sketchandjam

Here is a timelapse drawing of an abstract quadrant ballpoint pen doodle. Its fun to just doodle sometimes as a form of meditation to forget the troubles of the world. Once the ballpoint pen drawing was done I added some color in photoshop. The background music is an improvisation to a drum beat I programmed in Superior Drummer. There are four guitar tracks that make up the composition. There's a lower fuzz style bass track that sounds like a synth. Then there is the main distortion rhythm track. Finally there are a couple lead tracks with delay. All the guitar tracks were recorded on my esp ltd Stephen Carpenter seven string. Thanks for watching and listening :-)

Just a quick pensive sounding improvisation on my Takamine classical guitar.

Here is an improvisation on my Irish bouzouki. This is a custom made bouzouki by Herb Taylor a builder in Colorado. I have it tuned gdae and kind of riffed off the open g note to develop the improvisation. Later I added four percussion tracks on my Roland Handsonic. There is also an idiopan track where I played the spaces between the tongue notes to get mor of a tank bell-like tone to add a bit of depth to the composition. The final track is my G&L ASAT with an ebow riffing on the g string to harmonize with the bouzouki. Overall this composition has a calm sort of vibe to it hence the name Peace and Harmony. Thanks for watching and listening :-)

Here is an improvisation on my Irish bouzouki tuned to gdae. For this improvisation I wanted to hit a lot of minor notes to create a more mysterious sound. For percussion I added four hand drum tracks on my Roland Handsonic. There is a cajon, shaker, bell, cymbol and a deep tuned frame drum. I also added two tracks of handpan tuned to hijaz scale. They add the mysterious element to the minor notes. The last track is from my home-made partsocaster connected to my axe fx II. The effects are a bit of drive with a highly mixed digital delay and a bit of reverb. All in all this improvisation kind of reminds me of a person sitting on a park bench late at night suddenly seeing a troupe of strange demons passing by. Perhaps it was something the observer ate or sleep deprivation that caused the strange window into the realm of demons. Or maybe it is that society has turned rotten and the normal people are the strange ones. Thanks for listening :-)

Here is an improvisation on my Takamine classical guitar. The guitar part was just made up on the spot in a dadgde tuning. The rest of the tracks were built around the guitar improvisation. Two of the tracks and on my hand drums. The spider hand drum is roughly in the key of A with a custom spider design I drew on it. The other tan hand drum is roughly in the key of G. Both of these notes helped with the overall drone from the improvisation's open tuning. I also have a shaker track recorded in stereo to widen the mix. The udu track adds a deep bass note roughly in the key of G as well. Towards the end of the song I bring in a couple tracks on my home made partsocaster in standard tuning. The first partsocaster track has a panning delay effect on it recorded in stereo to bounce between the left and right. The other parstocaster has a high speed delay on it panned to the center to cut through the mix. The overall mood reminds me of a hilarious daring jumping spider I found and tried to film. It kept jumping onto the lens of the camera and was not shy at all. To any normal person who is afraid of spiders they would not consider this friendly behavior at all. But it was just a friendly spider looking for an insect snack of some kind. Thanks for listening :-)

Here is an improvisation on my Turkish baglama saz. I just played whatever came to mind at the time. Later I added five track on my Roland Handsonic that include a kick drum, cymbols, udu, shakers and bongos. I also added a handpan track tuned to hijaz scale to add some bass-like bell tones to the mix. The hijaz scale complements the saz tuning perfectly. The final track is on my G&L ASAT. This guitar is Leo Fender's latest design for the telecaster with beefier sounding soap bar pickups. To get the tone I added a half cocked wah pedal in front of a bit of overdrive along with some reverb and subtle delay. The overall mood reminds me of a person on a quest to expand their conscious mind and ascend beyond the physical realm of this world. Thanks for listening :-)

Here is a quick improvisation on my cigar box guitar tuned to f bflat f. I also added four percussion tracks via my Roland Handsonic that include a djembe, cymbols and congas. the final track is on my home-made partsocaster plugged into my axe fx 2. the effects are a bit of drive, a panning tape delay, chorus and reverb. The overall mood of the song reminds me of an escape artist trying to think quickly while escaping an underwater trap. One wrong move and the trick turns deadly. Thanks for listening :-)

Here is a calming improvisation that started out with displacing air in my doumbek. this created a perfect c note so I began layering other sounds over it. Next I added another displacement note on the doumbek and some rythym on the surface of the doumbek. I also added some tapping on the kalimba as well as a shaker track recorded in stereo to bring in some high pitched rythym. On kalimba I played in the key of c to prepare for improvisation on my sitar. The sitar is tuned to Ravi Shankar tuning with lots of strings tuned to c, f, g and d. Overall the improvisation has a calming sound to it with subtle reverb and delay on the sitar to add depth. Thanks for listening :-)

Here's a five track jam improvised on my Schecter 8 string blackjack guitar. I had no idea what sort of song would come out of this 8 string. I kinda just improvised it to a beat I composed in superior drummer using the pop ezx kit. First I started with a basic bass riff on the g flat heavy string. The Seymore Duncan blackout pickups are pretty high gain so its a bit tough keeping the eighth string from distorting. This guitar is meant for djent metal but this song ended up more post punk style. The next two tracks are played in mid and high range octaves with lots of delay panned left and right to make room for the main track panned towards the middle. Towards the end of the song I bring in the ebow with a bit of distortion and rotary chorus. The overall mood of the song reminds me of rebellious skater kids from yesteryear disobeying the no skating signs in the park getting into minor trouble with mall security guards in suburbia. Thanks for listening :-)