Recording in Minneapolis… Secret Project

8 09 2009

I’ve been staying in Minneapolis for the last couple of weeks and luckily got the chance to record some awesome music yesterday for a secret project with my friends @ Robot Panic

We went into the session with two lines of a song and a rough idea of where we wanted to go, nothing musically just a slight concept. What followed was frankly the easiest and most fun songwriting session that I’ve ever had the pleasure of being at. Mostly, we’d drink spout some crazy crap, giggling would ensue and more lyrics would get written down.

Writing the Lyrics

Once lyrics got written we’d start discussing over a few pints how the drums and bass should sound and jam around a few ideas until we had a decent song structure that fit the lyrics.

johndrums

bassbass

moebass

So after laying down the drums and bass we had more discussion about how the rest of the song could sound, ideas on guitars, keyboards, vocals, harmony… interesting uses of instruments. Anything was free to discuss and believe me we had some awesome and entirely crazy ideas. From here Hilden started playing with keyboards.

keyboard

From here it was time to record the main vocals and believe me when I say that we couldn’t help but burst into fits of laughter with each and every line recorded. It’s one thing to write some lyrics that are funny but it’s quite another to actually hear them out loud!

vocals

harmony

From here out we started playing with different guitar sounds and added several tracks of rhythm and some solo sections. The highlight for me though was getting to jam with Moe on the Sax… his solo Sax background pieces were… inspiring… but for me the real fun was at the end of the first track that we recorded where we both just let rip and duel solo’d untl the end. Seriously I can’t wait to hear the final mixed result of this!

sax

moephil

guitarsax

Overall I’m more than happy with the recorded results of the two tracks that we did yesterday. I seriously can’t wait for you guys to hear the final results in the near future. I think it’s safe to say already that for fans of the last Shmopera in March will love what we’ve done here. Personally I think we blew that last effort out of the water!

This was easily the most fun and the easiest songwriting session I’ve ever done, a complete pleasure. No ego, no need for ‘band meetings’, just lots of fun and an awesome end product! All being well I’ll be contributing to the next couple of tracks once I get home as I did previously in the Shmopera.


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New Track – Spirits in the Rain

16 08 2009

Ok I’ve been writing some really weird and different stuff over the last few weeks, I’ve had less and less time with a guitar to hand so I’m finding alternate ways to channel my need to write something. This song is a great example what happens when I get an idea in my head and start finding very different ways to approach it and develop it.

The initial idea was recorded on an acoustic guitar and had a really relaxed but haunting feel to it, I really like it.

From that point I had some ideas of using that particular part as the intro and then bringing drums and a distorted guitar behind it for the main track. The main verse if you will would keep the 9th chord tonality and I’d add a couple of extras in there, so we’d be looking at Bm9, G9, Em9, C.

Since stepping away from a guitar over the weekend I was limited to using the software instruments and laptop keyboard with Logic/Garageband to continue writing which as you’ll hear had a unique twist to the style of the song…

I’m not sure at this point which way I’m going to further develop the song, maybe both!

Phil


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Bright Shadows – Intro/melody Video

2 07 2009

I recently posted up a piano/strings version of the song and figured it was about time to show some hints of where the song is going after adding in other instruments and of course the main guitar melody.

As always, it’s very rough and subject to change heavily. The final track currently clocks in at around 8 minutes and has 30 tracks of music… I’m removed most of them for this to make the mix at least slightly clean!

Gear setup is nice and easy, the PRS Custom 24 through a Line-6 Pod Direct to PC. The tone on the POD is pretty straightforward too, a smidgen of delay and reverb, volume pedal for the swells and a slight amount of gain.


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Recording Drum Tracks

24 06 2009

Evening all, how are you?

I’ve recently been recording some drum roughs for various tracks I’m working on and figured I’d get something up for you all to see. So here we have some short sections from a currently unnamed track that I’m working on that’s pretty much falling into the Jazz/Fusion category.  Sadly, I’m not the greatest drummer about as you’ll see, however these clips really are rough (until I can improve my skillz) so won’t be even close to what you’ll hear on the final recordings.

Also, I love Roland’s V-Drums. Seriously, they are awesome.

I’ve had some nice folk recently asking me about gear via email (philhaymes@hotmail.com) and via my Youtube Channel so I’ll be posting up some stuff shortly.

Back soon,

Phil


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Album Song: Giant Enemy Pyramid

18 06 2009

Giant Enemy Pyramid (GEP) is currently the intro track to the album and sits at around the 2 to 3 minute length. The name is about as ridiculous as it gets so don’t try to find meaning in it, I merely got a load of cool words then picked 3 at random and this is what came out. Although that being said, the scale and tuning that I’m using doesn’t sound a little mysterious so it fits quite nicely. At one point I even considered renaming the title of the album to this as it’s clearly such an awesome name!

GIANT ENEMY PYRAMID AHEAD!

Song Breakdown

The first thing of note on this track is the tuning of the guitar which is a little odd. I decided to down tune an entire step and then drop the top and bottom strings to C so what you end up with is C G C F A C

I added a Digitech Whammy pedal to thicken up the sound using the octave/+ octave mix setting which gives it a really unique sounding tone that sits somewhere between guitar and sitar! I liked the sound so much that I used it also on the lead parts too.

The song came about after stumbling across the intro notes completely by accident and then just playing them over and over again. I was hooked. So what ended up happening was that I decided to have that being played throughout the entire song with other things happening around it. At one point the intro was roughly 2 minutes of clean guitar solo over this repeating riff before any of the other parts came in. I’m still debating whether or not to include this in the final song.

