1 Instrumental arr. S.Grossman 00:43
2 Prelude J.S.Bach 02:15
3 Instrumental arr. S.Grossman 00:25
4 Daddy's Baby James Taylor 02:16
5 Instrumental arr. S.Grossman 01:32
6 Only A Woman Billy Joel 03:08
7 God Moves on the Water arr. S.Grossman 00:50
8 Instrumental arr. S.Grossman 00:50
9 Where Do We Go From Here Chicago 02:50
10 Instrumental arr. S.Grossman 01:31
11 Panic When the Sun Goes Down Nick Katzman 01:22
12 In My Life Lennon-McCartney 02:28
13 Instrumental arr. S.Grossman 01:10
14 Instrumental medley arr. S.Grossman 01:27
15 Lullaby in Birdland/Blue Moon G.Shearing/Rodgers & Hart 03:15
16 Song for Guy Elton John 01:50
17 Instrumental arr. S.Grossman 00:58
18 Free Man in Paris Joni Mitchell 02:57
19 Instrumental arr. S.Grossman 00:54
20 Bouree in E minor J.S.Bach 01:03
21 Sweet Baby James James Taylor 02:47
22 Instrumental arr. S.Grossman 01:58
23 American Tune Paul Simon 03:09
24 Ambidextrous March Sam Mitchell 01:58
Growing up in the UK, an uncle introduced me to the guitar when I was 10 or so - an introduction which was the scale of C not only badly played but also on a poor example of the instrument. The real spark to play came in 1963 when, listening to a little Decca trannie while performing "duties" in the garden with my mum, the Beatles stunned me with "She Loves You".
I can’t remember how I got hold of my first guitar - and there wasn’t anyone who could help me select a good one - but high school saw a progression of second-hand acoustic guitars and natural competitiveness with some of the guys at school helped me advance, culminating in actually working out many of the songs on the Beatles’ White Album. Try though I might, I never managed to master lead guitar although I could sing/whine all the leads from Clapton, Pete Townshend, Hendrix, etc.. (I found much later when my sons were mastering Metallica and the like that it helps to have appropriate equipment - fast action, good pickups and amp).
When 16, a 13-yr old astounded me with his finger picking style. It was American blue-grass blues and he lent me a "floppy" record which had several tunes and the accompanying TAB book by Stefan Grossman showed note-for-note how to play the tunes. It took a while to break the coordination barrier but eventually I was able to strike an alternating bass line and pick out a syncopated melody, a style which is hard to escape once learnt. (Funnily enough I came across another S.Grossman book/CD a few years ago adding a couple more tunes to my repetoire).
I emigrated to Australia when I left school. One of my first adventures was at the Myer department store in Melbourne which then had a comprehensive music department. Although I had previously played one, 12-strings had not struck me as anything particular. However, on picking up and playing an EKO 12-string I was simply hooked. The action was low, it was easy to slide between frets, it had tape-wound strings and, because it had been tuned properly, gave the sweetest of sounds. I HAD to have it and it cost $120 which was most of the meagre funds I had brought with me to Australia. Apparently my mother had to be scraped off the ceiling when she read of this in one of my naïve letters home.
Shortly after, I chanced upon a sheet music book giving the complete score for Chicago’s first three albums, when they played innovative and gutsy rock/jazz. The music was a revelation as they played in EVERY key. I also found that if your guitar was tuned to the first song, it was set for ALL the songs on the album. Through sheer exuberance of being able to thrash along with the record, some chord sense finally dawned on me - how "shapes" can be played up and down the neck to provide every chord under the sun (lessons that could have been imparted by a mentor in a few minutes). It also disciplined me for fast chord changes in order to keep up with the record and gave me quick skills in transposing. As a result I could easily alter music to better suit my vocal range and or a better set of chords for finger-picking. Eb and Bb stopped being things to fear and opened up masses of new music to me, from musicals to the Beatles.
In my 20’s I learned that rings on the left fingers interfere with strings or rattle on the neck; plectrums and finger picks could never be found when you need them; and long nails look unsightly and require constant cleaning and filing to avoid looking dirty and snagging on strings. So I have since always played without accessories, using the fleshy tips of thumb/fingers. The complete right index nail acts as a plectrum for downward strokes with the thumb as support.
At the same time I was also feasting on new generations of fine music of which a few stand out for special mention. Joni Mitchell for her flexible voice and range, talent on both piano and guitar, brilliant poetry and stringing of words around and beyond the beat. James Taylor’s blending of voice and guitar and simple lyrics that impart great depth of feeling. Paul Simon sweet voice and his constant changing of musical styles. These three have produced an enormous body of work, most of which stands the test of time and repeated playing.
While I have often been complimented on my own voice I have never had confidence that it was strong enough to sustain a solo performance. My preference is to provide harmonies - but this requires other participants and has been the bane of my life. Few people play/sing the things I like and, once found and an "act" has been nurtured, redundancies and career moves on one side or the other have put paid to further developments.
