As a precursor to the fun of America celebrating another birthday, I’m going to be spending today at the beach visiting with friends I haven’t seen in quite some time. Mostly because I got a call from one yesterday saying flat out, dude haven’t seen you in a while – I’m in town and I’ll be in Hermosa. Come on down.
I figure that’s a pretty good reason. Along with the fact that I want to get out of the house.
See, for the past couple of days I’ve been churning out words and also enlisting a couple of songwriter friends to see if they want to churn out words as well. Working on finishing up a slew of demos for the next release. There’s going to be a whopping 75+ songs to sort through and decide on. Usually in my past it’s been 10 to 12 songs and they all generally made the album. This time around it’s a different story. I wanted to have a veritable shmorgashboard of songs to choose from. The bonus of it is, it likely means it will be chock full of super strong songs when it’s finally finished. That’s my goal and I’m sticking to it.
I’ve been calling people that I want to be involved with it. I haven’t called everyone yet, but there’s a list of people that I want to have involved with it. So far, the ones I’ve spoken with have all said they would be honored and look forward to working with me on the next CD. I’ve got a title for it. I’ve got the domain for it. But until I’ve got it finished, I’m going to leave you in the shower like the Bates Motel – wondering, waiting, wishing…
Great thing is, my next step is also getting attention. Those people are also important and so far everyone I’ve talked has also been very keen. Again – not much more for me to say until after it’s said and done. Though an announcement may happen with it in the next three weeks. Meaning I’m not finished gathering people for the next step.
Seeing as how I’m going to have a day in the sun at the beach, I’m going to roll with a song called A Day At The Beach by Joe Satriani. The thing I really like about Joe’s playing here is that it’s a very unique version of what is known as two handed tapping in guitarspeak. He’s using fingers from both hands to tap out notes. In this particular case his left hand is playing the two low notes of each chord in a rapid fashion, then he uses fingers from his right hand to tap two notes on the top end of the chord at the same time. Until Joe did it, the idea of two handed tapping generally meant a very linear way of looking at it. Joe may not have been the first to go 3D with it, but he certain had the best PR person getting him out there for it.
Along with being cool to play from a guitar playing standpoint, it’s also really neat in the listening department. In fact, in light of a particular song I’m attempting to finish for my next CD – I’ve been thinking of the way I want to write from the musical belly, this might be one of the things I try. I’ve yet to hear someone play 3D two handed tapping (as I’d call it) while singing over the top of it. Slap and popping in 3D? Yes, myself and others have done that. But two handed tapping of chords like this… Hmmmm…
Sometimes it could be said that Joe is a victim of his own coolness.