Id like to thank Julian for creating this contest and all the judges that have gotten involved around the world. Ive watched many of the video contest submissions and there are a lot of very talented folks out there. I am honored just to be mixed in with the pack and getting a lot more attention than normal by doing so. Sure Id gladly take that Paul Gilbert pick too and frame it with my Paul Gilbert ticket stub! lol I normally tune flat, but the contest was in natural so I tuned up to play in the right position. Because of using .010 - .052 guitar strings (Daddario XLs Light Top / Heavy Bottom) my finger tips are completely destroyed. ;) What was really cool was finally seeing the real names of the chords (thanks again Julian), since I play by ear, I never knew the proper names. Well now I do! :) By the way, if anyone wants the tab to my solo, Email me your email address and I'll send you a 2-page PDF of my chicken scratch! ;) Im playing a left-handed IBANEZ RG470. I bought it used on Ebay for $200 and then slapped the same value in pickups by replacing the passives with EMG 81s. The bridge sucked for staying in tune so I cut out some hard wood and converted it to a fixed bridge. (By removing the springs and claw and putting wood on both sides of the tremolo block) Now I can do the double-stop bends. Im still getting used to the hard tail setup. Wow!---Way harder to bend single notes (especially 1.5 steps) but worth it because of proper bending intonation. I love Ibanez tremolos, but they are a nightmare when left floating. lol Thanks for watching the video and reading the description my friends! Take care, AAron

Tags: Guitar Solo Instrumental Petrucci Fever Contest Left-Handed Aaron Shawn Gray Lefty Steve Vai Joe Satriani Paul Gilbert

Plane Ride Home & flying over LA Music Video (((VIDEO 17 NOTES))) Here's a short glimpse aboard the interior of our plane on the ground and then I focus outside for some great slow-moving landscape. There are lots of mountains and buildings to feast your eyes on. Not much to say other than I saturated it about 50% more to liven up the color my 1CCD camcorder kills it with. lol (((MUSIC 17 NOTES))) The song was a quick drum beat and bassline I made to play guitar licks over and I recorded some improvisations and did some cutting and pasting here and there to string together some flowing leads. I know it's not perfect (nothing is really) but I do enjoy the honest vibe when playing a solo with no idea what my next note should be. Sometimes I get lucky. lol Anyway, I am using my old BOSS DR-660 Drum Machine for bass and drums. And as always, I make the patterns in real-time from scratch...with custom drum kits. I tweaked the shit out of the kit to make it sound like Modern House/Rap. I think it helps the bounce of the tune. I used my PODxt amp modeller for the guitar tracks. I used some tempo delays set the same as the drum tempo to make it spacey. My goal was to induce a dreamlike effect watching it. I think I made it just to relax myself. lol This is the last Video in my San Fran series and I'll be working on my Guitar Videos next. I have so much to do in my music & media lab that I'll be busy for a long time. Thanks for watching the video(s) and I hope a few of you saw them all and got a pleasant trip down memory lane. (((SAN FRAN VIDEO SERIES INFO))) The seventeen (17) segment series took 3-months to edit and mix for your viewing pleasure. This footage is from our December 2007 SAN FRAN vacation video that I created original music for and heavily-edited the video with some wild effects (FX) using SONY Vegas DVD+ Movie Studio on my PC to be more of a music video than your 'typically shitty' home-movies with crap for sound. lol The 17 Snack-Sized Videos were broken down from my 68-minute DVD. The smaller files allowed me to render at 3Mbps, which means its High-Quality Resolution + Sound. Of course you have to select "WATCH IN HIGH-QUALITY" to benefit from that. Choosing that triples the sound and video quality. For smooth playback, hit pause and wait for the red progress bar to get a good head start before watching it. I say go pop some popcorn; get a drink; dim the lights; hit full-screen and take a mini-vacation with me. :)

Tags: San Fran California to LAX Airplane Jet Trip Music Video Left-Handed Ibanez PODxt Boss Dr-660 Aaron Shawn Gray Sony Vegas DVD+

Sutro Heights 2 - Birds and Sea at Sunset Music Video (((VIDEO 16 NOTES))) This is part 2 of Sutro Heights and continues the video right were we left off in video #15. The path looks slightly treacherous looking down on the water and rocks below, but I felt completely safe walking all over the place. At 0:48 I focus in on a rock formation in the ocean that looks exactly like a heart shape. At 1:18 the sea gulls are doing some interesting things with the waves by the rocks. It looks cool going along with the music. I do a couple pans of the entire coast running South to North, and giving the Golden Gate Bridge one last chance to steal the scene. lol I get some nice shots of the waves crashing on the rocks with the birds doing their thing at 1:56. I should also note that at 2:25 a bird glides backwards into the scene, and at 2:28 it clones itself in mid-air. That was a camcorder glitch that just freaked me out when I saw it happen. I wish I could say that was my doing. lol At 2:33 you see me running down a long path, and climbing onto an ancient building ruin, and then running back toward the camera. I Sped it up and added some wild colors to the video to make it seem cartoon-like. That was also the last footage shot of San Fran until the plane ride home the next morning. (((MUSIC 16 NOTES))) This is part 2 of Sutro Heights and is still the same song as in video #15 and continues right where the last part left off. The Oboe is still my guitar synth and my MIDI pickup tracking half decent. It sounds like a cartoon soundtrack with its goofy melodies. lol At 0:45, I am playing the riff from the Battle Ship (video #9) and the beginning of video #13. The reoccurring theme is deliberate as I am hooked on the sound of it and wanted to hear different ways of arranging it. I sample a bunch of different sounds on the Roland GR-20 guitar synth and settle on a violin /orchestra patch for the music fade out. (((SAN FRAN VIDEO SERIES INFO))) The seventeen (17) segment series took 3-months to edit and mix for your viewing pleasure. This footage is from our December 2007 SAN FRAN vacation video that I created original music for and heavily-edited the video with some wild effects (FX) using SONY Vegas DVD+ Movie Studio on my PC to be more of a music video than your 'typically shitty' home-movies with crap for sound. lol The 17 Snack-Sized Videos were broken down from my 68-minute DVD. The smaller files allowed me to render at 3Mbps, which means its High-Quality Resolution + Sound. Of course you have to select "WATCH IN HIGH-QUALITY" to benefit from that. Choosing that triples the sound and video quality. For smooth playback, hit pause and wait for the red progress bar to get a good head start before watching it. I say go pop some popcorn; get a drink; dim the lights; hit full-screen and take a mini-vacation with me. :)

