From c818c43dccd142f8c6a69538d9149f59002a8b36 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Sean Date: Tue, 7 Apr 2026 16:21:02 -0400 Subject: [PATCH] Add is_creative_request reaorganize books. --- Books/Accounting/Account.txt | 209 + Books/Accounting/BankFeed.txt | 415 + Books/Accounting/BillingChange.txt | 169 + Books/Accounting/CashReceipts.txt | 155 + Books/Accounting/Common.txt | 137 + Books/Accounting/Endorsement.txt | 171 + Books/Accounting/Fifo.txt | 172 + Books/Accounting/Integrations.txt | 160 + Books/Accounting/Oracle/Oracle.txt | 7718 +++++++++++++++++ Books/Accounting/PayoffBalance.txt | 151 + Books/Accounting/Policy.txt | 193 + Books/Accounting/Quote.txt | 121 + Books/Accounting/Repository.txt | 125 + Books/Accounting/Services.txt | 117 + Books/Accounting/Starter.txt | 92 + Books/Accounting/StructuredTags.txt | 102 + Books/Music/Articles/Gilmore.txt | 29 + Books/Music/Articles/Gilmore2.txt | 10 + Books/Music/Articles/Gilmore3.txt | 34 + Books/Music/Articles/Gilmore4.txt | 111 + Books/Music/Articles/Gilmore5.txt | 69 + Books/Music/Articles/Satriani.txt | 1596 ++++ Books/Music/Articles/Satriani2.txt | 36 + Books/Music/Articles/Satriani3.txt | 35 + Books/Music/Articles/Satriani4.txt | 57 + Books/Music/Articles/Satriani5.txt | 11 + Books/Music/Articles/Satriani6.txt | 53 + ...Strange Beautiful Music - Joe Satriani.txt | 2589 ++++++ .../Songwriting - Bernstein, Samuel.txt | 0 .../Writing Better Lyrics - Pattison, Pat.txt | 0 Books/Music/Theory/Augmented Chords.txt | 102 + .../Basic Music Thoery For Beginners.txt | 313 + Books/Music/{ => Theory}/Jazz Theory.txt | 0 Books/Music/Theory/Modal_Scale_Reference.txt | 90 + Books/Music/Theory/extracted_book.txt | 0 Chartwell.py | 68 +- Scales.py | 38 + 37 files changed, 15425 insertions(+), 23 deletions(-) create mode 100644 Books/Accounting/Account.txt create mode 100644 Books/Accounting/BankFeed.txt create mode 100644 Books/Accounting/BillingChange.txt create mode 100644 Books/Accounting/CashReceipts.txt create mode 100644 Books/Accounting/Common.txt create mode 100644 Books/Accounting/Endorsement.txt create mode 100644 Books/Accounting/Fifo.txt create mode 100644 Books/Accounting/Integrations.txt create mode 100644 Books/Accounting/Oracle/Oracle.txt create mode 100644 Books/Accounting/PayoffBalance.txt create mode 100644 Books/Accounting/Policy.txt create mode 100644 Books/Accounting/Quote.txt create mode 100644 Books/Accounting/Repository.txt create mode 100644 Books/Accounting/Services.txt create mode 100644 Books/Accounting/Starter.txt create mode 100644 Books/Accounting/StructuredTags.txt create mode 100644 Books/Music/Articles/Gilmore.txt create mode 100644 Books/Music/Articles/Gilmore2.txt create mode 100644 Books/Music/Articles/Gilmore3.txt create mode 100644 Books/Music/Articles/Gilmore4.txt create mode 100644 Books/Music/Articles/Gilmore5.txt create mode 100644 Books/Music/Articles/Satriani.txt create mode 100644 Books/Music/Articles/Satriani2.txt create mode 100644 Books/Music/Articles/Satriani3.txt create mode 100644 Books/Music/Articles/Satriani4.txt create mode 100644 Books/Music/Articles/Satriani5.txt create mode 100644 Books/Music/Articles/Satriani6.txt create mode 100644 Books/Music/Books/Strange Beautiful Music - Joe Satriani.txt rename Books/{ => Music}/SongWriting/Songwriting - Bernstein, Samuel.txt (100%) rename Books/{ => Music}/SongWriting/Writing Better Lyrics - Pattison, Pat.txt (100%) create mode 100644 Books/Music/Theory/Augmented Chords.txt create mode 100644 Books/Music/Theory/Basic Music Thoery For Beginners.txt rename Books/Music/{ => Theory}/Jazz Theory.txt (100%) create mode 100644 Books/Music/Theory/Modal_Scale_Reference.txt create mode 100644 Books/Music/Theory/extracted_book.txt create mode 100644 Scales.py diff --git a/Books/Accounting/Account.txt b/Books/Accounting/Account.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..cdebc20 --- /dev/null +++ b/Books/Accounting/Account.txt @@ -0,0 +1,209 @@ +Title: ProcessAccountLinkUpdateLambda Component +Metadata: +• module: Account +• component: ProcessAccountLinkUpdateLambda +• type: component +• domain: Account Management +• system: Oracle Fusion +Content: +Purpose: AWS Lambda function that updates Oracle customer account descriptions with linked external account numbers using standardized HFA prefix format (see HFA Account Description Prefix Format Rule). +Processing Logic: +• Accepts AccountLinkUpdateDto containing ExistingCustomer and NewLinkedAccountNumber +• Accesses first account in ExistingCustomer.Accounts[0] +• Updates AccountDescription field using HFA prefix +• Returns modified OracleCustomer object +Key Rules: +• Always updates first account in collection +• Lambda configuration: 256MB memory, 30-second timeout +• Mutates input object in place +Example Questions: +• How does the system link external accounts to Oracle customers? +• Which Lambda updates Oracle customer account descriptions? +• What format is used for linked account descriptions in Oracle? + +Title: ProcessRetailCustomerNumberFromISeriesLambda Component +Metadata: +• module: Account +• component: ProcessRetailCustomerNumberFromISeriesLambda +• type: component +• domain: Account Management +• system: iSeries +Content: +Purpose: AWS Lambda function that extracts retail customer numbers from iSeries legacy account key identifiers (see iSeries Account Key Substring Extraction Rule). +Processing Logic: +• Accepts RetailCustomerNumberRequest containing iSeriesAccountKey +• Applies substring extraction: positions 5–11, length 7 +• Returns 7-character retail customer number string +Key Rules: +• Zero-based indexing: start at position 5 +• Requires minimum key length of 12 characters +• Lambda configuration: 256MB memory, 30-second timeout +• No input validation implemented +Example Questions: +• How do you extract retail customer numbers from iSeries keys? +• Which Lambda processes iSeries account identifiers? +• What is the retail customer number extraction logic? + +Title: AccountLinkUpdateDto Data Transfer Object +Metadata: +• module: Account +• component: AccountLinkUpdateDto +• type: component +• domain: Account Management +• system: Oracle Fusion +Content: +Purpose: DTO that encapsulates customer and account linking information for account update operations. +Processing Logic: +• Contains ExistingCustomer (OracleCustomer) +• Contains NewLinkedAccountNumber (string) +• Simple property container for Lambda input +Key Rules: +• Located in Accounting.Orchestration.Account.Dto namespace +• References OracleCustomer model +• No validation logic +Example Questions: +• What data is needed to link an account to an Oracle customer? +• Which DTO is used for account linking operations? +• What properties does AccountLinkUpdateDto contain? + +Title: RetailCustomerNumberRequest Input Model +Metadata: +• module: Account +• component: RetailCustomerNumberRequest +• type: component +• domain: Account Management +• system: iSeries +Content: +Purpose: Input model for retail customer number extraction Lambda. +Processing Logic: +• Single property: iSeriesAccountKey (string) +• Passed directly to ProcessRetailCustomerNumberFromISeriesLambda +Key Rules: +• Must contain complete iSeries account key, minimum 12 characters +• Property uses camelCase +• No validation implemented +Example Questions: +• What input does the retail customer number extraction Lambda expect? +• How is the iSeries account key passed to the extraction function? +• What is the structure of RetailCustomerNumberRequest? + +Title: HFA Account Description Prefix Format Rule +Metadata: +• module: Account +• component: N/A +• type: rule +• domain: Account Management +• system: Oracle Fusion +Content: +Purpose: Standardized format for Oracle account descriptions when linking external accounts. +Processing Logic: +• Prefix: "HFA_" +• Format template: HFA_{LinkedAccountNumber} +• Applied during ProcessAccountLinkUpdateLambda +Key Rules: +• Prefix is underscore-delimited +• Overwrites Accounts[0].AccountDescription +• No validation on linked account number format +Example Questions: +• What format is used for linked account descriptions? +• What does the HFA_ prefix indicate? +• How are external account numbers stored in Oracle customer records? + +Title: iSeries Account Key Substring Extraction Rule +Metadata: +• module: Account +• component: N/A +• type: rule +• domain: Account Management +• system: iSeries +Content: +Purpose: Defines extraction logic for retail customer numbers from iSeries keys. +Processing Logic: +• Start: index 5 (zero-based) +• Length: 7 characters +• Method: Substring(5, 7) +• Returns characters at positions 5–11 inclusive +Key Rules: +• Input key must have minimum length 12 +• Fixed-position extraction +• Case-sensitive +Example Questions: +• How many characters are in an iSeries retail customer number? +• At what position does the customer number appear? +• What substring operation extracts customer numbers from iSeries keys? + +Title: Account Linking Workflow +Metadata: +• module: Account +• component: N/A +• type: workflow +• domain: Account Management +• system: Oracle Fusion +Content: +Purpose: Process for linking external account numbers to Oracle customer records. +Processing Logic: + +Retrieve ExistingCustomer +Obtain NewLinkedAccountNumber +Package into AccountLinkUpdateDto +Invoke ProcessAccountLinkUpdateLambda +Lambda updates Accounts[0].AccountDescription with HFA prefix +Return modified customer +Persist to Oracle +Key Rules: +• Only first account updated +• Overwrites previous description +• No validation +Example Questions: +• What is the process for linking external accounts? +• How does account linking modify Oracle data? +• Which account in collection receives the linked number? + +Title: iSeries Customer Number Extraction Workflow +Metadata: +• module: Account +• component: N/A +• type: workflow +• domain: Account Management +• system: iSeries +Content: +Purpose: Process for extracting retail customer numbers from iSeries keys for lookup. +Processing Logic: + +Receive iSeries account key +Package into RetailCustomerNumberRequest +Invoke ProcessRetailCustomerNumberFromISeriesLambda +Lambda executes Substring(5,7) +Return 7-character customer number +Use extracted number for downstream lookup +Key Rules: +• Single-step transformation +• Stateless, no caching +• No validation +Example Questions: +• How are retail customer numbers obtained from iSeries? +• What workflow extracts customer identifiers from legacy keys? +• How many steps are in the extraction process? + +Title: iSeries Account Key Structure Concept +Metadata: +• module: Account +• component: N/A +• type: concept +• domain: Account Management +• system: iSeries +Content: +Purpose: Defines structure of iSeries legacy account keys for customer number extraction. +Processing Logic: +• Positions 0–4: prefix/qualifier +• Positions 5–11: retail customer number +• Positions 12+: optional suffix/metadata +• Fixed-position format, no delimiters +• Minimum key length: 12 +Key Rules: +• Customer number always at positions 5–11 +• Structure consistent across all iSeries keys +Example Questions: +• What is the structure of an iSeries account key? +• Where is the customer number located? +• How long is an iSeries account key identifier? diff --git a/Books/Accounting/BankFeed.txt b/Books/Accounting/BankFeed.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2103949 --- /dev/null +++ b/Books/Accounting/BankFeed.txt @@ -0,0 +1,415 @@ +BankFeeds Module — RAG Knowledge Base (Optimized) + +Chunk 1: BankFeeds Module Overview +Metadata: +• module: BankFeeds +• component: N/A +• type: overview +• domain: PaymentProcessing +• system: AWS Step Functions +• purpose: Bank feed ingestion, transformation, and Oracle posting +• tags: stepFunctionPipeline, multiBank, orchestration + +Content: +Purpose: Multi-stage AWS Step Functions pipeline for processing bank payment feeds into Oracle AR cash receipts. +Processing Logic: + +Stage 1: Parse raw bank feed rows into PaymentRecord objects. +Stage 2: Enrich PaymentRecords into CashReceipt objects. +Stage 3: Group CashReceipts into ClientBatch for Oracle OIC submission. +Supported Banks: U.S. Bank Lockbox, U.S. Bank ELockbox (electronic), First Horizon Bank. +Integration: Oracle Integration Cloud (OIC) for AR posting, DynamoDB for state, CloudWatch for metrics. +Key Concepts: payment record transformation, orphan detection, chargeback handling, policy validation, batch submission. +References: ParseBankFeedLambda Stage, EnrichmentLambda Stage, GroupingLambda Stage + +Chunk 2: ParseBankFeedLambda Stage +Metadata: +• module: BankFeeds +• component: ParseBankFeedLambda +• type: component +• domain: PaymentProcessing +• system: AWS Lambda +• stage: 1 +• purpose: Raw feed parsing +• tags: parser, lambda, bankFeed +• references: IBankFeedParser, Orphan Detection and Handling + +Content: +Purpose: Converts raw bank feed rows into PaymentRecord objects. +Processing Logic: + +Receives StepFunctionContext with FeedType, BatchReference, RawRows. +Resolves appropriate parser via IBankFeedParserResolver. +Invokes parser.ParseAsync to produce Payments, OrphanRemits, OrphanChecks, Errors, ChargeBacks. +Wraps in try-catch; logs exceptions; fails Step Function task on unexpected errors. +Output: Payments array, OrphanRemits/OrphanChecks, Errors list, ChargeBacks list. +Key Rules: StepFunctionContext updated per batch; errors do not halt entire batch; first stage of 3-stage pipeline. + +Chunk 3: EnrichmentLambda Stage +Metadata: +• module: BankFeeds +• component: EnrichmentLambda +• type: component +• domain: PaymentProcessing +• system: AWS Lambda +• stage: 2 +• purpose: Payment enrichment +• tags: enrichment, lambda +• references: Lockbox Enrichment Pipeline, ELockbox Enrichment Pipeline, First Horizon Enrichment Pipeline + +Content: +Purpose: Transforms PaymentRecord objects into CashReceipt objects. +Processing Logic: + +Resolves bank-specific enrichment pipeline via IBankFeedEnrichmentPipelineResolver. +Calls pipeline.EnrichPayments with Payments array. +Handles empty payment arrays without breaking workflow. +Logs payment counts or reports no payments with orphan counts. +Output: Receipts array in StepFunctionContext. + +Chunk 4: GroupingLambda Stage +Metadata: +• module: BankFeeds +• component: GroupingLambda +• type: component +• domain: PaymentProcessing +• system: AWS Lambda +• stage: 3 +• purpose: Cash receipt batching +• tags: batch, aggregation, lambda +• references: ClientBatch Model + +Content: +Purpose: Aggregates CashReceipt objects into ClientBatch for Oracle submission. +Processing Logic: + +Creates ClientBatch using BatchReference. +Adds all CashReceipts to batch. +Serializes batch to JSON (BatchJson). +Sets Status to Completed and ExecutionCompletedUtc timestamp. +Publishes EnrichmentLogSummary via IBankFeedMetricsPublisher if available. +Validation: Throws InvalidOperationException if Receipts null or empty. + +Chunk 5: Lockbox Parser (U.S. Bank) +Metadata: +• module: BankFeeds +• component: LockboxParser +• type: component +• domain: PaymentProcessing +• system: U.S. Bank +• feedType: Lockbox +• purpose: Parse paper check/remit feeds +• tags: parser, checkRemit, validation +• references: PaymentRecord Model, Orphan Detection and Handling, Transaction Validation Rules + +Content: +Purpose: Parses Lockbox feeds with check and remittance rows. +Processing Logic: + +Groups rows by integer TransactionId. +Pairs remits to checks. +Validates check total equals sum of remits within $0.01 tolerance. +Orphan checks/remits collected and logged. +Returns PaymentRecord objects for paired transactions. + +Chunk 6: ELockbox Parser (U.S. Bank Electronic) +Metadata: +• module: BankFeeds +• component: ELockboxParser +• type: component +• domain: PaymentProcessing +• system: U.S. Bank +• feedType: ELockbox +• purpose: Parse electronic Lockbox feeds +• tags: parser, electronic, checkRemit +• references: PaymentRecord Model, Orphan Detection and Handling + +Content: +Purpose: Parses electronic Lockbox feeds using string TransactionId. +Processing Logic: + +Groups rows by string TransactionId. +Pairs REMIT and CHECK rows. +Assigns PolicyNumber to ReceiptNumber. +Orphan remits/checks logged; no balance validation. +Returns PaymentRecord objects for paired transactions. + +Chunk 7: First Horizon Parser +Metadata: +• module: BankFeeds +• component: FirstHorizonParser +• type: component +• domain: PaymentProcessing +• system: First Horizon Bank +• feedType: FirstHorizon +• purpose: Parse simple payment rows and detect chargebacks +• tags: parser, chargeback +• references: PaymentRecord Model, ChargebackRecord Model + +Content: +Purpose: Parses single-row-per-payment structure; detects chargebacks. +Processing Logic: + +Creates PaymentRecord for each valid payment. +Identifies chargebacks via ReturnIndicator → IsChargeback flag. +Logs ChargebackRecord; excludes chargebacks from enrichment. + +Chunk 8: PaymentRecord Model +Metadata: +• module: BankFeeds +• component: PaymentRecord +• type: model +• domain: PaymentProcessing +• system: AWS Lambda +• purpose: Intermediate payment representation +• tags: parserOutput, enrichmentInput +• references: RemittanceDetail Model, CashReceipt Model + +Content: +Properties: InternalPolicyNumber, CustomerAccountNumber, Amount, Currency, PaymentDate, ReceiptNumber, Remittances (list of RemittanceDetail). +Usage: Created by parser, consumed by enrichment pipeline. + +Chunk 9: CashReceipt Model +Metadata: +• module: BankFeeds +• component: CashReceipt +• type: model +• domain: OracleAR +• system: Oracle Fusion +• purpose: AR cash receipt record +• tags: oracleDocument, enrichmentOutput +• references: PaymentRecord Model, Policy Number Validation + +Content: +Properties: ReceiptNumber, ReceiptMethod, BusinessUnit, Amount, Currency, ReferenceNumber, BusinessGroup, IntercompanyPaymentReference, UnidentifiedFundsClassification, RefundInvoiceNumber. +Logic: Matches valid policy → ReceiptMatchBy="Purchase Order"; invalid → UnidentifiedFundsClassification set. + +Chunk 10: ClientBatch Model +Metadata: +• module: BankFeeds +• component: ClientBatch +• type: model +• domain: OracleAR +• system: Oracle Fusion +• purpose: Grouped CashReceipts for OIC submission +• tags: batch, serialization +• references: CashReceipt Model + +Content: +Properties: BatchReference, Receipts array. +Methods: Add(CashReceipt), Count. +Serialization: JsonProperty attributes for Oracle OIC. + +Chunk 11: RemittanceDetail Model +Metadata: +• module: BankFeeds +• component: RemittanceDetail +• type: model +• domain: PaymentProcessing +• system: AWS Lambda +• purpose: Invoice-level remittance detail +• tags: lineItem, parserOutput +• references: PaymentRecord Model, CashReceipt Model + +Content: +Represents amount applied to an invoice/policy. +Parsed from Lockbox REMIT rows; multiple per PaymentRecord; generates CashReceipt per remittance. + +Chunk 12: ChargebackRecord Model +Metadata: +• module: BankFeeds +• component: ChargebackRecord +• type: model +• domain: PaymentProcessing +• system: First Horizon Bank +• purpose: Track returned payments +• tags: exceptionTracking, chargeback +• references: First Horizon Parser + +Content: +Properties: PolicyNumber, Amount, Reason, PaymentDate. +First Horizon parser sets IsChargeback; stored in ParseResult.ChargeBacks; not enriched downstream. + +Chunk 13: StepFunctionContext Model +Metadata: +• module: BankFeeds +• component: StepFunctionContext +• type: model +• domain: PaymentProcessing +• system: AWS Step Functions +• purpose: Workflow state container +• tags: context, stateObject +• references: All Lambda Stages, ClientBatch Model + +Content: +Properties: FeedType, BatchReference, RawRows, Payments, OrphanRemits, OrphanChecks, Errors, ChargeBacks, Receipts, BatchJson, Status, ExecutionCompletedUtc. +Lifecycle: Created by Step Function → parser → enrichment → grouping. +Serialization: JSON between Lambda invocations. + +Chunk 14: Lockbox Enrichment Pipeline +Metadata: +• module: BankFeeds +• component: LockboxEnrichmentPipeline +• type: component +• domain: PaymentProcessing +• system: AWS Lambda +• feedType: Lockbox +• purpose: Convert PaymentRecords to CashReceipts +• tags: enrichment, policyValidation +• references: PaymentRecord Model, CashReceipt Model, Policy Number Validation + +Content: + +Iterates PaymentRecord.Remittances. +Validates policy using RegexPatterns.PolicyRegex. +Creates CashReceipt per RemittanceDetail; sets ReferenceNumber if policy valid; otherwise sets UnidentifiedFundsClassification. +ReceiptMethod="HFA US Bank", BusinessUnit/Group=HFA constants. + +Chunk 15: ELockbox Enrichment Pipeline +Metadata: +• module: BankFeeds +• component: ELockBoxEnrichmentPipeline +• type: component +• domain: PaymentProcessing +• system: AWS Lambda +• feedType: ELockbox +• purpose: Convert electronic PaymentRecords to CashReceipts +• tags: enrichment, electronic +• references: PaymentRecord Model, CashReceipt Model, Policy Number Validation + +Content: +Similar to Lockbox enrichment; tailored to electronic feed; validates policy; creates receipts per remittance. ReceiptMethod adjusted for electronic. + +Chunk 16: First Horizon Enrichment Pipeline +Metadata: +• module: BankFeeds +• component: FirstHorizonEnrichmentPipeline +• type: component +• domain: PaymentProcessing +• system: AWS Lambda +• feedType: FirstHorizon +• purpose: Convert PaymentRecords to CashReceipts using confirmation numbers +• tags: enrichment, chargebackExcluded +• references: PaymentRecord Model, CashReceipt Model + +Content: +Creates one CashReceipt per PaymentRecord; validates policy; confirmation number → ReceiptNumber. Chargebacks excluded. + +Chunk 17: Orphan Detection and Handling +Metadata: +• module: BankFeeds +• component: N/A +• type: rule +• domain: PaymentProcessing +• system: All Lockbox Banks +• purpose: Identify unmatched check/remit rows +• tags: exceptionTracking +• references: ParseBankFeedLambda, LockboxParser, ELockboxParser + +Content: + +OrphanChecks: checks without remits; added to ParseResult.OrphanChecks. +OrphanRemits: remits without checks; added to ParseResult.OrphanRemits. +Logged as errors; require manual research. + +Chunk 18: Transaction Validation Rules +Metadata: +• module: BankFeeds +• component: N/A +• type: rule +• domain: PaymentProcessing +• system: Lockbox +• purpose: Ensure payment data integrity +• tags: validation +• references: Lockbox Parser + +Content: + +Check amount = sum of remits (tolerance $0.01). +Duplicate check detection per TransactionId. +Missing check numbers flagged. +Unbalanced transactions logged as errors. + +Chunk 19: Policy Number Validation +Metadata: +• module: BankFeeds +• component: RegexPatterns.PolicyRegex +• type: rule +• domain: PaymentProcessing +• system: Oracle Fusion +• purpose: Validate policy numbers for Oracle matching +• tags: validation, receiptMatching +• references: Lockbox Enrichment Pipeline, First Horizon Enrichment Pipeline + +Content: +Valid policy → ReceiptMatchBy="Purchase Order", ReferenceNumber set. Invalid/missing → UnidentifiedFundsClassification applied. + +Chunk 20: Business Unit, Legal Entity, and Receipt Method Defaults +Metadata: +• module: BankFeeds +• component: CashReceiptConstants +• type: concept +• domain: Oracle AR +• system: Oracle Fusion +• purpose: Organizational defaults for receipts +• tags: configuration +• references: CashReceipt Model, Enrichment Pipelines + +Content: + +BusinessUnit_HFABU, BusinessGroup_HFA, LegalEntity_HfaLegalEntityID. +CurrencyUSD applied. +ReceiptMethod bank-specific: Lockbox="HFA US Bank". + +Chunk 21: Error Collection and Reporting +Metadata: +• module: BankFeeds +• component: ParseResult.Errors +• type: concept +• domain: PaymentProcessing +• system: All Banks +• purpose: Track parsing/enrichment errors +• tags: errorHandling +• references: ParseBankFeedLambda, EnrichmentLambda + +Content: + +Logs balance failures, duplicates, orphan rows, unknown types. +Does not halt processing; partial batches allowed. +Included in EnrichmentLogSummary for monitoring. + +Chunk 22: Use Case — Standard Lockbox Processing +Metadata: +• module: BankFeeds +• component: N/A +• type: workflow +• domain: PaymentProcessing +• system: U.S. Bank +• purpose: Daily Lockbox batch processing +• tags: workflow, example +• references: Lockbox Parser, Lockbox Enrichment Pipeline, GroupingLambda Stage + +Content: +Scenario: Daily Lockbox file received with check/remit data. + +Parser pairs checks/remits, validates balances. +Enrichment pipeline creates CashReceipts per remittance with policy validation. +GroupingLambda submits ClientBatch to Oracle OIC. +Orphans tracked for manual research. + +Chunk 23: Use Case — First Horizon Chargeback Detection +Metadata: +• module: BankFeeds +• component: N/A +• type: workflow +• domain: PaymentProcessing +• system: First Horizon Bank +• purpose: Detect returned payments +• tags: workflow, example +• references: First Horizon Parser, ChargebackRecord Model + +Content: +Scenario: Feed includes payment flagged as ReturnIndicator. + +Parser sets IsChargeback, creates ChargebackRecord. +Chargebacks excluded from enrichment; logged for potential future processing. diff --git a/Books/Accounting/BillingChange.txt b/Books/Accounting/BillingChange.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..db8ea34 --- /dev/null +++ b/Books/Accounting/BillingChange.txt @@ -0,0 +1,169 @@ +BillingChange Module - Optimized RAG Knowledge Base + +Chunk 1: Module Overview +Metadata: module=BillingChange, type=overview, location=CMH.HFA.Accounting.Orchestration/src/BillingChange, domain=billingModifications, purpose=midTermBillingAdjustments, components=5, scenarios=2 +Purpose: Handles mid-term policy billing modifications requiring coordinated credit memo and invoice generation workflows. +Scope: + +Billing plan changes (payment schedule modifications) +Billing type changes (internal/external lender transitions) +Components: BillingPlanChangeLambda, BillingTypeChangeLambda, BillingChangeService, BillingChangeModel, BillingTypeChangeDto +Integration Points: Oracle Fusion AR (invoice/credit memo posting), Oracle OIC (memo line lookups) +Key Concepts: credit memo reversal, invoice regeneration, double-entry accounting, payment term changes, billing type transitions + +Chunk 2: BillingPlanChangeLambda – GetCreditMemo Operation +Metadata: component=BillingPlanChangeLambda, type=Lambda, operation=GetCreditMemo, scenario=planChange, output=CreditMemo, references=BillingChangeService, BillingPlanChangeDto +Purpose: Creates credit memo reversing original billing plan charges for mid-term plan change. +Input: BillingPlanChangeDto (OracleCustomer, OracleInvoice, NewBillingPlan) +Processing: Delegates to BillingChangeService.MapCreditMemo with BillingChangeEvent.PlanChange +Output: CreditMemo object with negated amounts, mapped transaction type, organizational defaults (BU=HFA, LegalEntity=HFA ID) +Validation: Ensures original invoice exists and has AR clearing lines; throws InvalidOperationException if not + +Chunk 3: BillingPlanChangeLambda – GetInvoice Operation +Metadata: component=BillingPlanChangeLambda, type=Lambda, operation=GetInvoice, scenario=planChange, output=OracleInvoice, references=BillingChangeService, BillingPlanChangeDto +Purpose: Creates new invoice with updated payment terms +Input: BillingPlanChangeDto +Processing: Delegates to BillingChangeService.MapInvoicePlanChange, preserves original premium amount, maps transaction type based on original Internal/External classification +Output: OracleInvoice with new payment terms, accounting date set to today, AR clearing line applied +Use Case: Customer switches from monthly to annual or vice versa mid-term + +Chunk 4: BillingTypeChangeLambda – GetCreditMemo Operation +Metadata: component=BillingTypeChangeLambda, type=Lambda, operation=GetCreditMemo, scenario=typeChange, output=CreditMemo, references=BillingChangeService, BillingTypeChangeDto +Purpose: Creates credit memo reversing original billing type charges +Input: BillingTypeChangeDto (OracleCustomer, OracleInvoice, UnpaidServiceFee) +Processing: Delegates to BillingChangeService.MapCreditMemo with BillingChangeEvent.TypeChange +Amount: InvoiceBalanceAmount minus absolute UnpaidServiceFee +Output: CreditMemo with negated amounts, classification preserved (no flip), organizational defaults applied + +Chunk 5: BillingTypeChangeLambda – GetInvoice Operation +Metadata: component=BillingTypeChangeLambda, type=Lambda, operation=GetInvoice, scenario=typeChange, output=OracleInvoice, references=BillingChangeService, BillingTypeChangeDto +Purpose: Creates invoice for billing type transition with balance adjustment for unpaid fees +Processing: + +ShallowCopy of original invoice, clears TransactionID +TransactionType mapped via MapInvoiceBillingTypeTransactionType (Internal ↔ External flip) +PaymentTerms reset to "1 Pay Plan" +InvoiceBalanceAmount reduced by unpaid service fee +AccountingDate set to today +Validation: Throws exception if due date parsing fails + +Chunk 6: BillingTypeChangeLambda – IsBillingTypeChanged Operation +Metadata: component=BillingTypeChangeLambda, type=Lambda, operation=IsBillingTypeChanged, scenario=typeChange, output=bool, references=BillingTypeChangeDto, BillingChangeStatic +Purpose: Determines if billing type change is required +Logic: + +Parses original type using GetTransactionType +Evaluates NewBillingType vs OtherInterest.InternalLender +Returns true if classification (Internal/External) differs +Validation: Supports only "OtherInterest" or "Client"; throws ArgumentOutOfRangeException for unsupported values + +Chunk 7: BillingChangeService – MapCreditMemo Method +Metadata: component=BillingChangeService, type=serviceMethod, operation=MapCreditMemo, references=BuildTransactionLines, BillingChangeModel +Purpose: Generates reversal credit memo for plan or type change +Processing: + +Extracts AR clearing lines via IMemoLookup +Negates UnitPrice for reversal +Maps TransactionType (plan/type) +Sets organizational defaults (BU, LegalEntity, Currency=USD) +TransactionDate and AccountingDate set to today +Output: CreditMemo object ready for AR posting + +Chunk 8: BillingChangeService – MapInvoicePlanChange Method +Metadata: component=BillingChangeService, type=serviceMethod, operation=MapInvoicePlanChange, scenario=planChange, references=BuildTransactionLines +Purpose: Creates new invoice reflecting updated billing plan +Processing: + +Preserves premium amount and original invoice metadata +Updates PaymentTerms to NewBillingPlan +Maps TransactionType via MapInvoiceBillingPlanTransactionType +Includes AR clearing line only +Output: OracleInvoice ready for posting + +Chunk 9: BillingChangeService – MapInvoiceTypeChange Method +Metadata: component=BillingChangeService, type=serviceMethod, operation=MapInvoiceTypeChange, scenario=typeChange, references=BuildTransactionLines +Purpose: Creates invoice for billing type transition with balance adjustment +Processing: + +Shallow copy of original invoice +Flip transaction type Internal ↔ External +Reduce InvoiceBalanceAmount by unpaid service fee +Reset PaymentTerms to "1 Pay Plan" +Set AccountingDate and TransactionDate to today +Validation: Ensures due date is valid + +Chunk 10: BuildTransactionLines Method +Metadata: component=BillingChangeService, type=helperMethod, purpose=transactionLineConstruction +Purpose: Builds transaction lines for invoices and credit memos +Logic: + +Filters memo lines by action type (PlanChange/TypeChange) and AR clearing type +Generates sequential LineNumbers +Calculates UnitPrice using GetDistributionAmountByAssurantStatus +Output: List ready for document assignment + +Chunk 11: Transaction Type Parsing and Mapping +Metadata: component=BillingChangeService, type=helperMethod, references=BillingChangeStatic +Purpose: Determine Internal/External classification and map to codes +Methods: + +GetTransactionType: Parses string aliases (Internal: "internal","intern","int"; External: "external","extern","ext") +MapInvoiceBillingPlanTransactionType: preserves classification +MapInvoiceBillingTypeTransactionType: flips classification +MapCreditMemoBillingPlan/TypeTransactionType: preserves classification +Purpose: Ensures proper GL posting based on original or transitioned type + +Chunk 12: BillingChangeModel Enumerations and Static Data +Metadata: module=BillingChange, type=model, references=BillingChangeService, DTOs +Purpose: Define billing change events, transaction types, and alias dictionaries +Details: + +BillingChangeEvent: PlanChange, TypeChange +TransactionType: Internal, External +BillingChangeStatic: arrays of aliases, mapping dictionaries + +Chunk 13: DTOs – BillingTypeChangeDto & IsBillingTypeChangedDto +Metadata: type=DTOs, references=BillingTypeChangeLambda +Purpose: Encapsulate input parameters for Lambda functions +Fields: + +BillingTypeChangeDto: OracleCustomer, OracleInvoice, UnpaidServiceFee +IsBillingTypeChangedDto: OriginalTransactionType, NewBillingType, OtherInterest + +Chunk 14: Business Rules – Unpaid Service Fee +Metadata: concept=unpaidServiceFee, scope=typeChange +Purpose: Adjust invoice balances for unpaid service fees +Applies To: Type change only +Logic: MapInvoiceTypeChange reduces InvoiceBalanceAmount, MapCreditMemo subtracts absolute UnpaidServiceFee + +Chunk 15: Double-Entry Accounting Pattern +Metadata: pattern=doubleEntry, documents=2, sequence=creditThenInvoice +Purpose: Maintain accounting integrity and audit trail +Flow: Credit memo first (negates original charges) → Invoice second (applies new charges) +Orchestration: Typically coordinated by Step Function calling GetCreditMemo → Oracle Integration → GetInvoice → Oracle Integration + +Chunk 16: Use Case – Plan Change Scenario +Metadata: useCase=planChange, trigger=customerRequest +Scenario: Customer switches from monthly → annual payment plan +Processing: Credit memo reverses original charges → Invoice generated with new payment terms → AR posting via Oracle + +Chunk 17: Use Case – Type Change Scenario (Internal ↔ External) +Metadata: useCase=typeChange, trigger=customerRequest +Scenarios: + +Internal → External: Credit memo with Internal codes, invoice flips to External, adjusts for unpaid fees +External → Internal: Credit memo with External codes, invoice flips to Internal, adjusts for unpaid fees +Change Detection: IsBillingTypeChanged prevents unnecessary processing if classification unchanged + +Chunk 18: Search Queries Supported +Metadata: type=queryPatterns, purpose=RAGRetrieval +Sample Queries: + +"How are billing plan changes processed?" +"Which Lambda functions handle billing type changes?" +"How are credit memos and invoices generated?" +"What transaction codes apply for plan or type changes?" +"How are unpaid service fees applied?" +"How does internal vs external classification affect billing changes?" +"How are AR clearing lines selected?" +"What is the double-entry pattern for billing modifications?" \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/Books/Accounting/CashReceipts.txt b/Books/Accounting/CashReceipts.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1a51c96 --- /dev/null +++ b/Books/Accounting/CashReceipts.txt @@ -0,0 +1,155 @@ +CashReceipts Module – Optimized RAG Knowledge Base + +Chunk 1: Module Overview +Metadata: module=CashReceipts, type=paymentProcessing, location=CMH.HFA.Accounting.Orchestration/src/CashReceipts, domain=retailPayments, purpose=paymentApplication, components=7, scenarios=2 +Purpose: Handles retail dealer payment events and applies those payments to outstanding invoice installments in Oracle AR. +Scope: + +Stage 1: Cash receipt creation from retail payment events +Stage 2: Payment application to specific invoice installments +Components: MapCashReceipt, MapCashReceiptApplication, OracleCashReceipt, OracleCashReceiptApplication, RetailPaymentEventPayload, MapCashReceiptDto, ApplyInvoiceDto +Integration Points: Oracle Fusion AR (receipt/application posting), retail payment event system, policy invoice retrieval +Key Concepts: cash receipt creation, installment-level application, unapplied amount tracking, greedy allocation, retail dealer payments + +Chunk 2: MapCashReceipt Lambda Function +Metadata: component=MapCashReceipt, type=Lambda, operation=receiptCreation, pattern=eventTransformation, deployment=serverless, references=MapCashReceiptDto, OracleCashReceipt +Purpose: Converts retail payment events into Oracle AR cash receipt records +Input: MapCashReceiptDto (OracleCustomer + RetailPaymentEventPayload) +Processing: Extracts amount, policy number, date, receipt number; formats receipt as "Retail Deal {ReceiptNumber}"; sets UnappliedAmount = full payment amount +Output: OracleCashReceipt object ready for Oracle integration +Lambda Config: Execution role, 256MB memory, 30s timeout +Use Case: Payment captured via POS or dealer portal; needs receipt before application + +Chunk 3: MapCashReceiptApplication Lambda Function +Metadata: component=MapCashReceiptApplication, type=Lambda, operation=paymentApplication, pattern=greedyAllocation, deployment=serverless, references=ApplyInvoiceDto, OracleCashReceiptApplication +Purpose: Applies cash receipt to invoice installments sequentially +Input: ApplyInvoiceDto (OracleCashReceipt + array of OracleInstallment) +Processing: Iterates installments while UnappliedAmount > 0; applied amount = MIN(installment balance, unapplied amount); creates OracleCashReceiptApplication; reduces UnappliedAmount +Output: List linking receipt to installments +Allocation Pattern: Greedy sequential, supports partial payments, stops when receipt exhausted or all installments paid + +Chunk 4: OracleCashReceipt Model +Metadata: model=OracleCashReceipt, type=document, purpose=receiptRecord, oracleModule=AR +Description: Represents cash receipt record in Oracle Fusion AR, tracking unapplied payments +Key Properties: + +ReceiptId, ReceiptNumber (formatted), ReceiptDate +Amount, UnappliedAmount, Currency=USD +CustomerAccountNumber, BusinessUnit=HFA, BusinessGroup=HFA +ReceiptMethod="HFA I/C Retail" +AccountingDate, PolicyNumber, IntercompanyPaymentReference +Mutable State: UnappliedAmount decreases as payment applied +Purpose: Enables separate AR receipt creation before payment application + +Chunk 5: OracleCashReceiptApplication Model +Metadata: model=OracleCashReceiptApplication, type=transaction, purpose=paymentApplication, granularity=installment +Description: Represents application of receipt to a specific installment +Key Properties: + +ActionType="Apply", AmountApplied, ReceiptNumber/Id/Date, ReceiptMethod +CustomerTrxId (invoice), Installment sequence, ApplicationDate, AccountingDate +CustomerAccountNumber, optional Comments/Ids/Currency +Installment-Level: Enables precise payment tracking +Purpose: Links payments to invoice installments for aging and collections + +Chunk 6: RetailPaymentEventPayload Model +Metadata: model=RetailPaymentEventPayload, type=eventPayload, source=retailSystem, requiredFields=6 +Properties: AccountSourceReference, ReceiptNumber, PolicyNumber, ReceiptMethod, ReceiptDate, Amount, IntercompanyPaymentReference +Event Wrapper: RetailPaymentEventMessage extends EventMessage +Purpose: Standardized payment event structure from POS, portal, or payment processor + +Chunk 7: MapCashReceiptDto +Metadata: model=MapCashReceiptDto, type=inputDTO, purpose=receiptCreation, components=2 +Properties: Customer (OracleCustomer), RetailPaymentEventPayload +Deconstruction: Enables tuple unpacking in Lambda handler +Usage: Input to MapCashReceipt Lambda, passed from Step Function orchestration +Purpose: Combines customer lookup and event payload for single Lambda invocation + +Chunk 8: ApplyInvoiceDto +Metadata: model=ApplyInvoiceDto, type=inputDTO, purpose=paymentApplication, components=2 +Properties: CashReceipt (OracleCashReceipt with ReceiptId), Installments (OracleInstallment[]) +Deconstruction: Supports tuple unpacking in Lambda +Usage: Input to MapCashReceiptApplication Lambda +Purpose: Packages receipt and target installments for application processing + +Chunk 9: Greedy Payment Allocation Algorithm +Metadata: algorithm=greedyAllocation, pattern=sequential, stopCondition=dual, precision=decimal +Description: Sequentially applies receipt to installments until fully applied or installments exhausted +Logic: MIN(installment balance, UnappliedAmount); create application record; decrement UnappliedAmount +Partial Payment Support: Allows installments to be partially paid; supports overpayment +Purpose: Matches Oracle AR standard allocation behavior + +Chunk 10: Receipt Number Formatting +Metadata: operation=receiptNumberFormatting, pattern=prefix, source=retailSystem +Format: "Retail Deal {ReceiptNumber}" +Purpose: Distinguishes retail payments from other sources, enables Oracle AR filtering +Uniqueness: Assumes retail system provides unique numbers; no collision detection + +Chunk 11: Customer Account Resolution +Metadata: operation=accountResolution, method=GetBillToCustomer, extension=OracleCustomerExtensions +Logic: Select first account with non-empty AccountNumber +Purpose: Provides customer account reference for receipts and applications +Usage: Called in MapCashReceipt Lambda + +Chunk 12: Date Handling Patterns +Metadata: dates=multiple, sources=2, timezone=notSpecified +ReceiptDate: From RetailPaymentEventPayload, as-is +ApplicationDate & AccountingDate: Current system date +Purpose: Tracks payment vs posting dates correctly + +Chunk 13: OrderInvoices Helper Method +Metadata: operation=OrderInvoices, sorting=documentNumber, filtering=openBalance, visibility=public +Description: Prepares invoices for payment application by filtering InvoiceBalanceAmount > 0 and ordering by DocumentNumber +Purpose: Ensures deterministic processing order + +Chunk 14: Two-Stage Workflow Pattern +Metadata: workflow=twoStage, stage1=receiptCreation, stage2=paymentApplication, orchestration=stepFunction +Stage 1: MapCashReceipt → Oracle assigns ReceiptId +Stage 2: MapCashReceiptApplication applies receipt to installments using greedy algorithm +Purpose: Separate receipt creation and application for auditability and partial payments + +Chunk 15: Installment Balance Tracking +Metadata: concept=installmentBalance, property=InstallmentBalanceDue, tracking=Oracle +Description: Each application reduces InstallmentBalanceDue; multiple receipts can apply until fully paid +Purpose: Supports aging, collection workflows, and accurate balance tracking + +Chunk 16: Intercompany Reference Handling +Metadata: field=IntercompanyPaymentReference, type=integer, source=string, conversion=safe +Logic: int.TryParse(payload.IntercompanyPaymentReference, out var reference) ? reference : 0 +Purpose: Tracks intercompany settlement reference safely + +Chunk 17: Currency & Business Unit Defaults +Metadata: defaults=hardcoded, currency=USD, businessUnit=HFA, businessGroup=HFA +Currency: "USD"; BusinessUnit: HfaStatic.HfaBusinessUnit; BusinessGroup: HfaStatic.HFA +ReceiptMethod: "HFA I/C Retail" +Purpose: Applies consistent organizational context + +Chunk 18: Use Case Scenarios +Metadata: useCases=retailPayments, channels=POS/portal, frequency=perTransaction + +POS Payment: Customer pays at dealer; receipt created and applied +Portal Payment: Customer pays online; same workflow +Partial Payment: Applied to earliest installments +Overpayment: Remaining UnappliedAmount tracked +Multiple Installments: Single receipt can cover multiple installments + +Chunk 19: Search Queries Supported +Metadata: type=queryPatterns, purpose=RAGRetrieval +Sample Queries: + +"How are retail dealer payments processed?" +"What Lambda functions handle receipt creation and application?" +"How are payments applied to invoice installments?" +"What is the greedy allocation algorithm?" +"How are retail payment events transformed to Oracle cash receipts?" +"What properties does OracleCashReceipt contain?" +"How is the unapplied amount tracked?" +"What is the two-stage workflow?" +"How are installment balances updated?" +"How is receipt number formatted?" +"How is customer account resolved?" +"What dates are set on cash receipt applications?" +"How are partial payments handled?" +"What happens when payment exceeds installment balance?" +"How is intercompany reference converted?" +"What business unit and currency defaults apply?" \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/Books/Accounting/Common.txt b/Books/Accounting/Common.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..bcd2ccd --- /dev/null +++ b/Books/Accounting/Common.txt @@ -0,0 +1,137 @@ +Common Module – Optimized RAG Knowledge Base + +Chunk 1: Module Overview +Metadata: module=Common, type=sharedKernel, location=CMH.HFA.Accounting.Orchestration/src/Common, domain=insuranceDomain, pattern=valueObjects, count=2 +Purpose: Shared kernel domain models representing core insurance business concepts used across multiple bounded contexts. +Scope: Two lightweight domain models for coverage information and lender relationships, with no business logic or external dependencies. +Design Pattern: Shared kernel consumed by multiple modules (BillingChange, Policy, Cancellations, Endorsement) +Key Concepts: Coverage block representation, lender interest tracking, internal vs external lender classification, premium allocation, multi-coverage policies + +Chunk 2: CoverageBlock Model +Metadata: model=CoverageBlock, type=valueObject, location=Common/Model, purpose=coverageRepresentation, granularity=perCoverage +Description: Represents a single insurance coverage item within a policy for granular premium tracking and allocation. +Properties: + +Code: Coverage type identifier or classification code +Coverage: Decimal coverage amount or limit +Premium: Decimal premium for this coverage block +Purpose: Enables multi-coverage policy representation, pro-rated refund calculations, and coverage-specific premium allocation +Mutability: Simple get/set properties + +Chunk 3: CoverageBlock Use Cases +Metadata: useCases=CoverageBlock, consumers=3+, scenarios=multiCoverage + +Policy Cancellations: Enables unearned premium calculations and pro-rated refunds when partial coverage canceled +Policy Issuance: Tracks original coverage composition +Premium Distribution: Allocates GL accounts based on coverage type codes +Refund Calculations: Distribute unearned premium proportionally +Example: Policy with Collision ($800), Comprehensive ($300), Liability ($100) tracked as three CoverageBlock instances + +Chunk 4: OtherInterest Model +Metadata: model=OtherInterest, type=valueObject, location=Common/Model, purpose=lenderTracking, classification=InternalExternal +Description: Represents third-party financial interests in a policy (lenders or financing entities). +Properties: + +LenderCode: Unique lender identifier +Name: Lender name +OtherInterestUniqEntity: Integer unique entity ID +InternalLender: Boolean (internal organization lender vs external) +Purpose: Tracks financial stakeholders, drives transaction type routing, affects GL account selection + +Chunk 5: OtherInterest Use Cases +Metadata: useCases=OtherInterest, consumers=billingAndCancellation, impactArea=transactionTyping + +Billing Type Determination: Used in BillingTypeChangeLambda to identify billing type transitions +Transaction Classification: Internal vs External based on InternalLender flag +Policy Cancellations: Tracks lender interests for cancellations +Refund Routing: Determines intercompany vs customer refund routing +GL Account Selection: Internal vs External affects GL codes (e.g., HfaCmTypeChgInt vs HfaCmTypeChgExt) + +Chunk 6: Internal Lender Business Logic +Metadata: concept=internalLenderLogic, impact=transactionTyping, codes=IntVsExt +Logic: BillingType = "OtherInterest" AND any OtherInterest.InternalLender=true → Internal transaction +Else → External +Transaction Codes: + +Internal Invoice: HfaInvoiceInternal, HfaInvTypeChgInt, etc. +External Invoice: HfaInvoiceExternal, HfaInvTypeChgExt, etc. +Internal Credit Memo: HfaCmEndorseInt, HfaCmTypeChgInt, etc. +External Credit Memo: HfaCmEndorseExt, HfaCmTypeChgExt, etc. +Purpose: Routes transactions to appropriate GL accounts based on lender relationship + +Chunk 7: Namespace and Location +Metadata: namespace=Accounting.Orchestration.Common.Model, accessibility=public, dependencies=none +Namespace: Accounting.Orchestration.Common.Model +Access Modifier: Classes are public +Dependencies: None beyond .NET primitives (string, decimal, int, bool) +Import Pattern: using Accounting.Orchestration.Common.Model; +Design Principle: Dependency-free shared kernel reduces coupling + +Chunk 8: Data Transfer Characteristics +Metadata: pattern=DTOs, serialization=supported, immutability=mutable +DTO Pattern: Models act as simple property bags +Serialization: Compatible with JSON.NET or System.Text.Json +Immutability: Mutable get/set properties +Behavior: No methods or validation; pure data structures +Event Usage: Included in PolicyIssuedEvent, CancellationEvent, etc. + +Chunk 9: Module Consumption Pattern +Metadata: consumers=multiModule, count=4+, sharingScope=orchestration +Consumers: BillingChange, Policy, Cancellations, Endorsement +Sharing Scope: Orchestration project only +Access Pattern: Modules reference Common.Model namespace; receive models via deserialization +Design Rationale: Avoid duplication of core insurance concepts + +Chunk 10: Evolution and Stability +Metadata: stability=high, evolutionRate=low, backwardCompatibility=critical +Stability: Models represent fundamental insurance concepts, unlikely to change +Change Impact: Affects multiple modules, requires coordinated updates +Backward Compatibility: Additions safe; removals/renames need coordination +Extension: Add new properties or new model files in Common/Model + +Chunk 11: Coverage Type Taxonomy +Metadata: concept=coverageTypes, examples=provided, extensibility=open +Common Types: Collision, Comprehensive, Liability, ESC, Gap, VSC +Code Property: Maps to product codes or coverage classification +Variable Count: 1-N CoverageBlocks per policy +Premium Aggregation: Total policy premium = sum of coverage block premiums +Use: Pro-rating, refunds, GL allocation + +Chunk 12: Lender Relationship Examples +Metadata: examples=lenderScenarios, scenarios=3, realWorld=true + +Internal Financing: OtherInterest.InternalLender=true → Internal transaction +External Financing: OtherInterest.InternalLender=false → External transaction +Cash Purchase: No financing → defaults to External +Multiple Lenders: Any single internal lender triggers Internal classification + +Chunk 13: Validation and Business Rules +Metadata: validation=none, businessRules=consumer, enforcement=external +Validation: None at model level +Business Rule Enforcement: By consuming services +Null Handling: Properties allow null; consumers must check +Defaults: No constructor initialization; properties default to type defaults +Design: Simple models, push logic to service layer + +Chunk 14: Integration with Event Models +Metadata: integration=eventPayloads, eventTypes=3+, composition=nested +PolicyIssuedEventV2Payload: List, List +InsurancePolicyCancelledEventPayload: List, List +Nested Structure: Common models embedded in event payloads +Serialization Flow: JSON serialization/deserialization for EventBridge/SQS/SNS +Purpose: Consistent data across event-driven workflows + +Chunk 15: Search Queries Supported +Metadata: type=queryPatterns, purpose=RAGRetrieval +Sample Queries: + +"What models are in the Common module?" +"What is a CoverageBlock?" +"How are coverage blocks represented?" +"What is the OtherInterest model used for?" +"How do I determine if a lender is internal or external?" +"What properties does CoverageBlock contain?" +"How does InternalLender flag affect transaction types?" +"What modules consume the Common models?" +"How are Common models serialized in events?" +"What is the shared kernel pattern in Common module?" \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/Books/Accounting/Endorsement.txt b/Books/Accounting/Endorsement.