Daniel Leather @thesixthvoice - Tumblr Blog

Practice Notes #4

Failure to prepare is preparing to fail. The less control you have over the parameters of your playing, the more likely you are to be subject to mistakes. Don’t leave it down to the elements to dictate your control of the instrument, take the reigns and assess every motion. Make economy of movement and force your goal, and plan multiple steps ahead as to how you are going to achieve executing an effortless performance: think about correct fingerings, think about how far your fingers and/or pick moves away from the strings and minimise that distance - same goes for the left hand, think about the curvature and wrist position of the left hand, think about if you can substitute difficult voicings to make life easier, think about the simultaneous movements you need to make in preparation for next position or technique. Be an owl.

Practice Notes #3

Practice doesn’t make perfect; perfect practice makes perfect. A mistake is not a unfortunate circumstance dictated by chance, but a different result that undermines our expectations. If you keep practicing a routine riddled with mistakes, you will play with mistakes. Cultivate the patience to play slowly and observe the movements and flow of a perfectly executed section. Better 5 minutes of concentrated acceleration, than 5 hours of spinning tyres in the mud.

#guitar #practice #music

Practice Notes #2

Bruce Lee said the ultimate technique is no technique. Read everything you can guitar and music books, then forget it. Learn that the purpose of practicing technique is a means to an end, and that end is producing music. If you feel you can do that in your own individual physical way, and get the same results, stay true to your own style.

#guitar #practice #music

Practice Notes #1

Visualise the left hand needs only to move in parallel motion with the strings, it is completely unnecessary to move the fingers in any vertical motion prior to fretting a note. This will avoid slipping, and sharpen accuracy. If the strings are the railway line, your left hand fingers are the trains, don’t make them slip off the tracks.

#guitar #practice #music

Completed Portfolio

Today is the hand-in deadline for the portfolio. I have made some changes that I didn’t expect to make to the final outcome, but I think it has worked out quite well really. I have substituted the last two pieces for another two, that come from a different place in my creative practice, and function in a different way.

I would have been persistent in submitting pieces that are conceived from my concept album, but as I have explained to peers, I just set my standards too high. If I had to write another few pieces to the same standard of Temples, I would be under enormous pressure, and a race against time. It would probably end up in me submitting work that I would not be happy with, and I wasn’t ready to compromise to that level. Also, to complete some of the compositions that I have in mind, I’m going to need access to performers that simply are not here, and isn’t worth the strain trying to get hold of, over instead, occupying the other half of the portfolio with tracks that are strong, present my different composition skills, and are considerably easier to manage and produce, therefore allowing me to deliver a well mixed and recorded portfolio of tracks.

It’s not that I’m unhappy with the submission, just that ideally I could have got feedback for, and used this time at university to develop my other pieces. But in a way, now I’m not rushing anything and jumping the gun. I basically recorded the whole instrumental tracks for ‘wishful thinking’ until I realised that I was not ready with lyrics, and this piece isn’t the kind of thing you force; you work with it, and think about what you’re doing carefully. In that sense, the last two pieces seem more expendable to me than the first two.

Still, it’s done. And now it’s just the essay, and finished. I am not enjoying this moment as much as I thought I would. I still feel overworked, rushed, caught in a sloppy living cycle.

#coventry university #music #composition

The Final Stages of the Portfolio

After a few guitar and vocal tracks have been recorded, I will be safely finished with the portfolio. I never thought I’d see the day. There will of course be several hours of mixing and editing in the process to make them presentable, but then that pretty much concludes the course, apart from a 2000 word reflective essay which I’ve already written 900+ words on. It’s strangely working out quite manageable, probably because I’ve decided to keep to 4 pieces and lose the planned 5th piece I wanted to include, but I’m going for quality not quantity here, and I think that’s the right decision.

I think the thing that will baffle me the most with this is recording vocals. I’ve been singing now for years, mainly live, and in a few recording sessions, but to have my own dedicated session to record vocals on my own tracks is a step that I think I would reach come day.so I suppose it’s nice to see and feel like I’m at the stage where I can see that come into fruition. I wouldn’t record my own vocals if I knew I wasn’t ready, so I think I’ll be pleased with the results. Better look up some production techniques.

I would like to go back over ‘Temples’ and do up anice lead guitar part that leads into the final stages of the last section so I hope I get - or rather make - the time to do that. The point of this is, leaving uni with not just a piece of work suitable for an assignment brief, but also something I can take with me, forward into my career. I want to perform this music live, I want to see it on some media platforms, this is my integral work at last.

