Thursday, March 22, 2018

More music

Here's some more music from the open jams. Its pretty crazy I have something like 24 weeks of tunes I've played at this open jam at Petie's Place, this low-key bar in Tarzana on Reseda and Oxnard. If you live in the Valley you should come check it out sometime. Anyways, here I played with the house band, we did Sunshine of Your Love (a favorite of mines) and John Coltrane's Mr. PC, a jazz standard I learned from the Real Book. Enjoy the music! Leave a comment, let me know what you think. 

https://soundcloud.com/orlando-figueroa-17/mr-pc-coltrane 

Wednesday, March 21, 2018

Jam notes I

I ended up playing with this older guitar playing friend that plays a Steve Vai Jem guitar while I used my Jackson 7-string. These are pretty much just jams we did, no songs or anything. However, this cool girl named Melinda helped out on vocals on the first jam. Lotta soul!

I think it ended up sounding pretty darn good. I distinctly remember the drummer, my good friend Jim X (from the jazz fusion band Oui3, whom I just saw at the Baked Potato on Sunday) saying that its not really a good idea to have two guitarists soloing at the same time. There are moments where it worked really well. I guess it just depends on how you do it. 

Interesting to note that I thought I was super loud, much louder than the other guitar but after listening back its the other guitar that louder. 

I've been practicing a lot of drop2 jazz chord voicings and learning a lot of rootless inversions as well. I brought my friends' bass to the shop for repairs, I gotta go back and pay them $40 for a a $100 bass, expensive for sure. Haven't had band practice for a while but hopefully we'll practice tomorrow or Friday.  

Thursday, March 8, 2018

Songs with a producer

Here's two tunes I worked on with this producer from Poland, check it out! 

https://soundcloud.com/orlando-figueroa-17/teenage-tears
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=4&v=krvWoJdqOo0

I like what he did with my guitar parts. On Teenage Tears its a total rock type of thing at the end w/ my guitar sounding like a buzzsaw. The other tune (youtube video one) is more of an ambient backwards guitar parts sort of thing. Both are pretty cool. Enjoy!

More Jam Tracks

Got more jam tracks for you all. This was a totally impromptu jam as my drummer was out of town in Mexico and couldn't make this session. 

https://soundcloud.com/orlando-figueroa-17/soothsayer-guest-guitar
https://soundcloud.com/orlando-figueroa-17/bad-horsie-guest-on-bass
https://soundcloud.com/orlando-figueroa-17/sunshine-of-your-love-guest-guitar-and-bass

I think this version of Buckethead's Soothsayer is the best I've ever played, that guest guitar player really filled out with some nice chordal and rhythmic riffing comping, it was fantastic, he really made my solo pop out more with the emotional response, which is exactly what you need to play like Buckethead. Bad Horsie was also really well done, at some point I should bring my wah pedal so I can really make it scream like Steve Vai. Enjoy! 

Monday, March 5, 2018

Jam tracks

Here's the tracks from last week.
https://soundcloud.com/orlando-figueroa-17/soothsayer-buckethead
https://soundcloud.com/orlando-figueroa-17/sunshine-of-your-love-most-recent-version
https://soundcloud.com/orlando-figueroa-17/bad-horsie-improv

This was the last jam with my friend Martin on drums before he went off to Mexico. The first track isn't Soothsayer but actually an original tune that me and Martin play for our death metal band, called Wolves to the Slaughter. I think my vocals were a lot clearer and louder for Sunshine. And Bad Horsie is Bad Horsie lol.

Working on recording the band soon, we have a bass player now! More updates and blog posts coming soon. 

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