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..80ee385 --- /dev/null +++ b/Books/Accounting/Endorsement.txt @@ -0,0 +1,171 @@ +Endorsement Module – Optimized RAG Knowledge Base + +Chunk 1: Module Overview +Metadata: module=Endorsement, type=overview, location=CMH.HFA.Accounting.Orchestration/src/Endorsement, domain=monetaryEndorsements, purpose=midTermAdjustments, count=4 +Purpose: Lambda functions and services for processing monetary policy endorsements (mid-term premium/fee changes requiring accounting transactions) +Scope: Handles both upward endorsements (premium increases) and downward endorsements (premium decreases) through dual invoice/credit memo workflow +Components: MonetaryEndorsementLambda, MonetaryEndorsementService, EndorsementIssuedEventPayload, IMonetaryEndorsementService +Integration Points: Oracle Fusion AR (invoice/credit memo posting), Oracle OIC (memo line lookups), endorsement event workflows +Key Concepts: Monetary endorsement, mid-term adjustment, premium/fee change, invoice generation, credit memo creation, transaction line building, bidirectional adjustments + +Chunk 2: MonetaryEndorsementLambda Functions +Metadata: component=MonetaryEndorsementLambda, type=Lambda, operations=2, pattern=serviceWrapper, deployment=serverless +Description: Lambda wrapper providing endpoints for endorsement processing +Operations: + +GetCreditMemoForEndorsement: Handles net decreases (Premium + Fee < 0), delegates to MonetaryEndorsementService.MapCreditMemo, returns CreditMemo or null +GetInvoiceForEndorsement: Handles net increases (Premium + Fee > 0), delegates to MonetaryEndorsementService.MapInvoice, returns OracleInvoice or null +EndorsementDto Model: Contains OracleCustomer, OracleInvoice, EndorsementIssuedEventPayload; supports tuple deconstruction +Lambda Config: Execution role policies, 256 MB memory, 30 sec timeout + +Chunk 3: EndorsementIssuedEventPayload Model +Metadata: model=EndorsementIssuedEventPayload, type=eventPayload, requiredFields=4, purpose=endorsementData +Properties: + +AccountIdentifier: Required +PolicyNumber: Required +PremiumAmount: Decimal (positive = charge, negative = credit) +FeeAmount: Decimal (positive = charge, negative = credit) +Use Cases: Coverage additions/removals, premium adjustments, fee changes, any mid-term change affecting accounting +Validation: Required enforced via required keyword + +Chunk 4: MonetaryEndorsementService Core Logic +Metadata: component=MonetaryEndorsementService, interface=IMonetaryEndorsementService, pattern=multiStage, purpose=documentGeneration +Description: Transforms endorsement events into Oracle AR documents +Processing Flow: Initializes EndorsementArgument, retrieves memo lines, builds transaction lines, generates CreditMemo or OracleInvoice, returns null if no lines +Memo Line Retrieval: Calls IMemoLookup.GetMemoLookupAsync filtered by action, lineType (Premium/Fees), productType, state, organization, commission percent +Document Construction: Maps transaction type, sets business unit/legal entity, links to original invoice +Null Return: Returns null if validation fails or amounts zero + +Chunk 5: Transaction Line Building Logic +Metadata: operation=BuildTransactionLines, pattern=conditionalGeneration, lineTypes=2, validation=multiCriteria +Processing Stages: + +Skip Validation: Skip if zero total amount or opposite sign amounts +Premium Lines: Generate if PremiumAmount ≠ 0 +Fee Lines: Generate if FeeAmount ≠ 0 +Commission Enrichment: Apply commission metadata +Line Numbering: Sequential numbering +Details: Uses GetPremiumLookups/GetFeeLookups, calculates distribution percentage, uses C# yield return + +Chunk 6: Zero Amount and Validation Rules +Metadata: validation=endorsementRules, skipCondition=zeroAmount, errorCondition=oppositeSigns + +Zero Total Amount: Premium + Fee = 0 → skip transaction lines +Opposite Sign Validation: Throws InvalidOperationException if Premium and Fee have opposite signs +Error Message: "Premium and fee amounts cannot have opposite signs" +Skip Decision: ShouldSkipProcessing method combines checks + +Chunk 7: Memo Line Filtering Dimensions +Metadata: operation=GetMemoLines, dimensions=7, pattern=multiDimensionalFiltering +Filtering Parameters: Action, LineType, ProductType, State, Organization, Percent, To (not used) +Methods: GetPremiumLookups / GetFeeLookups +Purpose: Ensures correct GL account selection based on endorsement context + +Chunk 8: Commission Line Detection and Enrichment +Metadata: operation=commissionEnrichment, detection=descriptionBased, types=2 +Detection: MemoLine.Description contains "Retail Commission" or "HFA Commission" +Fields Applied: BusinessGroup, NewOrRenewal, CommissionPercent, AgencyFirstWrittenDate +Retail Commission: Producer=Clayton Retail, SubProducer/CommissionReference included +HFA Commission: Producer=HFA, SubProducer/CommissionReference empty +Purpose: Ensures commission metadata propagated to transaction lines + +Chunk 9: Amount Distribution and Rounding +Metadata: operation=CalculateUnitPrice, rounding=differential, recipients=3 +Distribution: amount * distributionPercentage / 100 +Rounding Rules: + +Assurant Payable → Round UP (Math.Ceiling) +Commission Lines → Round DOWN (Math.Floor) +Other Lines → Banker's rounding (MidpointRounding.ToEven) +Purpose: Penny-perfect allocations matching original invoice + +Chunk 10: Credit Memo Construction +Metadata: operation=BuildCreditMemo, documentType=CreditMemo, purpose=downwardEndorsement +Properties: TransactionId empty, TransactionType from mapping, BusinessUnit HFA BU, CurrencyCode USD, GenerateBill=No +Customer References: PurchaseOrderNumber=PolicyNumber, CustomerAccountNumber, Bill-To site +Dates: TransactionDate=Today, AccountingDate=Today +Original Invoice Link: PolicyTermOriginalInvoice +Transaction Lines: ReceivablesCreditMemoLines array from BuildTransactionLines + +Chunk 11: Invoice Construction +Metadata: operation=BuildInvoice, documentType=OracleInvoice, purpose=upwardEndorsement +Properties: TransactionId empty, TransactionType mapped, PaymentTerms=1 Pay Plan, ProductType/PremiumPayable/InstallmentFee inherited +Customer References & Dates: Same as CreditMemo +Original Invoice Link: PolicyTermOriginalInvoice +Transaction Lines: Sorted & renumbered array from BuildTransactionLines +Physical Address State: From original invoice for tax continuity + +Chunk 12: Transaction Type Mapping +Metadata: concept=transactionTypeMapping, dimensions=2, values=InternalExternal +Invoice Types: HfaInvEndorseInt / HfaInvEndorseExt +Credit Memo Types: HfaCmEndorseInt / HfaCmEndorseExt +Logic: Switch on original invoice TransactionType; internal sources → Int-suffixed, external → Ext-suffixed +Purpose: Maintains Internal vs External classification + +Chunk 13: Transaction Line Ordering +Metadata: operation=ArrangeTransactionLines, sorting=multiCriteria, renumbering=sequential +Priority: 1. Premium-Assurant Payable, 2. Commission, 3. Fees, 4. Other +Tie-Break: Original insertion order +Post-Sort: LineNumber reassigned sequentially +Purpose: Consistent invoice presentation, downstream processing + +Chunk 14: EndorsementArgument Helper Class +Metadata: class=EndorsementArgument, visibility=private, pattern=contextObject, purpose=encapsulation +Properties: Customer, OriginalInvoice, Payload, TransactionLines +CommissionLine Property: Returns commission line if present; else default with 30% commission +Purpose: Simplifies service method signatures, safe commission access + +Chunk 15: Bill-To Site Resolution +Metadata: operation=GetBillToSiteNumber, pattern=LINQ, errorHandling=exception +Logic: Traverse Customer → Accounts → Sites → SiteUses where Purpose="Bill To", select Site, throw if not found +Error Message: "No Bill To site found for customer" +Purpose: Oracle site number for invoice/credit memo + +Chunk 16: Organization Determination +Metadata: operation=GetOrg, values=2, source=commissionLine +Logic: CommissionLine.CommissionOrganization = "Clayton Retail" → "Retail", else "HFA" +Purpose: Organization context for memo line filtering & GL selection + +Chunk 17: Endorsement Workflow Integration +Metadata: workflow=endorsementProcessing, trigger=endorsementIssuedEvent, outputs=2possible +Trigger: EndorsementIssuedEvent from policy system +Decision: Caller determines GetCreditMemo vs GetInvoice based on net amount +Paths: CreditMemo if net decrease, Invoice if net increase +Downstream: Oracle OIC → Fusion AR +Audit Trail: PolicyTermOriginalInvoice link + +Chunk 18: Use Case Examples +Metadata: useCases=endorsementScenarios, frequency=midTerm, complexity=variable + +Coverage Addition → Invoice with premium + commission +Coverage Removal → CreditMemo reversing premium + commission +Premium Adjustment (risk change) → Invoice/CreditMemo based on direction +Fee Adjustment → Appropriate document with fee lines +Combined Changes → Single endorsement with net premium/fee change +Validation → Premium increase + fee decrease of equal amount → exception + +Chunk 19: Search Queries Supported +Metadata: type=queryPatterns, purpose=RAGRetrieval +Sample Queries: + +"How are monetary endorsements processed?" +"What creates endorsement invoices vs credit memos?" +"How are endorsement transaction lines built with GL accounts?" +"What validation rules apply to premium and fee amounts?" +"How is commission metadata applied?" +"What rounding logic is used for endorsements?" +"How are Internal vs External transaction types determined?" +"What happens if premium + fees = 0?" +"How do endorsements link to original invoices?" +"What memo line filtering criteria are used?" +"How are commission lines detected/enriched?" +"What is the transaction line sorting order?" +"How does the service handle missing commission lines?" +"Which Lambda functions process endorsements?" +"How are Bill-To sites resolved?" +"What default commission % is used?" +"How does organization determination affect processing?" +"What exception occurs with opposite sign premium/fee?" +"How are endorsement dates set?" +"Which Oracle document properties inherit from original invoice?" \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/Books/Accounting/Fifo.txt b/Books/Accounting/Fifo.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..06d19a1 --- /dev/null +++ b/Books/Accounting/Fifo.txt @@ -0,0 +1,172 @@ +Fifo Module – RAG Knowledge Base + +Chunk 1: Module Overview +Metadata: module=Fifo, type=overview, location=CMH.HFA.Accounting.Orchestration/src/Fifo, pattern=FIFO-queue, purpose=eventOrdering, storage=DynamoDB +Purpose: First-In-First-Out event ordering and deduplication system for policy-related events; prevents race conditions, maintains data consistency +Scope: Six components – Lambda functions for ingestion/completion, service layer for queue management, EventBridge publishing, repository abstractions, domain models +Stack: AWS Lambda, DynamoDB (queue storage), EventBridge (publishing), MD5 hashing (deduplication), conditional updates (concurrency control) +Key Concepts: Sequential event processing, policy-level isolation, deduplication, race condition prevention, status state machine, TTL-based cleanup, optimistic concurrency + +Chunk 2: FifoLambda Entry Points +Metadata: component=FifoLambda, type=Lambda, operations=2, pattern=orchestrationEndpoints +Description: Lambda exposing two endpoints for FIFO queue lifecycle +Operations: + +Received: Handles incoming policy events, validates PolicyNumber & EventID, timestamp generated, delegates to FifoService.EnqueueAsync +Completed: Marks event as completed, triggers next event, receives FifoEventDto, delegates to FifoService.DequeueAsync +Validation: PolicyNumber required, EventID non-empty (Guid), throws ArgumentException/ArgumentNullException on failure +Lambda Config: Execution role, 256 MB memory, 30 sec timeout + +Chunk 3: Event Enqueue Processing +Metadata: operation=EnqueueAsync, service=FifoService, pattern=conditionalProcessing, deduplication=MD5 +Purpose: Adds events to policy-specific queue, deduplicates, triggers immediate processing if no active events +Steps: + +MD5 key = {PolicyNumber}.{EventPayload} +Query existing events for policy +Exit if duplicate key found +Create EventTableEntry (status PENDING or PROCESSING) +If no active events → PROCESSING + EventBridge publish +Else → PENDING + race condition guard +Deduplication: Prevents double-processing from retries or replay + +Chunk 4: Race Condition Guard +Metadata: mechanism=raceConditionGuard, pattern=doubleCheck, atomicity=conditional +Scenario: PENDING event saved, PROCESSING event finishes before guard +Logic: Re-query policy events, check for active PROCESSING, find earliest PENDING +Resolution: If no PROCESSING & current event earliest PENDING → atomically update status to PROCESSING, publish to EventBridge, handle ConditionalCheckFailedException +Purpose: Closes timing window, ensures next event begins automatically + +Chunk 5: Event Dequeue Processing +Metadata: operation=DequeueAsync, service=FifoService, pattern=sequentialProcessing, cleanup=TTL +Steps: + +Lookup completed event by EventID (GSI) +Update status → COMPLETED, set 30-day TTL +Query PENDING events for same policy, order chronologically +Find earliest PENDING → conditional update → PROCESSING +Deserialize event body → extract type/source +Publish next event to EventBridge +TTL: DateTimeOffset.UtcNow.AddDays(30).ToUnixTimeSeconds() +Conditional Update: Ensures race-free transition + +Chunk 6: EventTableEntry Model +Metadata: model=EventTableEntry, storage=DynamoDB, keyStructure=composite, ttlEnabled=true +Keys: PK=PolicyNumber, SK=Timestamp (ISO 8601) +Properties: EventId (Guid + GSI), Status (PENDING/PROCESSING/COMPLETED), EventBody (JSON), DeduplicationKey (MD5), TimeToLive +GSI: EventIdIndex for O(1) lookup +Purpose: Policy-scoped queries, event ID lookup, automatic cleanup + +Chunk 7: Status State Machine +Metadata: stateMachine=eventStatus, states=3, transitions=sequential +States: PENDING → PROCESSING → COMPLETED +Constraints: Only one PROCESSING per policy, PENDING processed FIFO +Purpose: Enforces sequential processing, prevents concurrent policy modifications + +Chunk 8: Deduplication Mechanism +Metadata: feature=deduplication, algorithm=MD5, scope=perPolicy, collision=veryLow +Hash Input: {PolicyNumber}.{EventPayload} +Output: 32-char lowercase hex string +Action: Duplicate detected → log & exit +Use Cases: Lambda retries, EventBridge replay, double-sends +Limitation: Scope per-policy + +Chunk 9: Concurrency Control Mechanisms +Metadata: concurrency=optimistic, mechanism=conditionalUpdates, exception=ConditionalCheckFailedException +Pattern: UpdateItemAsync conditional on expected status +Scenarios: Multiple Lambdas, cold starts, rapid arrivals, completion races +Failure Handling: Log ConditionalCheckFailedException, no retry, graceful backoff +Atomic Guarantee: Only one instance succeeds per transition + +Chunk 10: EventBridge Integration +Metadata: component=EventBridgePublisher, interface=IEventPublisher, destination=AWSEventBridge, pattern=publishSubscribe +Purpose: Publishes events for downstream Step Functions or consumers +EventBridgeDto: Source, DetailType, Payload +Publishing: Immediate if no active events; deferred if queued → eligible later +Integration: EventBridgeHelper + Lambda logging +Purpose: Decouples FIFO queue, supports multi-consumer fan-out + +Chunk 11: DynamoDB Table Structure +Metadata: storage=DynamoDB, tableName=pattern, indexing=GSI, consistency=eventual +Table: {ENVIRONMENT}-fifo-poc-table +Primary Key: PK=PolicyNumber, SK=Timestamp +GSI: EventIdIndex (EventID lookup) +Query Patterns: Policy queue depth, PENDING filtering, EventID lookup, avoid scans +TTL: Automatic deletion 30 days after completion + +Chunk 12: Policy-Level Isolation +Metadata: isolation=policyBased, concurrency=perPolicy, scalability=horizontal +Isolation: Each policy independent, concurrent processing allowed +Partition Strategy: PK=PolicyNumber +Scaling: Unlimited policies, no global locks, hot partition risk for very active policy +Benefits: High throughput, isolated failures, predictable performance + +Chunk 13: TTL-Based Cleanup Strategy +Metadata: cleanup=TTL, retention=30days, cost=zero, trigger=statusCompleted +TTL Field: TimeToLive (Unix epoch) +Set When: Status → COMPLETED +Not Set: PENDING / PROCESSING +DynamoDB deletes items asynchronously (≈48 hours) +Purpose: Auto-clean completed events, maintain 30-day audit trail + +Chunk 14: Error Handling Strategies +Metadata: errorHandling=graceful, logging=comprehensive, propagation=selective +Duplicate Detection: Log & ignore +Race Conditions: Catch ConditionalCheckFailedException +Missing Events: Throws KeyNotFoundException +Concurrent Updates: Log winner, skip +Function Errors: Logged, workflow continues +Environment Errors: Throw if ENVIRONMENT missing + +Chunk 15: Lambda Orchestration Use Cases +Metadata: useCases=policyServicing, frequency=perTransaction, criticality=dataIntegrity +Policy Updates: Endorsements, renewals, cancellations in order +Billing Events: Sequential processing → accounting integrity +State Transitions: Prevent race conditions +Event Replay: Deduplication prevents double processing +Distributed Processing: Multi-Lambda, per-policy ordering maintained +Workflow: Step Functions consume knowing prior event completed + +Chunk 16: Performance Characteristics +Metadata: performance=latency, throughput=high, consistency=eventual +Latency: DynamoDB query, conditional update, EventBridge publish, Lambda cold start +Fast Path: No queue → query + save + publish +Slow Path: Queued → query + save, later conditional update + publish +Throughput: Limited per policy partition, unlimited across policies +Optimization: Consistent reads, parallel processing + +Chunk 17: Repository Abstraction +Metadata: pattern=repository, interface=IFifoRepository, implementation=DynamoDbFifoRepository +Operations: GetEventByIdAsync, QueryByPolicyNumberAsync, SaveEventAsync, UpdateStatusAsync +Benefits: Isolates DynamoDB, unit-testable, future-proof storage backend +Configuration: Table name via environment, consistent read, conditional expressions + +Chunk 18: Event Body Preservation +Metadata: storage=eventBody, format=JSON, purpose=replay, completeness=full +Content: Serialized EventMessage including EventID, EventType, Source, Payload +Purpose: Enables replay, debugging, audit trail +Deserialization: Extract type/source for EventBridge DetailType +Cleanup: TTL deletes after 30 days + +Chunk 19: Search Queries Supported +Metadata: type=queryPatterns, purpose=RAGRetrieval +Sample Queries: + +"How does the FIFO queue ensure sequential processing?" +"What deduplication mechanism prevents duplicate processing?" +"How are race conditions handled?" +"What is the FIFO event status state machine?" +"How long are completed events retained?" +"What happens when two events arrive simultaneously for the same policy?" +"How does FIFO integrate with EventBridge?" +"What DynamoDB key structure is used?" +"How are events ordered within a policy queue?" +"What triggers automatic cleanup?" +"How does conditional update prevent race conditions?" +"Which Lambda functions are exposed?" +"How is event deduplication calculated?" +"What happens if event enqueued while another processing?" +"How does race condition guard work?" +"What exception indicates concurrent update conflict?" +"How are policy-level queues isolated?" +"What is the TTL strategy for completed events?" \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/Books/Accounting/Integrations.txt b/Books/Accounting/Integrations.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..433d619 --- /dev/null +++ b/Books/Accounting/Integrations.txt @@ -0,0 +1,160 @@ +Integrations Module – RAG Knowledge Base + +Chunk 1: Module Overview +Metadata: module=Integrations, type=infrastructure, location=CMH.HFA.Accounting.Orchestration/src/Integrations, pattern=baseClasses, purpose=externalSystemConnectivity +Purpose: Foundational infrastructure for reusable HTTP client patterns, authentication, and configuration for external system integration +Scope: Two base classes for Oracle Cloud Integration (OIC) and on-prem HFA APIs +Stack: Flurl.Http for HTTP, AWS Secrets Manager for credentials, environment-based configuration +Key Concepts: Integration abstraction, secret management, HTTP client configuration, environment-aware URL construction, authentication patterns, base class inheritance + +Chunk 2: OracleIntegrationBase Class +Metadata: component=OracleIntegrationBase, type=abstractBaseClass, integration=OracleCloudIntegration, authentication=BasicAuth, location=Integrations/Oracle +Description: Abstract base for OIC API clients, providing authenticated HTTP requests +Authentication: HTTP Basic Auth with username/password from AWS Secrets Manager +Base URL: https://erp-{oicEnv}-oicintegration-idq4hj6bgo2f-ia.integration.ocp.oraclecloud.com +Protected Method: GetRequestAsync(endpoint) returns pre-configured IFlurlRequest +Inheritance: Derived classes implement specific services (e.g., MemoLookup) + +Chunk 3: Oracle Secret Management +Metadata: secrets=OracleCredentials, storage=AWSSecretsManager, count=3, pattern=environmentSpecific +Secrets: + +Username: {ENVIRONMENT}-hfa-oic-username +Password: {ENVIRONMENT}-hfa-oic-password +OIC Environment: {ENVIRONMENT}-hfa-oic-environment +Retrieval: ISecretString service, async during request creation +Environment Isolation: Separate credentials per deployment environment +Purpose: Centralized credential management, supports rotation + +Chunk 4: BaseOnPremIntegration Class +Metadata: component=BaseOnPremIntegration, type=concreteBaseClass, integration=HFAOnPremises, authentication=ClientCredentials, location=Integrations +Description: Base class for on-prem HFA services using client ID/secret headers +Authentication: Custom headers (client-id and client-secret) +URLs: + +Prod: https://dat.homefirstagency.com +Non-prod: https://dat.{environment}.homefirstagency.com +Protected Methods: GetRequestAsync(), UpdateEndpoint(flurlRequest, endpoint) +Caching: Flurl request cached for service instance lifetime + +Chunk 5: On-Premises Secret Management +Metadata: secrets=OnPremCredentials, storage=AWSSecretsManager, count=2, authentication=clientCredentials +Secrets: + +Client ID: {ENVIRONMENT}-hfa-licensing-api-client-id +Client Secret: {ENVIRONMENT}-hfa-licensing-api-client-secret +Header Format: Passed as custom headers +Service Name Pattern: Constructor accepts serviceName for named HTTP client +Purpose: Supports internal HFA API key authentication, enables per-service configuration + +Chunk 6: Environment Variable Handling +Metadata: configuration=environmentVariables, required=ENVIRONMENT, validation=constructor, failureBehavior=exception +Required Variable: ENVIRONMENT (dev, test, prod) +Validation: Both base classes validate in constructor, fail-fast if missing +Usage: Drives secret key construction, URL routing, table patterns +Purpose: Ensures environment isolation, prevents misconfiguration + +Chunk 7: HTTP Client Factory Integration +Metadata: pattern=HttpClientFactory, scope=OnPremOnly, dependency=IHttpClientFactory, namedClients=supported +Pattern: BaseOnPremIntegration uses IHttpClientFactory, named client via serviceName +OracleIntegrationBase: Direct Flurl request creation, no HttpClientFactory +Purpose: Centralized HTTP client configuration, supports ASP.NET Core best practices + +Chunk 8: Request Caching Strategy +Metadata: optimization=caching, scope=OnPremOnly, pattern=lazy, field=_flurlRequest +Caching: Flurl request cached for service instance lifetime +OracleIntegrationBase: No caching, new request each call +Benefit: Reduces secret retrieval overhead, improves performance + +Chunk 9: URL Construction Patterns +Metadata: concept=urlConstruction, components=2, patterns=environmentBased +Oracle URL: Base from secret (oicEnv), endpoint concatenation via string addition +On-Prem URL: Subdomain routing based on ENVIRONMENT, endpoint appended via UpdateEndpoint +Purpose: Environment-specific API routing without code changes + +Chunk 10: Known Implementations +Metadata: implementations=derived, count=1known, location=StructuredTags +Oracle: MemoLookup service (GL account memo line configs), implements IMemoLookup +On-Prem: Expected – Licensing API, dealer info, sales data, policy lookup +Pattern: Inherit base class, add endpoint methods, deserialize responses + +Chunk 11: Dependency Injection Patterns +Metadata: pattern=dependencyInjection, dependencies=2, testability=high +Common: ISecretString for secret access +On-Prem Additional: IHttpClientFactory + serviceName +Oracle Minimal: Only ISecretString +Purpose: SOLID-compliant, supports unit and integration testing with mocks + +Chunk 12: Authentication Comparison +Metadata: comparison=authenticationMethods, methods=2, security=secretBased +Oracle: HTTP Basic Auth (Authorization: Basic {base64(username:password)}) +On-Prem: Custom headers (client-id, client-secret) +Security: Both retrieve secrets from AWS Secrets Manager, no hardcoding, environment-isolated + +Chunk 13: Extensibility Patterns +Metadata: pattern=extensibility, method=inheritance, examples=provided +Steps: Inherit base class → inject dependencies → call base constructor → add endpoint methods → use GetRequestAsync() → deserialize responses +Example: CustomerIntegration : OracleIntegrationBase, DealerIntegration : BaseOnPremIntegration +Purpose: Code reuse, consistent auth, standard integration patterns + +Chunk 14: Error Handling Patterns +Metadata: errorHandling=exceptions, validation=constructor, propagation=upstream +ENV Errors: Throws generic exception if ENVIRONMENT missing +Secret Retrieval: Exceptions propagate, no catch +HTTP Errors: Base classes do not handle; derived classes responsible +Null Handling: MemoLookup throws ArgumentNullException for null deserialization +Pattern: Fail-fast, let exceptions bubble + +Chunk 15: Integration Use Cases +Metadata: useCases=multiple, frequency=perTransaction, criticality=high + +Memo line lookups (GL account mappings per transaction) +Customer queries (Oracle data retrieval) +Invoice posting (Oracle endpoints) +Payment processing (Oracle integrations) +Licensing queries (on-prem) +Sales data retrieval (on-prem) +Frequency: High for memo lookups, lower for licensing/sales queries + +Chunk 16: Design Benefits +Metadata: benefits=architectural, principles=SOLID, maintainability=high + +Single Responsibility: One base class per integration type +DRY: Centralized auth/config logic +Testability: Dependency injection +Maintainability: Auth changes require only base class updates +Scalability: Easy to extend +Security: Secrets never hardcoded +Environment Safety: Environment-isolated credentials + +Chunk 17: Flurl HTTP Library Features +Metadata: library=Flurl, features=utilized, purpose=fluentAPI + +Fluent request building: WithHeader(), WithBasicAuth() +URL construction: string concatenation +Response handling: GetAsync(), GetStringAsync() +Client configuration: FlurlClient wrapper +Usage: Base classes return IFlurlRequest for derived execution + +Chunk 18: Search Queries Supported +Metadata: type=queryPatterns, purpose=RAGRetrieval +Sample Queries: + +"How do I integrate with Oracle Cloud Integration from Lambda?" +"What base class should I use for Oracle OIC integration?" +"How are Oracle credentials managed?" +"What authentication method is used for on-prem HFA services?" +"How do I create a new Oracle integration?" +"What secrets are needed for Oracle integration?" +"How does environment-based URL routing work?" +"Difference between Oracle and on-prem integration classes?" +"How do I implement a new on-prem service client?" +"What HTTP client library is used for integrations?" +"How are credentials retrieved?" +"What environment variables are required?" +"How does request caching work on-prem?" +"What dependency injection is required?" +"How do I extend OracleIntegrationBase for a new endpoint?" +"What error handling patterns are used?" +"How does memo lookup use Oracle integration?" +"What benefits does the integration base class provide?" \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/Books/Accounting/Oracle/Oracle.txt b/Books/Accounting/Oracle/Oracle.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..86446a3 --- /dev/null +++ b/Books/Accounting/Oracle/Oracle.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7718 @@ +Overview of Oracle Receivables + +Oracle Receivables provides integrated functionality to perform day-to-day accounts receivable operations. Receivables functionality is managed from these Overview work areas: Billing, Receivables Balances, Revenue Management, and Credit Management. + +All work areas provide access to general ledger account activities, including creating accounting, creating manual journal entries, and reviewing journal entries. +Billing Work Area + +Use the Billing work area to perform tasks related to customer billing activities. Monitor and review incomplete transactions, and approve and research pending adjustments. Use AutoInvoice to import transactions from other systems and generate invoices and credit memos automatically according to your requirements. You can review and correct AutoInvoice import errors and resubmit AutoInvoice. Create new invoices, debit memos, credit memos, and on-account credit memos. Perform related activities to manage your transactions: update, duplicate, credit, adjust, dispute, and preview a transaction. You can also create a new customer record and manage existing customers from the Billing work area. +Receivables Balances Work Area + +Use the Receivables Balances work area to perform tasks related to customer payment activities and the management of accounts receivable balances. Review actionable items, including open receipts and receipt batches, unapplied and on-account receipts and credit memos, receipt remittance batches, and funds transfer errors. Create receipts manually, import receipts using lockbox or spreadsheet, or create automatic receipts. Perform related activities to manage your receipts: apply, unapply, reverse, delete; create invoice adjustments or chargebacks during receipt application; and remit, clear, or risk eliminate factored receipts. You can manage receipt remittances: create, modify, and approve receipt remittance batches. You can also perform tasks related to managing accounts receivables balances, including reconciling receivables to the general ledger and managing receivables accounting period statuses. +Revenue Management Work Area + +Use the Revenue Management work area to perform tasks related to revenue recognition and revenue adjustments. Run the Recognize Revenue program to generate revenue distribution records for invoices and credit memos that use invoicing and revenue scheduling rules. Perform revenue adjustments on one or more transactions, including scheduling and unscheduling revenue; reviewing, adding, and expiring revenue contingencies; and transferring sales credits. You can also manage revenue policies, revenue contingencies, and rules that assign revenue contingencies to transactions automatically. +Credit Management Work Area + +Use the Credit Management work area to create credit profiles for your customers. The credit profile contains key information for establishing the creditworthiness of each of your customers, including credit classifications, credit limits, and credit review cycles. Review and evaluate specific credit authorization requests; run periodic reviews of the creditworthiness of your existing customers; review customer credit scores, and provide recommendations for customer credit. Build scoring models that calculate a credit score based on credit data specific to a customer; maintain detailed information about customer financial and accounting history; and create templates for different types of credit reviews that are automatically assigned to specific credit scenarios. +Customer Information + +From either the Billing or Receivables Balances work area, you have access to manage both customer information and customer account activities, in summary and in detail. You can review customer account information by a single business unit, bill-to site, or across all business units and bill-to sites. For each customer account, you can review transactions and receipts, dispute and adjust transactions, and drill down to current or historical customer account activity. +Simple Configuration to Operate Receivables + +You can create an operational Receivables environment with seven configurations. The remaining configurations are either optional or have predefined values. + +If applicable, your Receivables configuration must include a plan to migrate your customer information from your legacy system. +Receivables Configuration Tasks + +There are seven configuration tasks necessary to create an operational Receivables environment. Before you perform these tasks, you must ensure that you have completed all of the required implementation tasks for Oracle Financials. + +Perform these seven tasks in the order indicated: + + Set Receivables System Options + + Set Receivables system options to define your Receivables environment. During Receivables setup, you specify your accounts, customer and invoice parameters, and how the AutoInvoice and Automatic Receipts programs operate. + + Define Receivables Activities + + Define receivables activities to create default accounting for all activities other than transactions and receipts, including, for example, miscellaneous cash, discounts, late charges, adjustments, and write-offs. + + Define AutoAccounting Rules + + Defining AutoAccounting is a required configuration task for processing customer billing. + + Define AutoAccounting to specify how you want Receivables to determine the default general ledger accounts for transactions. Receivables creates default accounts for revenue, receivable, freight, tax, unearned revenue, unbilled receivables, late charges, and AutoInvoice clearing (suspense) accounts using your AutoAccounting setup. + + Define Receipt Classes and Methods + + Defining receipt classes and receipt methods is a required configuration task for processing customer payments. + + Receipt classes determine the required processing steps for receipts to which you assign receipt methods with this class. These steps include confirmation, remittance, and clearance. Receipt methods specify accounting for receipt entries and applications, determine customer remittance bank account information, and configure automatic receipt processing and fund transfer error handling. + + Define Remit-to Addresses + + Define remit-to addresses to let your customers know where to send payment for open receivables. Receivables uses the addresses to provide default remit-to information when you enter transactions. + + You must provide a remit-to address to complete a transaction. + + If you use AutoInvoice, but you haven't defined a remit-to address for a particular customer site, AutoInvoice rejects all transactions for which it couldn't determine a remit-to address. + + Define Approval Limits + + Define approval limits to determine whether a Receivables user can approve adjustments or credit memo requests. You define approval limits by document type, amount, and currency. + + Define Statement Cycles + + Define statement cycles to control when you create customer statements. You assign statement cycles to customer profiles. + + + Predefined Receivables Data in Subledger Accounting + + Oracle Receivables provides predefined data for Oracle Subledger Accounting that you can use to integrate the two applications. + + When you run Create Receivables Accounting, the program accepts the default accounting information from AutoAccounting without change and uses the predefined data to create accounting in the subledger. Subledger Accounting transfers the final accounting to General Ledger. + Note + + You can optionally define your own subledger accounting rules to overwrite the default accounts from the accounting events. + + Receivables predefines one application in Subledger Accounting named Receivables. Most of the data that Receivables predefines for Subledger Accounting is associated with the Receivables application. + + This table shows the attribute values that Receivables predefines for the Receivables application: + + Field + + + Value + + Application Name + + + Receivables + + Drill-down Procedure + + + AR_DRILLDOWN_PUB_PKG.DRILLDOWN + + Use Security + + + Yes + + Policy Function + + + XLA_SECURITY_POLICY_PKG.MO_POLICY + + Journal Source + + + Receivables + + Third Party Control Account Type + + + Customer + + Subject to Validation + + + No + + Calculate Reporting Currency Amounts + + + Yes + + This table lists the setup information that Receivables predefines for the event entities: + + Application + + + Entity Name + + + Description + + + Gapless Event Processing + + Receivables + + + Adjustments + + + Adjustments + + + No + + Receivables + + + Receipts + + + Receipts + + + No + + Receivables + + + Transactions + + + Transactions + + + No + + Receivables predefines process categories for the Receivables application. These process categories are: + + Adjustments + + Miscellaneous Receipts + + Standard Receipts + + Third Party Merge + + Transactions + + Additional considerations for Receivables predefined data for subledger accounting include: + + Event Classes and Event Class Options + + Sources, Source Assignments, and Accounting Attribute Assignments + + Journal Line Rules + + Account Rules + + Journal Entry Rule Set + + Accounting Method + + Event Classes and Event Class Options + + Receivables predefines event classes for each event entity that belongs to the Receivables application. + + This table lists the event classes that Receivables predefines for the Receivables application: + + Entity + + + Event Class Name + + Adjustments + + + Adjustment + + Receipts + + + Miscellaneous Receipt + + Receipts + + + Receipt + + Transactions + + + Chargeback + + Transactions + + + Credit Memo + + Transactions + + + Debit Memo + + Transactions + + + Invoice + + Accounting event class options define attributes of an event class. Receivables defines the accounting event class options for each predefined event class. + + This table lists the accounting event class options that Receivables predefines for the Receivables application: + + Event Class + + + Process Category + + + Default Journal Category + + + Transaction View + + + Balance Types + + Adjustment + + + Adjustments + + + Adjustment + + + AR_ADJ_INF_V + + + Actual + + Bills Receivable + + + Bills Receivable + + + Bills Receivable + + + AR_TRX_INF_V + + + Actual + + Miscellaneous Receipt + + + Miscellaneous Receipts + + + Misc Receipts + + + AR_CR_INF_V + + + Actual + + Receipt + + + Standard Receipts + + + Receipts + + + AR_CR_INF_V + + + Actual + + Chargeback + + + Transactions + + + Chargebacks + + + AR_TRX_INF_V + + + Actual + + Credit Memo + + + Transactions + + + Credit Memos + + + AR_TRX_INF_V + + + Actual + + Debit Memo + + + Transactions + + + Debit Memos + + + AR_TRX_INF_V + + + Actual + + Invoice + + + Transactions + + + Sales Invoices + + + AR_TRX_INF_V + + + Actual + Sources, Source Assignments, and Accounting Attribute Assignments + + Receivables predefines sources, source assignments, and accounting attribute assignments for Subledger Accounting. + + You can't make changes to predefined sources, source assignments, or accounting attribute assignments. However, you can define your own sources. + + If you choose to define your own journal line rules or accounting methods, you can override the default accounting attribute assignments. + + Use the Manage Subledger Transaction Objects task in Oracle Subledger Accounting to retrieve a list of Receivables sources for an event class: + + Navigate to the Manage Subledger Transaction Objects page. + + Select a Receivables event class: Adjustment, Bills Receivable, Chargeback, Credit Memo, Debit Memo, Invoice, Miscellaneous Receipt, Receipt. + + Click the View Source Assignments button. + + In the View Source Assignments page, review the available sources for the event class. + + Journal Line Rules + + Receivables predefines journal line rules for each predefined event class. Receivables specifies conditions for the use of each journal line rule. + + This table lists the journal line rules that Receivables predefines for the Receivables application: + + Event Class + + + Name + + + Balance Type + + + Side + + Adjustment + + + Adjustment + + + Actual + + + Credit + + Adjustment + + + Adjustment Charge + + + Actual + + + Credit + + Adjustment + + + Adjustment Default Receivable + + + Actual + + + Credit + + Adjustment + + + Adjustment Deferred Tax + + + Actual + + + Credit + + Adjustment + + + Adjustment Charge Nonrecoverable Tax + + + Actual + + + Credit + + Adjustment + + + Adjustment Nonrecoverable Tax + + + Actual + + + Credit + + Adjustment + + + Adjustment Tax + + + Actual + + + Credit + + Adjustment + + + Adjustment Transaction Creation Date + + + Actual + + + N/A + + Adjustment + + + Adjustment Transaction Created By + + + Actual + + + N/A + + Adjustment + + + Adjustment Transaction Last Updated Date + + + Actual + + + N/A + + Adjustment + + + Adjustment Transaction Last Updated By + + + Actual + + + N/A + + Chargeback + + + Chargeback Default Receivable + + + Actual + + + Debit + + Chargeback + + + Chargeback Revenue + + + Actual + + + Credit + + Credit Memo + + + Credit Memo Default Deferred Tax Application + + + Actual + + + Credit + + Credit Memo + + + Credit Memo Default Application + + + Actual + + + Credit + + Credit Memo + + + Credit Memo Default Tax Application + + + Actual + + + Credit + + Credit Memo + + + Credit Memo Refund Application + + + Actual + + + Credit + + Credit Memo + + + Credit Memo Charges + + + Actual + + + Credit + + Credit Memo + + + Credit Memo Default Receivable + + + Actual + + + Debit + + Credit Memo + + + Credit Memo Default Revenue + + + Actual + + + Credit + + Credit Memo + + + Credit Memo Default Tax + + + Actual + + + Credit + + Credit Memo + + + Credit Memo Rounding + + + Actual + + + Credit + + Credit Memo + + + Credit Memo Unbilled Receivable + + + Actual + + + Credit + + Credit Memo + + + Credit Memo Deferred Revenue + + + Actual + + + Credit + + Credit Memo + + + Credit Memo Product Type + + + Actual + + + N/A + + Credit Memo + + + Credit Memo Transaction Creation Date + + + Actual + + + N/A + + Credit Memo + + + Credit Memo Transaction Created By + + + Actual + + + N/A + + Credit Memo + + + Credit Memo Transaction Last Updated Date + + + Actual + + + N/A + + Credit Memo + + + Credit Memo Transaction Last Updated By + + + Actual + + + N/A + + Debit Memo + + + Debit Memo Charges + + + Actual + + + Credit + + Debit Memo + + + Debit Memo Default Receivable + + + Actual + + + Debit + + Debit Memo + + + Debit Memo Freight + + + Actual + + + Credit + + Debit Memo + + + Debit Memo Revenue + + + Actual + + + Credit + + Debit Memo + + + Debit Memo Rounding + + + Actual + + + Credit + + Debit Memo + + + Debit Memo Tax + + + Actual + + + Credit + + Debit Memo + + + Debit Memo Unbilled Receivable + + + Actual + + + Debit + + Debit Memo + + + Debit Memo Deferred Revenue + + + Actual + + + Credit + + Debit Memo + + + Debit Memo Product Type + + + Actual + + + N/A + + Debit Memo + + + Debit Memo Transaction Creation Date + + + Actual + + + N/A + + Debit Memo + + + Debit Memo Transaction Created By + + + Actual + + + N/A + + Debit Memo + + + Debit Memo Transaction Last Updated Date + + + Actual + + + N/A + + Debit Memo + + + Debit Memo Transaction Last Updated By + + + Actual + + + N/A + + Invoice + + + Invoice Charges + + + Actual + + + Credit + + Invoice + + + Invoice Default Receivable + + + Actual + + + Debit + + Invoice + + + Invoice Freight + + + Actual + + + Credit + + Invoice + + + Invoice Revenue + + + Actual + + + Credit + + Invoice + + + Invoice Rounding + + + Actual + + + Credit + + Invoice + + + Invoice Tax + + + Actual + + + Credit + + Invoice + + + Invoice Unbilled Receivable + + + Actual + + + Credit + + Invoice + + + Invoice Deferred Revenue + + + Actual + + + Credit + + Invoice + + + Invoice Product Type + + + Actual + + + N/A + + Invoice + + + Invoice Transaction Creation Date + + + Actual + + + N/A + + Invoice + + + Invoice Transaction Created By + + + Actual + + + N/A + + Invoice + + + Invoice Transaction Last Updated Date + + + Actual + + + N/A + + Invoice + + + Invoice Transaction Last Updated By + + + Actual + + + N/A + + Miscellaneous Receipt + + + Miscellaneous Receipt Bank Charges + + + Actual + + + Credit + + Miscellaneous Receipt + + + Miscellaneous Receipt Cleared Cash + + + Actual + + + Credit + + Miscellaneous Receipt + + + Miscellaneous Receipt Confirmed Cash + + + Actual + + + Credit + + Miscellaneous Receipt + + + Miscellaneous Receipt Short Term Debt + + + Actual + + + Credit + + Miscellaneous Receipt + + + Miscellaneous Receipt Factored Cash + + + Actual + + + Credit + + Miscellaneous Receipt + + + Miscellaneous Receipt Miscellaneous Cash + + + Actual + + + Credit + + Miscellaneous Receipt + + + Miscellaneous Receipt Remitted Cash + + + Actual + + + Credit + + Miscellaneous Receipt + + + Miscellaneous Receipt Tax + + + Actual + + + Credit + + Receipt + + + Receipt On Account Application + + + Actual + + + Credit + + Receipt + + + Receipt Application to Freight + + + Actual + + + Credit + + Receipt + + + Receipt Application to Revenue + + + Actual + + + Credit + + Receipt + + + Receipt Application to Rounding + + + Actual + + + Credit + + Receipt + + + Receipt Application to Suspense Revenue + + + Actual + + + Credit + + Receipt + + + Receipt Application to Tax + + + Actual + + + Credit + + Receipt + + + Receipt Application to Unbilled Revenue + + + Actual + + + Credit + + Receipt + + + Receipt Application to Earned Revenue + + + Actual + + + Credit + + Receipt + + + Receipt Bank Charges + + + Actual + + + Credit + + Receipt + + + Receipt Cleared Cash + + + Actual + + + Credit + + Receipt + + + Receipt Credit Card Chargeback Application + + + Actual + + + Credit + + Receipt + + + Receipt Chargeback Application + + + Actual + + + Credit + + Receipt + + + Receipt Confirmed Cash + + + Actual + + + Credit + + Receipt + + + Receipt Currency Rounding + + + Actual + + + Credit + + Receipt + + + Receipt Short Term Debt + + + Actual + + + Credit + + Receipt + + + Receipt Default Application + + + Actual + + + Credit + + Receipt + + + Receipt Deferred Tax + + + Actual + + + Credit + + Receipt + + + Receipt Earned Discount + + + Actual + + + Credit + + Receipt + + + Receipt Earned Discount on Freight + + + Actual + + + Debit + + Receipt + + + Receipt Earned Discount Nonrecoverable Tax + + + Actual + + + Credit + + Receipt + + + Receipt Earned Discount on Revenue + + + Actual + + + Debit + + Receipt + + + Receipt Earned Discount on Tax + + + Actual + + + Debit + + Receipt + + + Receipt Exchange Gain + + + Actual + + + Credit + + Receipt + + + Receipt Exchange Gain Loss + + + Actual + + + Gain/Loss + + Receipt + + + Receipt Exchange Loss + + + Actual + + + Credit + + Receipt + + + Receipt Factored Cash + + + Actual + + + Credit + + Receipt + + + Receipt Payment Netting Application + + + Actual + + + Credit + + Receipt + + + Receipt Prepayment Application + + + Actual + + + Credit + + Receipt + + + Receipt Refund Application + + + Actual + + + Credit + + Receipt + + + Receipt Remitted Cash + + + Actual + + + Credit + + Receipt + + + Receipt Tax + + + Actual + + + Credit + + Receipt + + + Receipt Unapplied Cash + + + Actual + + + Debit + + Receipt + + + Unapplied Cash + + + Actual + + + Debit + + Receipt + + + Receipt Unapplied for Gain Loss lines + + + Actual + + + Debit + + Receipt + + + Receipt Unearned Discount + + + Actual + + + Credit + + Receipt + + + Receipt Unearned Discount on Freight + + + Actual + + + Debit + + Receipt + + + Receipt Unearned Discount on Nonrecoverable Tax + + + Actual + + + Credit + + Receipt + + + Receipt Unearned Discount on Revenue + + + Actual + + + Debit + + Receipt + + + Receipt Unearned Discount on Tax + + + Actual + + + Debit + + Receipt + + + Receipt Unidentified Cash + + + Actual + + + Credit + + Receipt + + + Receipt Write-Off Application + + + Actual + + + Credit + + Receipt + + + Receipt Reversed Unapplied for Unidentified Receipt + + + Actual + + + Debit + + Receipt + + + Receipt Reversed Unidentified Balance Line + + + Actual + + + Debit + + Receipt + + + Receipt Unapplied for Unidentified Receipt + + + Actual + + + Debit + + Receipt + + + Receipt Unidentified Balance Line + + + Actual + + + Debit + + Receipt + + + Receipt Unapplied Reversed Cash + + + Actual + + + Debit + + Receipt + + + Receipt Bill To Site Receivable Account + + + Actual + + + N/A + + Receipt + + + Receipt Bill To Site Clearing Account + + + Actual + + + N/A + + Receipt + + + Receipt Bill To Site Freight Account + + + Actual + + + N/A + + Receipt + + + Receipt Bill To Site Revenue Account + + + Actual + + + N/A + + Receipt + + + Receipt Bill To Site Tax Account + + + Actual + + + N/A + + Receipt + + + Receipt Bill To Site Unbilled Receivable + + + Actual + + + N/A + + Receipt + + + Receipt Bill To Site Unearned Account + + + Actual + + + N/A + + Receipt + + + Receipt Creation Date + + + Actual + + + N/A + + Receipt + + + Receipt Created By + + + Actual + + + N/A + + Receipt + + + Receipt Last Updated Date + + + Actual + + + N/A + + Receipt + + + Receipt Last Updated By + + + Actual + + + N/A + Account Rules + + Receivables predefines account rules. When Subledger Accounting uses the predefined account rules that Receivables provides, it accepts the default accounting that Receivables generates using AutoAccounting without change. + + You can optionally define your own account rules for an Accounting Flexfield or for a segment. In this case, Subledger Accounting overrides the default accounts that Receivables generates, or individual segment values in the default accounts, when it creates the draft or final subledger accounting. + + The account rules that Receivables predefines for the Receivables application are as follows: + + Credit Memo Distribution GL Account + + Collection Bank Charges Account + + Collection Bank Account Cash Account + + Collection Bank Factoring Charges Account + + Distribution GL Account + + Remit Bank Unapplied Account + + System Gain GL Account + + System Loss GL Account + + Transaction Distribution GL Account + + Transaction Distribution GL Account with reference + + Journal Entry Rule Sets + + Receivables predefines journal entry rule sets that group the predefined journal line rules and account rules within each of the predefined event types. Receivables assigns each predefined journal entry rule set to all event types within an event class. + + This table lists the journal entry rule sets that Receivables predefines for the Receivables application: + + Event Class + + + Journal Entry Rule Set Name + + + Journal Line Rules + + Adjustment + + + Adjustments - Default Accrual + + + Adjustment, Adjustment Charge, Adjustment Charge Nonrecoverable Tax, Adjustment Default Receivable, Adjustment Deferred Tax, Adjustment Nonrecoverable Tax, Adjustment Tax + + Chargeback + + + Chargebacks - Default Accrual + + + Chargeback Default Receivable, Chargeback Revenue + + Credit Memo + + + Credit Memos - Default Accrual + + + Credit Memo Charges, Credit Memo Default Application, Credit Memo Default Deferred Tax Application, Credit Memo Default Receivable, Credit Memo Default Revenue, Credit Memo Default Tax, Credit Memo Default Tax Application, Credit Memo Deferred Revenue, Credit Memo Refund Application, Credit Memo Rounding, Credit Memo Unbilled Receivable + + Debit Memo + + + Debit Memos - Default Accrual + + + Debit Memo Charges, Debit Memo Default Receivable, Debit Memo Deferred Revenue, Debit Memo Freight, Debit Memo Revenue, Debit Memo Rounding, Debit Memo Tax, Debit Memo Unbilled Receivable + + Invoice + + + Invoices - Default Accrual + + + Invoice Charges, Invoice Default Receivable, Invoice Deferred Revenue, Invoice Freight, Invoice Revenue, Invoice Rounding, Invoice Tax, Invoice Unbilled Receivable + + Miscellaneous Receipt + + + Miscellaneous Receipts + + + Miscellaneous Receipt Bank Charges, Miscellaneous Receipt Cleared Cash, Miscellaneous Receipt Confirmed Cash, Miscellaneous Receipt Factored Cash, Miscellaneous Receipt Miscellaneous Cash, Miscellaneous Receipt Remitted Cash, Miscellaneous Receipt Short Term Debt, Miscellaneous Receipt Tax + + Receipt + + + Receipts - Default Accrual + + + Receipt Bank Charges, Receipt Chargeback Application, Receipt Cleared Cash, Receipt Confirmed Cash, Receipt Credit Card Chargeback Application, Receipt Currency Rounding, Receipt Default Application, Receipt Deferred Tax, Receipt Earned Discount, Receipt Earned Discount Nonrecoverable Tax, Receipt Exchange Gain Loss, Receipt Factored Cash, Receipt On Account Application, Receipt Payment Netting Application, Receipt Prepayment Application, Receipt Refund Application, Receipt Remitted Cash, Receipt Short Term Debt, Receipt Tax, Receipt Unapplied Cash, Receipt Unearned Discount, Receipt Unearned Discount on Nonrecoverable Tax, Receipt Unidentified Cash, Receipt Write-Off Application, Unapplied Cash + + Receipt + + + Receipt - Basis Journal Entry Rule Set + + + Receipt Application to Earned Revenue, Receipt Application to Freight, Receipt Application to Revenue, Receipt Application to Rounding, Receipt Application to Suspense Revenue, Receipt Application to Tax, Receipt Application to Unbilled Revenue, Receipt Bank Charges, Receipt Cleared Cash, Receipt Confirmed Cash, Receipt Currency Rounding, Receipt Earned Discount, Receipt Earned Discount on Freight, Receipt Earned Discount on Revenue, Receipt Earned Discount on Tax, Receipt Exchange Gain Loss, Receipt Factored Cash, Receipt On Account Application, Receipt Payment Netting Application, Receipt Prepayment Application, Receipt Refund Application, Receipt Remitted Cash, Receipt Short Term Debt, Receipt Unapplied Cash, Receipt Unapplied for Gain Loss lines, Receipt Unearned Discount, Receipt