I always wanted to be a lead guitarist and rock star! This original piece imitates an electric guitar with a distortion effect produced entirely on the violin through bow placement, similar to what string players call ponticello. View it here: http://youtu.be/cl79zelhEfg .

As usual with what I call “digital acoustic,” this entire piece is a single pass-through, created live only on an acoustic violin. The digital part is that as each violin part is performed, I use foot pedals and a computer to record and play back (similar to ‘looping’) each part. This version layers about 5 parts, with liberal improvisation and harmony parts interspersed.  By having complete control over each parts I can build up the orchestration behind my improvisations, and create changes in energy level exactly the way I want.

Remember, nothing is pre-recorded before I begin. The pizzicato is transposed down 2 octaves by the computer to create the bass lines. Hopefully the end result captures the spirit of screaming guitar solos!

The video camera work is done by my wife Melissa. I think she did a great job capturing the ‘musicians’ view, where you see the nice close-ups of the bow, fingers and foot work. Enjoy!

I’ve posted a new video of my version of the Irish fiddle tune Drowsy Maggie: http://youtu.be/6z2UI1o4gkY. It’s a well-known piece, even used at one point in the movie Titanic.

This entire piece is a single pass-through, created live only on an acoustic violin. The violin parts are performed live, recorded and played back (similar to looping), but I’ve programmed the foot pedals to give me complete control over each track, up to 16 simultaneously. This enables me to create and improvise musical form and orchestration, which I find more satisfying than the typical looping.

Nothing is pre-recorded before I begin. I create the bass drum part by tapping on the bridge and electronically transposing it down 2 octaves, and the bass line by plucking in the normal range, and transposing the part down 2 octaves. The snare-like effects come from “chops” with the bow. It’s satisfying to watch live and know that everything is real-time. Most of the piece is improvisation, and every performance is quite different. You get a quite different sense of what is happening musically when you can see everything happen in real time.

My wife Melissa did the camera work, with a colorful setup with the lights. I edited the video. I hope you like it!

A new piece: Not for the Faint (of heart). This piece is my most ambitious to date, over 8 minutes, and by the end it has 9 simultaneous tracks going.

 (Right-click here to download, or touch for iPad/iPhone)

[Edit: remixed on July 3 and posted]

I do a classic composition technique to build energy, so by the end I layer the B section tracks (selecting them one at a time) over the A section, underneath a ‘crazy fiddler’ improvisation.

Not For The Faint tracksheet

As always for my ‘Digital Acoustic Violin’, all sounds are created on the violin. In this case, the piece opens with strumming processed to sound like a bubbly, underwatery groove. The bass line is violin pizzicato put down 2 octaves digitally. (If you listen carefully, you’ll hear it in the correct octave, live, before I put it down into bass range on its first loop.)

I play this piece live with all the parts recorded and played-back with a foot controller to enable/record/playback each of the tracks.

I hope you enjoy it!

I’m performing for my son’s Peru Fundraiser on June 12th at the Mayes-Smith home in Sparks, Nevada. Here’s the flyer… Additional information: To hear some samples of music, visit my Music Downloads page. To get tickets or make reservations online, click here: http://marshworksreno.eventbrite.com. Please feel free to pay at the door or pay Denali in person and save yourself credit card processing fees of about 5%. Come one, come all: please don’t let the suggested donation keep you and your family from attending, there is no minimum, but we do need a count, and space is limited, so please do register at that site or via email (see above) or phone (530 368-2979).

I’m performing for my son’s Peru Fundraiser on May 6th at the Granite Bay Country Club in Granite Bay, near Sacramento.

Here’s the flyer… click here for a better-quality pdf.

Additional information:

To hear some samples of music, visit my Music Downloads page.

To get tickets or make reservations online, click here: http://marshworks.eventbrite.com. Please feel free to pay at the door or pay Denali in person and save yourself credit card processing fees of about 5%. Come one, come all: please don’t let the suggested donation keep you and your family from attending, there is no minimum, but we do need a count, and space is limited, so please do register at that site or via email (see above) or phone (530 368-2979).

I heard a blow-away great concert by one of the greatest fiddler-innovators ever, Darol Anger. His violin playing was a huge inspiration to me in high school (okay… so it was a long time ago…), so much so that my wife when she hears him play, says, “he sounds like you.” I always correct her and say that no, I sound like him, after years of imitating him.

Anyway, his ability to make a violin groove, with chops and rhythmic parts is still great all this time later. I came home and had to finish working up a song, a happy-go-lucky tune I’m calling Rollin’ for lack of a better name.

[Edit: Download removed… see more recent version]

7 tracks A section, 4 tracks B section, all live, single pass. I’m switching back and forth between microphone and pickup, and throw a chorus on the melody. It gets me closer to a distortion guitar sound without going all the way there. The ‘feedback’ sound at the end of along note is produced by playing very close to the bridge. Classical violinists call it ponticello, but I use the effect as though I was a screaming guitar. And the bass, as in many of my pieces, is played first at normal range, and then dropped down 2 octaves when the loop repeats.

The performance isn’t quite where I want it, so I’ll post another version before long.

[Edit: remixed the piece on April 4]
[Edit: re-recorded the piece on June 11 and posted]