HERRCD27 GUITARS (MOSTLY)
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All music and noises © Copyright Paul A. Williams aka Elwood Herring - Please read these notes before downloading
NOTE ON PLAYING MIDI FILES: All my MIDI works are meant to be played using the standard Microsoft GS Wavetable. Usage of any other wavetable will give unintended results. By all means experiment if you have the capability, but please be aware that what you end up with will not be what I intended!
Also, some MIDI files played on Winamp before version 5.3 (and it appears, after 5.541) will not play correctly. If you use Winamp, please up/downgrade to a version between 5.3 and 5.541 (incl), or alternatively, download this version or go here where you can download ANY version of Winamp.

HERRCD27 GUITARS (MOSTLY)

Opus: N/A
Length: 77:40
Instruments: Guitars (mostly)
Composed: Various (See below)
 
A compilation of all my best guitar pieces. I haven't touched a guitar for decades (and I was never a threat to Al di Meola or the not-so-well-known John Williams in the first place), but these pieces still deserve an airing here. For one thing, they're all unique in their own way.

Download the whole albumwrapped album free from MegaUpload.


GUITAR PIECES MIDI ©Yr Mins CD Description & comments
Take 3 /
Foundation & Empire		 1980 09:25 A "fuzz guitar" excursion. The MIDI is a completely reworked version made in July 2009 and is essentially a new piece, halfway towards the finished 18 minute work called "Foundation and Empire".
A breath of smog 197703:45 A nice simple guitar solo. This had lyrics added, and became "Circle Round the Sun". I remember I worked on this piece for months, and thought it was really clever at the time. In actual fact it's my first real composition of any sort. Spot the time signature changes: 4/4 then 3/4 and even a couple of bars of 5/4. The MIDI version was made with great care in June 2009 (I even included the authentic fret noises!)
September Sunshine 198004:10 Another guitar instrumental, all done with simple root-position chords. Well it was September, and the sun was shining, so that's what it ended up being called. This MIDI file is an accurate representation of the original recording, to give you an idea.
Careful with that sax, Colin   198012:42 The old Red Herring epic track, slightly updated for 2009. Very reminiscent of early Pink Floyd, and deliberately so.
Llamedos 197803:05 A four-track guitar instrumental. This was my first ever attempt at multi-tracking. The trouble with instrumentals is, what on earth do you call them? I just jot down the first thing that comes into my head, in this case the name-plate on a house I spotted the week before. Good job it wasn't the one I saw recently - "Far Corfe"!
(Incidentally, if the MIDI version sounds a bit off-key, that's because it's meant to. If you play it, be sure to let it finish otherwise the next piece you play might sound off-key too. It's a quirk of MIDI music.)
Just Passing Through 198204:42 Another early multi-tracking attempt, this time with drum machine backing and pseudo-phasing effect made by manipulating the tape as it passed over the heads. It was the best I could do at the time, and I'm not going to change it now. Note the hemiola 3/4 rhythm over a 4/4 melody. Tricksy!
The MIDI version was made in June 2009, and I took the opportunity to replace the guitar with a sitar sound which given the "eastern" harmonies of the piece sounds much more appropriate, although to hear it exactly the way I intended it MUST be played using the standard Microsoft wavetable.
White Elephant (Complete version)   198106:13 Newly re-edited and remastered for 2009, this is a "complete" version made in a similar vein to the Beatles' Strawberry Fields Forever, ie by splicing two totally different takes together, slowing one down to match the speed and pitch of the other, and hoping nobody will notice how much of a patchwork it really is. Well, the Beatles could get away with subtle studio shenanigans such as this, so why not me?
Battle  198109:20 From the Impulses Symphony - A 'pandemaniacal' (There's no other word for it!) Red Herring offcut with added effects such as solos for asthmatic bicycle pump and manic microphone masticator. Does have a guitar or two in it though, somewhere. Music that should be locked up for the public's protection!
Siberian Sunset 1981 07:40 Possibly my favourite of my own guitar pieces - originally called "Fade Out", it was improvised from start to finish (with Mark Walker aka Mr. Weaklark on organ accompaniment) - before I realised the tape recorder wasn't running, so I had to do the whole thing again. The last few bars are sublime. I reckon the first version was better, but that's gone like the snow of 1981.

The MIDI version was completed in August 2008, and dedicated to the memory of Alexander Solzhenitsyn whose book The Gulag Archipeligo I am currently reading and whose death was announced just as I was putting the finishing touches on the piece. Seems fitting.
Herringbone Concerto 1980 15:04 Jaunty guitar & synth piece which uses some of my earlier themes including the Upandunder Overture. The MIDI version was completed in Feb 2005 - a good "fun" piece which should get you whistling (I must warn you - that first tune will stick in your head for weeks!)


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