Unearned Discount on Freight, Receipt Unearned Discount on Revenue, Receipt Unearned Discount on Tax, Receipt Unidentified Cash, Receipt Write-Off Application, Unapplied Cash + Accounting Method + + Receivables provides the predefined Receivables Default Accrual accounting method. + + Subledger Accounting provides the predefined Standard Accrual subledger accounting method that groups the predefined accounting methods for subledger applications. You can optionally create your own subledger accounting method. + + Receivables assigns the predefined Receivables Default Accrual accounting method to the predefined Standard Accrual subledger accounting method. You can assign this subledger accounting method to your ledgers. + + This table lists the assignments for the Receivables Default Accrual accounting method that Receivables predefines for the Receivables application: + + Event Class Assignments + + + Event Type Assignments + + + Create Accounting + + + Journal Entry Rule Set Assignments + + Adjustment + + + All + + + Yes + + + Adjustments - Default Accrual + + Chargeback + + + All + + + Yes + + + Chargebacks - Default Accrual + + Credit Memo + + + All + + + Yes + + + Credit Memos - Default Accrual + + Debit Memo + + + All + + + Yes + + + Debit Memos - Default Accrual + + Invoice + + + All + + + Yes + + + Invoices - Default Accrual + + Miscellaneous Receipt + + + All + + + Yes + + + Miscellaneous Receipts + + Receipt + + + All + + + Yes + + + Receipts - Default Accrual + + You can copy the predefined Receivables Default Accrual accounting method and update the accounting method with new attributes, according to your business requirements. + + The following steps provide general guidelines for copying and updating the predefined Receivables Default Accrual accounting method: + + Create a mapping set for the new attribute values. + + Create an accounting rule based on the mapping set. + + Duplicate the predefined journal entry rule set you want and assign the new accounting rule. + + Duplicate the predefined accounting method assigned to your ledger. + + In the new accounting method, assign an end date to the applicable predefined journal entry rule set assignment and assign the new journal entry rule set. + + Activate the new accounting method. This sets the journal entry rule sets to Active. + + Assign the new accounting method to your ledger. + + Related Topics + + Accounting Attribute Assignments + + +Receivables Accounting Event Model + +An accounting event is a business event in Receivables that has an accounting impact. For example, creating or applying a receipt is an accounting event. + +Not all business events have an accounting impact, but you can decide which events you want to monitor as accounting events. You can modify the accounting setup to create accounting for some events and not for others. + +Subledger Accounting categorizes accounting events as event types. Event types are grouped into event classes that in turn are grouped into event entities. The overall grouping of these components is called an event model. The Receivables accounting event model is predefined for you, and includes each Receivables event class and its life cycle. This accounting event model forms the basis for creating subledger accounting. + +As the foundation of the event model, Receivables contains predefined event entities. An event entity enables Subledger Accounting to handle the accounting for similar business events in a consistent manner. The event entities for Receivables are: + + Transactions + + Receipts + + Adjustments + + Bills Receivable + +Each event entity is associated with one or more event classes. An event class represents a category of business events for a particular activity or document. Event classes group similar event types and enable the sharing of accounting definitions. + +An event type represents a business operation that you can perform for an event class. An accounting event has both an event class and an event type that affect how the Create Receivables Accounting process determines the subledger accounting for it. Event types provide the lowest level of detail for storing accounting definitions. +Transactions Event Entity + +This table describes the predefined event classes and event types for the Transactions event entity. + +Event Class + + +Event Types + +Chargeback + + +Chargeback Created + +Credit Memo + + +Credit Memo Created + +Credit Memo Updated + +Debit Memo + + +Debit Memo Created + +Debit Memo Updated + +Invoice + + +Invoice Created + +Invoice Updated +Receipts Event Entity + +This table describes the predefined event classes and event types for the Receipts event entity. + +Event Class + + +Event Types + +Miscellaneous Receipt + + +Miscellaneous Receipt Created + +Miscellaneous Receipt Reverse + +Miscellaneous Receipt Updated + +Receipt + + +Receipt Created + +Receipt Reverse + +Receipt Updated +Adjustments Event Entity + +This table describes the predefined event classes and event types for the Adjustments event entity. + +Event Class + + +Event Types + +Adjustment + + +Adjustment Created +Bills Receivable Event Entity + +This table describes the predefined event classes and event types for the Bills Receivable event entity. + +Event Class + + +Event Types + +Bills Receivable + + +Bills Receivable Created + +Bills Receivable Updated + + + Reference Data Sets in Receivables + + Use reference data sets to share the values in your Receivables reference data objects either across business units or within one business unit only. + + Receivables includes a predefined Common reference data set. Use the Common set to share reference data that you want to make available to all business units. For example, you can make the transaction types and transaction sources created in each business unit available to all other business units. + Create business unit-specific data sets for reference data for use by one business unit only. For example, each business unit may want to create and maintain its own salespersons and memo lines. + Note + You must create business unit-specific reference data sets for Customer Sites and Customer Account Relationships. All other reference data objects can use the predefined Common set. + This tables lists the reference data objects in Receivables that are assigned a reference data set. + + Receivables Reference Data Objects + Reference Data Object Method of Sharing + Transaction Types Common Set or BU-Specific + Transaction Sources Common Set or BU-Specific + Payment Terms Common Set or BU-Specific + Remit-to Addresses Common Set or BU-Specific + Memo Lines Common Set or BU-Specific + Salespersons Common Set or BU-Specific + Customer Sites BU-Specific Only + Customer Account Relationships BU-Specific Only + AutoCash Rule Sets Common Set or BU-Specific + AutoMatch Rule Sets Common Set or BU-Specific + Application Exception Rule Sets Common Set or BU-Specific + Revenue Scheduling Rules Common Set or BU-Specific + Revenue Contingencies Common Set or BU-Specific +Lockboxes Common Set or BU-Specific + +ranslated Display of Transaction Type, Transaction Source, and Receipt Method + +You can display the translated names of your transaction types, transaction sources, and receipt methods in your local language on important Receivables pages and windows. + +In certain countries it is a requirement to display the names of these objects in the local language. + +Use these three lookup types to create lookup codes with the translation in the local language for each corresponding object: + + Transaction Type: ORA_AR_TRANSLATED_TRX_TYPE lookup type + Transaction Source: ORA_AR_TRANSLATED_TRX_SOURCE lookup type + Receipt Method: ORA_AR_TRANSLATED_RCPT_METHOD lookup type + +Use these values for each lookup code: + + Lookup Code: Numerical identifier of the object. + Reference Data Set: Common Set or any custom set. + Meaning: Translated name of the object in the local language. + Description: Description of the translated object. + +Before you enter lookup codes with translated names under one of these lookup types, complete these prerequisites: + + Collect the numerical identifiers for the transaction types, transaction sources, and receipt methods that you want to display in translation. + Create a list of translated names in advance of entering the corresponding lookup codes. + Log in under the language that you intend to enter lookup codes for. + +To find the numerical identifiers for transaction types and transaction sources: + + Navigate to the Setup and Maintenance work area. + Navigate to the Manage Transaction Types page or Manage Transaction Sources page. + Click the Search button to display all transaction types or transaction sources. + Select View > Columns > Transaction Type Identifier or Transaction Source Identifier to display this column. + Make note of the identifiers for the transaction types and transaction sources that you want to translate. + +To find the numerical identifiers for receipt methods: + + Navigate to the Setup and Maintenance work area. + Navigate to the Manage Receipt Class and Methods page. + Click the Search button to display all receipt classes. + Open the first receipt class that you want in the Edit Receipt Class and Methods page. + Select the first receipt method that you want. + Select View > Columns > Receipt Method Identifier to display this column. + Make note of the receipt method identifier. + Repeat these steps for all receipt methods in all receipt classes that you want. + +When you have completed translation of the objects you need and collected the corresponding identifiers, use the Manage Receivables Lookups task to enter the lookup codes under each lookup type. + +In this example, you want to display the transaction type Invoice_1 in French. The translated name of this transaction type is Facture_1. You confirm that the transaction type identifier for Invoice_1 is 001. + +To create the lookup code for this translated transaction type: + + Log in under the French language. + Navigate to the Setup and Maintenance work area. + Search for the setup task Manage Receivables Lookups. + In the Manage Receivables Lookups page, search for the ORA_AR_TRANSLATED_TRX_TYPE lookup type. + Enter a new row for the lookup code. + In the Lookup Code field, enter 001. + In the Reference Data Set field, enter Common Set. + If not selected, enable the Enabled option. + In the Start Date field, enter the date from which to display the transaction type in French. + In the Meaning field, enter Facture_1. + Note + There is no validation on the text you enter in lookup code fields. You must ensure that the translated name of the object that you enter in the Meaning field matches the original language name exactly. + In the Description field, enter French translation of Invoice_1. + Save your work. + + The French translation of this transaction type will appear on Receivables pages and windows. + +Add as many translated name lookup codes that you need for both new and existing transaction sources, transaction types, and receipt methods. You may want to create a procedure for regular updates to all objects that require translated display. + +You can create lookup codes under the ORA_AR_TRANSLATED lookup types in all the languages your system supports. You must log in under each language separately and update the translated names and descriptions for each lookup code in that language. +Ledger and Legal Entity Document Sequencing in Receivables + +You can set up your primary ledger to use document sequencing in Receivables at the ledger level or legal entity level. + +If you enable document sequencing at the legal entity level, then if you have more than one legal entity assigned to the same ledger, you can assign separate document sequences to Receivables transactions, adjustments, and receipts belonging to each legal entity. + +Legal entity level document sequencing helps you conform to local and governmental authority requirements, while still being able to organize multiple legal entities under the same primary ledger. + +Review these guidelines for document sequencing in Receivables: + + Document Sequencing in Receivables + + Receivables Document Categories + + Chronological Document Sequencing + + Chronological Document Sequencing and Manual Transactions + + Chronological Document Sequencing and AutoInvoice + +Document Sequencing in Receivables + +To use document sequencing in Receivables, in the Sequencing section of the Specify Options page of your primary ledger, perform one or both of these tasks: + + Set the Sequencing By option to Ledger or Legal Entity. + + Optionally enable the Enforce Document Sequencing option for Receivables. + +If you perform step 1 and step 2, then document sequencing is always used in the ledger or all legal entities assigned to the ledger. You must assign a document sequence to every document category generated by Receivables events. + +If you perform step 1 but not step 2, then you can optionally assign document sequences to the Receivables document categories that meet your business requirements. For example, you can use sequential numbering for receipt processing only and not for transactions. +Receivables Document Categories + +If the primary ledger is enabled for document sequencing at the legal entity level (Sequencing By option set to Legal Entity), then Receivables creates a document category for each of these Receivables events in all legal entities assigned to the ledger: + + Invoice transaction type + + Credit memo transaction type + + Debit memo transaction type + + Bills receivable transaction type + + Standard receipt + + Adjustment + +To assign a document sequence to a document category: + + Navigate to the Manage Document Sequence Categories page. + + Search for the document categories that you want. + + You can use the Category Code field to limit your search by entering, for example, Invoice or Receipt. + + Review the search results to find the document category that you want + + If necessary, update the category name according to your requirements. + + Save your changes. + + Navigate to the Manage Receivables Document Sequences page. + + Search for the document sequence name that you want, or create a new document sequence. + + In the Search Results section, update or complete the document sequence setup according to your requirements. + + In the Assignments section, select the document category to assign to this document sequence. + + Save your changes. + +For each Receivables event, the document sequence number is generated when the following related action takes place: + + Transactions: At the time of either saving or completing the transaction, depending on the setting of the Receivables system option Document Number Generation Level for the applicable business units. + + Adjustments: When the adjustment is submitted. + + Receipts: When the receipt is submitted. + + Bills Receivable: When the bill receivable is completed. + +These rules apply to Receivables document sequencing: + + Document sequence date is the accounting date (not, for example, the transaction date or receipt date). + Note + + If a bill receivable requires drawee acceptance, then Receivables uses the transaction date instead of the accounting date to assign the document number. This is because a bills receivable document number is generated when the bill is completed, not accepted. + + You can't change the legal entity on any transaction that has a document sequence number. + + By default, you can't delete any transaction or receipt that has a document sequence number. If the Receivables system option Allow payment deletion is enabled, then you can delete receipts and bills receivable transactions only for the applicable business units. + +Chronological Document Sequencing + +Document sequencing uses the accounting date as the document sequence date. To help ensure reliable document sequencing for your transactions, you can enforce the sequencing of document numbers in chronological order. +Note + +Chronological document sequencing applies to invoice, credit memo and debit memo transactions only, either entered manually or imported using AutoInvoice. It doesn't apply to receipts, adjustments, or bills receivable. + +To enable chronological document sequencing on Receivables transactions, in the Sequencing section of the Specify Options page of your primary ledger perform these three tasks: + + Set the Sequencing By option to Ledger or Legal Entity. + + Enable the Enforce Document Sequencing option for Receivables. + + Enable the Enforce Chronological Order on Document Date option. + +You must perform all three steps for chronological document sequencing. Enabling the Enforce Chronological Order on Document Date option enforces the correlation between the document sequence accounting date and the transaction accounting date. This prevents Receivables from creating a transaction with an accounting date earlier than the accounting date of the last sequenced document within the same document sequence. + +For example, you create an invoice with an accounting date of 01-Jan-2014. This invoice is assigned the document number 100. The next invoice you create is assigned the document number 101 provided the accounting date of the invoice is 01-Jan-2014 or later. If the accounting date is earlier than 01-Jan-2014, then Receivables doesn't create the transaction. +Chronological Document Sequencing and Manual Transactions + +If you're using document sequencing and the primary ledger option Enforce Chronological Order on Document Date is enabled, then you can enforce chronological document sequencing on transactions created manually in your transaction type setup. + +To enforce chronological document sequencing on transactions created manually: + + Navigate to the Create or Edit Transaction Type page. + + Enable the No future dates with chronological document sequencing option. + + Complete the transaction type setup according to your requirements. + + Assign this transaction type to the applicable transactions. + +When you use this transaction type with transactions you create manually, then Receivables won't create the transaction if both the transaction and accounting dates are in the future. +Chronological Document Sequencing and AutoInvoice + +If you're using document sequencing and the primary ledger option Enforce Chronological Order on Document Date is enabled, then for AutoInvoice you must set the Receivables system option Accounting Dates Out of Order. Setting this option determines how AutoInvoice processes transactions when the accounting date is out of order within the document sequence. + +In the Receivables System Options page: Billing and Revenue tab: AutoInvoice section, set the Accounting Dates Out of Order field to Reject or Adjust: + + Reject: If the transaction accounting date is out of order within the document sequence, reject the transaction and transfer it to the error table. + + Adjust: If the transaction accounting date is out of order within the document sequence, adjust the accounting date to conform to the document sequence accounting date. + +Related Topics + + What legal entity is assigned to a transaction? + Accounting Date Derivation During AutoInvoice Import + Document Sequences + Document Sequence Categories + +How AutoInvoice Processes Transactions with Document Sequencing + +If the primary ledger is enabled for document sequencing, AutoInvoice validates and assigns document numbers to transactions according to the requirements of the ledger settings. +Note + +If an imported transaction line already has a document number, then AutoInvoice accepts this document number without further validation. +Settings That Affect AutoInvoice Processing with Document Sequencing + +If the primary ledger option Enforce Chronological Order on Document Date is enabled, then you must set the Receivables system option Accounting Dates Out of Order. Setting this option determines how AutoInvoice processes transactions when the accounting date is out of order within the document sequence. + +Before you run the Import AutoInvoice program, you must also create and assign document sequences to the document categories of the transaction types that you plan to assign to imported transactions. +How Transactions with Document Sequencing Are Processed + +For the most complete example, if the primary ledger is set for document sequencing at the legal entity level, AutoInvoice processes transactions in this way: + + Validate and group transaction lines into transactions. + + Derive the legal entity for each transaction and assign the legal entity to the transaction. + + If the transaction doesn't have an accounting date, then derive the accounting date. + + If the primary ledger option Enforce Chronological Order on Document Date isn't enabled: + + Retrieve the document sequence for the document category of each transaction type assigned to transactions. + + Assign the document number to the transaction according to the combination of legal entity, transaction type, document sequence, and accounting date. + + If the primary ledger option Enforce Chronological Order on Document Date is enabled: + + Order transactions by legal entity and then by transaction type. + + Retrieve the document sequence for the document category of each transaction type assigned to transactions. + + Order transactions by document sequence and then by accounting date in ascending chronological order. + + Compare the document sequence accounting date to the accounting date of the transaction. + + If the transaction accounting date is equal to or later than the document sequence accounting date, assign the document number to the transaction according to the combination of legal entity, transaction type, document sequence, and accounting date. + + If the transaction accounting date is earlier than the document sequence accounting date, retrieve the value of the Receivables system option Accounting Dates Out of Order. + + If the Accounting Dates Out of Order option is set to: + + Reject: Reject the transaction and transfer the transaction to the error table. + + Adjust: Update the transaction accounting date with the document sequence accounting date. + Note + + If the document sequence accounting date is in a closed period, then adjust this date to the first open accounting period. + + Assign the document number to the transaction according to the combination of legal entity, transaction type, document sequence, and accounting date. + +Can I share document sequences across ledgers or business units? + +If document sequencing is enabled for a ledger, it isn't recommended to share the same document sequence across ledgers or business units. + +Document sequencing uses the accounting date as the document sequence date. Because ledgers can have different accounting periods open, each ledger could derive a different accounting date for the same document sequence. + +Because a document category is created for each transaction type you create, best practice is to create and maintain a separate set of transaction types in each business unit. +Receivables Activity Types + +Receivables activity types provide default accounting information for all activities in Receivables other than transactions and receipts. +Using Receivables Activity Types + +Adjustments + +You use activities of this type when creating adjustments. You must create at least one activity of this type. + +There are also three related activities that are reserved for internal use only: + + Chargeback Adjustment + + Adjustment Reversal + + Chargeback Reversal + +You must define general ledger accounts for the Chargeback Adjustment activity before creating chargebacks. + +When you reverse a receipt, if an adjustment or chargeback exists, Receivables automatically generates off-setting adjustments using the Adjustment Reversal and Chargeback Reversal activities. + +Bank Error + +You use activities of this type when entering miscellaneous receipts. You can use this type of activity to help reconcile bank statements using Cash Management. + +Bills Receivable Funds Recovery + +You use activities of this type when you need to unapply a receipt from a bill receivable. Because you can't reverse the receipt in Cash Management, you use this activity to create a negative miscellaneous receipt and apply it to Bills Receivable Funds Recovery. + +Claim Investigation + +You use activities of this type when you create a claim investigation application against a receipt for a transaction or non-transaction underpayment or overpayment. You must define a general ledger account for claim investigation receipts that use the Claim Investigation activity. + +Credit Card Chargeback + +You use activities of this type when recording credit card chargebacks. You must define a general ledger clearing account for the Credit Card Chargeback activity that Receivables provides before recording credit card chargebacks. + +Receivables credits the clearing account when you apply a credit card chargeback, and then debits the account after generating the negative miscellaneous receipt. If you later determine the chargeback is invalid, then Receivables debits the clearing account when you unapply the credit card chargeback, and then credits the account after reversing the negative miscellaneous receipt. Only one Credit Card Chargeback activity within a business unit can be active at a time. + +Credit Card Refund + +You use activities of this type when processing refunds to customer credit card accounts. This activity includes information about the general ledger clearing account to use to clear credit card refunds. You must create at least one activity of this type to process credit card refunds. + +Earned Discount + +You use activities of this type to adjust a transaction if payment is received within the discount period, as determined by the payment terms on the transaction. + +Late Charges + +You use activities of this type to define a late charge policy. You must define a Late Charges activity if you record late charges as adjustments against overdue transactions. If you assess penalties in addition to late charges, then define a separate Late Charges activity for penalties. + +Miscellaneous Cash + +You use activities of this type when entering miscellaneous receipts. The Miscellaneous Cash activity uses a distribution set to automatically distribute miscellaneous cash across various accounts. You must create at least one activity of this type. + +If the Tax Rate Code Source for this activity is Activity, then you must define asset and liability tax rate codes to account for tax on miscellaneous receipts and miscellaneous payments. + +Payments + +You use activities of this type when applying a receipt against other open receipts. You must define a general ledger clearing account to use when offsetting one receipt against another receipt. Only one Payments activity within a business unit can be active at a time. + +Prepayments + +You use activities of this type when creating prepayment receipts. You must define a general ledger account for prepayment receipts that use the Prepayments activity. Only one Prepayments activity within a business unit can be active at a time. + +Receipt Write-off + +You use activities of this type when writing off receipts. You must define the general ledger account to credit when you write off an unapplied amount or an underpayment on a receipt. + +Refund + +You use activities of this type to process automated non-credit card refunds. You must define the general ledger clearing account to use to clear refunds. You must create at least one activity of this type. Only one Refund activity within a business unit can be active at a time. + +Short Term Debt + +You use activities of this type to record advances made to creditors by the bank when bills receivable are factored with recourse. You select a short-term debt receivables activity when you create or update remittance banks to use with bills receivable remittance receipt methods. + +Unearned Discount + +You use activities of this type to adjust a transaction if payment is received after the discount period, as determined by the payment terms on the transaction. + +Related Topics + + PCI DSS Credit Card Processing Requirements + +GL Account Source + +When you define a Receivables activity, you use the GL Account Source to indicate how Receivables derives the accounts for the expense or revenue generated by the activity. +GL Account Source Options + +Activity GL Account + +Allocate the expense or revenue to the general ledger account that you specify for the Receivables activity. If the activity type is Bank Error, Late Charges, Prepayments, or Receipt Write-off, you can only select this option. + +Distribution Set + +Allocate the expense or revenue to the distribution set that you specify. This value is only used with Miscellaneous Cash activities. + +Revenue on Invoice + +Allocate the expense or revenue net of any tax to the revenue accounts specified on the invoice. If Tax Rate Code Source is set to None, allocate the gross amount to these accounts. You can only choose this option if the activity type is Adjustment, Earned Discount, or Unearned Discount. + +If the revenue on the invoice is unearned, then AutoAccounting derives the anticipated revenue accounting distribution accounts and amounts. Receivables then uses this information to allocate the adjustment or discount amount to these derived revenue accounts. + +Tax Rate Code on Invoice + +Allocate the net portion using the expense/revenue accounts specified by the tax rate code on the invoice. If Tax Rate Code Source is set to None, allocate the gross amount to these accounts. You can only choose this option if the activity type is Adjustment, Earned Discount, or Unearned Discount. + +ax Rate Code Source + +When you define a receivables activity, you use the Tax Rate Code Source to indicate how Receivables allocates tax amounts for the activity. +Tax Rate Code Source Options + +None + +Allocate the entire tax amount according to the GL Account Source you specified. You use this option if you don't want to account for tax separately. + +Activity + +Allocate the tax amount to the asset or liability tax accounts specified by the activity. + +Invoice + +Distribute the tax amount to the tax accounts specified by the tax rate code on the invoice. You can't choose this option if the activity type is Miscellaneous Cash or Late Charges. + +Enable the Recoverable option to indicate that the tax for this activity is recoverable. Don't enable this option if tax is nonrecoverable. +Note + +In the event of a tax adjustment to an invoice with zero amount tax distributions, you cant set the adjustment activity Tax Rate Code Source to Invoice. + +Examples of Using Each AutoCash Rule + +You create an AutoCash rule set from a combination of the six AutoCash rules. You enter the rules in the order in which you want to use them to apply a receipt to an open debit item. + +The AutoCash rules are: + + Match Payment with Invoice + + Clear the Account + + Clear Past Due Invoices + + Clear Past Due Invoices Grouped by Payment Terms + + Apply to the Oldest Invoice First + + Combo Rule + +When you apply a receipt, Receivables uses the first rule in the AutoCash rule set. If the first rule in the set doesn't find a match, Receivables uses the next rule in the sequence, and so on until it can apply the receipt. + +These examples illustrate how each rule applies receipts to transactions and updates customer balances. +Match Payment with Invoice + +The Match Payment with Invoice rule applies a receipt to a single invoice, debit memo, or chargeback only if the receipt amount exactly matches the amount of the debit item. If more than one debit item has an open amount that matches the receipt amount, Receivables applies the receipt to the item with the earliest due date. If more than one debit item has the same amount and due date, Receivables applies the receipt to the item with the lowest payment schedule ID number (internal identifier). + +Receivables uses the values specified for the AutoCash rule set open balance calculation and the number of discount grace days assigned to the customer profile to determine the remaining amount due on the debit item. The rule ignores the value of the Apply partial receipts option. + +For example, consider the following scenario: + +Item/Option + + +Value + +Discounts + + +Earned Only + +Late Charges + + +No + +Receipt + + +$1800 + +Receipt Date + + +14-JAN-03 + +Discount Grace Days + + +5 + +The invoice details are: + +Invoice Number + + +Invoice Amount + + +Discount + + +Payment Terms + + +Invoice Date + + +Due Date + +600 + + +$2000 + + +$20 + + +10% 10/Net 30 + + +01-JAN-03 + + +30-JAN-03 + +The payment terms assigned to this invoice include a 10% discount if the invoice is paid within 10 days, and the open balance calculation on the AutoCash rule set allows for earned discounts. Even though the invoice is paid after the 10 day period, Receivables adds the 5 discount grace days, making this invoice eligible for a 10% discount. + +The remaining amount due on the invoice on January 14 is $1800. Since the remaining amount due matches the receipt amount, the receipt is applied. If there had been no discount grace days, Receivables couldn't apply the receipt because the remaining amount of the invoice would be $2000. +Clear the Account + +The Clear the Account rule applies a receipt only if the receipt amount exactly matches the customer open balance. Receivables includes all open debit and credit items when calculating the customer open balance. Open credit items include credit memos, on-account credits, and on-account and unapplied cash. The rule ignores the value of the Apply partial receipts option. + +The Clear the Account rule uses the following equation to calculate the open balance for each debit item: + +Open Balance = Original Balance + Late Charges - Discount + +Receivables then adds the balance for each debit item to determine the total account balance. The rule uses this equation for each invoice, chargeback, debit memo, credit memo, and application of an unapplied or on-account receipt to a debit item. + +Receivables uses the values specified for the AutoCash rule set open balance calculation and the number of discount grace days assigned to the customer profile to determine the customer open balance. + +For example, consider the following scenario: + +Item/Option + + +Value + +Late Charges + + +Yes + +Items in Dispute + + +Yes + +Receipt + + +$590 + +This table shows the customer activity: + +Past Due Debits/Credits + + +Invoice Amount + + +Late Charges + + +In Dispute + +Invoice 45 + + +$500 + + +$40 + + +Yes + +Invoice 46 + + +$300 + + +$0 + + +N/A + +Credit Memo 100 + + +$50 + + +N/A + + +N/A + +Unapplied Cash + + +$200 + + +N/A + + +N/A + +Since the Late charges and Items in dispute options are enabled, the open balance for this customer is $590. Because the receipt amount matches the customer open balance, the receipt can be applied. + +If the receipt amount didn't exactly match the customer account balance, Receivables would use the next rule in the set to attempt to apply the receipt. +Clear Past Due Invoices + +The Clear Past Due Invoices rule applies a receipt only if the receipt amount exactly matches the customer past due account balance. Receivables includes all open past due debit and credit items when calculating the past due account balance. The rule ignores the value of the Apply partial receipts option. + +The Clear Past Due Invoices rule only applies the receipt to items that are currently past due. A debit item is considered past due if the invoice due date is earlier than or equal to the date of the receipt currently being applied. Receivables uses the receipt date for unapplied and on-account cash, and the credit memo date for credit memos and on-account credits, to determine whether to include these amounts as part of the customer past due account balance. + +For example, if you apply a receipt with a receipt date of 10-JAN-03, all unapplied and on-account cash, and all credit memos and on-account credits, that have a transaction date (receipt date or credit memo date) equal to or earlier than 10-JAN-03 are included when calculating the customer past due account balance. + +Receivables uses the values specified for the AutoCash rule set open balance calculation and the number of discount grace days assigned to the customer profile to determine the customer past due account balance. The settings of the Late charges and Items in dispute options may prevent a past due debit item from being closed, even if the receipt amount matches the customer past due account balance. + +For example, consider the following scenario: + +Item/Option + + +Value + +Late Charges + + +No + +Items in Dispute + + +No + +Receipt + + +$420 + +This table shows the customer activity: + +Past Due Debits/Credits + + +Invoice Amount + + +Late Charges + + +In Dispute + +Invoice 209 + + +$300 + + +$0 + + +N/A + +Invoice 89 + + +$250 + + +$0 + + +Yes + +Invoice 7 + + +$120 + + +$30 + + +N/A + +Since the Late charges and Items in dispute options aren't enabled, Receivables doesn't include Invoice 89 ($250) or late charges for Invoice 7 ($30) in the calculation of the customer past due account balance. Therefore, the past due account balance for this customer is $420. Because the receipt amount matches the customer past due account balance, the receipt is applied. However, Invoice 7 and Invoice 89 are still open, past due debit items. +Clear Past Due Invoices Grouped by Payment Terms + +The Clear Past Due Invoices Grouped by Payment Terms rule applies a receipt only if the receipt amount exactly matches the sum of the customer credit memos and past due invoices. This rule is similar to the Clear Past Due Invoices rule, but it first groups past due invoices by payment terms and uses the oldest transaction due date within the group as the group due date. + +A debit item is considered past due if the invoice due date is earlier than the date of the receipt currently being applied. For credit memos, Receivables uses the credit memo date to determine whether to include these amounts in the customer account balance. + +For example, if you apply a receipt with a receipt date of 10-JAN-03, credit memos that have a transaction date equal to or earlier than 10-JAN-03 are included. Credit memos don't have payment terms, and are therefore included in each group. + +Receivables uses the values specified for the AutoCash rule set open balance calculation and the number of discount grace days assigned to the customer profile to determine the sum of the customer credit memos and past due invoices. The settings of the Late charges and Items in dispute options may prevent a past due debit item from being closed, even if the receipt amount matches the sum of the customer credit memos and past due invoices. + +For example, consider a $900 receipt applied on 25-JUN. This table shows the related customer activity: + +Transaction Number + + +Payment Terms + + +Due Date + + +Invoice Amount + +1 + + +A + + +25-MAY + + +$500 + +2 + + +A + + +25-JUN + + +$200 + +3 + + +A + + +25-JUN + + +$200 + +4 + + +B + + +20-JUN + + +$900 + +5 + + +C + + +25-MAY + + +$905 + +Receivables groups these transactions as follows: + + Group 1: Transactions 1,2,3 Amount: $900 Group Due Date: 25-MAY + + Group 2: Transaction 4 Amount: $900 Group Due Date: 20-JUN + + Group 3: Transaction 5 Amount: $905 Group Due Date: 25-MAY + +Since both Groups 1 and 2 match the receipt amount, Receivables selects the group with the oldest due date (Group 1) and applies the receipt to the transactions in this group. +Apply to the Oldest Invoice First + +The Apply to the Oldest Invoice First rule applies receipts to customer debit and credit items, starting with the item with the oldest due date. Receivables uses the values specified for the AutoCash rule set open balance calculation to determine the oldest outstanding item for the customer. + +For example, consider the following scenario: + +Item/Option + + +Value + +Apply Partial Receipts + + +Yes + +Late Charges + + +No + +Receipt + + +$200 + +This table shows the customer activity: + +Invoice Number + + +Invoice Amount + + +Late Charges + + +Due Date + +801 + + +$0 + + +$35 + + +01-DEC-02 + +707 + + +$450 + + +$0 + + +01-JAN-03 + +If you compare only the due dates for the two invoices, invoice 801 is the oldest invoice. However, Receivables also checks the open balance calculation and automatic matching rule options for the AutoCash rule set. Since the Late charges option isn't enabled, Receivables ignores invoice 801 (because the remaining amount only consists of late charges) and applies the $200 receipt to invoice 707. + +If the Apply partial receipts option weren't enabled, Receivables couldn't apply this receipt and would look at the next rule in the sequence. +Combo Rule + +The Combo Rule applies a receipt to two invoices, debit memos, or chargebacks only if the receipt amount exactly matches the amount of the two debit items. If more than one combination of two debit items has a total open amount that matches the receipt amount, Receivables applies the receipt to the combination of items with the earliest due date. If more than one combination of two debit items has the same amount and due date, Receivables applies the receipt to the combination of items with the lowest payment schedule ID number (internal identifier). + +Receivables uses the values specified for the AutoCash rule set open balance calculation and the number of discount grace days assigned to the customer profile to determine the remaining amount due on the debit items. The rule ignores the value of the Apply partial receipts option. + +For example, a lockbox contains these five open invoices: + +Invoice Number + + +Invoice Amount + +101 + + +$50.00 + +201 + + +$200.00 + +301 + + +$175.00 + +401 + + +$372.00 + +501 + + +$127.00 + +The lockbox contains a receipt for $572. Using the Combo Rule as the first AutoCash rule, the receipt is applied to invoices 201 and 401. +Example of Using an AutoCash Rule Set + +This example demonstrates how to create and use an AutoCash rule set. + +You create an AutoCash rule set to manage the payments received from Global Freight Carriers. You have an earned discount arrangement with this company but with no payment or discount grace days, and you don't add late charges for payments received beyond the due date. +Create the AutoCash Rule Set + +Create the AutoCash Rule set using these values: + +Field + + +Value + +Open Balance Calculation: Discounts + + +Earned Only + +Open Balance Calculation: Late Charges + + +No + +Open Balance Calculation: Items in Dispute + + +No + +Automatic Matching Rules: Apply Partial Receipts + + +Yes + +Automatic Matching Rules: Remaining Remittance Amount + + +On Account + +AutoCash Rule + + +1. Match Payment with Invoice + +AutoCash Rule + + +2. Clear The Account + +AutoCash Rule + + +3. Apply To The Oldest Invoice First +Process a Payment Using the AutoCash Rule Set + +Global Freight Carriers has the following outstanding invoices, none of which are in dispute: + +Number + + +Amount Remaining + + +Due Date + + +Discount Date + + +Discount Amount + +123 + + +$200 + + +11-DEC-02 + + +01-DEC-02 + + +$20 + +124 + + +$300 + + +08-DEC-02 + + +30-NOV-02 + + +$30 + +125 + + +$150 + + +13-DEC-02 + + +28-NOV-02 + + +$15 + +A payment was entered for Global Freight Carriers for $600 with a deposit date of 10-DEC-02. + +Using the AutoCash rule set that you created, Receivables processes the payment in this way: + + AutoCash rule 1, Match Payment with Invoice, fails because none of the customer open items have a remaining amount due that is equal to the amount of the receipt ($600). + + Receivables looks at AutoCash rule 2. + + AutoCash rule 2, Clear the Account, fails because the customer calculated account balance ($650) isn't the same as the amount of the receipt. + + Receivables looks at AutoCash rule 3. + + Receivables uses AutoCash rule 3, Apply to the Oldest Invoice First. + + Receivables first applies the receipt to the oldest invoice, Invoice 124 for $300, and performs these calculations: + + Since the discount date of 30-NOV-02 has passed and the Discount field is set to Earned Only, the $30 discount is no longer available. The amount due remaining for this invoice is now equal to either $0 or the amount of any late charges previously assessed for this item. + + Because the Late Charges option is set to No, late charges aren't included in the customer open balance calculation. The remaining receipt amount is now $300.00. + + Receivables now applies $200 to the next oldest invoice, Invoice 123, and performs these calculations: + + As with Invoice 124, the discount date for Invoice 123 has passed and the $20 discount is no longer available. The amount due remaining for this invoice is now equal to either $0 or the amount of any late charges previously assessed for this item. + + Because the Late Charges option is set to No, late charges aren't included in the customer open balance calculation. The remaining receipt amount is now $100. + + Receivables applies the remaining $100 to Invoice 125 ($150) as a partial receipt because the Apply partial receipts option is set to Yes. + Note + + If the Apply partial receipts option were set to No, Receivables couldn't apply the remaining amount to Invoice 125. Instead, it would be placed on account, because the Remaining Remittance Amount option is set to On Account. + + As with the other invoices, the discount date for Invoice 125 has passed and the $15 discount is no longer available. + + If there are no late charges for this invoice, the amount due remaining is reduced from $150 to $50, and remains open. + +How is an AutoCash rule set selected and used? + +During payment processing, Receivables uses the Match Receipts By rules to attempt to match receipts to open transactions, and either apply receipts automatically or present recommendations for receipt application. + +If transactions can't be matched or transaction information isn't available, Receivables uses the AutoCash rule set, defined for the customer profile either at the customer site or customer account level, to apply the receipt. + +If the customer doesn't have an AutoCash rule set assigned to a profile, Receivables uses the AutoCash rule set assigned to system options and the number of discount grace days defined in the customer site or customer account profile to apply the receipt. + +If none of the rules in the AutoCash rule set apply, Receivables places the remaining amount either unapplied or on-account, depending on the setting of the Remaining Remittance Amount option on the AutoCash rule set. + +During lockbox processing, if you set up a Match Payment with Invoice AutoCash rule and a Receipt Application Exception rule with tolerance limits for automatic adjustments, lockbox will look for and apply an underpaid receipt plus tolerance limit amount to an applicable transaction. +Why can't the AutoCash rule apply a receipt to a related customer account? + +You can only use the Apply to the Oldest Invoice First rule to pay for transactions of a related customer account. + +The rule applies the receipt to the transaction with the oldest due date selected from all transactions belonging to all sites of the related customer account. +How can I use partial receipts? + +Use the AutoCash rule set Apply partial receipts option with the Apply to the Oldest Invoice First rule. Enabling this option lets you apply a receipt to a transaction with an amount less than the amount required to close the debit item. + +If the AutoCash rule set doesn't use partial receipts but does include late charges in the open balance calculation, then Receivables can interpret a receipt application against a transaction amount plus late charges as a partial receipt. + +For example, you intend to close a $100 transaction by applying a $100 receipt, but the transaction has since accumulated a $10 late charge. If the Apply partial receipts option isn't enabled, Receivables can't apply the $100 receipt to the new $110 open debit item. +Approval Limits Document Types + +You can define approval limits for your users for specific transaction activities and amount ranges per currency. The document types identify the transaction activities that a user can approve. +Document Types + +Adjustment + +Define Adjustment approval limits by currency and amount. Receivables uses approval limits that have a document type of Adjustment when you create or approve an adjustment. + +When you enter an adjustment outside your approval limit range, Receivables assigns the adjustment a status of Pending until someone with the appropriate approval limits either approves or rejects it. + +Receipt Write-off + +Define Receipt Write-off approval limits by currency and amount. Receivables uses approval limits with this document type whenever you attempt to write off either an unapplied receipt amount or an underpayment on a receipt. + +You can't write off a receipt amount outside your approval limit range. In addition, the approval limits for write-offs are separate from, but can't exceed, the Receivables system options write-off amounts. + +Credit Memo Refund + +Define Credit Memo Refund approval limits by currency and amount. Receivables uses approval limits with this document type whenever you attempt to refund an on-account credit memo. + +Related Topics + + How Adjustments to Transactions Are Calculated + Guidelines for Applying Receipts and On-Account Credit Memos + Write-offs and Receipts + +How can I manage the users that have approval limits? + +You can only assign approval limits to valid users that are defined in your organization. The combination of user, document type, and currency identify a specific approval limit record. + +You can, for example, define multiple approval limit ranges for the same user and document type in each currency defined in your system. + +Be sure to update approval limits when personnel changes occur. + +Configure Manual Review of Credit Memo Requests + +You can configure manual review and approval of credit memo requests against Receivables transactions using Oracle Business Rules. You can also capture additional information about the credit request and its related workflow notifications. + +The manual credit memo request approval flow sends email or online notifications to each designated approver. Each approver can review the details of the credit request, as well as enter and update information related to credit memo approval. +Configure the Manual Workflow Notification Process + +Configure these tasks in sequence to enable the manual credit memo request approval flow: + + FinArTrxnsCreditMemosAutomaticManual: By default this task is set to Automatic, for automatic creation of the credit memo (business rule 1=1). You can set this task to Manual to initiate the manual review and approval of the credit request. + + This task by itself doesn't enable the workflow notifications. + + FinArTrxnsCreditMemosCreationPostProcessing: After you enable the manual review of credit requests, use this task to enable the workflow notifications for manual reviews. + + You can configure multiple reviewers for this workflow using the task configuration assignee rules. + +To configure the manual workflow notification process: + + Navigate to the BPM Worklist. + + From the user drop-down list, select Administration. + + Click the Task Configuration tab. + + In the Tasks to be Configured: Search field, enter *Credit and click the Go icon. + + This displays the human tasks (HT) available for Credit Memos. + + Select FinArTrxnsCreditMemosAutomaticManual and configure the task for manual credit request reviews using the output value HtOutcmeCreateManualCreditMemo. + + Select FinArTrxnsCreditMemosCreationPostProcessing and configure the workflow process for manual credit request reviews. + + Set up the routing rules for your workflow notifications. + + Set up the BIP template for the notification window according to your requirements. + + You can copy the standard template and modify its content using the BIP editing tools. + +You can use additional attributes in Assignee rule conditions to configure the workflow routing rules. These attributes include: + + Salesperson Name + + Salesperson Email ID + + Sum of all Adjustments Amounts + + Sum of all Receipts Amounts + + Credit Memo Reason Code Descriptive Flexfield Attribute 1-15 + + Invoice Line Description + + Collector Descriptive Flexfield Attribute 1-15 + + Line Level Credit + + Invoice Line Type + + Invoice or Line Adjustments + + Receipts Applied + + Receivables System Options Descriptive Flexfield Attribute 1-15 + + Item Number + + Line Amount Requested + + Transaction Information Descriptive Flexfield Attribute 1-15 + + Revenue Scheduling Rule Start Date + + Revenue Scheduling Rule End