Strange Times

Hey everyone, I hope you're all keeping safe and well.

Due to the current situation a lot of musicians are having to adapt quickly with work. Gigs are cancelled, schools closing etc. Due to my schedule changing a lot in the last week I’ve arranged some new Skype lesson spaces for new students. Drop me a message if you have any questions and thank you Kris for your support at this time.

All the best

Chris

My New Album

Hi everyone, I hope summer has been kind to you all.

I'm really excited to share my new album with you! Its been in the making for about 6 months (mostly writing) and recorded over 3 days.

The focus of the project was to write for solo acoustic guitar and with an etude like approach. This changed over the course of the 3 writing periods eventually including double bass and overdubbed solo's for some of the pieces but keeping the etude concept at the heart.

This is the first time i've ever written an album of pieces for guitar which is strange considering i'm a guitarist but I had never found what I considered my voice of direction. In the past year that has become a lot more focused and the writing more consistent.

The album consists of two 4 track EP's I made in March and July this year plus two newer pieces. Doing it this way allowed the music to be released gradually and for the album to come together more organically, capturing the pieces while they were fresh.

Here's some info about a couple of the pieces that might be of some interest;

Holding On - This stemmed from an etude I wrote where a single note 'G' would be a constant in all chords. Allowing chords that might not normally work together, work. The opening section uses an Eb9 D11 C#9#5 D11 (each containing the G but really just a dominant 9th chord moving in semitones). The solo on this one was really fun to improvise too as it moves from C major - Ab Lydian - F Mixolydian - C# altered, it created some really fun lines and kept me on my toes.

Colours - This piece is inspired by the Charles Mingus' pieces 'Goodbye Pork Pie Hat' where he took a simple blues scale and added really interested non diatonic harmony to it. The idea here is to have a Pentatonic minor scale and write a melody, then the melody notes become the top part of the chords. Where it gets fun is what chords you decide to use with it. The scale I used is D Pentatonic minor and the chords are; Am7, Gm7, Dm9, Fmaj7, Abmaj7, Eb9. With the melody notes added to the top we get
Am11 (D is the 11)
Gm7 (F is the b7)
Dm11 (G is the 11)
Fmaj7 (A is the major third/10)
Abmaj7(C is the major thirds/10)
Eb9b5 (A is the b5)

So it all follows the age old idea of 'let the melody be your guide' but rather than just for soloing, for writing harmony too.

The album contains pieces that all have different focuses and if you'd like to hear more i'd love to share.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did writing and making it.


Guitars and Double Bass played by Chris Harrington

Chris

My New Ep

Hey everyone, i'm very excited to share my new EP with you. Its the follow up to 'Silence' which was released in March. This time i've built on the solo guitar format by adding overdubbed guitar and double bass parts to the new compositions, theres also an arrangement I wrote for the jazz standard Someday My Prince Will Come which was seriously fun improvising over.

Yesterday was 4 hours of recording in my home studio and I'm really happy with what came out.

I Hope you enjoy

Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/album/0TjDPyc1qFmH...kQcCvjonV70Lskw
iTunes - https://geo.itunes.apple.com/gb/album/conte...1872?app=itunes
Bandcamp - https://chrisharringtonmusic.bandcamp.com/a...m/contemplation

My New Solo Guitar Ep

Hey everyone!

I'm very happy to announce my new EP just came out. It is a collection of 4 solo guitar pieces i've been working on for a while now. The guitar used was a Taylor Big Baby with Thomastik-infield strings, it was recorded in my new studio and i'm really happy with how the recording came out. I'm even more happy with the compositions as when I started out writing these I was looking at writing lesson ideas for GMC and at building some etudes that had specific focuses like melodic indepence and rhythmic diversity. This seeded the compositions and a refreshed approach to the way I was writing and playing, I really embraced my ear and followed where I wanted the pieces to go. The EP also contains a cover of the Jazz standard 'Alone Together' which I had some fun reharmonizing in parts.

The new collection 'Silence' is now available to hear via Spotify, iTunes, Apples Music, Amazon and Bandcamp.



Hope you enjoy it

Chris

My New/old Guitar For 2018

Hey everyone!

I thought i'd share this new/old guitar with you that I picked up recently. It was one of those days were I was meant to be doing everything else but buying a guitar but after dropping into No.Tom Guitars down Denmark street, London I played this 1968 Hofner Congress and had to bring it home. They had a sale on too which encouraged the purchase as it was £200 off £895 price tag.

The guitar is a beautiful snapshot of history and has so much character. Other than the beautiful sound it makes the main thing i'm enjoying about it is the fact I can't put it down!

I'm sure it will pop up in a lesson in the future, for now here are some photos of it

Chris