Time Flies…

November 5, 2009

First off, Time Flies, and the rest of Porcupine Tree’s new album, the Incident, is fantastic.

Secondly, yeah, time flies. Been a while since I blogged. Not had much to say! On the one hand, Cantor imploded, which is bad. Decided I was fed up with bass guitar, and warr guitar for that matter, and packed them away under the bed. I have this niggling feeling that the Warr guitar isn’t worth the practise. It is a somewhat confused and odd instrument (same goes for the Chapman Stick of course). Sure, you can do some truly epic basslines, but hmmm.

One the other hand, my “I’m fed up of playing music” mood only lasted a day, and then I decided to try and relearn the ‘cello again. Which is proving to be a fantastic idea! Such a nice change from bass guitar. I’m getting a few lessons, and having great fun trying to play Bach’s cello suites. And scarily, I’ve now been given some grade 7 pieces to learn. The only grade i ever passed at school was the first one! Time to get practising playing in treble clef I guess.  Although, before that, i have to get the hang of playing the instrument…. my hands keep cramping up while playing at the moment.

And in more important news: PhD is going well. Hopefully be finished soon :) In less important news:  Ali’s still showing zero interest so I’ve been having a go at playing with somebody else. Hopefully it won’t end as disastrously as the project with Eddie.

Oh, and I was lucky enough to see James McMurtry and the Heartless Bastards again. Only a three piece this time around but they still rocked :)

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A simple track outline

July 22, 2009

Hello,

long time no see and all that jazz. We’ll, I’ve been busy making a start on my thesis (83 pages and counting!). But, despite losing our drummer-to-be, and having some worries about Doug (Doug, if you’re reading this, we’re happy to have you, but we ain’t going to chase you up and jamming and practising, etc.  but do get in touch if you want to!), Matt and I have continued to write material for our “band.” The latest track we’ve been working on has turned out to be really really simple. Who’d of though eh. I quite like it though, especially the way the 12/8 bass groove changes (while staying the same) when the 4/4 drums kick in. No doubt it will be a lot of fun to jam with a real drummer and I can imagine us fleshing it out with lots of nice details when we start jamming it. But for the time being, it’s our simplest and shortest track to date :)

Swing For Ex

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An inkling of an idea (Warr progress)

March 1, 2009

Not had a chance to noodle around on the warr for a while. Well, that’s not quite true, I’ve just not really had the enthusiasm (having too much fun jamming with Ali on fretless bass or playing Cantor stuff on the Warr). But I had a wee noodle around on my own earlier. Came up with a little riff which I quite like :) Am wondering if I should try and do something with it! (Ali – want to sing over it? It’s all majory :p)

inklingofanidea

Oh, i don’t know why the drums kick in at the end, they’re meant to be in at the start. And yes, the timing needs tightened up. But in order to do that i need to watch my hands to figure out which finger is playing what as they’re kind of working on their own at the moment!

One of these days I’m going to have to buy a nice shiny delay pedal. That should keep me amused for hours!

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Melodic Minor Modulate Major Etude

February 17, 2009

ok, Maybe etude is over doing it a little, but hey.

melodicminormodulatemajorex

This was mainly done as an idea for Cantor (a reprise/coda/outro) for Interlock, But Matt doesn’t like modulating, he’s got something about major keys. I guess maybe I’ve been playing with Ali for too long, as I quite like like major these days. So anyway, I quite like this, and I might try and expand it into a piece in it’s own right. Already some happy accidents are suggesting new ways to develop it.

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Here’s what I listened to last year

January 1, 2009

Well, that’s 2008 done with. Bring on 2009, the year I (might) finish my PhD, the year Louisa does her finals and an exciting new chapter in our lives starts. So, as last year becomes a distant memory, here’s some pointless lists. :)

Best Gig – (probably) Pentangle, through in Glasgow. Had a  great trip through with Ali, a nice pizza, and I got to watch Danny Thompson play bass again.

Honourable Mention – the Big Chill 2008

Best Gig that I played – that’s an easy one, the last Jazz Bar gig with Ali. Probably the best that I’ve played, and the best we’ve played together as a duo. Plus playing in the jazz bar is always a pleasure, and we’ve got a really good set just now (well, we *did* have a good set. Unfortunately, in classic AlKandAlC style, we seem to have forgotten how to play our songs!)

