Art Explosion Week 22 Entry - Original Guitar and Voice Piece
This is a piece I've been working on for a few months that just snapped together. It'll probably end up as some sort of opening piece to something longer. The theme for this week of the contest was "vices," and this song is about the worst of them all - the vice of self-destruction.
The lyrics are an intuitive articulation of the struggle with that urge to implosion.
The music was also composed intuitively, with special attention given to following the contour of the imagery over any particular method of form or harmonic organization.
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I am not often in love with anything mellow, but this is good. Mad respect for anyone else who plays without a pick. Twice the bleeding fingers getting there!
Hey thanks a lot! If you're into more energetic or heavy music, I've got other material you might really dig:
https://coldstars.bandcamp.com/album/summer-thunder
Will listen. I put the music down for decades, then I had kids. They need music! A masonic brother gave me a Celebrity hollowbody, acoustic bass. I now have 4 basses and one guitar.
Oh yeah, kids absolutely need music. I was fortunate enough to be raised on jazz and latin music myself, and I can't even imagine what I'd be like otherwise.
Pretty darn talented. Especially because the song does embody summer thunder. I have been playing funk lately. Amazing how it comes back after so long.
So glad you are back! This is beautiful and you really get us readjusting our expectations at every chords which is fantastic. well done.
Thanks a lot, I'm glad you dig it!
I dig it. I'll admit I'm not the most musically inclined dude, but I like how reflective the song is of the impulse to create but also the struggle and tendency towards self defeat that the creator has. Along with that, I like how the chords begin with slow and single notes that start off as somewhat discordant, matching the trepidation the creator has, before becoming more in tune and producing a stronger melody that flows as the creator's own thoughts become more clear.
Thanks, I appreciate the depth of your impression! I'm using some pretty out there harmony - the bassline in this piece often moves in and out of the "main" key (which itself is heavily subject to fluctuation), which is a device that composers and music theorists refer to as "bitonality" or "polytonality." Stravinsky's Rite of Spring is one of the first pieces that utilized this to a heavy extent, and for a more modern example, also on my instrument, Allan Holdsworth perfected an implementation of polytonal harmony in a jazz/improvisation context.
Absolutely beautiful, I'm going to have to hear it again to properly listen to the lyrics, thank you so much for the entry!
Ah, thank you - and also you're welcome!
Hey James! I was just checking out some of your earlier stuff and came across this. I really dug the unison voice/guitar melody.
It made it so that whenever you incorporated harmony, it added emphasis to that part of the phrase.
Are you mainly a guitar player?
Thanks! Yeah, mainly guitar, but I play a little bass too, and some other things less well haha. Composing and improvising are my true passions though, regardless of instrument.
As a jazz guy, I'm just like you in your love of improvising! haha
i like your lyrics and guitar skill!