Here are some select instrumentals over the years. From oldest to newest:

  1. Construction of a Calendar (circa 1988) is probably the first “successful” FT guitar tune. The song was so named because it “made your day”. I believe it made its way on to the radio as the background music for Atlanta Brave’s baseball reports in Columbus, Georiga.
  2. The tune Igor (1990) was inspired from the prominent 16th-note drum pattern that the song features. It’s a simple rockin’ metal instrumental; just guitar, bass, and drums!
  3. Ode to Sosaria (1991) was inspired by and pays homage to the Ultima series of computer games. Nerds!
  4. Mind the Dragon (1992) was created during a period of making movie soundtracks and is therefore one of many from this era. I chose this one because it’s different, raw-sounding, and ends with thumpin’ hip hop bass. Dragons and hip hop? You’d have to know the original movie that was never completed to know the context.
  5. My only regrets about the Guitar Solo (1993) during the FT Live at the Human Experience is that it’s way too short. At least it’s followed up by a performance of Igor. The very fast ascending scales is a quote from Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto.
  6. Rhapsody Below Zero (2000) is a large-scale through-composed work for solo guitar and big complicated accompaniment. I spent a lot of time on it! The end of the electric guitar part was inspired by the ending of the first movement of the Saint Saens B minor violin concerto. I wish I would have just ended it there and not recap with the acoustic part.
  7. I wrote and recorded Zapateado (2000) as a homage to the Spanish violinist Pablo de Sarasate, who wrote a work of the same name and same meter. Mine’s clearly nowhere as good, but I still like it. The octave guitar parts are ironically inspired by Liszt.
  8. I can’t even remember where Journal (2005) came from, but it was recorded in one take, was accidentally a bit out of tune, with a hum in the background, but I still liked this recording, so I kept it. Looking at the sheet music, I notice it’s dated 10/27/2002; I had no idea it was so old either. Weird.

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