Tags: San Fran California Sutro Heights Sunset Music Video Left-Handed Ibanez PODxt Boss Dr-660 Roland GR-20 Aaron Shawn Gray Sony Vegas DVD+

Sutro Heights 1 - Sunset at Land's End Music Video (((VIDEO 15 NOTES))) We begin the video walking down the trail heading towards the ocean. I captured some mind-blowing orange light-rays that were filtered through the trees. This video has some of the best sunset video I've ever captured before. At 0:25 is a movie-perfect scene that unfolded before my eyes...well, if it wasn't a consumer-quality camcorder jiggling in my hands. lol At 0:51 I accidentally pulled-off a professional "dolly-zoom" live where the background stretches out, but the foreground stays the same. They use that effect in horror movies all the time. I sped up the video after just for kicks. At 1:26 the sun creates an orange "light bulb" effect that I never knew was even possible. The only issue I have is the green "Light Saber" line that sneaks in there from time to time. That just means the sun got too direct into the lens. Damn amateurs! lol Around 3:00 I focus on the sun setting into the water as birds glide around in the sky. I think the sun looks wild with the orange cloud. (((MUSIC 15 NOTES))) Like video #14, I improvise over a drum machine loop with a bass line droning on one note. I assembled all the separate tracks into a song over 7-minutes long. This video is the first 4.5 minutes and Video #16 continues the final 3-minutes. I also threw some backwards tracks in there in a few spots to liven it up. The stuff that sounds like a guitar duet is not deliberate. That pseudo-harmony was created when I dragged the good parts around, and auditioned each of them together. It's a mind-draining process to create the illusion something is worked-out when it flew out of my ass. lol At 2:15 I introduce a piano to the song, and that was recorded on my guitar with a MIDI pickup into my Roland GR-20 Guitar Synth. The thing plays so erratic (shitty!) that you have to perform surgically-accurate on the guitar for a result that doesn't sound like the piano was thrown down a flight of stairs. lol I think I need to use the keyboard next time to save ton of time that I wasted on editing out the garbage. ;) You notice that is why I reused some of the parts through the song. Anyway, There are some nice happy accidents that occur, so I ended up calling the song "Happy Accident" :) (((SAN FRAN VIDEO SERIES INFO))) The seventeen (17) segment series took 3-months to edit and mix for your viewing pleasure. This footage is from our December 2007 SAN FRAN vacation video that I created original music for and heavily-edited the video with some wild effects (FX) using SONY Vegas DVD+ Movie Studio on my PC to be more of a music video than your 'typically shitty' home-movies with crap for sound. lol The 17 Snack-Sized Videos were broken down from my 68-minute DVD. The smaller files allowed me to render at 3Mbps, which means its High-Quality Resolution + Sound. Of course you have to select "WATCH IN HIGH-QUALITY" to benefit from that. Choosing that triples the sound and video quality. For smooth playback, hit pause and wait for the red progress bar to get a good head start before watching it. I say go pop some popcorn; get a drink; dim the lights; hit full-screen and take a mini-vacation with me. :)

Tags: San Fran California Sutro Heights Sunset Music Video Left-Handed Ibanez PODxt Boss Dr-660 Roland GR-20 Aaron Shawn Gray Sony Vegas DVD+

Presidio Park Scenery + Ordonez Gun Music Video (((VIDEO 14 NOTES))) The video picks up at the South East entrance of Presidio Park. As make our way down the path heading North, I focus on the road that divides the City from the Park. It is an amazing contrast to behold. Please excuse the jiggly camera work as I'm hiking at this point. lol I pan through the sky and trees and zoom down the path we are on before panning past a full circle at 1:15. At 1:56 I look up to the sky and follow a hawk around for a bit. It's way the hell up there too. Some of the vehicles received a slow-motion treatment to time with the music. At 2:57 I showcase the Ordonez Gun (a war prize) and the history behind it is explained on the placard. You can "pause" the video on the close-ups to read it if you want. I went nuts with the video effects here to satisfy my creative urges to make a music video out of it. lol (((MUSIC 14 NOTES))) For the entire video I used a drum beat I created that had some percussion on top of it. I droned a single note bass line to allow me to improvise in many modes without clashing. All the guitar takes were "on the spot" improvisations that I later chopped apart and sorted the best stuff together. What makes that unique is that the parts that are playing together were sequenced that way afterwards...meaning I created a new mix that never existed before sliding stuff around. Most of this composition is a clean electric guitar playing with a distorted lead melody sitting on top of it. At 2:57 I mixed two sections of the same distorted take together as a dual guitar section. I used the PODxt for all the guitar tones. (((SAN FRAN VIDEO SERIES INFO))) The seventeen (17) segment series took 3-months to edit and mix for your viewing pleasure. This footage is from our December 2007 SAN FRAN vacation video that I created original music for and heavily-edited the video with some wild effects (FX) using SONY Vegas DVD+ Movie Studio on my PC to be more of a music video than your 'typically shitty' home-movies with crap for sound. lol The 17 Snack-Sized Videos were broken down from my 68-minute DVD. The smaller files allowed me to render at 3Mbps, which means its High-Quality Resolution + Sound. Of course you have to select "WATCH IN HIGH-QUALITY" to benefit from that. Choosing that triples the sound and video quality. For smooth playback, hit pause and wait for the red progress bar to get a good head start before watching it. I say go pop some popcorn; get a drink; dim the lights; hit full-screen and take a mini-vacation with me. :)

