Tag: guitar

Posted on

Improvising guitar, writing about

Studies for Guitar
© 2013 and 2020 Han-earl Park

I am very happy to announce that I will begin writing on the practice of improvisation and, and for, the adventurous guitarist. I aim to create a resource for both educators and practitioners, and the Cork City Council Arts Office has awarded me an Individual Artists’ Bursary to begin this work. As I wrote in my proposal:

A technical and practical text, it [the monograph] will be a unique and much needed contribution to the literature for, and about, the improviser and the experimental guitarist. My goal is to create a work for broad circulation that becomes a teaching, learning and theoretical resource for practitioners generally.

I aim to create a work that is part technical instruction for the guitarist with a working knowledge of musical improvisation, and a broader exploration of creative possibilities in the context of real-time, interactive performance. As a practitioner’s report, the work will not only be a reflection on the evolution of my practice and personal pedagogy, but will also be an invitation to the reader to similarly engage with their practice.

I will also be working with mentor-collaborators, and I am grateful to guitarist, improviser and composer Nick Didkovsky, improviser, composer and researcher Owen Green, and composer-improviser, researcher and mentor Richard Barrett for agreeing to read and comment on my work.

Please stay tuned: there are more parts of this project to be announced, and I will share parts of this project as they become ready.

Cork City Council Arts Office

This project was made possible with funding by the Cork City Council Arts Office.

Posted on

Two+ Bagatelles

Cover of ‘Two+ Bagatelles’ by Han-earl Park (photo copyright Jazz em Agosto / Petra Cvelbar)
Photo © Jazz em Agosto / Petra Cvelbar

Listen to some fresh-off-the-pick music, and support an awesome, not-for-profit music venue at the same time!

Out now: solo guitar studies/bagatelles by Han-earl Park. Available from The Vortex’s Bandcamp page, all purchases go towards helping their continued work presenting the very best jazz, improvised, and experimental musics.

Catherine, Nick and I had a fantastic time when we performed at The Vortex in August, and I am very happy to be able to support the venue (with its amazing crew) in this way. Plus, for those who’ve been asking me for a solo recording, here’s a super rare chance to pick up a new one.

Album available to stream via the free Bandcamp app, and download in multiple formats including lossless.

personnel

Han-earl Park (guitar).

track listing

Zero (01:03), One (10:27), Two (05:28). Total duration: 16:59.

recording details

Music by Han-earl Park.

Recorded Berlin, October 2019.

Cover photo © Jazz em Agosto / Petra Cvelbar.
Recorded and mastered by Han-earl Park.

© + ℗ 2019 The Vortex / Han-earl Park.

Posted on

thanks: Han-earl Park and Dominic Lash plus Corey Mwamba (Manchester, Cambridge and London, May 2015)

Han-earl Park, Dominic Lash and Corey Mwamba (Tubers MiniFestival, Manchester, May 2, 2015). Photo © 2015 Peter Fay.
Han-earl Park, Dominic Lash and Corey Mwamba (Manchester, May 2, 2015). Photo © 2015 Peter Fay.

Note of thanks for the performances in Manchester, Cambridge and London. Thanks in particular to our hosts (their partners and cats) and organizers: David Birchall and everyone at Tubers; David Grundy; and Alex Ward at Boat-ting (and hope you feel better soon, Sibyl Madrigal). Kudos to all the performers who shares the stage, and to Peter Fay for the documentation [more images…]. And, as always, thanks to all those who came to hear real-time music!

As for The Uncanny Dom Lash and The Astonishing Corey Mwamba, I’ll take off my hat, and bow down, to your formidable and generous musicality (a diabolical combination). I think we made music sometimes brittle, always unexpected, with no gesture lost in play.

Some things to take away from this micro-tour: talking ‘scene’ (creative communities and geographies) with David Birchall, Rex Casswell, Corey and Cathy Heyden; paying The Racially Diverse Trio of Nerdy Guys in comics (thanks to Free Comic Book Day); revisiting my take on soundart and music; finding, with Dom and Rex, unexpected musical possibilities in the imagined names of the royal baby; watching Bark! in motion—off and on-stage—an ensemble that plays like a joke where the punchline never arrives (and it’s awesome); Dom saying that “the details need to work harder”; Steve Beresford telling tales of improvised music past and present; being reminded what an imaginative, crafty and resourceful drummer Steve Noble is (he gives so much for his partners to work with); witnessing the joy of someone coax the musical from unmusical resources (Sonic Pleasure sounding masonry); performing our last gig while Dom’s bass gained a buzz and my guitar’s bridge pickup cr*pped out….

…Talking of which, if you’ll excuse me, I have a guitar to open-up and examine (and hopefully repair before Belfast).

Posted on

video: studies (Cork, 04-24-15)

For those of you who were interested in such things… a couple of exercises/studies (the second inspired by one of Brahms’) I’ve been working on for a few days. Very rough, and very much work-in-progress. No commentary or breakdown (yet), but let me know if you have questions. More to come…

Posted on

Han-earl Park amplifier appeal

Old Polytone
Update: the collection is closed. I’d like to thank everyone who contributed. Thanks. Please help me make a little noise.* I’ve managed to get through a year without a functioning guitar amplifier, choosing instead to rely on whatever amp the venue can offer, or borrow one as needed. (And, anyway, my old amp was a battered, world-traveling, budget-airline-surviving, gutted-then-kluged-together, 15 year old Polytone.) For friends and family who’d been wondering what to get me as a gift, and for those generous souls who’d like to help out this itinerant musicians, here’s your answer [update: button disabled.]:

donate disabled

All donations will go to the purchase of a new amplifier (and, depending on the breaks, an amp cover or bag). With a little luck, you’ll be hearing the results soon. Thanks. Thanks. And Thanks.

* and by noise, I mean:

updates

12–30-14: closed collection. Thanks for your generosity.

Posted on

goodbye bone, hello micarta

Just a quick note of thanks to Chris Larkin, luthier based on a peninsula of a peninsula in Ireland. Chris just setup Esprit, and thanks to him, I got introduced to linen-plastic composite as a nut material, and now know that my preferred action is 1mm on the treble side and 1.3mm on the bass.