Donald Merand

🎵 Output before Input #60 - 2022.03.12 Short, but I found the groove fun to play along with. One struggle I’m having is the balance between wanting to make sure these ideas aren’t too rehearsed and the desire for them to come across in spite of not being practiced and occasionally stumbling while I’m improvising. I don’t practice enough to where my technique is flawless ri...

🎵 Output before Input #59 - 2022.03.11 I’m always a sucker for synching delay decay with tempo. I’m also always a sucker for patterns that repeat in non-4-time.

🎵 Output before Input #58 - 2022.03.10 I think this is the shortest clip thus far.

🎵 Output before Input #57 - 2022.03.09 I only realized this morning that the riffier progressions have mostly been “two ideas, contrasted and expanded” and not just one idea. The threshold for hitting “record” on them is usually “Ok, I’ve got two things that work well enough together, let’s improvise on that now.”

🎵 Output before Input #56 - 2022.03.08 My first recording got corrupted and lost, so I guess this is my version of waking up and immediately being frustrated but trying to still access some calm.

🎵 Output before Input #55 - 2022.03.07 Trying to stretch into more interesting rhythm/chord progressions, but I don’t think I got there today.

🎵 Output before Input #54 - 2022.03.06 Minor seconds are some of the hardest intervals to play on the guitar, especially stacked (and sometimes even inverted), but the payoff is always interesting (to me, at least).

🎵 Output before Input #53 - 2022.03.06 Again challending myself to “hit record first” and just start playing.

🎵 Output before Input #52 - 2022.03.04 This was a relatively rare morning where I didn’t play a single note before hitting record.

🎵 Output before Input #51 - 2022.02.28 A chord progression that takes inspiration from Hendrix' “Hey Joe”.

🎵 Output before Input #50 - 2022.02.27 I’m not sure how far I thought I was going to take this, but 50 seems like a milestone! I’m celebrating with this incredibly soft, rounded, understated melody. Look: I don’t control what comes out - when you roll out of bed + pick up a guitar, what happens: happens.

🎵 Output before Input #49 - 2022.02.26 Woke up with a melody and turned it jazzy. Feels kind of frantic though.

🎵 Output before Input #48 - 2022.02.25 Experimenting with related tonality through close harmonic structures. Which could probably be the title of the entire series.

🎵 Output before Input #47 - 2022.02.25 Gradually degrading what should be a pleasant two-chord rhythm.

🎵 Output before Input #46 - 2022.02.24 The tremolo sound here was inspired by Noga Erez' “You So Done” from “Kids (Against the Machine)” which was in my head when I woke up.

🎵 Output before Input #45 - 2022.02.24 I was thinking about Mattias Eklund’s “single-string” horizontal soloing on this one - although this sounds nothing like him.

🎵 Output before Input #44 - 2022.02.23

🎵 Output before Input #43 - 2022.02.23

🎵 Output before Input #41 - 2022.02.22

🎵 Output before Input #42 - 2022.02.22

🎵 Output before Input #40 - 2022.02.20

🎵 Output before Input #39 - 2022.02.20

🎵 Output before Input #38 - 2022.02.18

🎵 Output before Input #37 - 2022.02.17

🎵 Output before Input #36 - 2022.02.16 Perhaps heavier than it needs to be, but then is there such a thing?