Tags: San Fran California Presidio Park Ordonez Gun Music Video Left-Handed Ibanez PODxt Boss Dr-660 Aaron Shawn Gray Sony Vegas DVD+

Downtown, Uptown, Harbor, Ducks at the Palace, & Presidio Return Music Video (((VIDEO 13 NOTES))) We start off the video in the downtown area, but don't hang around too long before getting on our marathon walking tour. At 0:15 we are uptown checking out the area from a few angles and a steep hill that has stairs as its sidewalk. We discover this cool golden carved church door that I filmed some close-ups to. At 1:15 we are getting heading west towards the presidio. I get in plenty of shots from all 4 directions on our journey and some power zooms. At 1:46 you can see how Presidio Park is to the right side and the city ends on the left. The Presidio has its own video (Part 14), so we skip it here and move on to a view of the Harbor at 2:08. The Golden Gate sneaks its way back onto camera, but at this time I was giving more focus to the docked boats. At 2:37 we return to the Palace of Fine Arts as it was in the general vicinity of the harbor. We caught some ducks having a blast in the pond that surrounds the stone architecture. I then focus on some locations that have a great view of the dome gazebo. That dome makes it in so many videos like the Golden Gate Bridge, and Alcatraz does. lol We end the video standing on a North-Eastern section of the Presidio that we missed on our way through it the first time. (((MUSIC 13 NOTES))) Here's an interesting thing for the musicians. The video starts with the same drum beat and guitar riff as on the Battle Ship video segment #9 (Minor), except I impose the melody of this one to be entirely in a happy-sounding D-major. At 1:21 I begin playing some fast muted hammer-ons which has become my little trademark. lol At 2:08 I am playing a clean electric guitar with a phaser effect on it. At 2:37 I added the duck sounds from the camcorder...notice the wind noise. lol The music I used for the ducks until the end was a single take of clean electric guitar playing a "harmonics" improvisation. (((SAN FRAN VIDEO SERIES INFO))) The seventeen (17) segment series took 3-months to edit and mix for your viewing pleasure. This footage is from our December 2007 SAN FRAN vacation video that I created original music for and heavily-edited the video with some wild effects (FX) using SONY Vegas DVD+ Movie Studio on my PC to be more of a music video than your 'typically shitty' home-movies with crap for sound. lol The 17 Snack-Sized Videos were broken down from my 68-minute DVD. The smaller files allowed me to render at 3Mbps, which means its High-Quality Resolution + Sound. Of course you have to select "WATCH IN HIGH-QUALITY" to benefit from that. Choosing that triples the sound and video quality. For smooth playback, hit pause and wait for the red progress bar to get a good head start before watching it. I say go pop some popcorn; get a drink; dim the lights; hit full-screen and take a mini-vacation with me. :)

Tags: San Fran California Downtown Harbor View Ducks Palace Music Video Left-Handed Ibanez PODxt Boss Dr-660 Aaron Shawn Gray Sony Vegas DVD+

City View from Boat & Pier Return Music Video (((VIDEO 12 NOTES))) I had a ton of cityscape footage shot from the boat tour, so I decided that I need to make a video montage. It was difficult to choose what was cut or what stayed in as a lot of it looked to the same. I thought this was the best way to view the city buildings, as from land, buildings obstruct the panoramic detail. I got some cool bird scenes through light rays. It looked so magical that I slowed some spots down to draw focus on nature in serene motion. At 2:35 we head back to the dock. The speed looks faster than normal because I zoomed-in on the dock as we passed it. At 3:40 I colorized the video to bring out a cartoon-like quality with realism. I get a nice look at the Sea Lions from close-range and the bird closes the scene in slow-motion as the credits fade out. Cut! lol (((MUSIC 12 NOTES))) The song idea is a trimmed piece from a 7-minute long drum and bass pattern I made years ago. I use just my Boss DR-660 drum machine for that. I haven't done any guitar writing for it yet, but I think it'd end up sounding like my favorite band Dream Theater as it's progressive. lol At 3:15 I transition to a distorted electric guitar strum. At 3:39 I use a clean electric guitar strumming a chord arrangement. Most of the short music bits were just random ideas I had laying around and promoted them (as is) for part of the soundtrack. lol (((SAN FRAN VIDEO SERIES INFO))) The seventeen (17) segment series took 3-months to edit and mix for your viewing pleasure. This footage is from our December 2007 SAN FRAN vacation video that I created original music for and heavily-edited the video with some wild effects (FX) using SONY Vegas DVD+ Movie Studio on my PC to be more of a music video than your 'typically shitty' home-movies with crap for sound. lol The 17 Snack-Sized Videos were broken down from my 68-minute DVD. The smaller files allowed me to render at 3Mbps, which means its High-Quality Resolution + Sound. Of course you have to select "WATCH IN HIGH-QUALITY" to benefit from that. Choosing that triples the sound and video quality. For smooth playback, hit pause and wait for the red progress bar to get a good head start before watching it. I say go pop some popcorn; get a drink; dim the lights; hit full-screen and take a mini-vacation with me. :)

Tags: San Fran California City View from Boat Sea Lions Music Video Left-Handed Ibanez PODx3 Boss Dr-660 Aaron Shawn Gray Sony Vegas DVD+

