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Topic: Bach on the Leavitt Tuning!!!!MP3 |
Bill Hatcher
From:
Atlanta Ga. USA
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Posted 4 Mar 2008 8:50 pm |
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OK here is probably the most ambitious music I have tried yet to highlight the capabilites of the most excellent Leavitt tuning extended to 12 strings. "Jesu Joy" by JS Bach is a absolutely beautiful piece of music originally set for orchestra and choir for one of Bachs many Cantatas. The eighth note figure that runs through out the piece is a motif of Bachs that signifies joy and happiness and is a wonderful balance for the pensive melody of the chorale that the piece is based on. You've heard it a zillion times in all sorts of settings by all sorts of instruments but here it is done on the non pedal 12 string guitar to demonstrate just another side of the Leavitt tuning which I can say is about the most versatile tuning and has not so far dissapointed me with any type of music I have done on it so far.
I used the Parkening guitar arrangement to do this. It is in C, but the music laid better in Db on the Leavitt tuning. I just put a capo on the bass and laid down the bass part reading it in C and that put it in Db to match up with the steel. I used very little vibrato and it worked out nice.
I hope that you guys like it. I could have spent months trying to get it perfect, but the idea is to again highlight the tuning and not so much the playing. Only the Leavitt tuning could have let me play this with NO slants at all. Let me know what you think.
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?dianolxezml
Last edited by Bill Hatcher on 5 Mar 2008 5:58 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Edward Meisse
From:
Santa Rosa, California, USA
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Posted 4 Mar 2008 9:02 pm
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12 strings!! Would you mind sharing the tuning with us?
_________________
Amor vincit omnia |
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Mike Neer
From:
NJ
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Posted 4 Mar 2008 9:30 pm
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Bill, you amaze me.
_________________
Links to streaming music, websites, YouTube: Links |
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Don McClellan
From:
California/Thailand
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Posted 4 Mar 2008 9:59 pm
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| Very nice, Please tell us the tuning. THanks, Don |
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Don Kona Woods
From:
Hawaiian Kama'aina
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Posted 4 Mar 2008 10:59 pm
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| Quote: |
| "Jesu Joy" by JS Bach is a absolutely beautiful piece of music originally set for orchestra and choir for one of Bachs many Cantatas. |
A great masterpiece by Bach and masterfully played by Bill.
Aloha, 
Don |
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Dean Gray
From:
New South Wales, Australia
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Posted 4 Mar 2008 11:10 pm
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Great, great work Mr Hatcher! A beautiful rendition of one of the most well known pieces of music ever.
It was nice to hear your description of the arrangement process, and of course the flexibility of the Leavitt tuning.
I have a much, much simpler version of this tune on my myspace page, done on solo dobro, high G tuning. I think the Leavitt allows far more harmonic possibilities, which lend a richness and complexity to your arrangement. (Not to mention your seemingly effortless performance - it sounds perfect to me!)
Once again, great work, and thanks for sharing it with us.
_________________
If itβs on the ground it canβt fall down. |
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Mike Ihde
From:
Boston, MA
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Posted 4 Mar 2008 11:48 pm
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| You've outdone yourself on this one. Brilliant! |
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Jim Phelps
From:
Mexico City, Mexico
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Posted 5 Mar 2008 12:34 am
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| WOW! Bill that is absolutely fantastic. Beautiful. Thanks for posting it. |
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Roger Shackelton
From:
MINNESOTA (deceased)
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Posted 5 Mar 2008 12:49 am
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Fantastic Bill. This tune sounds Mysteriously Beautiful. It's difficult to believe you are playing a steel guitar, it sounds like an electrified Lute.
Roger |
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Roy Thomson
From:
Wolfville, Nova Scotia,Canada
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Posted 5 Mar 2008 5:13 am
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Bill,
I am getting an "invalid identifier" message and
the file will not open for me.
Could you please email me the MP3.
I would love to hear this.