Date + + Revenue Scheduling Rule Number of Periods + + Revenue Scheduling Rule Rule Type + + Revenue Scheduling Rule Name + + Tax Credit Amount Requested + +Enable Privileges for Review Credit Memo Request + +Use these three privileges to maintain user access to the Review Credit Memo Request page: + + IEX_REVIEW_CREDIT_REQUEST_PRIV (Review Credit Request): This privilege lets an approver: + + Access the Review Credit Request page. + + Use the View Transaction Activities button to access the original transaction activities. + + Enter comments in the Internal Comments field. + + IEX_UPDATE_DISPUTE_TYPE_PRIV (Update Dispute Type on Credit Request): This privilege lets an approver update the value in the Dispute Type field. + + IEX_UPDATE_REBILL_DETAILS_PRIV (Update Rebill Details on Credit Request): This privilege lets an approver update the values in the Rebill Number and Rebill Group fields. + +Related Topics + + How You Use Oracle Analytics Publisher to Modify Templates for Use with Formats + More Setup for Workflow Email Notifications + Overview of Financials Configurable Workflow Notifications + +How You Define Approval Groups for the Credit Memo Workflow + +There are two predefined rule sets for the credit memo workflow: Collection agent rule set and Non-collection agent rule set. + +These two predefined rule sets refer to two approval groups that aren't predefined. The approval groups are: + + Collection_Manager_Approval_Group + + Billing_Manager_Approval_Group + +You must define the two predefined approval groups and assign users to the groups using these steps: + + Create one approval group called Collection_Manager_Approval_Group and one approval group called Billing_Manager_Approval_Group. + + Assign the users that you want to each approval group. +How You Implement Customer Statements + +Print statements to provide the bill-to sites of your customer accounts with a complete record of their invoice, debit memo, chargeback, receipt, on-account credit, credit memo, and adjustment activity for a specified period. + +To set up for statements, complete these tasks: + + Set Receivables System Options for Statements + + Define Remit-to Addresses + + Define Lookup to Print Custom Statements + + Define Statement Cycles + + Define Customer Site Profiles + +Set Receivables System Options for Statements + +Set the necessary Receivables system options for statement processing. + +To set Receivables system options for statements: + + Navigate to the Create System Options or Edit System Options page. + + Select the applicable business unit. + + Click the Billing and Revenue tab, if it isn't already displayed. + + Enable the Print remit-to address option to print your remit-to addresses on your customer statements. + + Enable the Print home country option to print your home country on transactions and statements that refer to addresses in that country. + + In the Default Country field, select a country to use as your home country. This is the default country value for your remit-to addresses. The home country is also used in tax calculations and for taxpayer ID and tax registration number validation. + + Complete or update the rest of Receivables system options according to your requirements, and save. + +Define Remit-to Addresses + +Define remit-to addresses to provide customer bill-to sites with default remit-to information on statements and transactions. + +To define a remit-to address: + + Navigate to the Create Remit-to Address page. + + In the Remit-to Address Set field, select a reference data set. + + The Country field displays the default country defined in Receivables system options. If necessary, select another country. + + Enter the address details and save. + + In the Receipt from Criteria section, click the Create icon to open the Create Receipt from Criteria window. Use this window to assign the remit-to address you just created to customer bill-to sites in specified locations. + + In the Country field, select a country to assign customer bill-to sites this remit-to address. + + If necessary, use the State field and Postal Code fields to further limit the remit-to address assignment, and save. + +Define Lookup to Print Custom Statements + +By default, the Create Customer Statements process generates a statement document for every bill-to site belonging to a customer account with a Preferred Delivery Method setting of Paper in the customer account or site profile. To enable the printing of custom statements for individual customer accounts or sites, you must define the AR_PRINT_STATEMENT_BURSTING lookup. + +To define the lookup for custom statements: + + Navigate to the Setup and Maintenance work area. + + Search for the setup task Manage Receivables Lookups. + + In the Manage Receivables Lookups page, search for the AR_FEATURES lookup type. + + Enter a new row for the lookup code. + + In the Lookup Code field, enter AR_PRINT_STATEMENT_BURSTING. + + In the Reference Data Set field, select Common Set. + + Select the Enabled option. + + In the Meaning field, enter a description of this lookup code. + + Save your work. + +After you define the AR_PRINT_STATEMENT_BURSTING lookup, you can create custom BI Publisher templates to use for the statements of individual customer accounts and bill-to sites with a Preferred Delivery Method of Paper in the customer profile. +Define Statement Cycles + +Define statement cycles to determine when to send statements to your customers. + +To define a statement cycle: + + Navigate to the Manage Statement Cycles page. + + In the Search Results section, click the Add icon. + + In the Name field, enter a name for this statement cycle. + + In the Interval field, select the interval that determines how often to generate statements: weekly, monthly, quarterly. + + In the Cycle Dates section, click the Add icon. + + In the Business Unit field, select the business unit that will use this statement cycle. + + In the Statement Date field, enter the first date on which to print statements for the statement cycle. + + Repeat steps 5 to 7 until you have the appropriate number of rows for the statement cycle interval for each applicable business unit. + + For example, enter four rows for a quarterly interval or twelve rows for a monthly interval to cover the period of one year. + + Enable the Skip option on a row if you want to skip an interval in the statement cycle. + + For example, after creating a statement cycle with a monthly interval and twelve monthly statement dates, you decide to send statements bi-monthly instead of monthly. You can enable the Skip option on every other row to reduce the number of statements to six per year. + + Complete the remaining fields according to your requirements, and save. + +Define Customer Site Profiles + +After you define remit-to addresses and statement cycles, you must enable the appropriate profile settings on each customer bill-to site to which you plan to send statements. If you aren't using one statement site for the customer, you can, depending on your requirements, assign a different statement cycle to the bill-to sites belonging to the same customer account. In this way each bill-to site can have its own statement for its site transactions. + +To define customer bill-to site profiles for statements: + + Navigate to the Edit Site page of the applicable customer bill-to site. + + Navigate to the Statement and Dunning section. + + Enable the Send statement option. + + In the Statement Cycle field, select the statement cycle to use for this site. + + Click the Late Charges tab. + + Navigate to the Currency Settings section. + + Click the Add icon. + + In the Currency field, select the currency used by this site. + + In the Minimum Statement Amount field, enter the minimum amount required to generate a statement. Receivables generates statements for the site whenever the minimum outstanding balance in the given currency is greater than this amount. + + Complete the remaining fields according to your requirements, and save. + +Related Topics + +How You Use Statement Cycles + +Use statement cycles to determine when to send statements to your customer bill-to sites. You assign statement cycles to customer and site level profiles. + +If you print statements for a specific customer, then: + + If you defined a statement site for the customer, Receivables uses the statement cycle defined in the customer account profile as the default statement cycle to use for printing. + + If you didn't define a statement site, Receivables uses the statement cycle defined in the customer site profile for each applicable bill-to site included in the print run. + +If you don't select a customer, then Receivables prints statements for all customers that have a statement cycle that matches the statement cycle you enter for the print run. + +When you create a statement cycle, you define the interval to use for the cycle (weekly, monthly, quarterly) and the dates on which to print statements for the cycle. You can also indicate if Receivables should skip certain statement dates. + +Receivables includes all activity from the last time you printed a statement for this customer to the current statement date, even if the customer statement cycle is set up to skip printing on one or more statement dates. Receivables also includes open debit items from prior periods in the statement. +Scenario + +Consider the following criteria: + + System Date: 03-SEP-11 + + Statement Date: 01-SEP-11 + + Previous Statement Date: 01-JUN-11 (skipped) + + Statement Cycle: Quarterly + +The activity included in this statement spans the date the statement was last printed on 01-MAR-11 to the current statement date of 01-SEP-11. The previous statement dated 01-JUN-11 had been skipped, so the activity for that period now shows on the current statement. + +This figure illustrates the activity included in this statement: +This figure contains two lines showing transaction activity and statement dates, to illustrate the results of printing a statement according to the criteria specified in the example. + +This table provides an explanation of the logic used to include particular transactions on the statement based on transaction date. + +Invoice Creation Date + + +Included in Statement? + +Invoice Date: 28-FEB-11 + + +No, unless the invoice is either still open or was closed between 01-MAR-11 and 31-AUG-11. + +Invoice Date: 30-AUG-11 + + +Yes, because the invoice date is between the date the statement was last printed and the statement date. + +Invoice Date: 02-SEP-11 + + +No, because the invoice date is later than the statement date. + +How can I create a statement site? + +You can designate one of your bill-to sites belonging to a customer account as a statement site. If you create a statement site, Receivables generates a single, consolidated statement for all the customer bill-to sites, rather than a separate statement for each bill-to site. + +You can only define a bill-to site as a statement site, and you can only define one active statement site per customer account. + +To create a statement site: + + Assign the bill-to site the additional Statements business purpose. + + Set the Statement, Dunning, and Late Charges Site Profiles Used profile option to Yes. + +How do on-account and unapplied receipts appear on statements? + +All receipts, including on-account and unapplied receipts, appear on the statement of the corresponding bill-to site. + +If you create a statement site for the customer account, then Receivables summarizes on-account and unapplied receipts as credits and prints them on a separate page of the consolidated statement, before a summarized listing of subtotals for each of the customer bill-to sites. +Overview of Multifund Accounting + +Multifund Accounting is an optional accounting feature that lets you post transactions, adjustments, and receipts to multiple balancing segment values or funds. Multifund Accounting is also known as Detailed Receivables Distributions. + +In a default accounting model, multiple revenue, freight, and tax lines of a transaction are consolidated and accounted as a single distribution line. When Multifund Accounting is enabled for a business unit and ledger, then the accounting process creates detailed distributions for each transaction line according to the balancing segment values of the account code combinations. + +You can use Multifund Accounting to monitor and track the receipts and usage for each of your balancing segment values. This lets you manage, for example, the disbursement of funds supporting a particular public sector project, such as a general operating fund, endowment fund, and gift fund. Or you can monitor and extract financial information in your organization by division, department, and product, without the need for creating separate invoices for each of these sectors. + +The use of Multifund Accounting is for the setup of a new business unit and primary ledger only. Multifund Accounting applies to these Receivables event classes only: standard and miscellaneous receipts, invoices, credit memos, debit memos, and adjustments. + +For information about the activities supported for Multifund Accounting in each Receivables event class, see Events Supported for Multifund Accounting, Document ID 2558258.1, on My Oracle Support. +Example of Multifund Accounting + +These tables provide an example of multifund accounting on an invoice. In this example, Invoice 101 makes use of funding from two different fund sources. + +Invoice 101 has two invoice lines, one in the amount of $1000 and one in the amount of $500: + +Line Number + + +Memo Line + + +Quantity + + +Unit Price + + +Amount + +1 + + +1 year support + + +1 + + +1000 + + +1000 + +2 + + +1 year additional consultations + + +2 + + +250 + + +500 + +The accounting for these invoice lines with detailed distributions splits the Receivable and Revenue across the two funds (the additional $190 is for Tax and Freight): + +Line + + +Event + + +Account + + +Class + + +Debit + + +Credit + +1 + + +Invoice Created + + +02-000-1200-0000-000 + + +Receivable + + +1120.00 + + +2 + + +Invoice Created + + +03-000-1200-0000-000 + + +Receivable + + +570.00 + + +3 + + +Invoice Created + + +02-000-4100-0000-000 + + +Revenue + + + + +1000.00 + +4 + + +Invoice Created + + +03-000-4100-0000-000 + + +Revenue + + + + +500.00 +Reports for Multifund Accounting + +Use the available reports to review and reconcile your multifund accounting detailed distributions. + +You can manage your multifund accounting detailed distributions using the Receivables to General Ledger Reconciliation Report and the Receivables Aging by General Ledger Account for Multifund Accounting Report. +Note + +The use of these reports for reviewing multifund accounting detailed distributions applies only to the ledger and business units set up to use Multifund Accounting. + +You can review and reconcile your multifund accounting detailed distributions using the available tools in the Receivables to General Ledger Reconciliation Report. Run the Prepare Receivables to General Ledger Reconciliation process, and then access the summary and detailed reports using the Receivables to General Ledger Reconciliation task. + +You can generate and review the aging details for the ledger and business units enabled for Multifund Accounting using the Receivables Aging by General Ledger Account for Multifund Accounting Report. You schedule this report from the Oracle Transactional Business Intelligence Catalog. +Guidelines for Enabling Multifund Accounting + +You enable Multifund Accounting as part of your Receivables System Options setup for a business unit. + +The use of Multifund Accounting involves preliminary planning and an understanding of the ramifications related to its use. Before you enable this feature, review all of the guidelines indicated in this topic. +Enable Multifund Accounting + +To enable Multifund Accounting, follow these steps: + + Navigate to Setup and Maintenance. + + Search for the task Manage Receivables System Options. + + Open the Create or Edit System Options page for the business unit designated for Multifund Accounting. + + If not already displayed, navigate to the Accounting section of the Billing and Revenue tabbed region. + + Enable the Enable multifund accounting option. + + Save your work. + +Caution + +Once you enable the Enable multifund accounting option and save the System Options record, you can't disable this feature for this business unit. + +To complete your setup for Multifund Accounting, you must also create an accounting method in Subledger Accounting for the primary ledger assigned to this business unit. +Requirements for Business Units and Primary Ledger + +Even though you enable the setting for Multifund Accounting as part of the Receivables System Options setup for a business unit, the setting actually applies to the primary ledger and all of the Receivables business units associated with this ledger. + +These requirements apply to enabling Multifund Accounting for a business unit: + + When you enable the Multifund Accounting feature for a business unit, this feature is also automatically enabled on all business units associated with the same primary ledger. + + If any business unit associated with this primary ledger doesn't require Multifund Accounting, then you must disassociate the business unit from this ledger before enabling the feature. + + You can only enable Multifund Accounting on business units that don't have any transactions. + +Requirements for Cash Budget Funding with Receipts + +If you intend to use cash budget funding for receipts, the ledger that you enable for Budgetary Control must be associated with a business unit enabled for Multifund Accounting. + +Ensure that you select a ledger belonging to a business unit enabled for Multifund Accounting when you enter and complete the setup for budgetary control and cash budget funding with receipts using the Edit Budgetary Control and Encumbrance Accounting page. +Requirements for Migrating Legacy Transactions + +These requirements apply to migrating legacy transactions to a business unit enabled for Multifund Accounting: + + You must enable Multifund Accounting for a business unit before migrating transactions from your legacy system to this business unit. + + You can use either an FBDI template or Receivables REST API resources to migrate your transactions. + + Migrate your legacy transactions as open balances for each transaction line. + + After migrating your legacy transactions, post all transactions to General Ledger. + +To ensure the posting of all migrated transactions to a single journal, in the Edit Accounting Options page for the applicable ledger, set the General Ledger Journal option Entry Summarization to Summarize by General Ledger Date. + +This setting lets you manually reverse the journal so that it won't contradict open balance migrations from General Ledger. This also prevents unwanted entries for Revenue, Freight, and Taxes in the current period. +Subledger Accounting Setup for Multifund Accounting + +After you enable a business unit for Multifund Accounting using the Enable multifund accounting option in Receivables System Options, you must complete related setups in Subledger Accounting to use multifund accounting. + +Define a Multifund Accounting accounting method and journal entry rule set assignments in Subledger Accounting for the primary ledger assigned to the business unit. + +To prepare the primary ledger for Multifund Accounting: + + Create an accounting method for Multifund Accounting. + + Assign the predefined Multifund Accounting journal entry rule sets to the Multifund Accounting accounting method you defined. + + Associate the Multifund Accounting accounting method with the primary ledger. + +Caution + +You can only set up Subledger Accounting for Multifund Accounting by assigning the predefined Multifund Accounting journal entry rule sets indicated in this task to the Multifund Accounting accounting method. You can't customize the predefined Multifund Accounting journal rules and journal entry rule sets. +Set Up an Accounting Method and Journal Entry Rule Sets for Multifund Accounting + +To set up the Multifund Accounting accounting method, complete these steps: + + Navigate to the Manage Accounting Methods task from the Receivables configuration. + + Search for the Accounting Method Standard Accrual. + + In the Edit Accounting Method page for Standard Accrual, select Duplicate from the Actions menu. + + In the Create Accounting Method window, create an accounting method for Multifund Accounting. Enter for example: + + In the Name field, enter Multifund Accounting Method. + + In the Short Name field, enter MULTI_FUND_ACCOUNTING_METD. + + In the Description field, enter "Accounting method to support Multifund Accounting." + + In the Chart of Accounts field, select the chart of accounts. + + Click the Save and Close button. + + In the Journal Entry Rule Set Assignments section of the Edit Accounting Method page for Multifund Accounting, delete the existing rule sets copied from the Duplicate action. + + Enter the predefined Multifund Accounting journal entry rule sets: + + Invoices - Multifund Accounting Balancing Method + + Credit Memos - Multifund Accounting Balancing Method + + Debit Memos - Multifund Accounting Balancing Method + + Adjustments - Multifund Accounting Balancing Method + + Receipts - Multifund Accounting Balancing Method + + Miscellaneous Receipts - Multifund Accounting Balancing Method + + Activate the Multifund Accounting accounting method. + + Save your work. + + Navigate to the Specify Ledger Options task. + + Select the primary ledger associated with the business unit enabled for Multifund Accounting. + + In the Accounting Method field of the Subledger Accounting section of the Specify Ledger Options page, select the accounting method that you defined for Multifund Accounting. + + Complete the remaining fields according to your business requirements + + Save your work. + +Set Up Multifund Accounting for Transactions with Invoicing Rules + +You can set up Subledger Accounting for multifund accounting to create detailed distributions on Receivables transactions that use invoicing rules. With the appropriate setup, the Receivables account is split on the basis of Unearned Revenue for transactions using the In Advance invoicing rule, and Unbilled Receivables for transactions using the In Arrears invoicing rule. + +Example of Multifund Accounting on an Invoice with an Invoicing Rule + +The example in the tables below illustrates how the Receivables account is split on an invoice assigned the In Advance invoicing rule. The revenue scheduling rule uses the fixed schedule rule type. + +This table shows details of the transaction: + +Field + + +Value + +Invoice Date + + +1-Mar-20 + +Invoicing Rule + + +In Advance + +Line 1 Amount + + +12000 + +Line 2 Amount + + +15000 + +Revenue Scheduling Rule + + +3 Months Fixed + +Rule Start Date + + +20-Jan-20 + +This table shows the resulting Invoice Accounting Entries, with the Receivables account split according to the balancing segment, which is the first segment of the GL account code combination. The corresponding revenue is recognized over the three-month period, as specified by the revenue scheduling rule: + +Date + + +Dr/Cr + + +Account Class + + +GL Account + + +Amount + +1-Mar-20 + + +Debit + + +Receivables + + +01-000-1210-0000-000 + + +12000 + +1-Mar-20 + + +Debit + + +Receivables + + +02-000-1210-0000-000 + + +15000 + +1-Mar-20 + + +Credit + + +Unearned Revenue + + +01-000-1222-0000-000 + + +12000 + +1-Mar-20 + + +Credit + + +Unearned Revenue + + +02-000-1222-0000-000 + + +15000 + + + + + + + + + +1-Mar-20 + + +Debit + + +Unearned Revenue + + +01-000-1222-0000-000 + + +4000 + +1-Mar-20 + + +Credit + + +Revenue + + +01-000-4110-0000-000 + + +4000 + +1-Mar-20 + + +Debit + + +Unearned Revenue + + +02-000-1222-0000-000 + + +5000 + +1-Mar-20 + + +Credit + + +Revenue + + +02-000-4110-0000-000 + + +5000 + + + + + + + + + +1-Apr-20 + + +Debit + + +Unearned Revenue + + +01-000-1222-0000-000 + + +4000 + +1-Apr-20 + + +Credit + + +Revenue + + +01-000-4110-0000-000 + + +4000 + +1-Apr-20 + + +Debit + + +Unearned Revenue + + +02-000-1222-0000-000 + + +5000 + +1-Apr-20 + + +Credit + + +Revenue + + +02-000-4110-0000-000 + + +5000 + + + + + + + + + +1-May-20 + + +Debit + + +Unearned Revenue + + +01-000-1222-0000-000 + + +4000 + +1-May-20 + + +Credit + + +Revenue + + +01-000-4110-0000-000 + + +4000 + +1-May-20 + + +Debit + + +Unearned Revenue + + +02-000-1222-0000-000 + + +5000 + +1-May-20 + + +Credit + + +Revenue + + +02-000-4110-0000-000 + + +5000 + +Setting Up Your Balancing Segment Values + +As this example illustrates, you must use the same balancing segment value for the corresponding invoicing rule: + + In Advance: Use the same balancing segment value for the Unearned Revenue and Revenue accounts across periods. + + In Arrears: Use the same balancing segment value for the Unbilled Receivables and Revenue accounts across periods. + +Note + +Using the same balancing segment values applies whether a balancing segment value is manually overridden using the Review Distributions window or overridden through the segment rules in Subledger Accounting. Otherwise, Intracompany and Intercompany balancing entries are generated. + +To use Multifund Accounting on transactions that use invoicing rules and revenue scheduling rules, you must modify the Multifund Accounting accounting method you created for the primary ledger associated with the business unit enabled for Multifund Accounting. + +To modify the Multifund Accounting accounting method for invoices with rules, perform these four tasks: + + Create a journal line rule for the Invoice event class and associate it with the journal entry rule set. + + Create a journal line rule for the Debit Memo event class and associate it with the journal entry rule set. + + Modify the conditions within the journal line rule Receipt Application to Multifund Transaction Receivable for the Receipt event class. + + Update your Multifund Accounting accounting method with the new rule sets for Invoice, Debit Memo, and Receipt. + +Create a Journal Line Rule for Invoice Event Class and Associate the Rule with the Journal Entry Rule Set + +To create a journal line rule for the Invoice event class and associate it with the journal entry rule set, complete these steps: + + Navigate to the Journal Line Rules task from the Receivables configuration. + + In the Name field of the Manage Journal Line Rules: Receivables page, search for the journal line rule Multifund Invoice Receivable. + + Select Multifund Invoice Receivable and click the Duplicate icon. + + In the Create Journal Line Rule window, enter a Name and Short Name that identifies this new Multifund Invoice Receivable journal line rule. + + Click the Save and Close button. + + In the Conditions tabbed region of the Edit Journal Line Rule page, enter the following conditions for the new Multifund Invoice Receivable journal line rule: + + ("Transaction Invoicing Rule" Is not null) 'And' ( "Transaction Distribution Account Class" = TAX 'Or' "Transaction Distribution Account Class" = FREIGHT 'Or' "Transaction Distribution Account Class" = ROUND 'Or' "Transaction Distribution Account Class" = CHARGES 'Or' "Transaction Distribution Account Class" = DEFERRED_TAX 'Or' ( "Transaction Distribution Account Class" = UNBILL 'And' "Receivables Offset Indicator" = Y ) 'Or' ( "Transaction Distribution Account Class" = UNEARN 'And' "Receivables Offset Indicator" = Y ) ) + + Caution + + Insert the conditions by selecting them from the menu list. Don't copy and paste condition text from another document. + + Click the Save and Close button. + + Navigate to the Subledger Journal Entry Rule Sets task from the Receivables configuration. + + In the Name field of the Manage Subledger Journal Entry Rule Sets: Receivables page, search for the journal entry rule set Invoices - Multifund Accounting Balancing Method. + + Select Invoices - Multifund Accounting Balancing Method and click the Duplicate icon. + + In the Create Subledger Journal Entry Rule Set window, enter a Name and Short Name that identifies this new Invoices - Multifund Accounting Balancing Method journal entry rule set. + + Click the Save and Close button. + + In the Journal Lines section of the Edit Subledger Journal Entry Rule Set page, click the Plus (+) icon to create a new row. + + In the Journal Line Rule field, select the new Multifund Invoice Receivable journal line rule that you created in steps 1-5. + + In the Account Combination Rule field, select Multifund Transaction Default Receivables GL Account. + + In the Primary Balancing Segment, Second Balancing Segment, and Third Balancing Segment fields, select Copy. + + Click the Save and Close button. + +Create a Journal Line Rule for Debit Memo Event Class and Associate the Rule with the Journal Entry Rule Set + +Create a journal line rule for the Debit Memo event class and associate the new Debit Memo journal line rule with the journal entry rule set by completing the same steps as you did for the Invoice event class. + +Modify the Receipt Application to Multifund Transaction Receivable Journal Line Rule + +To modify the conditions within the journal line rule Receipt Application to Multifund Transaction Receivable for the Receipt event class, complete these steps: + + Navigate to the Journal Line Rules task from the Receivables configuration. + + In the Name field of the Manage Journal Line Rules: Receivables page, search for the journal line rule Receipt Application to Multifund Transaction Receivable. + + Select Receipt Application to Multifund Transaction Receivable and click the Duplicate icon. + + In the Create Journal Line Rule window, enter a Name and Short Name that identifies this new Receipt Application to Multifund Transaction Receivable journal line rule. + + Click the Save and Close button. + + In the Conditions tabbed region of the Edit Journal Line Rule page, insert these new condition details: + + 'Or' "Transaction Distribution Account Class" = UNEARN 'Or' "Transaction Distribution Account Class" = UNBILL + + before the existing condition details: + + 'And' "Distribution Source Type" = REC 'And' "Distribution Multifund Additional Entry" = N + + Caution + + Insert the conditions by selecting them from the menu list. Don't copy and paste condition text from another document. + + Click the Save and Close button. + + Navigate to the Subledger Journal Entry Rule Sets task from the Receivables configuration. + + In the Name field of the Manage Subledger Journal Entry Rule Sets: Receivables page, search for the journal entry rule set Receipts - Multifund Accounting Balancing Method. + + Select Receipts - Multifund Accounting Balancing Method and click the Duplicate icon. + + In the Create Subledger Journal Entry Rule Set window, enter a Name and Short Name that identifies this new Receipts - Multifund Accounting Balancing Method journal entry rule set. + + Click the Save and Close button. + + In the Journal Lines section of the Edit Subledger Journal Entry Rule Set page, select the existing Receipt Application to Multifund Transaction Receivable journal line rule and delete it. + + Click the Plus (+) icon to create a new row. + + In the Journal Line Rule field, select the new Receipt Application to Multifund Transaction Receivable journal line rule that you just created and modified. + + Click the Save and Close button. + +Update Your Multifund Accounting Method with the New Rule Sets + +To replace the existing rule sets for the Invoice, Debit Memo, and Receipt event class in your Multifund Accounting accounting method, complete these steps: + + Navigate to the Manage Accounting Methods task from the Receivables configuration. + + In the Manage Accounting Methods page, search for and select your Multifund Accounting Method to navigate to the Edit Accounting Method page. + + In the Receivables tabbed region of the Journal Entry Rule Set Assignments section of the Edit Accounting Method page, either delete or apply an end date to the existing rule sets for Invoice, Debit Memo, and Receipt. + + Add the new rule sets that you created for Invoice, Debit Memo, and Receipt and activate them. + + Click the Save and Close button. + +Cash Pooling for Multifund Accounting + +You can use a cash pooling model to record multifund accounting entries on cash receipts. + +Cash pooling is a cash management system that notionally consolidates account balances from several accounts without physically moving funds. An organization can combine credit and debit positions from various bank accounts into a pooled account to provide better visibility into the current state of an organization's business and to facilitate ongoing decision-making. + +The cash pool accounting model represents a cash account with the Cleared Cash account class. Other offset cash accounts that reflect an interim receipt status, such as Confirmed Cash or Remitted Cash, aren't used in the cash pool accounting model. + +You can implement cash pooling for multifund accounting using either of two methods, depending on the fund management requirements and local accounting conventions of your organization. The two methods are: + + Cash Pooling using Source Transaction Fund Allocation: Represent cash receipts as a direct split of cash account entries according to the source transaction allocation. Balancing segments of applied transaction receivable accounts are the basis for cash account split on a regular receipt; balancing segment miscellaneous cash distribution accounts are the basis for cash account split on a miscellaneous receipt. + + Cash Pooling using Intercompany Balancing Entries: Represent cash receipts as offsetting treasurer's equity and cash owed to an affiliate using intercompany balancing entries. + +After you set up cash pooling for multifund accounting using either of these methods, you must create an AR_CASHPOOLING lookup code under the AR_FEATURES lookup type. +Note + +Cash pooling only applies to a business unit enabled for Multifund Accounting. You must ensure that you have completed the base setup for Multifund Accounting on the applicable business unit before configuring Cash Pool accounting. +Example of Cash Pooling Methods for Multifund Accounting + +This example illustrates the accounting entries for both methods of representing cash pooling for Multifund Accounting. + +Invoice XYZ contains three transaction lines for a total of $1600. This table represents the three line amounts: + +Account Class + + +Amount + +Revenue + + +$600 + +Revenue + + +$250 + +Revenue + + +$750 + +This table represents the accounting entries for Invoice XYZ. The first segments in the account code combinations--B,C,D--are the balancing segments that represent the three funds: + +Dr/Cr + + +Reference + + +Account Class + + +Account + + +Amount + +Debit + + +Header + + +Receivables + + +B.000.1200.0 + + +$600 + +Debit + + +Header + + +Receivables + + +C.000.1200.0 + + +$250 + +Debit + + +Header + + +Receivables + + +D.000.1200.0 + + +$750 + +Credit + + +Revenue + + +Revenue + + +B.000.4100.0 + + +$600 + +Credit + + +Revenue + + +Revenue + + +C.000.4100.0 + + +$250 + +Credit + + +Revenue + + +Revenue + + +D.000.4100.0 + + +$750 + +Here the Receivables entry is split according to the fund allocation on each Revenue account. + +Receipt PQR in the amount of $1600 is applied to Invoice XYZ. This table represents the receipt: + +Receipt Amount + + +$1600 + +Receipt Status + + +Cleared + +Applied to + + +XYZ + +The resulting receipt accounting entries will differ depending on the Cash Pooling method used. + +Accounting Entries for Cash Pooling using Source Transaction Fund Allocation: This table represents the receipt accounting entries with Cash Pooling enabled on a bank account: + +Dr/Cr + + +Reference + + +Account Class + + +Account + + +Amount + +Debit + + +Receipt + + +Cash + + +G.000.1110.0 + + +$1600 + +Credit + + +Invoice + + +Receivable + + +B.000.1200.0 + + +$600 + +Credit + + +Invoice + + +Receivable + + +C.000.1200.0 + + +$250 + +Credit + + +Invoice + + +Receivable + + +D.000.1200.0 + + +$750 + + + + + + + + + +Debit + + +Invoice + + +Cash + + +B.000.4100.0 + + +$600 + +Debit + + +Invoice + + +Cash + + +C.000.4100.0 + + +$250 + +Debit + + +Invoice + + +Cash + + +D.000.4100.0 + + +$750 + +Credit + + +Receipt + + +Cash + + +G.000.1110.0 + + +$1600 + +Here the Cash Account is originally debited to a generic fund according to the setup defined for the receipt method remittance bank account. It is then reversed and debited back into split cash accounts according to the funds allocation used on the invoice closed by the receipt. + +Accounting Entries for Cash Pooling using Intercompany Balancing Entries: This table represents the receipt accounting entries using Treasurer's Equity and Cash to Affiliates accounts as Intercompany Balancing Accounts (and without Cash Pooling enabled on a bank account). The Debit Intercompany entries represent Intercompany Cash Equity in the cash pool and the Credit Intercompany entries represent Intercompany Cash from Affiliate: + +Dr/Cr + + +Reference + + +Account Class + + +Account + + +Amount + +Debit + + +Receipt + + +Cash + + +T.000.1110.0 + + +$1600 + +Credit + + +Invoice + + +Receivable + + +B.000.1200.0 + + +$600 + +Credit + + +Invoice + + +Receivable + + +C.000.1200.0 + + +$250 + +Credit + + +Invoice + + +Receivable + + +D.000.1200.0 + + +$750 + + + + + + + + + +Debit + + +Invoice + + +Intercompany + + +B.000.1750.T + + +$600 + +Debit + + +Invoice + + +Intercompany + + +C.000.1750.T + + +$250 + +Debit + + +Invoice + + +Intercompany + + +D.000.1750.T + + +$750 + +Credit + + +Receipt + + +Intercompany + + +T.000.2125.B + + +$600 + +Credit + + +Receipt + + +Intercompany + + +T.000.2125.C + + +$250 + +Credit + + +Receipt + + +Intercompany + + +T.000.2125.D + + +$750 + +Here the entire Cash account is initially debited to the Treasurer's Pool. It is then split into various accounts representing the cash contributed by each fund/affiliate as credit intercompany entries, with corresponding debit intercompany entries representing the Equity in Pool for each fund. +Cash Pooling using Source Transaction Fund Allocation + +Use the Pooled account option on the applicable bank account to enable default cash pooling entries rather than Intercompany entries. If you don't enable this option, balancing entries are used to manage cash pooling, according to the additional setup for Intercompany Balancing Rules. + +This option is available by default on the business unit enabled for Multifund Accounting. +Note + +The Pooled account option is commonly used by Payables and Receivables to drive the required fund representation. You should analyze the impact on both your Payables and Receivables activities before deciding on the pooling method to use for funds received or funds expensed through the designated bank account. + +After you enable cash pooling on a bank account, set up an AR_CASHPOOLING lookup code under the AR_FEATURES lookup type. + +To enable cash pooling for multifund accounting using source transaction fund allocation, complete these steps: + + Navigate to the Manage Bank Accounts page. + + Search for and select the bank account you want. + + In the Bank Account page, navigate to the Controls tabbed region. + + In the Payables and Receivables Controls section, enable the Pooled account option. + + Enabling this option designates this bank account as the bank account to use as the default model for representing the cash pooling. + + Complete the other fields according to your requirements. + + Save your work. + + Navigate to the Manage Standard Lookups page. + + Search for and select the lookup type AR_FEATURES. + + In the AR_FEATURES lookup codes section, click the Plus (+) icon. + + In the Lookup Code field, enter AR_CASHPOOLING. + + Enter a start date, and a meaning and description for this lookup code. + + Check the Enabled option to activate the lookup code. + + Save your work. + +Cash Pooling using Intercompany Balancing Entries + +Represent multifund accounting cash pooling by using intercompany balancing rules to map the Equity Pool (receivables) and Treasurer's Equity (payables) accounts. + +After you configure intercompany balancing rules, set up an AR_CASHPOOLING lookup code under the AR_FEATURES lookup type. +Note + +If you use intercompany balancing rules to set up cash pooling, then don't enable the Pooled cash option on a bank account. + +To enable cash pooling for multifund accounting using intercompany balancing entries, complete these steps: + + Navigate to the Manage Intercompany Balancing Rules page. + + Navigate to the Chart of Accounts Rules tabbed region. + + Click the Plus (+) icon to open the Create Chart of Accounts Balancing Rules page. + + In the Source field, select Receivables. + + In the Category field, select Receipts. + + In the Chart of Accounts field, select the chart of accounts. + + In the Receivables Account field, enter the account segments for the Equity Pool natural account. + + In the Payables Account field, enter the account segments for the Treasurer's Equity natural account. + + In the Start Date field, enter the date this chart of accounts rule becomes active. + + Save your work. + + This chart of accounts rule applies to all ledgers that use this chart of accounts. + Note + + If you intend to use more than one balancing segment, use the Additional Intercompany Balancing and Clearing Options page to configure options to balance the second and third balancing segments. These options are used whenever a transaction is balanced by the primary balancing segment, but remains unbalanced by the second or third balancing segment. + + Navigate to the Manage Standard Lookups page. + + Search for and select the lookup type AR_FEATURES. + + In the AR_FEATURES lookup codes section, click the Plus (+) icon. + + In the Lookup Code field, enter AR_CASHPOOLING. + + Enter a start date, and a meaning and description for this lookup code. + + Check the Enabled option to activate the lookup code. + + Save your work. + +Can I write messages in different languages? + +Yes, you can write a message in any language that suits the needs of your enterprise. For any language, the text of a standard message can't exceed 255 characters. Receivables doesn't perform any other validation on messages. + +How can I add a message to a document? + +You can print standard messages on customer statements, and on late charge documents presented as debit memos or interest invoices. + +For statements, active standard messages appear as list of value choices in the Create Customer Statements process. The message you select appears at the end of the customer statement. + +For late charge documents, active standard messages appear in the choice list of the Message Text field in the Late Charges tabbed section of the applicable customer or site profile. The message you select appears in the Notes section of the late charge document for this customer. +What are distribution sets? + +Use distribution sets to account for miscellaneous, or non-invoice related, receipts. Distribution sets are groups of general ledger code combinations that you define to determine the credit accounts for positive miscellaneous receipt amounts and the debit accounts for negative receipt amounts. + +Why can't I create transactions or generate accounting? + +You must open an accounting period before you can perform basic Receivables activities. This is also true of new installations: manually open an accounting period once your installation is complete. + +Guidelines for Receivables System Option Settings + +Certain Receivables system option settings have critical implications for the way Receivables functions for a given business unit. You may need to do some advance planning before deciding how to set certain Receivables system options. + +Considerations for Receivables system option settings include: + + Salespersons + + Header Level Rounding + + Allow Change to Printed Transactions + + Discounts + +Salespersons + +If you intend to use revenue accounting, you must enable the Require salesperson Receivables system option. Revenue accounting requires that you assign sales credits to all transactions that can be adjusted for either revenue or sales credits. + +If you enable the Require salesperson Receivables system option, use the Sales Credit Percent Limit field to limit the percentage of revenue plus non-revenue sales credit that a salesperson can have on any transaction line. + +If you don't enter a value in the Sales Credit Percent Limit field, then no sales credit limit validation is performed during revenue accounting. +Header Level Rounding + +Depending on the legal requirements of your home country, you may need to round amounts at the transaction header level for the receivable account, and then account for and post the difference in a separate account between this rounded amount and the sum of the rounded line amounts for the respective revenue accounts. To do this, enable the Use header level rounding option and define a Header Rounding Account. + +The rounding difference between the header level and line level rounding is assigned to the Header Rounding Account. + +If you enable the Use header level rounding option, then Receivables displays a rounding distribution line for all transactions, regardless of currency. If the transaction is in the ledger currency, then the amount of this line is zero. + +If you don't enable the Use header level rounding option, Receivables rounds amounts at the line level and posts any rounding difference to the receivable account. +Caution + +Once you enable Header Level Rounding and save the Receivables system options record, you can't disable the feature for the applicable business unit. +Allow Change to Printed Transactions + +To allow updates to transactions that have been printed, enable the Allow change to printed transactions option. This option also determines whether you can update a customer address when printed, posted, or applied transactions are assigned to that address. +Note + +You can't update a transaction if it has activity against it, regardless of how you set this option. Examples of activity include payments, credit memos, adjustments, accounting, and assigning the transaction to a balance forward bill. +Discounts + +To allow Receivables to accept unearned discounts, enable the Allow unearned discounts option. Unearned discounts are discounts a customer takes after the discount period passes. The Receivables system options record is the only place that determines whether you can accept unearned discounts for the given business unit. + +To allow discounts to be taken for partial payments against open debit items, enable the Discount on partial payment option. A partial payment is any payment less than the remaining amount due. If this option is enabled, you can still decide to disallow discounts on partial payments at the transaction level when defining payment terms. + +If you never allow discounts on partial payments, then don't enable the Discount on partial payment option. + +Related Topics + + Example of Header Level Rounding + How Discounts Are Calculated + Implementation Settings for Revenue Recognition + +Example of Header Level Rounding + +This example illustrates how header level rounding processes currency conversions and accounts for rounding differences. +Scenario + +ABC Company uses euros as the ledger currency, and it receives an invoice with three line items in Norwegian krone. For this example, the conversion rate between the krone and the euro is 6.55957. +Transaction Details + +The Use header level rounding Receivables system option is enabled for the applicable business unit and a Header Rounding Account is defined. + +This table shows the calculations performed to convert each line amount on the invoice: + +Item/Description + + +Amount in Krone + + +Conversion Rate + + +Amount in Euros + + +Comment + +Paper + + +15.00 + + +6.55957 + + +2.29 + + +rounded up + +Pens + + +12.00 + + +6.55957 + + +1.83 + + +rounded up + +Envelopes + + +25.00 + + +6.55957 + + +3.81 + + +rounded down + +Subtotal + + +52.00 + + +N/A + + +7.93 + + +sum of items + +Rounding Difference + + +N/A + + +N/A + + +- 0.01 + + +N/A + +Total Amount + + +52.00 + + +6.55957 + + +7.92 + + +rounded down + +Because the Use header level rounding Receivables system option is enabled, Receivables must calculate the rounding difference between the currency conversion of the total invoice amount at the header level assigned to the receivable account and the sum of the currency conversions at the line level assigned to each revenue account. This difference is placed in the designated header rounding account. +Conversion Results + +Receivables first converts each line item separately from krone to euros, and then adds them together, for a total of 7.93 EUR. Receivables then separately adds the line amounts in the invoice currency (krone) and then converts to the ledger currency, for a total of 7.92 EUR. + +The rounding difference of .01 is assigned to the header rounding account as defined in Receivables system options. +AutoInvoice Tuning Segments + +Use the AutoInvoice Tuning Segments section of the Billing and Revenue tab of Receivables System Options to designate Accounting and System Items flexfield segments as tuning segments. + +Tuning segments help increase performance of AutoInvoice. The tuning segment is the segment most frequently accessed by AutoInvoice. +Accounting Flexfield Tuning Segment + +If you want to increase the performance of AutoInvoice and indexes already exist for the GL_CODE_COMBINATIONS table, use the value that you specified for your index as the Accounting Flexfield tuning segment. If you defined a concatenated index, use the first column of your concatenated index. + +If no indexes exist for the GL_CODE_COMBINATIONS table, enter the segment with the most distinct values for your Accounting Flexfield tuning segment. +System Items Flexfield Tuning Segment + +If you want to increase the performance of AutoInvoice and indexes already exist for the MTL_SYSTEM_ITEMS table, use the value that you specified for your index as your System Items Flexfield tuning segment. If you defined a concatenated index, use the first column of your concatenated index. + +If no indexes exist for the MTL_SYSTEM_ITEMS table, enter the segment with the most distinct values for your System Items Flexfield tuning segment. +AutoInvoice Log File Message Levels + +In the Log File Message Level field of the AutoInvoice section of the Billing and Revenue tab of Receivables System Options, enter a value from 0 to 5 to indicate the amount of detail to display in the AutoInvoice log file. + +For day-to-day business needs and to improve performance, set the level to 0. If you consistently experience errors while running AutoInvoice, you can set the output to a higher level to review more detailed information in the log about the errors. +Log File Message Level Definitions + +Message Level 0 provides the following entries in the log file: + + Product Version + + Program Name + + AutoInvoice Start Time + + AutoInvoice Concurrent Request Arguments + + Error and Warning Messages + + AutoInvoice End Time + + AutoInvoice Logical Steps + +Message Level 1 provides all of the entries for Message Level 0 plus: + + Time-Stamped function labels + +Message Level 2 provides all of the entries for Message Levels 0 and 1 plus: + + Sizes of allocated arrays + + Dynamic SQL statements + + Number of rows updated, inserted, and deleted + +Message Level 3 provides all of the entries for Message Levels 0, 1, and 2 plus: + + Method IV SQL array values + +Message Level 4 provides all of the entries for Message Levels 0, 1, 2, and 3 plus: + + Values of all variables that are used to call FND or Tax routines + +Message Level 5 provides all of the entries for Message Levels 0, 1, 2, 3, and 4 plus: + + Details of all bad lines and rejected lines. This provides all messages needed for C debugging of AutoInvoice. + +What's the days per posting cycle? + +The Days per Posting Cycle setting lets you process the transactions you're posting in smaller groups to ensure that you don't run out of rollback space during posting. + +For example, if your accounting period is 30 days and you set this value to 30, the posting process uses only one cycle. If your accounting period is 30 days and you set this value to 17, the posting process uses two cycles. Best practice is to set this field to a value less than the number of days in your accounting period. +What happens if I allow transaction deletion? + +Enable the Allow transaction deletion Receivables system option if you want to let users delete Receivables transactions after the transactions have been saved. If you don't enable this option, all Receivables users are prevented from deleting transactions. + +If an installation is legally required to number transactions sequentially with no missing transaction numbers, then best practice is to not enable this option. + +If you enable the Allow transaction deletion option, you can still control which users can delete transactions using function security. +How can I determine the memory allocation? + +Enter in the Maximum Memory in Bytes field the value that represents the amount of memory to allocate to AutoInvoice for validation. The default is 65535 bytes. + +For best results, enter a value equal to the maximum number of records that you import, rounded to an even number, multiplied by 1024. For example, if you use AutoInvoice to import no more than 100 records at a time, enter a value of 102400. + +During AutoInvoice processing, if you receive a message that indicates the application failed to allocate memory, then enter a lower number. If you receive a message that the memory isn't large enough, then enter a higher number. +When do I use days to AutoApply a receipt? + +Enter in the Days to AutoApply a Receipt field the age in days of receipts that AutoApply considers for application against customer transactions. Use this field if your customers often pay for transactions before they're created. + +AutoApply looks for and attempts to apply open receipts to transactions created within the number of days that you specify. For example, if you enter 10, then AutoApply considers all receipts created within the past 10 days for application to transactions. Receipts created longer than 10 days ago aren't considered. + +If you don't enter a value in this field, AutoApply only attempts to match receipts once. +What are the exception rule activities? + +The active application exception rule set determines the action to perform on overpayment and underpayment amounts after receipt application. You can define the default receivables activity to use to process these payments when the action is either a billing adjustment or a write-off. + +The Exception Rule Adjustment Activity field in the Cash Processing tab of Receivables System Options provides the default receivables activity to use for adjustments on overpayments or underpayments. The Exception Rule Write-off Activity field provides the default receivables activity to use for write-offs of overpayments or underpayments. +When are receipts required for a bill-to site? + +Enable the Require billing location for receipts Receivables system option to require that a bill-to site be associated with a receipt. If enabled, Receivables doesn't create receipts that don't have a bill-to site. + +Use this option for customers without statement sites. If you don't enable this option, and you have receipts for customers without statement sites and without a bill-to site associated with the receipt, the unapplied amount of the receipt won't appear on any of the statements for this customer. +What's the difference between the realized gains and losses accounts and the cross currency rounding account? + +The realized gains and realized losses accounts are used to account for the conversion rate gain or loss in the ledger currency resulting from a cross-currency receipt application. + +For example, if the conversion rate for a foreign currency invoice is 1.7 and the conversion rate of the payment for this invoice is 2.0, Receivables posts the difference as a gain to the realized gains account. + +The cross-currency rounding account is used to record rounding error amounts created during a cross-currency receipt application. You must define a rounding error account if you create cross-currency receipts. +Examples of Using the Transaction and Statement Delivery Email Subject Lines + +Use the Email Subject fields in the Transaction Delivery Using Email and Statement Delivery Using Email sections of the Billing and Revenue region of Receivables system options to create an email subject line for the transactions and statements you deliver to customers using email. + +Receivables inserts a period after the business unit, transaction number, and statement date, and inserts a space between each of the field values. + +The following examples illustrate how the subject line appears depending on the settings you use. +Example 1 + +The resulting email subject line for the settings in this table is: "Your invoice is now ready for review. Vision Operations. INV1234." + +Field + + +Value + +Email Subject + + +Your invoice is now ready for review. + +Include Business Unit in Email Subject + + +Last + +Include Transaction Number in Email Subject + + +Last +Example 2 + +The resulting email subject line for the settings in this table is: "Vision Operations. Your statement is now ready for review. 