Boat Tour of ALCATRAZ Music Video................ (((VIDEO 11 NOTES))) This video is entirely devoted to the enigmatic island of Alcatraz. So much history is here and it has extended to the big screen in some great Hollywood movies. Each scene gets progressively closer to Alcatraz, but I edited it to seem more dynamic and to make it short enough to not be boring. At 1:06 I get into plenty of close-ups of the front side of the Island. At 2:22 there is an intimate view of the back side of Alcatraz. I thought the rear of the Island was incredible as it was my first time ever seeing that and I had no idea how much stuff was going on there. I learned quite a bit just from the boat audio and that's why I left it in for everyone else to learn. We wanted to get on the Island, but that boat cruise was booked past our trip plans. We chose this cruise as it got real close to Alcatraz and did a more detailed coverage of the Island than the Alcatraz boat. That boat goes straight to the dock of Alcatraz and misses a lot of the angles we got to see. In the end we got rare video footage that can't be beat. (((MUSIC 11 NOTES))) I used the PODx3 for the bubbly underwater guitar sound and improvised the weirdest music I could think of on electric guitar. I added in sections of the boat tour audio where it was of benefit to the video. I had to trim a lot of wind noise, and people talking out to make the intense visuals the focus. I did my best to keep the audio timed originally where it was in the video with the slight manipulation to work best with the music. At 3:04 I go into a dark-sounding guitar melody. It went well with all the crazy stuff the Boat PA was blasting out its speakers. At 3:49 I transition the music and the PA voice into a low and scary-sounding thing. That's when the focus is off the Island and back on the water as we head away from Alcatraz towards shore Pier 39. I use my Boss DR-660 drum machine for the bass and drum patterns. That is actually just a snippet of the music that I use for the music to Video Segment #12. On The DVD it stays all one piece and makes more sense. lol (((SAN FRAN VIDEO SERIES INFO))) The seventeen (17) segment series took 3-months to edit and mix for your viewing pleasure. This footage is from our December 2007 SAN FRAN vacation video that I created original music for and heavily-edited the video with some wild effects (FX) using SONY Vegas DVD+ Movie Studio on my PC to be more of a music video than your 'typically shitty' home-movies with crap for sound. lol The 17 Snack-Sized Videos were broken down from my 68-minute DVD. The smaller files allowed me to render at 3Mbps, which means its High-Quality Resolution + Sound. Of course you have to select "WATCH IN HIGH-QUALITY" to benefit from that. Choosing that triples the sound and video quality. For smooth playback, hit pause and wait for the red progress bar to get a good head start before watching it. I say go pop some popcorn; get a drink; dim the lights; hit full-screen and take a mini-vacation with me. :)

Tags: San Fran California Alcatraz Music Video Left-Handed Ibanez PODx3 Boss Dr-660 Aaron Shawn Gray Sony Vegas DVD+

Pier 39 Boat Tour of the Golden Gate Bridge Music Video (((VIDEO 10 NOTES))) Let the Trip begin...not acid. lol I admit the video editing is pretty wild, but it went well with the music. This type of video coloring takes me somewhere outside the edge of reality and into a dreamlike state. I hope my mind manipulation took you there too. ;) The video goes back to normal at 0:19 but I can't promise the music did. lol At 0:57 I mess with the video speed for a "Benny Hill" British-inspired comedy bit effect. It might hurt some brains though. lol 1:21 enters with a new scene of the Golden Gate Bridge. The light rays are phenomenal! At 1:46 I focus on some sail boats with the Bridge proudly sitting in the background. At 2:33 I am underneath the bridge and getting all kinds of mind-blowing close-up footage. A bird even gives me a little show. At 3:23 I am getting some wicked sunset shots that are backlighting the bridge into a black silhouette. At 3:51 I pan the camcorder up to show a bird flying along with us overhead. (((MUSIC 10 NOTES))) This was a test recording of my new PODx3 sounds on this wild preset that sounded like you were underwater. At 0:19 I brought back the sound of the guided tour as the PA had some recorded guy periodically saying something about the tour. I went "sicko" on the audio and looped it around to be timed to the music that begins at 0:27 "This is where We-Be-Belong" The music itself is rather demented on its own as I was trying to be obnoxious with the whole tone scale. lol 1:21 begins with my 6-string bass as I mess around with the new PODx3 some more for bass tones. At 1:46 I start a clean E major pentatonic idea with the new PODx3 on my clean electric Ibanez guitar. It sounds Asian a bit on purpose as I love that happy vibe the scale creates. At 2:33 I wake everyone up with my idea of what alternative sounds like. ;) I was trying to not be technical or Metal-sounding. At 3:51 I fade back the original audio of the camcorder to show that the bird was flying with us overhead with the majestic music blaring on the PA. How Cool! (((SAN FRAN VIDEO SERIES INFO))) The seventeen (17) segment series took 3-months to edit and mix for your viewing pleasure. This footage is from our December 2007 SAN FRAN vacation video that I created original music for and heavily-edited the video with some wild effects (FX) using SONY Vegas DVD+ Movie Studio on my PC to be more of a music video than your 'typically shitty' home-movies with crap for sound. lol The 17 Snack-Sized Videos were broken down from my 68-minute DVD. The smaller files allowed me to render at 3Mbps, which means its High-Quality Resolution + Sound. Of course you have to select "WATCH IN HIGH-QUALITY" to benefit from that. Choosing that triples the sound and video quality. For smooth playback, hit pause and wait for the red progress bar to get a good head start before watching it. I say go pop some popcorn; get a drink; dim the lights; hit full-screen and take a mini-vacation with me. :)

Tags: San Fran California Pier 39 Boat Tour Golden Gate Bridge Music Video Left-Handed Ibanez PODx3 Dr-660 Aaron Shawn Gray Sony Vegas DVD+

