An interview with Peg Van Norman of VN Media:
Peg: So, why electric nylon string guitar?
George: "Long story, but in a nutshell, I played electric steel string guitars until I was thirty years old. When I switched to nylon string acoustic guitars, I missed having my amps and effects to play with - They were instruments to me as well. Plus, acoustic nylon string guitars are almost impossible to amplify well for live gigs where the environment will be noisy. At really high SPL's, like when I do outdoor gigs between rock acts, forget it. Acoustic nylon string guitars are just about impossible in venues like that. Besides, acoustic guitars don't have enough bass. ;^)"
Peg: How did you evolve to this point?
George: "REALLY long story! I was always interested in a wide variety of music. For instance, one summer when I was a teenager I worked really hard to learn two pieces before school was back in session: Stairway to Heaven, and the Bach Bouree in E Minor. After high school, I enrolled at the Guitar Institute of the Southwest (later Southwest Guitar Conservatory) where I was fortunate to study with guys like Jackie King, Herb Ellis and Pat Martino. It was like total jazz immersion, but I was still jamming with my friends on Hendrix and Zeppelin tunes on the side.
Then came the Berklee years. I loved the straight ahead jazz stuff - and I composed quite a bit of it - but I was in a series of "Police-ish" bands by night. After graduating from Berklee in 1983, I became a Synclavier guitarist and wound up in a very bizarre band called B-Rock with Drum Suit inventor Brock Seiler. A lot of interesting people came to see us: Gene Simmons, Julian Lennon - we even ended up on MTV's "The Week in Rock" a couple of times - my 15 minutes of rock fame.
While I was still with B-Rock, I became addicted to counterpoint. I bought dozens of books on the subject and started writing tons of solo classical guitar pieces. I enjoyed solo playing so much more than the damned band nonsense that I quit B-Rock and went back to school for a Master of Music degree and took some classical guitar lessons sort of as a minor.
I've never played in an ensemble setting since.
Eventually I thought about teaching at the collegiate level, so I enrolled in a Doctor of Musical Arts program at UNT (University of North Texas) - yes, I almost became Dr. Pepper - but let it suffice to say I don't have much in common with college professor types.
After that experience I took a few years off from doing music for a living - during which time I sorted out my sound system and finished composing my first CD's worth of originals - and so here we are."
Peg: What next?
George: Well, I've re-recorded my Y2K CD "Fossils" because my sound and technique have improved so much since then. Now, I can concentrate on getting all of the "Heavy Nylon" arrangements dialed in. And, there's a second CD of classics called "Electric Chestnuts" in the pipeline as well.
Also, now that I have my stereo sound really sorted out for live performance and recording, I want to put together a hexaphonic system. The Parker Nylon Fly and the Godin both have the hexaphonic pickups now, so all I need is the Breakout Box. With a hexaphonic system, I could even use distortion again, because complex harmonies and counterpoint don't turn to mush with the separation of one pickup per string: It sounds kinda like six guitars playing distortion in harmony when you strum a chord, which is cool as hell. I've been a fan of "Hex Fuzz" since I first heard it in action in the late 70's, but have never had a hex fuzz system of my own. It won't be a Synclavier, but it will be fun."
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In addition to over forty original pieces, Mr. Pepper's repertoire includes such classics as Bach's Bouree in E Minor, Minuet in G, an arrangement of Beethoven's Ode to Joy, Gymnopedie No. 1 by Satie, and many others. But, what he has become most known for is his collection of more contemporary crowd pleasers: Joe Satriani's Tears in the Rain and A Day at the Beach, Eric Johnson's Desert Song, Eddie Van Halen's Spanish Fly, Eu So Quero Um Xodo by Dominguinhos, Chet Atkins' Yankee Doodle Dixie, Led Zeppelin's Stairway to Heaven, and Classical Gas by Mason Williams. He's also written more contemporary pieces himself, such as Heavy Nylon and Fighter Pilots.
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Desert Song is my take on the Eric Johnson piece, and I broadened it quite a bit to make it more of a romantic kind of rubato piece until the Flamenco-ish section begins.
Prelude No. 23 in D minor is the next-to-last piece in a series of twenty-four preludes I wrote in five-part harmony that progress around the circle of thirds, with A minor being No. 1 and F major being No. 24. It is quite difficult to execute since not only is it five-voice harmony, but it also uses a drop-D tuning. Some sections are one nearly impossible set of stretches after another, but many of my fans love it. The voice leading is pretty conservatively classical, but instead of just modulating to different major or minor keys, I modulate to entirely different modes. The climax that starts at 2:39, for example, is in the Mixolydian mode.
Yankee Doodle Dixie is the Chet Atkins classic, and it was quite a challenge to arrange it for traditional classical technique versus Chet's country jazz chicken pickin', but after a few months with it, I think I have it pretty much figured out now.
Prelude No. 11 in G-sharp Minor is the eleventh prelude in the same series as Prelude No. 23, and it is more sectional instead of being through-composed. It's also five-voices, and I think it would make a nice film score type piece. I wrote it based on the feelings I got watching the sun set over the Mexican desert one evening.
Desert Song, Prelude No. 23, and Yankee Doodle Dixie were recorded with a Parker Nylon Fly that I had an RMC Polydrive pickup system installed in, while Prelude No. 11 was recorded with a Godin Grand Concert SA, which comes from the factory with an RMC system in it. The guitars were run through a Lexicon MPX G-2 Guitar Effects Processor, the power amp section of a Lexicon Signature 284 Tube recording Amp, and into a Digidesign 002 Rack. My Mac is running ProTools LE 7.
Each piece is a first take with no edits or processing at all outside of the MPX-G2: I used ProTools LE as a stereo digital recorder only. I use the same stereo sound system when I perform, so this is almost exactly what you'd hear at one of my shows.
Sorry for the sound degradation, but that has happened to me before when I've uploaded MP3's to MySpace, and I've run out of patience trying to re-upload them. For full resolution streaming audio of the entire Heavy Nylon demo as well as my earlier Fossils CD, you can go to my MP3.com.au music page.
Since I was a steel string electric guitar player for so long, what I go for is a sound about half way between a nylon string and a steel string in terms of brightness: It doesn't sound like an acoustic nylon string guitar because I don't want it to sound like an acoustic nylon string guitar