#composer #rock music #coventry university #vocalist #guitarist

My Music Portfolio Pieces

With exactly three weeks to go until the portfolio deadline, I am making good time in the development of the portfolio. I predict I will be submitting around 30 minutes of music, and I have chosen to submit the music ideas that have previous existence and development, are strong because they do not lack direction or identity, are manageable in time and production, and are pieces I genuinely like and want feedback for. Some are more developed than others, so I will need to spend time writing my last two pieces until they are fully formed. Here are the 5 pieces that will make up my portfolio:

Temples

The first piece I started and finished. An instrumental rock piece that makes use of acoustic textures, and develops harmonically and texturally more towards the end. Lasting 10 minutes, this takes a big hit with marking, but I’m confident that it will not bring a disappointing mark (don’t speak too soon, Dan). The introduction is a solo guitar section that lasts for 3 minutes, which I actually conceptualized when I was still a teenager in school. The use of this is functional in the meaning I give to the piece, and also with how it fits in with a work-in-progress concept album, Songs of the Summer. As well as being a strong idea, I am submitting this piece for the feedback of the lecturers and students, so if there is a possibility that I can improve it, then that will matter most to me.

The Upside

I wrote this piece this year in tribute to the band I formed with fellow classmates and good friends from the course. Being a cover band but aspiring to write some original music, I aimed to harvest some soul-like essence into a blues riff inspired piece that has attitude. The writing process of this song was cripplingly pragmatic; I challenged myself to sit down immediately and write something, music and words, write there on the page, just do it, bam. And I did. And this is it, and it’s pretty good! - after necessary amendments and running it through rehearsals.

White Wing

An instrumental metal piece that seemed like it took forever to finish, with a tempo an 187 bpm and recording multiple guitar tracks, it’s a lot of work to fit into 5 minutes. I first conceived the introduction to this piece when I was at the end of my first year of uni. In that time of freedom, I was playing video games quite a bit, so I sort of relate this to battle music you could expect to hear on an RPG or fighting game of some sort. I never thought it would sound as good as it does, even as a demo, and I pulled the drum section out exactly as I had imagined it in my head - yes! I chose this piece for the portfolio because I think it demonstrates how naturally I fall into odd time signatures, and I get to display my abilities for writing in this kind of style. This is definitely a strength for me.

Wishful Thinking

Another song (I never sang before I came to uni, but I was never against the idea - now I really like to sing). This is probably one of the oldest music ideas I have, and from the moment I created it years ago, I’ve not forgot it and I still ply it all the time, so the reason for putting this in the portfolio is about getting round to finally writing it up into a finished product, so when I want to experience it I can do so in its own context and form. This is one of the pieces that I will still need to write for, yet I’d say about 70% - 75% of the music material already exists, out of structure and progression. Again, I fall in and out of time signatures in this piece and make use of ascending 5ths as a nice bridge and instrumental section, and interesting guitar chord voicings, establishing just the right tone/mood I’m looking for.

Summer Fades

This is the biggest challenge of my portfolio: a solo guitar piece, integral to the concept album I’ve previously mentioned with ‘Temples’, which make use of a solo guitar introduction. I actually have written and established some of the main parts of this piece, all but the MAIN BIT - I need to lend some of the pragmatism I had with ‘The Upside’, I’m being too clingy with this piece, hesitant to move in any direction. I’m choosing this piece for the portfolio because the solo guitar in something I’m interested in as a guitarist, and something I’ll be relying on as a professional musician, so to produce a piece as an asset for myself for after I leave university, and to get some good feedback from lecturers I think is a really good opportunity. There are some really nice sections to this piece though, I love the opening, and a particular part that uses a chromatic descending bass, leading to a climactic moment.

So there it is. I’ve also made a deal with myself to include, if I have the time, ‘Tinto de Verano’, which is a song I wrote about cannibalism that I first had an idea for when drinking sangria in Spain. Hasta pronto!

#composer #coventryuniversity #musician #music

Original release in 1971. Link to the song 'Islands' only, the full album is not available on YouTube.

I’d already heard this album prior to deciding my dissertation subject, so it’s with a refreshing and more informed view of progressive rock I can return to listen to it. I would have chosen to write a little about In The Court of the Crimson King, but I feel like that’s the common one for a lot of people when it comes to King Crimson, so here’s an invite to something else.

