Contrast my love for humor to my current vocation: Classical music. I’m sure John Gay’s “Beggar’s Opera”, an English spoof on Italian high opera, got a lot of laughs in 1728 but its humor would most probably be lost on today’s audience. The same goes for “Opera Buffa” (Italian for “funny opera”)—its humor is also lost on the modern audience. Sure, I’ve played plenty of movements entitled “scherzo” (which in Italian literally means “joke”), but the humor contained in those movements is really only identified by the most astute musicians. And, even then, the “joke” really isn’t that funny (That Schubert Scherzo takes a Minuet form but it sounds far too bright and jocular to be a Minuet! And yet it has a Trio accompanying it, just like a Minuet would! ROFLMAO!!!). There are a few exceptions (Victor Borge comes to mind) but for the most part people who do classical music are not “in it for the lulz”. Don’t get me wrong, learning to interpret a piece in a playful manner is important when you’re doing classical music, but you’re still not allowed to laugh at any “serious” classical concert.

A while back, during my never-ending quest for a good laugh, I stumbled upon the Nerdist Podcast. It is easily the most hilarious, insightful, and intelligent podcast that I have ever heard and I now listen to every episode that comes out. When I first heard the theme song to the show, Anamanaguchi’s wonderful piece “Jetpack Blues, Sunset Hues”, I was immediately intrigued. Its quick tempo and playful nature sounded like a boisterous 8-bit scherzo to me.

After a while I decided that this piece would be an excellent candidate for a classical guitar duet. I arranged the piece, got my good friend and accomplice Nick Lanzer to play along, and I even included (against my better judgement) a “scherzo” of my own: At the end of the video I make a reference to the show (“Enjoy your burrito!”, the line that concludes each podcast), only I translated it into Italian. Why? Again, I am not that great with humor, but let’s face it: By classical music standards I am downright hilarious. But in all seriousness Italian really is the standard language of classical music: We play movements entitled “Allegro”, “Andante”, “Adagio”, “Scherzo”… Why not have the language of the classical Nerdist podcast theme be Italian?

I never thought anything would come of the video. I know, I always say that. I thought that nothing would come of the videos I did of works by Amanda Palmer, Otep, and I never thought anyone would ever see my rendition of the theme song to Doctor Who (I’m mentioned in issue 441 of Doctor Who Magazine! On sale now!). I swear it’s still a surprise every time it happens!!! (Ladies and gentleman, behold the most shameless humblebrag of all time. In all seriousness I am totally surprised every time my work is recognized by anybody). Let me get to the point: The creator of the Nerdist podcast, Chris Hardwick, apparently saw the video, liked what he heard, and posted the video on the official Nerdist website.

Wouldn’t you know, a few people had a mild chuckle at this video. I’m on fire! So here it is, my Scherzo for the 21st century:

Needless to say all of the kind feedback I have received for my arrangement has really touched me deeply. It feels great to have my work appreciated by so many people, so I can’t thank Mr. Hardwick enough for introducing his listeners to my work. I truly am honored beyond words.

The seven track EP is out now on my Bandcamp Site and all 7 tracks are just $3.00 (or you can listen to the EP streaming for free!) I am very proud of this project and I could not be more happy with the result. I put a lot of work into these minuets—I plan on publishing the sheet music to them as well so that other guitarists can have the opportunity to play this beautiful music. I hope you enjoy listening to these tracks as much as I enjoyed arranging/YouTube-ing/recording them!

So here’s the Bandcamp embedded player. Spread the word! Embed this everywhere you can (click on “share” for the embed code)! I want as many people as possible to hear these guitar duets:

We didn’t get many channels so when my family did watch TV it was confined to NBC, ABC, CBS, and PBS.

Oh, PBS. PBS really was the cream of the crop in my mind. Sure, the other networks had hit shows like Family Ties, Cheers, Alf—all the stuff that dominated popular culture. But PBS had the oddball stuff; the stuff that really warped by grooves and brought out the true nerd inside of me.

