Transcript

Transcript

Transcript

Transcript

Sometimes things just happen

Reprise through new eyes

The world inside

Light shining through the cracks in your carefully-built wall

First time working the parachute

All souls march

Band of rats dancing

Walking through a big empty skyscraper

(melody from my dream)

The slog it takes to make something look easy

Shock absorbers

Bad vibrations

(This one came straight out of my dream)

You don’t have to stumble and trip on this path, you can actually fly.

Gradually sinking into the earth

Scribbling in the margins

Feeling like a kid again

Titration

Receiving radio transmission

Riding a multidimensional bicycle

Patterning

Devil on your shoulder

Sand going down the hopper

Rehearsed decay

The edge of discomfort

This side of discomfort

Kneading bread

Tumbling rocks

Walking by their window and watching them dance

Who let the triangles into the square party?

Pulling a cart through mud

Birds flying overhead

I don’t understand the dance of this people

Choking on fear

Passing through the relaxis

Shivering even though its not cold

Scrapbook of shame

Do the same thing again but this time think “what if it were easy?”

It’s literally painful to cry

When you keep having to take off your sweater and put it back on again because every time the sun goes behind a cloud it drops 15 degrees

Hanging by fingers forgetting you have wings

Pushing beyond limits

Thrive on change

Being home after years away

Walking through walls

The dragonfly’s dance

Packing for a trip

Two to the eighth

Finger guns

Taking off the old rags to wash in the river on a sunny day

Friends drop by when you’re feeling lonely

Potential energy

Internet glory

The dead rise just to dance down the street

Pushing everybody away

Mysterious shimmer

Doubts under the surface

Give the best you’ve got, even if it’s not good enough.

It turns out you never had to hold your breath at all

Looking at the sky from under the water

Balloon pop

Grinding without ease

My throat and breathing were stuck at E♭; singing along with this helped.

Going out for a run

Stuck in the walls looking out

Glitch pastoral

Juggling + people keep tossing you knives

Record needle dragging over aged skin

Running across the surface of the water

Don’t be afraid of being alone

Bees!

Siblings working together

Sewing stitches

Downhill no brakes

Loosen up the old knots

Bees get aggressive late in the season

Heat rising from the road

Pass the goddamned butter

Taunts that still haunt

Periods of quiet

Coda

Journey’s end

Journey’s beginning

The night stares back at you

Restless lute player

Punching walls because it feels good

Dockworker’s lament

Getting weird when nobody’s watching

Getting the chores done

Slow zoom out

Repairing the phase shift array

Hovering around the edge of the slow dance

The food one universe over tastes different

River rocks

Tumbling rocks

Walking a new city before anybody else is awake

Stranded

Turtle and rabbit

Heat rising off the road melts your makeup

In my dream this was a song I was singing called “On Thin Ice”.

Shag carpet in really good condition

Each step on the sidewalk makes more sidewalk.

Scratching fingernails on the wall looking for a crack

Boss level

300-lb bruiser whose best friend is a rat named Twinkles

Skating on a lake

Juggling seven flaming knives

Multiple personalities prom

Groove virus spreads quickly and manifests differently in each host.

Riding a motorcycle away from an explosion and into the sunset

Projector malfunction at the theater

Snap-dancing to the ice cream shop with your crew

Sashaying through the thrift store

Foot on the accelerator

Pulled in every direction

Trying to play the concerto over the fireworks

Rolling along the walls

Conducting the honking duck orchestra

Going back into the house because you forgot your keys montage

Mosquito under the net

Regular guy on the beach

Wild blackberry patch

Hands on a typewriter

Swagger but then you slip

Don’t open your eyes or the dream will fade.

Sunset over the landfill.

Starting the day with a lullaby.

Waiting for appetizers

This rhythm seems to be stuck deep in my hands.

Circular breathing

I had a dream that my teeth kept falling out because they’d secretly been dentures and I hadn’t known. I think it influenced this sketch - centered around an unstable tonal foundation.

Hitting “snooze” when you get the day off

Walking around town on a sunny day, waving to all the neighbors

One of the things I love about guitar is how much you can do/imply with just three notes (in this case, one melody and two harmony) and two hands. I used to be a maximalist with harmony but lately I’ve been exploring how much the ear will fill in by itself.

