Raph’s Website » Guitar piece: “Spring Break”

Guitar piece: “Spring Break”

April 15th, 2006 (Visited 5690 times) Tags:

Here’s another acoustic guitar piece for you all. It’s played in open G tuning, and features my father-in-law’s 1962 Gibson acoustic — an amazingly resonant guitar with a real “old-timey” sound. I usually play slide on this guitar, but in this case I played fingerstyle, no picks. If you listen close, you can even hear the jangle of the untrimmed strings at the headstock scraping against each other.

I wrote this right before leaving for GDC, and I spent a fair amount of time while there hoping that I wouldn’t forget it while away from a guitar. I really should transcribe it too, but that takes some time. I have a bunch of recordings of old instrumental pieces that I have completely forgotten how to play or even what tuning they are in, so I know the pain of losing a guitar piece to the mists of memory.

Guitar trivia: the upwards runs are played with a slap followed by two hammer-ons, rather than by plucking the strings. The first one is actually slightly trickier than that, it’s a slap followed by three hammer-ons. Actualy, come to think of it, maybe half the piece is hammer-ons. The initial riff is that and pull-offs, and the louder chorded parts are actually also hammered-on and then played almost “rasgueado,” with an outwards flick of the nails.

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chabuhi.com: Guitaroso wrote on April 18th, 2006 at 6:29 am:

[...] Hiyeva … found a nice little guitar piece-in-progress by Raph Koster, a man widely regarded for his game development achievements. He definitely has a budding talent on guitar. [...]

Guitar lesson video wrote on April 19th, 2006 at 6:00 pm:

Original post:Guitar piece: “Spring Break” by at Google Blog Search: gibson acoustic guitar

chabuhi said on April 17th, 2006 at 6:00 am:

Nice! Very pleasant tune … relaxing. Reminded me of family vacations up north, for some reason. Sounded like your D or G string (IANAG so can’t be sure which) was detuned slightly — deliberate choice? Or in a hurry?

Hey, I’ve got a document you might be interested in reading (on the music front), but I don’t want to be guilty of advertising here. You have a throwaway address to which I could send the link?

Raph said on April 17th, 2006 at 8:38 am:

I misspoke — it’s in open D, not G.

If you mean the low string, it almost certainly detuned because of all the slaps. This was take #10 or 11 — I had been wrestling with a 60-cycle hum in my mixer (turns out that the RCA jacks have gone bad, I had to use the effects send to get a clean signal) and I neglected to retune between every take.

When I do these quickie recordings, I’m pretty much everything myself at my home office desk, so they usually don’t sound so hot — I am already cringing at the various mistakes and glitches throughout. I forgot to fix the volume on it too, it’s all too quiet.

The doc — If you send it to webmaster [at] raphkoster.com it’ll get to me fine. I see from your website link that you have a recording studio & do voiceovers?

chabuhi said on April 17th, 2006 at 9:39 am:

Cool - I will send the link.

I do and I do! Funny you found it. The link in my name here is supposed to go to my typepad blog, but my domain host screwed up one of the records when fixing a DNS issue I was having. My old homepage redirects to my VO site (obviously) … guess I should remedy that.

Morgan said on April 17th, 2006 at 11:55 am:

The initial eight seconds are an excellent introduction. I think that introduction should be extended to twice or thrice that length. The eight seconds following the introduction sound awkward and confused. I think the quick low-note changes are disturbing. After those eight seconds and onward to the 0:45 mark, the chorus is excellent, but then another eight seconds of quick low-note changes occurs. After that and onward to the 1:33 mark, sounds good; unfortunately, from 1:33 to 1:53 is another instance of craziness. From 1:53 to the end, sounds good.

The best way I can describe the quick low-note craziness is like so: you’re trapped in a small padded room; a radio is playing; the radio channels are rapidly changed; you start bouncing off the walls and shaking your head in a manner befitting a person enrolled in an asylum.

The title "Spring Break" presents the theme of freedom — freedom from the pressures of college, work (in your case), whatever. The track captures the essence of that theme; however, those low-note changes , I believe, do not work in favor of the theme. On Spring Break, I expect the door to the small padded room to be open. I expect to be walking through the door, smiling, ready for a taste of freedom. I expect to toss my concerns aside and just let the world happen. The quick low-note changes convey a sense of urgency, a sense of being torn between the world of Spring Break and the world of responsibilities. Perhaps that’s how you feel? Or maybe… you just haven’t played guitar in a long, long time!

chabuhi said on April 17th, 2006 at 12:43 pm:

I think the quick low-note changes are disturbing.

