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It’s A Beautiful Day was part of the 1960s San Francisco scene. The band was led by virtuoso violinist David LaFlamme. White Bird was their iconic masterpiece featuring a beautiful vocal duet with LaFlamme and Pattie Santos, as well as some jazzy interplay with the violin and guitar, played by Hal Wagenet.

This loose arrangement really just started when something got me interested in the opening pizzicato violin part, finding a big challenge in combining it with the bass vamp. Once I realized it might be possible, I figured I would go a little further and try to keep the rhythm going while adding both vocal parts. At that point I was committed and worked out ways to play the other sections, including four verses, three choruses, a bridge, the violin solo, the guitar solo, and even a combined interlude coming to a head before the last verse.


All of these parts open up lots of possibilities for improvisation and every time I play through it different things happen. This is my first take on video, shot about a week after starting the project, really just a rough draft in case I get sidetracked and forget about it.

Neil

White Bird


The original


Live from 1970


And recently

Wow such a pretty song. I really like the intro too.

That was truly amazing Neil! I made sure to listen to the original first and I remember the song well, but had just forgotten about it. You did bring everything together on one guitar. If I could only learn a fraction of what you can do, I'll be happy.

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I love this song from many years ago, and I remember very clearly hearing it for the first time on a road trip from Durham, NC to Virginia Beach. As an aside, I would love to see you record an album of instrumentals, on which you put this song, Black Orpheus, Rosa May, and While My Guitar Gently Weeps. I can think of several others.

Wow, that is just fantastic, Neil!
Like Jean did, I listened to the original first, to remind myself of all the parts of that song, but you really have put together a wonderful cover. Amazing that you captured all the parts, violin, vocals, everything all on a guitar.
I love it!
Lynn

Awesome Neil!!! Great arrangement. Your guitar has never sounded better. Have you added something to your sound system? Sounds like a little reverb. The bass and trebles were really beautiful.

Bill

Bill,

Thanks for the comments. I did something a little different this time, added a touch of reverb after the fact in Final Cut. For lessons and most videos I just go with audio from the camera. When I want better audio, for stuff I will put up as an Acoustic Snapshot, I go with 2 cameras and record the audio separately with a Tascam DR-100. It adds a little time to the whole editing process but not much. This was the first time I called up the reverb filter in Final Cut and it definitely adds a nice touch.

Neil

It never ceases to amaze me how you bring across, on the guitar, music that was either not written for or we’re just not used to hearing on guitar so realistically and with such feeling. Amazing! I agree with all above … in particular with Bill regarding your sound. Within the first few notes I thought “My goodness, is this Neil un-un-plugged”? For curiosities sake, were you plugged in or otherwise miked? I don’t recall ever hearing that.

♫ - Ken - ♫


Oops, you answered my question in the time it took me to write and post it ... Thanks for the info

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