Steve Morse on recording his version of Joy To The World for Steve Vai’s Merry Axemas – A Guitar Album
How did this piece come about, with you appearing on Steve Vai’s Merry Axemas - A Guitar Christmas?
I had previously approached him and many other guitarists to do a classical track each for a project, and he has always been easy to talk music with, as well as an absolutely incredible talent.
What do you like about this Christmas classic?
I like most of all, the fact that Steve let me do my own arrangement totally. People that know me are aware that I always write parts which don’t exist, for existing classics. It was nice to try my hand at creating a selfstanding arrangement along the lines of a ‘legit’ composition, then mix that with rock guitar influences at the end.
Your arrangement is precisely crafted with various steel-string, nylon-string, 12-string and electric guitars. How did you go about structuring it and how long did it take?
I have to take my time with these kinds of projects. I remember I was working on some of my own compositions at the time, so I kept coming back to it every few days to listen to what I had already recorded. That way, you can come the closest to actually being objective about your work. I find that when I do a lot in one session, that when I come back with fresh ears, I don’t like all of what I did. There’s a diminishing return with ploughing through, just to get finished. I realise that LOTS of very successful people do work in long shifts and get their work done, but for something that requires me to think of complicated layers, that living with the parts over and over in my head, recording them, then listening with some time pause gives me the best results. The main thing I wanted all the way through was a driving rhythm. Sometimes that drive comes from the arpeggiated part rather than the chugging rhythm. The acoustic and clean guitars were used to provide a change for the ear. The classical guitar (hard to hear in some spots) was often the instrument I wrote the transposing and counterpoint parts on, then I layered electric sounds until I was happy with the balance.
How did you achieve such a big, clear rock sound, without parts clashing and without drums or bass?
When we hear an orchestra, without huge percussion, it allows us to hear and feel quite a bit of variation. Like when you hear a piece for violin and piano, the music can convey hugely dynamic and colourful changes without percussion. One thing that was helpful for me was to play to a click, but listen without it, to hear what was needed, or not. When there was only a single melody, such as the ‘Joy to the world’ line, I used cascading imitation with different sounds to help keep the energy up
