Doesn’t quite have the same ring as “Summer of ‘69” but you get the idea.
So, when I graduated high school and was trying to decide what to do with myself next, I got this this crazy idea that instead of going to college and studying for yet another four long, hard years I could trick my parents into letting me move all the way across the country, hang out with a bunch of weird musicians, drink beer and play my guitar. In other words, go to MUSIC college. We weren’t exactly rolling in cash and the place I got accepted to was pretty expensive so I applied for a merit based scholarship. Basically I had to submit a tape of my playing to earn a shot at a live audition which could ultimately result in some financial assistance.
Also, at the time there was no such thing as Garage Band for your Mac. Heck, when I took typing in high school we were still using Apple //e’s. Anyway, I set about making my recording using a Tascam cassette tape based 4 track, a sequencing Ensoniq ASR-10 keyboard that I borrowed from a friend, my guitar rig, and 1 microphone.
Anyway here are the tunes. I’m sure I gave them quite ridiculous and appropriate titles, none of which I can remember now:
Song the first – Typical mid 90’s guitar gunslinger fare. I think I was trying to channel Joe Satriani or Steve Vai w/ a little Eddie Van Halen finger tapping and dual melody lines thrown in there while playing as many notes as possible in 4 minutes.
Song the second – I knew I needed at least one song without distortion, so what do you do if you can’t use distortion… why delay of course! This is a white kid from Montana’s attempt at playing Latin.
Download now or listen on posterous
Song the Second.mp3 (3274 KB)
Song the third – So cheesy but SO AWESOME. The first 2 minutes are kind of a snooze but it sets you up for the STADIUM ROCK GUITAR SOLO complete with PIPE ORGAN at the end! Strong Bad would have been so proud.
The thing I remember most about recording these songs is how FRACKING picky I was. I would play the solo sections over and over and OVER until I felt I had nailed every note. There was really no way to splice or edit the tracks so you had to get it all in one take. I’m sure it drove my poor parents out of their minds hearing me play the same part repeatedly for hours on end (without the context of the rest of the song since I had the playback in my headphones). I can only hope I’m as patient and supportive with my kids’ creative endeavors.
Tune in next week for the story of my live audition in Anaheim, CA and the rainiest day in the history of Disneyland.
Posted from benaar’s posterous