A meditation on pacing

Guitar people love things that are tricky or sound tricky to play on the guitar. I think this piece is me making fun of myself for being that way.

There are actual power chords in there.

Flirting with what might be called atonality - intentionally seeking the thing right next to the thing that makes harmonic sense.

Drawn to this sweet melody, dropped and deconstructed in tone.

Felt better than it sounds.

When you feel tired + don’t want to wake up but your dreams keep getting weirder so you get up anyhow

This one feels like it’s about the struggle to keep things simple.

Hipster dad rock.

Aggressively pastoral - like walking through a field and tripping on a bunch of stones.

This sounds like having a beautiful, enjoyable day with chronic pain.

Sometimes you have to just, you know, do a friggin’ guitar solo on some blues.

A slow walk through the wilds of arpeggioland.

Bells tolling on a distant planet.

Early morning jog, and maybe seeing some people along the way.

Seeking shadows

This idea took only a few minutes to conceive but I had to practice it a bit before it was recordable, even as a sketch.

I get an image of a bird going crazy with its mating dance and the other bird hasn’t decided whether to join in yet.

This has a very Papa M / Album Leaf thing going on. It probably would have sounded less sloppy if I’d capo’ed it but that’s the price you pay for making it up as you go.

I guess I had one more in me this morning - though it’s not some mind-blowing idea that just had to burst forth into being. It feels more like a coda - or an interlude - if anything.

This started as me playing along with #149 the first time I played it back. Listening to it now, it suggests “part 2” of #149 in a lot of ways.

This has a bit of a Francisco Tárrega vibe.

This is a friend trying to get you to dance at the party.

Total blank-mind improv - restless + searching but never landing really.

Sometimes searching out dissonance is just too tempting. It seems to happen for me a lot with this sort of decaying distortion tone - the beats between the waves are so juicy.

Riffing on a chord progression that kind of goes its own way after a while. It’s nice when that happens and I can roll with it. I’ve noticed that I often struggle to roll with it and trip over my own feet.

The melody came quickly when I sat down; this is a simple exploration of what else goes with that melody.

Just a taste of an idea. I get the image of some kind of twisted Newton’s cradle.

There’s usually a lot of implied other music going on in my mind, but in the case of this sketch it feels particularly empty with the stuff that’s missing.

This one’s a bit late for International Drone Day but I hope I’ll be forgiven.

Try as I might this one got away from me.

It’s like secret room music from Mario Bros.

Today, this was more about the tone for me than the, you know, music.

Bringing in a touch of the Wes Montgomery.

Improvised jazz melody. I just realized this morning that for an improv sketch practice, I don’t really play all that much jazz.

I would say this is “out there,” but it might be more accurate to say it’s “in there.” The Hedvig Mollestad influence is strong.

Sloppy and poppy

Riff somewhere between AC/DC and Pinback

Single-note slippery climb

This one brings real confrontational energy.

Sweet + cinematic, tentative.

A simple exploration, which nonetheless managed to jump the rails a bit.

This sketch isn’t sure what it wants to be when it grows up.

I think the theme here is “maintaining consistency” and how some days it’s easy and other days it’s all you can do.

Messy feelings this morning

Trudge through the sludge

I love the style of outlining melody that guitarists like Celestine Ukwu, Ray Phiri, or Ebo Taylor play. It sounds upbeat, but I find it quite a challenge to improvise at tempo and keep that feeling.

Sometimes I have a plan when I hit “record” but this one was a “hit record + see what comes out” moment.

Both hands on the fretboard this morning - I must have looked like Picasso’s guitarist.

Maybe it’s just me but I’m always amazed at how one instrument can play multiple sonic roles and the ear will fill things in with enough hints.

This makes me think of the old Latif Learned work.

A chord study. I tried a bunch of stuff this morning but it all came out so unfocused that it was unusable. It’s interesting how much of a window into my psyche this process has been.

This makes me think of riding on the train.

Full-on free-association. I was trying not to follow any of my patterns for too long.

I can’t stay away from the degraded I IV V harmonies.

Sinister beachside / desert situation (or is it?)

This is pretty much my default improv state - though kind of raw + sloppy today.

A cinematic theme, only too aggressive-sounding to be in the background.

Somersaulting melody

Something like a deconstructed/degraded Foo Fighters riff.

Navigating a labyrinth and not ever really finding the center.

