Author: guitarbeau

it has been awhile

| guitarbeau

Don’t know why, or won’t admit why it has been awhile.

speaks for itself me thinks

It will always be awhile.

Ah expectation the provocation of so much everything.
The multitudinous plausibility of possibility.

Amongst the plethora that is potentiality,
there are many capabilities that vie for attention.
The least of which given my proclivities is ironically,
vying for attention.
Before going too far off the intended trajectory of this post,
this is what seems pertinent to efforts here on the blog.
where the mission statement reads
MUSIC AND MEDIA TO INCITE INSIGHT AND INVIGORATE INNOVATION
the music and media are to be had in the gif above
feel free to use it to point out to those of us who are of the avoidant variety
that we are so inclined.

on the invigorating innovation front…

LEFT HANDED DRUMMING

The reasons for making a shift from dominant hand preference in creative pursuits are manifold.

The foremost it would seem is to become ambidextrous.
To have an equal capability in both hands.

Such as with the guitar.

Unlike the piano keyboard or drum kit where both hands are basically doing the same thing.
Each of the guitarist hands have a specific and unique role in producing sound from the instrument.
One hand picks plucks or strums the strings whilst the other hand fingers the strings above the frets on the neck altering the sound the strings are able to make.
Both hands have an impact on the pitch rhythm and dynamics possible with the instrument
but as mentioned are performing different functions to accomplish this.

By virtue of learning an instrument such as the guitar
the left and right brain hemispheres integrate & can possibly coordinate better in other areas.

The initial reason to drum from my non dominant inclination, right handedness,
was to increase left hand ability on the piano keyboard.
To have a more natural flow from that side.
As I write this, it seems to be the side that provides the most difficulty.

It not being able to demonstrate the competence I would like it to as does my right dominant hand.
Of course my right hand misses the mark but not as often, as it has more accomplished dexterity than my left.
Of course it is a matter of coordination betwixt both hands.
And the goal is to improve capabilities in both.
So I take to drumming such as it is to,
make it so!

however

It is impatience that provokes the desire to manifest more quickly a skill set
or technique that takes as long as it takes.
Depending on our ability to focus on development of said skill set, time lines and results will vary.

something for you to try

So to be more conscious of the processes inherent in expressing musicality.
Try turning things around thusly to see if it offers an advantage in reaching that goal.
One does not need a drum kit to practice drumming from the non dominant side of your preference.
Try tapping your non dominant foot to the beat of the music you play or listen to.
Endeavor to open up new neural pathways so that the mechanics of musical performance can be better understood and applied.

Some of the other manifold extrapolations of trying to do things outside of the dominant hands dominance
or to put it another way cause who does not like to read more words than are necessary
Activities I’ve employed the left hand to do that normally the right does relatively easily are:

Writing with a pen or pencil,
Sketching,
Using power tools, handy when certain physical constraints are imposed on the body to reach the target.

While my intermittent efforts have been less than stellar
the results are beginning to bear fruit.
An immediate benefit is the ensuing patience it takes to recalculate how to accomplish the activity thusly.

So the main take away here as I experience it is.
Any effort applied to a specified end can deliver results.
By practicing alternative methodology one can find additional pathways to progress.
These will not all be immediate but with patience judiciously practiced,
we can and will see progress.

excuse me

| guitarbeau

Touching nerves on the result of a creative process.

There are many interpretations for the inclination behind the lyrics below.
Some song writers want to let the listener hear what they will and so don’t provide the lyrics.
Allowing the listener to ascribe their own particular impression into or onto what is heard.
I thought it might be of interest to explain each line as imagined at the time of writing, or as they seem to feel now.
But that might get tedious and would most definitely take away from the rhythm if such can be deduced from the reading of lyrics.
As something of a melody maker myself, there is the potential to put ones own musical spin onto what one is reading, especially if the original intent was musical.
Once years ago while reading Psalms, I heard in my mind accompanying the words being read, heavy metal music!
And when pressed for lyrics, I have been able to use the ingredients listed on a package of processed food as a means to convey a melodic idea!