But the best, and possibly the weirdest, show that PBS ran in the 80′s and 90′s was a little British sci-fi show called Doctor Who.

Watching PBS in the 80s meant you got what the BBC was showing ten years ago, which meant that I grew up with Tom Baker playing the role of Doctor Who (He starred in Doctor Who from 1974-1981). Many people over the years have played the role of Doctor Who but man, did I luck out on the first Doctor I ever saw:

Tom Baker, the fourth actor to play Doctor Who, was quite the character. Everything about him was giant: His stature, his hair, his big, toothy grin, even his long scarf that could be used as a sturdy rope suitable for climbing (should he ever need such a thing to get out of a tricky situation). His playful nature and fondness for Jelly Babies won me over in a heartbeat.

I will be celebrating this year’s Halloween dressed as Tom Baker. I got a ‘fro wig, a scarf that was knitted for me by my friend Brenda LaBranche from the original scarf pattern, a corduroy coat, a sonic screwdriver, and a package of Jelly Babies. And, keeping in spirit with my other holiday videos, I decided to do a Halloween classical guitar video in full Doctor Who regalia. I had, all told, an incredible amount of fun putting this video together. It really brought out the kid in me and allowed me to express my love for Doctor Who through my instrument. I’m going to post two videos here: My arrangement and the original. Enjoy!

Here’s my arrangement:

And here’s the original:

OR HERE!

When I first posted my cover of “Storybook Love” on YouTube I had no idea how popular it would eventually become. In fact, judging from my blog on the video, I had considered it to be just another wedding arrangement (of which I have written dozens for various clients over the years).

But for some reason this one was different. As the video of my cover started to take off on YouTube I began receiving a number of emails asking me for the MP3. I did not want to violate copyright laws so my response was always, “Sorry, but I can’t”. After receiving around fifty or so emails I realized that I should probably look into it.

I did some research on the internet but the most helpful resource I found regarding copyright law was actually a book entitled “Getting Permission”. There I learned about Songclearance.com and how easy it is for artists to get a license and pay royalties for their cover songs.

I was ecstatic and, most of all, shocked to see how easily I could make my cover happen and get it to the people that wanted it. I purchased the license for Mark Knopfler’s “Once Upon A Time…Storybook Love” through Songclearance.com and headed down to Tweeksound Recording Studio to get the track done.

To put a finishing touch to the release my sister-in-law, Jessica Grace Brooks, did the artwork for the track. I LOVE the sketch she did of me! She is an amazing artist—I think everyone should definitely check out her website.

Now here’s where I’m going to sound old: I can’t believe how easy it is to get distribution these days (Well, at least online distribution). Due to copyright restrictions I can only sell my cover in the US, but who cares? That’s nationwide! All I had to do was get a Tunecore account and I was up and running. Back in the day getting my music into record stores nationwide would have been impossible without being signed to a record label. Now I have distribution throughout the country at the touch of a button. Incredible!

So, for this newbie to music publishing, this is all very exciting. I am now in the process of recording an entire album and I could not be more thrilled about it. Stay tuned to my blog for more updates! I hope to get this entire album up on iTunes ASAP.

The film, based on Charles Portis’s 1968 novel of the same name, takes place in Arkansas during the late 1800′s. The film score’s composer, Carter Burwell, based much of the music for the film off of 19th century church hymns (thus violating the Oscar’s “pre-existing” material rule). I understand the Academy’s decision, because you don’t want a movie soundtrack to be up for an Oscar if it just takes a bunch of pre-existing songs from other artists (because that isn’t very original), but in this case I really think there should have been an exception.

For starters Carter Burwell arranged and rewrote these hymns for a variety of instruments; he didn’t just have musicians perform the original scores. Second, the score is very true to the period. I am by no means an expert on US history but I’m pretty sure that 19th century church hymns would have been very prominent in Arkansas during the period of time in which “True Grit” takes place. And finally, and perhaps most importantly, this score is just plain beautiful. Just listen to Iris Dement’s rendition of the old church hymn “Leaning On the Everlasting Arms.” Listen to that voice! Dement has this haunting, almost otherworldly tone to her vibrato. I can honestly say that I have never heard any singer quite like her. Much like the atmosphere and landscape of the film this music is very raw, stripped down, and eerily beautiful.

