I have recently launched antonemery.com as a home for my non celtic guitar music. In addition to playing traditional music on guitar, flute, and banjo I have also been spending more time composing. I listen to alot of film scores and video game music, and am inspired to try and create some of that music for myself. My goal is to get some work writing music for ad agencies, video games, and other mediums.
I recently put up some new videos with mandolinist Tim Connell from our gig last year at Newberg Music. After a bit of hiatus Tim and I are back practicing together and will be out gigging more around town. We are recording some demo tracks this weekend, so look out for those here soon.
I am happy to introduce my new band, Merry Hob. We are:
Lisa – Accordian
Justin – Mandolin/Bouzouki
Vash – Percussion
Anton – Guitar/Flute/Banjo
We have been practicing together since October and recently had our first few gigs over the St Patricks Day weekend. We played Saturday at the McMenamins Kennedy School and Sunday at Biddy Magraws, a classic bar in Portland. It was a super great time and we are looking forward to more gigs down the road. Right now we are playing a mixture of irish and bluegrass music, and are planning to add more tunes from different parts of the world. Hope to see you out at one of our shows.
I recently purchased French flute player Sylvain Barou’s self titled debut album and have really been enjoying it these past few days.
Surfing for John Doyle clips on Youtube one day I came across this video of him and fiddler Liz Carroll playing with a flute player I had never heard of. I’ve watched this clip over and over, often wishing for better audio quality. The second tune is one of John’s called Evening Comes Early, off his first solo cd of the same name. I have only heard it as a flatpicked guitar tune, but as Sylvain capably demonstrates here it sounds great on flute as well.
Then sometime last fall one of my Facebook friends linked this video of Sylvain’s upcoming solo album. I filed it away in Evernote under my “things to check out” notebook but promptly forgot about it. A few days ago I was going through cleaning out old notes and happened upon the link I filed away. The video is a trailer for Sylvain’s then upcoming album, showing the different musicians and playing cuts from the album. Among a mixture of Breton and Irish music I was super excited to hear an actual studio recording of the Youtube clip I had watched so many times. It includes John Doyle and Liz Carroll and titled simply JD’s reels.
Sylvain BAROU Nouvel album-New album teaser from Sylvain Barou on Vimeo.
I went home and promptly bought the album from iTunes, which was great. Sometimes with these international releases can be harder to get. I then spent an hour that night learning Evening Comes Early on the flute. Now to just get it up to speed.
You can stream clips and purchase Sylvain Barou’s album here. I highly recommend it for lovers of celtic and world music.
My friend Steve Baughman recently released a new DVD entitled Zen Banjo, Music and Mindfulness. It is a clawhammer banjo instructional DVD aimed at beginners with plenty of material for more advanced folks as well.
Steve walks the viewer through all the techniques needed for clawhammer banjo like the bum ditty, drop thumbing, and double thumbing. Throughout the DVD Steve and Buddhist monk Hung Sure also talk about the banjo as a contemplative, meditative instrument. One of the cool discoveries on the DVD for me is what Steve calls Trance Tuning, ebCGCD. It is totally cool and allows one to make beautiful haunting music with very little effort.
If you are not into Zen and mindfulness don’t worry, there is enough instructional material to keep one busy for quite a while. Steve teaches a number of advanced techniques such as the Frisco Flick and the California Roll. He goes over twelve tunes and more than twenty individual lessons.
It is available as a digital download through the Zenbanjo website and as a physical DVD through CDBaby. If you are a beginner starting out or just someone looking for a different perspective on clawhammer and some new techniques its worth checking out.
Bill Piburn, formerly of the physical magazine Fingerstyle Guitar has started a new digital magazine called Fingerstyle 360 It focuses on various styles of fingerstyle guitar around the globe and includes video and audio content as well as sheet music. The great thing about this digital format is that readers can just click on an audio or video link within the magazine to see or hear what is being written about. Definitely a neat way to experience this sort of content.
Bill was kind enough to interview me for a feature article and include notation for my arrangement of the tune, Noone Lasses. I talk a bit about my background, studying classical guitar, and the various musical considerations that go into arranging these celtic tunes. It’s available for $4.95
Hi Folks,
I have some room for additional guitar students and have added a lessons section to my website. Lessons are $40/hr and take place at my home in North Portland. Distance learning via Skype or iChat is also an option. I believe students should get enjoyment out of the material they are learning while building sound technique and good musicianship. Possible areas of study include:
Please get in touch to discuss your specific needs and schedule an initial time to chat.
Anton
Guitarbench.com recently revamped its content into an online magazine format, and I am happy to say I have an article in the first issue. It covers some right hand fingerstyle techniques, melodic playing in Orkney tuning, and includes an arrangement of O’Carolan’s Receipt. I am happy to be writing for these guys and looking forward to doing more in the future. Its free to view and subscribe, so be sure and check it out.
