So true. I remember years ago when I was studying music at college this blues guitarist came in to record some tracks in our sound engineering class. He had some insanely beautiful vintage Strats and Teles then he picks up this grimy old squire Strat that was not fun to play at all and he sounded amazing playing it. To the extent that he used it on a track as he liked the vibe of it.

It was a huge lesson for me at the time. Thinking that if I could just get that Gibson or that American Strat I'd get to where I wanted to be wasn't the answer at all. Keep practicing and don't find excuses like needing certain gear to make progress.

With this is mind I've been enjoying teaching the 100 hours rule recently. It is based on this idea:

"The rule of 100 states that if you spend 100 hours a year, which is 18 minutes a day - in any discipline, you'll be better than 95% of the world, in that discipline. "

18 minutes a day doesn't seem like that much but I believe consistency of practice is the real lesson here.

Love the look of that ergonomic cutaway and zebra pickups are always a yes from me. From the days when I wanted to be Jimmy Page. (still wouldn't mind)

Enjoy the new guitar

Hey everyone, I hope you're all keeping safe and well.

Due to the current situation a lot of musicians are having to adapt quickly with work. Gigs are cancelled, schools closing etc. Due to my schedule changing a lot in the last week I’ve arranged some new Skype lesson spaces for new students. Drop me a message if you have any questions and thank you Kris for your support at this time.

All the best

Chris

Great share Kris! Ecosia do such great work. They share their monthly finances for transparency too so you can see where the search revenue is spent.

Little update. The track 'Holding On' will be played this Saturday on BBC Introducing.

The show is a great way to get exposure for independent artists and I'm excited by the fact they're interested in playing instrumental jazz as normally the shows have more accessible indie/rock/electronic music.

I'll post a link when the show is live and there will be a chance to listen after too.

Chris

Thanks Todd,

Yes its on all major streaming/download stores

Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/album/3VbInITuItzT...zS_W8KobglUizMQ
iTunes - https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/reflection/1430847942
AppleMusic - https://geo.itunes.apple.com/gb/album/refle...=music&ls=1

Hi everyone, I hope summer has been kind to you all.

I'm really excited to share my new album with you! Its been in the making for about 6 months (mostly writing) and recorded over 3 days.

The focus of the project was to write for solo acoustic guitar and with an etude like approach. This changed over the course of the 3 writing periods eventually including double bass and overdubbed solo's for some of the pieces but keeping the etude concept at the heart.

This is the first time i've ever written an album of pieces for guitar which is strange considering i'm a guitarist but I had never found what I considered my voice of direction. In the past year that has become a lot more focused and the writing more consistent.

The album consists of two 4 track EP's I made in March and July this year plus two newer pieces. Doing it this way allowed the music to be released gradually and for the album to come together more organically, capturing the pieces while they were fresh.

Here's some info about a couple of the pieces that might be of some interest;

Holding On - This stemmed from an etude I wrote where a single note 'G' would be a constant in all chords. Allowing chords that might not normally work together, work. The opening section uses an Eb9 D11 C#9#5 D11 (each containing the G but really just a dominant 9th chord moving in semitones). The solo on this one was really fun to improvise too as it moves from C major - Ab Lydian - F Mixolydian - C# altered, it created some really fun lines and kept me on my toes.

Colours - This piece is inspired by the Charles Mingus' pieces 'Goodbye Pork Pie Hat' where he took a simple blues scale and added really interested non diatonic harmony to it. The idea here is to have a Pentatonic minor scale and write a melody, then the melody notes become the top part of the chords. Where it gets fun is what chords you decide to use with it. The scale I used is D Pentatonic minor and the chords are; Am7, Gm7, Dm9, Fmaj7, Abmaj7, Eb9. With the melody notes added to the top we get
Am11 (D is the 11)
Gm7 (F is the b7)
Dm11 (G is the 11)
Fmaj7 (A is the major third/10)
Abmaj7(C is the major thirds/10)
Eb9b5 (A is the b5)

So it all follows the age old idea of 'let the melody be your guide' but rather than just for soloing, for writing harmony too.

The album contains pieces that all have different focuses and if you'd like to hear more i'd love to share.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did writing and making it.