As for these lyrics, (not above, below) they seem to stand perfectly well on their own.
Not really needing further elaboration.
I must admit though that it was these very lyrics that led me to conclude that the creative process can reveal oneself to oneself whether one wanted to do that or not.
And it kinda scared me!
What the hell am I trying to say to myself?
Do I really need to know this about myself?
Apparently.

Does anybody else need to know?

First and foremost art is made by and for the artist.
Something inside has to get out.
Something has to be done to be understood more fully.
Something of oneself clamors for expression!
We do it because we can, whether it wants outside attention or not.
It gets our attention.
Because it is necessary to make even if only for the process of creating something that has not existed before.
At least as far as ones own eyes, ears, hands and heart is concerned.
Of course derivation is always a part of any creation.
Something is made from what has been before.
‘Creative combinating’ I had called it in a previous post here on the blog.
The message isn’t always understood until after it is heard.
Even then it might not be immediately comprehended.
Alas, with out further ado.

waiting (lyrics)


Guess I,
shouldn’t feel like singing after all.
Trying to answer,
try to answer echoes.
Smelling smoke,
oh a fire barley glows.
Stinging hope.
Rubbing salt into the prose.

Moving ahead riding shotgun on a whim.
You can lead it, it can follow,
you can just give out, give up, give in.
Stand tall with in a shadow cast by visions blue and dim
Too busy looking on,
there’s no time,
to look with in,
there’s no time,
to look with in.

Waiting for,
evocation true and clear.
Illustrating the mind,
a fight with words no one hears.
Time ran on,
time ran out,
oh time got in the way.
Is what I said, what you heard,
is it what I meant to say?

Tied to ancient chains slow to ring the freedom bell.
With barbed wire words stand and complain,
don’t always understand it, though it sounds the same.
Think enough about yourself,
enough to quench the pain.
Think you’ve found an answer,
well the questions,
still remain,
they still remain,
they still remain.

So easy to pretend to be fine,
it so easy,
to pretend.
So easy to intend to find,
change.
Before a season ends,
before a new reason begins.

Time,
dissolve and amend.
So I guess maybe I,
I might feel like singing after then.

so whats all this then?

So what was it about these words that scared me?
Admitting albeit in a round about way that, an awareness of my flaws might behoove me to step down from the ego-tactical pedestal I stand on.
Also, it seems I might be making excuses for making excuses about my excuses for not creating even whilst being creative.
And wanting to sing about it!
How’s that for irony!?

hears the song

waiting

merci

UNother

| guitarbeau

sound cloud has a new artist

scotch and second thoughts

I don’t know.
Is it the desire to make some sort of progress?
Having maintained an unwillingness to connect, ask for help.
All the while recognizing a need for such.
Connection / Help.
Wanting to hide in a relative obscurity.
Long term, it all becomes obscure so…?
What is there to be afraid of?

I DON’T WANT ANY TROUBLE

Having been a self involved and self indulgent sort for so long it is a challenge to acknowledge I might be wrong about my choices thus far.
About my devout narcissism and unflinching desire to remain alone and untroubled by the rest of the world.
Meanwhile the world remains as it is, untroubled by me.

The effort to make oneself a going concern is quite the quandary!
I matter to me but do I need to matter to you to feel…?

Whole, complete, worthwhile, considered?

Beyond of course the perfunctory consternations, comprised of past compilations and complications, contrived by conditioned considerations that may or may not be relevant anymore !?

D’accord (of course) the mirror works both ways.
Do you need to matter to me to feel…?

Whole, complete, worthwhile, considered…?

ETC..

These feelings are possible irrespective of others, though the contributions that interaction with others contracts, enacts, protracts and exacts, can embellish said capacity to feel and that is perhaps a salient point on which to proceed with the potential dilemmas or delights such interaction can result in.

Allowing understanding (standing under ((Is that even possible?)) and did I use parentheses right?) of another and especially of oneself to develop!?

What’s the matter?
How does one choose to PRESENT is difficult!
One can choose to interact with whatever spirit one can manifest.
MELONCHOLIQUE
IRONIQUE
HISTRIONIQUE
(sorry I’m french at my core) ( even if incorrect I am still french!)
How does one choose to be PRESENT ?