Roy
_________________
Custom Tabs Various Tunings
Courses Lap Steel, Pedal Steel |
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Bill Hatcher
From:
Atlanta Ga. USA
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Posted 5 Mar 2008 5:23 am
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Many thanks for the nice words of encouragement. I really appreciate it.
The tuning is low to high:
G# C# E G Bb C D Eb F G G# A
The guitar is an old Marlen D12 that I fixed the back neck up to be non pedal. It was missing everything on the back neck. I had some 12 string parts and made a new neck for it. It has two pickups. Your hearing the front pickup.
I play with all the fingers on the right hand using Alaska Pics on the middle and ring finger and no pick on the index and pinkie. Thumb pick is optional. The Alaska pic clips on the top of the finger which allows for the flesh part of the finger to make contact with the string. This allows very efficient string dampening control without the "click" that happens when you stop a string with a conventional metal finger pick. I use the Shubb-Pearse SP1 bar with the hook on the front. I never could get the single string thing together with the other types of blunt end bars.
One of the things you have to get used to with playing arrangements like this is the use of wide finger grips. Many times I will be playing the melody with the pinkie on the top strings and be playing two or three notes down in the lower strings. Takes some work to get used to spreading the fingers out.
If I had some 14 string parts I would have gone with 14 strings. Maybe down the road I will set up a 14 stringer.
Last edited by Bill Hatcher on 5 Mar 2008 6:26 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Howard Tate
From:
Leesville, Louisiana, USA, R.I.P.
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Posted 5 Mar 2008 5:46 am
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| I'm getting the same thing as Roy. Very disappointing, after hearing other song by you I would really like to hear it. |
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Bill Hatcher
From:
Atlanta Ga. USA
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Tom Pettingill
From:
California, USA (deceased)
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Russ Tkac
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Posted 5 Mar 2008 7:18 am
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Great job Bill! 
Russ |
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Roy Thomson
From:
Wolfville, Nova Scotia,Canada
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Posted 5 Mar 2008 8:53 am
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Bill, you are a wonderful musician and I am so
glad you are spreading your talent upon the
strings of a Steel Guitar. Fantastic. 
That sounds like a Harpsichord, and appropriately
so I might add.
I am somewhat perplexed so help me if you can:
Are you reading that from musical score, memory,
or both?
It's amazing that you can do something like in such
a short time especially with a new 12 string Leavitt
set-up? Your tone/touch is very nice indeed.
Are you able to write the music for your arrangments?
Do you plan on communicating your playing to others
some day via course or other means?
Keep up the fine work. I am very impressed along with
the others.
Roy
_________________
Custom Tabs Various Tunings
Courses Lap Steel, Pedal Steel |
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Bill Hatcher
From:
Atlanta Ga. USA
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Posted 5 Mar 2008 9:38 am
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| Roy Thomson wrote: |
Bill, you are a wonderful musician and I am so
glad you are spreading your talent upon the
strings of a Steel Guitar. Fantastic.
That sounds like a Harpsichord, and appropriately
so I might add.
I am somewhat perplexed so help me if you can:
Are you reading that from musical score, memory,
or both?
It's amazing that you can do something like in such
a short time especially with a new 12 string Leavitt
set-up? Your tone/touch is very nice indeed.
Are you able to write the music for your arrangments?
Do you plan on communicating your playing to others
some day via course or other means?
Keep up the fine work. I am very impressed along with
the others.
Roy |
Thank you for your encouragement Roy. Coming from such a fine player as yourself it means a lot.
This 12 string tuning is so new to me that I decided not to spend the huge amount of time it would take to learn to read music notation on it before working on some pieces. I just take the music and set it where I can see it and then I keep a 6 string guitar in my lap and read the score on that and then I have the melody and the intervals in my head and then I find that on the 12 string. It would be much better to take the score and transfer that to tab so I could see the neck of the 12 string in that fashion, but that would also be time consuming.
I don't have any plans for a course or anything. You have some Leavitt material as does Mike. What I challenged myself to do with the Leavitt tuning is to present several different styles of music done in in depth arrangments just to show the wonderful depth that the tuning has and what it can offer. You can be as simple OR as complicated as you want to with this tuning and not to have to do so many slants makes it so much easier for me since I am not so good at slanting.