Guitars and Double Bass played by Chris Harrington

Chris

Thanks George! I'd love to do an album but at the moment I think it would be a collection of shorter projects collected together. I'm looking forward to the next project though.




Thank you Monica, That piece always made me smile but I'd never written an arrangement for it. I especially enjoy the fun of playing over the opening two chords Bbmaj7 - D7#5, its unforgiving if you don't stay alert



Thanks Todd, very kind words. On my last EP I set up the camera and recorded the recording session so I had lots of videos but didn't do that this time so I was thinking of making some live performance videos so there are alternate versions to hear and also to be a bit more creative with the camera angles.




Thank you Gab,

The composing process was a new one for me. I made a conscious effort to sit down to write which is new for me (unless i'm being paid to compose with a deadline) and this is where the piece 'Just Begin' came from. I found one writing session of a few hours would create a seed that I could then add to as and when I was doing practice or on a break in between teaching lessons. There are a lot of fun concepts i've been working on recently in these pieces and i'm really enjoying seeing the ideas coming out in real music.

The recording process was very similar to the last EP, I set aside around 4-6 hours of time in my home studio to record it all. I tracked all the main guitar parts then added the double bass to 2 of the tracks and finally improvised over 3 of them. I started the recording at 9am and everything was done at 13:30, it was tiring but I honestly had so much fun playing and putting it all together.

Chris

Hey everyone, i'm very excited to share my new EP with you. Its the follow up to 'Silence' which was released in March. This time i've built on the solo guitar format by adding overdubbed guitar and double bass parts to the new compositions, theres also an arrangement I wrote for the jazz standard Someday My Prince Will Come which was seriously fun improvising over.

Yesterday was 4 hours of recording in my home studio and I'm really happy with what came out.

I Hope you enjoy

Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/album/0TjDPyc1qFmH...kQcCvjonV70Lskw
iTunes - https://geo.itunes.apple.com/gb/album/conte...1872?app=itunes
Bandcamp - https://chrisharringtonmusic.bandcamp.com/a...m/contemplation

I have a few albums and EPs on Spotify, iTunes etc.

Chris Harrington (singer songwriter/solo acoustic)- https://open.spotify.com/artist/0bHaXglpsA9...oSXC2y9whJDmGzw

North Arch Rising (instrumental/cinematic) - https://open.spotify.com/artist/5bi00Wcl6jv...tQserOCWGvfPRFA

I also play upright bass on my girlfriends latest EP (Andrea Kempson) - https://open.spotify.com/artist/67rDUWfqU4n...wQuOYzuFuG_6igw

Here's mine, its probably the only social media outlet I use regularly

https://www.instagram.com/chrisharrington_/

Thanks for the positive feedback, i thought i'd add some extra info which might be interesting to some.

This was my first instrumental project since finishing a 3 album concept series under the North Arch Rising alias https://northarchrising.bandcamp.com/album/1-3-c which took just under 3 years to complete. It was a big undertaking writing and playing everything on those records but at the end of it I really wanted to get back to just one guitar in a room.

The guitar is a Taylor Big Baby with Thomastik-infield strings and was recorded in my new home studio into Logic X.

I use the distributor DistroKid who are very cost effective if you release regular work as they have a yearly fee where you can release as much as you wish within that time. I found this very cost effective as I had a lot of old records that weren't currently online so I was able to get them all up without having to pay for them individually.

The EP had a lot of planning before last Friday with test recording and pre mixes etc but the reality was I set up to record around 1pm, I mixed and uploaded by 5pm and it was on Spotify, iTunes, Amazon etc by 9pm. I also videod the recording so I have some promotional videos to release later too.

I've started writing the pieces for the next one and its been great to get back to me and my guitar with no distractions.

Chris

Hey everyone!

I'm very happy to announce my new EP just came out. It is a collection of 4 solo guitar pieces i've been working on for a while now. The guitar used was a Taylor Big Baby with Thomastik-infield strings, it was recorded in my new studio and i'm really happy with how the recording came out. I'm even more happy with the compositions as when I started out writing these I was looking at writing lesson ideas for GMC and at building some etudes that had specific focuses like melodic indepence and rhythmic diversity. This seeded the compositions and a refreshed approach to the way I was writing and playing, I really embraced my ear and followed where I wanted the pieces to go. The EP also contains a cover of the Jazz standard 'Alone Together' which I had some fun reharmonizing in parts.

