# Hello! (Sorry for the long post)



## Tyrannocaster (Nov 21, 2012)

Hi, and please excuse the length of this post, which I’m sure is longer than anything else I’ll ever put up here. But I figured since it’s supposed to be an introduction I’d introduce myself.

I’m a retired ex-musician, but most of my music has been electric stuff, not orchestral - studio work, lots of rock, you know the gig. (I guess you can figure out from my handle that I’m a guitar player and that I have a preference for Fenders. I would prefer to use my real name but because of a stalking incident a few years ago I no longer post it regularly online. But it’s no secret and my MP3s all have it clearly embedded in them.) But I was a composition major in college (long, long ago) and I have always felt that Stravinsky influenced my playing just as much as Jeff Beck and Roy Buchanan did; he still does. And I’ve been a major fan of Bernard Herrmann’s music for as long as I can remember.

I had some pretty bad health issues which the doctors couldn’t figure out (they forced me into retirement several years ago, in fact - and I totally lost the ability to play the guitar, which was the worst part) but strangely, I discovered that every single one of them was due to my nasty reaction to wheat and the invidious materials it contains today. (The story is outlined on the Wheatbelly blog: http://www.wheatbellyblog.com/2012/01/a ... s-a-chord/ ) I go into this because even though I retired early for health reasons, I seem to have gotten a second wind and since this summer I have been writing and recording like crazy. It’s exactly a year since I found out about the wheat issue. And being able to play again...well, I shouldn’t have to tell you what a miracle THAT is.

I have some questions about writing and arranging for/with the sample based software that you guys are using (some of the stuff I heard here is really impressive - way beyond my modest abilities) but I will save them for other posts. But that’s the big reason I registered here. That, and to thank Mr. Blakus for his fantastic pocket cello!

I thought that since this is an introduction I’d also put up links to a few pieces I’ve done just in case anybody is curious. I have been ignored successfully by millions of people on the internet already so why not add another audience, LOL? Here are a few, along with thumbnail descriptions. They really do cover a wide range of stuff, and all of them were done within the last three months.

1. _Six Apéros_. https://www.box.com/s/1yfhia7tzu84nx0c4qxk I did this one in a couple of days because I was so tickled with the already mentioned pocket cello. I don’t have a lot of high end software and this is a great addition to my box of instruments. I do have access to some stuff through a friend who has a good collection but little ability to use it (he actually likes it when I render tunes with his instruments), but that requires going to his house and sitting at his computer. That’s how I got the violin in this, which is part of the Adagio suite of instruments.

2. _Hades & Persephone_. https://www.box.com/s/292bkz2s4dg0gf9a25ca This one is long but the first half is all orchestration; the rest is mostly synth (and it’s supposed to sound like it). This started with my attempt to create a Bernard Herrmann soundtrack pastiche, which takes up the first couple of minutes. However, it grew and grew, like Topsy. 

3. _American Suite_. https://www.box.com/s/ajj0q8gj5fxyv2o2w96z Four different pieces strung together, all based on the same theme - the chorale at the beginning. This was totally inspired by reading Sullivan Ballou’s astonishing letter to his wife during the Civil War. I’ve included this because I like it and it has the only example of me actually going “epic”, LOL. That would be the third section, which is kind of Carl Orff Meets Bo Diddley.  This one has a fair amount of guitar in it, which is what I’m best at.

4. _Brother Green Dance Mix_. https://www.box.com/s/hdvcr192h5d60c69odv3 Speaking of guitar, this is a dance mix of an old folk tune that has morphed almost beyond recognition into a...well, I suppose you could call it a Scottish Disco tune and not be far wrong, but it’s a lot more than that. Personally, I really like this one. Oh, and I make my own guitar amps; this one is an EL 84 based, cathode biased tweed Bassman if such a thing is possible. No conventional orchestral instruments, I think.

I think that’s quite enough to try anyone’s patience. Thanks to any of you who managed to read this far, and thanks to those who manage to sit through any of the music; I realize there is an awful lot of good stuff out there and it’s hard to compete. I’ll be back with some questions in a different thread.

Cheers from the Pacific Northwest!


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