Guitar Emporium

Todays piece involves the blatant overuse of altered chords and a couple of strange jazz rock inspired ideas. I still like the Brand X jazz rock band of the 70's - in particular Masques is a great album - John Goodsall's guitar playing is stunning and Percy Jones on fretless bass creates some amazing sounds. Support the show

This is not very convincing - The chords of No Woman No Cry were also the the starting point for the Police song which was , I think , their first hit - So Lonely. The first time I came across this chord sequence was a "modern" Gospel song ( from the 1960.s ) called Can it be True. So this tune has bits of each of those in a sort of mash up .  Support the show

Looking back again - memories get triggered by so many associations. The one that triggered this tune is the smell of a log fire when I was stretching my legs late one evening around the town. It immediately set off good memories ( rather than environmental distaste for a log fire !) Support the show

In the business I work in at the moment these sentiments come up all the time. I should stress this is not where I'm from or indeed what I aspire to... The Victorian class system has returned to the UK with a vengeance.  Bring on the Revolution  Support the show

This is an ABRSM guitar piece at the grade 5 level. I have a pupil doing the exam and I wanted to slow it down a little and give her the space to see how the piece works and how the melody notes are held ( hence the flute ) . Support the show

The Predicament here was whether or not to scrap this piece - Sunday afternoon pouring rain ( again ) slightly weary and not looking forward to the coming week. I'm sure there are others out there feeling the same - some of this is a little uninspiring  Support the show

Another one of those phrases that can be interpreted in so many ways - a complaint, an invitation  a polite request.  Support the show

There are elements of Radiohead's Street Spirit ( fade out) - the key and the relentless repitition (and the fade out!) - but thats about it . Its not a very upbeat Friday tune . Support the show

Any resemblance to the music of Steely Dan is entirely intended - The song When Josie Comes Home has stuck in my head for years - but I've just listened to the original and what I've done is a poor imitation . I've enjoyed putting the tune together and I deliberately didn't listen to the original until I'd finished . Aja ( 1977 !!) ( Josie was on the album  which I always...

The modern equivalent of "he sacrificed his life for his friends" except much less emotive and an almost casual reference to putting the good of others before self. Support the show

Is it a sign of how advanced a country is by how it looks after the young ( or is it the old - or maybe both ) ? In the UK young working families pay as much as £75 per day for their children ( from as  young as 1 year old ) to be at a nursery. There is something very badly wrong going on here. The children get dropped off from 7'oclock in the morning not being collected until 4pm.. The hours...

I was teaching Bowies'  Space Oddity and Starman to a pupil at an early stage. The major 7th chords in Space Oddity are OK - but in Starman he uses a non -standard tuning which I tried to adapt - I was playing around with it and of course we have The Barman - very little resemblance to Starman - ah well there you go ... Support the show

The title of this piece is after the name of an Argentinian film up on Netflix. A tale of corruption and betrayal - tremendous.  At the end of the film the theme plays out using the rhythm I've used in the bass . I don't think I used much else except the sadness of the ending - which I won't spoil. Support the show

This started as an idea between 2 guitars - I feel fine - a little bit of the guitar ; and Staus Guo Caroline in there somewhere. I liked it quite sparse. So I'll leave it like that. Support the show

Every town / city has a no go area. I'm a real naive suburban boy - no feel for things like that. I had a couple of days in Boston once (which I certainly couldn't afford). We had a hotel in what appeared to be in an OK part of town . We took a wrong turning out of the hotel one evening and we hit the wrong end of town - the swamp. Support the show

A piece by the British composer/guitarist Laura Snowden. Its very short and part of the ABRSM Grade 5 syllabus . I recorded it to help a pupil learn it in double quick time . Lets hope it worked. Support the show

I'm trying to work on a particular style and a certain use of chords. Sometimes it appears to produce a good result - sometimes not.  Nowhere to Hide Support the show

I have included the Sonic Drum in todays tune - more like chill out piece really. The Sonic Drum is a  less costly version of the amazing ( but pretty expensive) Hang Drum. This time I've used the drum to set up two simple ideas that bass, guitar and cajon accompany. Support the show

Not a pleasant term - it has origins from watching other people in day to day situations to listening in to other people conversations ( who doesn't do that ?) to slowing down on the motorway to watch the carnage of a motorvehicle accident on the other carriageway.  10cc's song Rubber Bullets comes to mind ( although that was about the Attica US jail riot in 1971) and there are one or tw...

1.ALLEGRO 2.LARGO  3.ALLEGRO  The concerto - originally for lute -is a real stalwart of the guitar concerto repertoire. All kinds of versions are out there. Mine is taken from Eduardo Fernandez's version with George Malcolm on harpsichord. I have also taken some bits from a guitar duet version and added some ( not many ) of my own ideas.  I have included a bass line throughout - because it ad...

   A gentle Latin American based sequence to start the weekend - using the marimba as the principal melody instrument. I had an issue getting the marimba to record at high enough levels for some reason - so the tune has been re-mixed a few times.  Support the show

When your trying to sort stuff - find the paper trail. Today that ain't so easy - emails everywhere - and even the ability to recall them . Oh my! - maybe the Paper Trail wasn't so bad. Support the show

    I'm trying to write tunes in a particular style at the moment - I'm not sure I'm winning but I'm having a go.  Support the show

Sometimes when you see a photograph of a group one person just stands out - they look ontopof the world - just happy to be here .. Support the show

The rhythm of the closing tune to the film Outfit is the starting point for this short piece. Mark Rylance and Johnny Flynn were both excellent in this film ( The same Johnny Flynn who is also an excellent folk singer I think ?  Support the show