Voted for Bob and EZ.

Overall I think the entries were pretty good.

Guitarboy: I felt yours was a bit confusing in a way, a little too complicated. Otherwise awesome, I'm curious as to what harmonic techniques you were using.

Bob: A bit slow as usual ? But man, I found myself smiling like an idiot! Really cool man.

Ez: Like I'd spoken to you before, I really like the structure and growth throughout the piece. Great stuff.

Btw I find it tough to pass comment on the advanced guys cause I'm obviously not as good, but hey

Don: Was it you that we were joking about Mr Wylde etc? That's some heavy stuff!! Nice as expected

Rene: From your description I was a bit apprehensive but that was also really cool. Very heavy. I like it, but I feel it got a touch harsh.

I didn't get time to finish mine (sleep won this time).

Anyone mind if I post it in its unfinished form anyway? No need to enter it for voting, but I don't want it completely wasted.

Renesongs wrote: Being a blues guitarist it is only natural that I would try and play the blues using Natural and Artificial Harmonics.

Somebody add to my education please (this is one aspect of life where, for me, it's never too late). What are natural and what are artificial harmonics?

There's only one way, it seems to me, that Rene could have pulled this off and that's to tap an octave above the note he's fretting. So are those natural or artificial harmonics?

Natural are on open strings, artificial are fretted.

MikeM wrote:
Guitarboy: I felt yours was a bit confusing in a way, a little too complicated. Otherwise awesome, I'm curious as to what harmonic techniques you were using.

Thanks for the honest feedback.. After listening to the others, I see what you mean.. I love the simplicity of Bob's and yet the beauty of it.. ?

The "backing chords" were tapped harmonics. Then the other 2 tracks were artificial harmonics.

MikeM, you got my vote, brilliant track. Really enjoyed your solo and your use of harmonics for the backing. Enjoyed the composition.

Bob you got my other vote, because well, that acoustic just sounded to awesome not to vote for it! ? How did you record it? Very very natural sound, absolutely loved it!

Alan Ratcliffe wrote: I didn't get time to finish mine (sleep won this time).

Anyone mind if I post it in its unfinished form anyway? No need to enter it for voting, but I don't want it completely wasted.

I'd be keen for you to post! After looking through the hall of fame for these things, you seem to be a winner of a lot. Would love to see what you came up with! ?

Very good entries all round. as seems to be the tradition/what-people-want here's my critique...

Paul, very cool man. This is a very good example of how delay can be used as a percussion element. What delay do you use?

Bob, Thats an awesome lullaby. Nice choice of effects and great use of stereo.

ezietsman thats very pretty. I once had a girl visit me and I was playing stuff like this on my guitar. she fell asleep on the couch. it was one of those, "you had me at hello" things. very cute... Everything is right with your track, thanks for helping me reminisce...

back to the task at hand....

MikeM I actually had the same idea. To create an accompaniment with harmonics and noodle over it. now if you had used some pinch harmonics there it would be spectacular. Very good dude.

Rene did you also find you had to play a lot slower than usual to hit the harmonics? Were you using pinches or were you doing the old finger-touch-and-pick method? I shmaak the chaos at the end.

@ Alan post it for sure.

Donovan Banks wrote: Bob, Thats an awesome lullaby. Nice choice of effects and great use of stereo.

Thanks for that. This is the aspect that I found hardest to judge. It was hard to know if I was using stereo and stereo FX appropriately or just getting carried away by being able to use them. So if anybody else has any opinions (complementary or otherwise) then I'd be interested to hear them.

Didn't think of it as a lullaby, though it does have a mellow feel to it.

Donovan Banks wrote: Very good entries all round. as seems to be the tradition/what-people-want here's my critique...

Paul, very cool man. This is a very good example of how delay can be used as a percussion element. What delay do you use?

I used one of the delays on my nova, can't tell you which one, i just clicked through them till it sounded the best! ? I need to start polishing up on my use of delay though, because I found it incredibly hard to keep in time doing these tapping harmonics and syncing it with the delay.. ?

I feel like grumpy judge Craig from Strictly Come Dancing lately. I'll sweeten that pill a little by observing that we need grumpy judge Craigs.

Oops! Just revealed that I am Strictly Come Dancing fan. Damn! There goes any remaining shred of street cred that I had.

Guitarboy: I liked your idea a lot, and good ideas should always get recognition. Your rhythm track was kalimba-like. I don't know if that was your intention (Donovan saw something in my entry that was valid but that I hadn't seen at all), but that's what I heard. The timing was a bit off in the melody part that you laid down over the "kalimba".

Ezietsman: What tunings did you use? Again a strong idea, and you got the "story" of the piece told completely in the 60 seconds. As somebody observed recently this restriction makes things like a haiku in that you have to refine things down to fit in the restricted format. As with your last entry you got the job done convincingly in the time limit.

Me: You let your timing slip in the chimes section. Bad boy! AND you had a click track. If you hadn't screwed up the mix down you wouldn't have had to do that bit again under pressure with a deadline looming. Learn from your mistakes! Plan better next time.

Donovan: This was complete. Like EZ you got the whole idea expressed in 60 seconds. You also had 60 seconds worth of something to say. I found this satisfying - well structured and well ended. Nice kick to it as well.

