Lee Barry Studio Notes

Factotum

2010-12-12T16:47:00.001-06:00

African polyrhythmic groove with a 6/8-feel bass groove layered over 4/4, Bmi/E7

Factotum

Groove Only

Thought Trains

2010-11-09T22:10:00.000-06:00

Conceived using E-G#-D-F# tuning, using a combination of natural harmonics and fretted notes, set against a polyrhythmic groove.

Thought Trains (Mix 1)

Drugstore Prints

2010-09-25T12:11:00.000-05:00

A quick and dirty riff idea in an open G minor tuning on a dobro (D-G-D-G-Bb-D). It has a lo-fi 'cheap photo print' vibe.

6 On The Floor (Mix 2)

2010-07-01T21:47:00.000-05:00

Added clav and Rhodes piano parts and solo using a high bass sound on a synth.

6 On The Floor (Mix 2)

Jeux Sans Frontieres Remix

2010-06-08T21:42:00.000-05:00

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Uses extracted samples from the original lead vocal and guitar parts with new synth chords and fretless parts.

6 On The Floor

2010-05-10T18:55:00.000-05:00

This is a very simple yet complicated groove based on a '4 on the floor' groove, but in 6/4

6 On The Floor

African Dust

2010-03-21T14:26:00.002-05:00

This is a refresh of a piece written in the early 90s. It is in a 'parallel' meter of 5/8 or 5/4--you can groove on either level. The scale sounds 'Arabic' but is just a mode of harmonic minor.

African Dust

HuZu

2010-03-21T09:00:00.002-05:00

This began as an experiment with polyrhythms, using 2 clav parts. I looped one bar of groove and bass and tracked a Rhodes piano, Reverse Piano and a sample-and-hold effect, 'keytar' (guitar sound played on a keyboard). The title is arbitrary and picked out of the air as are most of my titles. It is essentially a phoneme representation of 'Who's Who", similar to 'Nosmo King'. However I do have a list of several hundred titles, and sometimes I try to match them with the 'untitled', or start a piece directly on a title.

Next: An generative treatment with derived samples, run against the loop.

HuZu

Figured Basses

2010-03-07T15:46:00.001-06:00

This is a piece I wrote in the 90s that is based on a compound time signature and cycles through 4 dominant 7th chords a minor third apart: E7, C#7, Bb7, G7. The is a re-track i just did as an etude, and has three bass parts.

Figured Basses

Original Version

Figured Basses

Inside Joke 2.5

2010-02-26T22:25:00.001-06:00

Added vocal sample treatments, which adds an extra layer of tension to the mix. Interesting that even with the rhythmic density of the music, each part remains distinct, an you can access any part at any moment. The three bass parts lock, but are still loose and not suffering from a case of MIDI-lock or slaving to a click.

It will be interesting to see where this thing goes, as I am always tempted to remove or add something. With music like this you can continuously pile parts on for a complete assault of rhythmic intricacy. The only thing that might get lost is the simplicity.

Inside Joke 2.5

Inside Joke 2.1

2010-02-26T19:35:00.001-06:00

The next iteration getting ever funkier, now with three interlocking bass parts and a phased Rhodes.

Inside Joke 2.1

Eldritch Trees

2010-02-15T23:32:00.002-06:00

Some possible film music. Scene: Overcast with glints of sun as clouds pass slowly. Through an icy fog, the bare trees sometimes take on strange anthropomorphic shapes.

Key: A Dorian

Chords: Amin6 / C / D / G / C / D / F#min

Cmaj7 / F#min / F#dim / F#min

Eldritch Trees

Saturnine (Alt Mix 1)

2009-11-27T09:36:00.003-06:00

Bass removed--only guitar and keyboard parts, with added ambient padding. Sometimes randomly placing a found voice against existing music brings out the hidden musical aspects of the spoken word.

