Sean Barrett's Public Domain Music Sketchbook
Both these recordings and the compositions themselves found on
this page are in the public domain. You can do anything you
want with them without any legal obligation to give me credit,
monetary compensation, or feedback. (My email address is sean
at nothings dot org.)
The Sketchbook
These are generally quick, sloppy recordings, some written
and recorded in under a half an hour. (These days, most probably
take about two hours.) They contain glitches and mistakes; some
are excessively repetitive. The instruments are mostly guitars,
sometimes too many of them.
They're just ideas I had and kind of threw together to
see how they went.
These copies are stereo 160 kbps mp3. (Losslessly-encoded
full-quality versions are here.)
Favorites of mine and others are marked in bold.
- 2003-12-30: audio sketchbook 52 (2.9 MB) peppy extended guitar solo with syncopated resolve/hook (2:26)
- 2003-12-25: audio sketchbook 51 (4.1 MB) moody arpeggio, surprise tritone (3:32)
- 2003-12-17: audio sketchbook 50 (3.0 MB) yet another crunchy riff (2:37)
- 2003-12-10: audio sketchbook 49 (2.0 KB) aggressive bass, flanged guitar (1:47)
- 2003-12-04: audio sketchbook 48 (4.7 MB) five basses, mellow, overlong, faux metronome (4:02)
- 2003-11-28: audio sketchbook 47 (4.1 MB) overdramatized two-string phased guitar "riff" (3:33)
- 2003-11-21: audio sketchbook 46(5.0 MB) gentle open string 3/4 verse, builds to chorus, unnecessarily long (4:19)
- 2003-11-14: audio sketchbook 45 (3.0 MB) five basses, stops at end (2:31)
- 2003-11-01: audio sketchbook 44 (3.0 MB) distorted sharp 4th riff, 7/4 final section (2:27)
- 2003-10-24: audio sketchbook 43 (3.0 MB) circling "circus" guitar (2:30)
- 2003-10-08: audio sketchbook 42 (3.0 MB) manual guitar "echo" texture (2:37)
- 2003-09-22: audio sketchbook 41(2.4 MB) mellow tremolo-bass and percussion (2:06)
- 2003-09-10: audio sketchbook 40 (3.0 MB) lead noodling over swung arpeggios, breakdown (2:35)
- 2003-09-01: audio sketchbook 39(4.0 MB) more chorusy arpeggios (3:28)
- 2003-08-27: audio sketchbook 38 (4.7 MB) "epic" art rock "suite" with piano (4:00)
- 2003-08-22: audio sketchbook 37 (3.6 MB) strange 7/8 distorted riff + countdown (3:08)
- 2003-08-16: audio sketchbook 36 (2.5 MB) guitar synth solo over mock funky bass (2:09)
- 2003-08-13: audio sketchbook 35 (4.5 MB) strange dissonant guitar (3:54)
- 2003-08-07: audio sketchbook 34 (3.2 MB) 5/4 jam (2:48)
- 2003-07-31: audio sketchbook 33 (3.3 MB) Discipline-esque guitar lines, guitar synth solo noodling, 5*5*5*5 (2:51)
- 2003-07-23: audio sketchbook 32 (3.6 MB) more excessive distorted guitars doing a simple riff (3:04)
- 2003-07-17: audio sketchbook 31(4.3 MB) repetive bass line, chords, dynamics (3:43)
- 2003-07-10: audio sketchbook 30 (3.6 MB) "pretty" 5/8 chords + lead (3:04)
- 2003-07-05: audio sketchbook 29(2.6 MB) moody arpeggiated open chords, volume knob melody, digital-edit-solo bridge (2:15)
- 2003-06-30: audio sketchbook 28(2.3 MB) in your face crunchy "riff" (1:59)
- 2003-06-30: audio sketchbook 27 (3.0 MB) goofy swung time vaguely-fripp-esque running lines over yet another octave-sliding bass (2:35)
- 2003-06-22: audio sketchbook 26(4.2 MB) lead guitar B over F, chorusy rhythm guitar (3:35)
- 2003-06-16: audio sketchbook 25 (2.9 MB) sloppy grunge metal (2:32)
- 2003-06-11: audio sketchbook 24 (3.3 MB) chromatic drone over heavy bass (2:49)
- 2003-06-07: audio sketchbook 23(4.1 MB) spacey guitars with unexpected distorted riffs (3:34)
- 2003-06-02: audio sketchbook 22 (2.7 MB) weird not-quite metal thing (2:22)
- 2003-05-28: audio sketchbook 21 (4.6 MB) syncopated 5/4 chromatic bass (3:59)
- 2003-05-22: audio sketchbook 20(2.9 MB) slow processed bass, pointless jam (2:28)
- 2003-05-18: audio sketchbook 19 (2.2 MB) guitar-synth ostinato plus tuba bass... umm... yeah (1:52)
- 2003-05-11: audio sketchbook 18(5.3 MB) Bass-heavy "industrial" riff with pretty bridge (4:36)
- 2003-05-03: audio sketchbook 17 (2.0 MB) "slide" guitar and not-quite Fripp solo (1:41)
- 2003-04-27: audio sketchbook 16 (2.2 MB) odd-time signature pseudo-jazz-fusion maybe? (1:51)
- 2003-04-20: audio sketchbook 15 (3.6 MB) odd-time signature saxophone /delayed-bass groove (3:08)
- 2003-04-13: audio sketchbook 14 (3.0 MB) blues-esque solo-ing over frothy bass riff (2:34)
- 2003-04-08: audio sketchbook 13 (3.5 MB) #12 was a sequel to this but I posted out of order (3:02)
- 2003-04-05: audio sketchbook 12(2.9 MB) aggressive (but undistorted) alt rock (2:28)
- 2003-04-02: audio sketchbook 11 (3.3 MB) companion to #10 with a lead guitar melody (2:47)
- 2003-03-23: audio sketchbook 10(3.3 MB) peaceful guitar twinkling and growling (2:50)
- 2003-03-17: audio sketchbook 9 (1.5 MB) guitar solo noodling (1:17)
- 2003-03-10: audio sketchbook 8 (2.8 MB) Therapy?-esque pop metal (2:10) [this is a revised version written and recorded in about 60 minutes as a followup to the original 23-minute version]
- 2003-02-24: audio sketchbook 7 (2.4 MB) pop metal; pseudo-Therapy? (1:59) [I'd been aiming for a Zeppelinesque riff]
- 2003-02-16: audio sketchbook 6 (1.3 MB) something mock-heavy (1:06)
- 2003-02-08: audio sketchbook 5 (4.7 MB) light clean guitar circling (4:00) [sort of a consonant Sonic Youth]
- 2003-02-01: audio sketchbook 4 (3.4 MB) crunchy semi-alt rock (2:52) [imagined as backing to a vocal track]
- 2003-01-26: audio sketchbook 3 (4.3 MB) moderate arpeggio + octave-doubled slow melody (3:41)
- 2003-01-17: audio sketchbook 2 (4.5 MB) pseudo-metal, uptempo and downtempo sections (3:52)
- 2002-12-31: audio sketchbook 1 (4.2 MB) moody alt guitar (3:34)
Sketchbook Origin
The idea was inspired by seeing artists'
sketchbook postings on various web journals, and for some
reason I decided to do it roughly weekly; the idea to
put them in the public domain was inspired in part by Lore Sjoberg's public
domain tuesday weekly public domain drawings, and in part
by the fact that I have no expectation of making any money from
my music, so what the hell.
home : sean at nothings dot org