Last week (Aug 30, 2012) we lost a dear friend and incredible human being, Matt Birskovich. Many of you know some or much of the story, but this was a man who was handed an extraordinary set of challenges and went on with his life like it was no big deal. His dedication to learning and teaching was just a small part of his exceptional character.
Last night (Sep 5) I set out to express myself musically with a piece to honor him. When I have done similar things in the past, the results are generally somewhat pastoral in nature, things like Papa’s Guitar or On The Horizon. This time things were quite different and I stumbled into a song that seemed quite appropriate for my feelings at the time. There was quite a different edge to the mood as well. This morning (Sep 6) I sat down and improvised a bit around the tune and figured I needed to add it to our collection of Abstracts.
Adios my friend …
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As Neil was putting together his thoughts for his 3rd Anniversary Message he let the camera run as he rambled through some random ideas.
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Acoustic Guitar Abstract #6 December 20, 2011- This is a short variation on a popular Christmas song that developed as I was waiting for my student Kevin early one morning, planning to shoot a Fly On The Wall video with him. This was in the key of E, loosely followed a I-IV-V progression, and should be easy to identify.
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Acoustic Guitar Abstract #5 December 9, 2011 This was a few minutes after #4 and I went into a melody borrowed from a song I had heard by Blackmore’s Night, although it was written and originally recorded by the Swedish band Rednex. It took a few turns before returning to the melody at the end.
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Acoustic Guitar Abstract #4 December 9, 2011 It was a beautiful day and I had just finished shooting our weekly news video where I had mentioned that sometimes I forget to play the guitar for fun… sometimes for months at a time. The day before I had stumbled into an interesting set of melodies revolving around D minor. I took a few minutes to noodle around with them some more.
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Our second clip from Muriel Anderson’s show at the Club Fox has a
couple of classical guitar staples by Issac Albeniz. The first is
Asturias (aka Leyenda), and that is followed by Rumores De La Caleta,
a piece she says she learned in a hallway from another student when
they were attending a Christopher Parkening Master Class. Both pieces
were originally written for the piano.
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Muriel Anderson, America’s award winning guitarist, played at the Club Fox in Redwood City, CA on May 19, 2011. This is an intimate venue which is perfect for Muriel’s talents. In the first set she plays her Spanish guitar and her new harp guitar. We start this series of Acoustic Snapshots with her opening number, Close To You.
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Neil asked Caitlyn about other bands she had been listening to recently and she brought up the Cranberries. After they tracked down the lyrics she ran through *Zombie*. She had stumbled into the chord progression accidentally when she had been trying to write an original composition.
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