Gitarded:                The Hachamacha Project

This is the source of the problem. Its not this exact guitar because I copied this image from a catalog, so this is one of its evil cousins. I tried hiding the damned thing in a closet 10 years back in the hopes I might actually get something done with my life. One day as I walked by that closet, the door shot open and the guitar locked itself around my neck like a boa.

The music files: . They're all played by me. I don't have the patience for doing re-takes (yet anyway), so there's plenty of mistakes. Some will be chord files (like music minus 1) of standards and songs I've written and others will be examples of the same songs with melody. 

 

Songs (with chords only)



Songs (with melodies)



For anyone wanting to reach me, click here.



There are no permissions to download the files put on this site thus far unless you know for a fact that the copyrights are expired. They are not my songs, and credit is given to all composers so you should be able to figure out the copyright infringement rules. If you don't take the time to do this, you might be liable for using a copyrighted song without permission by the current holders of the copyright. When I am able to record my originals to my satisfaction, I'll replace those and those will be downloadable. All the songs on here need re-recording and hopefully that'll happen.

Notes:

Recording in general: I record onto a cheap Zoom h4, some straight acoustic, some direct balanced input. The user interface is a nightmare, but  I hardly touch it. I don't like doing punch-in recording because it sounds like a different person all of a sudden. If I can't do the thing in one take, I just wait a few days and do it all again. A good example of this is Falling Grace, 3/4 of the way through it, the strap came loose on my guitar and I had to grab it to save it, and keep playing. This is typically what punching in would sound like in my case and why I avoid it.

 

 
I Loves You Porgy - Performed by Hashi

A Gershwin masterpiece, one of many, from one of my favorite musicals, Porgy & Bess (the other is West Side Story). Just noodling here mostly, and in fact, as usual, I meant to record another song entirely but somehow came up with this after getting recording set up. This is my usual YouTube M.O. I really didn't play this more than once in the past so it may be anything but accurate.

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Stella by Starlight is by Victor Young, and I must give my profuse apologies for mangling this nice piece. Normally I'd have my usual video of me playing, but due to a tragic webcam mishap involving my 30 lb cat, my webcam, and a ceramic tile floor, there is no more webcam, at least not today.

To make matters worse, a friend (which has become questionable) loaned me a Godin XTSA guitar that has more outputs than the space shuttle, so I plugged one in at random and cranked the volume way too high, and had at it. I'd like to say that at one point in my life as an electric player, I had some idea what I was doing, but I could never get a good sound, and this is typical of that.

Blame abounds. I do like the free film clip, which is low quality video so perhaps thats why it's on a public domain site. Kudos to Frank "Shaloshi" Sinatra.

Once again:: I feel truly terrible for what I did to poor Stella.

Suddenly Stella by Starlight - performed by Hashi