Moto Perpetuo for 5-string

[Tom Wright]

Originally a tune I wrote on my 5-string fiddle (on "Common Ground"), works nice on mandolin.

Sonic Distortion, line out from Crate head, reverb added in Soundforge.

Alt+click to download or right click and "save as".

http://www.twtunes.com/pages/RoundTripMando.mp3

[Tom Wright]

I would be grateful for comments on this number. It took a lot of practice, first on violin, and then to transfer that to 5-string. Not sure it was worth it, but at least it's fun to play.

[rico mando]

ITS (expletive deleted ) Awesome . makes me want to take a baseball bat to my own instruments . would love to hear the violin version also . great tone on the cleans my laptop did not sound good with the distorted chords . not sure if it is my little 2 inch speakers that were over driven or if you clipped that part during recording . but that is just critiquing the recording . love the tune it has a great groove real nice jazz tone . i will have to listen to it through my PA later . it was worth the work its a keeper , put that on a cd for sure . you should at the very least be selling online at one of those music hosting sites . 2 thumbs up

[Tom Wright]

Thanks, Rico. I did use some overdrive, not the sweetest like actual loud amp, or tubes, but should sound good on headphones. Should be fairly maxed out on the peaks, but clean when quiet.

I'm using the pick+2nd finger trick for the beginning and end, otherwise flatpicked.

[Travis Wilson]

Like your other arrangements and performances, this is really nice stuff Tom. Excellent musicianship. Your meter is spot-on throughout the piece, and I especially appreciate your attention to dynamics. Regardless of the muscial style attempted, most people seem to fix their amps at a certain, pre-determined level and fail to alter their attack. You elude this pitfall, and your listeners benefit by enjoying a more complex, varied soundscape.

[Ed Goist]

Tom, this is absolutely fantastic.
Maybe my favorite of your clips so far, and I like them all.
I just listened a second time through my good headphones, and I'm even more impressed!
I agree with everything that Rico and Travis said (especially the part about wanting to smash my own instruments after listening to this..."It's like, What's the use?!" ).
In all seriousness, the playing is so exceptional, and the audio quality is so remarkable, that the clip sounds professional in every way.
Top shelf stuff!
Please elaborate regarding your rig. What instrument are you playing here? Could you provide details regarding the Sonic Distortion (model?), the Crate head (size), and anything else you think might be pertinent.
Thanks for posting.

[Tom Wright]

Thanks, guys.

Ed, my only electric is my Ryder 45. I'm using a legacy distortion pedal called Maxon (brand) Sonic Distortion. I bought it from AnalogMan. It has controllable tone output. I play into my Crate PowerBlock because it has a convenient line out for recording. The Crate has decent master-volume, overdrive tone, too. I bought it for its light weight, two x 75 or one 150 dirty watts for 4.5 pounds. I use only the 75W, single channel setting, one channel has weird signal dirt. Also, it once shut down when I was using the combined power amp channels. This happened to Don Stiernberg, too (he still has his), so he now uses a Hot Rod Deluxe.

I gave up carrying tube amps, having had a Twin Reverb and a Boogie Mark III. I even like my cabinet to be ultra-lightweight, so I have a minimal box with a Celestion Century Vintage neodynium-magnet 12". Box weighs about 7 pounds, really loud if needed.

[Ed Goist]

Thanks for the info, Tom.
This is played on your Ryder EM-45, right?
Is it a stock model with Ryder's stock electronics?

[Tom Wright]

The 45, but not stock. I specified single-coil stacked humbuckers, and straight across for the neck pickup, not angled like he normally would do a single.

[Ed Goist]

...I specified single-coil stacked humbuckers, and straight across for the neck pickup, not angled like he normally would do a single.

Why?

[Tom Wright]

Why?

I had the idea of emulating the Stratocaster layout, the bridge and middle pickups, that is. So I had him angle the bridge pickup. The position of the neck pickup is exactly the distance from bridge as a Strat middle.

[Mark Robertson-Tessi]

Tom, stumbled across this old post and had to say that this is really a great sounding piece. A friend is lending me a 5 string and I'm going to put it to good use on this! Awesome playing!

Cheers
MRT

PS, on my computer, the last line of the first page of the PDF is missing. Only the fingerings are there. Is it my system, or is there a glitch in the PDF? Would love to have it in full.

[Tom Wright]

Never noticed the layout change that threw the fingerings off and lost a line. Thanks for pointing it out. Here goes:

[Barry Canada]

Lovely and interesting piece Tom. Impressive how easy you make it sound. Which took longer, writing the piece or learning it!?
I really appreciate the time commitment in this piece. Thanks for sharing it with us.
I think I will attempt Playing around with it.

[Tom Wright]

...Which took longer, writing the piece or learning it!?...

Definitely learning it is the hard part for me---I'm still working on it, getting it to work on my 10-string acoustic. It started as improvisations on 5-string electric violin about 12 years ago, and I took it to the electric mandolin last year. In between I tried to perfect it on viola, too, but it's way more fun on mandolin. Fingering choices have drifted over time, these work as one way to do it.

I mostly am flatpicking, but use an extra finger or two for the beginning and ending, hybrid fingerpicking.

[Mark Robertson-Tessi]

Cool, thanks for the fix.

Cheers
MRT

[mandopete]

First there is a mountain then there is no mountain then there is.

Love it - 5 stars!

[Mark Robertson-Tessi]

First there is a mountain then there is no mountain then there is.

OK, thank you for that. I've been trying to place that line all morning!

Cheers
MRT

[rico mando]

Donovan ?

[Ben Milne]

Very nice piece Tom. Further kudos on the great playing and transferral between instruments too..
Awesome stuff.

[Tom Wright]

Donovan ?

Busted. My favorite Donovan tune. Also stole from myself, in that the noodle that starts and ends the tune began as a bass part and then a vibraphone part for a longer jazz tune from my fiddle days. The rest of the tune wasn't so great, but I always liked the figure and eventually found a way to use it without asking another player to practice it.