Ambient Banjo | We Were Happy Sometimes | Experimental Clawhammer

Подписаться 17 тыс.

Просмотров 2,7 тыс.

50% 1

It's no secret that I love the banjo in all of its myriad forms. I also enjoy all kinds of music, and it's exciting to take the banjo out of its home idioms and try to apply it in different genres.
You couldn't find two more disparate sounds: the staccato, bright banjo, and the dark washes and drones of ambient music. But the banjo, with its esoteric tunings, and odd string layout, turns out to be a wonderful playground for the ambient-inclined ... if you can figure out how to get those notes to hang on just a bit longer.
This song is called "We Were Happy Sometimes", and tries to paint that ephemeral childhood joy as an adult's memory.
I created this piece of original banjo music using my Rickard Resophonic banjo and a couple of hardware effects processors. The piece was created "live" and in one take as I moved between creating sounds on the instrument, and manipulating interactions of those sounds with the hardware processors. All sounds you hear in this track started from a banjo being recording through a piezo microphone, and most were produced using clawhammer technique.
If you'd like more information on how I created this recording, I will be detailing it over on Banjo Quest, my Patreon project: / tomcollins
I'd like to thank "The Keep" members, my top tier supporters. They are:
Will Scott
Waide Warner
Victoria Mason
Tyler
Ty Smith
Tony Turner
Tony Thomas MFA
Tom Russell
Todd Gallien
Tina Jones
Tim Chaffee
Thor Stoddard
TheDispossessed
Sylvia Carlyle
Suzanne Howze
Sue Duffy
Sue Cooper
Steven Kramer
Steve Paxman
Steve Osborn
Steve Bien
Stephen W Cook
Stephen Linehan
Simon Baylis
Shawn Bruch
Señor Danger
Sarina
Sam Margolis
Sam Ganesan
Ryne Muller
Ryan Harlin
Rose O’Reilly-Hoisington
Robin Ganesan
Robin Conant
Robert Marsh
Robert Harris
Robert Halperin
Rob Gruhl
Richard Weeks
Richard Feit
Rich Schneider
Rand Hammond
Rachel Bates
Peter Warren
Peter Laucks
Peter Coggins
Peebo Bryson
Nelle Lafouge
Neil Postma
Mulbnrok Neb
Mireille Chalifour
Mike Koski
Mike Junior
Michael Simmons
Michael Paris Mazzeo
Martt Harding
Mark Thomasson
Margo
Margaret Radek
Lynn Baldwin
Luke Mumford
Lucy March
Lisa Seppi
Lindsay Lewellen of the fabulous Quail Creek Banjos
Lin Davis
Lance Melikian
Kimberly Maxwell
Kevin whitehead
Kevin Sullivan
Ken Gibson
Ken Clason
Kelley Maggs
Kawai
Joshua Wilson
Josh Rubin
john villemaire
John Simpson
John Hanley
John Alden
Joe Smith
Joe McCreight
Jimmy Breazeale
Jim Gasperoni
Jesse Madden
Jerry Williams
Jeremy Jones
Jenny Vaughn
Jay Smith
Jason Kugler
James Stoup
James Martin
James Hitchmough
Jaime Taylor
hobart wright
Gregory McCracken
Greg Clare
Glen Stewart
GeoffLB
Gary Waldman
Finn Agenbroad
erik carlson
Eric Ulrich
Eric Chomka
Eric
Emily Ellis Richards
Elisa Westall
Doug Brower
Don Loveless Jr
Don Jacobs
Don Eaves
David Stelts
David Olney
David Lye
Dan Conlin
Dan Baummer
Dale Googer
Curtis Smolen
Craig Heverly
Conrad Winchester
Cody Bradford
clint baer
Ciara Morgan
Chuck Markowitz
Chris Pye
Cary Miller
Carrie
Cameron Wells
Brent
Brandon Dempe
Branden Carrier
Boyd McKoane
Arbuckle
Andy Parrish
Andrew Lapthorne
Andrea nasi
Allan seim
Alan Gibbons
Al Martinez
Adrien Belugou
Adam Hinkel
Aaron Swanson

Опубликовано:

11 сен 2024

Ссылка:

Скачать:

Готовим ссылку...

Добавить в:

Мой плейлист

Посмотреть позже

Комментарии : 28

@123123baztard Год назад

I’m probably an ‘early intermediate’ on the Clawhammer Banjo. I love it. When I screw up a song with the guitar I feel like it’s laughing at me. When I screw up a song on the banjo we both laugh together. It’s like it doesn’t need me to be good, it just loves to be played 🙂

@FretlessFury Год назад

This is a beautiful comment.