In 1994 a work colleague, Mike Levy, and I found a mutual interest in singing and playing and, after a cautious start, we developed a strong set of songs and started performing on the Gold Coast. Unfortunately he followed a job to Brisbane (90km away) but we have maintained contact, albeit sporadically. He was lucky in having a new work colleague offer to record him in a "quiet" environment using good quality recording equipment. The resulting 5-track CD sounded great and Mike suggested we resume our duets and commit our repetoire to disc. We had practiced and recorded 9 duets and 7 solos in a single afternnon and were very pleased with the outcome. Our musical spirits reborn, we decided to repeat the exercise in a proper studio. The weakness in the plan was that we still had precious little time to practice, however we recorded ten duets and one of Mike’s solos in two 3-hour sessions and mixed the CD in another. We are happier with the better quality of the sound achieved and can only sing the praises of Adrian Stuckey and BigNote Productions for the result. Yes there are still bum notes but we have to be realistic about what can be achieved with so little spare time to practice.
Our first "professional" session was so enjoyable I was sparked to consider doing my own solo CD. Many of the instrumentals I have accrued over 30 years are now only shadows of the originals - there have been large gaps between serious practice so some things were forgotten and other re-learnt in new ways, and a solo CD would be an opportunity to resurrect these tunes, perhaps for the last time before "letting them go" once and for all. I have attempted to demonstrate that the 12-string can accommodate and bring something special to all styles of acoustic playing and have included classical, ballads, swing, protest, country, upbeat blues, ragtime and slide.
Compared with a standard 6-string guitar, the 12-string doubles up each string. The "second" string for the bottom four are thinner and tuned an octave higher than the normal one of the pair. The top two strings are merely doubled with an identical string tuned to the same pitch to balance the dynamics of the other "double" strings. The overall effect is a richer and wider sound that 6 strings - equivalent in my mind to the superior sound quality of a piano (which has multiple strings per note) over a harpsichord. 12-strings can sound jangly like a honky-tonk piano, but this is usually due to imperfect tuning by the owner - a 12-string should sound like "angels singing after a great day at the office and the promise of a happy family at home".
The double strings are close enough that they can be played together with normal fingering for chords. The only major impediment that some players will find is that twice as many strings causes a stiffer feel to the strings. They have a limited ability to be bent. However provided the action is quick (low strings over low frets) and the strings are mid to light gauge, there is little that can’t be done and I hope that the tracks on this CD show that no style is precluded from the 12-string’s repetoire. It also requires developing a finger-picking style that allows two strings to played together; while deft fingering allows quite amazing chords/dischords when one of the pair is held and the other rings open.
These were recorded on a TASCAM Portastudio 414 4-track analog tape recorder. 2 microphones and a Dean Markley pickup provided three separate inputs. The Dean Markley is a removable magnetic pickup which sits across the sound-hole. Recording was Dolby and EQ enhanced. The Portastudio uses high quality but ordinary SA audio cassettes, albeit at double speed to improve signal/noise. Recordings were made as loud as possible and were performed in a normal small room (carpet, plaster-walls, approx 4x3m). Microphones were placed in front of but either side of sound hole. Where slide was used, both mics were moved to the bridge end to minimise "reverse" slide sounds.
As each mic picked up everything, there was no opportunity to punch in if a mistake was made - I simply rewound the tape and started again. Usually if I muffed something, it tended to be in the first few bars, although one was fine up to the very last bar (I think I relaxed and my mind went blank!). On average it took 3-4 tries before an "acceptable" recording was made. There are still mistakes on every track, but I have to be realistic about what can be achieved with limited time and resources (the corporate mantra strikes at home too). Recording required approximately 5 half-hour sessions to complete. The "sound" differed perceptibly between most tracks probably due to the slightly different mic placements, but also because I recorded according to tuning, starting with standard (tracks 2,3,5,8,10,13,16,17,19,20,22), drop D (1), open D (7,14), and open G(11,24). The open D tunings were originally designated open E but for this, each string needs to be a tone higher; the high G string is susceptible to snapping on this tuning, so I avoid it.
12 songs were done at BigNote productions in a single session. I discarded four due largely to iffy vocals. The Dean Markley was not used, just a high quality mic for the vocal and another in front of the sound hole. These were direct to disc recordings with no separation of parts or multi-tracking.
The key to the mixing was to give the songs the same ambience as the instrumentals, recorded in a different environment, with different inputs and accommodating a vocal instrument!! Adrian worked wonders at the digital mixing desk, making the sound "fut and thuck", masking bad events (e.g. the slide knocking against the bodywork), "trumming" tracks at both ends (he’s from New Zealand), and finally providing an even volume level over all the tracks.
The track order is fairly arbitrary, although I chose a strong intro to make the listener take note, and an exit with the cheeky but memorable playground refrain as the last notes. The remaining tracks were jumbled so that the vocals were fairly evenly distributed and no two adjacent instrumentals were too alike. Key changes between tracks were also kept pretty close (an end chord often starts the next tracks).