Grapthar's Song/Video of the Day: Ben Levin "Fretless Choir"
YouTube User Ben Levin - "Fretless Choir"
Ben Levin's content is actually
a new discovery for me. I have been watching Adam Neely's videos (the guy I shared yesterday re: musical fractals) and he has done a lot of stuff with Ben Levin, so a few weeks ago I wound up on Ben's YouTube page and I was blown away. He is a guitarist/composer who attended Berklee College of Music with Neely, and is a member of multiple bands, all super unique and interesting, AND he does instructional videos on YouTube, AND records his own stuff... I can't imagine he has much free time, but it's pretty awesome he can devote the whole of his time to studying, playing and writing music.
Watch the video on YouTube here.
While a lot of his videos
deal with some pretty technical aspects of music theory, this one is a performance of a piece he wrote. It was written as a chorale (4 part Vocal piece), but he intended to take it and play each voice with his fretless guitar. It's an awesome idea, Chorale and 4 part counterpoint is something you learn very early on in College music courses, but there are so many interesting, strange things you can do to keep it interesting and accomplish something new: using a fretless guitar, finding new voicings and colors to utilize, etc. Ben has a real knack for taking a basic idea (like this, or using only Sine wave synths) and finding a super cool, fresh approach to it, resulting in some incredible music.
Hope you enjoy the video! Check out all of his stuff, it's really great!
||| EP 1 - Bandcamp | EP 2 - Bandcamp | EP 3 - Bandcamp |||
||| EP 4 - Bandcamp | EP 5 - Bandcamp | EP 6- Bandcamp |||
That jacket is super awesome, wish I had one.
Wonderful musical post @grapthar
Glad you liked it!
Ben was a Berklee College of Music legend when I was at school there. He was two years ahead of me. He doesn't (or at least didn't) do any drugs, drink, or basically anything, and he told me he launched his band in first semester by booking a gig for three months away with no music or people and "having to figure it out." Just an all day erry day musician lifer.
Interesting guy, good music, good post
Hah wow that's awesome. I love his stuff, seems like a really cool dude too. Just super down with all music, all the time.