01-01-2017." + +Field + + +Value + +Email Subject + + +Your statement is now ready for review. + +Include Business Unit in Email Subject + + +First + +Include Statement Date in Email Subject + + +Last +Example 3 + +The resulting email subject line for the settings in this table is: "Your invoice is now ready for review. INV1234." + +Field + + +Value + +Email Subject + + +Your invoice is now ready for review. + +Include Business Unit in Email Subject + + +Do Not Include + +Include Transaction Number in Email Subject + + +Last + + +How Transaction and Statement Delivery Using Email Works + +Print and send Receivables transactions and statements to designated customers using email. + +When you run the Print Receivables Transactions process or the Create Customer Statements process, the respective process sends transactions or statements as either a PDF or Zipped PDF file to the designated email addresses of the customer accounts and sites that are set up for email delivery. +Settings That Affect Delivery Using Email + +These settings affect print delivery using email: + + Print Option: Set the Print Option to Print or Do Not Print at the customer site or customer account level, depending upon whether you want to print for specific customer sites or all sites belonging to a customer account. + + For transactions, if the Print Option value isn't enabled at the site or account level, then Receivables uses the required Print Option setting on the transaction type. If necessary, you can exclude or include individual transactions in a print run by changing the Print Option setting on transactions. + Note + + If the transaction type doesn't have the Open Receivable option enabled (for example, a Void transaction), then the email delivery process ignores the Print Option settings at the customer site and account level and uses the setting assigned to the transaction type. You can still override this setting on the transaction. + + Preferred Delivery Method: Set the Preferred Delivery Method field to Email at the customer site or customer account level, depending upon whether you want to deliver using email for specific customer sites or all sites belonging to a customer account. + + Customer contacts: Assign at least one customer contact at the account or site level both an email address and the Bill-to responsibility. To send statements, the contact must be assigned the Statement responsibility in addition to the Bill-to responsibility. + + These rules apply to customer contacts: + + The contact must be active when the Print Receivables Transactions or Create Customer Statements process is run. + + If a customer account or site doesn't have any contact with both an email address and a Bill-to responsibility (and a Statement responsibility for statements), then transactions or statements aren't delivered for this customer account or site. + + For transactions, if a customer account or site does have a contact with both an email address and a Bill-to responsibility, but the same contact email address is also assigned the Collections or Dunning responsibility, then this contact is excluded from email delivery. + + For statements, if the customer has a statement site, then a consolidated statement is created and delivered to this statement site for all bill-to sites belonging to the customer account. + + Email Receivables system options: Use the Transaction and Statement Delivery Using Email sections of the Billing and Revenue tabbed region of the Receivables System Option pages to set up the details of transaction and statement delivery using email for the applicable business units. + Note + + These are all conditionally required fields. If you plan to enable printing and email delivery of transactions or statements, then you must enter values in these fields to ensure successful delivery. + + Enter the appropriate text and values in the corresponding fields: + + From Name: Name of your enterprise. + + From Email: Email address of your enterprise. + + Reply-to Email: Email address of your enterprise that your customers can send an email to. + + Email Subject: Text of the email subject line. + + Include Business Unit in Email Subject: Option to include the name of your business unit in the subject line. + + Include Transaction Number in Email Subject: Option to include the transaction number in the subject line. + + Include Statement Date in Email Subject: Option to include the statement date in the subject line. + + Email Body: Text of the email message. Include appropriate formatting. + Note + + You can't use standard messages to create email message text. + +How Transactions and Statements are Delivered Using Email + +Once your setup is complete, use the Print Receivables Transactions process to print customer transactions, and the Create Customer Statements process to print customer statements. Use the Output File Type parameter to specify the output to use for the print run. For print delivery using email, you must select either PDF or Zipped PDF. If you select Zipped PDF, the file includes an index file of the print run, to identify the first and last page of each printed transaction. + +When you create a transaction, Receivables looks in your setup for the Print Option setting to assign to the transaction in this order: + + Customer site profile + + Customer account profile + + Transaction type + +During print processing, the email delivery process verifies for each transaction or statement: + + For transactions, the Print Option is set to Print. + + You can update the Print Option setting on individual transactions before printing. + + Preferred Delivery Method field is set to Email for the customer account or site. + + At least one active customer contact has both an email address and the Bill-to responsibility, as well as the Statement responsibility for statement delivery. The email delivery process looks for an email address to send transactions or statements to in this order: + + For transactions, email address of the bill-to customer contact on the transaction. + + Email addresses of the contacts of the customer site that are assigned a Bill-to responsibility (and Statement responsibility for statements), but not assigned the Collections or Dunning responsibility. + + Email addresses of the contacts of the customer account that are assigned a Bill-to responsibility (and Statement responsibility for statements), but not assigned the Collections or Dunning responsibility. + + All fields are completed in the Transaction Delivery or Statement Delivery Using Email section of the Billing and Revenue tabbed region of Receivables System Options. + +The name of the output PDF file for transactions delivered using email uses the format: + +Why can't I print transactions or statements using email delivery? + +Your email delivery setup is incomplete. + +This is most likely due to one of two settings: + + In Receivables system options, you must enter an active email address in either the From Email field or the Reply-to Email field of the Transaction or Statement Delivery Using Email section of the Billing and Revenue tabbed region for the applicable business unit. + + At least one customer contact must have both an active email address and a Bill-to responsibility for transaction delivery; and an active email address, a Bill-to responsibility and a Statement responsibility for statement delivery. + + For transactions: + + If the transaction doesn't have a bill-to customer contact, or if that contact doesn't have an email address, then the email delivery process looks for all active customer contacts at the account or site level that have both a Bill-to responsibility and an email address. + + If any exist, then the transaction is delivered to all of these contacts, with the exception of contact email addresses also assigned the Collections or Dunning responsibility. + + If none exist, then the transaction isn't printed. + +AutoInvoice Data Preparation + +Prepare your Receivables environment for any new data that you want to import. If your original system uses any setup data which isn't yet defined in Receivables, you must define this data before using AutoInvoice. +Data Checklist + +Ensure that you have set up and updated the appropriate records in Receivables and related applications. + +Add or update this setup data: + + Add or import customers, if your original system contains data for customers that aren't yet defined in Receivables. + + Add units of measure, if your original system uses units of measure not yet defined. + + Add or update in General Ledger this data: + + Currencies, if your original system uses currencies not yet defined. + + Accounting flexfield segment values, if your original system uses values not yet defined. + + Add or update in Tax this tax data: + + Tax rates assigned to tax rate codes that aren't yet defined. + + Tax rates associated with products shipped to specific locations. + + Full or partial customer and item tax exemptions. + + Add or update these Receivables lookup codes: + + Free on Board (FOB) lookup codes, if your original system uses FOB point codes not yet defined. + + Freight carrier lookup codes. + + Add or update this Receivables data: + + AutoAccounting (this is a required setup to use AutoInvoice) + + Payment terms + + Transaction types + + Transaction sources + + Salespersons + + Revenue scheduling rules + +AutoInvoice Setup + +Review and update Receivables data specific to AutoInvoice. + +Review and update this data: + + AutoInvoice Grouping Rules: Define additional grouping rules or update the default grouping rule provided by Receivables. AutoInvoice uses grouping rules to determine how to create transactions. + + AutoInvoice uses the following hierarchy when determining the grouping rule to use: + + Transaction source + + Customer site + + Customer profile + + System options + + AutoInvoice Line Ordering Rules: Define line ordering rules for AutoInvoice to determine how to order transaction lines. AutoInvoice randomly orders lines on your transactions if you don't define line ordering rules. + AutoInvoice Transaction Source Automatic Receipt Handling: If you want AutoInvoice to automatically evaluate imported credits for receipt handling, select the applicable Receipt Handling for Credits option on the AutoInvoice transaction source. + On Account: Place imported credits on account. + Refund: Create refunds for imported credits. + + Receivables System Options: Set Receivables system options for AutoInvoice in the Billing and Revenue tab: + + Customers section: Grouping Rule field: Assign an AutoInvoice grouping rule to use as part of the default hierarchy for selecting a grouping rule during transaction processing. + + AutoInvoice section: Purge interface tables option: Enable this option to purge data automatically after running AutoInvoice. + + AutoInvoice section: Maximum Memory in Bytes field: Enter a value that represents the amount of memory to allocate to AutoInvoice for validation. + + AutoInvoice section: Log File Message Level field: Enter a level from 0 to 5 to indicate the amount of detail that you want to display in the AutoInvoice log file. + + AutoInvoice section: Accounting Dates Out of Order field: Select Reject or Adjust to determine how AutoInvoice processes transactions when the accounting date is out of order within the document sequence. + Note + + You only use this setting when the primary ledger is enabled for document sequencing. + + Profile Options: Set these profile options for AutoInvoice: + + ID Flexfield Code: Specify the ID of the flexfield code used by AutoInvoice. + + Maximum Lines per AutoInvoice Worker: Specify the maximum number of lines per AutoInvoice worker. + + Source Code: Specify the source code used by AutoInvoice. + + Use Parallel Hint: Enable parallel hints in AutoInvoice. + + AutoInvoice Gather Statistics Allowed: If you set this profile option to Yes, then when you submit AutoInvoice, the program first analyzes the interface tables (RA_INTERFACE_LINES_ALL, RA_INTERFACE_DISTRIBUTIONS_ALL, and RA_INTERFACE SALESCREDITS_ALL) and gathers statistics to determine how best to execute the transaction import. + + If the number of records to be imported and the number of worker processes are approximately the same as the previous submission of AutoInvoice, then you can set this profile option to No and skip this analysis. + +Transaction Flexfield + +Receivables uses the transaction flexfield to uniquely identify each transaction and transaction line you import using AutoInvoice. Transaction flexfields are also used to reference and link transaction lines. + +You must define a Line Transaction Flexfield, and you can optionally define a header-level Invoice Transaction Flexfield. If you define an Invoice Transaction Flexfield, all segments in the Line Transaction Flexfield that refer to header information must also exist in the Invoice Transaction Flexfield. For example, if you define a Line Transaction Flexfield with four segments, and the last two segments refer to line-level information only, define the Invoice Transaction Flexfield using the first two segments. + +If you don't create Reference and Link-To Transaction Flexfields, then Receivables uses the Line Transaction Flexfield structure to link and reference different lines. You don't have to define separate Reference and Link-To Transaction Flexfields in this case. + +However, if you want to create your own form to enter interface data to display the Reference and Link-To Transaction Flexfields, then you must define these transaction flexfields. These flexfields must have the same flexfield structure as the Line Transaction Flexfield. + + + +AutoInvoice Grouping Rule Attributes + +AutoInvoice grouping rules determine how to group transaction lines into transactions during AutoInvoice import. + +AutoInvoice grouping rules contain both mandatory and optional transaction attributes. Two or more transaction lines must contain identical transaction attributes for AutoInvoice to group them together in the same transaction. + +For example, transaction number (TRX_NUMBER) is a mandatory attribute of all grouping rules. If you have two records in the interface tables with different transaction numbers, AutoInvoice creates separate transactions for each record. + +You can't delete a mandatory attribute from any grouping rule, but you can add optional attributes to the mandatory attributes to create a new grouping rule. +Note +If you have Order Management and Revenue Management (OM-RMCS) integration enabled, then the optional transaction attribute sales order date (SALES_ORDER_DATE) is a mandatory attribute for AutoInvoice to import sales orders from Order Management. +Mandatory Transaction Attributes + +The AutoInvoice grouping rule provides the following mandatory transaction attributes from the RA_INTERFACE_LINES_ALL table. All of these transaction attributes apply to all transactions created using AutoInvoice grouping rules: + + BILL_PLAN_NAME + + BILL_PLAN_PERIOD + + COMMENTS + + CONS_BILLING_NUMBER + + CONVERSION_DATE + + CONVERSION_RATE + + CONVERSION_TYPE + + CREDIT_METHOD_FOR_ACCT_RULE + + CREDIT_METHOD_FOR_INSTALLMENTS + + CURRENCY_CODE + + CUSTOMER_BANK_ACCOUNT_ID + + CUST_TRX_TYPE_ID + + DOCUMENT_NUMBER + + DOCUMENT_NUMBER_SEQUENCE_ID + + GL_DATE + + HEADER_ATTRIBUTE1-15 + + HEADER_ATTRIBUTE_CATEGORY + + HEADER_GDF_ATTRIBUTE1-30 + + INITIAL_CUSTOMER_TRX_ID + + INTERNAL_NOTES + + INVOICING_RULE_ID + + ORIG_SYSTEM_BILL_ADDRESS_ID + + ORIG_SYSTEM_BILL_CONTACT_ID + + ORIG_SYSTEM_BILL_CUSTOMER_ID + + ORIG_SYSTEM_SHIP_CONTACT_ID + + ORIG_SYSTEM_SHIP_CUSTOMER_ID + + ORIG_SYSTEM_SOLD_CUSTOMER_ID + + ORIG_SYSTEM_BATCH_NAME + + PAYMENT_SERVER_ORDER_ID + + PAYMENT_SET_ID + + PREVIOUS_CUSTOMER_TRX_ID + + PRIMARY_SALESREP_ID + + PRINTING_OPTION + + PURCHASE_ORDER + + PURCHASE_ORDER_DATE + + PURCHASE_ORDER_REVISION + + REASON_CODE + + RECEIPT_METHOD_ID + + RELATED_CUSTOMER_TRX_ID + + SET_OF_BOOKS_ID + + TERM_ID + + TERRITORY_ID + + TRX_DATE + + TRX_NUMBER + +Optional Transaction Attributes + +The AutoInvoice grouping rule provides the following optional transaction attributes from the RA_INTERFACE_LINES_ALL table. You can assign one or more of these attributes to transaction classes within a grouping rule: + + ACCOUNTING_RULE_DURATION + + ACCOUNTING_RULE_ID + + ATTRIBUTE1-15 + + ATTRIBUTE_CATEGORY + + INTERFACE_LINE_ATTRIBUTE1-15 + + INTERFACE_LINE_CONTEXT + + INVENTORY_ITEM_ID + + REFERENCE_LINE_ID + + RULE_START_DATE + + SALES_ORDER + + SALES_ORDER_DATE (mandatory for Order Management - Revenue Management integration) + + SALES_ORDER_LINE + + SALES_ORDER_REVISION + + SALES_ORDER_SOURCE + + TAX_CODE + + TAX_RATE + +AutoInvoice Line Ordering Rule Transaction Attributes + +AutoInvoice uses line ordering rules to determine how to order and number each line of a transaction, after AutoInvoice has grouped transactions into invoices, debit memos, and credit memos. You can specify a line ordering rule for each AutoInvoice grouping rule that you create. +Transaction Attributes + +AutoInvoice provides the following transaction attributes from the RA_INTERFACE_LINES_ALL table for use with line ordering rules: + + ACCOUNTING_RULE_DURATION + + ACCOUNTING_RULE_ID + + ACCOUNTING_RULE_NAME + + AMOUNT + + ATTRIBUTE_CATEGORY + + ATTRIBUTE1-15 + + FOB_POINT + + INTERFACE_LINE_ATTRIBUTE1-15 + + INTERFACE_LINE_CONTEXT + + ORIG_SYSTEM_SHIP_ADDRESS_ID + + QUANTITY + + QUANTITY_ORDERED + + REASON_CODE + + REASON_CODE_MEANING + + REFERENCE_LINE_ATTRIBUTE1-15 + + REFERENCE_LINE_CONTEXT + + REFERENCE_LINE_ID + + SALES_ORDER + + SALES_ORDER_DATE + + SALES_ORDER_LINE + + SALES_ORDER_SOURCE + + SHIP_DATE_ACTUAL + + SHIP_VIA + + TAX_CODE + + UNIT_SELLING_PRICE + + UNIT_STANDARD_PRICE + + UOM_CODE + + UOM_NAME + + WAYBILL_NUMBER +Example of an AutoInvoice Grouping Rule + +This example illustrates how to use grouping rules to group transaction lines into transactions during AutoInvoice import. +Scenario + +Define an AutoInvoice grouping rule that specifies that to appear on the same invoice, items must match on all mandatory attributes, such as currency (CURRENCY_CODE) and customer bill-to address (ORIG_SYSTEM_BILL_ADDRESS_ID), and must also match on the optional attribute of sales order type (SALES_ORDER_SOURCE). +Transaction Details + +During AutoInvoice import, assume that all mandatory attributes match other than currency and customer bill-to address. +This figure illustrates how three imported invoices are created according to the AutoInvoice grouping rule defined in this example: +This figure illustrates the creation of three invoices based on the mandatory grouping rule and the one optional attribute of sales order type + +Items A and B share the same currency and sales order type, so they appear on the same invoice (Invoice 1). Item C has the same currency as A and B, but it has a different sales order type, so it appears on its own invoice (Invoice 2). Items D and E share the same currency and sales order type, so they appear on the same invoice (Invoice 3). +Result + +Because of the optional attribute of sales order type, AutoInvoice created three invoices. If the grouping rule had designated only mandatory attributes, then AutoInvoice would have created only two invoices. +Why did AutoInvoice reject transactions? + +During AutoInvoice processing, if you have transaction lines that fail validation, the import process looks at the value of the Invalid Line field in the transaction source to determine what to do about the transaction. + +If the value is Reject Invoice, then AutoInvoice rejects all of the transaction lines that make up one invoice according to the grouping rule, if any one of the transaction lines are invalid. For example, if a grouping rule specifies that three transaction lines should be created as one invoice and one of the transaction lines has an error, AutoInvoice rejects all three transaction lines and doesn't create an invoice. + +However, if the value is Create Invoice, AutoInvoice rejects the one invalid transaction line and creates an invoice from the two remaining valid transaction lines. +Why did AutoInvoice create transactions with duplicate transaction numbers? + +During AutoInvoice processing, the import process validates that transaction and document numbers are unique after grouping has completed. + +In certain cases, AutoInvoice will create multiple invoices in the same group with the same transaction or document number. Once grouping is completed, AutoInvoice checks for duplicate transaction and document numbers and reports any lines that fail validation. + +For example, two lines are imported with the same transaction number, but they have different currencies. These lines are split into two separate invoices during grouping due to the different currencies. Once grouping has completed, both of the invoices will fail validation due to identical transaction numbers. +What happens if AutoInvoice processes a transaction class that's not defined for a grouping rule? + +If AutoInvoice uses grouping rules and is processing a transaction class not defined for a grouping rule, then AutoInvoice only uses the mandatory transaction attributes to group transactions. + +When does a grouping rule need a line ordering rule? + +Assign an AutoInvoice line ordering rule to an AutoInvoice grouping rule when you want to organize the transaction lines belonging to a transaction created by the grouping rule in a specific order. + +Use the Order By Type to specify whether to order the values belonging to a transaction attribute from least to greatest (Ascending) or greatest to least (Descending). + +For example, when importing transactions from Distributed Order Orchestration, you can define a line ordering rule with the attribute SALES_ORDER_LINE to list the items on the invoice in the same order as they appear on the sales order. + +Or, you can define a line ordering rule with the attribute AMOUNT and an Order By Type of Descending to ensure that the highest invoice line amounts are listed first on the transactions created by the grouping rule. + + +Guidelines for Defining Payment Terms + +Use payment terms to identify due dates and discount dates on your customer transactions. + +After you create payment terms, you can optionally assign them both to customer account and site profiles and to transaction types. The payment terms you assign are then assigned by default to transactions you create manually using the related customer account or site, or transaction type. + +Considerations for payment terms include: + + Payment Terms and Customer Profiles + + Payment Terms and Discounts + + Payment Terms and Print Lead Days + + Split Payment Terms with Installments + + Prepayment Payment Terms + +Payment Terms and Customer Profiles + +The setup of payment terms on customer account and site profiles influences the use and availability of payment terms on transactions you create manually. + +When you create a transaction manually, Receivables looks for payment terms to assign to the transaction in this order: + + Payment terms assigned to the site profile of the bill-to customer. + + Payment terms assigned to the account profile of the bill-to customer. + + Payment terms assigned to the transaction type. + +You must enable the Override terms option on the customer account or site profile in order to change the payment terms assigned to the transaction. Enabling the Override terms option provides more flexibility in assigning payment terms to manual transactions. + +If you don't enable the Override terms option on customer account and site profiles, then: + + You can't change the payment terms assigned by default. + + If you select a bill-to customer, and no payment terms were assigned either to the account or site profiles of this customer or to the transaction type, then no payment terms are available for use on the transaction. + + You can alternatively either select another bill-to customer or select payment terms before selecting a customer. + + If you select payment terms and then select a bill-to customer, and no payment terms were assigned to the account or site profiles of this customer, then you can't change the payment terms originally assigned. + +Tip + +If you intend to leave the Override terms option disabled on customer account and site profiles, then make sure that you assign payment terms to the transaction types that you intend to use for manual transactions. +Payment Terms and Discounts + +Define standard payment terms for your customers to specify the due date and discount date for their open items. Payment terms can include a discount percent for early payment, and you can assign multiple discounts to each line of your payment terms. + +For example, the payment terms named 2% 10, Net 30 indicates that a customer is allowed a two percent discount if payment is received within 10 days. After 10 days, the entire balance is due within 30 days of the transaction date with no applicable discount. + +Enable the Allow discount on partial payments option to let your customers take discounts for partial payments on items associated with payment terms. A partial payment is a payment less than the remaining amount due. If you do this, you must also ensure that the Discount on partial payment Receivables system option is enabled. + +Use the Discount Basis field to determine what amount to use to calculate discounts for the payment terms. If the payment terms use installments, you can assign discount percentages to each installment. + +Use the Discount Basis Date field to select the date to use to calculate discounts. The choices are: + + Receipt Date: Date the receipt is created. + + Receipt Application Date: Date the receipt is applied to the transaction. + + Deposit Date: Date the receipt is deposited into the remittance bank. + +The discount is applied if the transaction is paid within the payment terms discount date. The formula is: Transaction Date + Discount Due By Period >= Discount Basis Date (Receipt Date/Receipt Application Date/Deposit Date). +Payment Terms and Print Lead Days + +The Print Receivables Transactions process prints eligible transactions according to the transaction date. You normally can't print a transaction in advance of the transaction date. + +You can use the Print Lead Days field to allow printing of transactions with the applicable payment terms a designated number of days before the transaction date. + +Use this field in conjunction with the due date and discount date to print and send customers transactions in advance of the transaction date, for example, to remind customers of due dates and potential discounts. +Split Payment Terms with Installments + +Create split payment terms for invoice installments that have different due dates. The payment terms determine the amount of each installment. + +Use the Installment Option field to determine how to allocate the freight and tax charged to transactions. You can either distribute tax and freight charges across all installments, or allocate all freight and tax charges to the first installment. + +Define the payment schedule for the split payment terms. The payment schedule determines when each installment is due, how much in each installment is due, and how much discount to offer in each installment. +Prepayment Payment Terms + +You can optionally define prepayment payment terms by enabling the Prepayment option. You assign prepayment payment terms to transactions to indicate which transactions require prepayment for goods and services. + +Prepayment payment terms don't require the capture of funds in advance of invoicing or the delivery of prepaid goods or services. You must establish specific business practices at your enterprise if you want to capture these funds in advance. +Split Payment Terms and Amounts Due + +Split payment terms derive different amounts due in each installment of the payment schedule, depending on the setting of the Installment Option field. + +If the base amount is different from the relative amount, and you set the Installment Option field to Allocate tax and freight, Receivables prorates the base amount across the relative amounts of the payment schedule based upon the ratio you define. Receivables uses the following equation to determine the original amount due for each installment: + +Amount Due = Relative Amount/Base Amount * Invoice Amount + +If you set the Installment Option field to Include tax and freight in first installment, the base amount and the relative amounts that you specify for the payment schedule only indicate how the original line amounts of the invoices to which you assign these payment terms are distributed across different installments. + +In this case, the original freight and tax amounts are included in the first installment, in addition to the line amount allocated by the ratio of the base amount and the relative amount that you specify for the first payment. Receivables uses the following equation to determine the original amount due for the first installment: + +Payment Terms Discount Basis + +The payment terms Discount Basis field determines on what basis Receivables calculates the discount amount. +Discount Basis + +Invoice Amount + +Calculates the discount amount based on the sum of the tax, freight, and line amounts of transactions. + +Lines Only + +Calculates the discount amount based on only the line amounts of transactions. + +Lines, Freight Items and Tax + +Calculates the discount amount based on the amount of line items and their freight and tax amounts, but excludes freight and charges at the transaction header level. + +Lines and Tax, not Freight Items and Tax + +Calculates the discount amount based on the line items and their tax amounts, but excludes freight items and their tax lines. +How Discounts Are Calculated + +Receivables uses different formulas to calculate discounts, depending on your setup, the payment terms on the transaction, and the type of payment received. + +Receivables provides formulas for these discount events: + + Maximum Discount + + Earned Discounts and Partial Payments Allowed + + Unearned Discounts with Partial Payment Discounts Allowed + + Earned Discounts with Partial Payment Discounts Not Allowed + + Unearned Discounts and Partial Payments Not Allowed + + Discount on Lines Only + +Maximum Discount + +Receivables uses the following formula to determine the maximum discount amount: + +Maximum Discount = (Amount Due Original) * (Highest Discount Percent - Discount Taken) + +Earned Discounts and Partial Payments Allowed + +If the receipt amount is greater than the remaining amount due, less the discount, Receivables uses the following formula to determine the earned discount: + +Earned Discount = Amount Due Remaining * Discount Percent + +If the receipt amount is either the equal to or less than the remaining amount due, less the discount, Receivables uses the following formula to determine the earned discount: + +Earned Discount = (Receipt Amount * Discount Percent) / (1 - Discount Percent) + +Unearned Discounts with Partial Payment Discounts Allowed + +Receivables uses the following formula to determine unearned discounts if partial payments are allowed: + +Unearned Discount = Maximum Discount - Earned Discount + +Earned Discounts with Partial Payment Discounts Not Allowed + +If the Allow discount on partial payments option on the payment terms isn't enabled, Receivables only takes earned discounts if the receipt amount closes the installment. + +Receivables uses the following formula to determine earned discounts, if partial payment discounts aren't allowed and the receipt amount closes the installment: + +Earned Discount = Amount Due Original * Discount Percent + +Unearned Discounts and Partial Payments Not Allowed + +If the Allow discount on partial payments option on the payment terms isn't enabled, Receivables only takes unearned discounts if the receipt amount closes the installment. + +Receivables uses the following formula to determine unearned discounts, if partial payments aren't allowed and the receipt amount closes the installment: + +Unearned Discount = (Amount Due Original) * (Maximum Discount Percent - Earned Discount) + +Discount on Lines Only + +If the Discount Basis field on the payment terms is set to Lines Only, Receivables doesn't take discounts on receipt amounts applied to tax, freight, or late charges. Receivables uses the following formula to determine the discount amount: + +Line Percent = Discount Percent * (Sum of Lines + Sum of Line Adjustments - Sum of Line Credits) / (Amount Due Original + Sum of Adjustments - Sum of Credits) + +Once you determine the discount line percent, use this as the discount percent in all of these formulas. +Example of Deriving Discount Amounts + +This example illustrates how Receivables derives discount information based on the date of the receipt. + +When you enter receipts manually, Receivables determines whether discounts are allowed based on the payment terms, discount grace days, Receivables system options, transaction date, and the payment terms discount basis date (receipt date, receipt application date, or receipt deposit date). If discounts are allowed, Receivables determines the amount of both earned and unearned discounts, as determined by the details of your setup. +Scenario + +Assume that you're using the following information: + + Unearned Discounts = Yes + + Payment Terms: 10/10, 5/15, Net 30 + + Discount Basis Date: Receipt Date + + Discount Grace Days = 0 + + Calculate Discount on Lines Only = No + + Allow Discount on Partial Payments = Yes + +This table shows the discount details: + +Percent + + +Date + + +On Lines Only + + +On Partial Payments + +5 + + +17-DEC-10 + + +NO + + +YES + +10 + + +12-DEC-10 + + +NO + + +YES + +Assume these invoice details: + + Invoice #101 + + Invoice Date: 02-DEC-10 + + Due Date: 01-JAN-11 + + Amount: $1100 + +The following table displays the default discount amounts based on different receipt application dates. You can also see the amount of earned and unearned discounts that your customers can take. + +Receipt Date + + +Receipt Amount + + +Default Discount Amount + + +Message Line + + +Earned Discount Allowed + + +Unearned Discount Allowed + +From 02-DEC-10 to 12-DEC-10 + + +$990 + + +$110 + + +Discount Earned = 110 + +Total = 110 + + +$110 + + +None + +After 17-DEC-10 + + +$990 + + +0 + +To take the unearned discount, you must update the amount. + + +Discount Earned = 0 + +Total = 110 + + +None + + +$110 + +From 02-DEC-10 to 12-DEC-10 + + +$1000 + +$10 of the receipt is left as Unapplied after the default discount. + + +$110 + + + AutoAccounting Account Types and Segment Values + + Define AutoAccounting to specify how to determine the default general ledger accounts for transactions that you enter manually or import using AutoInvoice. + + You must define AutoAccounting before you can enter transactions in Receivables. When you enter or update transactions, you can override the default general ledger accounts that AutoAccounting creates. + Account Types + + Define an AutoAccounting record for each type of account. You can then assign either a table name or constant value to each segment of the account. + + AutoInvoice Clearing + + The clearing account for imported transactions. Receivables uses the clearing account to hold any difference between the specified revenue amount and the selling price times the quantity for imported invoice lines. Receivables only uses the clearing account if you have enabled this option on the transaction source used for imported transactions. + + Bills Receivable + + The bills receivable account for your transactions. Receivables uses this account when you apply transactions to bills receivable. + + Factored Bills Receivable + + The factored bills receivable account for your bills receivable transactions. + + Freight + + The freight account for transactions. + + Receivable + + The receivable account for transactions. + + Remitted Bills Receivable + + The remitted bills receivable account for your bills receivable transactions. + + Revenue + + The revenue and late charges account for transactions. + + Tax + + The tax account for transactions. + + Unbilled Receivable + + The unbilled receivable account for transactions. Receivables uses this account when the transaction uses the In Arrears invoicing rule. If the revenue scheduling rule on the transaction recognizes revenue before the invoicing rule bills it, Receivables uses this account. + + Unearned Revenue + + The unearned revenue account for transactions. Receivables uses this account when a transaction uses the In Advance invoicing rule. If the revenue scheduling rule on the transaction recognizes revenue after the invoicing rule bills it, Receivables uses this account. + + Unpaid Bills Receivable + + The unpaid bills receivable account for your bills receivable transactions. + Table Names + + Enter either the table name or constant value that you want Receivables to use to retrieve information for each accounting flexfield segment of a given account. + + Enter a constant value instead of a table name if you want AutoAccounting to always use the same value for a given segment.You must ensure that you enter valid information for this segment. + + For example, if you defined your Company segment as a two-character segment with valid values ranging from 00 to 10, you must only enter a two-character value within this range. + + Bill-to Site + + Use the bill-to site of the transaction to determine this segment of revenue, freight, receivable, AutoInvoice clearing, tax, unbilled receivable, and unearned revenue accounts. + + Drawee Site + + Use the drawee site table to determine this segment of your bills receivable, factored bills receivable, remitted bills receivable, and unpaid bills receivable account. + + Remittance Banks + + Use the remittance banks table to determine this segment of your factored bills receivable and remitted bills receivable account. + + Salesperson + + Use the salesperson table to determine this segment of revenue, freight, receivable, AutoInvoice clearing, tax, unbilled receivable, and unearned revenue accounts. + + If you select this option for AutoInvoice clearing, tax, or unearned revenue accounts, Receivables uses the revenue account associated with the salesperson on the transaction. If you select this option for the unbilled receivable account, Receivables uses the receivable account associated with the salesperson on the transaction. + + If the transaction has a line type of Line with an inventory item of Freight, AutoAccounting uses the revenue scheduling rules for the freight account rather than the revenue account. + + Standard Lines + + Use the memo line or inventory item on the transaction to determine this segment of revenue, AutoInvoice clearing, freight, tax, unbilled receivable, and unearned revenue accounts. + + If you select this option for AutoInvoice clearing, freight, tax, unbilled receivable or unearned revenue accounts, Receivables uses the revenue account associated to the memo line item or inventory item. + + If the transaction has a line type of Line with an inventory item of Freight, AutoAccounting uses the revenue scheduling rules for the freight account rather than the revenue account. + + Tax + + Use the tax account assigned to the tax rate codes on the transaction. + + Transaction Types + + Use the transaction types table to determine this segment of revenue, freight, receivable, AutoInvoice clearing, tax, unbilled receivable, and unearned revenue accounts. + + If the transaction has a line type of Line with an inventory item of Freight, AutoAccounting uses the revenue scheduling rules for the freight account rather than the revenue account. + + + + +Discount Earned = 110 + +Total = 110 + + +$110 + + +None + +From 13-DEC-10 to 17-DEC-10 + + +$1000 + +After the default discount of $52.63, the receipt is fully applied. However, a balance of $47.37 remains on the invoice. + + +$52.63 + +To take the unearned discount, you must update the amount. + + +Discount Earned = 52.63 + +Total = 110 + + +$52.63 + + +$57.37 + +After 17-DEC-10 + + +$1000 + +Since there's no default discount, the receipt is fully applied. A balance of $100 remains on the invoice. + + +0 + +To take the unearned discount, you must update the amount. + + +Discount Earned = 0 + +Total = 110 + + +None + + +$110 + +What's the difference between balance forward payment terms and other payment terms? + +Balance forward billing payment terms pass the balance forward billing cycle to the Create Balance Forward Bill process. The billing cycle determines when customer balance forward bills are generated. + +Because balance forward bills can't be split across installments, all settings related to installments on balance forward billing payment terms are disabled. You can't change existing payment terms back and forth for use as both non-balance forward billing and balance forward billing payment terms. +Guidelines for Creating an AutoAccounting Structure + +To implement AutoAccounting, you first define your AutoAccounting structure and then define information for each salesperson, transaction type, product, and tax rate code in order for AutoAccounting to properly create your default accounts. + +You must define your AutoAccounting structure before you can enter invoices and credit memos, and you can only define one structure for each account type. During transaction creation, if AutoAccounting can't determine all of the accounting flexfield segments, it derives what it can and displays an incomplete accounting flexfield. You must provide any missing accounting flexfield information before you can complete a transaction. + +Review these guidelines for each account type when creating your AutoAccounting structure: + + AutoInvoice Clearing Account + + Freight Account + + Receivable Account + + Revenue Account + + Tax Account + + Unbilled Receivable Account + + Unearned Revenue Account + + Available Information for Each Account + +This table indicates the information that you can use to create each type of account. (Rec) and (Rev) indicate whether the account information is taken from the corresponding Receivables or Revenue accounting flexfield. + +Information Source / AutoAccounting Type + + +Constant + + +Customer Bill-to Site + + +Salesperson + + +Transaction Type + + +Standard Item + + +Tax Rate Code + +AutoInvoice Clearing + + +Yes + + +Yes + + +Yes (Rev) + + +Yes + + +Yes (Rev) + + +No + +Freight + + +Yes + + +Yes + + +Yes + + +Yes + + +Yes (Rev) + + +No + +Receivable + + +Yes + + +Yes + + +Yes + + +Yes + + +No + + +No + +Revenue + + +Yes + + +Yes + + +Yes + + +Yes + + +Yes + + +No + +Tax + + +Yes + + +Yes + + +Yes (Rev) + + +Yes + + +Yes (Rev) + + +Yes + +Unbilled Receivable + + +Yes + + +Yes + + +Yes (Rec) + + +Yes + + +Yes (Rev) + + +No + +Unearned Revenue + + +Yes + + +Yes + + +Yes (Rev) + + +Yes + + +Yes (Rev) + + +No + +Notes on the table: + + If AutoAccounting for the AutoInvoice Clearing, Tax, Unbilled Receivable, or Unearned Revenue account is based on Standard Item, Receivables uses the segment from the standard item Revenue accounting flexfield. + + If AutoAccounting for the AutoInvoice Clearing, Tax, or Unearned Revenue account is based on Salesperson, Receivables uses the segment from the salesperson Revenue accounting flexfield. + + If AutoAccounting for Unbilled Receivable is based on Salesperson, Receivables uses the segment from the salesperson Receivable accounting flexfield. + + If the AutoInvoice Clearing, Revenue, Tax, Unbilled Receivable, or Unearned Revenue account is based on Salesperson, and there are multiple salespersons on the transaction, then Receivables creates separate distributions for each salesperson. + +AutoInvoice Clearing Account + +During AutoInvoice processing, Receivables uses the AutoInvoice clearing account to store any differences between the specified revenue amount and the (price * quantity) for imported invoice lines. + +Receivables only uses the AutoInvoice clearing account if you enabled the Create clearing option on the transaction source assigned to imported transactions. However, you must define a clearing account whether or not you enable this option. + +You can use constant value, customer bill-to site, salesperson, transaction type, and standard item for your AutoInvoice clearing account. If you select salesperson or standard item, Receivables uses the specified Revenue accounting flexfield. +Freight Account + +The freight account controls the account in general ledger to which you post freight amounts. You can use constant value, customer bill-to site, salesperson, transaction type, and standard item to specify your freight account. + +If you choose standard item, Receivables uses the specified Revenue accounting flexfield. In addition, you can't import transactions with header-level freight through AutoInvoice. + +If the transaction has a line type of LINE with an inventory item of freight, AutoAccounting uses the revenue scheduling rules for the freight account rather than the revenue account. +Receivable Account + +The receivable account controls the account in your general ledger to which you post receivable amounts. You can use transaction type, customer bill-to site, salesperson, and constant value to specify your receivable account. +Revenue Account + +The revenue account controls the account in your general ledger to which you post your revenue amounts. You can use transaction type, customer bill-to site, standard item, salesperson, and constant value to specify your revenue account. +Tax Account + +The tax account controls the account in your general ledger to which you post tax amounts. You can use tax rate codes, customer bill-to site, salesperson, transaction type, standard item, and constant value to specify your tax account. + +If you select salesperson or standard item, Receivables uses the specified Revenue accounting flexfield. +Unbilled Receivable Account + +Receivables uses the unbilled receivable account for transactions that have invoicing and revenue scheduling rules. Whenever the revenue scheduling rule recognizes revenue on the transaction before the invoicing rule bills for the transaction, Receivables posts this amount to the unbilled receivable account. + +You can select constant value, customer bill-to site, salesperson, transaction type, and standard item for your unbilled receivable account. + +If you select standard item, Receivables uses the specified Revenue accounting flexfield. If you select salesperson, Receivables uses the salesperson Receivable accounting flexfield. +Unearned Revenue Account + +Receivables uses the unearned revenue account for transactions that have invoicing and revenue scheduling rules. Whenever the revenue scheduling rule recognizes revenue on the transaction after the invoicing rule bills for the transaction, Receivables posts this amount to the unearned revenue account. + +You can select constant value, customer bill-to site, salesperson, transaction type, and standard item for your unearned revenue account. + +If you select salesperson or standard item, Receivables uses the specified Revenue accounting flexfield. + + + +Options for Posted and Non-Posted Activities using Transaction Types + +Use the Open Receivable and Post to GL options on the transaction type to manage posted and non-posted activities on transactions. + +If the Open Receivable option is enabled, Receivables updates your customer balances each time you create a complete debit memo, credit memo, chargeback, or on-account credit with this transaction type. Receivables also includes these transactions in the standard aging and collection processes. + +If the Post to GL option is enabled, Receivables posts transactions with this transaction type to general ledger. If this option isn't enabled, then no accounting is generated for transactions with this transaction type. + +Considerations for defining transaction types include: + + Void Transaction Type + + Updates to Customer Accounts and Aging + + Updates to Accounting Only + +Void Transaction Type + +You can void a debit memo, credit memo, on-account credit, or invoice by defining a Void transaction type and assigning it to the transaction. To define a Void transaction type, set the Open Receivable