Saturnine Alt 1

Saturnine (Final)

2009-11-27T09:17:00.001-06:00

Final Mix with all instruments

Tempo=126, D Dorian

Chords: ||: Dm - F - Gsus - D :||: C - G/B - F - Dm || Bb - C - F -G | Bb - C - F - Dm ||

Saturnine (with guitars)

2009-10-25T00:10:00.004-05:00

Several layers of guitars and keyboard parts added in this third mix.

Saturnine

2009-10-17T21:44:00.003-05:00

Started with a bass line on a fretless in D dorian (with borrowed chords from natural minor). I added a 'circular' loop of a hammer dulcimer sound for a Saturn-like treatment. (Sounds like Sting circa 1995)

Saturnine

Derecho

2009-09-12T17:55:00.001-05:00

Bass line idea in 2 parts.

Echosystem

2009-08-23T20:35:00.003-05:00

This started with a noodling around with the tetrachord G-Ab-B-C on a fretless bass, with the bass gravitating finally to C, defining a C minor tonality. I tuned a 4-string to C-G-C-G and did a loping contra bass part, then did another quasi-ostinato part employing lots of open strings. Finally I added a Floyd-ish guitar part to drive the music even further. There is an 'egyptian orchestra' part that I left out, but if included and more well-composed would make this tune sound more Arabic. The tetrachord used as a cell for melodies is decidedly Arabic-sounding, but is merely part of a C harmonic minor scale--not exotic at all. But that is the interesting thing about tetrachordal playing: it is a fragment of scale that can be used to make something sound ethnic.

5 Against 4

2009-07-19T10:06:00.002-05:00

(18x24 oil pastel on board)

Inspired by Paul Klee and Josef Albers, 5 against 4 is visual representation of the music polyrhythm 5 beats against 4 beats. The 4 hues correlate to a tetrachord of G-Ab-B-C (Blue, Orange, Gray, Black)

Artwork

2009-07-12T10:10:00.002-05:00

Sussed (Mix 8)

2009-06-21T20:44:00.002-05:00

Sometimes the best thing is to remove all the overdubs and strip it down to its African roots. Most African music is built up from a rhythmic mesh of polyrhythmic layers. usually in 12/8. This is a variation of that in 16/8.

Sussed (Mix 8)

Shenanigans

2009-06-15T20:13:00.002-05:00

Piano '3 hands' on an F7 (#9) chord with bass part.

Shenanigans

Sussed (Mix 5)

2009-06-07T11:48:00.003-05:00

Fretlesses (fretlii) removed and organ part added.

Sussed (Mix 5)

Sussed (Mix 4)

2009-06-02T21:49:00.003-05:00

Added a Rhodes track (a synth one), with a slinky blue note which contrasts with the Steely Dan-ish 7ths in the B phrase.

In a rough mix, the parts still don't get along well. The genesis of the idea was played on a bass, and the keyboard parts mask the fretless melody. In any event, they are good bones.

Sussed 4

Sussed (Mix 2)

2009-05-25T11:42:00.002-05:00

Added rhythm and slide guitar parts, as well as a sub bass part. It now has an U2 'Edge' edge.

Sussed 2

Sussed

2009-05-23T07:52:00.003-05:00

It's sussed--precise, all figured out. The groove is polyrhythmic based on a 16/8 grouping in a slow 4/4. There are 4 bass parts: two on a jazz bass and 2 'Jaco'd' fretless parts.

Sussed1

Comfort in Patterns

2009-05-04T20:38:00.006-05:00

Starting with loops derived from "Mercury's Moon, I played layers of patterns using harmonics, and played a melodic bass part underneath it. The result is an African sounding groove. Layers of percussion would work well in this context and not much else. I tried a guitar part but it started to sound like Paul Simon's Graceland album.

Comfort in Patterns

Broken Cello

2009-04-25T09:11:00.010-05:00

A piece for solo cello for performance with a recording of itself, playing in 1-2 devices set on continuous random play. The piece may also be performed by 2-4 players, with or without the recording(s).

Download Score

Broken Cello

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Sheet Music & Lyrics free music

Broken Cello by Lee Barry is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at barrystudio.blogspot.com.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://barrystudio.blogspot.com/2009/04/broken-cello.html.

