Lee Barry Composition (And Photo) Diary

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

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.) Here is the source Bach cello Suite:      A more recent video:   Using isorhythm in a bass line:   

A new tuning (F-Ab-C-F--an open F minor chord). 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 consists of 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):   I used this tuning on The Brocken Spectre on my Virga album. Obviously, the key is F Minor (with occasional b5). The genesis of the idea was layered ostinati using harmonics. A Fretless part was added last (standard tuning).     A possible riff, which uses mostly open strings and double st...

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:

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 was initially conceived as an improvisation in the altered tuning E-F#-B-F# on a 1962 Jazz Bass. 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. I already had Virga on my list of titles and used it as a springboard. (Virga are the wispy sheets of rain that fall from clouds, and is an acronym for Variable Intensity Rain Gradient Aloft ). 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.