Pier 39, Sea Lions, Birds + Battle Ship Music Video (((VIDEO 9 NOTES))) We begin on the sidewalk near Pier 39 with a bongo player. Then we are at the actual pier getting a nice view of the sea lions at 0:22. Next at 2:34 I play with slow-motion effects to maximize the detail of the birds flying around. It took a lot to get all the stuff looking timed with the music to be poetic. I hope it looks good to you. lol At 3:10 I slowly zoom in on a Battle Ship. Weird thing is the birds are having a battle for the post the one is standing on, but he won't give it up. lol 3:22 is some homemade FX to simulate that the ship is firing a canon. There is also some old movie FX to make it look like it was filmed from a past period. I end on a new view up close by the ship and added some interesting colors to the video. I can't help feel that my bitter-sweet music is intensifying the Irony of Fighting for Peace. (((MUSIC 9 NOTES))) I stuck some reverse guitar over the bongo player and faded into a guitar riff I had made just as an idea before the video came to be. I caught some man with an English accent on tape saying; "It's just the strangest thing" so I had to qualify that for him. lol I tried to make the music line up with the bongos too and it creates a polyrhythm that super-imposes my guitar's feel. 0:22 Begins actually with the tail end of another song idea I used on the beginning of Video 12. It was a program I created on my Boss DR-660 drum machine a few years ago and have yet to write guitar for it. I left the Sea Lion sound in as that adds to the realism of the footage. You'll notice it is pretty progressive in its arrangement for even being chopped in half. At 2:34 I play a mellow clean idea over the video with the flying birds. At 3:10 I use a heavy riff and drum beat to solo over. I call it "Contradiction" and I want to make a real song out of it. The rhythm guitar is a major mode, but the melody over top is not...but it works to my ears. The title is the sound and will also be the lyrical concept if I write lyrics. (((SAN FRAN VIDEO SERIES INFO))) The seventeen (17) segment series took 3-months to edit and mix for your viewing pleasure. This footage is from our December 2007 SAN FRAN vacation video that I created original music for and heavily-edited the video with some wild effects (FX) using SONY Vegas DVD+ Movie Studio on my PC to be more of a music video than your 'typically shitty' home-movies with crap for sound. lol The 17 Snack-Sized Videos were broken down from my 68-minute DVD. The smaller files allowed me to render at 3Mbps, which means its High-Quality Resolution + Sound. Of course you have to select "WATCH IN HIGH-QUALITY" to benefit from that. Choosing that triples the sound and video quality. For smooth playback, hit pause and wait for the red progress bar to get a good head start before watching it. I say go pop some popcorn; get a drink; dim the lights; hit full-screen and take a mini-vacation with me. :)

Tags: San Fran California Pier 39 Sea Lions Birds Battle Ship Music Video Left-Handed Ibanez PODxt Dr-660 Aaron Shawn Gray Sony Vegas DVD+

Deer, Leaving Yosemite + Return to City Music Video (((VIDEO 8 NOTES))) The scene begins with a family of deer by some trees. We were on the public bus that drives the park guests around to different stops in Yosemite at the time. At 0:59 I surprise the eyeballs with a close-up of a giant tree. The bark was wild looking up at it. At 1:16 begins scenery of the mountains shot from the van as we head out of Yosemite. At 1:55 I add some new exciting angles of the trees and mountains. 2:49 shows us on the road at night for a winding scenic drive. At 3:25 we are on the highway in the city. I slow-motioned the sign down to make it readable when it gets close. (((MUSIC 8 NOTES))) Here is my 6-string bass going through the PODx3. I came up with the melody on the spot while trying that sound for the first time. At 1:16 begins a song I made on the guitar and drums and dedicated to my wife Patti. At 1:55 I switch to the relative minor key. At 3:25 I turn into a bluesman. Aaron Ray Vaughan. lol (((SAN FRAN VIDEO SERIES INFO))) The seventeen (17) segment series took 3-months to edit and mix for your viewing pleasure. This footage is from our December 2007 SAN FRAN vacation video that I created original music for and heavily-edited the video with some wild effects (FX) using SONY Vegas DVD+ Movie Studio on my PC to be more of a music video than your 'typically shitty' home-movies with crap for sound. lol The 17 Snack-Sized Videos were broken down from my 68-minute DVD. The smaller files allowed me to render at 3Mbps, which means its High-Quality Resolution + Sound. Of course you have to select "WATCH IN HIGH-QUALITY" to benefit from that. Choosing that triples the sound and video quality. For smooth playback, hit pause and wait for the red progress bar to get a good head start before watching it. I say go pop some popcorn; get a drink; dim the lights; hit full-screen and take a mini-vacation with me. :)

Tags: San Fran California Yosemite National Park Mountains Deer Trees Driving Music Video Aaron Shawn Gray Lefty Left-Handed Sony Vegas DVD+

On Our Own in Yosemite National Park Music Video (((VIDEO 7 NOTES))) I start this video segment looking up at the tallest trees I've ever looked up to. I hope the video shows that in towering clarity. At 1:01 I swear I see the face of a Sea Lion in the mountain. I get to show off the bear warning display and another candid shot of Patti. lol 2:07 is an extreme close-up of ice crystals formed on a snow bank. Kind of looks like an old man with a big nose. lol I pan out to fields of snow. The most beautiful thing is the light formation of fog that sits just above the ground. I end the scene panning across some tall mountains and there are faces in there too. I see Jesus wearing a crown of thorns at 2:47 at the top right, just to name one. ;) (((MUSIC 7 NOTES))) This was part 2 of the same weird open tuning I came up with in the previous video segment and used my (Dreadnought) Carvin acoustic guitar for this as well and recorded in the same manner. This is another improvisation built for the video segment that went pretty decent. At 2:14 I went to another planet and went a little crazy. lol (((SAN FRAN VIDEO SERIES INFO))) The seventeen (17) segment series took 3-months to edit and mix for your viewing pleasure. This footage is from our December 2007 SAN FRAN vacation video that I created original music for and heavily-edited the video with some wild effects (FX) using SONY Vegas DVD+ Movie Studio on my PC to be more of a music video than your 'typically shitty' home-movies with crap for sound. lol The 17 Snack-Sized Videos were broken down from my 68-minute DVD. The smaller files allowed me to render at 3Mbps, which means its High-Quality Resolution + Sound. Of course you have to select "WATCH IN HIGH-QUALITY" to benefit from that. Choosing that triples the sound and video quality. For smooth playback, hit pause and wait for the red progress bar to get a good head start before watching it. I say go pop some popcorn; get a drink; dim the lights; hit full-screen and take a mini-vacation with me. :)

