Well guess its about time for my last Diary Chapter of the year and its taken long enough to get these last 6 tracks recorded.
Its taken most of the year but I managed, amongst other things, to learn the 20 solo acoustic Blues tracks from David Hamburger’s Fingerstyle Blues Handbook, which I have been following, alongside Justin’s Solo Blues Course. I don’t know what has been going on this year but every time I have come to record something, I have suffered a severe bout of RBS and these 6 were no exception and today was the umpteenth session in trying to get these boxed off and another multi take marathon.
To cap it all there was some stutter on playback and slight sync issues but that could be down to my weekly backup still running in the background. Who knows, past caring !!
All of them can be played end to end but as soon as I press record, it all goes pear shaped. Suffice to say all of these have a few fluffs but I was losing the will to live stuck on the non stop recording merry go round ! So what’s done is done.
Plans for 2024 are still to be evaluated but the fingerstyle will continue, in some way shape or form. So anyway here is the final tranche.
Hamburger Recordings #15
Hamburger Recordings #16
Hamburger Recordings #17
Hamburger Recordings #18
Hamburger Recordings #19
Hamburger Recordings #20
I may try and add a couple of longer pieces before the end of the year all being well. But time will tell.
In the mean time for those celebrating this time of year have a fantastic time and make lots of music. And thank you for your support as always.
Toby @TheMadman_tobyjenner
Sounded good to me, how good I will leave it to others who know more than me.
However what I can see is that you have put a lot of time and effort in, well done.
Michael
Hi Toby,
Hopefully now the horrible Santa Claus picture of you will disappear from my head and I woke up this morning singing I wanted a tattoo of Ozzy and that keeps ringing/singing in my head… nonstop… @nzmetal Jeff …
But I really enjoyed these recordings …exactly what I love and I have bookmarked them because I will buy this sooner or later…thanks
@TheMadman_tobyjenner Toby, those were great! Really dug your tone! Despite what you mentioned about RBS in your write up, I thought you looked well in control and the playing was superb! Would love to see those developed into something more, could listen to that playing and tone all day! Great stuff!
Excellent playing and a super tone too Toby. Kudos to you for sticking with it and learning all those pieces this year. Well done my friend. I look forward to what next year will bring.
Thanks for the listen and complimentary comments peeps, its been a fun year learning this genre and the last few months of focused fingerstyle (Blues along with some folk patterns) have made big improvements. Just a shame I am still getting the recording nerves, once again.
A few folks mentioned the tone. Although the Takamine sounds pretty nice simply amped up, this latest collection saw it plumbed into the POD Go and linked with a Line 6 Elmsley amp (new with the latest 2.0 firmware) and 4x12 Blackback (Park 75 G12 H30) cabs
Plus a couple of Line 6 reverbs - Glitz and Particle Verb. And a Boss DM-2 Adriatic Delay.
All the “kit” had a few tweaks to get a tone I was happy with that suited the style, so glad folks seemed to like it.
Looking forward to learning some new pieces and hopefully get some of Justin’s Sole Blues tracks in the can, with less fluffs than they’ve generated so far.
Finally heard all the pieces…excellent playing, Toby. You can be proud of what you have achieved this year! Loved the tone too! I guess #19 was my favourite. It sounded so relaxed and groovy. Great!
Toby those are sounding great! I should probably look at having a go at those.
Currently screwing around with e blues scale improv and steady thumb stuff good fun and you start learning the scale well and the dynamics between the (potential) base notes etc
Excellent Toby! I enjoyed all the recordings, short and sweet, #19 is my favourite, so I’m relistening a few more times while writing Love the way you put bass and melody lines together. Thanks a lot for sharing your progress, it’s very interesting and inspirational to follow.
In my Classical Guitar learning I’m finding I can play short pieces decently enough but I do struggle with longer ones: maybe it’s part of the process and being able to play longer pieces is a skill in itself that we develop with time and practice? These short ones you shared are already very very good, a couple just perfect to my ear, so I think you’re well on your way to longer playing!
@TheMadman_tobyjenner
Wonderful acoustic blues, Toby!
Beautiful, calm music. This is how winners in life play
My favorites are No. 19 and No. 20.
Waiting for longer ones, thanks!
Leo
Fabulous, Toby, you’re displaying all the basic techniques so well, solid muted thump on the bass notes, thumb independence, consistency with the left hand, relaxed fingering (no flying fingers), and some use of the the left thumb (I think).
That’s some solid fingerstyle blues emanating from the Madman Studios. All pieces sounded great and showcased the techniques that you have embedded over the course of 2023.
You have developed some solid foundations and have quite a few licks under your fingers. Maybe for your consolidation you could go freestyle or arrange your own madman piece.
and I woke up this morning singing I wanted a tattoo of Ozzy and that keeps ringing/singing in my head… nonstop…
… 
These short ones you shared are already very very good, a couple just perfect to my ear, so I think you’re well on your way to longer playing! 
