Pat Kirtley
Pat Kirtley ( born in 1952 in Kentucky) is an American fingerstyle guitarist, composer and guitar teacher.
Life
Pat Kirtley grew up in a musical family in Kentucky. He learned guitar as a child under the influence of country and bluegrass music that has been heard a lot in his mother's family. In addition there were influences from classical music, which in his father's family had a high priority. 1966 Kirtley took his first unpublished original composition with the use of loop techniques. , First Kirtley did not work as a musician, but for 12 years as a sound engineer in recording studios. During this time he began recording self -composed guitar pieces that have not been published.
In 1992 he took part for the first time at the Walnut Valley Festival Guitar Competition in Winfield, Kansas. In 1994, he won the " National Thumbpicking Contest" in Mountain View, Arkansas. In the same year his first, highly acclaimed CD Kentucky Guitar appeared. In 1995 he won the coveted among American guitarist title of " National Fingerstyle Guitar Champion" Guitar Competition of the Walnut Valley Festival.
In the following years Kirtley released two more albums, 1997 Irish Guitar and Rural Life in 1998. Both CDs contain mostly his own compositions for solo guitar. Increasingly took Kirtley next solo pieces and pieces in interaction with other musicians, as on the published 2000 CD Just Listen. This tendency continued on Brazilian Guitar from 2002 still continue, it is more jazz, recorded with larger ensembles Latin and pop - oriented and. Here Pat Kirtley plays instead of the otherwise typical of his steel string guitar mainly a guitar with nylon strings. As fellow musicians he worked since 1999 on the CDs of other artists as accompanying guitarist with.
Kirtley is today a lot, concerts, organizes guitar workshops and seminars, produces videos and is constantly busy with shooting for various projects. He is co -author of a book on home recording. He also writes articles for various guitar magazines about his guitar playing, as well as recording techniques and other guitar topics so in English-language journals Onstage, Electronic Musician, Home Recording, Wood & Steel, as well as in the German magazine acoustic guitar., He represents since 1996, the American guitar company Taylor in his workshops and demonstrations in guitar shops. He is an accomplished and experienced teacher and deals besides composing and playing techniques with cross-cutting issues such as the artistic setting, developing good practice habits and techniques as well as the fear of performances and related topics.
Pat Kirtley lives in Bardstown, Kentucky.
Playing style and musical influences
Kirtleys musical influences are very diverse. He cites, among others, Chet Atkins, Jerry Reed, Les Paul, Doc Watson, Antonín Dvořák, Johann Sebastian Bach, Edgar Varèse, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Dmitri Shostakovich, Igor Stravinsky, John Cage, Harry Partch, Wendy Carlos, Jimi Hendrix, Bernard Herrmann, Dave Brubeck, Frank Zappa, David Crosby, Wes Montgomery and Keith Jarrett.
Initially heavily influenced by country music and bluegrass, he turned to the end of the 80 Irish -Celtic -inspired music and started, in addition to other open tunings to explore the DADGAD tuning, by arranging music for Irish Fiddle and Airs for Guitar .. In addition, he undertook trips to the Brazilian music. Its total repertoire defies easy categorization. His compositions interweave influences from folk and pop, celtic music and country, which it transmits with wit and deliberation on the guitar. His performances left a deep impression because of his humorous way, and his clear, expressive playing.
Since he comes from Kentucky, he is strong from the resulting there " finger picker " or " Thumbpicker " - influenced tradition of playing the guitar in the style of Chet Atkins, Merle Travis and Doc Watson. The " Thumbpicker " - tradition used a technique in which the thumb plays the most regular and rhythmic driving alternating bass while the other fingers play the melody, which is often carried out with syncopation and thus produces a swinging voltage for regular alternating bass. In addition, he is often in the style of a banjo player with a light hand running up and down strokes all or several strings, alternating with the thumbing a ( Frailing ). Kirtley plays these techniques always with plastic reinforced finger nails and a thumb pick.
He uses his alternating bass technique in a clever way such a way that the alternating bass repeatedly picks up a few notes of the theme. The use of combinations of tones of open and fretted strings are the characteristic melody he runs a typical sound. The runs he often uses as an intro at the beginning and at the end of his pieces as well as in mediating passages. His pieces are usually structured short and very clear. They often span three choruses; the theme is varied in the second and third chorus, and the main melody is added at the end again. Pat Kirtley attaches great importance to the technology of the right hand, the expression of the melody and the entire artistic expression.
Guitars and equipment
Using, and
Pat Kirtley uses on his CDs and concerts in the following guitars:
- Martin J -40
- Martin MC -28
- Taylor 710CE
- Taylor 514 -C
- Kirk Sand electric acoustics
- Godin Multiac MIDI Guitar
His favorite strings are those of the brand D' Addario Flat Top Phosphor Bronze J- 17 in the .012 to .054 inch thickness.
It uses a magnetic DiMarzio soundhole pickups for his Taylor as well as in other guitars, among others Fishman pickup. During his appearances he mixes the sound of the pickups with a good condenser microphone. As effects he uses an Alesis Nanoverb reverb unit and a Baggs Para - Acoustic - digital interface with a 5 -channel parametric equalizer.
Kirtley used in the studio next to the pickups two or three microphones, and various effects. Its equipment includes not only the Godin Multiac MIDI guitar a Roland GR -9 synthesizer, Lexicon Jamman and Lexicon Vortex, Alesis and Lexicon reverbs, which he is mixing on a Mackie mixer. Further processing is done via audio editor software, various digital recorders and analog tape recorders.
Discography
Using