THE MUSICIAN AND BUILDER: THE GUITAR AS CANVAS AND VOICE

James’s passion for music extends far beyond performance. He builds his own guitars, tailoring each to produce not just a unique tone but to evoke a specific feeling. Influenced by rock and blues, and particularly inspired by Jimmy Page, James approaches guitar-building with the same precision and emotional purpose as his storytelling.

“Each guitar I build is like a character—crafted for a specific voice, a certain story it’s meant to tell.”

His compositions are mostly instrumental; but James confesses, “Just because I can’t sing, doesn’t mean I won’t.” He channels themes similar to those in his screenwriting: yearning, rebellion, reckoning. He records all his music and produces videos for each composition, often integrating narrative and imagery to heighten the emotional impact. These videos are available on his YouTube channel James’s Guitar and Recording Channel:

MY MUSIC VIDEOS

This original composition developed from a fingerpicking challenge from our online guitar instructor. Main progression is Am-C-G shapes, so up 3 frets = Cm-Eb-Bb and the Dm6-E in the middle goes up to Fm6-G. I found some awesome footage at Pexels.com https://www.pexels.com/, from Mikhail Nilov. I’m super happy with the results! Thank you, Mikhail! My gear: Taylor 914ce Line 6 Helix LT Floor Effects Ableton Live for recording Adobe Premiere for editing.

This week’s challenge from my online music training school was to write something “heavy”. I started with 80BPM in the key of E minor. As usual, I started with my acoustic, trying for “heavy”. The open chords and strong drums (beta monkey – https://www.betamonkey.com/) really helped me just beat out the rhythm. I’m getting better at making it through a whole song without taking a break. I’m really new using the electric in my practice, so this has been a true challenge for me. I tried quite a few approaches before just sort of giving up and letting the effects drench the mix. I do like the apocalyptic feel of this version. I would like it a lot more if I could just start playing better.