Bert Jansch and MIDI
4 videos • 77 views • by Jon Riley This playlist will be dedicated to Bert's forays into early computer notation. He got into it as soon as it became possible, on the Atari PC with C-Lab Notator in the late 1980s, using a MIDI pickup on his guitar. He clearly wanted to present and preserve his music in notated form, probably with a view to publishing it at some point - although he never managed that in his lifetime. He sent a lot of files in various formats to Mel James, a guitarist and fan, through the 1990s; and Mel has kindly passed much of it to me. Sadly a lot of it is in outdated software formats, and one of the handful of floppy discs was corrupted. But what survives gives a fascinating insight into Bert's methods, both the way he physically played the tunes (the pickup recording each string separately), and the elements he considered crucial for publication. The choice of tunes he worked on also gives an insight into his favourites at the time (mid-1990s mostly): not only current songs he was working on, but older ones he thought worth notating. As you will see from the videos, the process of working up legible notation from the raw midi data, with or without tab (he preferred notation), was complex and time-consuming. The videos in this playlist may also appear on one or more other playlists, especially if playing lessons are also involved.