Things I'm Enjoying
Since I started playing guitar I have always been fairly resistant to using too many effects. Maybe a little overdrive and reverb but nothing more. I had an idea that using effects would compromise the purity of the music. It's no longer coming from the instrument and your hands when you stack a bunch of effects. But sometimes circumstance spins us off in a new direction.
A couple of weeks ago I recorded a meditation to upload on Insight Timer. After recording the voice, I felt the track needed some background music. Background music helps tune out the distractions in the environment and also covers any missed noise that hasn't been completely removed from the voice track.
Trouble was, I didn't have any ambient music on hand and I didn't want to purchase any for a free track. As a musician I figured there must be a way for me to create something of my own.
A quick trip down the YouTube rabbit hole of "How to create ambient guitar tracks," and I stumbled across a channel called 'Chords of Orion.' The man behind the channel, Bill Vencil, takes viewers on a deep dive into guitar effects, particularly reverb and delay, to transform ordinary guitar chords into intergalactic singing bowls.
The best part: as well as suggesting physical pedals to create ambient guitar tones, Bill also has tutorials on utilising virtual effects that work with amp modulators in GarageBand or Logic Pro. So, after downloading a couple of reverb and delay plug-ins I was able to create some pretty psychedelic loops to pair with my own meditations.
The experience of playing guitar with heavy digital effect processing was fun. A far more forgiving approach to recording music, accessible and free from any predetermined ideas of what good should sound like. When we are prepared to explore new territory in our creative process, we rekindle the joy of discovery and awe, reminding us of what drew us to that particular medium in the first place.
If you'd like to check the meditation out on Insight Timer, find my teacher profile, give it a listen and send me some feedback.
Go well. Mark
