May 21, 2011 — It’s a wet weekend here in the Twin Cities, with repeated spotty showers and downpours passing over the area, enriching all that it touches with a kiss of life and sustenance. Adding to an already saturated weekend, I had performed publicly for the first time in over four years. …continue reading on Facebook.
Well I just cannot get over how productive these evenings have been — last night nailing out four tracks, and this evening COMPLETING the song altogether. With twelve tracks in all, it’s sounds pretty full and well-rounded I think. I’m not 100% set with the “bass drum” yet, but it’s mostly there. Enjoy this preview of “Traffic” (oh yeah, I changed the name, too).
I honestly didn’t think I was going to get much done, but I sure surprised myself. My original goal was to try and get one track done per night, and finish a song per week. Instead I managed to capture four tracks worth and am pretty pleased with what I’ve got so far. So to make up for the lack of free music, here’s a freebie for you to listen to. Enjoy this raw export!
April 3, 2011 — After a weekend away from the computer and the guitar in my little corner of the house, I sat down this evening and attempted to narrow down the song selection for the next release. Previously I had scoured through the past three months of improv sketches (volume one, two and three) and narrowed it down to a list of 48 songs out of 90 — that’s roughly half of the sketches that I’ve done. And after going through the songs over and over again, I had decided that I would most likely do a double-release, one album of just quieter instrumentals, and the other with a variety of up- mid- and down-tempo instrumental pieces. But even with that strategy in mind, I still had to narrow the selection down.Continue reading…
Alright, this pretty much wraps up Volume 3 of my acoustic improv sketches. In a few moments I’ll put up the URL to download the complete zip file collection for Volume 3, and then Volume 2 will be up for sale for $9.99. I hope you’ve enjoyed this month’s sketches as much as I have creating them. I’m taking tomorrow off and then begin work on the next album. Enjoy!
Toddlers are a funny thing — on one hand they can fill you with joy, love and inspiration; on the other hand they can drain you of everything but your will to live with their tantrums straight out of the pit of hell. Because the latter of the two is what my child chose, I was off to a very late start this evening. As a result, a shorter simpler piece. Enjoy.
After having one of the worst afternoons with my two-year-old as long as I can remember, I had to keep telling myself, “just breathe.” Tonight’s improv piece I hope will bring the same peace to you that it brings me. Peace be with you tonight and enjoy this little number. If you like what you hear, let me know and pass it along to your friends and family.
Tonight’s improv sketch draws a piece of inspiration from when I was just a boy. I had a telescope and loved to go outside and stare into the nighttime sky, consume all the details of the moon, and search for satellites cruising through the atmosphere. Enjoy tonight’s sketch, and may it whisk you off to the stars. Peace!
The 4/4 and 6/8 time signatures are a comfort zone for me — I have strayed from it from time to time, but generally don’t make a habit of it. Tonight I intentionally dove head-first into the 5/4 time signature for tonight’s improv acoustic sketch; and ya know, it’s not half bad. I may revisit this for a later release. What do you think of it? ENJOY! :)
Alright, back in the saddle after a night off from playing. Tonight’s just a simple sketch—I’m not sure what I will do with it in the future, but it has a decent structure to it that might find its way into something. Also, take note that I’ve created a new place to go and listen to clips of all my albums as well as download the ones I’ve made available for free! Head on over to http://michaelmiles.org/music/ ENJOY!
Oh, and temporarily there won’t be embedded music in my blog until I can come up with a workaround to the new thingamajob. I hope to remedy that soon.