Towards the end of the song I’ve added a synth melody that finishes everything of and closes out. At first I was a little concerned about doing this but the results I’m hearing tell me I’m doing the right thing.

Here’s a quick MP3 of the intro

Giant Enemy Pyramid Intro

*UPDATE*

Okay after several complaints about having such a short MP3 and requests for more of the song, I’ve gone and recorded a full length video of me playing the song for you all. Please bear in mind that this is a very early demo version of the song and as such many things are rough especially the lead guitar part which I’m still writing (so several areas I’m just noodling over in key). This particular version has a slightly different structure to the one I’m currently working on and lacks the synth solo at the end.

So here it is – enjoy! (And please feel free to leave comments or email me with your thoughts! philhaymes@hotmail.com)


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What I’m Reading: Zen Guitar

15 06 2009

Zen DojoWelcome to the Zen Dojo, please leave the door open:

“Combining the ancient wisdom of the East with the most popular Western Instrument, Zen Guitar presents a path to spiritual fulfillment for music lovers of all kinds.” – Philip Toshio Sudo (author)

I picked this book up last week whilst browsing in Waterstone’s book store in Leeds. It’s an interesting book in that it doesn’t provide a single bit of sheet music, a single exercise or really instruct you to do anything specific with a guitar. Rather, it gives you a method of how to approach playing the guitar based upon aspects of Zen philosophy, asking that you focus more on how you think when playing guitar.

The first thing that the book does is explain the attitude that you are now a white belt. The concept is similar than that of the path of enlightenment: to move forward you need to admit that you don’t know and then you’ll be ready for learning. The book then discusses several attitudes, missteps and approaches when playing guitar; relating them to the way of Zen.

As a continually learning guitarist, I find that it is always good to learn from as many sources as possible which is what makes this book very appealing in its non-method approach to teaching. Whilst this won’t directly improve my playing, what it will do is change my approach to learning and my attitude to playing which can be equally valuable.

A quick lesson from the book:

“Pick up your Guitar” Means two things in this Dojo. First, for those of you who do not yet have a guitar, it means to go into the world and find the instrument that’s waiting for you, the one you are meant to play. The second thing I mean by “pickup your guitar” concerns the way you phyiscally take it in to your hands. Don’t pick up your guitar aimlessly. Act with a sense of purpose. Be of the mind that you’re going to do something – even if you know what that is yet , prepare yourself to play. Maybe you want to noodle on it while watching TV. Remember the guitar is an instrument – a thing by means of which something is done. Keep this in mind every times you reach for it. When you pick it up, pick it up.

It will be a while before I fully understand some of the concepts proposed throughout the book, but I’m sure that some of these ideas will become valuable in changing my approach to learning. It’s only a short book but definitely a recommended read.

What could be more suited for an aspiring Ninja Guitarist?

Phil





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Album Song: Bright Shadows

14 06 2009

The track Bright Shadows is the first piece of two that for the title of the album and the concept behind them is that of duality or Yin and Yang. Bright Shadows is soft and gentle whereas Dark light will be heavy and aggressive – yet both are sides of the same coin if you will.

Currently Bright Shadows sits at track 5 in my initial album tracklist and runs in at between 7 and 8 minutes in length.

Track Breakdown

Work started on this track mid-last year whilst in Spain where I came up with the initial chord structures and the basis for what would become the lead guitar melody. Initally it was an acoustic track but quickly became electric, however once I picked up my Macbook and a Keyboard I did a piano/cello version that I really loved as it really conveyed the emotion that I wanted to get across. I’ve since added to the piano version with bass, drums and lead guitar although I am still in the process of finalising the writing of the leads and harmonies.

Song Structure

The song is primarily played in the key of Dm/F although there are times when I use some modal work to provide a little spice. The structure is: Intro/A Section/B Section/A Section/B Section/C Section(solo)/A+Section/Outro

Mp3 of the Piano Version of Bright Shadows

Here’s the mp3 of the piano version of the song I mentioned earlier. The final song will be drastically different to this with the added instruments and the addition of the melody.

Bright Shadows Piano Version


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The Big Bang

13 06 2009

Everything starts somewhere right? Well the Universe got the Big Bang and me, well I was never that much into fireworks.

So here I am, making a gentle splash into the pond. Some folk believe the small ripples at the start can spread out to become larger and in some cases spread through the entire pond. Me I’m more of a “anything can happen” guy. I don’t really have much expectation other than to do what I’m doing right now the best I can every time and to see where that takes me.

So who am I and what is this site?

My name as you’ll know doubt gather from the self titled blog, is Phil Haymes. I’m a 28 year old aspiring guitarist aiming to break away from the ‘proper’ job I currently have and try to make a living doing what I love – music.

What I’d like to do with this blog is document the process of writing my first album whilst balancing the day job and also continue to learn more guitar. It’s not aimed in any way as an ego boost, I don’t believe I’m one of the best guitarists in the world or anything so grande, my challenge has been and always will be internal – I’m competing with myself to become a better guitarist and develop my own unique style.

My intention will be to document the ups and downs, share with you what I’m currently learning, riffs that I’m writing, things that I like and dislike… basically the whole process warts and all! I aim to have plenty of video content, sound clips and maybe a few other nuggets lined up along the way. I’ll also be doing some short video lessons in the near future.

So if you’re reading this, thanks for stopping by! Please feel free to leave any comments and I hope you’ll stay along for the ride wherever it may take us ^_^

I’ll get going with some content just as soon as I get the site layout done.

Phil


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