I played a lot of Pink Floyd in my youth, so sometimes the David Gilmour vibe comes out a bit.

Countermelody invented from the bottom up.

Harmony invented from the top down.

I heard somewhere that The Books were so-named because their music evolved like a book instead of being repetitive from one end of a song to another. That idea really sticks with me, and influenced this sketch.

I’ll call this one “Surf’s Up Sonata”

Getting some Don Henley vibes this morning.

Let your body relax and let the changing meter just carry you awayyyyy

Some guitar heroics for a Friday.

This is what the inside of my head sounds like this morning. So much going on in there, it’s hard to calm down - kind of all over the place.

I don’t know how many of these I thought I’d make, but 100 seemed like an outer bound when I started. How many ideas can one person have? I feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface.

Feeling a bit tender and humbled this morning.

This is some kind of jazz rock outland/parallel universe version of #96 (same morning, different take).

Same “seed” idea + chords as #96 (same morning), but taken in a chunkier direction.

I ended up recording three very different things this morning - I’m either feeling like a high achiever or can’t make up my mind where to sit in the breakfast hall.

I call this a “Falcor” - a never-ending story of chord resolution that sounds like it goes on forever but in reality is just three chords. We have Philip Glass to thank for single-handedly making this kind of circular resolution a thing.

I tend to focus a lot on harmonic mobility in my own writing but there’s always something interesting about playing simple changes with a particular feeling.

This lick made me wish I were in better shape. I was listening to High Life Kings yesterday so that’s undoubtedly why I have this kind of pattern in my head today.

A groove like this sounds easy to play and isn’t technically difficult, but can be tough to sustain consistently.

Inverted power chord (fourth under fifth) structures keep showing up in my improvisation. They sound inherently less resolved and powerful, which lends a bit more dramatic tension.

Bonus exploration today. Feels like outer space to me.

I watched Metal Lords last night and something must have transferred to my subconscious.

3-part series today.

This is the final take of 3. It’s quite different from the other takes (ultimately), but it also feels to me like the most interesting ideas of the improv started to take shape and get stated with more clarity here.

3-part series today.

This was a second take after I flubbed the first one (see Take 1), and I really liked it. But I realized after I stopped playing that my computer had run out of battery somewhere in the middle. This is a partial recording…

3-part series today.

I started with this recording, but I felt like I flubbed it too many times to share. I did another take and my computer ran out of battery right in the middle of the take :/ Since they’re all quite different I thought maybe it would be interesting to share them all as a window into the improvisation process.

Sinister steps through silent streets.

I don’t know why these pop melodies keep coming out. I must be feeling nostalgic.

I awoke with a little minor-ninth embellishment in my head and built this groove from that.

A bit of mischief today.

Just a little comfortable pocket. Sometimes it’s nice to be in a comfortable pocket.

Believe it or not, I was meditating on the pelvic floor and this riff was inspired by that.

The major chords of a triumphant soul.

I woke up with this melody in my head, which means I almost certainly stole it from somewhere. I turned it into something rambling and comfortable, probably because moving on is in my head today.

Today I’m thinking about being a kid, sneaking around in the early morning, trying to be clandestine but occasionally failing in our enthusiasm.

I’m thinking about my dad this morning, who introduced me to Frank Zappa. Growing up, he always encouraged my weirder guitar tendencies and took the stewardship of my musical taste seriously.

When I think of Frank Zappa, I think of ironic doo-wop, I think of whole tone abrasive guitar solos, and I think of crazy riffs in crazy meter. Some of that comes out here.

Me cruising along, doing my thing and then I threw my back out. I think I could have seen it coming if I knew where to look, but of course we never can see the thing in our blind spot.

A chord study.

At least once a week I have a meditation/stretching “improv” practice. This sketch feels a bit like those improvisations - just following what shows up and seeing where it takes you.

Perhaps a touch frantic, but I do like it.

Weirdly I got to this riff by playing “Everywhere” by Fleetwood Mac. I think it might play better on bass guitar, but I like it in this context too, even with the rough playing.

I seem to be really into these consistent quarter-note strum patterns lately - maybe as a result of wanting to fill the sonic space with a single take on a single instrument. And of course, any excuse to throw a major 7 or a minor 2 into a riff.

All chords resolve to each other if you really mean it.

I can’t escape the 90’s pop music with which I grew up. I accept that.

