The Sunday Song: October
By sheer coincidence, two different friends sent me links to a couple of notable fingerstyle guitarists within the span of just a few hours. One of them was Andy McKee; the other was Don Ross. And of course, these two guys play together from time to time as well. You can get a good taste of what these guys can do by checking them out on YouTube — for example, McKee’s version of “Africa.”
Wait, don’t go listen yet. I’ll sound awful in comparison. 🙂
Anyway, I noticed somewhere that the tuning that McKee was using was CGCGBbC. So I figured I’d give it a whirl, and this is what popped out after a couple of hours. Unfortunately, I developed a blister on my finger pretty early into the process, and ended up with a performance I am really not very happy with. Lots and lots of timing issues. 🙁 On top of that, I don’t think I managed to capture the resonance of the guitar very well in the recording this time… a tuning like this excites harmonics all over, and should sound rich and deep, but it sounds a little harsh and tinny when I listen through my desktop speakers. But here it is anyway. (If you still want to listen after all those disclaimers!)
3 Responses to “The Sunday Song: October”
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Heh… your music sample sounded pretty good to me over my Logitech speakers (two desktop speakers with a subwoofer, fifty bucks at Office Depot — one of my best accessory purchases ever for my rig). Have you tried burning a copy of the audio file onto a CD and playing it through a home audio system?
Next set of questions: what brand of guitar and microphone were you using, and how was your microphone placed relative to the guitar? Even a change of an inch or two in the mike’s proximity to the instrument can make a big difference. Many mics have a tendency to create a “proximity effect,” more strongly emphasizing low-frequency harmonics when close to their sound source than will other mics, while others tend to play up high-frequency colors.
One great guitar mic I stumbled across purely by accident (because it happened to be the best mic available at the radio station where I was working at the time) is the Shure SM-7. This is a classic deejay microphone, with a rich, warm sound contour that captures high-frequency detail nicely without sounding overly bright, making it a popular choice for miking accoustical guitars as well. It has a bit of a proximity effect that you can put to good use by experimenting with how closely you mike your guitar. It also has excellent rear-sound rejection (meaning it does a good job ignoring unwanted sounds from behind the microphone, like a rotating fan), so if you have a heavy fret hand with lots of squeaking when your fingers change positions, you can angle the mic slightly away from the neck towards your instrument’s soundboard to reduce finger squeak.
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