DiscussMormonism.com

The Sabre Rattlers is the current project of guitarist Mark Abernathy and features a rotating cast of contributing musicians and friends, including Bukka Allen (the Bodeans), Kim Deschamps (Cowboy Junkies), Glenn Fukunaga (Dixie Chicks, Bob Dylan), Warren Hood (the Waybacks), Teal Collins from the Mothertruckers and Grammy Award-winning producer Lloyd Maines playing dobro. The lush instrumentation you hear on these songs is the work of Abernathy and his hugely talented cast; utilizing the accordion, Hammond B3, Harmonium, pedal steel, fiddle and more. ‘Twixt Me and the Peaceful Rest is a collection of favorite hymns; performed with a widely-cast net of influences and personal experiences.

Mark Abernathy

Will wrote:Besides, I'm certain that, for many of you, listening to me make music, and trying to like it, will be roughly the equivalent of trying to derive inspiration from a Hitler watercolor, and therefore I will understand entirely if you feel it best to altogether avoid placing yourselves in such an awkward position.

They are improvisations. I don't know how to write music. I kind of wish I did ...

... [because], unless I really pound them into my brain, once I move on to something else, I kind of forget how to play something exactly as I played it before. However, so long as I record them, then I can always learn them again in just a few minutes, by ear. I often feel like my music travels straight from my ear to my fingers, bypassing the cognitive centers of my brain in the process. I routinely compose the majority of a piece in my mind before I ever sit down to actually try to play it, then I have to more or less "learn" how to play by ear what I've already composed and stored in my memory. Also, when I'm playing, I don't so much try to think about where my fingers are supposed to go, as I try to let my ear govern where they go; divorce the cumbersome "thinking" part from the process, and just try to "feel" the music into being. I guess that's kind of different from Harold Hill's Think System. Or maybe it's what he really meant by the phrase "think system."

(In my mind, I literally hear the notes playing, even full chords. It's kind of weird, because I've heard people suggest it's not possible to "hear" multiple notes at the same time, but I know I hear the blended notes of 3, 4, even 5 note chords, all at the same time. Or maybe it's more accurate to say that I hear the "color" of the chords. For example, to my ear, there is a profound difference, that goes entirely beyond pitch, between an E and E flat chord. They are two completely different colors, almost like yellow and blue are different. In fact, I'd say major keys like A and D ... they're what I'd perhaps call "yellow" keys. E, C, G, F, Bb (the majors) are all, depending on the harmonic chords you choose to go with them, more in the area of orange and red. Eb (Cm) is blue. Ab (Fm) is dark blue. Db (Bbm) is purple. I love Abm and Gbm. (I never met a black key on the keyboard that I didn't prefer over its white neighbor. Maybe that makes me a racist of some kind. ;-) )

Anyway, the point is that I view the different keys not in terms of pitch, but as different colors, each with its uniquely different feel, one from the other.

I have a song for which I have only recorded the guitar part so far, even though I have the words, melody, and even the guitar solo already worked out--in my mind. (I think my ADD keeps getting in the way of finishing it!) Anyway, it's called So Far Between. Here is a link to a page where you can listen to it (it's the last song in the list, and if you're interested, the as-yet-unsung lyrics are even available via the drop-down arrow to the right of the song title): So Far Between

If I recall correctly, I tuned the guitar to an open Gbm chord (starting with a Db on the low string), and then figured out a whole set of chord positions based on that tuning. It produces a very unique "color" of music, different from any other tuning I have used. It's very full and haunting, full of droning notes, kind of like a bagpipe.

Anyway, I'm not sure if any of that makes sense, but it's the way it works for me. I've now rambled almost incoherently, so I'll stop.

I know there is good composition software for printing out sheet music of anything you play into a digital keyboard, but I haven't yet purchased and figured out how to use any of the available products. I probably should before I get too old to figure it all out, although I do believe that simply recording my songs will be enough to preserve them, so long as there are people who learn how to play by ear, which is something that runs in my family--about 6 generations in a row now, from at least my great-great grandfather Thomas Hardy, who came from England across the plains to Utah in 1860.

Original Post at MDD

Nomad wrote:Very nice Will. I actually like the Greensleeves piece better than the Jesus Once of Humble Birth piece. And I like the Isis one. Not sure about the Flying Aces thing. It sounds a little ... I don't know ... manufactured in comparison to the others. Still, very impressive work. As you recall, I saw you play the guitar and sing that one time. This piano stuff is different in style (you know I like that hillbilly blues stuff) but I still like what you have done. Kudos.