My Newest Guitars

 

Song:  The Eagle and the Hawk

Artist:  John Denver

I now have all the guitars I should ever need.

I have my Classical Guitar...

my electric Bass Guitar...

and now I have a...

12 String Acoustic...

and an Electric Guitar...

both of which are Epiphones.

There are a lot of songs I wish to play...

and now I have the ability to eventually learn them

on these guitars.

I will use my other instruments as well to accompany the guitars.

Right now I am practicing two songs...

one of which uses the 12 string guitar...

Bass Flute...

and the Max 10 keyboard arranger.

It will take a while as the 12 string takes much more pressure

on the strings to play...

and as such...

I cannot practice with it for too long a time...

as my hands feel arthritic.

The other song uses the classical guitar...

bass flute...

and the Max 10.

I had gotten the 12 string as it not only has a unique ring 

to the strings as it is played...

I had no steel string acoustic.

On strumming songs...

the 12 string guitar adds a great richness.

And...

if I wanted...

I could remove 6 of the strings for a regular acoustic...

and...

as the 12 string guitar must be made more robustly than a normal 6 string guitar...

if I wished...

I could also convert the 12 string into a 6 string baritone guitar.

Now...

I got this style of electric guitar because the semi hollow body

has a unique sound that is difficult to reproduce on other guitars.

I can mix and match the pickups to sound like other electric guitars...

but this also has the capability to having a mellow sound that blues and jazz

requires.

I have some songs in mind to play using this...

but it will take a while for me to finish my other songs first.

However...

it is a good carrot for me to finish my songs so I may 

get busy using this one.

I have it hanging on my wall next to my computer

so that it calls out to me to use it soon.

It is a used Epiphone P-93.

The Bigsby Vibrato will be especially used on some planned songs

in the future.

My Cover of Willow's Song

 

James Toller:  Guitar / Vocals / Bass Flute

(I just need a photo for this article to correctly file on my blog).

Cover: James Toller - Guitar / Vocals / Bass Flute LISTEN ON HEADPHONES. For some reason, without headphones on, my voice seems to alternate between being too sharp and too flat in waves. It is quite simply much more out of tune without them. This is my first attempt at singing. Yes, I know I am flat and sharp in some areas. It was the best I could do...believe me. I intend to improve in the future. The voice is, by far, the most difficult instrument I have ever attempted. I have much to improve, but, I shall get better, for I just love doing it. I am now at the age where I am crossing items off of my bucket list...and so...I sing. :) I greatly slowed the pace of the song to give it a more melancholy feel. The bass flute plays for a small portion of the song near the end. I had made some other modifications to this song including omission of the third stanza. I apologize for the background noise which is particularly noticeable on the layered bass flute portion of the song. I am partially deaf and I couldn't hear the air conditioning in the background as I recorded certain portions of the song until I heard the completed song at higher volumes. Guitar: Cordoba Protege Classical Guitar Bass Flute: Di Zhao Bass Flute Vocal: Slightly out of tune and difficult to control :) Original Composer: Paul Giovanni From the 1973 movie: The Wicker Man

This is just a reminder that my music will be on my other blog:

Cover Songs by Janes Toller

A Photo Shoot for my next Novel

 

 

Song:  Willow's Song

Artist:  Aythis (Carline Van Roos)

Yesterday evening...

my elder sister agreed to be my model for the cover of my next book...

The Lady of Fallen Leaf Lake.

I wanted a gothic ethereal look to it...

as the Lady arises from the depths of the lake to woo a man into the depths 

almost every evening near sunset with her song of the lake on her bass flute

(I will be composing and performing songs for this book...

just as I do for all of my novels).

And...

the photo shoot took place at the actual location I am writing about...

Fallen Leaf Lake

(It lies about 1.5 hours from home...just a little ways from South Lake Tahoe).

And the lady in the above music video had actually given me the idea for this book

as I watched this and another music video (Falling) on YouTube

(I love her music).

The public marina actually closes at 7 PM...

but luckily...

the security didn't kick us out...

although they were standing by from a respectable distance until we left.

My elder sister's husband was also taking photos from his camera on a tripod

from various angles (although all of these photos are mine)...

and his set up made us seem to be professionals...

and so...

the security tacitly allowed us to keep taking pictures until the sun set ended

(Thanks guys...).

I just had to get some sunset photos...

as the clouds overhead told me it would be a nice one.

I had taken over 300 photos as I experimented with angles and lighting...

until I got some which would be perfect for the book cover.

I had originally visited Fallen Leaf Lake with my son...Alex...

some years ago.

It has a special feel to it...

a beauty that is unique to it.

As I wrote the beginning of the story...

I relied upon my memory of our first visit there.

Although I am now in music mode...

I hope to finish the book before summer's end.

As I am retired...

I engage in my passions in life as the mood strikes me...

as I alternate between my passions of writing and music.

If I don't feel inspired...

I don't write...

and so...

I don't put deadlines before me.

However...

music and locations almost always inspire me to write.

I will be using a photo from this photo shoot for my cover.

For the day lit photos...

I was thinking of adding in mist...

and then...

the magic of the sunset changed my mind...

as you will see.

My elder sister had actually held my bass flute for long periods

of time as I changed angles over and over.

I purposely wanted to give the photos a darkened look...

as the Lady is an apparition who lives in the depths of the lake

(It really is hundreds of feet deep).

To give the photos some realism...

I first showed my elder sister how to hold the flute...

and then she would blow into it as I took the photos...

and she had actually started to get some muted notes from it

before the photo shoot ended.

My elder sister wore the robe that she had made for my mother

for this photo shoot.

Fallen Leaf Lake has many private homes surrounding it.

It has a campground near the other side of the lake.

It also has a trail which goes around it...

but the marina has the best vantage point for any sunset shots.

As the sun began to set...

the colors started to come out.

Although the dock plays a part in the story...

I was thinking of misting the photo so the docks were hidden in mist...

but, again, decided against any alterations.

Then I started angling the shots so I wouldn't have to make

any alterations to the photos.

I laid on my back for some of the shots.

I experimented with some flash shots...

but quickly realized they didn't fit the feel I wanted to express.

And so...

I will decide on a photo at a later time

for use as my next book cover.

We had a great time there...

minus our battle with the mosquitoes.