Rhythm is the Map.
Melody is the Road.

A new project developed this month. It centers around the idea that there are almost infinite ways to cross a landscape and, similarly, there are so many different ways to wrap a melody around a rhythm.

I asked Stephen Duros to join me for this experiment and he said yes. Given the same recorded guitar rhythms, how will the music we create differ in the end. We each add our own melodies, counter lines, and perhaps additional rhythmic elements, using only guitar.

Imagine the map of a landscape, with railroad tracks, roads large and small, bridges, even bike paths and foot trails. There are so many different ways to cross that landscape. Slowly or quickly, with intricate steps and many changes of direction, or forging straight ahead, or perhaps ambling along and enjoying the view. You can choose any way you like. Let’s meet at the destination and compare the paths we forge.

Another way to imagine this is that Stephen and I sit on a hill and we each drop a marble and watch it roll down the slope. Those two marbles will create two different trajectories.

We have created three musical pairs so far and the fourth and fifth maps are also almost done. I am going to show you the pair that started with two rhythm guitars from this piece, from the album Rain Poems:

Here is one new version:

And here is the other:

We post these pieces to Backstage as we finish them but eventually Stephen’s versions will become available on his Bandcamp and you will be able to find mine on my Bandcamp.

We are enjoying this project very much. I think that’s in part because it is structured like a game, like we are playing a video game together. Perhaps it also has to do with this game not feeling like a commercial undertaking. Whatever the reason, we are having a blast and members of Backstage have been getting new music almost daily.