_________________________________________________________________

Note: Please tune to A440 before recording and submitting sound files.

Moonbows (Bass Mix)

2009-04-20T22:25:00.001-05:00

Basses only with all all the synth parts removed.

Mercury's Moon (1)

2009-04-19T13:21:00.003-05:00

Idea based on bass harmonics (again) set against a repeating Phil Glass-like loop. I then played a line on the fretless against the loop. (Due to the humid weather the fretless has a nice growl...)

Chords are Dmaj7-A-Fdim-Amin-Fmaj7-Fdim

Mercury (1)

140 Beats or Less

2009-04-06T22:05:00.007-05:00

Inspired by 'Fwitter' (140 frames or less), I thought I'd apply the constraint to music: 140 beats or less. I think I did it. It's a dirge on piano in 23.33 bars of 6/4. I wrote it in less than 10 minutes.

140 Beats

The Guy That Gets to Lie

2009-04-05T16:19:00.005-05:00

This is what interrupted me this morning when I tweeted: "Every time I pick up my bass I get a flood of ideas and have to stop what I'm doing to capture them. It's annoying actually..."

Working title: The Guy That Gets to Lie (from my laundry list of titles)
Temp0-=132
Key: Eb minor

This has an 80s feel to it, although it's not fault of my own. It just happens that way, and you run with, and perhaps abandon it later. Stylistically it is a bit of whiplash: Is this me?

In The Cloud

2009-04-05T13:00:00.000-05:00

Dreaming of Tornadoes with just atmosphere tracks and one of the guitar parts.

In The Cloud

Composition Strategies

2009-04-04T07:58:00.003-05:00

My Composition Strategies database. These are actual cards, and is played as a game. Sometimes I use just a few of them to generate song ideas:

Composition Strategies by Lee Barry is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at www.leebarry.net.

Ascend

2009-03-29T16:56:00.001-05:00

This is essentially a quick mashup of various scraps from Virga and a field recording taken at a train station, padded in with stock loops with treatments on them.

Ascend

The Broken Spector

2009-03-22T09:28:00.005-05:00

This uses several alt keyboard and synth tracks, and has a bluesier sound to it, taking advantage of the diminished chord. The rhythm is cha-cha or perhaps Brazilian in feel. I wacked the fretless towards the end with a wah. Sounds goofy, but I like it.

The Broken Spector

Broken Spectre (Final)

2009-03-22T09:11:00.006-05:00

When you have lots of options, it can be difficult to set style constraints. Simply choosing one guitar effect over another has a drastic impact on where the music ultimately goes. There were many other tracks that were created, but never included because they would have flipped the song 180 degrees. See my alt mix in the next posting that demonstrates this.

Brocken Spectre (Final)

Original bass idea in altered tuning

The Brocken Spectre (4)

2009-03-17T22:10:00.005-05:00

A fix mix removing clutter. The guitars sound David Gilmour-ish, which is not surprising given that Pink Floyd was one of the reasons I wanted to become a musician in the first place.

Brocken 4

A Brocken spectre (German Brockengespenst), also called Brocken bow or mountain spectre is the apparently enormously magnified shadow of an observer, cast upon the upper surfaces of clouds opposite the sun. The phenomenon can appear on any misty mountainside or cloud bank, or even from an aeroplane, but the frequent fogs and low-altitude accessibility of the Brocken, a peak in the Harz Mountains in Germany, have created a local legend from which the phenomenon draws its name. The Brocken spectre was observed and described by Johann Silberschlag in 1780, and has since been recorded often in literature about the region. [more...]

The Brocken Spectre (3)

2009-03-15T08:18:00.004-05:00

Here is the third mix with a roughly conceived rhythm and slide part. I still tend to prefer the previous mix without guitars, but I might be able to erase some of it away. (It's only when you add too much that you realize you have too much.)

The track still has some of its alternate tuning quality, even as it gravitates to normal tuning. The original tracks with bass harmonics in the alternate tuning are omitted, but the jazz bass part is still there, panned right.