Tags: San Fran California Yosemite National Park Mountains Snow Trees Music Video Aaron Shawn Gray Lefty Carvin Acoustic Left-Handed Sony Vegas DVD+

Inside Yosemite National Park Music Video...... (((VIDEO 6 NOTES))) First of all the Scenery just Dwarfs us all as we are surrounded by gigantic mountains. El Capitan gets some love by means of a close-up. I get an awesome shot of the Bridal Veil Falls at the end of the video. (((MUSIC 6 NOTES))) This was a weird open tuning I came up with and used my (Dreadnought) Carvin acoustic guitar for this. I recorded it through the output jack into my PODxt as well. 1:10 is where the magic happens for me. Other than that it's another improvisation built for the video segment that went pretty decent. (((SAN FRAN VIDEO SERIES INFO))) The seventeen (17) segment series took 3-months to edit and mix for your viewing pleasure. This footage is from our December 2007 SAN FRAN vacation video that I created original music for and heavily-edited the video with some wild effects (FX) using SONY Vegas DVD+ Movie Studio on my PC to be more of a music video than your 'typically shitty' home-movies with crap for sound. lol The 17 Snack-Sized Videos were broken down from my 68-minute DVD. The smaller files allowed me to render at 3Mbps, which means its High-Quality Resolution + Sound. Of course you have to select "WATCH IN HIGH-QUALITY" to benefit from that. Choosing that triples the sound and video quality. For smooth playback, hit pause and wait for the red progress bar to get a good head start before watching it. I say go pop some popcorn; get a drink; dim the lights; hit full-screen and take a mini-vacation with me. :)

Tags: San Fran California Yosemite National Park Mountains Trees Waterfall Music Video Aaron Shawn Gray Lefty Carvin Acoustic Left-Handed Sony Vegas DVD+

Heading into Yosemite National Park Music Video (((VIDEO 5 NOTES))) This is our drive into Yosemite National Park. At 1:00 we are out of the van and on our feet. What a great panorama with all the natural sun reflections giving a light ray effect of purple diamonds. Thank you nature! We get to see snow for the first time in awhile. The snowy mountains are awesome indeed. After viewing all the breathtaking nature scenes I transition to the new location using my wife Patti. She is usually on the camera as I'm the video taper of the family. She is also The Wedding Singer in my Video Favorites. Plug! lol (((MUSIC 5 NOTES))) The clean guitar idea was written for this section of film. It sounds easy, but I am doing some weird pull-off technique to get it to sound bouncy. The little bits of melody that are on top of the 1st guitar were Improvised Takes...Starting at 1:00 I looped a few spots around to add to the video impact on scene changes. The cat's out of the bag now. lol I used a PODxt and my custom built ZENABI guitar. I used an old right-handed Ibanez neck for the project if you missed the joke. lol (((SAN FRAN VIDEO SERIES INFO))) The seventeen (17) segment series took 3-months to edit and mix for your viewing pleasure. This footage is from our December 2007 SAN FRAN vacation video that I created original music for and heavily-edited the video with some wild effects (FX) using SONY Vegas DVD+ Movie Studio on my PC to be more of a music video than your 'typically shitty' home-movies with crap for sound. lol The 17 Snack-Sized Videos were broken down from my 68-minute DVD. The smaller files allowed me to render at 3Mbps, which means its High-Quality Resolution + Sound. Of course you have to select "WATCH IN HIGH-QUALITY" to benefit from that. Choosing that triples the sound and video quality. For smooth playback, hit pause and wait for the red progress bar to get a good head start before watching it. I say go pop some popcorn; get a drink; dim the lights; hit full-screen and take a mini-vacation with me. :)

Tags: San Fran California Heading into Yosemite National Park Music Video Aaron Shawn Gray Lefty Carvin Acoustic Left-Handed Sony Vegas DVD+

Palace of Fine Arts Music Video................ (((VIDEO 4 NOTES))) This video takes place at the Palace of fine Arts and focuses mainly on the marvelous architecture. The sun is setting and it is absolutely awe-inspiring in contrast to the ancient columns. (((MUSIC 4 NOTES))) The soundtrack for this video is a clean solo improvisation on guitar in the key of Emaj. pentatonic Sounds peaceful and relaxing and it was recorded specifically to use here. At 1:50 is a random unused guitar idea I came up with and recorded a harmony to. At 2:23 I return to the clean celestial sounds of the major scale until the video wraps up. (((SAN FRAN VIDEO SERIES INFO))) The seventeen (17) segment series took 3-months to edit and mix for your viewing pleasure. This footage is from our December 2007 SAN FRAN vacation video that I created original music for and heavily-edited the video with some wild effects (FX) using SONY Vegas DVD+ Movie Studio on my PC to be more of a music video than your 'typically shitty' home-movies with crap for sound. lol The 17 Snack-Sized Videos were broken down from my 68-minute DVD. The smaller files allowed me to render at 3Mbps, which means its High-Quality Resolution + Sound. Of course you have to select "WATCH IN HIGH-QUALITY" to benefit from that. Choosing that triples the sound and video quality. For smooth playback, hit pause and wait for the red progress bar to get a good head start before watching it. I say go pop some popcorn; get a drink; dim the lights; hit full-screen and take a mini-vacation with me. :)