Acoustic Guitar Magazine has one of my favorite guitarists, John Doyle, on the cover of the current issue. I don’t know if its on the newsstands yet, but issue is featured on their website and I am sure subscribers have gotten it by now. The online content is great because you can download the TAB and also view video content, which is a big help. I use the Download Helper Plug In for Mozilla Firefox to download the individual flash videos for later viewing. If you buy the physical issue it should come with a password to access the online content at a later date, which is cool.
I have been lucky enough to see John Doyle on concert a few times and took a weeks work of classes from him at the Swannanoa Gathering Guitar Week last year. Those classes covered flatpicking, chordal backup, and accompanying singers. John’s strumming backup style has been pretty well covered on his DVD and other places, but I really liked that the most recent article notated out some of techniques he uses to backup songs. He does this using a flatpick and his middle finger, and gets a sound that is closer to fingerpicking. Its cool because he go from a fingestyle kind of accompaniment to flatpicking lead lines to faster rhythmic strumming in the space of the same tune. He went over the hybrid picking technique in the class I took, but it was hard to really grasp it just by watching him. Being able to work on some of these notated examples will be handy.
Portland Fingerstyle Guitar Night
Join three of Portland’s top acoustic guitarists for a night of brilliant acoustic music! Guitarists Doug Smith, Eric Skye, and Anton Emery will appear at the Tabor Space coffee house at 7 pm on April 7th, for an evening full of eclectic music including jazz, celtic, bluegrass, and modern acoustic compositions.
Tabor Space is at 5441 SE Belmont Street in Portland, and tickets for the evening are $10. Contact Anton Emery, antonemery@gmail.com, for more information about this event.
Doug Smith is a Grammy-award-winning acoustic guitarist, and, in 2006, winner of the prestigious Winfield International Fingerstyle Competition. Doug’s original music has been widely heard on radio and television, finding its way into programs such as “True Hollywood Story” and “Martha Stewart Living”. Doug weaves folk, classical, jazz and contemporary forms into a unique, flowing fingerpicking style — you’ll hear echoes of Chet Atkins, Leo Kottke, Michael Hedges, and Alex de Grassi. www.dougsmithguitar.com
Pacific Northwest guitarist Eric Skye occupies a unique niche; he’s squarely in the classic jazz guitar camp, but uses the intimate sound of the acoustic steel-string guitar for his music, drawing from many eclectic influences — bluegrass, Latin music, vintage soul, jazz, and even a little funk . . . all threaded together with the blues, and a very healthy respect for the groove. Eric has been featured in magazines such as Acoustic Guitar, Guitar Player, Jazziz, Jazz Improv, and 20th Century Guitar, and is an endorser of Santa Cruz Guitars. www.ericskye.com
Anton Emery has developed a unique, personal musical voice. As a player and arranger of Celtic tunes normally heard on the fiddle, flute, and bagpipes, Anton is a master at translating the rhythm and feel of this music to the acoustic guitar, giving the music a fresh voice while losing none of its magic. His material ranges from traditional, driving jigs and reels to gorgeous slow airs, harp tunes, and unusual selections from less-well-known Celtic sources in Galicia and Brittany. Anton studied extensively with players such as Tony McManus, Al Petteway, Robin Bullock, and Steve Baughman; his debut solo release, “Noone Lasses”, was selected as one of the top Celtic recordings of 2010 by Celtic MP3s Music Magazine. www.celticfingerstyleguitar.com
When my cd first came out I submitted it to various music licensing services. These are agencies that will make your music available to companies that might want to use it for TV, Film, Radio, Videogames, etc. The service is usually free, and in return they take a cut of the licensing fee. Companies like this include Pump Audio, Rumblefish, Triplescoopmusic, and most recently CD Baby’s Sync Licensing. Even though they take a cut I consider it a good service as I do not have the contacts to market my music this way. Plus you can still get composing/arranging royalties from your performing rights organization.
I recently got my first statement from Pump Audio and someone from Disney/Hyperion Book group licensed one of my tracks! Specifically the jig set, Ship in Full Sail/Trip to Sligo/Christy Barrys #2. I made $17 out of the $50 licensing fee. So yea, its not alot of money, but I was still excited that someone chose my music.
Its got me motivated to sit down and write some music specifically for licensing, and then submit it to these various agencies. You can make alot more money if something gets placed that you wrote, as opposed to arranging public domain material. I would stick to genres I am familiar with, acoustic based sounds using mandolin, banjo, guitar, and flute.
I think there is a place for this kind of stuff on TV and other mediums. Often when watching a show or commercial I will hear a simple fingerpicked guitar or banjo that really adds alot. I don’t expect to make a living doing it, but it would be fun and perhaps make me a little extra money.
David Hamburger is a musician that has transferred into writing music for tv and film. Alot of his themes use acoustic instruments and have a Blues/Americana sound. Its really neat to see how the music and whats on the screen interact.