Kind of an Album Leaf or Papa M vibe to this one.

Jumping from one branch and hoping the next one will support my weight.

This short, nomadic interlude was all that came by the window this morning.

The tone is really beautiful in moments here - with a little development it could be really menacing.

Listening back to this, I think I stole part of a phrase from R.E.M. (and probably others). The overall thing sounds about like I feel this morning - like there’s some ability for ease to exist, but I missed it by going the hard way.

This riff reminds me of Pinback.

I almost have an aversion to playing full-on barre chord shapes in traditional harmonic structures; this is me confronting that.

This might sound weird or obvious, but it’s been an interesting challenge making something that’s improvised actually sound like things were planned along with any kind of consistent tempo. I can already see it having the effect of tightening up my guitar playing and composition in general - things are less rambly than they were when I was just playing this stuff by myself without hitting record. Which is not to say that there aren’t tons of flubs - don’t worry, there are still tons of flubs.

Sort of a chord inversion study.

Short, but I found the groove fun to play along with.

One struggle I’m having is the balance between wanting to make sure these ideas aren’t too rehearsed and the desire for them to come across in spite of not being practiced and occasionally stumbling while I’m improvising. I don’t practice enough to where my technique is flawless right now, and it makes me feel a bit self-conscious about sharing ideas with goofs in them. But I’m doing it anyway :)

I’m always a sucker for synching delay decay with tempo. I’m also always a sucker for patterns that repeat in non-4-time.

I think this is the shortest clip thus far.

I only realized this morning that the riffier progressions have mostly been “two ideas, contrasted and expanded” and not just one idea. The threshold for hitting “record” on them is usually “Ok, I’ve got two things that work well enough together, let’s improvise on that now.”

My first recording got corrupted and lost, so I guess this is my version of waking up and immediately being frustrated but trying to still access some calm.

Trying to stretch into more interesting rhythm/chord progressions, but I don’t think I got there today.

Minor seconds are some of the hardest intervals to play on the guitar, especially stacked (and sometimes even inverted), but the payoff is always interesting (to me, at least).

Again challending myself to “hit record first” and just start playing.

This was a relatively rare morning where I didn’t play a single note before hitting record.

A chord progression that takes inspiration from Hendrix’ “Hey Joe”.

I’m not sure how far I thought I was going to take this, but 50 seems like a milestone! I’m celebrating with this incredibly soft, rounded, understated melody. Look: I don’t control what comes out - when you roll out of bed + pick up a guitar, what happens: happens.

Woke up with a melody and turned it jazzy. Feels kind of frantic though.

Experimenting with related tonality through close harmonic structures. Which could probably be the title of the entire series.

Gradually degrading what should be a pleasant two-chord rhythm.

Perhaps heavier than it needs to be, but then is there such a thing?

Today’s idea: what if an R&B chord progression was based on the Philip Glass rising-thirds chord trifecta?

Wiiide chords.

Hat trick today - possibly a first?

A bit of a riff stolen from the Grateful Dead, but taken in a different direction.

Tried to capture a melody I had when waking up, but I can hear it getting lost as I play it here. Oh well, that happens sometimes.

Sounds like it’s noodles for breakfast.

This one feels like hearing the slow birth of a chord progression + melody.

I had the idea for this kind of chimey, echo-ey, pedal-tone sound right before I went to bed + it stuck with me when I woke up.

Today I was thinking about the feelings that always come up together, and how hard it can be to figure out which one is actually happening right now.

Inspired, no doubt, by Hedvig Mollestad

Today I woke up with this melody in my head from a dream.

I just realized that my first post in this category wasn’t actually my first recording. Here’s a bonus episode zero :)

I’m often inspired by Tom Sach’s work. Recently I read about his philosophy of output before input, which is evidently something he learned from my quantitative design hero Edward Tufte.

I’ve started a daily “output before input” ritual for my guitar playing. Each morning that I successfully get out of bed without looking at my phone, I sit at my electric guitar and do a quick improvisation, usually 2-3 minutes in length. I’ve done enough now that I feel confident sharing them as their own category, and I’ll keep it up for as long as it bears something interesting to me. Hopefully anybody who listens will find it interesting as well.

Here’s the podcast on Pocket Casts, as a standard podcast feed, and as an Apple Podcasts-compatible link.