My dear friends of Steemit community, this week I will play an instrumental piece called Almora.
Almora is a place in the foothills of Himalayas. There is a ridge just few km above it, from where you have a view of the highest mountains in India: Nanda Devi, Nanda Khot, Trishul and few others. You can also see part of Nepali Himalayas.
I think this composition was inspired by this magnificent view. I spent there quite a bit of time over the years, coming back over and over, staying month or two at the time. There were some other musicians there, we jammed a lot together in the evenings and in the day time I was practising some of the musical ideas from the nights before. Or creating some new ones.
I hope you will enjoy "Almora"!
Thank you for all your hard work on Open Mic: @luzcypher @pfunk @soundlegion @krystle @meno @passion-ground @verbal-d @curie @isaria
Absolutely stunning. The photo you included was a perfect companion to the piece. I was transported there immediately <3
Thank you! Have you ever been to The Himalayas?
I haven't, unfortunately. I'd love to go some day.
Yah, it's fantastic there. I am going back there in about 2 weeks.
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Almora, cool, we spent many years there also, my son Ram is born there during the Diwali fireworks :-). (In old house of Rico and Silvia), it's a small world. Beautiful piece of music!
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Great! I was there when Rico and Silvia were there. Used to visit them. Are you still in Europe or back home?
Back "home", we are in Aldona, close to Mapsa, Goa doing a school trial run. Nice vibe here, looks like we might move here. Only issue being they gave me 3 month visa, how dare they? :-)
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Oh no, I hope I will get a 6 month one. Will you still come to Gokarna in winter?
Definitely for a visit and in school holidays time and when I would have a fight with Mira, in other words not so much :-). Always welcome to bring us a visit here off course, good luck with the visa, will be OK!
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Hi shephard,
Visit curiesteem.com or join the Curie Discord community to learn more.
Yay!!! It made my day to see @shephard get the curie vote!!! He’s amazing 🙌❤️
And it made my day too, to see your support, Lilly!
I will have a great day - thanks to you! I very much appreciate your support! It helps so much!
Dear Artzonian, thanks for using the #ArtzOne hashtag. Your work is valuable to the @ArtzOne community. Quote of the week: Art, freedom and creativity will change society faster than politics. -Victor Pinchuk
Thank you @shephard for sharing this music, I love your guitar play, you are very original and it sounds so melancholic, it is like your guitar is singing. Not so many people can play like you and it is even more difficult to compose, but I believe living in such place surrounded by nature, mountains adn wind it probably makes the soul to sing and in your case your guitar makes it for you. Brilliant play!!!
Cheers, from Art-supporting blog @art-venture
This project is supported by : @alexanderfluke , @brianhphotos , @xpilar , @slowwalker , @sultan-aceh
My guitar is very old. They don't make them any more. The brand name is Yamaki and on the head it says: "The singing sound by Yamaki". And it is true. It sings, it has very special sound. In India I believe they call this style "gayaki sound". There is a very famous lady violinist N.Rajam and her sound was always described as gayaki. One of my many inspirations. Thank you so much for your comment!
WOw, that looks really impressive, I love it, that is a reason why hte sound was so special, I hope you will take care of it and please try not to damage it, if they do not produce them it would bea shame to lose such unique sounds. I really love your play, will try to keep an eye on your music :)
I try to take care of it as much as I can. Off course I travel a lot, there is lots of climate changes and it was hurt very badly few times, but I managed to fix it or had it fixed each time and somehow it developed this unique sound. I have to play it quite softly otherwise it buzzes. I heard the company was taken over by Yamaha. Shame - I've heard few more of them and they all had a very nice sound. And thanks for your support!
If I hear you playing guitar and see the picture with the mountains, I want to camp directly and enjoy a cold beer with friends around a campfire! But you have to come along and play for us ;-)
No seriously, really well done! And well deserved ups buddy!
Thanks! Maybe we'll see each other around a nice bonfire. I do it quite often.
Your fingers on right hand are amazing. I can't make that like you.
Thank you for resteeming and your comment! At some point of my guitar playing I decided that everything is possible to play by finger-picking technique. So I tried and actually after awhile it worked. For most things. But not for everything. :))) Also depends on the state of the nails... If I brake a nail, I cannot really play for up to 6 weeks.
Thanks for having me!
Hi @shephard, I truly enjoyed "Almora". Your guitar plucking and fingering is really amazing! Your fingers move very gracefully. I love every sound from the guitar and I can feel a lot of emotion from the piece - with the slow and fast plucking. Aaah.. wished I can play like you. And that is a beautiful view of the Himalayas. Thank you for sharing your music and photo with us.
Thank you for your comment! For us musicians comments like this are very inspiring.
:) Have a good weekend there @shephard!
You continue to impress me Shephard! I love your original works :)
I'm quite happy you are here sharing with us on steem!
Thank you I am still thinking how to send you that CD. Do you have Facebook? You can write me a private message there with your e-mail address.
Yes, that can work! I will find you :)
Thank you for thinking of me c;
Ok see you on fb.
My friend, this is very nice. You have a great technique in both hands and this work sounds great, it seems to have influences of Arabic music and at the same time made me remember the "Concierto de Aranjuez" on guitar by Paco de Lucía. I congratulate you for your great performance. Blessings.
LF
Wow I must say that is a first time somebody said I reminded him of something from Paco de Lucia. I am very flattered. He was one of the best ever. I mean I don't touch even his ankle.
My influence is actually more Indian than Arabic. I don't know hardly anything about makam system, I play few Arabic tunes, but probably not in a correct way. I know a bit more about Indian raga, I spent a lot of time in India and I tried to learn some classical and folk music there.
Oh great then. Indian music is amazing too, a lot of music that we normally hear has a bit of Indian. Your experience is interesting. Surely there's nothing like going to the place and making the music there...
Simply amazing, that was beautiful. I love the tones you get out of that guitar. it really resonates well holding those deep bass notes for very long periods of time. What tuning were you using? I want to say dadgad, but it almost had a bit of a minor sound to it.
I just wish I was that talented, hat's off to you and congrats on another curie vote it was much deserved for that beautiful piece.
Yes, you are right. It is DADGAD. I actually play in DADGAD almost all the time. It is my favored.
And yes this guitar has very special sound. It's quite old and though most guitars get worse with age this one seems to be getting better and better. And I was very happy for the curie vote. It sure helps a lot for getting noticed.
You definitely do well with the dadgad, I wish I was much better, but I am just a 20+ year beginner, lol. My koa wood Alvarez is about 26 years old and has developed a nice tone. I am going to have to get it worked on and the nut is wearing down and causing a bit of a rattle.
Yah, I have to get some work done on mine too, it occasionally rattles. It will need refretting in a year or so. I still have the original frets on it.
Yay, I've had mine filed a couple times but I've got pretty wide divets on the high strings now. Especially around 2 and 3 and 12.
Amazing @shephard, have you been to Himachal Pradesh and Nepal as well?
Yes, off course, many times. Now in 10 days I am going to Himachal and in about a month I will be in Nepal, too.
Thats amazing @shephard I'm planning to go with my family in a few years, how did you like Himachal?
I love Himachal! One of my favoured states in India, maybe The Favoured. The people are very nice, beautiful mountains, nature etc... Off course in the winter time it's cold.
Sound amazing @shephard some recurrent dreams lead me to one place in Himachal so I'm very curious about it :) don't care about the cold, it is hot that I worry about haha
Grateful for this wonderful privilege. I keep you to listen always.
Thank you, Mariita!