and Post to GL options to No. You can void a transaction by changing the transaction type to Void provided: + + No activity exists against the transaction. + + Transaction hasn't posted to general ledger. + +This activity isn't included in the Review Customer Account Details page since the activity doesn't modify the customer balance. +Updates to Customer Accounts and Aging + +If you set the Open Receivable option to Yes and the Post to GL option to No, Receivables updates customer accounts with the transaction activity of transactions assigned this transaction type. This has no effect on accounting. + +Use transaction types with these settings during your initial implementation, where the transaction amount is included in the general ledger beginning balance for the receivable account, but activity still needs to be aged and payment collected against it. All related activities against the transaction, such as credit memos, payments, and adjustments, are accounted as affecting the customer balance. You can review these activities on the Review Customer Account Details page. +Updates to Accounting Only + +If you set the Open Receivable option to No and Post to GL option to Yes, Receivables updates accounting without any impact on the customer balance. + +Use transaction types with these settings when you want to adjust accounting activity, such as when you rebill a customer in order to reclassify the general ledger account. A credit memo and invoice with the Open Receivable option set to No are created where the credit memo reverses the general ledger account of the original invoice, and the invoice creates accounting with the new general ledger account. This activity is transparent to the customer because the original invoice is used for the cash application when payment is received. + +This activity isn't included in the Review Customer Account Details page since the activity doesn't modify the customer balance. + +Transactions with the Open Receivable option set to No appear in the Other Accounting section of the Receivables to General Ledger Reconciliation Report, even though transactions post to Receivables accounts assigned the financial category of Accounts Receivable. +Natural Application and Overapplication + +The transaction type that you assign to a transaction defines the type of application permitted against the transaction balance. This definition is managed by the Natural Application Only and Allow Overapplication options on the transaction type. + +Natural application only lets you apply a payment or credit to a transaction that brings the transaction balance close to or equal to zero. For example, if an invoice has a balance due of $400, you can make applications against this transaction up to $400 only. With natural application, you can only bring the balance to zero. + +Overapplication lets you apply more than the balance due on a transaction. For example, if you apply a $500 receipt to a $400 invoice, this overapplies the invoice by $100 and reverses the balance sign from positive to negative. +Use of Natural Application and Overapplication + +Whether or not a transaction allows overapplication determines the actions that you can take on that transaction. + +If a transaction that allows natural application only is paid in full, then in order to credit the transaction you must first unapply the receipt from the transaction before creating the credit. + +If you want to use AutoInvoice to import credit memos against paid invoices and evaluate these credits for automatic receipt handling, then the transaction type of the paid invoices must allow natural application only. However, if the Receipt Handling for Credits option isn't enabled on the transaction source of the transaction, AutoInvoice leaves the related credit memo in the interface tables until you unapply the receipt from the invoice. +Guidelines for Transaction Type Reference Accounts + +Define the accounting for transaction types of class Invoice, Chargeback, Credit Memo, and Debit Memo. Receivables uses this information along with your AutoAccounting definition to determine the accounts to use for transactions with the applicable transaction type. +Revenue + +Enter a revenue account, unless the transaction type doesn't allow freight. + +If the Invoice Accounting Used for Credit Memos profile option is set to No, then a revenue account isn't required for Credit Memo transaction types. +Freight + +Enter a freight account, unless the transaction type doesn't allow freight. +Receivable + +Enter a receivable account for all transaction types. + +If the Post To GL option on the transaction type is enabled, Receivables creates a receivable transaction record using this account in order to transfer accounting to general ledger and create a journal entry. + +For Chargeback transaction types, enter the Receivable Chargeback account. The offset to the receivable account on the original debit transaction is generated by the chargeback adjustment. + +If the Invoice Accounting Used for Credit Memos profile option is set to No, then a receivable account isn't required for Credit Memo transaction types. +AutoInvoice Clearing + +If this is an Invoice or Debit Memo transaction type, enter an AutoInvoice clearing account. Receivables uses this account to hold any difference between the revenue amount specified for the revenue account and the selling price times the quantity for imported invoice lines. + +Receivables only uses the AutoInvoice clearing account for imported transactions that have a transaction source with the Create clearing option enabled. If the Create clearing option isn't enabled, then AutoInvoice requires that the revenue amount on the invoice be equal to the selling price times the quantity, or the invoice is rejected. +Tax + +If this is an Invoice, Credit Memo, or Debit Memo transaction type, enter a tax account. +Unbilled Receivable + +If this is an Invoice or Credit Memo transaction type, enter an unbilled receivable account. This account is for transactions that use the In Arrears invoicing rule. +Unearned Revenue + +If this is an Invoice or Credit Memo transaction type, enter an unearned revenue account. This account is for transactions that use the In Advance invoicing rule. + + +How can I arrange the creation of transaction types? + +Create transaction types for each transaction class, and create them in a way that can account for dependencies between transaction types. + +Create your transaction types in the following order: + + Credit memo transaction types + + Invoice transaction types + + Debit memo transaction types + + Chargeback transaction types + +If applicable, create the transaction types that you want to add to your transaction sources before creating transaction sources. + +If you're using late charges, create a transaction type with a class of Debit Memo to present late charges as debit memos, and a transaction type with a class of Invoice to present late charges as interest invoices. Specify the receivable and revenue accounts for these transaction types. Receivables uses these accounts instead of AutoAccounting when generating late charges. +How can I use transaction types to review and update customer balances? + +Use the Open Receivable option on the transaction type to implement an approval cycle for any temporary or preliminary transactions. + +For example, if you have particularly sensitive debit memos, credit memos, on-account credits, chargebacks, or invoices that you want to review after creation, you can define a transaction type called Preliminary with Open Receivable set to No and assign it to the applicable transactions. This transaction type doesn't update your customer balances. + +Once you review and approve these transactions, you can define a transaction type called Final with Open Receivable set to Yes and assign it to the same transactions. This will now update your customer balances on these transactions. + + +Guidelines for Transaction Numbering + +Use the various options on the transaction source assigned to a transaction to manage your transaction numbering requirements. + +Refer to these guidelines when defining transaction numbering for transactions assigned to specific transaction sources: + + Document Sequences + + Automatic Transaction Numbering + + Copy Document Numbers to Transaction Numbers + + Allow Duplicate Transaction Numbers + + Credit Memo Transaction Source + +Document Sequences + +If necessary, define document sequences to assign unique numbers to each transaction, in addition to the transaction number assigned automatically. + +Ensure that the necessary setups for document sequences are completed, according to your requirements. +Automatic Transaction Numbering + +To automatically number new transactions you create using a transaction source, enable the Automatic transaction numbering option and enter a number in the Last Number field. + +For example, to start numbering transactions with 1000, enter a last number of 999. Receivables automatically updates the Last Number fields on transaction sources, so you can review the transaction source later to see the last transaction number that was generated. +Note + +The last transaction number on the transaction source is an approximation only, due to caching. + +You can use automatic transaction numbering with both Imported and Manual transaction sources. +Copy Document Numbers to Transaction Numbers + +If you're using document sequences and you want to use the same number as both the document number and the transaction number for transactions assigned to a transaction source, enable the Copy document number to transaction number option. + +If you're using Gapless document sequences, you should enable this option if you require gapless transaction numbering. This ensures that transaction numbers are generated sequentially with no missing numbers. +Allow Duplicate Transaction Numbers + +Enable the Allow duplicate transaction numbers option to allow duplicate transaction numbers within a transaction source. + +This option is for manual transaction numbering only. +Credit Memo Transaction Source + +Assign a credit memo transaction source to an invoice transaction source, if you want to number credit memos differently from the invoices that they credit. +AutoInvoice and Sales Credit Information + +During AutoInvoice processing, whether you must provide sales credit information on imported transaction lines depends on the settings of the Allow sales credits option on the transaction source and the Require salesperson Receivables system option. + +These are the requirements for passing sales credit information on imported transaction lines: + + If the Require salesperson system option and the Allow sales credits option on the transaction source are both enabled, you must provide sales credit information. + + If the Require salesperson system option isn't enabled and the Allow sales credits option on the transaction source is enabled, you can provide sales credit information, but it isn't required. + + If the Require salesperson system option is enabled and the Allow sales credits option on the transaction source isn't enabled, you must provide sales credit information. + + If neither the Require salesperson system option nor the Allow sales credits option on the transaction source are enabled, you can't provide sales credit information. AutoInvoice ignores any values that you pass. + +How AutoInvoice Validates Imported Transactions + +Use the AutoInvoice Options and Import Information sections of an Imported transaction source to define how AutoInvoice validates imported transaction lines. + +You don't have to pass values for all of the fields that are referenced in the transaction source. If you don't want AutoInvoice to pass certain data, then where available you can set the related option to None. +Note + +Even if you set a transaction source data option to None in order to avoid importing this information into the interface tables, AutoInvoice can still validate and reject transaction lines with invalid data. +Settings That Affect the Validation of Imported Transactions + +These settings affect the validation of imported transactions: + + Invalid Line field: Indicate how AutoInvoice handles imported transactions with invalid lines by selecting either Reject Invoice or Create Invoice. + + If you select Reject Invoice, AutoInvoice doesn't import this transaction or any of its lines into the interface tables. + + If you select Create Invoice, AutoInvoice creates a transaction with valid lines only. For example, you import an invoice with three invoice lines and one of the lines is invalid. AutoInvoice creates the invoice with the two valid lines only and rejects the invalid line. You can use the Edit Transaction page to add the rejected line. + + Accounting Date in a Closed Period field: Indicate how AutoInvoice handles imported transactions that have lines in the interface lines table that are in a closed accounting period. + + Select Adjust to have AutoInvoice automatically adjust the accounting dates to the first accounting date of the next open or future enterable period. + + Select Reject to reject these transaction lines. + + In the Import Information sections, where applicable select Number, Value, Segment, or ID for each option to indicate how AutoInvoice validates information: + + Select Number to import a record into the interface tables using its assigned number. + + Select Value to import a record into the interface tables using its actual name. + Note + + Use Value if you intend to use the transaction source to import data from a non-Oracle system. + + Select Segment to use the flexfield segment. + + Select ID to use the internal identifier of the record. + + Select Amount or Percent to indicate how AutoInvoice validates Sales Credits and Revenue Account Allocations on transaction lines. + +How Imported Transactions Are Validated + +AutoInvoice validates imported transactions based on the settings of the assigned Imported transaction source. Transactions that fail validation appear in the Import AutoInvoice Validation report. + +AutoInvoice ensures that certain column values agree with each other. These values can be within an interface table or multiple interface tables. For example, if the transaction source indicates that a revenue scheduling rule can't be used, AutoInvoice ignores any values passed for invoicing rule, revenue scheduling rule, and revenue scheduling rule duration. + +AutoInvoice performs these validations on transaction lines with revenue scheduling rules: + + Requires that these transactions also include an invoicing rule, if you import transactions that use revenue scheduling rules. + + Rejects lines, if the revenue scheduling rule has overlapping periods. + + Rejects lines, if the designated accounting periods don't exist for the duration of the revenue scheduling rule. + +How You Implement CPQ Cloud and Receivables Processing + +Set up CPQ Cloud and Receivables to enable the integrated quote-to-cash cloud service. This integrated service lets you manage the entire process of quote, pricing, order entry, credit checking, and invoicing. + +To set up the CPQ Cloud/Receivables integration service, perform one or more of these tasks: + + Set up CPQ Cloud and CPQ Cloud data. + + Set up Receivables transaction sources. + + Set Up for multiple CPQ Cloud Instances. + +Set Up CPQ Cloud + +Perform the necessary setups in CPQ Cloud using the CPQ Administration pages. + +Create a data table definition for each of the integration services used by the CPQ Cloud/Receivables quote-to-cash cloud service: + + Credit Check Service: Service that verifies customer creditworthiness. + + Receivables Invoice Service: Service that transfers order lines from CPQ Cloud to the AutoInvoice interface tables in Receivables. + +Each data table definition includes these attributes: + + Endpoint URL: The URL to use to contact the service. + + User Name: The valid user name recognized by the service. + + Password: The accompanying password for the valid user. + +Set Up the CPQ Cloud Transaction Source + +Receivables provides an Imported transaction source under the Common reference data set to use to configure the CPQ Cloud/Receivables integrated service. + +Use this transaction source to: + + Manage the transfer of transaction information from CPQ Cloud to the AutoInvoice interface tables. + + Manage the Call Back service to send Receivables transaction information to CPQ Cloud after the transactions are created. + +To set up the transaction source for CPQ Cloud: + + Navigate to the Edit Transaction Source page. + + Open the CPQ Cloud transaction source. + + If applicable, enter the legal entity. + + If applicable, update the From Date and To Date fields. + + In the Oracle CPQ Cloud Integration section, check the Enabled option. + + Click the Define button to open the Define Endpoint Policy window. + + In the URL field, enter the URL to use to contact the Call Back service. + + In the Security Policy field, enter oracle/wss_username_token_over_ssl_client_policy. + + In the User Name field, enter the user name to use for the Call Back service. + + In the Password field, enter the accompanying password for the valid user. + + Click the Save and Close button to exit the Define Endpoint Policy window. + + Save and close the Edit Transaction Source page. + +Set Up for Multiple CPQ Cloud Instances + +If you plan to have more than one CPQ Cloud instance sending data to Receivables, you must represent each CPQ instance as a business unit and define a transaction source for each instance. + +To set up for multiple CPQ Cloud instances: + + Define one reference data set for each CPQ Cloud instance. + + Associate this reference data set to the business unit for the reference object transaction source. + + Create a transaction source for each reference data set: + + Open the Create Transaction Source page. + + In the Transaction Source Set field, select the applicable reference data set for the business unit. + + If applicable, enter the legal entity. + + In the Name and Description fields, enter a name and description for this transaction source. + + In the Type field, select Imported. + + If applicable, update the From Date and To Date fields. + + Complete the remaining fields in the transaction source with the same settings as the predefined transaction source. + + In the Oracle CPQ Cloud Integration section, check the Enabled option and complete the endpoint policy. + + Save and close the Create Transaction Source page. + +What do I create before creating transaction sources? + +You may want to create certain records before creating your transaction sources. + +You can optionally create these objects for Manual or Imported transaction sources: + + Transaction types: Define the transaction types that you want to appear by default on transactions assigned to your transaction sources. You select the transaction type you want for a transaction source in the Standard Transaction Type field. + + Credit memo transaction source: Define one or more transaction sources for credit memos before you define a transaction source for invoices. You then select a credit memo transaction source to accompany the invoice transaction source in the Credit Transaction Source field. + + You can use credit memo transaction sources in these ways: + + Number the credit memos created against invoices differently from the invoices they're crediting. + + Create a manual credit memo transaction source for credit memo request approvals, when the approved credit memo amount is greater than the open balance on the invoice. For these transaction sources, set the Receipt Handling for Credits option to On Account. + +You can optionally create these objects for Imported transaction sources only: + + Invoice Transaction Flexfield: Define the reference information that you want to capture in the Invoice Transaction Flexfield and display on imported transactions, such as a purchase order number. + + AutoInvoice grouping rule: Define the grouping rule to appear by default on imported transaction lines. + + AutoInvoice clearing account: Define an AutoInvoice clearing account, if you intend to enable the Create clearing option. AutoInvoice puts any difference between the revenue amount and the selling price times the quantity for a transaction into this account. + +How can I manage credit memos with transaction sources? + +Special conditions may apply to the creation of transaction sources for credit memos. + +Review these considerations for transaction sources assigned to credit memos: + + Define Manual transaction sources for credit memos created by the credit memo request approval process. + + Define credit memo transaction sources to assign to invoice transaction sources using the Credit Transaction Source field. Use credit memo transaction sources on invoice transaction sources under these conditions: + + Number the credit memos created against invoices differently from the invoices they're crediting. + + Create a manual credit memo transaction source for credit memo request approvals, when the approved credit memo amount is greater than the open balance on the invoice. For these transaction sources, set the Receipt Handling for Credits option to On Account. + + Enable the Copy transaction information flexfield to credit memo option on Manual transaction sources used for credit memos, to copy the Invoice Transaction Flexfield reference information to the credit memo crediting the invoice. + + Select the transaction type to assign to the invoice using the Standard Transaction Type field, if the credit memo transaction source requires invoice transaction types that use natural application only. + +What happens if I don't enter an AutoInvoice grouping rule? + +Assign the AutoInvoice grouping rule to Imported transaction sources that AutoInvoice uses to group imported transaction lines. + +If you don't assign a grouping rule to an Imported transaction source, AutoInvoice uses the following hierarchy to determine which rule to use: + + Grouping rule assigned to the transaction source of the transaction line. + + Grouping rule assigned to the bill-to customer site profile of the transaction line. + + Grouping rule assigned to the bill-to customer profile of the transaction line. + + Grouping rule assigned to Receivables system options. + +What happens if I don't create a clearing account? + +If you don't use an AutoInvoice clearing account, but you enable the Create clearing option on the transaction source, the revenue amount must equal (Selling Price * Quantity) for all transactions AutoInvoice processes. AutoInvoice rejects transaction lines that don't meet this requirement. + +Revenue Accounts and Memo Lines + +You can optionally associate a revenue account with a memo line. + +If AutoAccounting depends on memo line, Receivables uses the revenue account segment values defined for the memo line, in combination with the rest of your AutoAccounting structure, to determine the default revenue, freight, AutoInvoice clearing, tax, unbilled receivable, unearned revenue, and receivable accounts for invoices that include the memo line. + +When you create a debit memo or on-account credit memo with memo lines, Receivables uses the revenue account from the original receivable item as the credit account. However, when you create debit memo reversals or chargebacks, Receivables uses instead the revenue flexfield from the original receivable item as the credit account. +When do I use memo lines? + +Use memo lines when the item isn't an inventory item. For example, you can define a memo line called Consulting Services to identify charges for consulting activities. You can assign memo lines to debit memos, on-account credits, debit memo reversals, chargebacks, and invoices. + +How can I use tax memo lines? + +You can only use tax memo lines if your tax definition lets you enter manual tax lines on transactions. After you enter a tax memo line on a transaction, you can specify the amount of tax to assign to the transaction line. + +How You Create a Remit-to Address + +Create remit-to addresses to specify on transactions and statements where your customers are to send payment for their open receivables. + +Considerations for remit-to addresses include: + + Receivables system options > Billing and Revenue tab: You can set these Receivables system options as part of your remit-to address setup: + + Print remit-to address option: Enable this option to print remit-to addresses on your customer statements. + + Print home country option: Enable this option to print your home country on transactions and statements with addresses in that country. + + Default Country field: Select the country to assign by default to the remit-to addresses you create. + + Reference data set: Remit-to addresses belong to a reference data set. You can assign remit-to addresses to the Common set or to business unit-specific sets. + + Receipt from Criteria section: Use this section to assign remit-to addresses by default to the transactions and statements of specific customer bill-to sites. + +Note +A remit-to address is required on all Receivables transactions. If you don't set up default remit-to addresses for customer transactions, the Remit-to Address field remains blank on the transaction. You can't update and save any fields on the transaction or complete the transaction without entering a remit-to address. You must ensure that you enter a remit-to address before updating any other fields on the transaction. In the Edit Transaction page, click the Show More link, navigate to the Payment tab, and enter a remit-to address. + +To create a remit-to address: + + Navigate to the Create Remit-to Address page. + + In the Remit-to Address Set field, select a reference data set. + + The Country field displays the default country defined in Receivables system options. If necessary, select another country for the remit-to address. + + If you select another country, this may update the required and optional address fields. You may also need to select the reference data set again. + + Enter the address details and save. You return to the Manage Remit-to Addresses page. + + In the Manage Remit-to Addresses page, search for and select the remit-to address you just created. + + In the Receipt from Criteria section, click the Create (+) icon to open the Create Receipt from Criteria window for the remit-to address. + + Use this window to assign the remit-to address to customer bill-to sites. + + In the Country field, select the country you want. By default, the remit-to address is assigned to all customer bill-to sites defined in this country. + + If necessary, use the State and Postal Code fields to restrict the remit-to address assignment to specific regions of the country. + + Save your work. + +How can I use remit-to addresses? + +The remit-to address lets your customers know where to send payment for their open debit items. + +After you create a remit-to address, you can assign it to the bill-to addresses of the customers and customer sites that you designate by country and, if applicable, by region and postal code range. + +If the Print remit-to address Receivables system option is enabled, the remit-to address is printed on the related customer dunning letters and statements. +How does AutoInvoice validate remit-to addresses? + +During the import process, AutoInvoice rejects all invoices for which it can't determine a remit-to address. + +In order for AutoInvoice to import an invoice, you must either define a remit-to address for the geographical location of each applicable bill-to site or define a remit-to address to use as default for one or more locations. +How can I define a default remit-to address? + +Create or select a remit-to address, then open the Receipts from Criteria window. Select the country that you want to assign to this remit-to address. + +If you only select a country, then all customer bill-to sites in this country are assigned this remit-to address. + +If you want to assign this remit-to address to specific locations within the country, you can optionally select a state or region within the country, and a range of postal codes. +Why did the country appear? + +When you create a remit-to address, a country appears by default if one was defined in Receivables system options. You can change the default to the applicable country of the remit-to address. + +Why do I verify the address? + +If you have Trading Community Data Quality installed, you can expose a Verify Address button on the Create and Edit Remit-to Address pages for applicable countries. + +After you enter a remit-to address, use the Verify Address button to confirm that the address is in the Trading Community Model registry. If the address doesn't exist, Receivables either presents alternative addresses or lets you optionally add the address you entered to the registry. +Create a Shared Service Model in Receivables + +Use service provider relationships to create a shared service model in Receivables to centralize the processing of customer payments. + +In the shared service model, you define one servicing business unit for customer payments. You then create a service provider relationship between this servicing business unit and one or more client billing business units. +Note + +All business units must belong to the same ledger. + +Once you define this relationship, the servicing business unit can receive and process payments for all of its client billing business units. The shared service model for centralized customer payment processing supports all receipt creation methods in Receivables: + + Manual receipts. + + Receipts uploaded using a spreadsheet. + + Lockbox receipts. + + Automatic receipts. + +Receivables provides additional functionality for cross-business unit receipt processing, to facilitate the processing of customer payments: + + Allow a billing business unit outside the service provider relationship to have payments for its transactions processed by any other business unit in the same ledger. + + Allow an individual receipt to be applied to transactions of any business unit in the same ledger. + +Perform these procedures to manage shared services in Receivables: + + Define Customer Payments Service Providers + + Define Receivables System Options for Cross-Business Unit Receipt Processing + + Enable a Receipt for Cross-Business Unit Processing + +Define Customer Payments Service Providers + +Perform the steps in this procedure to define a servicing business unit and client billing business units. + + Create a servicing business unit and client business units. + + Assign the appropriate business functions to each business unit: + + Open the Assign Business Functions page for the servicing business unit. + + Assign business functions to the servicing business unit. At a minimum, you must assign the servicing business unit the Customer Payments business function. + + Save your work. + + Open the Assign Business Functions page for the first client business unit. + + Assign business functions to the client business unit. At a minimum, you must assign the client business unit the Billing and Revenue Management business function. + + Save your work. + + Repeat steps 4 to 6 for each client business unit. + + Assign the servicing business unit to each client business unit: + + From the Manage Service Provider Relationships task, open the Manage Service Providers page for the first client business unit. + + In the Customer Payments Service Providers section, click the Add icon. + + In the Search and Select window, select the servicing business unit. + + Save your work. + + Repeat steps 1 to 4 for each client business unit. + +Define Receivables System Options for Cross-Business Unit Receipt Processing + +Perform the steps in this procedure to allow a billing business unit outside the service provider relationship to have payments for its transactions processed by any other business unit in the same ledger. + + From the Manage Receivables System Options task, open the Edit System Options page for the business unit that you want. + + Navigate to the Billing and Revenue tabbed region. + + Enable the Allow any business unit to process receipts option. + + Save your work. + + This business unit can now have payments for its transactions processed by any other business unit in the same ledger. + +Enable a Receipt for Cross-Business Unit Processing + +Perform the steps in this procedure to apply an individual receipt to one or more transactions belonging to any business unit in the same ledger. + + Use the Create Receipt page to create a new receipt or the Edit Receipt page to open an unapplied receipt. + + In the Application tabbed section, click the Add Open Receivables button. + + In the Add Open Receivables window, enable the Include transactions from all business units option. + + Search for and select the transactions that you want to apply to the receipt. You can select transactions from any business unit in the same ledger. + + Click the Add button and then the Done button. + + If necessary, update the figure in the Applied Amount field for each applicable transaction. + + Click the Save button to apply the receipt to the selected transactions. + + +Rules of the Application Rule Set + +When you apply a receipt or credit memo to a transaction, the application rule set determines how Receivables reduces the open balance of the line, tax, freight, and late charge amounts on a transaction. + +Receivables uses the application rule set assigned to the transaction type to process payment applications. If no application rule set is assigned to the transaction type, then the application rule set assigned to Receivables system options is used. + +You can arrange the order of the line types and application rules in an application rule set according to your needs. Each line type must appear in an application rule set, and appear only once. The Overapplication rule is always last in the sequence. +Line First - Tax After Rule + +The Line First - Tax After rule first applies the payment to open line amounts, and then applies the remaining amount to the associated tax. + +If the payment is greater than the sum of the open line and tax amounts, Receivables attempts to close each remaining open item by applying the remaining amount in the following order, stopping when the payment has been fully applied: + + Freight + + Late charges + +After the payment is fully applied, if a receipt amount remains, this amount is managed by the Overapplication rule. +Line and Tax Prorate + +The Line and Tax Prorate rule applies a proportionate amount of the payment to open line and tax amounts for each line. + +If the payment is greater than the sum of the open line and tax amounts, Receivables attempts to close each remaining open item by applying the remaining amount in the following order, stopping when the payment has been fully applied: + + Freight + + Late charges + +After the payment is fully applied, if a receipt amount remains, this amount is managed by the Overapplication rule. +Prorate All + +The Prorate All rule applies a proportionate amount of the payment to each open amount associated with a debit item (any line, tax, freight, and late charge amounts for this item). + +Receivables uses the following formula to determine the applied amount: + +Applied Amount = open application line type amount / sum of application line types in rule details * Receipt Amount + +After the payment is fully applied, if a receipt amount remains, this amount is managed by the Overapplication rule. +Overapplication Rule + +The Overapplication rule is always the last rule in an application rule set. This rule manages any remaining receipt amount after the open balance of all transaction lines has been reduced to zero. + +If the transaction type for the debit item allows overapplication, Receivables applies the remaining amount to transaction lines, making the balance due negative. If the transaction type for the debit item doesn't allow overapplication, you can either place the remaining amount on-account or leave it unapplied. + +Examples of Using Application Rules + +These examples show how each application rule in an application rule set applies a payment to a transaction. + +Invoice 123 contains these details: + +Field + + +Value + +Line + + +$1000 + +Tax + + +$140 + +Freight + + +$200 + +Total + + +$1340 + +Your customer remits a partial payment of $1040 for this invoice. This table shows how Receivables applies the payment using each of the three application rules: + +Application Rule + + +Total Amount Applied + + +Line Amount Applied + + +Tax Amount Applied + + +Freight Amount Applied + +Line First - Tax After + + +1040 + + +1000 + + +40 + + +0 + +Line and Tax Prorate + + +1040 + + +912.28 + + +127.72 + + +0 + +Prorate All + + +1040 + + +776.12 + + +108.66 + + +155.22 + +This table shows the calculations used by each application rule: + +Application Rule + + +Calculations + +Line First - Tax After + + + Apply payment to open line amount. + + Apply any remaining amount to tax. + +Line and Tax Prorate + + + (1040/1140) * 1000 = 912.28 (Receipt Amount / Total Line and Tax) * Line Amount = Line Amount Applied + + (1040/1140) * 140 = 127.72 (Receipt Amount / Total Line and Tax) * Open Tax Amount = Tax Amount Applied + +Prorate All + + + (1040/1340) x 1000 = 776.12 (Receipt Amount / Invoice Total) * Open Line Amount = Line Amount Applied + + (1040/1340) x 140 = 108.66 (Receipt Amount / Invoice Total) * Open Tax Amount = Tax Amount Applied + + (1040/1340) x 200 = 155.22 (Receipt Amount / Invoice Total) x Open Freight Amount = Freight Amount Applied + +Line First - Tax After + +The Line First - Tax After rule first applies the payment to the line amount, reducing the balance due to zero. Receivables then applies the remaining amount ($40) to the tax charges, reducing the open tax amount to $100. Since the payment isn't enough to close these items, the freight balance isn't affected. + +This table compares each line type before and after you apply an amount using the Line First - Tax After rule: + +Transaction Amount + + +Remaining Amount + + +Line Items + + +Line Items Remaining + + +Tax + + +Tax Remaining + + +Freight + + +Freight Remaining + +$1340 + + +$300 + + +$1000 + + +$0 + + +$140 + + +$100 + + +$200 + + +$200 +Line and Tax Prorate + +The Line and Tax Prorate rule applies a proportionate amount to the open line and tax charges. Since the amount applied isn't enough to close these items, the freight balance isn't affected. + +This table compares each line type before and after you apply an amount using the Line and Tax Prorate rule: + +Transaction Amount + + +Remaining Amount + + +Line Items + + +Line Items Remaining + + +Tax + + +Tax Remaining + + +Freight + + +Freight Remaining + +$1340 + + +$300 + + +$1000 + + +$87.72 + + +$140 + + +$12.28 + + +$200 + + +$200 + +This table shows the calculations used to arrive at the proportionate amounts: + +Item + + +Calculations + +Line Items + + +1000 - 912.28 = 87.72 + +Amount Line Items - Line Amount Applied = Open Line Amount + +Tax + + +140 - 127.72 = 12.28 + +Tax Original - Tax Amount Applied = Open Tax Amount +Prorate All + +The Prorate All rule applies a proportionate amount of the receipt to the line, tax, and freight for this transaction. + +This table compares each line type before and after you apply an amount using the Prorate All rule: + +Transaction Amount + + +Remaining Amount + + +Line Items + + +Line Items Remaining + + +Tax + + +Tax Remaining + + +Freight + + +Freight Remaining + +$1340 + + +$300 + + +$1000 + + +$223.88 + + +$140 + + +$31.34 + + +$200 + + +$44.78 + +This table shows the calculations used to arrive at the proportionate amounts: + +Item + + +Calculations + +Line Items + + +1000 - 776.12 = 223.88 + +Amount Line Items - Line Amount Applied = Open Line Amount + +Tax + + +140 - 108.66 = 31.34 + +Tax Original - Tax Amount Applied = Open Tax Amount + +Freight + + +200 - 155.22 = 44.78 + +Freight Original - Freight Amount Applied = Open Freight Amount + +Remittance Methods and Clearance Methods + +Define a remittance method and clearance method for each receipt class. These settings determine the remittance and clearing behavior for receipts with a given receipt class. +Remittance Methods + +Use the remittance method to determine the accounts to use for receipts that you create using the receipt method assigned to this receipt class. + +Standard + +Use the remittance account for automatic receipts assigned to a receipt method with this receipt class. + +Factoring + +Use the factoring account for automatic receipts assigned to a receipt method with this receipt class. + +Standard and Factoring + +Receivables selects receipts assigned to this receipt class for remittance regardless of the batch remittance method. In this case, you can specify either of these remittance methods when creating your remittance batches. + +No Remittance + +For Manual receipts only. Remittance isnt required for manual receipts assigned to this receipt class. +Clearance Methods + +Use the clearance method to require receipts created using a receipt method assigned to this receipt class to be reconciled before posting them to the general ledger cash account. + +Directly + +This method is for receipts that you don't expect to be remitted to the bank and subsequently cleared. + +Its assumed that these receipts are cleared at the time of receipt entry and require no further processing. + +By Automatic Clearing + +Use this method to clear receipts using the Clear Receipts Automatically program. + +Guidelines for Defining Automatic Receipt Methods + +Define the attributes of an automatic receipt method to determine how automatic receipts are processed against selected transactions. + +Review these guidelines when defining the attributes of automatic receipt methods: + + Receipts Inherit Transaction Numbers + + ISO Direct Debit + + Number of Receipts Rule + + Receipt Maturity Date Rule + + Automatic Print Template + + Lead Days + + Customer Payment Method + +Receipts Inherit Transaction Numbers + +If you're using One per Invoice as the Number of Receipts Rule, you can enable the Receipts inherit transaction numbers option to ensure that the automatic receipt number is always the same as the transaction number that the receipt is applied to. Enabling this option helps track automatic receipts. +Note + +Don't enable this option if you're using document sequencing with automatic receipts. +ISO Direct Debit + +Enable the ISO direct debit option to create automatic receipts that automatically debit a customer bank account according to the standards of ISO 20022 direct debit. + +Enabling this option assumes that you have created a debit authorization agreement with your customers for ISO 20022 direct debit. +Number of Receipts Rule + +The Number of Receipts Rule determines the way in which the automatic receipt process creates and applies receipts against transactions. +Note + +If you enable the ISO direct debit option, the Number of Receipts Rule is disabled. ISO 20022 direct debit creates one receipt for the prearranged debit amount from your customer and transfers this amount to the remittance bank account defined in the automatic receipt method. + +Select one of these rules: + + One per Customer: Create one receipt for each customer. + + One per Customer Due Date: Create one receipt for each customer and due date. This option creates several payments for a customer if the invoices of the customer have several due dates. + + One per Invoice: Create one receipt for each invoice. + + One per Site: Create one receipt for each customer site. + + One per Site Due Date: Create one receipt for each customer site and due date. + +Note + +The Number of Receipts Rule assumes an additional grouping by payment instrument. For example, if you use the One per Customer rule, and two invoices belonging to the same customer are to be paid from different bank accounts, the automatic receipt process creates two receipts, one for each bank account number. +Receipt Maturity Date Rule + +Use the Receipt Maturity Date Rule to pay invoices that have different due dates with a single receipt. + +Select Earliest to use the earliest due date of all of the invoices that the receipt covers as the receipt maturity date. Select Latest to use the latest due date of all of the invoices that the receipt covers as the receipt maturity date. + +When you remit a receipt, Receivables uses the maturity date to determine when to transfer funds from the customer bank account to your remittance bank account. +Automatic Print Template + +Enter the automatic print template to use for transmissions using this receipt method. + +Receivables provides one standard receipt print template to format the output of payment selection and creation programs when you create the receipt document. To use a different receipt print template, you must copy and modify this standard receipt print template. +Lead Days + +The number of lead days is the number of days before the invoice due date that an invoice can be selected for application by the automatic receipt process using this receipt method. + +This option is useful, for example, when customer approval is required. You can set the value to the number of days normally required to receive customer approval. +Customer Payment Method + +Select the funds capture payment method that the customer will use to remit payment for automatic receipts using this receipt method. +Note + +If you enable the ISO direct debit option, Bank Account Transfer is the only payment method available. + +Oracle Payments provides predefined funds capture payment methods, but you can define your own. + +Remittance Bank Accounts on Receipt Methods + +Define remittance bank account information for each receipt method assigned to a receipt class. Remittance bank account information includes the general ledger accounts to use when you enter or apply receipts. +Remittance Bank Accounts and Receipt Currencies + +If you remit receipts in one currency only, you can enter more than one remittance bank account for a receipt method, but you must mark one account as the primary bank account for the receipt method. + +If you remit receipts in more than one currency for a receipt method, then you must enter at least one remittance bank account per currency and mark one account per currency as primary. + +During receipt entry and processing, Receivables uses the primary bank account as the default remittance bank account for the receipt. You can accept this value or enter any other bank account defined for the receipt method in the same currency as the receipt. +Factored Receipts + +If the receipt class of the receipt method allows factoring, you can specify the number of Risk Elimination Days for factored receipts for a given bank account. + +When you factor receipts, Receivables creates a short term debt to account for risk in case of customer default. When you clear or risk eliminate these receipts, the debt is cleared after the receipt maturity date plus the number of risk elimination days that you enter. +Cash Budget Funding with Receipts + +If you intend to fund a cash control budget in Budgetary Control with application amounts from standard receipt applications and miscellaneous receipt creation, you must complete related setups for receipt methods and remittance bank accounts. + +Create and assign a remittance bank account to each receipt method that you will use to process receipts for cash budget funding. You can set up receipt methods for both automatic and manual receipt creation. + +During setup, you must assign the same GL cash account to the remittance bank account belonging to the receipt method used for cash budget funding and to the ledger in Budgetary Control enabled for cash budget funding. + +Complete these steps for your GL accounts: + + In your Budgetary Control setup, enter the GL cash account in the Accounts in Journals Subject to Cash Controls section of the Edit Budgetary Control page for the applicable ledger. + In the related remittance bank account, enter the same GL cash account in the Cash field in the GL Accounts section of the Edit Remittance Bank Account page. + You must only enter the GL cash account in the Cash field. Enter different natural accounts in each of these fields in the GL Accounts section of the same remittance bank account: + Receipt Confirmation + Remittance + Unapplied Receipts + Unidentified Receipts + On-Account Receipts + +You must enter different natural accounts in these fields to prevent overstating the cash control budget with additional budget activity on the cash account. +How Lockbox File Transmissions Are Validated + +The first step in lockbox processing is validating the data imported from your bank file using the lockbox file transmission. + +The lockbox process validates the data that you receive from the bank to ensure that: + + entire file was received. + + no duplicate receipts within a batch. + + customers and transactions are valid. + +Lockbox also validates that all data is compatible with Receivables by ensuring that the columns in the AR_PAYMENTS_INTERFACE_ALL table reference the appropriate values and columns in Receivables. +Settings That Affect Lockbox Validation + +Lockbox checks for duplicate receipts and transactions. + +Duplicate receipts have the same receipt number, amount, currency, and customer account number. Lockbox doesn't allow duplicate receipts within the same receipt source for the same customer. This is the same validation Receivables performs when you manually enter receipts. + +Transaction numbers are only required to be unique within a receipt source. A customer can have duplicate transaction numbers as long as they belong to different receipt sources. However, lockbox can't automatically apply a payment to these transactions. + +If a customer has more than one transaction in the lockbox transmission with the same number, then lockbox can't determine to which transaction to apply the payment. In this case, the receipt is either left as Unapplied (if the customer account number or MICR number is provided) or Unidentified (if the customer account number or MICR number isn't provided). + +You can manually apply the receipt according to the transaction recommendations that Receivables presents according to your implementation. +How a Lockbox Transmission Is Validated + +When you import a bank file, lockbox completes the following validations: + + Transmission Level Validations + + Lockbox Level Validations + + Batch Level Validations + + Receipt Level Validations + + Overflow Level Validations + + Customer Validations + + Currency Validation + +Transmission Level Validations + +Lockbox validates the lockbox transmission to ensure that transmission information corresponds to the transmission format. The following attributes are validated: + + Transmission format contains receipt records. + + Either the lockbox number is part of the transmission format, or you specify the lockbox number when you submit the lockbox. + + Accounting date is in an open accounting period. + + Total transmission record count and amount that you supply must match the actual receipt count and amount as determined by lockbox. If the transmission format includes the transmission header or trailer, lockbox counts all records in this transmission. The validated count includes all receipts and detail records transferred to the interim table. + + Origination number is valid, if provided. + +Lockbox Level Validations + +Lockbox validates the lockbox records to ensure that lockbox information corresponds to the transmission format. The following attributes are validated: + + If the transmission format includes the transmission header or trailer, ensure that the lockbox number is included and is valid. + + Lockbox batch count is correct, if provided. + + Lockbox amount is correct, if provided. + + Lockbox record count is correct, if provided. + + Origination number is valid, if provided. + + No duplicate lockbox numbers. + +Batch Level Validations + +Lockbox validates the batch records to ensure that batch information corresponds to the transmission format. The following attributes are validated: + + Batch name exists on batch records. + + Batch name is unique within the transmission. + + Batch amount is correct. + + Batch record count is correct. + + Lockbox number exists on batch records, if this number is part of the transmission format. + +Receipt Level Validations + +Lockbox validates the receipt records to ensure that receipt information corresponds to the transmission format. The following attributes are validated: + + Remittance amount is specified. + + Check number is specified. + + Item number is specified and is unique within a batch, a lockbox, or the transmission, depending on the transmission format. + + Lockbox number is specified (if this number isn't