Tags: San Fran California Palace of Fine Arts Music Video Aaron Shawn Gray Lefty Ibanez Left-Handed PODxt Sony Vegas DVD+

Golden Gate Bridge & Golden Gate Park...... (((VIDEO 3 NOTES))) Here is a slow-paced and friendly view of Golden Gate Park with sweet little kids terrorizing the birds. lol Then Golden Gate Bridge from the car is next with some trippy video editing. Once we are on foot, I get some good bay shots (because of the setting sun) and a head-on view of the bridge. The next bit looks like a tugboat race, but who knows. I end the video in the car and going through the tunnel back to Downtown San Fran. I went wacko with the video effects there too. (((MUSIC 3 NOTES))) It starts with a very mellow clean electric guitar that'll start to put you to sleep followed by some crazy distorted mayhem on the Golden Gate Bridge. That is actually a chunk of my old song Bliss. The clean idea that follows is a remake of the intro to my old song "The Last Time" from my old band Last Laff from a long time ago. The weird thing that follows is my electric guitar clean and I'm two-hand tapping ala Joe, Eddie and Stanley. The last tune with clean and distorted guitars was just a random idea I recorded before and had laying around on my computer. (((SAN FRAN VIDEO SERIES INFO))) The seventeen (17) segment series took 3-months to edit and mix for your viewing pleasure. This footage is from our December 2007 SAN FRAN vacation video that I created original music for and heavily-edited the video with some wild effects (FX) using SONY Vegas DVD+ Movie Studio on my PC to be more of a music video than your 'typically shitty' home-movies with crap for sound. lol The 17 Snack-Sized Videos were broken down from my 68-minute DVD. The smaller files allowed me to render at 3Mbps, which means its High-Quality Resolution + Sound. Of course you have to select "WATCH IN HIGH-QUALITY" to benefit from that. Choosing that triples the sound and video quality. For smooth playback, hit pause and wait for the red progress bar to get a good head start before watching it. I say go pop some popcorn; get a drink; dim the lights; hit full-screen and take a mini-vacation with me. :)

Tags: San Fran California Golden Gate Park Bridge Music Video Aaron Shawn Gray Lefty Ibanez PODxt BOSS DR-660 Sony Vegas DVD+

Haight & Ashbury, Amoeba Music Graffiti Alley (((VIDEO 2 NOTES))) Here is a close encounter with the amazing graffiti painted on both sides of the AMOEBA MUSIC alley on Haight Street. You see my wife Patti and our friend Connie (our tour guide for the day) at the end of the alley art festival. I get a shot of a carved tree in a store and then we move down to the corner of Haight and Ashbury for a street sign close-up followed by a bunch of street pans. There's just so much to see and we blast through both sides of the street. I get some more graffiti footage on the other side of the street directly across from Amoeba Music, as well as a trip to the other end of Haight St . (((MUSIC 2 NOTES))) The starting music is an electric guitar harmony that is distorted with an improvisation counterpoint melody that is a clean tone. It is a classically-influenced idea. The rap beat is made from scratch in [Kinetic] Software. It is a program I have no clue how to use so you would rarely hear anymore kit sounds like this again. The next thing is another artist's music playing over a store speaker system as I zoom in on a tree carving. I basically kept whatever original audio that helped the video out. I deleted a lot of the city and vehicle noise. The next idea over the street sign is clean electric guitar that kind of clipped digitally in a few spots, but it had a vibe that I couldn't get twice. As always, I time-sequenced the visuals to my songs and I feel it is more relaxing that way. (((SAN FRAN VIDEO SERIES INFO))) The seventeen (17) segment series took 3-months to edit and mix for your viewing pleasure. This footage is from our December 2007 SAN FRAN vacation video that I created original music for and heavily-edited the video with some wild effects (FX) using SONY Vegas DVD+ Movie Studio on my PC to be more of a music video than your 'typically shitty' home-movies with crap for sound. lol The 17 Snack-Sized Videos were broken down from my 68-minute DVD. The smaller files allowed me to render at 3Mbps, which means its High-Quality Resolution + Sound. Of course you have to select "WATCH IN HIGH-QUALITY" to benefit from that. Choosing that triples the sound and video quality. For smooth playback, hit pause and wait for the red progress bar to get a good head start before watching it. I say go pop some popcorn; get a drink; dim the lights; hit full-screen and take a mini-vacation with me. :)

Tags: San Fran California Haight Ashbury Amoeba Graffiti Music Video Aaron Shawn Gray Lefty Ibanez PODxt BOSS DR-660 Sony Vegas DVD+

