Question and Answer

pat, please answer this question. i have been buying and listening to your stuff for 16 years. i think that warrants a little of YOUR attention, dont you think?... maybe? ok, what musical gods did you summon to help play the tune "Icefire"? and don't tell me this was a total improvisation like "Goin' Ahead" cuz i wont buy it :). please tell me how this tune was played... so i can go on with my life.

your friend, sean

hi sean,

icefire was, like the tune "san lorenzo", based on the idea of taking an electric 12 string gutiar and totally restringing it with light gauge unwound strings - tuning them in fourths and fifths to each other in their pairs, and essentially making a "pentatonic/diatonic" tuning of the open strings. with that tuning in place - the piece was in fact totally improvised with a few preplanned signposts along the way - but, there was not a lot of room to move harmonically within that tuning's vocabulary. i used a guild starfire electric 12 string. (the same one i had used with the pairs tuned in unison with a conventional tuning with gary burton on his record "dreams so real").