I am the same as you yet different.
Wanting to maintain an existence and make the most of the matter I am from the matter that is?
How then to not get sucked into the ego tactical maneuvers that seem to make up so much of existence?

ISO help to facilitate sharing but with the caveat that I get credit for doing so!
Is sharing in and of itself not enough?

“There is no limit to what one can accomplish if one does not care who gets the credit!”
Uncertain of the source but the phrase has always reverberated.

What does one want to accomplish that matters so much and that credit would be irrelevant?

The dog I live with won’t let me comb his hair.
He accepts massages, petting, food and living arrangements but refuses to be groomed.
To what end?
His rear end!
His feces sticks to his fur and from my own experience, when feces sticks to my “fur” I prefer it not be thus.
Plus there are the burrs and other various flora and fauna that a long haired dog is bound to accumulate living in the Sonoran Desert.

Maybe it is about control.
I want him to be groomed cause he is a reflection of me somehow.
However after being informed by an appreciative onlooker that “he is a beautiful dog” my response is “yes but I had nothing to do with that” this despite my desperate and disparate attempts at grooming him.
Irregardless he seems content.
Yes I wrote irregardless despite my vain awareness of someone else’s awareness that such conjugating is redundant and irrelevant.
But so is almost everything in existence save for what our perception allows as to observable facts.
Which are just interests in things that are what they are but also what we wish them to be.

Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes “ To the making of many books there is no end and much devotion to them is wearisome to the flesh” But I suppose it depends on the reader and the books. Besides all things eventually weary the flesh. So read anyway and enliven the experience and observation of the known universe as well the unknown.

merci

out of the corner of my eye

| guitarbeau
an original tune

It has been awhile since I’ve had a notion to put anything out into the world as it were.
Usually avoiding doing that for reasons I continually guess at but am sometimes like now interested in circumventing for some reason.
So there’s this then..

I have had so many crushes over time.

Attractions, hopes, dreams, someone or thing that might open me up, like to or let me shine.

And the battle betwixt idealism and cynicism ensues.
I tend to err on the side of idealism til it comes time to put up or shut up.
then the cynic in me runs the show.
Who needs what and or why. Well lets let the idealist run rampant and show its propensity for…
IDEALISM!

The ‘Corner of my Eye’ song was the result of a crush a long time ago.
I still have the picture I drew of my hoped for inamorata.
I have lots of pictures of hoped for inamorata.
I have a number of songs as well inspired by hoped for inamorata.
But that’s a quandary for another post.

As I have come to appreciate there is more to life and love than just the significant other many of us crave.
As a result I reworded some of the original lyrics to try and reflect that.
Such are visible but not audible in the video.
Whether they convey the broadness of heart that I intend remains to be understood.
If any are curious enough to spot the differences I thank you for you interest in my meandering melodrama.

But thanks especially for listening.

Recently I realized how musical ideas can morph and be rewritten and do not have to be engraved in stone before they are released into the wild.
So here is ‘Out of the Corner of My Eye’ circa 1989 that still resonates with me but as mentioned I have a slightly different take on the sentiments expressed.

Sentiments, sensations being what they are, can be obtained by various means.

Can be the same feeling despite the instance that causes it.

Heart racing because of a near miss causing an accident, a public speaking engagement, a chance meeting with someone you admire.

All resulting in the heart racing but for very different reasons.

And so words can express various feelings with out necessarily being only about the one thing and yet over all are about the one thing.

Maybe my verbosity gets the better of me as does the vagaries of life that seem to want to demand less demanding and more deferring to possibility.

And as I experiment with this music and alternative instrumentation, that also maybe heard someday.

