Maurice RickardThis week's composition sticks with the three-tracks-of-one-guitar approach: a $60 Univox Coily in Bb F Bb F Bb C tuning. Alternating calm sections with propulsive sections, kind of get-yourself-centered music. https://weeklybeats.com/onezero/music/blue-mountain
Why so much just-one-guitar? I like the idea of making music with limited instruments and means. It's economical--people don't need that much to express themselves. It's a more human scale, I think.
Blue Mountain
Having used the $60 Univox Coily hollowbody in an ambient session this past Monday, I thought to use it for this week's piece. (The last time it appeared was also in a piece that ultimately acquired a blue title: Great Blue Hill. Ah, well. Odd for a red guitar.) The tuning for this guitar is (as usual) an extended range Bb F Bb F Bb C, or a dropped and tweaked (at the high side) version of Fahey's C tuning. Going into this tax-finishing weekend, I didn't think I had much in the way of ideas, and maybe that's the case...but perhaps it's enough: this slow piece, almost four minutes long, still seems to end a bit too soon. Friday night I tracked a few things, starting with the first theme you hear, which turned out to be in 6/4, so I carried that through the piece. There's a mix of slower and sparser with a few more up-tempo sections, some with partial-barre chordal accompaniment. (As the tuning is fifths-heavy, it lends itself to a power-chord thing with partial barring.) No pedals, but some convolution reverb send and the usual compression-eq-limiter chain on the stereo. The title comes from PA highway 641, which crosses a pass in Blue Mountain.