I can’t honestly say that this song fully reflects the overall style of the album Islands. There are a few numbers on there where you can hear the experimental side of King Crimson, take ‘Sailor’s Tale’ where free improvisation is used as a structural guide to the piece. ‘Islands’ on the other hand (including the track, ‘Prelude - Song of the Gulls’, which is the prelude for ‘Islands’) moves far from the characteristics of rock, in fact. Piano, drums, (clean) lead electric guitar, vocals, mellotron and cornet form the ensemble, and there is clear thematic material governed by the vocals and shadowed in different parts by the mellotron. There is a cornet solo towards the end of the piece, which sounds like it is mainly improvised, given the resulting performance. Overall, this is mellow for King Crimson, and sounds like it could almost be a hymn... with a big instrumental build towards the end that gives this song a reflective quality.

Lovely imagery from the lyrics and the concept of the island, whatever that encompasses. I have found a journal in my research called ‘Islands and Islandsness in Rock Music’, which gives interesting accounts for the purpose of islands being present in rock music from the 60s to 2005. Interesting read, worth a googling.

#islands #progressive rock #robert fripp #king crimson

The band is doing well!

Our performance in Coventry University library, Autumn.

#The Upsiders #Acoustic #Coventry #Coventry University

'Scheherazade /ʃəˌhɛrəˈzɑːdᵊ/, or "Shahrazad", is a legendary queen and the storyteller of One Thousand and One Nights' (Wikipedia): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scheherazade

Next up on my listening journey through the realms of progressive rock, an album that was released in 1975 by the band Renaissance, Scheherazade & Other Stories. I came across this album late last year, but I think it’s taken me a good while to fully appreciate everything in this - to rush ahead and write about the work in this record simply wouldn’t do. I listen back now and I still hear new things, and if there was only a single album I could take away from my research, this is it. The funny thing about Renaissance is, they are mentioned very sparingly in academic and media records, and are probably considered as a ‘cult’ band. Yes, there are interviews online and the music is on YouTube, but for fuck’s sake, the music is incredible and is dangerously underrated. I am using this album in my dissertation, and I’ve found one source (only) that briefly mentions the artwork and fantasy material. Ridiculous. Sick of it.

In the previous post, I talked about a song in Genesis’ Foxtrot, ‘Supper’s Ready’, a song cycle as it’s built up of multiple individual pieces that are connected thematically, yet explored in different directions. This album features a song cycle, in a piece called ‘Song of Scheherazade’, that is comprised of 9 separate pieces. There is a recurring theme going on here with progressive artists and using song cycles (which is a point I’m building on in my dissertation), which really portrays the work as a story, a narrative is in there, a journey, that potentially reinforces a moral point, or can simply invite our imaginations into the music, as was a standard cultural practice for the musicians of the counterculture from late 1960 to mid 1970s.

The pretension that is often associated with progressive rock, that comes from complex rhythmic structures, atonal experimentation, psychedelia inspired soundscapes and free improvisation, isn’t present in this work. What you’re really listening to here are songs, that infuse instrumental passages that sound like they have been approached by an orchestrator, not your bog standard rock musician. This emphasises the instrumentation they used for writing the album, being choral sections, synthesizers, strings and brass, and of course all held together by the rock ensemble of guitars, drums and piano/keys. What can I say? It sounds epic, and not only from the inclusion of ‘real’ (I hate that tag, by the way) instruments, but pay attention to the harmonic and melodic material that is derived in some cases from modes. I just really love what these guys do with the instruments, check out the first song, ‘Trip to the Fair’, and listen to when the piano introduction sinks into the riff on the lower keys, how the bass guitar slides in to support it; when I hear that, it’s like something clicks in me and I know shit’s getting real, and it all develops from there, but just that texture between the bass and piano, I love it. It happens in song 6 too, ‘Festival Preparations; man, when that main riff kicked in, it turned the head of the people in my living room at the time: ‘what is this?’ Good question, bystander, what is this indeed...

My personal favourite is ‘Ocean Gypsy’. Given the verse/chorus structure of the song, with an instrumental break in the middle (you’ll get what I mean by orchestration through that bit), I can’t help but feel like we’re seeing folk influences in the music of Renaissance in ‘Ocean Gypsy’. I also feel like Annie Haslam’s vocals express brilliantly a feeling of awe through the verse sections. A female vocalist that I’ve come to really admire, and who I’ve learned recently from an interview doesn’t listen to progressive rock in favour of classical music. It explains a lot really.

I guarantee, someway through this album, you will feel like you’re in/watching/living an action film, yet you know somehow that what you’re really doing is loving how this is still a rock album. This album excites me, and I want more of it, and things like it. And in the process of writing this post, I’ve listened to it again, and I regret nothing.

