My mother is really good at anthropomorphizing things. If we were driving
somewhere in the rain and we passed a house with bicycles getting soaked
in the front yard,
Mom would say "oh those poor bikes! left out in the rain! They're
probably sad." I picked up this habit, too. I was down in my studio
and I looked over at my guitars and thought "oh, I haven't done any
guitar pieces for awhile! I bet my guitars are getting lonely."
So I decided to realize a few pieces using nothing (well, almost nothing)
but my guitars. And I would use all three -- the 6-string acoustic,
my 6-string electric and my 12-string acoustic. While "surfing the web"
(remember that old locution?) I ran across several figures of guitar
tablature, one labelled "Peaceful Chords" and one labelled "Beauiful
Chords". I made them the foundation of the work.
I said these were pretty much all guitars -- even the low drone
in peaceful-chords was guitar (using an E-bow). The only
non-guitar sounds are the birds and outdoor ambience at the beginning
and end of peaceful-chords.
I modified a few of the chords, and I think I messed one up doing
beautiful-chords, but I liked the results.
Brad Garton
May, 2026