Brocken Spectre 3

Cosmic Ghosts

2009-03-14T15:43:00.003-05:00

Here is an alt mix (ghost mix) of Dreaming of Tornadoes with just the acoustic guitar and atmosphere tracks, bathed in cathedral reverb.

Cosmic Ghosts

Dreaming of Tornadoes (Final)

2009-03-12T19:49:00.004-05:00

Just a fix mix, removing string noise, found voices, other things cluttering up the mix.

D.O.T.

Dreaming of Tornadoes (Version 2)

2009-03-07T21:37:00.003-06:00

Acoustic and electric guitar parts added, with found sounds for a Pink Floyd treatment.

Dreaming of Tornadoes

Dreaming of Tornadoes

2009-03-01T21:35:00.006-06:00

Spring will soon be here, and so will tornadoes. I took a melodic approach to a fretless bassline (B Dorian), and added an ominous swirling atmosphere around it. The electric piano with tremolo is an obvious reference to 'Riders on the Storm' or 'Midnight Rider' (Allman Brothers). Sometimes cliches work because you expect them to be there.

***

Moonbows (cont.)

2009-02-26T21:56:00.001-06:00

Backwards piano and a fretless part added.

Moonbows

Moonbows

2009-02-16T21:50:00.005-06:00

This is the second alt mix using some of the atmosphere tracks from 'Glint' with added 'liquid piano'. The piece trails off 70s Floyd style, with pitchbend and manipulation of envelope and VCF and VCO controls on liquid piano.

Moonbows

Run The Risk

2009-02-12T21:17:00.006-06:00

"Glint..." n/k/a 'Run The Risk'. This is purely progressive now, and needs a new title.

Drum part(s) are next. Here is the dynamic curve, showing a very gradual crescendo happening over a period of 2:30, with several 'landings' on the way up.

PDF

Glint...(Version 3, Mix 1)

2009-02-07T23:55:00.004-06:00

Fretless part replaced with an edgier part played on a Music Man 5. I was striving for a nice gradual build, first using eighth notes, then sixteenths, and using range for tension/release. All it needs is a drum part to trace it.

Play

Glint (cont.)

2009-02-02T21:41:00.004-06:00

Just a fix mix. No structural changes or new tracks.

The Glint of Starlight on the Oceans of Distant Planets

2009-02-01T12:55:00.000-06:00

This started from a title idea I took from a poster about an astronomy lecture. It was built up from harmonics played on a flanged guitar, which symbolizes the 'glint' of starlight. Various loops are layered in, with one of them extending to the end of the piece, suggesting a segue to the next section, whatever it may turn out to be. The bass is too heavy here, and I may swap out the fretless with something else.

Key: B Minor
Tempo=100

Play Me

The Brocken Spectre (Version 2 - Mix 1)

2009-01-27T22:15:00.004-06:00

I took out the gamelan-sounding bass harmonics and added a percussion groove. It has now moved from sounding Javanese to Egyptian.

The Brocken Spectre

F-Ab-F-C Tuning

2009-01-25T13:14:00.005-06:00

Here is another tune that uses this tuning.

Working Title: The Brocken Spectre
Key: F Minor (with occasional b5)
Tempo=70

Genesis of idea is a layered ostinati using harmonics. Fretless part was added last (standard tuning). I know this is a Percy Jones rip, but it just fit.

Isomelody / Isorhythm

2009-01-24T10:17:00.003-06:00

An interesting exercise is to take an existing melody (as I did with the Bach cello suite) and map it over another rhythm. You can compose your own or use an existing one. With Be Bach I used the sequence of notes in the Suite and mapped it over a bop rhythm that I composed. After the melody was done I added chord changes.

(Someone should write a program that will do this automatically.)

Be Bach

Publish at Scribd or explore others: music bass

Here is the source Bach cello Suite:

Double Movement - Partita for Solo Violin - J.S. Bach

F-Ab-C-F Tuning

2009-01-18T20:44:00.008-06:00

Here is new improvisation in a new tuning (F-Ab-C-F--an open F minor chord), with a working title of 'Skin in the Game'. The groove is quasi African with layers of syncopation.