Best Album - err, I can’t really pick one. So here’s a short list of some that I liked:

  • James McMurtry – Just Us Kids: a collection of really good songs played really well
  • Portishead – Third: perfect, although not an easy listen.
  • Matthew Herbert Big Band – There’s Me and There’s You: only got this on Christmas, and only had time to listen to it once. But, I saw the band performing the album at the big chill, and I know it will easily make my list :)
  • E.S.T. – Leucocyte: I’ve blogged about how much I love this album elsewhere :)
  • Lizzy Parks – Raise the Roof: brilliant female jazz vocalist, produced by Nostalgia 77.

Honourable Mention – The Als and the Pussycats – Demo EP: ok, well, not really. But it was a good learning experience. For example, I now know that having a good producer is not enough. You really want somebody who’ll give is some senses of, well, for want of a better word, a sense of “sound.” The EP recording in Banana Row just kind of sounds like a demo EP. I guess it’s our fault for (a) trying to record too many tracks and (b) not making clear/discussing what sort of sound we wanted before hand. But, I have to say, the live tracks from the Ark the other night are way better.

Best Non-musical things of the year

  1. Moving into a lovely new flat with Louisa just in time for Christmas
  2. Getting good feedback from the reviewers for my 2nd journal paper. Hopefully I’ll get the revised version submitted by the end of the month. As this paper represents the core of my PhD, it’s a lot more important than …
  3. … my first publication (Clarke et al. 2008).
  4. Getting a bread machine for Chrismas.

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Melodic Minor

December 4, 2008

Hello.

As I haven’t blogged for a while, I thought I’d leave a wee note here to tell everybody that I’ve had enough of D Dorian (thanks Ali!). It’s not all about doing melodic minor keys properly. (I’ve been reading more of Schoenberg’s Theory of Harmony). I can be a bit tricky writting flowing chord progressions (the raised 6th and 7th can force though into lotsof dimished chords which then all need resolved) but the key has a lovely delicate feel to it. Seems a shame that it gets neglected in modern (pop) music. I guess the accidentals and the thought of having a scale that’s different on the way from the way down puts people off. At least, it put me off when I was learning scales on my cello years ago.

melodicminorex1

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Recording Machar Granite

October 21, 2008

Hello,

thought I’d do a little blog… extend my lunch break by 10 minutes in the hope that my mug of tea sorts out my headache. (Then back to the joys of lit. reviewing. 10k words and counting… although a lot of them are headings, and copy and paste quotes from pdfs. And 5 pages of references).

Anyway, I thought i’d let people know that I’ve been recording some tracks for my friend Eddie (who’s the other half of the slowly evolving Skuas project). You can have a listen to what we’ve done so far at the Garden Edinburgh last.fm page.

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A little review that i missed

September 15, 2008

Hello,

I didn’t know people reviewed performances at OotB, so I missed this first time around. I get the feeling that they say nice things about everybody, but it’s still nice to hear that somebody was listening and cared enough to write a few words.

Al and Al Can you be too good? There’s a great interplay between this guitar and bass duo, melodies on both instruments intertwining, but it feels like they would be as proficient even if no-one was listening. Because of this, and the late hour, the audience starts to drift off. If they were to cock an ear, though, they’d be treated to a honey bass voice that’s used as a tenor, and beautiful flourishes and harmonics on guitar. They finish with ‘Trees’, which is a love song to the aforementioned. Not in that way, though. Well, I hope not. Anyway, its seriously impressive stuff – hope they come back.

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An Update from Alasdair

September 14, 2008

Hello avid readers.

What reader you may ask? Well, somebody must be reading. And I don’t see how Ali, Louisa, Lucy and Colm have contributed to nearly 10k hits. And I know I certainly don’t waste my time reading my own blog. Hell, I usually fail to write posts in the first place.

Anyway, now that I’ve finished wittering away, hit “more” for some news on some gigs and other stuff.

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AlKandAlC: Live and Out of Tune at the Ark 130808

August 18, 2008

Hello,

played a couple of gigs at the Ark last week. First up was the acoustic duo. Gig went great. Shame there was no real crowd to play to (but thanks to Louisa, Jenny and Harriet for coming down though!). Also, it’s a shame Ali’s guitar wouldn’t stay in tune with itself. But hey, it helped mask my out of tune notes :)

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