About this Video
Originally written in 1927 by Lawrence Wright, Among My Souvenirs has been performed by many great artists since then like Louis Armstrong, Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra. The song itself then languished for a decade or so through the forties until Connie Francis in 1959 brought the song back to life and into the pop forefront. It's the updated arrangement at the time that gave the song its more popular appeal and it didn't hurt having the song performed by a rising star like Connie Francis.

It's the Connie Francis arrangement that has been adapted by the master guitar player Cesar Manalili on his release of the song done somewhere in the 1980's at the height of his musical popularity.

Manalili, using his trademark sound along with the backing of a pop orchestra is what appealed to me when I was first researching the next tune to adapt for Bill's Music. I only made one significant change to my adaptation and that was the choice of guitar. I opted for a classical guitar rather than an electric guitar. After much comparison, the acoustic won out. It just sounded better.

I'm playing this musical work in the Key A and to the original Manalili arrangement in 12/8 time. I had a fully orchestrated backtrack produced that matches the pop musical style and sound I wanted.

 
...oops pay attention to these points
There are several areas that need attention when playing this tune. One, the opening bars have no music for proper intro timing. Any practice track must have timing ticks inserted (at first) to make sure you enter the song correctly (there are three areas in the tune like that). I have provided a practice backtrack with the timing ticks inserted. Two, keep time with the bass player. You'll know what I mean when you hear the backtrack.

Surprisingly, my Flint pedal with reverb set to a longer sustain is all I needed to get the sound I wanted. Good 'ol Flint has come through.
 
Equipment Used and Settings

• Takamine - Classical acoustic guitar, nylon strings. Flat tonal range set using builtin EQ
• Strymon Flint Reverb, tremolo effect not used
• No vibrato needed, though it may sound more dramatic if you plan to experiment for your sound. Try it out yourself and let me know how she goes.

 
Artists and Versions
Listen for the Manalili, Frank Sinatra and Connie Francis versions on my video Playlist above this text. See Playlist icon location in upper left hand corner of the video frame - Playlist.

Audio and Video Production Tools
Audio recording is done using REAPER DAW, ART DI boxes and an ART USB based audio interface to get guitar sound to DAW.

Video production work is done in Adobe Premiere CS5. Original and final Video resolution is 1280x720p. Compression is about 7-10mb/s MP4. Youtube will transcode to their transmission specs anyway.

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