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Monday, March 26, 2012

Secret Magic Garden


A track I wrote for the album THE ESSENCE has been on rotation on CHILL FM and I've had a few queries about it, so I thought I'd write a bit about how it came about.

It started with the guitar part which has a very seventhy feel. I put the guitar through the Pod and really liked the sound of it through a Leslie (the rotating speaker unit that was part of a Hammond organ...It makes a unique trememlo sound). I then came up with the melody. I was originally thinking of having a vocal singing, "In my secret magic garden" over the 'chorus' part, but after I played it on octave strings, I thought it had a sort of anthemic sound, so I decided to stick with them and add French Horns.

As I wrote on my Facebook page, I got so involved with this piece, that I finished it in about four or five hours and missed lunch...I really didn't notice time passing and sort of came to and it was finished...And no, I hadn't been to the pub!!! It just works like that sometimes.

I remember feeling that the piece needed an ostinato (repeated figure) to bind it all together, so I added the bell-like sound that opens the piece. I think I wrote this on my laptop and I went out into the garden at some point, which made me think of adding the birdsong.

The bass was played in one pass and I also added a palm-muted staccato guitar part to enhance the rhythm of the drums.

It was a really fun piece to write...It's always great when the music seems to write itself and it is a snapshot of how I felt at the time.

You can find it on Spotify and iTunes, or you could wait for it to come around on Chill FM

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