Instrumental project
A stunning sunny day saw us marching the empty hillsides today, looking for possible places to film. We felt we needed to get out after a day spent in the studio on Sunday. We took some photos to remind us of places to revisit when the wind is not biting and stinging. Lots of inspirational views, trees upended by the wind and floods and picturesque valleys, which will no doubt be happier places to be when we are not dressed up like Scott setting off for the Pole. We spent yesterday trying out various guitars in the studio, in an attempt to find the perfect guitar sound. Finally settled on my Lowden, I always come back to this old favourite. The playing experience is somewhere between a nylon strung and steel strung. The neck is fairy wide, though not thick, so there’s plenty of room for the fingers to dance about, without making mistakes.
If you’re facing spending the next uncertain months stuck indoors, you might like to check out our shop website, Knighton Music Centre, where you’ll find a massive selection of wondrous guitars. Steve chooses all of them to be as good as they can be, whatever the price, so whatever you spend, you’ll get something to love. If you have a lot more time on your hands, due to the virus, you could do worse than perfect your guitar skills, or, if you don’t already play, start to learn. Our guitar teacher is giving lessons on Skype, you can contact him on 01547 528529 or via the site.
Anyway, I digress, we recorded the short instrumental and I’ve added in some harmonics which we have now listened to and worked out exactly where to leave them in and where they are too much of a good thing. I do have a bit of a tendency to hear something that I love, by way of little additions and put it everywhere! That’s where Steve comes in and casts his practiced ear over the piece and carefully blends what I’ve done together. Everything we do is a team effort. I will include photos of the guitars we tried in a day or so. All are really wonderful guitars but each song or instrumental has a requirement that is met best by one guitar. Well that’s my excuse for having so many! Different tunings sound different depending on what guitar they are played on. Or is that another feeble excuse?! We plan to shoot a simple video to accompany the instrumental and I’ll add that to the site as soon as we’ve finished. These things always consume more time than you might imagine. Think of a timescale then double it! There is always another angle or effect, which has to be tried.
Many thanks to Ryan Gittings for his work on making this site and for helping me to find my way around it. I hope I will eventually not need to email him every other moment! If you need a website, he is your man.