part of the lockbox header or trailer of the transmission format) and batches aren't imported. + + Batch name is specified, if either batch headers or trailers are part of the transmission format. + + Account number is specified, if transit routing number is part of the transmission format. + + Invoice1-8 are either valid or left blank. + + Installment1-8 are either valid installment numbers or are left blank. + + Invoice, debit memo, credit memo, on-account credit, or chargeback number derived from the matching number doesn't belong to a receipt. + + Transaction number is entered where an application amount is specified. + + Sum of all of the Amount Applied columns for a receipt doesn't exceed the remittance amount. + + Customer account number is valid. + + Customer account number and MICR number both reference the same customer, if both are provided. + + Receipt date is specified. + + Receipt method is valid. + + Currency is valid. + +Overflow Level Validations + +Lockbox validates the overflow records to ensure that overflow information corresponds to the transmission format. The following attributes are validated: + + Batch name is specified, if either batch headers or trailers are part of the transmission format. + + Lockbox number is specified, if either the batch header or trailer isn't specified and the transmission format includes the lockbox number. + + Item number is specified and matches a receipt record. + + Overflow indicator is specified, unless it's the last overflow record. + + Overflow sequence is specified. + + Invoice1-8 are either valid or are left blank. + + Installment1-8 are either valid installment numbers or are left blank. + + Transaction number derived is entered where an application amount is specified. + +Note + +For Receipt and Overflow validations of Invoice1-8: If you're using matching numbers and a receipt record indicates that multiple transactions are to be paid by this receipt, lockbox assumes that all of the transactions are the same document type, such as invoices, sales orders, or purchase orders. + +For example, if the first 2 transactions are invoices, lockbox successfully matches them with this receipt. However, if the next transaction isn't an invoice, lockbox either imports the remaining receipt amount as Unidentified or rejects the entire receipt, depending on the lockbox definition. + +If lockbox imports the remaining receipt amount as Unapplied, then Receivables retains the invalid matching numbers. +Customer Validations + +Lockbox can either validate customer data based on the following attributes or mark the receipt as Unidentified if no match is found: + + Customer account number is valid. + + MICR number is valid. + + Bill-to customer is from a matched invoice, if matching is enabled. + +Currency Validation + +Receivables lets you process receipts in multiple currencies. If you pass the currency, conversion type, and receipt date, lockbox attempts to determine the conversion rate. If lockbox is unable to determine the conversion rate, the receipt will fail validation. +Receipt Application Using the Match Receipts By Rule + +During lockbox and manual receipt processing, Receivables uses the settings of the Match Receipts By rule to identify the document type to use to match receipts to transactions when customer information isn't available. +Document Types for Receipt Matching + +The following six document types are used to match receipts to transactions. During receipt processing, Receivables searches for one of these document types in this order: + + Transaction number + + Sales order number + + Purchase order number + + Balance forward billing number (Lockbox only) + + Shipping reference + + Contract number + +Selection of the Match Receipts By Rule + +When Receivables finds a document type with the same number as the current search to match the receipt with a transaction, the process checks the locations where Match Receipts By rules are enabled in this order: + + Customer bill-to site + + Customer + + Lockbox (for lockbox processing) + + System options + +Receivables looks for a rule that matches the document type of the number in the current search, and stops when a value is found. For example, if Receivables finds a matching transaction number in the first search, it checks the customer site for the Match Receipts By rule. If the rule is set to Transaction, Receivables matches the receipt with this transaction and applies the receipt. + +If the Match Receipts By rule at the customer site is a document type other than Transaction, Receivables searches for a number that matches this document type. + +If there are no values assigned at the customer site or customer level: + + For lockbox processing, Receivables uses either the Match Receipts By rule assigned to the lockbox or, if the Use match criteria to determine customer option is enabled, the entire document type hierarchy. + + For manual receipt processing, Receivables uses the Match Receipts By settings on the Receivables system options record assigned to the business unit. + +If Receivables can't find a match after searching each document type, the process applies the receipt using the AutoCash rule set defined for the customer. + +If the AutoCash rule set is unable to apply the receipt, Receivables assigns the receipt a status of Unapplied. You must then manually apply the receipt. +Examples of Matching Rules + +Here are two examples of using matching rules. + +Example 1: During lockbox processing, a receipt record indicates that a receipt should be applied to open debit item 12345. Receivables first searches for a transaction (invoice, debit memo, chargeback) with this number. Receivables finds an invoice with this number, so the process checks the value of the Match Receipts By parameter at the customer site. The Match Receipts By rule is null for this customer site, so Receivables checks the setting in the customer profile. Match Receipts By is set to Transaction in the customer profile, so Receivables matches and applies the receipt to the invoice. + +Example 2: Using the same receipt record information as Example 1, assume that Receivables fails to find a transaction with the number 12345. The process then searches for a sales order with this number. Receivables can't find a sales order with this number, so it now searches for and finds a purchase order with number 12345. Receivables then checks the Match Receipts By rule at the customer site. The Match Receipts By rule is null for this customer site, so Receivables checks the setting in the customer profile. The rule is also null in the customer profile, so Receivables checks the rule for the lockbox. The Match Receipts By rule is set to Purchase Order Number for this lockbox, so the process matches the receipt with this purchase order and applies the receipt to the transaction. +Lockbox Underpaid Receipt Processing + +You can set up lockbox processing to automatically close transactions and create adjustment entries for underpaid receipts against customer invoices. + +This helps reduce the need for post-processing activities to manually apply receipts and create adjustments. + +The lockbox underpaid receipt processing setup uses a combination of: + + Designated AutoCash tolerance limit. + Match payment with invoice AutoCash rule. + Receipt Application Exception Rule for underpayments. + +During lockbox processing, the underpaid receipt process: + + First looks for a match between an invoice amount and the sum of the underpaid receipt amount and the AutoCash tolerance limit amount. + If these amounts match, lockbox applies the sum of the receipt amount and tolerance limit to the invoice with the lowest amount. + If two or more invoices have the same amount, lockbox applies the receipt to the invoice with the oldest due date. + +Underpaid receipt processing for lockbox applies to: + + One business unit. + One customer site within the business unit. + One currency of the customer site. + Customer transactions assigned a transaction type enabled for Natural Application Only, where adjustments bring the balance due to zero. + +To set up lockbox underpaid receipt processing, complete these steps: + + Create an AutoCash Rule Set enabled for application tolerance. + Create a Receipt Application Exception Rule for underpayments. + Update Receivables System Options for the applicable business unit. + Update the applicable customer site profile with the currency tolerance amount and adjustment reason. + +Create AutoCash Rule Set + +To create an AutoCash Rule Set for underpaid receipt processing: + + Navigate to the Manage AutoCash Rule Sets page. + Click the Plus (+) icon to open the Create AutoCash Rule Set page. + In the Name field, enter the name for this AutoCash rule set. + In the Description field, enter an optional description. + In the Set field, select the reference data set you want. + In the Discount field of the Open Balance Calculations section, select None. + + This exposes the Include application tolerance amount option. + Enable the Include application tolerance amount option. + In the Rule Remaining Remittance Amount field of the Automatic Matching Rule section, select Unapplied. + In the Rules section, click the Plus (+) icon to open a new row. + In the Sequence field, enter 10. + In the Rule field, select Match payment with invoice. + Save your work. + +Create Receipt Application Exception Rule + +To create a Receipt Application Exception Rule for underpaid receipt processing: + + Navigate to the Manage Receipt Application Exception Rules page. + Click the Plus (+) icon to open the Create Receipt Application Exception Rules page. + In the Set field, select the same reference data set you selected for the AutoCash rule set. + In the Name field, enter the name for this Receipt Application Exception rule. + In the Description field, enter an optional description. + In the Exception Rules section, click the Plus (+) icon to open a new row. + In the Condition field, select Underpayment less than. + In the Amount field, enter 100. + In the Percentage field, enter 100. + In the Action field, select Adjustment. + Save your work. + +Update Receivables System Options + +To update Receivables System Options for underpaid receipt processing: + + Navigate to the Manage Receivables System Options page. + Search for and select the business unit you want to open the Edit System Options page. + Navigate to the Billing and Revenue tab. + In the Exception Rule Adjustment Activity field, select the Adjustments Receivables activity. + In the Exception Rule Adjustment Reason field, select Charges. + Navigate to the Cash Processing tab. + In the AutoCash Rule Set field, select the AutoCash rule set you created for automatic adjustments. + In the Application Exception Rule Set field, select the receipt application exception rule you created for underpayments. + In the AutoCash Tolerance Amount field, enter 100 (the same amount you entered in the Amount field of the Receipt Application Exception rule). + Save your work. + +Update the Customer Site Profile + +To update a customer site profile for underpaid receipt processing: + + Navigate to the Manage Customers page. + Search for and select the customer you want. + Open the customer site you want in the Edit Site page. + Click the Profile History tab. + In the Site Profile tab of the Edit Site Profile page, navigate to the Receipt Matching section. + In the AutoCash Rule Set field, select the AutoCash rule you created and entered in Receivables System Options. + In the Application Exception Rule Set field, select the receipt application exception rule you created and entered in Receivables System Options. + Navigate to the Invoicing section. + In the Exception Rule Adjustment Reason field, select Charges. + Click the Credit Limits and Late Charge tab. + Navigate to the Currency Settings section. + In the Currency row you want, enter 100 in the AutoCash Tolerance Amount field. + Save your work. + + + diff --git a/Books/Accounting/PayoffBalance.txt b/Books/Accounting/PayoffBalance.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7a1becb --- /dev/null +++ b/Books/Accounting/PayoffBalance.txt @@ -0,0 +1,151 @@ +PayoffBalance Module – RAG Knowledge Base + +Chunk 1: Module Overview +Metadata: module=PayoffBalance, type=overview, location=CMH.HFA.Accounting.Orchestration/src/PayoffBalance, count=2, purpose=payoffCalculation, pattern=LambdaOrchestration +Purpose: Lambda-based orchestration for calculating real-time insurance policy payoff balances +Scope: Single Lambda function coordinating multiple downstream Lambda invocations to aggregate customer and invoice data +Integration Points: Invokes customer retrieval Lambda, invokes invoice retrieval Lambda, returns calculated payoff balance to caller +Key Concepts: policy payoff calculation, Lambda-to-Lambda invocation, installment balance aggregation, synchronous orchestration, balance reconciliation + +Chunk 2: PayoffBalanceLambda Function +Metadata: component=PayoffBalanceLambda, type=Lambda, operation=GetPayoffBalance, deployment=serverless, invocationType=synchronous +Description: Orchestrator Lambda function calculating exact policy payoff by aggregating invoice balance and open installment adjustments +Input: PayoffBalanceRequest containing PolicyNumber (required), AccountSourceReference (optional) +Output: Decimal representing payoff balance, or -1 for customer/invoice not found +Lambda Configuration: 256 MB memory, 30-second timeout, basic execution role +Orchestration Pattern: Sequential Lambda invocations (customer retrieval → invoice retrieval → local calculation) + +Chunk 3: Payoff Balance Calculation Formula +Metadata: operation=CalculatePayoff, formula=balanceMinusAdjustments, precision=decimal +Formula: Payoff Balance = Invoice Balance Amount - Sum(Open Installment Adjusted Amounts) +Components: + +Invoice Balance Amount: Total outstanding (InvoiceBalanceAmountDecimal) +Open Installment Adjusted Amounts: Sum of AmountAdjusted for installments with InstallmentStatus="Open" +Example: $1200 - $200 - $150 = $850 +Purpose: Accounts for partial payments or credits, provides exact full-settlement amount + +Chunk 4: Customer Retrieval Step +Metadata: operation=GetCustomerAsync, invocationType=RequestResponse, environmentVariable=GET_CUSTOMER_FUNCTION_NAME, returnType=OracleCustomer +Process: Invokes Lambda to retrieve Oracle customer data +Input Payload: Serialized PayoffBalanceRequest JSON +Response Handling: Deserializes CustomerWrapper → extracts first account number → returns null if no customer or accounts +Error Scenarios: Returns null → -1 payoff balance + +Chunk 5: Invoice Retrieval Step +Metadata: operation=GetInvoiceAsync, invocationType=RequestResponse, environmentVariable=GET_INVOICE_FUNCTION_NAME, returnType=OracleInvoiceWithInstallments +Process: Invokes Lambda to retrieve invoice with installment details +Input Payload: JSON containing PolicyNumber and AccountNumber +Response Handling: Deserializes OracleInvoiceWithInstallments, logs errors, returns null if function fails +Error Detection: Checks FunctionError property, logs errors, continues processing → returns null → -1 payoff + +Chunk 6: PayoffBalanceRequest Model +Metadata: model=PayoffBalanceRequest, type=inputDTO, requiredFields=1 +Properties: + +AccountSourceReference: Optional +PolicyNumber: Required +Usage: Lambda input parameter, serialized for downstream Lambda invocations +Validation: PolicyNumber validated in Lambda logic +Purpose: Minimal input to initiate payoff workflow + +Chunk 7: CustomerWrapper Model +Metadata: model=CustomerWrapper, type=responseDTO, purpose=deserialization +Structure: Single property Customer of type OracleCustomer +Purpose: Wraps OracleCustomer for deserialization, temporary wrapper for account number extraction + +Chunk 8: OracleInvoiceWithInstallments Model +Metadata: model=OracleInvoiceWithInstallments, type=composite, includesInstallments=true +Structure: Invoice header data (InvoiceBalanceAmountDecimal, etc.) + Installments array +Installment Properties: InstallmentStatus (Open/Paid/Cancelled), AmountAdjusted (string → parsed via ParsedAmountAdjusted extension) +Filtering: Only InstallmentStatus="Open" included in payoff calculation + +Chunk 9: Not Found Handling +Metadata: errorHandling=notFound, returnValue=-1, semantic=specialIndicator +Not Found Scenarios: Customer null, Customer has no accounts, Invoice retrieval null +Return Value: -1 decimal indicates not found +Pattern: Sentinel value instead of exception +Use Case: Invalid policy, account not created, policy exists but no invoice + +Chunk 10: Environment Variable Configuration +Metadata: configuration=environmentVariables, required=2, validation=startup +Variables: + +GET_CUSTOMER_FUNCTION_NAME: Lambda name/ARN for customer retrieval +GET_INVOICE_FUNCTION_NAME: Lambda name/ARN for invoice retrieval +Validation: Throws InvalidOperationException if null/empty +Purpose: Environment-specific Lambda routing without hardcoding + +Chunk 11: Lambda Invocation Pattern +Metadata: pattern=synchronousInvocation, sdk=AmazonLambdaClient, invocationType=RequestResponse +Client Creation: AmazonLambdaClient within using statement +Invocation Type: RequestResponse synchronous +Payload Handling: JSON serialization/deserialization +Error Detection: Checks FunctionError, checks null Payload +Use Case: Sequential dependency (invoice requires account number from customer) + +Chunk 12: Installment Status Filtering +Metadata: filtering=installmentStatus, statusValue=Open, caseSensitivity=exact +Filter: InstallmentStatus == "Open" (case-sensitive) +Purpose: Exclude Paid/Cancelled installments +Aggregation: Sum filtered using ParsedAmountAdjusted() + +Chunk 13: Amount Parsing Extension +Metadata: extension=ParsedAmountAdjusted, sourceType=string, targetType=decimal +Purpose: Convert AmountAdjusted string → decimal +Usage: Called on each open installment +Null Handling: Null collection → 0m +Error Handling: Assumes valid numeric strings + +Chunk 14: Use Cases and Workflows +Metadata: type=useCases, consumers=multiple, timing=realTime +Use Cases: + +Policy cancellation → refund/owed amount +Lender payoff quote → real-time settlement +Customer inquiry → balance inquiry +Refinancing → exact payoff to clear debt +Account settlement → prevent over/underpayment + +Chunk 15: Architectural Characteristics +Metadata: architecture=microservices, coupling=loose, scalability=horizontal, statefulness=stateless +Microservices: Customer retrieval, invoice retrieval, payoff calculation separated +Benefits: Independent scaling, reusable Lambdas, isolated failure domains, separation of concerns +Trade-offs: Multiple cold starts, increased latency, higher cost, distributed failure points +Statefulness: Stateless, no caching + +Chunk 16: Error Propagation Strategy +Metadata: errorHandling=gracefulDegradation, exceptionStrategy=minimal +Function Error Logging: Logs downstream errors, does not throw +Null Propagation: Null responses → -1 result +Environment Validation: Only throws exceptions +Rationale: Caller distinguishes not found vs other errors, enables graceful orchestration + +Chunk 17: Performance Considerations +Metadata: performance=latency, coldStarts=3possible, invocationCount=3 +Latency Sources: Cold start of PayoffBalance Lambda, customer Lambda, invoice Lambda, serial invocation, network round trips +Optimization: Parallel invocations, caching, direct DB/Oracle queries +Current Approach: Simplicity and reusability over performance; suitable for infrequent payoff queries + +Chunk 18: Search Queries Supported +Metadata: type=queryPatterns, purpose=RAGRetrieval +Sample Queries: + +"How do I calculate insurance policy payoff balance?" +"What Lambda calculates policy payoff amounts?" +"How are open installments factored into payoff?" +"What does -1 payoff balance mean?" +"How do I invoke customer retrieval from Lambda?" +"What environment variables are needed?" +"What is the formula for payoff balance?" +"How are invoice balance and installment adjustments combined?" +"What happens when customer is not found?" +"How does Lambda-to-Lambda invocation work?" +"Return type for policy/customer not found?" +"How are installment adjusted amounts parsed?" +"Use cases requiring real-time payoff calculation?" +"How does workflow handle downstream Lambda errors?" +"Difference between invoice balance and payoff balance?" +"How are open vs paid installments filtered?" +"Configuration required for payoff Lambda?" +"How does synchronous Lambda invocation work?" \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/Books/Accounting/Policy.txt b/Books/Accounting/Policy.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..26d5bda --- /dev/null +++ b/Books/Accounting/Policy.txt @@ -0,0 +1,193 @@ +Policy Module – RAG Knowledge Base + +Chunk 1: Module Overview +Metadata: module=Policy, type=overview, location=CMH.HFA.Accounting.Orchestration/src/Policy, domain=policyAccounting, scope=fullLifecycle +Purpose: Comprehensive Lambda functions and services for insurance policy lifecycle events and accounting transactions +Functional Domains: Policy issuance/renewals, monetary/non-monetary endorsements, policy cancellations, refunds, commissions, invoice adjustments, licensing management +Integration Points: Oracle Fusion AR (invoice/credit memo posting), Oracle OIC (memo line lookups), customer management, commission tracking, AWS Step Functions +Key Concepts: invoice generation, credit memo creation, commission allocation, endorsement adjustments, refund distribution, transaction line building, temporal validity, memo line configuration + +Chunk 2: MapOracleInvoice Service +Metadata: component=MapOracleInvoice, type=Lambda, operations=2, pattern=autoMapper, purpose=invoiceCreation +Description: Orchestrates transformation of policy events into Oracle AR invoice structures +Operations: + +Map: Processes PolicyIssuedEvent for new invoices +MapRenewed: Processes PolicyRenewedEvent for renewal invoices +Processing Flow: Receives policy event + customer data, applies AutoMapper, determines transaction type (internal/external), invokes commission service, builds transaction lines using memo line lookups +Transaction Type Logic: Maps Internal vs External based on BillingType, ProductType, lender status + +Chunk 3: Invoice Commission Processing +Metadata: component=InvoiceCommission, interface=IInvoiceCommission, pattern=multiStage, purpose=commissionCalculation +Description: Multi-stage pipeline to calculate commission-related transaction lines +Stages: + +Pre-invoice line creation → maps premium and sales tax +Commission line generation → Retail vs HFA +Memo line retrieval → GL accounts via Oracle OIC +Transaction line finalization → GL accounts, amounts, commission metadata +Sorting → by type (premium, commission, fees) via TransactionLineComparer +Licensing Integration: Differentiates licensed/unlicensed home centers for commission routing + +Chunk 4: Policy Cancellation Processing +Metadata: component=PolicyCancelService, operation=MapEventPayload, output=CreditMemo, purpose=cancellationAccounting +Description: Generates credit memos for policy cancellations with coverage-based refund calculations +Input: InsurancePolicyCancelledEventPayload (coverage blocks, unearned premium, sales tax refund, cancellation reason, billing type, other interests) +Credit Memo Generation: Negates original invoice amounts, maps cancellation reason to Oracle credit reason codes, determines internal/external transaction type, links to original invoice +Cancellation Reason Mapping: CustomerRequest, Flat, NonPayment, Repossession, ReplacementPolicy, Underwriting, HomeSold → "HFA-{Reason}" codes +Coverage Block Processing: Allocates premiums to corresponding GL accounts for accurate refunds + +Chunk 5: Refund Adjustment Service +Metadata: component=RefundAdjustmentService, operation=GetCancellationRefundAdjustment, output=Adjustment, recipients=3 +Description: Creates AR adjustment records for cancellation refunds +Recipient Types: + +Retail → "HFA Retail I/C Refund" +VMF → "HFA VMF I/C Refund" +Customer → "HFA Auto Customer Refund" +Adjustment Configuration: Sets ReceivableTrxId, OrgId, SetOfBooksId +Comment Generation: Auto-generates descriptive comments +Validation: Throws exception if refund amount zero or credit memo missing + +Chunk 6: Endorsement Adjustment Service +Metadata: component=EndorsementAdjustmentService, operation=MapEndorsementAdjustments, distribution=installmentBased, purpose=balanceSpread +Description: Allocates endorsement balance changes across invoice installments proportionally +Distribution Logic: + +Single installment → full amount, rounding applied +Multiple installments → divided equally, final rounding adjustment +Zero balance → empty adjustment list +Adjustment Structure: Adjustment records with CustomerTrxId, PaymentScheduleId, ReceivablesTrxId, AdjustmentType="M", Amount, ApplyDate, CurrencyCode, OrgId, SetOfBooksId +Use Case: Monetary endorsements requiring proper AR aging + +Chunk 7: Non-Monetary Endorsement Processing +Metadata: component=ProcessNonMonetaryEndorsementCustomerLambda, type=Lambda, purpose=customerUpdates, changes=demographic +Description: Updates customer data without affecting premium/fees +Supported Updates: + +Name: first, middle, last, suffix +Address: street1-3, city, stateCode, zip.base/ext, country +Processing Pattern: Iterates NonMonetaryUpdate objects, applies property path to Oracle customer, targets MAILING site +Output: Modified OracleCustomer for downstream synchronization + +Chunk 8: Invoice Filtering and Selection +Metadata: components=2, purpose=invoiceQuery, operations=filterAndSelect + +FilterOpenInvoicesLambda: Filters invoices with balance >0, orders by TransactionDate descending +SelectValidInvoiceLambda: Selects most recent invoice matching valid transaction type whitelist (HFA internal/external, plan/type change, conversion), open balance >0 +Valid Transaction Types: HfaInvoiceInternal, HfaInvoiceExternal, HfaInvPlanChgInt/Ext, HfaInvTypeChgInt/Ext, HfaInternConv, HfaExternConv +Use Cases: Endorsement workflows, billing change workflows + +Chunk 9: Policy Number Management +Metadata: component=DecrementPolicyNumberLambda, type=Lambda, operation=numberManipulation, pattern=wrapping +Description: Decrements numeric suffix of policy numbers with wraparound logic +Algorithm: Last 2 characters numeric → decrement modulo 100, maintains prefix, zero-padded 2-digit suffix +Validation: Policy number min 2 chars, last 2 chars parse as int +Example: "POL-12345-03" → "POL-12345-02"; "POL-12345-00" → "POL-12345-99" +Use Case: Policy versioning/renewal numbering + +Chunk 10: Policy Licensing Management +Metadata: component=PolicyLicensingLambda, operations=2, purpose=licensingInfo, determination=dealerBased +Operations: + +MapIssuedLicensingInfo: Extracts licensing from issuance event +MapRenewedLicensingInfo: Extracts licensing from renewal event + previous invoice +LicenseInfo: IsHomeCenterLicensed, MasterDealerNumber, HomeCenterId, StateCode +Dealer Logic: Producer=ClaytonRetail AND Product≠ESC → MasterDealerNumber=29; else 0 +Purpose: Influences commission calculations and transaction routing + +Chunk 11: Cancellation Subfolder Components +Metadata: subfolder=Cancellations, components=4, purpose=cancellationWorkflow + +MapCancellation Lambda: Orchestrates credit memo creation +MapCancellationRefund Lambda: Refund-specific logic +PolicyCancelRefundAdjustmentDto: DTO with credit memo references, refund amounts, recipients +InsurancePolicyCancelledEventPayload: Event model with policy/account identifiers, cancellation reasons, dates, other interests, billing type, coverage blocks, unearned premium, sales tax refund + +Chunk 12: Event Domain Models +Metadata: subfolder=Events, type=payloadModels, count=10+, compliance=PII + +PolicyIssuedEventV2Payload: New policy event with account, policy, product, premium, coverage, billing, producer info +InsurancePolicyRenewedEventPayload: Extends issuance payload, adds AgencyFirstWrittenDate +CommissionDisbursementCreditedPayload: Commission payment events +PolicyEventBase: Base class for policy events +PII Compliance: Uses attributes on sensitive fields + +Chunk 13: Transaction Type Determination +Metadata: concept=transactionTypeMapping, factors=BillingType+OtherInterests, values=Internal/External +Internal: BillingType="OtherInterest" AND OtherInterests contains InternalLender=true +External: All other cases +Transaction Codes: HfaInvoiceInternal/External for invoices; Credit Memos vary by operation with Int/Ext suffix + +Chunk 14: Memo Line Integration Pattern +Metadata: integration=MemoLineLookup, purpose=GLMapping, timing=temporal +Lookup Pattern: IMemoLookup.GetMemoLookupAsync using invoice creation date +Filtering: By Action, Type, ProductType, Organization, State, Commission Percent +GL Assignment: MemoLine.Description → TransactionLine.MemoLine; distribution % → amount +Temporal Guarantee: Historical accuracy, unaffected by configuration changes + +Chunk 15: Transaction Line Sorting +Metadata: component=TransactionLineComparer, type=comparator, purpose=lineOrdering +Sort Order: + +Premium Lines (Assurant Payable first) +Commission Lines +Fee Lines +Other Lines (original order) +Post-Sort: Renumber LineNumber sequentially +Purpose: Consistent invoice presentation, supports downstream processing + +Chunk 16: DTO Folder Components +Metadata: subfolder=Dto, type=dataTransferObjects, count=6+, purpose=lambdaInputs + +MapEndorsementAdjustmentsDto: Installments, OpenBalance, AdjustmentConfiguration +PolicyRenewedInvoiceMaptDto: PolicyRenewedEvent, Customer, LicenseInfo, PreviousInvoice +RenewedGetLicensingDto: PolicyRenewedEvent, PreviousInvoice +NonMonetaryEndorsementUpdateDto: OldCustomer, Updates collection +PolicyCancelRefundAdjustmentDto: Refund-specific data +Pattern: DTOs implement deconstruction methods for tuple unpacking + +Chunk 17: Coverage Block Processing +Metadata: concept=coverageBlocks, purpose=premiumAllocation, granularity=perCoverage +Structure: CoverageBlock → Code, Coverage, Premium +Usage: Cancellations → pro-rated unearned premium; endorsements → coverage-specific adjustments; invoice generation → allocates premiums per coverage +GL Distribution: Different coverage types route to GL accounts via memo line config + +Chunk 18: Commission Metadata Enrichment +Metadata: operation=commissionEnrichment, fields=7, differentiation=RetailVsHFA +Common Fields: BusinessGroup, NewOrRenewal, CommissionPercent, AgencyFirstWrittenDate +Retail: CommissionOrganization="Clayton Retail", Producer, SubProducer, CommissionReference +HFA: CommissionOrganization="HFA", Producer, SubProducer=empty, CommissionReference=empty +Detection: MemoLine.Description contains "Retail Commission" or "HFA Commission" +Renewal: Copies AgencyFirstWrittenDate + +Chunk 19: State and Jurisdiction Handling +Metadata: concept=stateCodeProcessing, normalization=descriptionConversion, usage=memoLineFiltering +State Sources: PhysicalStateCode → string description via ToDescription() +Memo Line Filtering: State description used in GetMatchingLines +Address Normalization: State codes → descriptions +Tax Implications: State drives sales tax/refund in cancellations + +Chunk 20: Search Queries Supported +Metadata: type=queryPatterns, purpose=RAGRetrieval +Sample Queries: + +"How are policy issuance invoices created in Oracle?" +"What is the commission calculation process?" +"How do cancellations generate credit memos?" +"What adjustment types are supported for refunds?" +"How are endorsement balance changes distributed?" +"How do non-monetary endorsements update customers?" +"Transaction types for internal vs external billing?" +"How are coverage blocks used in premium calculations?" +"Memo line filtering criteria for invoices?" +"How does licensing service determine dealer numbers?" +"Transaction line sorting order on invoices?" +"How are policy renewal invoices different from issuance?" +"Cancellation reasons mapping?" +"How do refunds distribute to Retail, VMF, or customers?" +"Validation on invoice selection?" +"How does temporal memo line lookup work?" +"Which fields are updateable via non-monetary endorsements?" +"Commission organization determination (Retail vs HFA)?" +"How does system handle internal lenders for transaction typing?" \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/Books/Accounting/Quote.txt b/Books/Accounting/Quote.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ae39165 --- /dev/null +++ b/Books/Accounting/Quote.txt @@ -0,0 +1,121 @@ +Quote Module – RAG Knowledge Base + +Chunk 1: Module Overview +Metadata: module=Quote, type=overview, location=CMH.HFA.Accounting.Orchestration/src/Quote, count=1, purpose=customerPreprocessing +Purpose: Preprocessing layer transforming insurance quote events into Oracle customer master data structures +Scope: Single Lambda function handling quote-to-customer conversion in the quote offering workflow +Integration Points: Receives InsuranceQuoteOfferedEventPayload, produces OracleCustomer for Oracle Fusion, enables customer record initialization before policy issuance +Key Concepts: quote preprocessing, customer data transformation, Oracle customer creation, account establishment, site configuration, bill-to designation + +Chunk 2: PreprocessQuoteOfferedLambda Function +Metadata: component=PreprocessQuoteOfferedLambda, type=Lambda, pattern=dataTransformation, deployment=serverless +Description: Converts insurance quote event data into Oracle Fusion customer account structures +Input: InsuranceQuoteOfferedEventPayload (demographics, address, account identifiers) +Output: OracleCustomer object with complete account, site, and bill-to setup for Oracle integration +Lambda Configuration: 256 MB memory, 30-second timeout, basic execution role policies +Processing Pattern: Stateless, synchronous transformation, no external service calls + +Chunk 3: Customer Demographic Mapping +Metadata: operation=customerMapping, source=quotePayload, target=OracleCustomer, fields=name +Extracted Fields: First, Last, Middle names, Name suffix +Customer Properties: SourceSystem="HFA" +Mapping Logic: Direct property-to-property assignment, handles optional middle name/suffix +Purpose: Establishes customer identity for Oracle customer master + +Chunk 4: Account Identifier Extraction +Metadata: operation=accountIdentifierMapping, identifierTypes=2, primaryKey=AccountID +Identifier Types: + +AccountID → AccountSourceReference (primary account ID) +iSeriesAccountKey → AccountDescription prefixed with "HFA_" for legacy correlation +Extraction Method: Finds identifiers by Type property, non-null assertion +Account Source: "HFA" (Home First Agency) +Purpose: Links Oracle account to source system for reference and synchronization + +Chunk 5: Account Configuration +Metadata: entity=Account, properties=7, status=active, lifecycle=openEnded +Account Properties: + +AccountSourceReference → from AccountID +AccountSource="HFA" +AccountDescription="HFA_{iSeriesAccountKey}" +CustomerClass="HFA Customer" +AccountStatus="A" +AccountEstablishedDate=current date +AccountTerminationDate=4712-12-31 (open-ended) +Purpose: Creates foundational account record for sites, payment terms, transaction history + +Chunk 6: Site Record Configuration +Metadata: entity=Site, siteName=MAILING, purpose=addressRepository, status=active +Site Properties: + +SiteName="MAILING" +AddressLine1/2, City, State (converted via ToDescription()), PostalCode, Country="US" +SiteStatus="A", AccountAddressSet="CHI_HFA_SET" +Date Ranges: SiteFromDate=current date, SiteToDate=4712-12-31 +Purpose: Stores physical location for correspondence and compliance + +Chunk 7: Bill-To Site Use Configuration +Metadata: entity=SiteUse, purpose=BILL_TO, primaryIndicator=true, cardinality=one +Site Use Properties: + +Purpose="BILL_TO", primary indicator=true +SiteUseFromDate=current date, SiteUseToDate=4712-12-31 +Cardinality: Single bill-to site per mailing site +Purpose: Establishes billing destination for invoices, credit memos, payment applications + +Chunk 8: Address Normalization +Metadata: operation=addressMapping, source=quoteAddress, normalization=stateCode, defaultCountry=US +Address Extraction: From InsuranceQuoteOfferedEventPayload.Address +State Handling: Converts StateCode enum → string description using ToDescription() +Zip Code Handling: Uses 5-digit base only +Country Defaulting: US +Purpose: Normalizes addresses for Oracle Fusion integration + +Chunk 9: Temporal Validity Pattern +Metadata: pattern=temporalValidity, startDate=today, endDate=4712-12-31, standard=Oracle +Applied To: Account establishment/termination, Site from/to dates, SiteUse dates +Semantic Meaning: Start date = effective date; End date 4712-12-31 = indefinite validity +Purpose: Enables temporal querying and historical record keeping, indicates active status + +Chunk 10: Quote-to-Policy Workflow Context +Metadata: workflow=quoteToPolicy, stage=preprocessing, timing=quoteOffering +Workflow Position: Initial step before binding decision +Dependencies: Oracle customer must exist before policy issuance; account number needed for invoices; site configuration required for billing +Event Trigger: InsuranceQuoteOfferedEvent +Purpose: Decouples customer creation from policy issuance for workflow efficiency + +Chunk 11: Oracle Integration Points +Metadata: integration=OracleFusion, modules=CustomerMaster, operations=customerCreation +Oracle Modules: Customer Master (HZ_PARTIES, HZ_PARTY_SITES), Accounts Receivable +Data Structures: OracleCustomer, Account, Site, SiteUse matching Oracle REST API +Integration Pattern: Lambda produces Oracle-formatted data; downstream orchestration sends to Oracle OIC +Account Address Set: "CHI_HFA_SET" for HFA customer accounts +Purpose: Ensures compatibility with Oracle Fusion REST APIs + +Chunk 12: Data Quality and Defaults +Metadata: dataQuality=defaulting, requiredFields=validated, optionalFields=graceful +Required Fields: First name, Last name, AccountID, iSeriesAccountKey, primary address components +Optional Fields: Middle name, name suffix, address line 2 +Default Values: Country="US", AccountSource="HFA", SourceSystem="HFA", CustomerClass="HFA Customer", SiteStatus="A", AccountStatus="A" +Validation: Assumes required fields present, non-null assertion operators +Purpose: Applies business rule defaults while maintaining Oracle customer master integrity + +Chunk 13: Search Queries Supported +Metadata: type=queryPatterns, purpose=RAGRetrieval +Sample Queries: + +"How are insurance quotes converted to Oracle customers?" +"What Lambda function processes quote offered events?" +"How is the bill-to site configured for new customers?" +"What account identifiers are extracted from quote payloads?" +"How are customer addresses normalized for Oracle?" +"What is the temporal validity pattern for customer accounts?" +"What default values are applied during quote preprocessing?" +"How is the AccountDescription field constructed?" +"What Oracle address set is used for HFA customers?" +"When does customer record creation occur in the quote workflow?" +"What fields are mapped from quote payload to Oracle customer?" +"How are state codes converted for Oracle integration?" +"What is the purpose of the MAILING site name?" +"How long are customer accounts valid after creation?" \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/Books/Accounting/Repository.txt b/Books/Accounting/Repository.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5aa1b08 --- /dev/null +++ b/Books/Accounting/Repository.txt @@ -0,0 +1,125 @@ +Repository Module – RAG Knowledge Base + +Chunk 1: Module Overview +Metadata: module=Repository, actualFolder=Respository, type=dataAccess, location=CMH.HFA.Accounting.Orchestration/src/Respository, storage=DynamoDB, count=2 +Purpose: Data access layer implementing repository patterns for DynamoDB persistence +Scope: Two repositories – FIFO event queue and adjustment configuration storage +Technology Stack: AWS DynamoDB SDK, DynamoDB DataModel context, Task.WhenAll for parallel operations, conditional updates for concurrency control +Key Concepts: repository pattern, data access abstraction, DynamoDB document model, environment-based table naming, optimistic concurrency, TTL cleanup + +Chunk 2: DynamoDbFifoRepository Class +Metadata: component=DynamoDbFifoRepository, interface=IFifoRepository, purpose=eventQueuePersistence, pattern=FIFO +Description: Manages FIFO event queue infrastructure with policy-based partitioning +Table Structure: Partition key = PolicyNumber, Sort key = Timestamp (ISO 8601), GSI = EventId +Table Naming: {ENVIRONMENT}-fifo-poc-table pattern +Operations: Event retrieval by ID via GSI, policy-scoped queries, persistence, atomic status updates +Concurrency Control: ConditionalCheckFailedException prevents race conditions + +Chunk 3: FIFO Event Retrieval Operations +Metadata: operation=GetEventByIdAsync, indexType=GSI, indexName=EventIdIndex, returnType=EventTableEntry +Purpose: Retrieves single event by EventId using GSI +Parameters: Guid eventId +Query Behavior: Limits to 1 record, returns null if not found +Use Case: Completion workflows or dequeue operations +Performance: O(1) lookup via GSI, no full table scan + +Chunk 4: FIFO Policy-Scoped Queries +Metadata: operation=QueryByPolicyNumberAsync, keyType=partitionKey, filtering=optional, consistency=strong +Purpose: Retrieves all events for a policy number, optional status filter +Parameters: policyNumber, statusFilter +Query Behavior: Partition key query with optional filter expression, consistent reads +Use Case: FIFO service checking queue depth, next pending event, validating no events in processing + +Chunk 5: FIFO Event Persistence +Metadata: operation=SaveEventAsync, mutationType=insert, conflicts=allowDuplicates +Purpose: Saves new event entry to DynamoDB FIFO table +Parameters: EventTableEntry (PolicyNumber, Timestamp, EventId, Status, EventBody, DeduplicationKey) +Behavior: Simple save, allows concurrent inserts, deduplication handled at service layer +Use Case: Enqueue events for processing + +Chunk 6: FIFO Status Updates +Metadata: operation=UpdateStatusAsync, atomicity=conditional, concurrencyControl=optimistic +Purpose: Updates event status with optional conditional check +Parameters: policyNumber, timestamp, status, expectedStatus (optional) +Conditional Path: Conditional expression requires current status match; throws ConditionalCheckFailedException on mismatch +Unconditional Path: Loads entity, updates status, sets TTL if COMPLETED +TTL Logic: 30-day expiry for automatic cleanup + +Chunk 7: AdjustmentConfigRepository Class +Metadata: component=AdjustmentConfigRepository, interface=IAdjustmentConfigRepository, purpose=configurationStorage, pattern=replace-all +Description: Manages Oracle adjustment configuration records in DynamoDB +Table Structure: Hash key = Id (Guid), Range key = ReceivableTrxId +Table Naming: {ENVIRONMENT}-hfa-adjustement-configuration-table (note typo) +Operations: Full table scan retrieval, transactional replace-all persistence +Parallelization: Task.WhenAll for concurrent deletes and inserts + +Chunk 8: Configuration Retrieval +Metadata: operation=GetAllAdjustmentConfigurationsAsync, scanType=fullTable, parallelization=true +Purpose: Retrieves all adjustment configurations +Scan Strategy: Full table scan, parallel deserialization with Task.Run +Return Type: IList +Use Case: Configuration lookup, admin display, filtering in service layer + +Chunk 9: Configuration Persistence with Rollback +Metadata: operation=SaveAdjustmentConfigurationsAsync, pattern=deleteAllThenInsert, transactional=applicationLevel, rollback=automatic +Purpose: Replaces full table contents using application-level transaction +Steps: Backup → Delete all → Insert new → Rollback on failure +Atomicity: Application-level (not DynamoDB transaction), temporary empty table during delete-to-insert +Use Case: Bulk updates, configuration migration + +Chunk 10: Environment Configuration +Metadata: concept=environmentVariables, required=true, validation=startup +Requirement: Environment variable must be set (dev/test/prod) +Validation: Repositories throw Exception if missing +Table Naming Patterns: + +FIFO: {ENVIRONMENT}-fifo-poc-table +Adjustment Config: {ENVIRONMENT}-hfa-adjustement-configuration-table +Purpose: Environment isolation, multi-environment deployments + +Chunk 11: DynamoDB Context Configuration +Metadata: concept=dynamoDBConfiguration, pattern=tableOverrides +Configuration Objects: GetTargetTableConfig, FromDocumentConfig, LoadConfig, SaveConfig, DeleteConfig +Override Pattern: OverrideTableName allows environment-specific routing +Initialization: Configs created in constructor, reused for efficiency + +Chunk 12: TTL (Time To Live) Implementation +Metadata: feature=TTL, storage=DynamoDB, duration=30days, scope=completedEvents +Purpose: Automatic cleanup of completed FIFO events +TTL Field: TimeToLive (Unix timestamp) +Calculation: DateTimeOffset.UtcNow.AddDays(30).ToUnixTimeSeconds() +Trigger: Set on status COMPLETED, ignored for PENDING/PROCESSING +DynamoDB Behavior: Deletes within ~48 hours, no cost + +Chunk 13: Concurrency Patterns +Metadata: concept=concurrencyControl, mechanism=conditionalUpdates, exception=ConditionalCheckFailedException +FIFO Updates: Conditional expressions prevent multiple Lambda instances from transitioning same event +Expected Status Pattern: Ensures current status matches expected before updating +Race Conditions: Multiple Lambda cold starts, rapid event arrivals, completion races +Exception Handling: Catch and ignore, losing instance backs off gracefully + +Chunk 14: Parallel Processing Optimization +Metadata: optimization=parallelization, mechanism=TaskWhenAll, scope=bulkOperations +Adjustment Config Retrieval: Parallel deserialization +Delete Operations: Parallel delete of existing configs +Insert Operations: Parallel save of new configs +Trade-offs: Higher Lambda memory, faster wall-clock time, rollback handles partial failures + +Chunk 15: Search Queries Supported +Metadata: type=queryPatterns, purpose=RAGRetrieval +Sample Queries: + +"How do I retrieve FIFO events by policy number?" +"What is the repository pattern implementation for DynamoDB?" +"How does conditional update work for FIFO event status?" +"What table naming convention is used for repositories?" +"How is TTL configured for completed events?" +"What rollback mechanism exists for configuration saves?" +"How do I query events by event ID?" +"What concurrency control is used in FIFO repository?" +"How are adjustment configurations stored in DynamoDB?" +"What happens when environment variable is missing?" +"How does parallel processing work in repositories?" +"What is the Global Secondary Index structure for FIFO events?" +"How long are completed events retained in DynamoDB?" +"What exception indicates a race condition in status updates?" \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/Books/Accounting/Services.txt b/Books/Accounting/Services.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0ccc343 --- /dev/null +++ b/Books/Accounting/Services.txt @@ -0,0 +1,117 @@ +Services Module – RAG Knowledge Base + +Chunk 1: Module Overview +Metadata: module=Services, type=overview, location=CMH.HFA.Accounting.Orchestration/src/Services, count=1 +Purpose: Lambda function wrapper layer for adjustment configuration management +Scope: Single service class providing CRUD for Oracle receivables adjustment configurations stored in DynamoDB +Integration Points: Consumed by endorsement processing workflows, refund adjustment workflows, policy cancellation services +Key Concepts: adjustment configuration, receivables transaction mapping, Lambda endpoints, configuration retrieval and persistence + +Chunk 2: AdjustmentConfigService Class +Metadata: component=AdjustmentConfigService, type=service, pattern=repository-wrapper, deployment=Lambda +Description: Exposes three Lambda endpoints for managing Oracle adjustment configurations +Base Class: Extends BaseLambdaService for Lambda integration and service resolution +Dependencies: IAdjustmentConfigRepository for data access +Constructor Pattern: Dual constructors – parameterless for Lambda runtime, parameterized for dependency injection in tests +Lambda Configuration: Uses LambdaFunction annotation for AWS Lambda deployment metadata + +Chunk 3: GetConfigurations Operation +Metadata: operation=GetConfigurations, httpMethod=N/A, returnType=IList, filtering=none +Purpose: Retrieves all adjustment configuration records without filtering +Parameters: None +Returns: Complete collection from DynamoDB +Use Case: Admin audits, bulk export, dropdown population +Behavior: Pass-through to repository GetAllAdjustmentConfigurationsAsync with no business logic + +Chunk 4: GetConfiguration Operation +Metadata: operation=GetConfiguration, filtering=multi-criteria, returnType=AdjustmentConfigurationModel, nullable=true +Purpose: Retrieves single adjustment configuration by Name and Type with active status validation +Parameters: GetAdjustmentConfigurationDto (Name, Type) +Filtering Logic: Case-insensitive match on Name AND Type, active status evaluated via IsActive +Validation: Null DTO check, required Name/Type validation, multi-error accumulation +Use Case: Workflow-driven lookup for specific receivables transaction type + +Chunk 5: SaveAsync Operation +Metadata: operation=SaveAsync, mutationType=replace-all, transactional=true, rollback=automatic +Purpose: Persists full collection of adjustment configurations using replace-all pattern +Parameters: IList collection +Validation: Non-null, non-empty collection; throws ArgumentException if invalid +Behavior: Delegates to repository SaveAdjustmentConfigurationsAsync which deletes all existing records, inserts new ones in parallel, automatically rolls back on failure +Use Case: Bulk configuration refresh, migration, environment updates + +Chunk 6: AdjustmentConfigurationModel Structure +Metadata: model=AdjustmentConfigurationModel, storage=DynamoDB, keyType=composite +Keys: Hash key = Id (Guid), Range key = ReceivableTrxId (Oracle transaction type) +Oracle Integration Properties: + +ReceivableTrxId: AR receivables transaction type ID +OrgId: Oracle org ID for multi-org +SetOfBooksId: Oracle ledger/set of books ID +Configuration Properties: +Name: Human-readable identifier +Type: Category (e.g., Refund, Endorsement) +Temporal Properties: IsActiveFlag (boolean), StartActiveDate, InactiveDate, EndActiveDate + +Chunk 7: Active Status Evaluation +Metadata: method=IsActive, type=businessRule, timezone=UTC +Logic: Multi-condition temporal and flag-based evaluation +Returns False if: + +Current UTC < StartActiveDate +Current UTC ≥ InactiveDate +Current UTC ≥ EndActiveDate +IsActiveFlag = false +Returns True if all temporal boundaries satisfied AND IsActiveFlag = true +Date Parsing: DateTime.TryParse with graceful handling of unparseable dates + +Chunk 8: GetAdjustmentConfigurationDto +Metadata: dto=GetAdjustmentConfigurationDto, purpose=queryInput, validation=required +Properties: Name (string, required), Type (string, required) +Validation: Both non-null/non-empty; violations thrown as ArgumentException with concatenated messages +Usage: Passed as Lambda input, deserialized from JSON request, validated before lookup +Example: Name="HFA Auto Customer Refund", Type="Refund" + +Chunk 9: Configuration Categories +Metadata: concept=configurationTypes, domain=adjustments +Refund Types: + +HFA Retail I/C Refund: Intercompany refunds to Retail org +HFA VMF I/C Refund: Intercompany refunds to VMF org +HFA Auto Customer Refund: Direct customer refunds +Endorsement Types: For endorsement adjustment receivables +Purpose: Determines which Oracle receivables transaction ID, org routing, and GL treatment applies +Selection Logic: Based on refund recipient or adjustment nature + +Chunk 10: Integration Workflows +Metadata: type=useCases, consumers=multipleWorkflows +Endorsement Adjustment Workflow: Retrieves endorsement config, creates Adjustment records with correct Oracle IDs +Policy Cancellation Refund Workflow: Retrieves refund config, creates Adjustment record, applies to credit memo +Configuration Management: Admin workflows retrieve and save configurations with automatic rollback +Lambda Orchestration: Step Functions invoke these Lambda endpoints as discrete workflow steps + +Chunk 11: Error Handling Patterns +Metadata: concept=errorHandling, pattern=validation-first +Validation Strategy: Fail-fast with comprehensive messages, multi-error accumulation +Error Types: + +ArgumentNullException: DTO null in GetConfiguration +ArgumentException: Missing Name/Type, empty collection in SaveAsync +Repository Exceptions: Propagated from DynamoDB layer +Rollback Handling: SaveAsync automatically rolls back on repository failure + +Chunk 12: Search Queries Supported +Metadata: type=queryPatterns, purpose=RAGRetrieval +Sample Queries: + +"How do I retrieve Oracle adjustment configuration by name and type?" +"What is the structure of adjustment configuration records?" +"How does active status evaluation work for configurations?" +"What Lambda functions are available for configuration management?" +"How do I persist adjustment configurations?" +"What rollback protection exists for configuration saves?" +"What Oracle properties are stored in adjustment configurations?" +"How are refund configurations categorized?" +"What validation is performed on configuration retrieval?" +"How do endorsement workflows use adjustment configurations?" +"What is the difference between Retail, VMF, and Customer refund configurations?" +"How does temporal validity work for adjustment configurations?" \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/Books/Accounting/Starter.txt b/Books/Accounting/Starter.