Music

When I was in high-school, I'd sneak into my brother's room while he was away and use his Tascam four track cassette recorder to record my best J Mascis impressions and angst-ridden teenage warblings on guitar, bass, and (lord help us all) vocals. Later, at The Evergreen State College, a very generous media loan program made all sorts of recording devices, film and video cameras, lighting and sound gear, and so forth available to students to use on personal and academic projects — like a library for gear. They had four tracks a-plenty, but also DAT recorders, quality microphones, and other equipment I was checking out constantly. They also had small but phenomenally well-equipped recording studios, replete with old analog synthesizers, digital samplers, reel-to-reel tape decks, and other awesomeness. I managed to score some time in one of them every Saturday night from 10PM to 2AM for my last two years of school. After college, I eventually acquired a computer-based set-up, and have since used home recording as a way of experimenting with composition and arrangement without having to commit to the scary, scary prospect of playing with actual living humans.

My guitar teacher, Chris Buono, has been after me for years to start playing with people, which I have in fact begun to do. But for the last five years or so I've also been recording my own arrangements of some of my favorite tunes as a part of my musical education — an endeavor he has enthusiastically supported. Experimenting with rearranging, learning all the instrumental parts, and trying to come up with solo bits has been a fabulous learning process, and I highly recommend it (I also recommend that you budding guitarists, and even the pros, check out Chris's instructional videos for Truefire. He is the real deal, and considering the hours of detailed instruction, charts, and other material, his videos are a massive bargain. Whatever your style, he's done something that will be valuable to you — check him out!).

This page contains a few of these musical experiments. These are up here for entertainment purposes only — I don't own copyrights to any of these tunes, I just love them and wanted to play them! I also made a CD of original material about seven years ago that, shockingly, can still be had on CD Baby. The links below open in a pop-up window.

• "Green Earrings" by Steely Dan (recorded in 2005)
• "He's Coming" by Roy Ayers Ubiquity (recorded in 2007)
• "Star Cycle" by Jeff Beck (recorded in 2009)