@quailcreekbanjos 2 года назад

I just want to cry when those deep tones come in and out

@MrJ3 Год назад

Such an underexplored area. Far too little of this on RU-vid! Fantastic. I knew in my head what I wanted to hear, I searched for it, found this, and it was just it!

@FretlessFury Год назад

Wow, glad you found my channel Mr. J! I did one more ambient piece if you're interested: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-t_KsJgVd-R4.html Cheers!

@blacksheepbanjos 2 года назад

Love it Tom. Nice to hear the ways banjo can be explored. A beautiful soundscape indeed.

@HurtMachineCyclery 2 года назад

You have confirmed that my playing with all sorts of pedals is ok. I just love the sounds I can make. This is fantastic!

@FretlessFury 2 года назад

Thank you, James! Yeah...all bets are off. Mangle that banjo till your heart's content!

@IAmPovidone 2 года назад

I love this Tom! People don't often think of the banjo as an expressive instrument in this way. I've always enjoyed pushing it and seeing what alternative sounds can be made and how it interacts with effects differently to guitars.

@FretlessFury 2 года назад

Thank you so much, Euan! Glad there are fellow banjonauts out there!

@erikcarlson9544 2 года назад

Heck yeah! Tom this is terrific

@TheVikingHill Год назад

Beautiful, thank you.

@FretlessFury Год назад

You're welcome, Jonathan. Thanks for the comment.

@TheSlayingMantis 2 года назад

This is really beautiful, Tom. Trying to make ambient banjo music has been on my bucket list for some time, I’m just afraid to jump into all the digital gear. I’d love to see your setup/process for this. This kind of reminds me of marry lattimore’s “at the dam” album.

@FretlessFury 2 года назад

Thanks so much, Vincent. This was created with a very minimal setup, and I'll be detailing here on my channel soon. The banjo itself was captured with an inexpensive piezo pickup...though it is a resophonic banjo, which sounds a little different from a normal banjo. Stay tuned and I'll show you how I did it!

@wychwoodmusic Год назад

Discovered Mary Lattimore’s music through this comment, thanks!

@wychwoodmusic Год назад

Damn, this is great. I also feel like this sort of thing - running acoustic instruments through effects to make ambient music - is the future of ambient, or at least a new-ish, exciting path. It's kinda hard to play electric guitar or synths or computers through effects and break any new ground, but using acoustic instruments as the sound source opens up mostly uncharted galaxies of sound to explore. Also, when you use an electric instrument, the source sound or signal is pretty thin and simple - nearly all the depths of the sound and timbral complexity comes from the effects, not the instrument. Whereas acoustic sounds start out gorgeous and harmonically-rich to begin with. Working with such a rich source has its challenges but also opens up all these possibilities. (For e.g., I struggle to get distortion I like out of an acoustic instrument, but the shimmering sounds that emerge when I apply ambient reverbs is just unreal.)

@FretlessFury Год назад

Thanks for this insightful comment, Wychwood. I totally agree with you in regards where ambient styles can go next. The tunings of the banjo lend themselves well to building soundscapes too. I also agree that natural acoustic signals do not take distortion well. I'm thinking of picking up a pedal that allows a wet/dry blend of fuzz and overdrive to see if that solves the problem. I'll post my results on my channel (if they're any good!). Best, Tom

@wychwoodmusic Год назад

@@FretlessFury Sounds promising, I'll look forward to checking out what you come up with! I've got sounds I think are alright out of various combinations of a Tubescreamer, Rat, and Micro Dark Orange head, but an ideal tone remains elusive.

@Blacmao 2 года назад

It's totally it's own thing, but getting some BoC / Tycho vibes, love it

@FretlessFury 2 года назад

Huge Tycho fan here! Thanks for watching, and for the comment.

@user-dg6iw5qb6p 2 года назад

Brian Eno-y purdy

@FretlessFury 2 года назад

Music for Airports is one of my all time favorite albums. Thanks for the comment!

@benjaminlowe3126 2 года назад

Do I hear some microcosm perhaps? Sounds amazing either way. Really lovely stuff. I’m new to the banjo but love ambient guitar stuff. Now I’m so tempted to get some kind of pickup or way to easily run my cheap banjo through effects….

@FretlessFury 2 года назад

Good ears! This was live-processed in one take using delay, microcosm and ultrasheer. The banjo was captured with an inexpensive piezo pickup. Thanks for the comment!

@benjaminlowe3126 Год назад

@@FretlessFury I'll have to go do some piezo mounting research... Thanks Tom!

@nomdeplore7604 2 года назад

was live processed? what'd you use?

@FretlessFury 2 года назад

Yes! This was live processed in one take using banjo, delay, microcosm and ultrasheer in real time. I did some small editing in the mix phase, and then did a mastering pass for overall volume.