Monday, July 3, 2017

Just a thought on ambient guitar and removing noise from tracks

I started ambient guitar style playing just 8 months ago, after 40 years of guitar playing for anyone reading that doesn't know me. In these 8 months I find that there's a bit of the dog chasing the tail. I bought a Big Sky as my first pedal last December, and immediately returned it because it was too complicated. I just re-purchased it last week and I am now in love with it. Two years ago a friend was searching for “noise-less” recordings; now he craves accurate tone and is willing to suffer some noise. In jazz, I concentrated on the “right” notes and scales and arpeggios and chords; today I set up my Big Sky and Strymon Dig, created a fantastic wash of sound, and then composed a spontaneous piece based upon sound, not notes. Frankly, the notes were irrelevant; they were just all in the key of C. It blows my world apart, and I love it. So each day I learn a little more, and feel my way through this new world of music making. Even my listening has changed; I used to listen for rhythm, melody, harmony and the scale sound on top of the chord. Now I listen for layers, texture, tone, emotional reaction, and quiet too. I'll remove the noise for a while, and who knows, after my ears have evolved more, maybe I'll embrace noise as a trade-off for something else.

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