Spring Snows (freeform improv solo guitar)

[Mark Kleinhaut]

Snow falling in Springtime is one of the most delighting reminders of how nature's power can express itself as pure chaos. We can delude ourselves from time to time thinking we humans are in control, but then it's back to the shovel

[xld]

Nice work Mr. Kleinhaut!
You definitely captured the feeling.
Thanks for posting.

[Mark Kleinhaut]

Nice work Mr. Kleinhaut!
You definitely captured the feeling.
Thanks for posting.

I’m glad you enjoyed this. Thanks for watching!

[pingu]

wonderful

[ccroft]

I like the new shovel!

[frabarmus]

Evocative and quite descriptive. I think it would nicely qualify (as would other clips of yours) for an ECM (the twilight, wintery atmosphere...) solo guitar album.
It sure is spontaneous and improvised, yet has identifiable melodic/harmonic language... it's not, say, in Derek Bailey's idiom...

BTW I'm curious to know: what are your feelings about Derek Bailey's improvised playing?

[Mark Kleinhaut]

BTW I'm curious to know: what are your feelings about Derek Bailey's improvised playing?

Nothing but respect and admiration for all that he achieved and his motivations for eschewing predictability in music. When I was young I eagerly listened to everything and anything, any genre, anyone. I embraced and enjoyed it all. Now, at 67, it rarely interests me. I don’t mean just Baily, I mean all of it. I go days on end, weeks sometimes without listening to any music at all. The sole exception, of course, being my own playing.

[frabarmus]

I do like Bayley's (sometimes extremely) "abstract" playing, but I must be in the mood for it...

His book on improvisation is amazing!

[frabarmus]

Now, at 67, it rarely interests me. I don’t mean just Baily, I mean all of it. I go days on end, weeks sometimes without listening to any music at all. The sole exception, of course, being my own playing.

I can relate! At 64 (although I'm not sure if it's because of age) I feel much more like playing than listening, and more often as a solo. Though, at the end of the day, it turns out being more practicing than playing...

[Mark Kleinhaut]

I can relate! At 64 (although I'm not sure if it's because of age) I feel much more like playing than listening, and more often as a solo. Though, at the end of the day, it turns out being more practicing than playing...

I’m rarely doing anything I’d consider practicing. I play endlessly explorative freeform like this recording above, which is how I learn as I go. I haven’t thought about theory or practiced “things” in a long time, though when I did it was pretty fanatically. The only other thing I’d add is my ear always seeks beauty. I hate noise of any kind and while some find beauty in distortion, effects, found sounds, and all that -I do not.

[frabarmus]

I haven’t thought about theory or practiced “things” in a long time, though when I did it was pretty fanatically. The only other thing I’d add is my ear always seeks beauty.

Well, just listening to you one can tell you know your stuff, have chops and have diligently shedded!

[frabarmus]

...I mean, whereas when I listen to someone like Derek Bailey, I some times get the impression that he is consciously trying to "undo" whatever he had previously learned, to the extent of sounding like a child picking up a guitar and playing (with?) it... the difference is that a child doesn't know what he/she is doing... Derek, I think, knows exactly what he's doing but perhaps tries to recover (through abstraction) that sense of surprise that a child has .....?

[Mark Kleinhaut]

...I mean, whereas when I listen to someone like Derek Bailey, I some times get the impression that he is consciously trying to "undo" whatever he had previously learned, to the extent of sounding like a child picking up a guitar and playing (with?) it... the difference is that a child doesn't know what he/she is doing... Derek, I think, knows exactly what he's doing but perhaps tries to recover (through abstraction) that sense of surprise that a child has .....?

sometimes music can sound like guys trying to be difficult pricks about it all. Like, look how noisy, ugly and offensive I can be, but you know it’s art and it’s just a reflection of the world we live in.

[Cunamara]

Derek Bailey's book on improvisation (and the short TV series, which pairs with it and is almost word for word; I believe the series is on YouTube) is very interesting. I had run across his music long before the book and, taken together, I find the music more compelling than I did before. But still not usually my cup of tea. Neither is Mary Halverson and I run hot and cold on Bill Frisell, also. I don't mind abstract, but I like a little bit of a hint of groove. I don't have that response to your (Mark's) playing, in part because I really like his (your) sound, which affects how I hear and feel what's being played. I think Bailey, Halverson and Frisell are counting some groove I can't personally hear that well.

Oddly enough, that doesn't seem to apply to my own playing around the house. By myself, I sound fairly abstract and not particularly grooving, which I find very satisfying to play. Note and chord choices when playing solo have become about emotional tone rather than any kind of bebop-derived structure or even anything recognizable as a song. I like the immediacy of playing acoustically or through some gentle amplification with just a cord as my pedalboard.

I'm trying to counterbalance that by playing with others regularly, to avoid disappearing into my own navel. Now that I'm retired, I'm hoping to have more time to do that.

[Mark Kleinhaut]

Derek Bailey's book on improvisation (and the short TV series, which pairs with it and is almost word for word; I believe the series is on YouTube) is very interesting. I had run across his music long before the book and, taken together, I find the music more compelling than I did before. But still not usually my cup of tea. Neither is Mary Halverson and I run hot and cold on Bill Frisell, also. I don't mind abstract, but I like a little bit of a hint of groove. I don't have that response to your (Mark's) playing, in part because I really like his (your) sound, which affects how I hear and feel what's being played. I think Bailey, Halverson and Frisell are counting some groove I can't personally hear that well.

Oddly enough, that doesn't seem to apply to my own playing around the house. By myself, I sound fairly abstract and not particularly grooving, which I find very satisfying to play. Note and chord choices when playing solo have become about emotional tone rather than any kind of bebop-derived structure or even anything recognizable as a song. I like the immediacy of playing acoustically or through some gentle amplification with just a cord as my pedalboard.

I'm trying to counterbalance that by playing with others regularly, to avoid disappearing into my own navel. Now that I'm retired, I'm hoping to have more time to do that.

I like the sound of your ideas (on paper) and would love to hear a recording of “emotional tone”, which seems akin to what I’m doing. Cheers!