Today's snippet is named for Luboš Kohoutek's comet. Its appearance in 1973 fell far short of the anticipation surrounding it, and it was ridiculed before being pretty much forgotten. Heck, it wasn't even really a comet in the technical sense, since it originated in the Kuiper Belt rather than the Oort Cloud.
Anyhow, it's off in the cold black, and it won't be back for another 75,000 years. By the time it returns, it's unlikely anyone will be here to see it. That's loneliness.
Dreaming the Engines (4:34)
While I'm still getting a feel for the Fender, I figured I'd belt out some old-school noodling. Today's piece has all the neccessary elements: robotic drum beat, repetitive bassline, limited harmonic vocabulary, and fast linear motion in the melody.
Today's piece is a modest one. Fourteen notes in just under eight seconds. It's recorded to loop seamlessly when repeated, so it can run as long as the equipment (or listener) holds out.
Drawing I (0:08), basic loop.
Drawing I (02:23), looped with minor treatment.
I'd love to give a pretentious conceptual reason for the brevity or structure, but this one was just a product of chance.
The music: The Miss Enigma Firecracker Pageant (4:08).
The story: The drive from Atlanta to Jacksonville takes you through a long stretch of rural sprawl. The default route is to take I-75 down to the state line, then cut across on I-10. It's a lonely, dreary stretch, and the lack of scenery makes it feel far longer than the six hours or so it takes.
A more scenic route is to cut east from Tifton to Waycross along Highway 82, then south on US-23/19. Instead of a monotony of swamps and alligator farms, the landscape is varied and lively in a quiet sort of way. Highway 82 runs through cotton fields and National Forest reserves, low but hilly country dotted with small towns it would be unfair to call quaint.
Lots of bass players like 5 and 6-string instruments. Me, I've never felt particularly confined by the usual 4-string arrangement. That doesn't mean I'm not up for a little experimentation; I just don't feel that I've exhausted all the possibilities the traditional setup allows.
That said, it was time for some new strings, so I decided to try an idea I'd been kicking around for awhile. Instead of the usual E-A-D-G tuning, I've gone a 4th higher, stringing the bass to A-D-G-C. The nice thing about this tuning is that I cross easily up into the lower and middle registers of a cello (or guitar) without losing much of the lower range or the sound of a bass.
While the strings are new and spangly-sounding, I figured I'd whip out a little bluegrass romp while I decide whether this tuning is a novelty or a permanent thing. It's sort of a low-rent riff on Copland.
