Witness | Westward (2011)

The Story Behind Witness

I started creating Witness by flipping an acoustic guitar sample I found. The sample was a simple guitar phrase of 16 notes. I did a sample flip of this guitar phrase in a different way than I normally do sample flips. Instead of creating one sample flip pattern after another, I played the individual sample slices as notes of an instrument. So, just like playing the piano instrument with all of its notes, I played the sample as an instrument with its limited 16 notes.

No big deal, right? Nothing special, right?

Well, the 16 notes in the acoustic guitar sample were not really 16 UNIQUE notes. The sample phrase had 16 slices, a slice for each note that was originally played. But some of the slices had duplicate notes. On top of that, the guitar phrase did not have the notes played in sequential order - like keys on a piano.

So what?

What I ended up doing is creating a sample flip freestyle, much like I do my piano freestyles. The big difference in this case was that while improvising to create the verses, I had to make the out-of-sequence notes make sense while playing them real time, on the fly, off the top of my head.

Imagine taking a piano and randomly ordering the notes triggered by the keys. Now, imagine sitting down and constructing a song with that randomized piano, with no rehearsal, nothing written, in real time.

Like all of my moody instrumental music, Witness was an experiment in creating music. I like the quirky, mechanical, weird feel of the guitar part and it the guitar parts influenced the way I played the piano verses. Overall, Witness is a reminder to me that there are no limits to creativity when a person is determined.

MUSIC Type

original, instrumental, sample flip

MUSIC Use Suggestions

background, lounge, lift

MUSIC Tempo

97 bpm (Medium 81bpm - 110bpm)

MUSIC Moods

mechanical, busy, catchy, dramatic, adventurous, dark, mysterious, strange, weird, strong

INSTRUMENTS

brass, bugle, french horn, trombone, trumpet, tuba, horn section, big bamd, brass band, drumline, marching band, rock band, symphonic band, drums, percussion, guitar, bass, world guitar, lute, dulcimer, keyboard, harpsichord, organ, piano, orchestra, hits, stabs, reeds, woods, wooswinds, accordion, bassoon, clarinet, english horn, flute, oboe, piccolo, recorder, saxophone, badpipes, didgeridoo, duduk, strings, cello, celtic harp, fiddle, harp, pissicato, viola, violin, upright bass, string section, synth, synthisizer, vocal, a capella, beat box, chikd, chanting, choir, gregorian chant, opera, scat, male, female, vocoder, whispering