Last week, my brother Tim (a.k.a. “Bear”) came for a visit.  I hadn’t seen him in nearly 7 years.

There's big news to report!

My Harmonic Capo is getting a gear review in the October issue of Guitar Player Magazine!  Matt Blackett did the review, with some able assistance from Jude Gold, and it's going to be awesome.  I don't have a copy of the final text, but Matt was kind enough to let me see a preliminary version.  He's giving me some terrific quotes for future advertisements!  I have no doubt that this will boost my sales.

And the good news doesn't stop there.  A little bird tells me that Teja Gerken from Acoustic Guitar Magazine is going to mention the capo in an article in their November issue.  And just today, I was contacted by the editor of a German magazine, "AKUSTIK GITARRE", who also wants to do a review.

Nice.

I've just uploaded two new videos of "Frames of Reference" from my Epicycles CD.  Frames is one of my oldest compositions.  It's a three-part suite that covers a lot of stylistic territory and it lasts over 12 minutes.  Most of it is pretty easy, but playing the whole thing from end to end would be a serious challenge for me.

I say it's one of my oldest tunes, (old enough to be in standard tuning) but it was actually written over a period of about 10 years.  The source material was fragmentary and untitled for a long time before it all came together.  For some reason, this collection of diverse fragments felt right together, even though they were stylistically all over the map.  I ended up putting them together in three sections that (at the time) represented my past, present and future.

Part One dates from my High School years.  It may not be the oldest piece that I still play, but it's close.  The style is almost classical, but with a couple of Hedges-inspired departures towards the end of it.  It was originally composed on a nylon-string guitar.  You can probably tell.

Part Two is very different.  You'll hear my jazz-fusion influences in this one more than anything else on my CDs.   It's one of the very few pieces where I use a flat pick.  I've always been pretty hopeless with a pick, but this piece is probably the best I ever managed.  The main inspiration behind it was John McLaughlin.  I could never play like John, but I've always wanted to.  This one won't be easy to tap your foot to.  The time signature changes with almost every measure.

Part Three includes some of my earliest ideas after I invented the Harmonic Capo.  The capo was inspiring so many new ideas, that I was afraid I'd forget them before I could write them down or develop them into full compositions.  I ended up stringing the fragments together into a rambling sequence as a way of remembering them.  Somehow, the fragments never evolved into complete pieces and the rambling sequence took on a life of its own.  I don't know what I was thinking.  This is one of the longest pieces I ever wrote and it ends with a note that is almost impossible to play.  Yes, that last note is the second highest note on a piano.

Unfortunately YouTube has a 10 minute limit for single videos, so I had to split it up into two videos.  The first video contains Frames of Reference Parts 1 and 2.  The second video is Frames of Reference Part 3.

I hope you enjoy them!

Frames of Reference Parts 1 and 2

Frames of Reference Part 3

On the surface, my videos may seem to be little more than excuses to show off in public, but they are more than that to me.  I don't know quite how to put this in words without sounding terribly pretentious, but I really do see my videos and recordings as a way of "leaving my mark" on the world.  Seriously.  It isn't much, especially when compared to others who will leave generations of children and grandchildren to remember their names, but 50 years after I'm gone, my music may be all that will survive me.  If I'm lucky.

So, please forgive me if I make a big deal out of something so trivial as a new video.  To me, it's like announcing the birth of a child.  One always has the highest of hopes on such an occasion.  Some parents see their children as vessels for all their hopes and dreams.  That's how I see my music.

Yesterday, I gave birth to a new video.  I'm very proud.

Vintage Guitar Magazine is publishing a Gear Review of my Harmonic Capo in their April, 2008 issue.  It's not on news stands yet, but I just received a pre-release copy of what they wrote.

They've devoted almost half a page to the review, including a large photo with the headline:

"Accessory of the Year?"

I guess they liked it!  I can't quote the whole review here (at least not until the issue is off the shelves), but here are a few juicy excerpts:

"... a darn clever tone tool ... that's sure to reinvigorate the acoustic-fingerstyle scene."

"Suddenly, your guitar playing is awash in beautiful, natural harmonics - sort of like having a bell choir or celeste accompanying your six-string work."

"... acoustic fingerstylists are going to eat this beauty up."

What can I say?  Thank you, Vintage Guitar Magazine!

About a year ago, I collected what little archival videotape I could find of my guitar playing.  There wasn't much, and all of it was from over 15 years ago.  The video quality was poor and the audio quality was worse, but some of it was salvageable.  I restored what I could and posted it all on YouTube and also here on MySpace.  A lot of people seemed to like it, but it was always my intention that someday, I would record new videos.

Well, thanks to my lovely wife, Marfie, I now have a decent video recorder that is compatible with Windows Movie Maker.  And I have finally started adding to the video collection.  The first two examples are already on my main page.  One is a brand new composition called "The New World" and the other is the one-and-only video record of me playing an electric guitar.  I used to play electric a lot when I was a kid, but I never really got good at it.  I made this tape mainly to prove that my Harmonic Capo works on electric guitar.

Anyway... expect more new videos soon.  Some will be new compositions, like "The New World", and others will be old tunes that never got captured on video before.  Eventually, I'll redo all the old videos too, or make "tutorial" versions of them.  So, stay tuned.  More is coming.

If you've been waiting and waiting to get your own Harmonic Capo, your wait is finally over.  My on-line store is now officially open for business.

Visit weaseltrap.com for all the details.

I'm planning to post a number of new videos on this site very soon.  The old videos on YouTube aren't good enough quality to really show what the capo is doing.  There will also be a special demo for electric guitar.  (That'll be different!)

Thanks to everyone who helped me bring my invention to market!  This is a very exciting time for me.  I'm really looking forward to hearing what the rest of the world can do with this baby.