So, as an homage to this fantastic film and Carter Burwell’s brilliant soundtrack, I arranged and recorded a solo guitar rendition of “Leaning On the Everlasting Arms”. Hope you like it!

The day I posted the video was a typical day. I went to work and, after work, I went to a local pub to check out a band that one of my coworkers at Earcraft Music is in. When I came home I checked on my video to see if anyone had even bothered to watch it.

I couldn’t believe it. The video had received 1,000+ hits and I received a ton of comments congratulating me on a job well done. The singer to the band, Otep Shamaya, had actually seen the video and commented on it herself.

I was blown away but more importantly that single event finally woke me up the potential that the internet has to get my arrangements to the masses. I had been arranging tunes for years for gigs, weddings, etc., but I had never thought to put these arrangements up on YouTube for everyone to see.

Since then I have recorded a number of other classical guitar YouTube covers by a variety of different bands that I like. I even did another one of Otep’s ballads a year later.

And, like clockwork, this year I covered another Otep ballad from her newest album“Atavist”. It’s amazing how prolific Otep is in that I have had no shortage of awesome ballads to cover since I started my YouTube channel! But, beyond listening and covering her incredible music, Otep made me believe in myself again as an artist after years of being frustrated that I had little to show for all of my hard work; for that I will forever be indebted to her. She lit a fire in me that has yet to stop burning after two years.

Yesterday morning I finished recording my arrangement of “We Dream Like Lions” by Otep. I’d like to think that I have grown a lot as an artist in the two years since I started doing videos for YouTube, and I owe a lot of that to Otep. Thanks once again, Ms. Shamaya:

This week I decided to go local! Local Boston band H.U.M.A.N.W.I.N.E. has been around for a while now and I’ve always dug their experimental sound. If you listen to their album “Fighting Naked” and try to fence it into just one genre you can’t. Even their Wikipedia page has a tough time saying what genre of music they play (I count 11 genres on that page—I actually think Wikipedia missed a few).

The song I went with is a catchy sea shanty entitled “Dim Allentown Cove (Part I)”. For the performance I actually got a jolly roger, which gave the video an awesome pirate feel.

And, as luck would have it, H.U.M.A.N.W.I.N.E. really dug my arrangement and posted it on their Facebook page. Sweet!

It’s funny knowing that Brian Viglione, the drummer for the Dresden Dolls, actually played drums for H.U.M.A.N.W.I.N.E. at one point. That means I have covered, completely by accident, two bands that he has been in (for the blog entry on my Dresden Dolls cover click here).

It’s also funny knowing that Brian Viglione, Holly Brewer (the singer for H.U.M.A.N.W.I.N.E.), and I are all roughly the same age and we all grew up in the same area at the same time (I grew up in Rindge, NH and they are from Greenville, NH). I jammed with a bunch of singers and drummers from that area when I was in my teens. How did I end up missing those two? That’s quite the missed opportunity.

So here it is, my arrangement of “Dim Allentown Cove (Part I)” for solo guitar, Captain Jack Sparrow-style. Arrrrghhh!

My duet partner and I have have a lot more arrangements already written and they all sound amazing. We’ll be recording them soon, so stay tuned to my YouTube channel for updates!

So, without further ado, I present to you the world premier of Mozart’s “Sieben Menuette” KV 65a arranged for two guitars:

Check out the rest of this complete work by Mozart!

Click here for Minuet #1

Click here for Minuet #2

Click here for Minuet #3

Click here for Minuet #4

Click here for Minuet #5

Click here for Minuet #6

OR you can click on the embedded player below and watch every minuet play in order on the playlist that I created:

Check out the other five minuets!

Click here for Minuet #1

Click here for Minuet #2

Click here for Minuet #3

Click here for Minuet #4

Click here for Minuet #5