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Music composition,
arranging, recording and performing on guitar are some of my most
favorite pastimes. I began playing the piano first. I was about 7.
We had an old Empire grand upright. It played like a truck, and now I
have brute keyboard hands to show for it. When I was 12, my parents gave
me a Kay electric guitar and Silvertone amplifier for Christmas. The Kay was also
truck-like, so my hands became even stronger. The British Invasion was
in force. Guitar was fairly easy and adopted by the masses. Even the
Catholic Church after the second vatican council of 1962 adopted the
guitar with compelling songs like Michael, Row the Boat Ashore,
Kumbaya My Lord and You Are My Sunshine. Pop songs
required only three basic chords, like E-A-D or C-F-G. There were barre
chords to learn, and I played piano and guitar whenever I could. For
decades. I am blessed to have the gift of a decent ear, and to play a
basic song easily. It's instinctive.
When music is playing, I don’t hear much else but the music, usually not
the lyrics and not any conversation. The term “background music” is
an oxymoron. When music is playing, I am dialed in to it.
Aside from some
early tape recording
in the 1970s, there would be no recording until 2001. That year, I
intersected with digital multi-track recording and effects processing.
With the help of a Roland XP-80 keyboard-synthesizer, and later the
Roland CD-1824 digital workstation, composition and recording was
surprisingly easy. The dozen or so instruments you will hear on these
albums include viola, violin, flute, clarinet, trombone, electric piano,
piano, B3 organ and pipe organ. Also percussion and drums are synthetic.
All instruments are played by yours truly. On the
Best Of
album, produced in 2006, you will hear a real professional musician on three tracks,
playing flute. That's
Wendy Mehne, a flute diva she is.
Later, in 2011 on the Empathy in G album, I've added the drum and
percussion talent of
Steve Florian. What a difference
professional musicians will make !
Eight
albums and some 100 compositions have been recorded and released
since that first album,
Cruising Lane II, in
2001,
Short Stories, Lakeshore Nights, Hill Climb, Best Of, Trail Run, Old
Roads New Ways, and Empathy in G.
And now I
have embarked on the podcast journey, with my new radio show,
Vinyl Vibrations. This is not as easy as I thought, but after some
work, I have published three episodes as of this writing.
I
took a music theory class a few years ago. I wanted to learn how to read
music and converse technically with other musicians. I found that
learning basic music theory as an adult is not easy. The mental blocks
one establishes over many years impede learning. Concepts such as
base-10 math and the decimal system are blocks. And being able to play songs by ear
is another learning block. Young persons
can learn languages and music more rapidly without the all of the clutter
in the way. So music theory seems arcane. The treble clef different than the
bass clef. Twelve chromatic notes spanning a staff having only five
lines. All this, supported by centuries of widespread acceptance.
Changing this centuries-old methodology surely will not happen.
I hope
you like what music you hear, and thank you for your support.
Brian Frederick
June,
2011
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