A Mysterious Stickiness
I should have recorded this session a day earlier, but my cat is on heat! Why should that be a problem – I hear you ask – Well, the thing is, when she is on heat she likes to pee everywhere, and yesterday she picked my guitar cable as one of the places she decided to pee. So, when I went to plug my guitar in, I noticed the cable had a certain unfamiliar stickiness to it, and a somewhat unpleasant aroma.
Though baffled to begin with, it didn’t take me long to realize that the sticky soiled cable, brushing against my trousers was so unpleasant I was simply unable, stoned as I was, to continue with the session. And, suspecting the cat as the culprit, I chose instead, to change my clothes, wash my hands, again and again and again, to have another beer, and another little vape – just to settle my nerves – until the feeling of being soiled by aromatic feline fluids, slowly dissolved away – which obviously took quite a long time indeed!
Rocking & Rolling
So, although a day late, here is my latest offering to the world. I went straight into Led Zep to get my fingers going, something nice and easy and also quite effective to set my mood, and make me feel good. As I am not warmed up yet, I go into the solo without creating a loop, so it sounds a bit lost and forlorn by itself. Not to worry, no doubt I will return to this riff sometime later in the session.
A bit of classic rock and Roll next – again, to get my fingers warmed up, and to get the atmosphere right. It’s not great, but the session is started, the mood is set. I liked that one – so I do it again, but this time I try to make a loop – and it’s not one of my worst ever ones, so I go for it, and put some solo notes on top. They are mostly the same notes I always put on top, so I quickly become bored and stop.
Unsure where to go from here, I make some big sounds that feel OK, but don’t seem to be going anywhere – it’s just two power chords, so there isn’t really anywhere to take them. It’s bluesy though, and I do my nice little blues solo, all by itself, but mess up before i get halfway through – I really should be able to do that one a lot better by now!
On to some increasingly fast two note chugging, just to see where it goes – quite surprisingly some new notes pop out, and a familiar Hendrixy sound takes over. I like this sound, if only I can get it right, I am sure I could make it sound really good!
A Distorted Mess!
I fumble around a bit, playing nothing in particular, before going into my well practiced cabbage tree – but this delicate song needs a delicate sound, not this distorted mess that I am currently using – While it might sound great with a Hendrixy vibe, it sounds awful with delicate picking – though I have to admit, the solo notes do sound quite nice!
I experiment with some seemingly random notes, creating a vaguely ‘summertime’ vibe – I used to play that one a lot – I should try it again sometime, I bet I could make it sound quite nice. I try some other bits and bobs, till a ‘Bela Lugosi’ sound starts to come out, though I try playing it on different places on my fretboard, and I become quickly confused, leaving it sounding very different from normal, but not to awful. Still, not good enough to want to continue for very long! Though it seems that sound is now stuck in my head, and after some aimless chugging, and some experimental weirdness, Bela returns for more!
I move onto some very fast one note picking. I set up a loop, and put stuff on top. I never tried this before, so its no wonder that it is a bit strange! But its not altogether horrid – even though I have no real idea what scales I can put over the top of my fast notes. I like the sound though, I will be trying this again!
A Desolate Feeling!
I have another go, this time using fast arpeggiated notes from the chord of E minor – which gives me a clue as to what scale I should use lol – And the E minor scale works lovely on top of the quick arpeggio notes – though the effect is more atmospheric than melodious – I like it, despite the nasty gap in the loop!
I try some more odds and ends. I attempt some interesting notes with my little finger, some work better than others – some things I try leave me with that desolate feeling that nothing is working!
A New Type Of Rock & Roll!
So I go back into the furburger – and it sounds great. Finally today something that seems to sound OK! It’s not too sesame street, and it kind of rocks – so I make it into a loop. Not a bad loop either – no horrid awkward gap. But… it’s about 17 bar blues, which is not the right amount of bars to have, and the timing is all out.Have I just invented a new type of Rock & Roll? or does it just sound shit?
If I had the right amount of bars here, 12 lol, I could make this sound OK – But I don’t, so it doesn’t. I can’t hit the chord changes, cos they are all in the wrong place – Ah well, I guess we learn from from our mistakes! I wonder if this track will trip the copyright bot – It usually does – maybe not with 17 bars! It’s quite a long track though – and some bits almost rock!
More one note fast arpeggios, mostly cos I can’t think of anything else to do right now, and cos I think it sounds good. This soon turns into sesame street, which is fun to play – maybe I should learn the melody too lol!
Undaunted by imperfection!
After a bit of tuning, which probably wasn’t necessary, I start bashing away at those power chords again – with a bit of Phrygian thrown in this time. This track is starting to get better, but I am still missing too many notes. Undaunted by imperfection, I create a loop, and start to put some gypsy Phrygian on top – sounds oriental, rocky, mystical and wonderful – though it still needs quite a lot of work!
After considerably more chugging, and power chords leading to nowhere in particular, I decide to try a bit of Shadows again, and see if I can spring the Apache copyright bot this time. The sound I have is still the distorted Hendrixy sound, and is pretty awful with Apache, so I hit my trusty effects pedal, and pick another of my favorite sounds – I call this one albatross – because that is the song I was trying to sound like when I created this sound on the pedal. It sounds OK – and I launch into a very atmospheric version of Apache. If the last go didn’t wake the bot, this one certainly won’t, even though it sounds quite good in places – Though as the sound is clearer, the mistakes are clearer too!
I start chugging again, but this time with my nice clean Albatross sound – It’s not too bad, quite fun, and soon turns into that Hazy Purple riff I love so much. A loop is made, and I put some notes on top – they are nice and clean too – and sound quite different to normal, very weird indeed – it sounds like a different song altogether – and I like it. I may even be able to cut a bit of this one out, and post it separately!
I decide to use my nice clean sound to finish the session with my ‘Sleepy Jeepee’ track, maybe because I am a bit sleepy myself now, and cos it is late – or maybe I just want to finish because I’m getting the munchies, and I just have to eat something!
Thanks for listening
Yours
Tim Buktoo