But for now there is this from then when I was wishful wistful and musical!

merci

occaissional smoke

| guitarbeau

Occasional Smoke a music video

What I am working on.
‘the occasional smoke’
a demo of a song.
Here so others can access it and contribute their part.
I can’t quite put my finger on where the ideas come from.
Though now that I think about it, there is quite bit of combining going on.
The first chord is a variation of Gm7 and C9 from Rocket Man by Elton John.
The intro bass line is possible because my current abilities can easily combine to make that happen.
When it changes to the slower bluesy part that’s where I get to struggle and where my effort needs to be focused.
Voicing the chords, using different inversions but the same notes whilst the bass line left hand part does its thing that’s the challenge.
Le Défi as the french say.
There are other recognizable musical conventions employed throughout, to make it accessible.
Recognizable yet still demonstrating some originality.
It is as much a learning process as it is a creative production.

There are of course other issues.
Energy to follow through.
What should be addressed next.
The other aspects of producing multi media art.
Distracted by the next stimulating thing.
This can be another song, sketch, video photo op, thankfully not just a tv show or some such.
And of course wanting to make it the best it can be.
Perfectionism it can derail the process because it can always be better.
But it also is what it is so there you have it.

Words to live by

IRREGARDLESS

So ‘irregardless’ (I know some hate that word I used to be one of them, I’m not anymore) because in the overall scheme of things what does it matter?
If it gets noticed by any or ignored by many.
The point seems to be, does it matter to me enough to do it irregardless.

My cousin, my evil twin recently passed and she know that I did not care for the word ‘irregardless’
So being the evil twin that she was made a video game avatar and facebook page for the character she named:

Irregardlessee

Irregardlessee.

She did this because in my linguistic capabilities or the lack there of especially in french.
I would conjugate at whim and did so with the word I now think I live by:

probablemente

Probably.
Seems like a useful life motto
She said the construct did not exist in her experience and it offended her.
So of course make an avatar name her ‘Irregardlessee’ to try and provoke my ire.
It did not, but we had fun dealing with such things.

Ironiquely I don’t really care that much about the word, I was just parroting off some comment another had made that I must’ve thought sounded intelligent so I adopted the posture of linguistic exemplar to foster an aspect of my identity I could feel good about.
Hence another example of creative combinating I’ve put to use to have something to say.

But wait there’s more

As if to demonstrate the evilness of both twins, she eventually did hear a French newscaster use the word ‘probablemente’
So vindicated I was right all along and my identity as a linguistic exemplar remains intact!
However I miss my evil twin immensely.

I have my memories to keep me challenged by our new proximity.

We visited Carcassonne France in 2016 here are some memories of that.

M E R C I

hot milk

| guitarbeau

Hot Milk a video.
Another creative expression using the tools at my disposal.
The music is by A.C. Hampton Sr,
We have been collaborating for a while now.
I am learning a lot about how to make my tools do things I haven’t thought of.
Animating this way and that.
So progress is always being made.
Still being drawn in many directions trying to make sense and cents of it all.

mission statement

| guitarbeau

So whilst working on a video for my friend A.C. Hampton, Sr. View ‘rumble bugs‘ here and ‘morning fog’ here. I got to the end of the project and wanted something to indicate my efforts in this regard. As I was doing my amalgamation of animating techniques I realized I do not have a suitable card to acknowledge my efforts. The above is a screen shot of a portion of the video end credits that I was quite pleased with generating. My animating techniques are still some what in the developmental stage but I have fun doing it!

This has been my mission statement ever since I decided to pursue a business. I was already busy but have bought into the notion of capitalizing on my busy-ness! I generated the simple but effective thought pictured above as an over arching intention so I would have a reference point if I get lost along the way.

“No man is an island but some are peninsulas” (Woody Allen)

As my efforts here on the blog suggest, I get lost along the way, a lot! I think the main reason is, I don’t have the confidence to really just go for it. The ‘so here I am deal with it, or not‘ motif. Ironiquely it is both, the dealing with it or not, that puts me off. On the one hand, if others are interested then I feel obligated to do more of the same and being somewhat commitment phobique (Yes I do francify a lot of my linguistique platitudinalness, as well as obfuscate words behind my wordinesss but that is what makes me literary!?) This despite being very committed to…

