Welcome to our growing series of guitar master classes in Phil’s music, by Fred T Baker.
In each video class, Fred provides comprehensive instructions and detailed examples with a close up section on videos and links to other recordings.
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Calyx is one of Phil’s earliest compositions dating from 1973 and has been played ever since in the many bands Phil has played in. Lyrics by Robert Wyatt. |
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Phil wrote Flashpoint for Fred as a duet for guitar and bass. In this masterclass Fred employs the use of his jam man to play the guitar part and accompanies himself on bass. You can find Flashpoint on the CD Conspiracy Theories recorded with a sextet. |
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A Lock In refers to the practice of locking the Pub’s doors after the last call to keep out the prying eyes of the law. It conjures up the picture of two guys on guitars having a jam after hours. Phil wrote this piece as a duo for himself and Fred Baker and you can hear it on their latest CD Double Up 2 from Crescent Discs (available from Discogs) |
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Second Sight was the first composition Phil wrote using the bass guitar as a melodic instrument. Written at the beginning of the 80’s when Phil was forming his own band, initially called The Phil Miller Quartet, it would become the first of several compositions featuring the bass, often used by Phil and Fred for duo performances. |
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Out There This is the first of Fred T Baker’s masterclasses for guitar and bass guitar duo for Royal Birmingham Conservatoire students intending to enter for the Phil Miller Guitar Prize which now includes duo as well as solo guitar entries. |
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Early Days Here Fred presents Phil’s Early Days from the CD Out of the Blue as a piece for solo guitar. Although this piece is played by a sextet on the CD, Fred still manages to get a full band feel into this arrangement. |
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Green and Purple This master class shows how Phil’s use of the whole form of the Symmetric scale in Green and Purple is actually the up-side-down version which gives you a whole different set of harmony and chords. |
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Truly Yours Phil uses two melodies at the same time, played side by side. This multi-linear technique gives the music a multi-faceted effect. |
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God Song is one of Phil’s earlier pieces, written at the beginning of the 1970’s when he was the guitarist in Matching Mole. Robert Wyatt wrote lyrics for this piece. |
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Phrygian Blues Dedicated to his brother Steve, this piece appears in Phil’s CD Out of the Blue which harks back to their early days playing together. A blues in the Phrygian scale with a Spanish feel, it shows how his early influences affected his later work. |
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Underdub Phil was inspired to write this piece after listening to the playing of Charlie Parker. It is well known for it’s appearance in the Hatfield & The North repertoire and has been played all over the world. |