What I would hope more than anything is that the players on this non pedal forum will hear some of the things I have presented and maybe try to pick out some of the licks and melodies and add that to their own playing and in turn add to the knowledge of the non pedal guitar. That is one of the reasons for a forum. To share with your fellow musicians. |
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Howard Tate
From:
Leesville, Louisiana, USA, R.I.P.
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Posted 5 Mar 2008 10:28 am
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| Bill, that's just great. I'm very glad you posted a new link so we could all hear it. |
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HowardR
From:
N.Y.C.-Fire Island-Asheville
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Posted 5 Mar 2008 1:08 pm
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| Beautiful....... |
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Richard Damron
From:
Gallatin, Tennessee, USA (deceased)
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Posted 5 Mar 2008 3:41 pm
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Bill -
I'm a relative newby to pedal steel guitar but stick my nose into the non-pedal side of the house quite frequently while hoping that other pedalers would do the same. J.S. would be proud of what you've done with his composition. I'm elated that you and others would bring such beauty to classical music with this instrument. Excellent choice of music - excellent performance! Wonderful!! Thank you!
Richard |
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Bill Hatcher
From:
Atlanta Ga. USA
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Posted 8 Mar 2008 6:09 am
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| Thank all of you so much for the nice words and for downloading the Bach MP3 on 12 string non pedal. I know that classical music might not be real popular with many of you, but I am very surprised by all the downloads. Hope that you get something out of the track that you can add to your own playing. |
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b0b
From:
Cloverdale, CA, USA
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Denny Turner
From:
Oahu, Hawaii USA
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Posted 9 Mar 2008 5:17 am
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GEEEEEZZZ, Bill ... ... Gorgeous! What an inspiration!
The Steel and tuning affords a cathedral-like effect of sustained "raining" notes I can't imagine wasn't intended by Bach in the composition. I first heard Jesu Joy with that effect played on the Munster "cathedral's" pipe organ in Ulm Germany when I was 12 or 13. The acoustics of the "cathedral" are HUGE with an incredible / "perfect" sustain depth; Reached right down into the depths of my soul ....and a bit spooky how it did; Quite like hearing you play it. I'd been taking classical guitar lessons but country, rock and rock-a-billy was tugging at my motivations, ....until I heard that performance at the Munster. At my next guitar lesson I told my Maestro; He sat down (took out his guitar ...reserved for serious stuff) and played Jesu Joy. I asked him if I could put my ear against the lower bout while he played it again ...and again ...3 times; He knew I swallowed the hook to the gills. It had a similar cathedral quality; New inspiration; Just had to make more time for Classical practicing and playing, ...and spent countless hours with my ear to the bout.
Were there a snowball's chance in Heck I'd ever be able to play that on Steel  ; But dream on..........
_________________
Aloha,
Denny T~
http://www.dennysguitars.com/
Please help support humanity:
http://www.redcross.org/en/aboutus
Last edited by Denny Turner on 9 Mar 2008 8:30 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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John Billings
From:
Ohio, USA
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Posted 9 Mar 2008 10:27 am
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Bill, you continue to amaze me! Just sent this to Jerry. So, you got that old guitar back together already? You've been busy! How about a pic of that fine-sounding guitar?
JB |
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Bill Hatcher
From:
Atlanta Ga. USA
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Posted 9 Mar 2008 3:52 pm
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Here is the old Marlen. When I got it, it had nothing on the back neck except a hole for the changer. I made a new birdseye neck and tinted some lacquer so it would match and used some parts I had in my parts stash..12 string BELA keyless tuner, two George L pickups and a strange but interesting bridge I got somewhere. I am putting a new fretboard on it as soon as it gets here. The Marlen board is very inaccurate down in the low end. I tested another board and it was much better so I ordered a 12string version.
The other neck has a ShoBud fingertip changer on it that I will get around to hooking up some pedals and knees to. It is also 12 string. |
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