…those low-note changes , I believe, do not work in favor of the theme…

Morgan, are you talking about the chord progression? Or are you referring to the melodic phrase? If it’s chord changes you’re talking about, then I don’t hear what you’re referring to. As far as melodic and/or rhythmic value, it’s a fantastic contrast and shows some nice range as far as the timbre of the guitar is concerned.

Morgan said on April 17th, 2006 at 9:30 pm:

… are you talking about the chord progression? Or are you referring to the melodic phrase?

Er, I don’t understand. I’m "one of those musicians who absolutely does not have to give a single thought to the mechanics of playing."[1] I’m referring to the sound — how the guitar is strummed, how notes are played, etc. In my opinion, there is too much palm muting and too little timing consistency. The piece starts slow and beautiful, yet descends into unrest during those periods I identified.

I don’t hear what you’re referring to.

Unless you’re using professional studio monitors or headphones, you probably won’t hear what I’m talking about; however, you might hear what I’m talking about, but you’re probably not establishing a connection between my description and what you hear. I already posted the locations where the sounds occur, so I don’t think I need to post a clipped version of the track.

chabuhi said on April 18th, 2006 at 5:50 am:

In my opinion, there is too much palm muting and too little timing consistency. The piece starts slow and beautiful, yet descends into unrest during those periods I identified.

I think I understand now - you are criticizing the mechanics of the performance and how that impacts your perception of piece’s “musicality”. I was focused more on the actual music and not so much the performance.

So it wasn’t that I wasn’t hearing what you described, it’s that your description didn’t match what I was (subjectively) hearing. In other words, I agree with your assessment, but I guess we were just “listening differently”

Raph said on April 18th, 2006 at 7:19 am:

Well, FWIW, the timing is definitely off in several places. I don’t think that’s palm muting that you hear, though, I think it’s not playing those slap-to-hammer-ons cleanly enough.

I kinda like the melody that is played there, so I’ll probably keep it. I don’t think that it sounds disjoint when played well. It’s just a little hard to play.

Raph said on April 18th, 2006 at 7:20 am:

Oh, and “budding” guitar, Chabuhi? Yikes, I’ve been playing for over fifteen years…!

chabuhi said on April 18th, 2006 at 7:51 am:

Sorry, Raph! “Budding” was a bad word choice! I’ll fix that!

chabuhi said on April 18th, 2006 at 8:00 am:

Well … fixed it on my site anyway (not that that’s worth much), but the trackback doesn’t change (obviously).

Anyway, back to the song … I definiitely like that melodic turn that we have been somewhat obsessing about here. I really wasn’t distracted by any issues of technique that may have come out in the recording.

Hey, as I said elsewhere (the post to which Morgan referred) I am by no means a virtuoso!

Raph said on April 18th, 2006 at 8:12 am:

Heh, I wasn’t offended or anything!

Well, maybe I’ll stick to putting up pieces that I have played a zillion times and can do flawlessly. Or I can just say “heck with it” and do it ncier when I come to put it on a CD.

Speaking of which, I am way overdue for a new CD.

Morgan said on April 18th, 2006 at 2:35 pm:

chabuhi wrote:
you are criticizing the mechanics of the performance

I don’t think of the sounds of strumming, plucking, changing finger positions, etc., as "mechanics". These sounds are as much a part of the track as the notes played. For example, watch the video of the Guitarmageddon 2004 winner. The track he plays isn’t an example of an excellent composition; however, he demonstrates how those "mechanical" elements can be used without disrupting the flow of the piece. I feel that the way Raph plays the melody at those aforementioned locations does not produce sound that flows with the rest of the piece.

In a manner of speaking, the telling of the "story" is interrupted by out-of-character chat, and immersiveness suffers.

Raph wrote:
Well, maybe I’ll stick to putting up pieces that I have played a zillion times and can do flawlessly.

That’s what I try to do; although, inevitably, I discover something that needs to be rewritten… This behavior among musicians is apparently quite common.