Bush St. Hotel, Chinatown, City Walk, Lombard St. (((VIDEO 1 NOTES))) The video starts as we are going down the elevator into the lobby of our hotel on Bush Street and heading towards Chinatown on foot. I caught a couple of old ladies picking pop cans out of the trash in Chinatown using long metal tongs and I swear one said: "MY BAD!" It was just so hilarious it had to be left in the video. lol After that, I got some nice street footage of the city in action (crazy edits) as we headed North towards Lombard. We also came across an incredible looking church. At 3:11 it turns into a cool Gangsta-Rap Video thing with a cop car chase across the bottom part of Lombard...well that's how my editing made it look. Lol A trolley car also is caught on tape. It ends on a view from the top of Lombard looking down onto the cars inching down the steep hill and finally panning out towards the city and up to the blue moon. (((MUSIC 1 NOTES))) Most of the music for this series segment was programmed on my Yamaha QY70 mini-keyboard sequencer. The last song is just my guitar playing through a Line 6 PODx3. I was just trying out it as it was new and I was using the factory presets for sound tests. The decent tests ended up here. Most the original audio was traffic noise so it was not used. That's really the reason all this turned into a huge music video project. lol (((SAN FRAN VIDEO SERIES INFO))) The seventeen (17) segment series took 3-months to edit and mix for your viewing pleasure. This footage is from our December 2007 SAN FRAN vacation video that I created original music for and heavily-edited the video with some wild effects (FX) using SONY Vegas DVD+ Movie Studio on my PC to be more of a music video than your 'typically shitty' home-movies with crap for sound. lol The 17 Snack-Sized Videos were broken down from my 68-minute DVD. The smaller files allowed me to render at 3Mbps, which means its High-Quality Resolution + Sound. Of course you have to select "WATCH IN HIGH-QUALITY" to benefit from that. Choosing that triples the sound and video quality. For smooth playback, hit pause and wait for the red progress bar to get a good head start before watching it. I say go pop some popcorn; get a drink; dim the lights; hit full-screen and take a mini-vacation with me. :)

Tags: San Fran California Bush Street Chinatown City Walk Lombard St. Music Video Aaron Shawn Gray PODx3 Yamaha QY70 Sony Vegas DVD+

PART 2 of: (S)pastic (A)coustic (N)oodling (F)rom (R)ockin (A)aron's (N)oggin Hence the Acronym: SAN FRAN! While on vacation in San Fran last December (2007) I decided to check out the Guitar Center as it was walking distance from our hotel. I couldn't find any decent electric guitars to riff on, and the place was your typical *Guitar Noise Zoo*, so I went into the acoustic room and it was so quiet and peaceful...awwww serenity now. lol I found a MARTIN Acoustic guitar and had never seen one of this quality or price, so I had to bless my ears with the rich tone that only rich people can afford. lol (not me obviously) My wife Patti video taped me for a good 20 minutes as she hates music stores for the chaos that goes on in them always gives her a migrane. ;) I was tired and didn't bring my A-game anyway, so we just captured a few memories on the guitar and got out of there before we got guilted into buying something. lol I chopped out a few SHIT Sections of the video as I was a mindless zombie on 3 hours sleep and we were walking all over the city sightseeing so we were *mentally and physically spent*. I was hoping for something amazing to pour out of me like my Guitar Center Rampage or Whammy Pedal Wankage, (but hey!) Acoustic Guitar is a shitload harder to show off on and it really holds back the wanking prowess big time. So that's my excuse. lol Acoustically Speaking...I have a lot of practice to do before I feel 100% comfortable on one...I'll stick to electric for my wanking. lol I have part 1 uploaded right before this one because I didn't think anyone could handle 10 straight minutes of this, so I split it up into two sections. It improved the video quality too...running at 3mbps compression. Full Screen High Resolution Mode is actually watchable if you have a lightning connection or let it load up before playing it! This video has more crazy tapping, like my usual self. I promise to put some serious *original song* videos up here with excellent sound quality. (not video camera crap mic like this. lol) That doesn't mean I won't wank while on vacation at the nearest music store, as I can't help myself. lol Take care and thanks for watching the video and actually reading the description...I'm proud of you. lol And if anyone thinks I suck...they should just keep it to themselve's because I'll just block the user and remove the nasty comment. lol ;) Say Love E

Tags: Guitar Center SAN FRAN Left-Handed Martin Acoustic Strumming 2-Hand Tapping Wankage Aaron Shawn Gray Vacation Video

Here's some: (S)pastic (A)coustic (N)oodling (F)rom (R)ockin (A)aron's (N)oggin Hence the Acronym: SAN FRAN! While on vacation in San Fran last December (2007) I decided to check out the Guitar Center as it was walking distance from our hotel. I couldn't find any decent electric guitars to riff on, and the place was your typical *Guitar Noise Zoo*, so I went into the acoustic room and it was so quiet and peaceful...awwww serenity now. lol I found a MARTIN Acoustic guitar and had never seen one of this quality or price, so I had to bless my ears with the rich tone that only rich people can afford. lol (not me obviously) My wife Patti video taped me for a good 20 minutes as she hates music stores for the chaos that goes on in them always gives her a migrane. ;) I was tired and didn't bring my A-game anyway, so we just captured a few memories on the guitar and got out of there before we got guilted into buying something. lol I chopped out a few SHIT Sections of the video as I was a mindless zombie on 3 hours sleep and we were walking all over the city sightseeing so we were *mentally and physically spent*. I was hoping for something amazing to pour out of me like my Guitar Center Rampage or Whammy Pedal Wankage, (but hey!) Acoustic Guitar is a shitload harder to show off on and it really holds back the wanking prowess big time. So that's my excuse. lol Acoustically Speaking...I have a lot of practice to do before I feel 100% comfortable on one...I'll stick to electric for my wanking. lol I have a part 2 to this video shot the same time, but I didn't think anyone could handle 10 minutes of this, so I split it up into two sections. Part 2 has more crazy tapping, that if you know me, you'd expect to hear. I promise to put some serious *original song* videos up here with excellent sound quality. That doesn't mean I won't wank while on vacation at the nearest music store, as I just can't help myself. lol Take care and thanks for watching the video and actually reading the description...I'm proud of you. lol And if anyone thinks I suck...they should just keep it to themselve's because I'll just block the user and remove the nasty comment. lol ;) Say Love E

Tags: Guitar Center SAN FRAN Left-Handed Martin Acoustic Strumming 2-Hand Tapping Wankage Aaron Shawn Gray Vacation Rampage