Guitar Nine Records - Nick Andrew "Solo?" Track-By-Track

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The Original Cannon Guitar Kid
Watch and be amazed at the metal version of Canon In D

Nick Andrew "Solo?" Track-By-Track

CD Information

When I was at college I read somewhere that Rimskykorsikovs Flight of the Bumble Bee was the ultimate virtuoso show stopper, so I dug out my 100 popular classics record and learned it that night. It took me ages to perfect and I didn�t perform it until years later, but everywhere I perform people always ask me to play it. The blues part of the tune came about at a jam night in north London where everyone was playing very bad blues and after a few liquid inspirations and a little coaxing from my mate I took it upon myself to embarrase myself by playing very bad blues. After about the second chorus of a 12 bar I decided to quote flight of the bumble bee,then proceeded to play the most egotistical widdly nonsense and then recapitulate my newfound bumble bee theme. The audience went nuts!

They hated it because it wasn�t proper blues and I played too fast. It was then that I realised that I had something. The rest of the tune came about because I had to give another performance in Scotland and I wanted to pad it out a little. Again due to my love for fine ales I decided that it would be a great idea for the middle bit if I were to rewrite bumble bee in the style of JS Bach.

So I did.

As a special bonus I have recorded Paganinis 24th Caprice at one of my students request. I don`t have any intention to put this on the album, but many people have commented that I should.

So I did.

When I was about 15, not long after I started playing the guitar, my dad bought me a tape called popular violin classics. At that time I only really listened to Heavy Metal so the tape received a lukewarm reception. There was how ever three tracks which stood out to me. Zegunerwiessen by Sarasate, 3rd movement of the violin concerto in Dm by Sibelius and 3rd Movement of violin concerto by Mendelshon. These pieces changed my musical life completely. I immeadietly set about learning them from the tape and dreamted about one day writing my own concerto to show off the electric guitar.

So I did.

I have always loved classical guitar, but due to the fact that I have the memory of a ��, no it�s gone, I find it difficult to remember a whole classical guitar tune. I also have a great love of piano music Chopin in particular. The nocturne was the first Chopin piece that I tackled. Rather than learn it note for note and then try to apply it onto the guitar,I started to learn the chord progression within the piece so that when I got lost or forgot what came next I could improvise my way out of trouble.

So I did.

This started life as a cheesey ballad which I was writing for my girlfriend at the time. I was getting frustrated at my attempts to write something deep and meaning ful when I went off on a tangent and came up with the intro to the piece. I thought that this captured her spirit more that some cheesey ballad and from there it kind of wrote itself. The instrumentation reflects my two biggest influences, Chick Corea and Paco De Lucia. It also has a hint of Scottish folk music to it. I have no idea where I get that from. There is also a little slap bass style riff played on the guitar. My slap guitar started when I was at college and somebody bet me that I couldn�t play slap bass on the electric guitar.

So I did.

There is a bit of a long story attached to this tune.

I basically wrote it for a guitar playing competition I started writing it on a thurs evening and didn`t stop until the sunday more or less non stop apart from eating, drinking and falling asleep at the computer. I was so engrossed in what I was doing that I even forgot to go to work on Saturday! I finished the original version at 8pm Sunday evening and whilst reading the address to send my entry I read the rules properly and noticed that the deadline was the following morning. Having complete faith in my masterpiece I decided to drive from London to Bath and deliver the package of my impending triumph in person.

As it happens I chose the stormiest night of the year to drive in and to cut a long story short there was traffic jams, roadworks, a flat tyre and many , many wrong paths chosen. I eventually arrived at the offices of the offending publication (after wandering the streets getting thoroughly soaked, nearly getting into a fight and banging into a street map of Bath city centre nearly knocking myself out!) and pushed a super padded envelope, with my entry cd safely inside, into the letterbox. It just fell to the ground and into a puddle. The letterbox was nailed shut!!!!! After all that there was no letterbox that I could see, so I slid it under the door and went home in a hugh huff.

Anyway, typically it didn`t win. I did hear the piece that did win and I was disgusted! Not by the playing or the music, but by the fact that that the winner probably just used a stamp!

The piece itself could be about my entire competition experience and subsequent journey, but it was written about another particular incident involving tequila, a phone number, a beautiful girl, a misunderstanding, an infallible entity, farting and age.

Somebody had to tackle these issues using the medium of instrumental electric guitar and chamber orchestra sonic sculpturism.

So I did.

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