Now it’s time for keyboards … today I’ll let you have a sneak preview of Kim S. Hansen’s keys on Let’s Play from my Gratitude album. When I started to work on this song the working title was Saturday Brunch, so don’t get confused 🙂
I introduced Kim earlier on this blog – we have know each other for more than twenty years now. But since he moved to L.A: and I didn’t, we haven’t seen each other that much. Maybe we have had a beer or barbecue when I’ve been in L.A. but that’s unfortunately not that often. And Kim and I haven’t been playing together for ages, even thou I definitely miss that.
Some weeks ago I wrote how I got my red ES-346 and after last weeks concerts I got a lot of questions about my honey brown Gibson ES-346 – so I guess it’s appropriate to write something about that one too, so here’s the story.
When I wasn’t playing my new red ES-346 either in the studio or in the couch, I sat and surfed the net to find more info about the model – you know a typical male thing to do after the product is bougth 🙂
Only a few weeks after I bought the red one I found another one for sale! Ok, the model designation in the add was not ES-346, and the materials was not like the ones I wrote about when I told you about my red one, but the photo was of a honey brown Gibson ES-346!
If you have read my former posts concerning the development of my tracks, you know I’m going to write about Michito Sanchez and his percussion for Let’s Play today. If you haven’t read my former posts concerning this tune, I’ll suggest you listen to the samples I placed in those post before you continue … I think it’ll make this post much more interesting … but on the other hand … go ahead, read and listen – you can always return to the others posts later. And don’t get confused about the title – when I started the working title for the track was Saturday Brunch … sorry about that 🙂
Soren Reiff together with Michito SanchezSoren Reiff and Michito Sanchez hanging in L.A.
Today I’ll write a little about the next stage in the development of Saturday Brunch. Today you’ll hear what happened when Gary Novak and Jimmy Haslip added their golden touch to my song, by adding real drums and bass, instead of my scratch programming.
I introduced Jimmy Haslip and Gary Novak earlier on this blog. If you haven’t read that post, I can easily sum it up: They are outstanding musicians who have played with almost every artist imaginable within the modern and groovy jazz world. I guess no matter what track you find them on, you won’t be disappointed with their playing.
Ok, today I’m going to post the first samples from the making of my next album – samples showing how a tune develops from idea to recorded demo. After this, I’ll write more about how the demo develops and what I do before the track is ready for real musicians. This is the first post of a series about the development from the very first demo until the final song is there, and later on I’ll also write about other songs.
Saturday Brunch
The working title of this song is “Saturday Brunch”, guess why … Yes, it was on a Saturday and I had been eating brunch with my family – actually we were still eating, when one of the kids spilled milk on her clothes and the other one needed a dry diaper. My sweet wife said she would take care of it, and that I should enjoy one more cup of coffee – nice. While my wife and kids went upstairs, I sat and enjoyed the morning atmosphere. I picked up my guitar from a chair nearby and started jamming. Shortly after, I had a little groove going on. Two bluesy chords with a tail, some imaginary drums and bass, and I started humming an idea for a theme. I kind of liked this groovy little vamp, but couldn’t find my phone to record the idea like I normally do.
Normally I record my ideas for a son into my phone. BTW: this is a sreen dump from my phone, so you’re not supposed to play anything by pressing the play button.
A couple of years ago, keyboard player David Garfieldintroduced me to guitarist Paul Jackson jr. and thereby his Gibson ES-346 that he brought along with him for the gig. At the time the ES-346 was Paul Jackson jr.’s signature model. The guitar sounded fantastic and was super versatile. It had a full and massive tone like a Les Paul, with lots of sustain, and at the same time a warm and jazzy tone when it was needed. I was impressed and maybe a little in love.
Soren Reiff, Paul Jackson jr. & Forrest Robinson
After the gig I did some research and found that the model had been discontinued. I browsed the internet from time to time to see if I could find a used one, but without success.
This is a story about an unusual reunion. If we are friends on Facebook, you might already have read a few lines about this a couple of weeks ago, but here follows a more detailed account.
It all started when I got an email with an interesting offer: A former “girlfriend” would like to come and live with me again. I was a little anxious about how my wife would react to this. But when she heard about this old relationship, she said “go for it”. There’s a really good reason for this – because when I mention ”a former girlfriend”, I’m talking about a Valley Arts Guitar from the early nineties 🙂 Another reason might also be the fact that I don’t keep my guitars at home, so she doesn’t care that much about how many guitars I have 🙂
Over the years I have sold a few guitars. Luckily enough, I have only regretted a very few of my sales. One of the few sales I’ve regretted was the two Valley Arts Guitars I had during the nineties.
Yesterday I did a workshop/clinic on guitar effects in general and I talked about my pedalboard. I often get many questions about my setup, therefore I’ll post a couple of pictures of my current board below, and give a couple of tips concerning how to set up your pedalboard.
Since I don’t have any sponsor deals with any company/brand mentioned here – neither manufacturers or stores are allowed to use my name to promote any product, without prior written consent from me. But you are very welcome to link to this blog or to my site www.sorenreiff.com if you want other people to read about my setup.
The other day I wrote about how an idea develops into a song, and my approach to arranging the music. Today I’ll write about how I prepare a song for recording and my studio workflow around the recording sessions.
If I’ve been returning to an idea for a song and been able to see some potential, and still like the overall feel of the tune, I start to think more seriously about the arranging the music.
Arranging the music
At this point I normally have all the fundamental parts of the song; verse, bridge and chorus … So, it’s time to consider the overall flow of the track – how it builds up and develops.
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