MikeM: Interesting ideas spoiled by your tempo varying too much (at least twice within the first 30 seconds).

Rene: I presume you were tapping or pinching harmonics an octave above where you were playing. Full marks for dexterity and I liked the bends ?

General: Don and Rene went for what I think was the harder option for this challenge - up tempo pieces. Well done for taking that on. I don't have anywhere near the chops to pull that off so I am envious. I think where some of the guys with better equipment have and advantage is that they can lay down a drum or even click track which helps greatly to keep the tempo and timing consistent. I use Audacity (freeware) and that has a click track which I used for this entry, and it made life easier (though I still slipped up at one point). You can always mix it out when everything else is done. I found it odd playing to a click track, but anything that tightens your timing is a good thing.

Sure Alan, why not...I will be good to hear what you came up with.

No entry from me this week, due to an unforseen incident involving my head and a wall. ? Still feeling dulled and stupid.

Wow, Bob, that is one hectic electric fence you've got! ?

guitarboy2828 wrote: Bob you got my other vote, because well, that acoustic just sounded to awesome not to vote for it! ? How did you record it? Very very natural sound, absolutely loved it!

The really pure acoustic sound is my Morgan OM which is fitted with an LR Baggs Dual Source system. I just plugged straight into the sound card.

Hey guys,

@Bob: My entry is one track done in a single take. Standard tuning.


guitarboy: I like this, and you would have got my vote if the piece had better timing, its a bit hard to follow the rythm. If you still have a +-2s delay and can't monitor yourself I'll understand, but that is something easy enough to fix.

MikeM: I like this, and like Bob said, only some smallish timing issues got in the way. I especially liked the fading delayed backing chords, they fit in really well.

Bob: Good job. Cool Idea, I'm not so sure about the click track being part of the entry, its a good but idea maybe a less pronounced 'clock ticking sound' would work better. Yours, is the only one in A that has an idea that develops and as much as I like blues and rock yours gets my vote.

Don + Rene: Those tracks were very well played and I wish I could make recordings like you two. I guess my vote goes to Bob because his entry was very unique, something I've never heard before.

OK, here (almost) was mine:

http://ratcliffe.co.za/music/a_alan_harmonics.mp3
OR
http://www.box.net/shared/go9yoxc4v6

Three instruments (guitar, drums & bass). All rough "first takes". Notable points are use of octaver on the bass, extreme dryness on the drums & a more ambient sounding guitar.

I'm sad I didn't get time to do an entry for this one.

Nonetheless...

@Bob:
I really like this, although I'd switch the "pop" type clicks for something a little more "tick-tock-ish" if that makes sense. What I LOVE about this track is your incorporation, at about 0:26, of that grandfather clock-type harmonic chime melody (I don't know if that's what it's called, but that's how I think of it). This reminded me immediately of sitting in my gran's old lounge as a kid, listening to her clock make the tune...this was a really clever little touch. ? You got my vote!

@GB:
I liked the rhythm of this part the most, so you got my vote for the (B) section. Others have made comments on your timing, but I suspect that you would have sorted that out if you'd had some more time to polish the idea. It's the idea I liked the most.

@EZ:
This was very nice too, just a touch on the slow side for my tastes. Nice little theme melody. At around 0:18 you hit some nice, slightly dissonant harmonies there which I thought you could have gone somewhere with, maybe something to explore for next time? Good entry.

@MikeM:
I liked the harmonic theme in the background. Your note choice for the lead was pretty good I thought, and the tone suited the piece. I would perhaps suggest trying to play that sort of slow lead with more conviction, as it sounds a little hesitant in place. The lick you play at 0:34 has the right kind of confidence behind it, I think. I'm a big fan of this type of stuff though, so I like this entry very much.

@Don:
I like the style of this track very much. You play the pinch harmonics really well and the production is great. Would have had my vote had I not liked Bob's so much.

@Rene:
I love gritty, heavy blues tracks, so I enjoyed this track too. I would have pushed the tempo very slightly, but otherwise think it's really a solid take on the heavier side of the slow blues. Love the heavy bend at 0:27 or so. ?

Again, thanks for the comments guys. I really am stoked, not coz i'm doing well, but because this is going to help my playing so much. I have always battled with timing and getting that right, so that will be my goal on the next compo, whatever it is, to get my timing a lot more precise! ?

This challenge was an amazing learning exercise for me because although I have used natural harmonics many times before I begun to realise for the first time that the tuning of the overtone series is more suited to blues than equal temperament tuning. For instance the natural harmonics on on any string form a 1 3 5 b7 (dominant 7) arpeggio which is the foundation of blues and jazz. I would have liked to play the whole of my piece in natural harmonics but there are a couple of notes missing in standard tuning, some of these could be overcome using a bit of the old whammy bar but then I was left with some incredibly difficult fingering so I did some of the more chromatic phrases in artificial harmonics which also requires a bit of dexterity hence the slow tempo.

@ Warren the high squeal at 0:27 is b7 natural harmonic quarter into the 3rd fret. These harmonics are not very loud so I had to put a lot of gain and compression into my rig to get everything even

@ Alan - damn that is good it is pity you didn't enter it were you having internet problems like me or did you just not wanted to be burdend by having to choose the next challenge twice in a row. 8)