.Some low lights:* Criminalize "attempting" to infringe copyright. Federal law currently punishes not-for-profit copyright infringement with between 1 and 10 years in prison, but there has to be actual infringement that takes place. The IPPA would eliminate that requirement. (The Justice Department's

More on Internet Radio

2007-05-07T11:30:00.000-04:00

via MyDD, an interview with the founder of Pandora, Tim Westergren.powered by ODEOThe new bill seems skewed towards ClearChannel, which is no surprise in the current political environment. Go to SaveNetRadio to fix this.Added: You can find your Congress Person here. Most of them have email accounts, so drop a line saying that as an indie in their district you would appreciated their support for

Contrasts...and stretched metaphors

2007-05-07T08:43:00.000-04:00

The modern classical guitar is so much more expressive than the modern steel guitar, and the 12-string is even less expressive than a 6-string. The expressiveness of an instrument lies in the ability of the player to present contrasts in tone and loudness of the music. The double course strings of the 12-string don't seem to lend themselves to subtlety. In fact, most 12-string players just flail

12-string Repertoire

2007-05-06T14:38:00.000-04:00

It rained yesterday, hard and all day. I cancelled out of the Saturday morning Sunshine Shop group ride with some feeling of relief and actually played the guitar and blogged a little. It's my first break in riding for about 3 or more weeks. This morning was cloudy but ok for riding, so I'm back in the saddle again - this morning was power workout...desiccated beef drink before the ride, 14

OT: Death

2007-05-06T12:18:00.000-04:00

One of our neighbors died; he was a great guy; his death wasn't unexpected because he was diagnosed with lung cancer several months back and the doctor expected him to last only a few months.I've puzzled most of my life over a brief dialog Buddha had - someone asked him what happens when one dies and Buddha replied that it didn't matter. He didn't say he knew, or that he didn't know. He said, "It

OT: Floyd Landis

2007-05-05T17:55:00.000-04:00

Ok, so I'm so dumb I once thought 'OT' meant On Topic.Anyone who reads this blog or sees the cover of my CD 12-String Cycle knows how much I love to ride. I've run in to a few guitarists who are also riders - Mark & Steven Bornfeld - the Dental Twins, SleepyHead, John Nguyen, Robert Crim and others on rec.music.classical.guitar and rec.music.makers.guitar.acoustic, as well as the classical

More on Pandora

2007-05-05T17:45:00.000-04:00

One of my favorite political blogs, MyDD, picks up on Pandora:As powered by the Music Genome Project, Pandora is a freakishly innovative way to (1) connect listeners to new music and (2) promote popular major-label artists in the very same way as artists recording on GarageBand from home. Tim, a musician himself, has been building the

SoundClick, Whole Wheat, and Pandora

2007-05-02T14:49:00.000-04:00

I think musicians should be paid. People like me who don't perform in public and don't spend time on the road need a way to make this happen. Getting known and getting paid are like ends of a swing - it's hard to balance them. There are a lot of places to display your talents for free, and it may get you noticed. But musicians who distribute their music only to get noticed and with no expectation

In Shape == Tired

2007-04-27T15:29:00.000-04:00

I haven't posted much lately - and haven't picked up the guitar much either. My enthusiasm seems to have disappeared along with the cold weather. I'm riding my bike every day. A week ago Thursday me, and Pete and Gary from Sunshine Bicycle went on what Tony described as 'an epic ride'. Thursday night is usually Paris Mountain night. This Thursday thunderstorms rode in during the afternoon, but we

Tremblin' Whomp

2007-04-20T09:49:00.000-04:00

I previously posted about mastering the 12-string Tremolo study, but after all the writing I've done about it while working on it, now that it is finished I'd like to give some more details and post the score.Although the idea for the piece came to me while pursuing the wily 91 hertz resonance that fell right on the open A of the LKSM-12, my goal while writing was two-fold: first, to practice

Mastering a Song

2007-04-20T08:57:00.000-04:00

I like to post songs to Soundclick once in a while, but can't afford to hire Jon at Naiant Studio for every little song, so I'm trying fix it up myself. I know it's not going to be the same quality, but what can you do.I just posted a 12-String Tremolo Study; the working title was Tremblin' Whomp. I've learned enough about the recording studio to know that there are resonance issues at 58 hertz

Finger Crutch

2007-04-14T18:24:00.000-04:00

What can I say? Some people need mechanical aids.I can't stop my pinkie from straightening out while playing difficult passages, but this device seems to work. It's a tiny section of bicycle inner-tube that fits over the tip of the pinkie, and it is stapled to a strip of Velcro. I don't know if I can ever play correctly without it, but I can feel that I'm using different muscles and it is a

Plus Ça Change

2007-04-13T16:41:00.000-04:00

After days and days of too much fun with Acousoft, I found the best position in the room to record, and it's...about where I was recording months ago. At least my ears agreed with the science.There is a definite 58 hertz major resonance in the room, and a smaller one at 71 hertz and another at about 91 hertz; despite many broad band traps in the corners they are still there. I think that removing

Joshua Bell's Subway Concert

2007-04-09T11:22:00.000-04:00

I'm not sure if this is encouraging or discouraging to an unappreciated musician.Premier violinist Joshua Bell, playing Johann Sebastien Bach's Chaconne on his multi-million dollar Strad anonymously in a D.C. subway stop...what happened?Three minutes went by before something happened. Sixty-three people had already passed when, finally, there was a breakthrough of sorts. A middle-age man altered