5/4 third

Posted on March 13, 2011 by

Funny, I already liked the 5/4 thirds before I even knew what they exactly were…:

The arrangement is from 2005 and appeared on the album ‘Making Choices’ (2006) by the Carlo Nardozza Quintet. The melody is played with the use of harmonics on the open strings of the guitar.

From a CD-review from that time:
The last song of the album is an amazing version of ‘My Romance’, inspired by the guitarist’s collaboration with African kora player Zou Diarra: the acoustic guitar is accompanied only by toms in the distant, and this standard – just recognizable – becomes a meditation reminiscent of My Goal’s Beyond from John McLaughlin.

I will try to explain the Just Intonation ratios from the notes of the melody. The song is in the key of E Major, so this gives a 5/4 third (G#, 5th harmonic on the low E-string) and a 5/3 sixth (C#, 5th harmonic on the A-string). Other natural harmonics include the 4/3 fourth (A, 3rd harmonic on the D-string), the 3/2 fifth (B, 2nd harmonic on the B-string) and the 2/1 octave (E, 2nd harmonic on the high E-string).

For the 2nd (F#), I had two options: for the higher octave I used the 5th harmonic on the D-string which becomes a 10/9 just minor tone in relation to E as 1/1. For the lower octave I used an artificial harmonic (2nd harmonic from the 4th fret D-string) which belongs to 12ET. The last note to complete the scale is the major seventh. I picked this as an artificial 3rd harmonic from the 1st fret G-string) and also belongs to 12ET.

Posted in audio, formative years, Just Intonation | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

me and my Microtonality

Posted on February 15, 2011 by

‘it gives me freedom, I can access the notes in between the cracks, it is good for real improvisation and it sounds great’ are just a few of my answers to the question how I came into the world of fretless guitar. I didn’t know much about tuning theories or temperaments, I only learned about the 12 tone equal temperament. Not why and how, only that. Microtones are only to be found in Indian Raga and Arabic Maqam music is a common thought here in the Dutch academic music system, and you should go to the Rotterdam World Music Academy to study it.

My main interest at that time was Jazz and by the time I got interested in the fretless guitar, I already had a Bachelor of Arts. But I started to listen to Arabic and Indian music and even bought a book or two about the musical practices of these regions. Alas, I never became a real student of this material.

Then I found out about Joe Maneri whose recorded music is informed by his microtonal theories and compositions which use 72 equal temperament, the equal division of the octave in 72 parts, although he doesn’t confine himself to that temperament in performance: “We don’t use theories when we play. We can’t. We are those things. If they took X-rays of us, you would see all of the music inside”. This idea really inspired me, I contacted the Boston Microtonal Society and ordered his book ‘Preliminary Studies in the Virtual Pitch Continuum’, which explores this 72 equal temperament. But alas, I never became a real student of his material.

I wanted to wait for my 10-string to be finished to continue my quest. Since the tuning of the open strings will be based on pure intervals, Just Intonation might be the next step.

Shall I ever become a real student of this material?

to be continued…

Posted in formative years, fretless guitar, Just Intonation | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

‘Pickmeupandunfretme’ goodbye

Posted on February 4, 2011 by

… and thank you very much for everything you did for me in the last 3 years. You were a great logo and you inspired me to create a beautiful instrument, my own personal Charlee Livingston.

But, you couldn’t prevent me for falling in love with this other instrument, the Gibson harp guitar. The music that this guitar brings is also a big part of me. It leads me back to my love for jazz, especially the harmonic duty in accompanying other people. But it goes even further. I can sense the feeling I had when I was a little boy learning the classical guitar when I study for example Bach’s lute works or Robert de Visee’s baroque guitar pieces now on my harp guitar.

Now it’s time to have one place on the web where I can write about them both, so pickmeupandunfretme.com goodbye and welcome (back!) melleweijters.com!

Posted in formative years, fretless guitar, harp guitar | Leave a comment

InspiRamon!

Posted on October 24, 2010 by

In an earlier post, I wrote :

In this period [early 2006] my first electric guitar, a Maya Strat copy, brutally lost her frets. Since that moment, she has never seen a stage, recording session or rehearsal room; a ‘personal affair’ we might say…

Well, I must admit, this is not completely true! I found a ‘home’ recording of myself dubbing over a soundcollage from an internetfriend (also a jazz guitar student at that time, living in Buenos Aires, Argentina). We were both moving away from a traditional approach to something new, unknown…

(I’m more on the left channel, he’s more on the right)

Posted in audio, formative years, fretless guitar | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

welcome

Posted on October 14, 2010 by

So, behind the scenes I have been busy with setting up this site and post some of my older writings. I hope a blog will enable me to keep track of my thoughts, findings, experiences and whatever more better than the static flash sites I previously had.

Here’s a snapshot from my first website from 2004/2005, then located at www.melleweijters.com. It displayed many of my activities as a freshly graduated (jazz) guitarist: ‘creative guitarist for live performances, recordings, demonstrations, clinics and lessons‘.

As I write, I dive into my archives to find many memorable moments from this period of time. I’ll try to arrange a special place in this blog to share these moments with you.

You see the little player on the bottom of that page? Here’s that tune again!

Written and performed for the clinics for TC Electronic I did at that time. With Ron van Stratum (drums), Roman Korolik (bass) and Bart van Caenegem (fender rhodes).

Posted in audio, formative years | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

introduction III

Posted on October 10, 2010 by

why would a conservatory trained jazz-guitarist experiment…

…with other temperaments?

So how did I get started? First I tried to play in tune (wishful thinking!). I immediately felt that my left hand should be stronger and more precise. In other words, I had to study my rudiments from scratch.

While tuning up in major thirds I found out I had two options:

1. Tune with a tuner according to the tempered scale. In this system the major third is stretched to fit (multiplying factor 1,2599).

2. Tune with harmonic ratio 5/4 (multiplying factor: 1,25) for every pure major third interval. As a result: the octaves are getting smaller!

In pursuit of purity I chose the second option. And how about the octaves, you might ask? Please judge for yourself and listen to my music!

Posted in fretless guitar | Tagged | Leave a comment

introduction II

Posted on October 10, 2010 by

why would a conservatory trained jazz-guitarist experiment…

…with other tunings?

Putting my hands down on this new instrument made me think…

…is it wise to use the standard tuning on an instrument that is not designed to be played like the ‘original’? I mean: easy open chords are not on my priority list, so why not look around for something else?

Through the internet I found out about Ralph Patt, who, in the ’60, started working on a tuning consisting of major thirds on 6, 7 and 8 string fretted guitars:

“The original purpose was to find a method for atonal improvisation for jazz. I was influenced by the music of Ornette Coleman, George Russell, John Coltrane and others who were breaking new ground in jazz in the 1960s. I was searching for a better way to facilitate improvisation using the atonal composition systems of Arnold Schoenberg. The major third tuning provides a way to do this.”

http://www.ralphpatt.com/tune.html

I adopted this approach on the fretless guitar and settled on a -G B D# g b d#- tuning (from low to high). On the album ‘Making Choices’ I also used this tuning on the yet-not-fretless Hohner on two tracks within a free context (‘Rubber Duck’ and ‘Big Time!’).

Posted in fretless guitar | Tagged | Leave a comment