#renaissance #scheherazade #progressive rock #annie haslam #female vocalist #rock music #instrumental #classical #1970s #song cycle

That artwork... still mesmerized by it.

You can’t study progressive rock for a dissertation subject, and not discover a few big names out there, one being Genesis. A band which prior to my research I’d never before heard - although already knowing that Phil Collins and Peter Gabriel have enjoyed attraction in more mainstream rock music through their solo careers, I approached listening for the first time with a little curiosity about what I was going to get. Nevertheless, I gave Foxtrot a go, and it’s right up there with some of the best music I’ve discovered through my research.

From the opening of the album with ‘Watcher of the Skies’, it’s quite easy to get wrapped up in the music straight through to the end, although the last song ‘Supper’s Ready’, being a 9 part song cycle, can be a little exhausting, since it spans about 26 minutes. Unlike Yes, that fuse elements of free improvisation and have an experimental approach to their music (Listen to Close to the Edge), the songs in Genesis make use of repeated riffs and rhythms that develop into longer structures, and use refrain and chorus sections, with clear thematic material. I now see Genesis as the band that knows how to fuse good song writing with rhythmic and tonal comprehensibility, with progressive rock’s virtuosity and sophistication in utilizing instrument capabilities and developing the musical material. To the newcomer of 1960s progressive rock, this would be my go-to recommendation album. There’s even a take on the Prelude to Bach’s Cello Suite No.1 - evident that these guys have a history of musical education, which is also why the instrumental technicality is impressive, too.

Go ahead and leave it on the background while you do your daily business, and give in to being distracted by some instances where the music interests you with a passage or two and makes you say ‘wow, what song is this?’, then before you know it you’re listening to the album through for like the 6th time in three days. True story, bro.

One final thing, a fun fact: it references Genesis' album Nursery Cryme in the background on the full artwork, with the big hole in the ground where the house used to be. Check it out: https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=genesis+foxtrot&espv=2&biw=1920&bih=955&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&sqi=2&ved=0ahUKEwjWiLTi4qzKAhWFfg8KHcscAyYQ_AUIBigB#imgrc=nNrAGW1Y_h_OhM%3A

#Genesis #progressive rock #foxtrot #English rock #listening #music recommendation #phil collins #peter gabriel #tony banks #mike rutherford #steve hackett

adventuresinstringrepair

Have you told your instrument you love it today?

Have you hugged it?

Have you made sure it’s clean and safe?

Furthermore, have you done the same for yourself?

Instrument (and self) care is important.

This has been a PSA.

Anekdoten's 6th album. Enjoy! Please support the band by buying a physical/digital copy. http://anekdoten.shop.textalk.se/ http://anekdoten.bandcamp.com/rele...

I think I’ll be doing quite a few music blogs now that I’m writing about progressive rock every day for my dissertation.

Here’s a Swedish band I stumbled across through youtube, and I knew a few minutes in that the sound of the album was sitting right with me. I like the use of the mellotron, (as always) it gives the music a cloudy spacial texture, and somehow an aspect of tragedy. I’m hearing some aspects of Megadeth in guitar solo, and general thrash rock for some riffs, but overall I appreciate the instrumental exploration of musical themes between distorted and clean guitar, and the electronic accompaniment. Definitely worth a listen for alternative, progressive and post-rock fans.

#Anekdoten #music #rock #progressive rock #post rock #alternative rock #mellotron #Until All the Ghosts Are Gone

Gigging in Coventry, 20/11/2015

#live music #guitarist #acoustic

mhysa

reblog if u understand this inspirational message

berndor

beautiful

opulent-opiums

FUCK YOU MUSICAL PEOPLE AND YOUR SATANIC MUSICAL NOTES AND DEMONIC RITUALS YOU PREFORM OVER MUSIC I CANT READ MUSIC fCKIN NOTES

ellenkushner

I have a thought about ‘kill your darlings.’ There seems to be a general notion out there in the ether that the phrase means, ‘Hunt down every sentence or image you really love and cut it down like a pernicious weed.’ That, my dears, is bullshit. In my opinion, what it really means is, ‘If you’re rewriting a whole scene just so that a paragraph or conversation you’re in love with will work, and it still kind of doesn’t, maybe it doesn’t really belong in this story and you should print it out and put it in a lovely, decorative folder labelled DARLINGS to read on those days when you hate every sentence you’re writing.’

Delia Sherman, American fantasy writer (via ellenkushner)

Composition Portfolio Planning November 1st 2015

#coventry university #music composition #planning

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Daniel Leather