[Play]

Again, the harmonics make the tuning interesting. The 'A' figure are harmonics played at the fifth and seventh fret on the Ab, C and F strings. The 'B' idea are stopped notes at the ninth and twelfth fret. Since I do not yet have tab template for this tuning it is difficult to notate here, but the images of hand positions will give you an idea of how it is played.

Hand Position 1 (5th Fret Harmonics):

Hand Position 2 (7th Fret Harmonics):

Hand Position 3 (9th Fret Stopped):

Hand Position 4 (12th Fret Stopped):

Smokin' Mirrors

2008-12-22T21:17:00.002-06:00

This was essentially a scrap bass groove on a 5-string fretless over a bed of drum machine and piano isomelody, which I re-shaped to become a composed piece. There are 2 bass parts: a repeated harmonic and a lower bass part with wah. (working title was 'New Low')

Play Me

Dona Nobis Pacem

2008-12-07T11:10:00.005-06:00

And now for something completely different...

Here is my entry in the Celebrate & Collaborate with Yo-Yo Ma contest on IndabaMusic.

To create a 'counter-melody', I displaced the melody one bar, which makes it a type of fugue, but not in the traditional sense. I composed a bass part, and then added various clips of famous speeches and other historical audio clips.

Play Me

Cargo Cult (Final)

2008-11-30T19:46:00.005-06:00

I was going for something evoking a prehistoric beast in a tropical landscape. I think I did it. Basses always make things heavier.

Play Me

The original bass parts in the alternate tuning are still there but mixed low and have lots of effects on them. Their interaction with the fretless makes for some sour clashes at certain points, and sounds interesting that way.

Here is a picture of our subject:

Baluchitherium (Version 2)

2008-11-29T12:07:00.001-06:00

Here's a version with fretless solo a la Percy Jones (with slight wah) in standard tuning. The scale is D# phyrigian, and built off the existing tracks done in the altered tuning. The atmosphere tracks are left in and they move in and out at random. The fretless part is duplicated 4 times, with cathedral reverb mixed in at certain points.

Play Me

What If

2008-11-19T22:37:00.002-06:00

Many of my songs begin in this fashion, where I am just noodling around. I don't know what I might do with this--perhaps smother it in atmosphere. The implied chords are in the "A" phrase are Bm/Em/D/A. The "B" phrase is loosely F#m/Bm/D.

(Fretless 5 in standard tuning)

Play Me

[Baluchatherium]

2008-11-13T21:01:00.001-06:00

Experimented further with E-F#-B-F# tuning, this time with a capo on the 4th fret. This is almost all open string playing at various parts of the neck. 'Baluchatherium' is the working title, a word that Jim Kunstler used euphimistically.

I doubt I would want to use this for anything, but I might eventually get something from an alt mix.

Play Me

Virga (Part 2)

2008-11-12T06:26:00.000-06:00

I sampled each natural harmonic at frets 2, 4, 5, 7 and 12 and set them looping Eno-style beginning at 0:00. Since each sample is of a different duration, there are some occasional rhythmic collisions, which I softened with a long reverb. Again, I collaged in atmosphere, and played an additional synth part with pitch-bend.

Play Me

Virga

2008-11-09T06:08:00.000-06:00

Virga was initially conceived as an improvisation in the altered tuning E-F#-B-F# on a 4-string. (A 1962 Jazz) My experiments in this tuning so far have been with the natural harmonics, which gravitate towards extended B Major and F# Major tonalities.

Play Me

The chiming quality of the harmonics somehow suggested rain to me. I already had virga on my list of titles, and used it as a spring board. (Virga are the wispy sheets of rain that fall from clouds.)

As with all my ambient pieces, I often collage in various samples and sound files, in this case samples of held notes and field recordings.

In many ways, this has developed into what sounds like a knock-off of 'Portrait of Tracy'. This is a bit different from Jaco's piece in that while he used lower open strings and fretted notes in a bottom-up fashion, I am playing melodies on the top string, and hitting harmonics below it in a top-down fashion.