Hi all,

In an effort to avoid having original tunes slip through the cracks and be forever forgotten, I've started to chart some of my original tunes for both Stick and fingerstyle guitar. I've started a web page with PDF files and so far I have charts for three Stick tunes and two guitar tunes. The Stick tunes are notated using Greg and Emmett's StaffTab notation. The guitar tunes are standard notation and TAB.

I'm also hoping to record accompanying videos and upload them with the PDF files so you can hear my interpretation of the tunes.

You can view the page at http://www.121normal.com/resources/charts

Right now I have:
The Manifest - one of the first tunes I ever wrote on a Stick.
Shades Of Gray - a ballad I wrote the week after Kamloops 2001.
A Thousand Words - first crack at charting a looped piece.
Wintertide - My first original DADGAD piece on guitar.
Shalda Creek - Another DADGAD piece finished only recently.

These are all still undergoing some tweaking. For any of you who dabble with loops, I'd be curious to hear your take on my looping instructions in the chart for "A Thousand Words" since I've never tried this before. Clear? Unclear? Hopelessly unreadable? Don't be shy.

These are nice charts!

2 questions:
1) Could you make the string markers in bold, so they stand out against the Staff?
2) Does Pedal, which is usually a piano reference, just mean use reverb?

Thanks.

1. I'll take a look and see.

2. This is something Greg and I talked about when he was first creating his songbook. The pedal symbol essentially means to let the notes ring throughout the tune. For example, take a look at the first couple of bass measures in "The Manifest". If you played it literally, the first note would stop when the second note started, etc. The pedal just means that the notes ring throughout the measure.

Now that I look at it, it's not very clear though as the top staff is certainly played more literally and there are even staccatos on some of the notes.

Thank you! A Thousand Words is one of my favorites Sticks works and I've always wanted to play it. This will take away any reason not to, eh?

-Eric

First question about the looping in A Thousand Words. How long are the loops? What specs are required for a looper to do this piece?

Thanks,

-Eric

Hi Eric,

The sections are lettered so as to give reference to the notes. So the first loop begins at section D. That section repeats once but the notes suggest that the loop is the length of one trip through that section.

From the notes:

1st time through, start recording loop (melody and bass)
2nd time through, stop recording loop, keep playing in unison with continuing loop

Does that make sense?

The looping in this tune is extremely simple so I can't imagine a looper that wouldn't allow you to perform it. The max length of the loop has to be at least around 15 seconds. Other than that, you just need to be able to record and overdub.

Yes, it makes full sense.


The time length of the loops was what I was looking for. It seems that most loopers, even those built into multi-effects units, are 40 seconds. That should work.

Thanks,

-Eric

The correct way to notate this is to treat each of the notes as a separate voice. In the first measure the F sharp is a dotted half. The C sharp starts with an eighth rest, followed by an eighth note tied to a half note. The A, a dotted quarter, is preceded by a quarter rest and an eighth rest.

This is transposed up an octave, isn't it...? It would be easier to read in concert pitch.

mad monk.

We had played with that when Greg was working on the book and it made for overly busy looking charts. Sometimes almost to the point of being unreadable. The desired result is the ring like, for example, in the triplets played in Beethoven's "Moonlight" Sonata. The piano, of course, has the luxury of the pedal so you don't have to exactly notate this.

Anything to add to this Greg?



Yes that's how Stick music has been notated since long before I came along. Not true of the Alto tune though.

Since the rests cue the entrance of a voice, I don't see how leaving them out will make it easier to read.

mad monk.