The new collection 'Silence' is now available to hear via Spotify, iTunes, Apples Music, Amazon and Bandcamp.



Hope you enjoy it

Chris

Loving the character it has, its a fun guitar to pick up for that unique sound. I love it how guitars have these new pieces of music hidden inside them. Looking forward to seeing what else comes out of it!




Yeah its such a great little treasure trove of a street. The place where I got this from is full of so much history (guitar history), some mad prices though. I'll be doing window shopping only for a while

I finally got around to recording something with this guitar. Its a piece I wrote recently that uses elements from my recent etude lessons (melodic independence and Rhythmic Diversity)



I'm impressed with how it records!

Chris

Yeah, definitely got lucky with finding it in such good condition and without any major repair work done to it through the years




Its got great projection, it punches right through. Really comes into its own when playing with another guitar. I was interested in a new archtop again recently after reading this article about the history of sound hole design and the volume gained with the design of the f-hole https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/biopo...dium=atlas-page

Chris

I'm not sure about a pickup yet, when I was looking for a new archtop I specifically wanted one without a mounted pickup/electrics.

I used to have a Guild archtop with a DeArmond Rhythm Chief pickup which floated and was attached to the side of the neck rather than the body so maybe something like that for live stuff. I love how it records acoustically so a pickup would be more a live solution than a tonal choice for me.

Chris

Hey everyone!

I thought i'd share this new/old guitar with you that I picked up recently. It was one of those days were I was meant to be doing everything else but buying a guitar but after dropping into No.Tom Guitars down Denmark street, London I played this 1968 Hofner Congress and had to bring it home. They had a sale on too which encouraged the purchase as it was £200 off £895 price tag.

The guitar is a beautiful snapshot of history and has so much character. Other than the beautiful sound it makes the main thing i'm enjoying about it is the fact I can't put it down!

I'm sure it will pop up in a lesson in the future, for now here are some photos of it

Chris

Hey everyone,

I recently wrote some music for a project aimed at autism awareness and understanding autism for children, the video works great for all ages but has also been received really well by parents and teachers.

Its had over a million plays in the first 3 days and my friend over at Studio Tinto did a fantastic job writing and directing it, we even got the amazing David Gant to narrate it.

Have a look and share with your friends and family if you can.

https://www.facebook.com/AmazingAutismProject/

All the best

Chris

Thought i'd check this myself as I recently got my 100th sub (i know, watch out pewdiepie!) but I already had my url https://www.youtube.com/c/chrisharringtongtr so not sure about the 'needing' 100 subs part.

Chris

My main delay is the Way Huge Supa-Puss, its an analog delay with bucket brigade chips so you get that memory man vibe. I'll be honest i've used the pedal with the delay off just for the fantastic pre amp it has but the delays are just smooth crunchy and beautiful, lots of tweaking can be done. Theres also a quirky Chase mode that cycles through the rhythmic division to the set tap tempo.



Chris

Happy Holidays everyone.

Hope your all having a great time and enjoying some time with those who matter most of all.

All the best for 2017!!

Chris

Hey everyone,

I just received an email from TimberTones that they are selling off their remaining rosewood plectrums before the new CITES regulation takes effect on January 2nd 2017. ( this regulation also effects three types of Bubinga)

The new regulation can be read here

It looks to be a way of 'cleaning up' where the woods are sourced from. Will be interesting to see how it plays out.

Chris

Hey everyone!

Recently I stumbled across the YouTuber and bassist Adam Neely, his channel is really entertaining and insightful. Its more a 'music theory/music vlog' channel than a bass channel so if your interested in a 'Vsauce styled' music youtube channel check him out

https://www.youtube.com/user/havic5

Chris

Always great to see your progress and your REC videos. Also really cool to read about your playing history, seeing passion for the guitar is such a wonderful thing and i'm sure all of us here share the same love for guitar and music.

Chris