I don’t want to have to do anything! On the other hand, I don’t have to be miffed that nobody cares if there is nothing there to care about!? Having a diluted and deluded sense of self. I saunter and spend the hours and days and weeks and months and years in an off hand way. So much else is really just another effort at dilution and deluding. And what is life but spending the time we have as best we can irregardless and irrespective of any other as we are all only accountable to ourselves? I say this despite having a fairly well rounded education regarding biblical statutes as well as a growing interest and study of buddhism. Which has lead me to the self accountability assessment. Of course that is not entirely true. We are dependent on and depended on by others unless we have fallen off a cliff that suggests otherwise, at which point I mean we are dead! “No man is an island but some are peninsulas” (Woody Allen) So accountable we are, its just to what degree are we willing to commit to that, and this despite no one caring whether we do or not! See, it is self accountability in certain contexts.

So what was my point? Clarity is over rated, and half if not all the fun in life is about being surprised by the next thing coming around the bend! Despite some of that resulting in a collision of sorts that leads to…?

Nevertheless, I do manage a bit of consistency for the dependability principle to stay in effect, both outwardly and inwardly.

combinating creatively

| guitarbeau

manifesting musical multi media musings

Here are couple of video’s I made for A.C. Hampton, Sr. to share his music on youtube.

The one titled ‘look at the sky’ is of the Arizona sky at various times, some shots might be a bit dizzying!
Like humanity the sky has many moods.
As we watch it will change.
As do moods and the thoughts that create them.
Best not to leave the light on one thought or mood too long and miss those that are yet to come.

For the song ‘cruzin’ I made a video animating some questions.
These questions are usually the result of the plethora of options seemingly available to pursue.

Which way is forward?
Which way is up?
Why is?
Why not?
Optionalities abound.

poetically incorrect

Yes I get creative linguistically.
Taking liberties with verbiage.
As well as what constitutes animation.
Proffering another way to imagine and experience.
Part of my process to invigorate innovation.

impressions ? comment below

Either of the music or imagery or both!


Contact me for availability to create video and music for your project.

merci

dorkin in the dorian in c

| guitarbeau
the sonique spiderweb

what else is there to say?

And then some me thinks.
Yes there is more to say somehow despite the plethora of what has already been said.
Do you find an inane distractability in just about everything there is to do?
Maybe during practice, reaching for a beverage instead of maintaining focus on the difficulties of what we’re trying to learn!?
What I’m asking is, is it really thirst?
Does dehydration occur sitting at the keyboard learning to read music?
Enough berating of my anxious concerns about managing to get things done for the moment.

I’ve berated B flat Major in a previous post and as this is something of my paradigm to go through all the modes in all the keys as a project.

We come to Dorian in C.

A natural minor scale comprising all the notes of a Major scale but the root pitch begins from the Major 2nd interval.
In the case of B flat Major, the Major 2nd interval is C.
What makes it a minor is the 3rd note from this starting pitch which is E flat.
The 6th interval in Dorian in C is an A, this is a half step higher than would be in a natural minor scale where the 6th would be A flat.

I know, fascinating right.

All so we can find and play the right note on demand.

So knowing what we know about Major scales and B flat in particular, see if we can parse out or deduce the other pitches in C Dorian.

Fill in the blanks, in your head, on your instrument or on a separate sheet of paper if you like.
The pitches previously mentioned are filled in. The intervals are relative to the root C.

Root C, major 2nd___ , minor 3rd E flat, perfect 4th___, perfect 5th___ , major 6th A, minor 7th___ .

Keep in mind it should be alphabetic. So if there is a C and there is an E flat there must be a..?

Now go and find them on your instrument.

the dorian mode in various positions on the fret board in tablature

When to use the Dorian in C.

What chords are available given the pitches we’ve deduced above?
Find one or 7 and strum and then improvise using the scale over the lingering memory of the chord you played.
The obvious choice is of course C minor as a jumping off point.
Let us find some of the other possible chords that can be built from the sequence of notes we find in the mode.

Here is one way to find chords in a scale/mode

As is my custom, here is my take on mixing up the playing of the scale to challenge our fingers.

inverting the mode/scale to make it interesting to play

Merci