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..28316e5 --- /dev/null +++ b/Books/Accounting/Starter.txt @@ -0,0 +1,92 @@ +StarterQuestions Module – RAG Knowledge Base + +Chunk 1: Module Overview +Metadata: module=StarterQuestions, type=guidance, location=CMH.HFA.Accounting.Orchestration/src/StarterQuestions, purpose=questionInspiration +Purpose: Provides example questions and guidance for new users unfamiliar with the system. Helps users know what types of questions they can ask across modules. +Scope: Covers Quote, Repository, Services, and StructuredTags modules with illustrative questions, plus general guidance on asking questions. +Key Concepts: question examples, user guidance, RAG-friendly prompts, workflow understanding, module orientation. + +Chunk 2: Quote Module Questions +Metadata: domain=Quote, type=exampleQuestions, purpose=quotePreprocessing +Sample Questions: +• How are insurance quotes converted to Oracle customer records? +• What Lambda function handles quote offered events? +• How is the primary bill-to site configured? +• How are customer addresses normalized for Oracle integration? +• What default values are applied during quote preprocessing? +• How is the AccountDescription field constructed? +• When does customer record creation occur in the quote workflow? +• What Oracle address set is used for HFA customers? +• Which fields from the quote payload map to Oracle customer records? + +Chunk 3: Repository Module Questions +Metadata: domain=Repository, type=exampleQuestions, purpose=dynamoDBAccess +Sample Questions: +• How do I retrieve FIFO events by policy number? +• What is the repository pattern implementation for DynamoDB? +• How does conditional update work for FIFO event status? +• What table naming convention is used for repositories? +• How is TTL configured for completed events? +• How does rollback work when saving adjustment configurations? +• What concurrency control mechanisms prevent race conditions? +• How are adjustment configurations stored in DynamoDB? +• How do I query events by unique EventId? + +Chunk 4: Services Module Questions +Metadata: domain=Services, type=exampleQuestions, purpose=adjustmentConfiguration +Sample Questions: +• How do I retrieve an Oracle adjustment configuration by name and type? +• How is active status evaluated for adjustment configurations? +• How do I save all adjustment configurations at once? +• What validation is performed during configuration retrieval? +• How do endorsement workflows use adjustment configurations? +• What is the difference between Retail, VMF, and Customer refund configurations? +• Which Lambda functions are available for configuration management? +• How does temporal validity work for adjustment configurations? +• What Oracle properties are stored in adjustment configurations? + +Chunk 5: StructuredTags Module Questions +Metadata: domain=StructuredTags, type=exampleQuestions, purpose=glMapping +Sample Questions: +• How do I filter memo lines by commission percentage? +• How are structured tags parsed and evaluated? +• What dimensions can I use to filter GL account mappings? +• How does temporal validity work for memo line configurations? +• How do inclusions and exclusions (whitelist/blacklist) work? +• How do I calculate distribution amounts for transaction lines? +• Where do memo line configurations come from in the system? +• How are GL account mappings assigned for credit memos or invoices? +• How are Assurant vs non-Assurant rounding rules applied? + +Chunk 6: General Guidance for Asking Questions +Metadata: domain=AllModules, type=userGuidance, purpose=questionTips +Guidance: + +Think in terms of “What, How, When, Where”: +What data is processed? +How is it transformed? +When in the workflow does this occur? +Where is this information stored or sent? +Consider module boundaries to narrow your questions: +Quote → customer creation workflow +Repository → data persistence and retrieval +Services → Lambda endpoints and orchestration +StructuredTags → GL account mapping and configuration rules +Don’t worry about phrasing perfectly. Partial matches or paraphrases often work. +Start with practical scenarios: +“I want to know how a customer record is created from a quote.” +“I need to find the configuration for a refund adjustment.” +“I need to see how memo lines are filtered for commission calculations.” + +Chunk 7: Sample RAG Queries +Metadata: type=queryPatterns, purpose=RAGRetrieval, domain=AllModules +Sample Queries: +• “Show me how quote payloads become Oracle customer records.” +• “Retrieve FIFO events for a specific policy number.” +• “Explain the rollback mechanism for adjustment configurations.” +• “Filter memo lines by action=Issue and percent=70.” +• “What Lambda functions manage adjustment configurations?” +• “How is the bill-to site set up for new customers?” +• “What Oracle properties are stored for adjustment configurations?” +• “How does temporal validity affect memo line selection?” +• “How do inclusions and exclusions in structured tags work?” \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/Books/Accounting/StructuredTags.txt b/Books/Accounting/StructuredTags.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..68a3847 --- /dev/null +++ b/Books/Accounting/StructuredTags.txt @@ -0,0 +1,102 @@ +StructuredTags Module – RAG Knowledge Base + +Chunk 1: Module Overview +Metadata: module=StructuredTags, type=overview, location=CMH.HFA.Accounting.Orchestration/src/StructuredTags +Purpose: Configuration-driven GL account mapping for Oracle Fusion +Functionality: Retrieves memo line configurations from Oracle OIC API, parses structured tags, filters by temporal validity and business criteria, generates transaction lines for invoices/credit memos with correct GL accounts +Key Concepts: memo line lookup, structured tag parsing, GL account mapping, multi-dimensional filtering, temporal validity, distribution calculation + +Chunk 2: MemoLookup Service +Metadata: component=MemoLookup, type=service, interface=IMemoLookup, integration=OracleOIC +Description: Retrieves and filters memo line configurations from Oracle Integration Cloud +Methods: + +GetMemoLookupAsync(DateTime): Retrieves active memo lines for a date, normalized to Eastern Time, filters by start/end validity +GetMatchingLines(List, string?, string?, string?, string?, string?, string?, string?, string?): Filters memo lines using up to 8 optional criteria (action, type, productType, org, product, state, percent, to) +Integration: Extends OracleIntegrationBase, calls CHI_LOOKUP_API with LookupType=CHI_HFA_LOOKUPS +Temporal Logic: Compares normalized ET against StartDateActive / EndDateActive for validity + +Chunk 3: MemoLine Configuration Model +Metadata: component=MemoLine, type=model, purpose=GLAccountConfiguration +Description: Represents a single GL mapping rule with metadata and structured business rules +Properties: Code, Meaning, Description, EnabledFlag, StartDateActive, EndDateActive, Tag (semicolon-delimited) +Methods: IsAction, IsType, IsProductType, IsOrg, IsState, IsPercent, IsProduct, IsTo (dimension checks), GetDistributionPercentage (allocates percentage from tags) +Pattern: Lazy initialization of StructuredTag parser for performance + +Chunk 4: Structured Tag Format +Metadata: component=StructuredTag, type=parser, format=keyValuePairs +Format: Semicolon-delimited key=value pairs, comma-separated values +Example: Actions=Issue,Renew;Types=Premium;Distribution=70;Org=Retail +Syntax: + +Inclusion: Key=Value1,Value2 (whitelist) +Exclusion: Key=!Value1 (blacklist) +Mixed: Supports inclusion and exclusion in same tag +Parsing: Case-insensitive, splits semicolons then equals, comma-separated values become collections + +Chunk 5: Filtering Dimensions +Metadata: concept=filteringDimensions, type=businessRules, count=8 +Dimensions: + +action – transaction operation type (Issue, Renew, Endorse, Cancel, BillingPlanChange, BillingTypeChange) +type – line classification (Premium, Fees, AR Clearing) +productType – insurance product filter (VSC, GAP, ESC) +org – organization (Retail, HFA) +product – specific product codes +state – jurisdiction/state code +percent – commission percentage +to – recipient targeting (Assurant, others) +Logic: Missing dimension = wildcard, present dimensions must match + +Chunk 6: Distribution Calculation +Metadata: component=MemoLineFilter, type=extensionMethod, purpose=amountAllocation +Method: GetDistributionAmountByAssurantStatus(this MemoLine, decimal) – calculates allocated amounts with recipient-specific rounding +Rounding Rules: + +Assurant + 70/30: round up (Math.Ceiling) +Non-Assurant + 70/30: round down (Math.Floor) +Assurant + other splits: away-from-zero rounding +Non-Assurant + other splits: banker's rounding (ToEven) +Purpose: Prevents penny discrepancies, ensures totals net to zero + +Chunk 7: TagValue Inclusion/Exclusion Logic +Metadata: component=TagValue, type=collectionLogic, pattern=setMatching +Behavior: Maintains separate inclusion/exclusion sets (HashSet) +Matching Logic: + +Empty set → false +Blacklist only → true unless excluded +Whitelist only → true if included +Mixed → true if included AND not excluded +Parsing: Exclamation prefix = exclusion, unprefixed = inclusion + +Chunk 8: Use Cases +Metadata: type=useCases, consumers=multiple + +Invoice Commission Processing: Filters by action/org/percent/state +Endorsement Processing: Filters by action/type/productType +Billing Changes: Queries BillingPlanChange or BillingTypeChange actions +Cancellation Processing: Filters Cancel action with product/state +Time-Based Retrieval: Uses transaction creation date to fetch historically accurate configurations + +Chunk 9: Integration Architecture +Metadata: type=architecture, pattern=configurationDriven +Design: Separates business rules (OIC lookup tables) from code logic +Benefits: Operations teams can modify GL mappings without code deployment; changes effective immediately; maintains audit trail with temporal validity +Pattern: Specification pattern for multi-criteria filtering, lazy loading, permissive defaults +Timezone Handling: Normalizes all dates to America/New_York for consistent evaluation + +Chunk 10: Search Queries Supported +Metadata: type=queryPatterns, purpose=RAGRetrieval +Sample Queries: + +"How do I filter memo lines by commission percentage?" +"What is the rounding logic for Assurant payable lines?" +"How are structured tags parsed and evaluated?" +"What dimensions can I use to filter GL account mappings?" +"How does temporal validity work for memo line configurations?" +"What is the format of structured tags?" +"How do exclusions work in memo line filtering?" +"Where do memo lines come from in the system?" +"How do I calculate distribution amounts for transaction lines?" +"What is the difference between whitelist and blacklist filtering?" \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/Books/Music/Articles/Gilmore.txt b/Books/Music/Articles/Gilmore.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..080a796 --- /dev/null +++ b/Books/Music/Articles/Gilmore.txt @@ -0,0 +1,29 @@ +ARTIST: David Gilmour +GENRE: Rock, Art Rock, Blues Rock +CONCEPTS: Target notes, pentatonic scales, melodic phrasing, ballad soloing +SOURCE: Guitar Player Magazine +TOPIC: Gilmour's melodic soloing approach using target notes + +When I was an undergraduate jazz performance major struggling to get a handle on bebop improvisation, I remember my professor Dave LaLama admonishing me, If you think playing over the fast tunes is hard, wait until you try playing over the ballads. What Dr. Lalama was trying to impart was that playing fast scales over fast changes could get you by, but playing melodically over slow tempos, when your note choices are much more exposed, would really test how well you could create meaningful phrases. + +Although getting past the this scale works over these chords approach to improvisation generally requires hours of shedding, aiming for particular target notes (specific notes over specific chords) is an optimum strategy to maximize your practice time. In the realm of rock guitar, I can think of no greater master of the melodic target note technique while playing ballads than David Gilmour. + +For the unfamiliar few, Gilmour was first enlisted by fledgling psychedelic rockers Pink Floyd in 1967, when original guitarist/vocalist Syd Barrett began having drug-induced struggles with mental health. The band experimented with various artistic approaches for several years before refining them into a cohesive art rock sound by the early 70s. The result was an unbroken streak of classic, genre-defining conceptual albums that included Meddle, The Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, Animals, and The Wall. Although bassist/vocalist Roger Waters assumed the role of de facto bandleader and primary songwriter, Gilmour was a significant contributor who was praised for his soulful singing and expertly phrased lead playing that seemed to magically rework pedestrian blues phrases into sublimely evocative melodies. His focus on musicality over excessive displays of technique made him a musicians musician of sorts and earned him a stellar reputation in guitar circles. When Roger Waters left Pink Floyd in the mid 80s, Gilmour surprised many by calmly assuming the leadership mantle, leading the band through another decade of chart-topping albums and stadium tours. Although Pink Floyd are not officially broken up (keyboardist and founding member Richard Wright died in 2008 while Gilmour and drummer Nick Mason joined forces with Ukrainian singer Andriy Khlyvnyuk on the one-off single Hey Hey Rise Up in 2022), Gilmour has mostly spent the last few decades concentrating on his solo career. His latest release, Luck and Strange, features his wife, novelist Polly Sampson, as primary lyricist and daughter Romany Gilmour as vocalist on several tracks. His recent tour filled arenas around the world. + +Lets take a page from Gilmours hallowed playbook and see how incorporating a few well-chosen target notes can give our playing more melody and structure. + +For the sake of simplicity, all the examples use the Gm/Bb major pentatonic scale forms. In my experience as a teacher, I find that most students can get a pretty solid handle on the root-position, Form-I minor pentatonic scale but struggle to incorporate the other four shapes while playing lead. One suggestion I give them is to work on playing the scales from the top notes down and focus on the four highest strings only. I believe this is a more logical and useful approach to incorporating these forms into your vocabulary. + +Once youve gotten a handle on the scales, try playing Ex. 5, which is loosely based on the extended introduction to Pink Floyds Shine On You Crazy Diamond. We begin by soloing over a static Gm chord for four measures. As target notes, Ive chosen the root and 5th of the G minor chord ( the notes G and D, respectively). In the first measure, were starting in a minor pentatonic Form I with a bend up to the root of the Gm chord. A flurry of notes on beat 4 sets us up for the bend to the D in the second measure. The D note is again targeted in measure threethis time up an octave via a shift into the minor pentatonic Form II shape. Measure four aims for the G tonic up an octave, but ends with a bend that targets a Cthe root of the IVm (Cm) chord in the final measure. By focusing on target notes and connecting them with embellishing licks, your lead lines will have a much better sense of direction and melodic narrative. Also, by only targeting the root and 5th of the chord, the target note approach will be easily transferrable to songs in a G blues context (G pentatonic minor over a G major or G dominant tonality). + +A further exploration of this approach, Ex. 6 begins with a two-beat pickup that resolves to the scale tonic G. This time however, the G isnt serving as the root of the Im chord. Instead, its the 5th of Cmthe IVm chord. Employing the root of the pentatonic scale as the fifth of the IVm chord is a textbook Gilmour-ism and you can hear him use it to good effect on the extended intro to Echoes from Live in Gdansk. When approaching the C on beat 2 of the second full measure, bend up from the Bb on the 6th fret of the 1st string then slide up to the C on the 8th fret without releasing the bend or picking again. In the final measure, Ive introduced two Db notes, which serve as the b5 blue note of the scale and provide melodically compelling passing tones on the way to the G target note on beat 4. + +Exclusively positioned in the Form-IV G minor pentatonic shape, Ex. 7 is based on a bluesy lick over the I chord in the first and third measures that alternately targets a resolution to the root of the IV chord (C ) and the root of the V chord (D7#9) in the second and fourth measures. Being able to resolve your lead phrases to the roots of the I, IV, and V chords on the fly is an essential skill ace improvisers like Gilmour have mastered. + +Now lets turn our attention to the Bb major pentatonic scale, which is the relative major of G minor. Play through the Form I and Form II shapes detailed in Ex. 8 and Ex. 9 below. Youll see Ive added an Eb to the scale (technically making them hexatonic scales). This allows us a bit more melodic freedom andmost importantlygives us the root note of the IV chord. + +Channeling the melodic mojo of Gilmours lead jaunts on Pink Floyds Mother and Comfortably Numb, Ex. 10 targets chord tones from the I, IV, and V (Bb, Eb, and F) chords. + +The muted-string rake in first measure helps sting the F note, which is the 5th of the Bb. Measure two targets a G note which is the 3rd of the Eb. This same chord/target note pairing is repeated in the third and fourth measures, although the G is now down an octave. For the F and Eb chords of measures five and six, Ive mirrored a favorite Gilmour go-to: bending up to the 3rd of a chord then releasing and resolving to the root (an A resolving to an F for the F chord and a G resolving to an Eb for the Eb chord.) The final measure follows a melodic run down the Bb scale that ultimately resolves on the tonic. Be sure to pay attention to the intonation of all your bends, especially the half-step bend on the first beat of measure seven. + +As a takeaway from this lesson, lets strive to Be Like Dave and pay closer attention to target notes when soloing. Identify the roots of all the chords youre playing over in your scales and aim for them as the beginning and/or ending notes of your phrases. Think of these target notes as support beams that will provide structure to your lead lines and ultimately make them more melodically compelling. diff --git a/Books/Music/Articles/Gilmore2.txt b/Books/Music/Articles/Gilmore2.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0452cff --- /dev/null +++ b/Books/Music/Articles/Gilmore2.txt @@ -0,0 +1,10 @@ +ARTIST: David Gilmour +GENRE: Rock, Art Rock, Blues Rock +CONCEPTS: Target notes, pentatonic scales, melodic phrasing, ballad soloing +SOURCE: Creative Guitar Studio +TOPIC: David Gilmour Scale Concepts + +The approach used by David Gilmour for the bulk of his scale ideas, is largely based upon the Blues scale and Minor Pentatonic, with a lot of reference to the Major 2nd degree from the Dorian mode. +It's quick to hear on many of his solos, such as the one he plays in the Pink Floyd song, "Yet Another Movie." That solo is largely pentatonic thrashing for the most part, but it's also full of feeling. +And, when we analyze the way he uses the; Blues, his bends and the obvious strong connection he has toward players like; Clapton, Jeff Beck and the Muddy Waters & John Lee Hooker sound... +we end up with an instantly recognizable tone only associated to the David Gilmour style. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/Books/Music/Articles/Gilmore3.txt b/Books/Music/Articles/Gilmore3.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a0998a4 --- /dev/null +++ b/Books/Music/Articles/Gilmore3.txt @@ -0,0 +1,34 @@ +ARTIST: David Gilmour +GENRE: Rock, Art Rock, Blues Rock +CONCEPTS: Melody, Pentatonic Scales, Techniques +SOURCE: Guitar World +TOPIC: David Gilmour Techniques + +Perhaps more than any other player, David Gilmour is the epitome of the lead guitarist who plays melodically and for the song. + +Though primarily a player with blues sensibilities, Pink Floyds progressive nature would see the younger Gilmour become an experimenter both sonically and melodically. Listen to Floyds recorded output, particularly from 1973s Dark Side Of The Moon, nary a note is misplaced, every note counts and every phrase has a purpose. + +And, though none of us has Gilmours musical ear, we can all learn from the way he approaches playing the guitar and writing songs. From his signature bending technique to his sublime note choice and phrasing theres plenty in our lesson for you to try out. And once youve had a go at our lesson, why not try writing some of your own Gilmour-style licks? + +Here, were looking at a handful of scales. Get to grips with the shapes and youll get a better understanding of his note choice and phrasing. First up is the minor pentatonic scale (shown here in D), which David uses to create those blues-influenced lead lines. + +To add some sophisticated colour to the pentatonic sound hell often add E and B notes creating the cooler, sweeter sounding Dorian mode. Our acoustic example is in the key of G major so the G major pentatonic will work here. + +The key to clean tone solos such as Another Brick In The Wall, Pt. 2 is to select the neck pickup and dial in a fair amount of compression for extra smoothness and sustain. Pick lightly near the end of the fretboard for a fat, expressive tone. + +David uses the good old minor pentatonic scale as the backbone of many of his solos, adding the odd extra note for colour. Were using the D minor pentatonic scale here with major 2nd (E) and major 6th (B) intervals added . These notes can also be tasteful points to bend the string from. + +Using doublestops (two notes at once) is a great way to introduce a little funky punctuation to proceedings, and its an approach Gilmour uses frequently. Check out Another Brick In The Wall, Pt. 2 at about 2:21 for a typical example of his phrasing. Our lick shows some of Davids typical shapes. + +A fuzz pedal can be used to add a crazy amount of sustain. David used this effect to create the soaring solos in songs like Time and Comfortably Numb. + +With their trademark drawn-out drawling sound, unison bends feature heavily in Davids lead style. Our example should give you the general idea. In each case, bend the third string until it reaches the pitch of un-bent note fretted on the second string. Vibrato is the icing on the cake. + +Run Like Hell from The Wall is one of Davids signature dotted eighth note delay moments. For our simpler example weve set a tempo of 120 bpm with, therefore, a delay time of 375ms. For the full Run Like Hell effect, keep the number of repeats (aka feedback) fairly high for a cascading, layered sound. + +Weve already shown you how David executes those huge wide-interval bends in tracks such as Another Brick In The Wall, Pt. 2 and Shine On You Crazy Diamond, but now its your turn to try it out over our backing track. Weve stuck to three-semitone bends here, but you could try a four-semitone bend in bar 2 if youre feeling brave. + +One of Davids signature sounds is the addition of vocal-like whammy bar vibrato on string bends and long held notes. He also uses the bar for scoops, such as in the repeating phrase idea weve included here in our tab example. + +David is no stranger to the acoustic guitar and used it to great effect for songs like Wish You Were Here and Lost For Words. As with many of Gilmours melodic ideas, simplicity is the key here. + diff --git a/Books/Music/Articles/Gilmore4.txt b/Books/Music/Articles/Gilmore4.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..28e2183 --- /dev/null +++ b/Books/Music/Articles/Gilmore4.txt @@ -0,0 +1,111 @@ +ARTIST: David Gilmour +GENRE: Rock, Art Rock, Blues Rock +CONCEPTS: Melody, Pentatonic Scales, Techniques +SOURCE: Kitrae +TOPIC: Gilmour Playing Techniques, Picks, and Strings + +It is almost cliche to say this, but a majority of what is percieved as Gilmour's tone and sound really does come from his fingers and playing. Gear selection helps, but much of the tone comes from the way the strings are picked, fretted, and how the tremolo is applied. Note choice is obviously a key to what makes a guitarist's style unique and identifiable, but you really need to invest the time to learn the picking, tremolo techniques, and phrasing to repicate the overall sound. David rarely lets a note just sit still. It is always moving or changing. Much of what people think is the gear making the tone sound good is simply the fingers making the gear sound good. For example, Big Muff's tend to be a bit harsh and fizzy, but when you add some fluidity and subtle harmonics to your playing it makes the Muff sound very un-Muff like, bringing something out of the it that you can't get with any other fuzz pedal. Add a sweet chorus or flange, some long delay, and you are in tonal heaven. + + I spent a lot of time trying to be Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Pete Seeger, Leadbellyall sorts of other people on the guitarand there was a moment when I actually liked something I played myself and started realizing that what I saw as my deficiencies actually could be turned into my qualities. - Gilmour interview by John Edginton in 2001 + + I think one thing about the fingers and the brain that I have been given is that the fingers make a distinctive sound. The fingers aren't very fast, but I think I am instantly recognizable. I can hear myself and just know that's me. And other people do, too. The way I play melodies is connected to things like Hank Marvin and the Shadows - that style of guitar playing where people can recognize a melody with some beef to it - Gilmour from Guitarist 2006 + + It's very hard to advise people, but in general I would say listen to as many different types of music as you can. And don't worry. Let everything come out of you in whatever way feels right, rather than wasting a lot of time and energy in trying to be someone else. That's what I'm trying to do myself. - Gilmour from Guitar World 1988 + +GILMOUR PLAYING STYLE +It obviouly sounds better when you use the right gear, guitar, pickups, amp, and settings to replicaet Gilmour's guitar tones - but you still won't have that Gilmour sound and tone unless you take the time to learn his style of playing. As said above, most of what we hear as "tone" is from the playing. Using the right gear just brings out the colors and accents of the playing more. + +I remember when I first began learning Gilmour songs around the time of his About Face (1984) album. I bought basically the same pedals David had at the time and a Strat style guitar, but I was frustrated that I could not get anything close to his sound. I learned the solos note for note, but I was just pressing frets, not actually playing in his style. Years later when I actually took the time to learn the subtleties of his style - finger and whammy tremolo, subtle picking harmonics, string bends, and phrasing - that sound came together rather easily. The correct gear was just tonal icing on top of that. That's why David says he can go into any music store and with just some basic gear he can still sound like himself - the gear does not make him sound like him. He does. + + I love Daves guitar solos on DSOTM and on WYWH and on Animals and on The Wall and on The Final Cut. In my, albeit biased view, Daves solos on those albums constitute a collection of some of the very best guitar solos in the history of rock and roll. - Roger Waters on Twitter in 2023 + +FINGER AND WHAMMY BAR TREMOLO - Much of the beauty and soul of David's playing comes from his signature use of tremolo. Playing standard, one-speed tremolo on every note like 90% of the players out there do does not have even half the feeling that David can get out of one note with his style. He does not just generically shake a note when he adds tremolo. Sometimes he uses finger tremolo on the fret, other times he uses the whammy bar tremolo, and sometimes he goes from one right into the other on the same note. + +David's use of finger tremolo is exceptional, but he only occasionally used the whammy bar tremolo in his early days with Pink Floyd. Like many Strat players, the bar was usually used for note dives or rapid tremolo effects, like in the solo in the funky part of Echoes from Live at Pompeii. During the recording sessions for Pink Floyd's The Wall album in 1978-79, his whole whammy bar style changed. He developed and refined a new technique that became a signature of his playing style from that point onward. He used a floating bridge so he could pitch notes up or down, and his whammy bar tremolo became just as smooth as his finger tremolo, but distinctly different. If you watch the live CBS promo videos for David's first solo album in 1978 and compare those to the live 1980 Pink Floyd vidoes from The Wall tour you can see how dramatically different this new approach to tremolo was. + +David's whammy bar tremolo pitch was much deeper than his finger tremolo and he often kept the bar in his palm for whole solos. That technique was something David learned from watching one of his guitar heroes, Hank Marvin of the Shadows. Many of David's tremolo technniques can be traced back to similar things that Hank did, but David's version was uniquely different. This new style added much more feeling and emotion to his solos. The effect can be heard all over The Wall, in songs like Mother, What Shall We Do Now, Hey You, and the first Comfortably Numb solo in particular. David also used it to superb effect in his solos for Roger Waters The Final Cut album. He sometimes uses wide, deep, and slow tremolo for a more dramatic and emotional playing, like in the first Comfortably Numb solo. Other times he uses shorter, faster tremolo for a more intense, harder-edged feel, like in the second Comfortably Numb solo. He sometimes lets a note sustain before slowly starting the tremolo, other times starts right into the tremolo. He also sometimes goes from slow tremolo on one note to fast on the next, which adds another dynamic to his playing. + + Like vibrato, for instance. I like a kind of refined version, which I do either with a finger or with a wang bar ... sometimes both at the same time. - David Gilmour, Guitar World, July 1988 + + As most guitarists know, David uses a lot of finger vibrato as well as the whammy bar, often at the same time. On the first solo of Comfortably Numb he was exaggerating the effect quite dramatically. I asked if he thought it was too much and he replied, No, I want it to sound drunk! And there it was. - James Guthrie, producer/engineer on The Wall - Brain Damage 2013 interview + +The tempo of the tremolo is very important. It really should be as close in time with the song tempo as possible. Most people can learn fast tremolo easily, but it takes some practice to learn how to accurately do slow tremolo and stay in time and pitch, especially with the tremolo bar on a Strat. Using a floating tremolo, the pitch from sharp to flat should be as smooth as possible, without going too sharp or too flat. Practice recording yourself playing a single note, intentionally trying to bend your tremolo up above the note pitch, sharp. Then do the same intentionally trying to go below the note pitch, flat. Then record yourself trying to do it right in the middle, not too sharp or too flat, and listen back to all three. If your correct attempt sounds more like the sharp or flat recordings, that indicates what you need to work on more. This was probably the most important part of applying Gilmour style temolo that I learned. + +The bridge plates on Gilmour's Strats are resting on the body on the bridge screw side and raised on the saddle screw side. +The 4th edition of the Black Strat book specifies the bridge floats 1.5mm off the body. + +One part of David's whammy bar tremolo that took me a long time to figure out was if he was just pitching notes up, or pitching up and down evenly between flat and sharp. Non-floating bridges, like I believe David used in his early Pink Floyd days, can only pitch down. The bridges on David's Strats from around 1976 and later are floating just slightly off the body, so he can pitch up or down. What I noticed when trying to replicate certain solos is that he sometimes pitches up and down evenly, other times his tremolo is pitched slightly sharp, other times slightly flat. It really depends on the note in the solo. + +When using the whammy bar it helps to have your bar cut short so you can hold the tip in your plam when playing, as David does. Some information on how to do this can be found here. It is not necessary, but it does help playing the way David does if you can hold it in your palm so it does not interfere with picking the strings. + + +NOTE BENDS - Practice those bends! The Another Brick in the Wall II solo is a great one to study and master. David can bend and hold notes in exact pitch fluidly, and his bends are precise and in time with the song. He often bends up a whole or half step, holds, then bends up or down another step, then back to the original bend position before dropping the bend back to the original fretted note - sometimes adding his subtle tremolo to a few areas of these notes in mid bend! David also mixes slow bends with fast bends, but all in very precise time with the song tempo. It is rather easy once you get it down, and adds some great phrasing to your playing, but practice, practice, practice. Being slightly off key or out of time in a bend can ruin the effect. + +PINCH SQUEALS AND PINCH HARMONICS - This is one of the most important keys to David's style of playing, and the one aspect of his sound that people most often confuse as something the gear David is using is doing. If you listen you will occasionally hear him add a pinch harmonic squeal to certain notes - such as the very first note in the Comfortably Numb outro solo, or many times in the Young Lust solo. David's sound very unique and subtle compared to the harsh, trebly pinch harmonics of some other players. Those pinch squeals are important to learn, and not very difficult for most players to master. + +More important are the other harmonics that David applies. If you listen to his playing closely you will find that there are other subtle pick+thumb harmonics in many of the other notes in his solos, not just those pinch squeals. Many people mistake this as something the effects he uses are adding to the sound. Effects like chorus and the Big Muff can accent those harmonics, but David's fingers are where that sound is coming from, or more specifically, his thumb. When using a guitar pick he lets part of his thumb flesh brush across the string as he picks to add those subtle harmonic tonal variations to the notes. This harmonic phrasing and coloring is all over David's playing - to the extreme on just about every note in the Young Lust solo, and more of a subtle harmonic coloring in the Coming Back to Life or the On an Island solos. It is very evident in David's playing for Pink Floyd's Division Bell tour, heard on Pulse, and David's On an Island tour, featured in the Live in Gdansk film. Below are some examples of harmonic picking, comparing phrases with and without thumb+pick harmonics. I have exaggerated the effect to make the differences more apparent. + +To learn this method of harmonic picking, first practice and master the less subtle pinch squeal effect. That is achieved by brushing the thumb across the string with the pick to get the harmonic squeal. We call it 'pinch harmonics' because you are pinching the pick and your thumb together as you pick hard, but it's really caused by both your thumb and pick touch the strings when you pick, so both touch the string at nearly the same time. When you have mastered being able to do that any time you want, then practice being more subtle with the thumb so you hear some of the harmonics, but not the harsher squeal. It often does not require hard picking to do this, and you will find that using more of the thumb than the pick creates one type of harmonic, and more of the pick than thumb another type. Once you have mastered that, then practice going back and forth between the subtler pinch harmonics and the harder pinch squeals until you can do it fluently. + +You can do this type of picking with nearly any guitar pick, but it is much easier to do with smaller teardrop shaped picks than larger triangular shaped picks. Fender teadrop picks, size 354, are the best pick to use for this in my opinion. That is also what David uses. + +FINGER PICKING - David has a very unique finger-picking style that he often uses. For examples, listen to Cluster One from the Division Bell, the intro to the live Strat Pack version of Coming Back to Life, or 5 A.M. from Rattle That Lock. That is all finger-picking on electric guitars. Rather than using specific fingers on specific strings, David mostly just uses his index finger as if it were a pick, with the occasional use of his thumb. He gets a wide variety of sounds just from the way he picks the string. Picking soft or hard, sliding the finger across the string, pulling off hard so the string "pops" like a compressive attack - these are all techniques that David uses to add color to the notes. He even gets subtle harmonics with his finger-picking. I learned how to finger pick traditionally, but I never got my playing to sound as expressive as David's. I thought it was something to do with the type of compressor David was using, or some other gear mystery. When I actually watched and studied how he finger picked, then re-learned how to pick just using my index finger, it all clicked into place. David often uses a compressor when finger picking on an electric, but most of the compression effects are really just from the way he picks. + +Below are some examples of this finger picking style. Each time a phrase is repeated I change the way I am picking it to illustrate the wide variety of possible sounds. You can not only change the way the pick attack sounds, you can change the tone of the guitar simply by changing the way you pick. + +"It think it's just pretty much him. He is obviously using a couple of effects, like a Big Muff and a delay, but it really is just his fingers, his vibrato, his choice of notes and how he sets his effects. I find it extraordinary when people think they can copy his sound by duplicating his gear. In reality, no matter how well you duplicate the equipment, you will never be able to duplicate the personality" - Gilmour's backline and gear tech, Phil Taylor + +MORE NOTES VERSUS LESS - You will notice that David is not a very fast player, but at times he can sound more intense that someone playing a barrage of notes at light speed. That is because David adds all of these elements described above to his solos. Each note is always moving and doing something, adding to the complex feel some of his solos have. Just pressing frets abd picking the individual notes of those solos is not very complicated. When you add the tremolo, harmonics, bends, and other elements of David's playing, and how he plays over the music, it becomes something very complex and moving. + +VOLUME SWELLS - This has nothing to do with the way you pick or play the guitar, but it is another part of David's playing that adds color to a solo. You kill the volume using a volume pedal, or volume knob on your guitar, pick a note, then raise the volume back up so the note fades in. This is also called a volume swell, and David uses a volume pedal for this effect, typically when he plays slide guitar. He often does this when bending or sliding a note up, and he is careful not to over use the effect. Listen to the slide guitar on Breathe and The Great Gig In The Sky from Dark Side of the Moon, or Beauty and A Boat Lies Waiting from Rattle That Lock for examples. Cluster One from the Division Bell and Evrika from The Endless River Deluxe Edition are examples of this technique with a regular guitar. + +PICKS - The size, shape, and hardness of the guitar pick will affect how you play and your sound. David has used various shapes and sizes of picks throughout his career. He used Plain Herco heavy picks in the 1970s, but around the time of The Wall in 1980 he changed to small Fender teadrop picks, size 354, which are still his preferred electic guitar picks. He used Dunlop Herco Flex 75 1.01mm picks for his 2006 and 2015-16 tours, D'Andrea custom white 354 picks, as well as Fender 354 and Fender 351 style tear drop picks. David's pick attack on the strings can be very subtle or very hard, depending on the accent being applied to the note. When playing live, he is very hard on his picks. The edges look like they have been sawed into! + +Gilmour Guitar Picks + +Three standard sized pics (top) compared to Fender 354 tear drop shaped pics (bottom) + +A few of David's used D'Andrea 354 picks from his 2016 tour showing the wear from his hard playing on fresh heavy gauge strings every show + +As a general rule, larger picks work best for the early Pink Floyd material, and smaller picks work best for his later material and for applying harmonic tones. You can let the flesh of the thumb touch the string while picking using most picks, but tear dropped shaped picks, like the Fender 354 pick, are much easier to use for this than larger triangular shaped pics. The 354 pick is almost the same length as a standard pick, but not as wide and with a sharper point. They are sometimes difficult to find, but I have found the 354 "heavy" picks allow me to be the most expressive versus any other type pick. + +STRINGS and STRING GAUGES FOR STRATS, TELE, AND LES PAUL - David Gilmour typically uses light gauge strings on he electric guitars. Over the years he has used various guitar string gauges on his Strats and various strings brands like Gibson, Rickenbacker, Ernie Ball, and GHS. For electrics he usually uses light gauge strings in the studio. When performing live he plays heavy handed and is harder on the strings so he uses a heavier gauge. + +In the early 1970s David was using Gibson Sonomatic light gauge electric guitar strings on his Stratocasters. These were nickel wrapped, round wound strings. + +Gibson Sonomatic Light Gauge - .011, .012, .019w, .028, .044, .050 + +Some time after that David used Ernie Ball light gauge strings, which I assume were the Regular Slinky nickel wound stings, not the Super Slinkys. + +Ernie Ball Regular Slinkys .010, .013, .017, .026, .036, .046 + +In the late 1970s he was using a custom gauge set of Gibson Sonomatic on his Strats in the studio, and a set of different gauges when playing live. + +late 1970s Strat gauges used in the studio - .010, .012, .016, .025, .034, .044 + +late 1970s Strat gauges used on stage - .010, .012, .016, .028, .038, .050 + +The Black Strat book contradicts this info, but I am going with what David actually said he used in a 1979 interview. + +When recording The Wall in 1979 David changed to GHS Boomer strings and has continued to use them on his electrics. At the time I wrote this article David was still using GHS Boomers in non standard gauge sets for his Strats. GHS sold this exact set (as of 2008) as GB-DGF David Gilmour Signature Blue Set Electric Guitar Strings. + +Strat string gauges from 1979 to now - .010, .012, .016, .028, .038, .048 + +David used a heavier gauge set on his Les Pauls. GHS sold this exact set (as of 2008) as GHS GB-DGG David Gilmour Signature Red Set Electric Guitar Strings. + +Les Paul string gauges - .0105, .013, .017, .030, .040, and .050 + +Years ago I used to use regular light Gibson Sonomatics. I really liked them but they were a bit too heavy.well, I didn't use the top endLet's see, and then I went to Ernie Balls because I could get them a bit lighter. And recently, I don't know quite when, Gibson started bringing out those Sonomatics in custom gauges, and I'm using those at the moment mostly...On my regular electric guitar at the moment (late 1978) I'm using the Gibsons (Sonomatics) again, which are 44, 34, 25, 16, 12, 10 gauges. It's pretty light for me. On stage actually with the Floyd I use heavier gauges, again on the bottom three I still use 10, 12, and 16 on the lighter strings, but I use 28, 38, 50 on the heavy bottom strings. That's for when I'm working on stage. I'm a bit heavy handed you know. - David Gilmour from a Steve Rosen interview for Guitar World conducted in late 1978 or early 1979 + +I use GHS strings, 10's - David Gilmour from Guitarist magazine June 1986 + +TELECASTER STRINGS - I do not think David has ever mentioned his Telecaster string gauges, but the Fitch/Mahon Comfortably Numb History of The Wall book lists Tele string gauges from The Wall period. + +Telecaster string gauges from 1979 - .010, .012, .016, .024, .036, .044 + +LAP STEEL SLIDE GUITAR STRINGS - Around 2008 Phil Taylor said David currently used DAddario EHR360 half round jazz strings on his electric lap steels. These have a semi flat surface on the wound strings which creates a slightly smoother sound with a steel slide than regular round wound strings. + +Lap Steel string gauges from 2008 - .013, .017, .026, .036, .046, .056. + + + diff --git a/Books/Music/Articles/Gilmore5.txt b/Books/Music/Articles/Gilmore5.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a496830 --- /dev/null +++ b/Books/Music/Articles/Gilmore5.txt @@ -0,0 +1,69 @@ +ARTIST: David Gilmour +GENRE: Rock, Art Rock, Blues Rock +CONCEPTS: Melody, Pentatonic Scales, Techniques +SOURCE: Kitrae +TOPIC: How To Sound Like David Gilmour + + +David Gilmour is known for both incredible tone and highly emotive technique and note choice. He regularly appears in the top 3 (often at number 1) when guitar publications hold best solo ever polls. From iconic releases like Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here and The Wall through to 2006s dreamy, reflective On An Island, great guitar tone and playing has been a hallmark of all his work. Rumor is hes been back in the studio recently, so it seems like a good time to look at his sound. + +Guitar + +Davids most famous guitar is his black Strat. This is the guitar you are hearing on the classic Pink Floyd albums of the seventies and early eighties. + +Modifications to the guitar include a shortened tremolo arm, internal shielding, and a small recessed switch that adds the neck pickup to any selected configuration. + +Over the years David and his tech Phil Taylor made other modifications that were eventually decided against- for example, fitting a Kahler tremolo, adding a humbucker between two of the pickups, and installing an XLR socket. These changes have been reversed with varying degrees of cosmetic success. + +These days you can own an incredibly accurate replica of this guitar, by buying the Fender David Gilmour Signature Stratocaster. It includes all the wear and all the dodgy repair work but if thats not your style, they also do a guitar of the same spec but in as new (NOS new old stock) condition. + +Pickups + +The neck and bridge pickups on the black Strat are the pickups that came with the guitar, but the bridge pickup is a custom pickup that Seymour wound especially for David, an overwound version of the SSL-1. The pickup in that guitar was called an SSL-1C (with the C standing for custom), but the pickup eventually went into production as the SSL-5. Putting the SSL-5 into your guitar is a surefire way to take a step towards the Gilmour sound. In fact, even if youre not chasing his tone, its a fantastic pickup in its own right that everyone should try. If you want flat polepieces for modern fingerboard radii then you should go for the SSL-6, or if you like a noiseless pickup, the STK-S6 is the Stack Plus version. + +The difference between the SSL-5 and a regular Strat bridge pickup is more mids, more power and more beef. It doesnt lose the Strat character, but it has a more authoritative tone thats great for lead work. + +Strings +If you had your own signature strings, a strap that used to belong to Jimi Hendrix, and the royalties from Dark Side of the Moon, you'd be this happy too. + +If you had your own signature strings, a strap that used to belong to Jimi Hendrix, and the royalties from Dark Side of the Moon, youd be this happy too. + +David uses a custom set of gauges on his Strat .010, .012, .016, .028, .038, .048. These are available as a signature set of GHS Boomers. The first thing youll notice here is that the B and G strings are lighter than youd normally see in a set of 10s. In fact, the G string is the same as youd normally see in a set of 9s! The effect this has is to make bending a little easier on those two strings. Well talk about bends a bit later on, but this is quite important. + +The other unusual thing about the set is that the three wound things are slightly thicker. This gives them a bit more resistance when digging hard into chords, and a bit more punch when you get down to them in lead work. The set doesnt feel unbalanced in the way that some hybrid gauge sets can, and its very comfortable to play on. + +Pick + +Its hard to find information on what picks David uses in fact, he seems to change his mind quite a lot. My only advice on this would be not to use one thats too soft, as you need to be able to dig in quite a lot. +Amp + +Heres where things start to get complicated. In the studio, David has used many different amps. A lot of his recorded tones actually result from plugging into several amps at once and recording the resulting mix. Still others result from taking a feed straight from the guitar to the desk, bypassing any amp completely. And yet it still sounds like him, on every track. + +On stage, David usually uses his Hiwatt 100 watt heads into several 412 cabinets. However, again, this frequently changes he often uses the Alembic B2 preamp, feeding it into the power stage of the Hiwatts. My recommendation to start approaching the right tone is to find an amp that can be turned up very loud while staying clean. This is the basis of almost all of Davids tones. + +Pedals +David's 1994 Pulse rig, which handily doubles up as a life support machine for alien robot monsters. + +Davids 1994 Pulse rig, which handily doubles up as a life support machine for alien robot monsters. + +Where do we even start? I wonder if an effects pedal has ever been made that David doesnt own. Some of the rigs he has used on tour are actually clinically insane. Rather than list all these pedals for you here, Ill talk about what you can do to get yourself somewhere close without breaking the bank. + +Even though probably the first pedal for lead tones that comes to mind when thinking about Davids tone is the Big Muff, the pedal that I actually found took my the furthest towards his sounds was a ProCo Rat. This has the advantage of being able to do reasonable impersonations of the Fuzz Face and the Big Muff as well as its own tones, so you get good value there. + +On top of that, other essential items are a lush, whooshy phaser, a digital delay that will let you get up to at least 800ms of delay, a smooth overdrive pedal, a compressor, and possibly a chorus. You can research the exact units that David uses if you like, but I think its better to have devices that you feel comfortable using and that give a sound you like, because + +Playing Style + +We all know the drill: you ask on the internet how do I get that sound? and after three or four posts someone always pipes up tone is all in the fingers. If thats true, why do these guys carry around tens of thousands of dollars worth of guitar equipment? + +Well, Im sorry, but with David its actually true. Youve seen hints at this throughout the article he can sound like himself with any pickup, with any pick, with any amp, with any set of pedals. Or without any of that stuff, just plugging the guitar straight into the desk. + +The last few times Ive been lucky enough to receive a compliment along the lines of you sound like Gilmour, the first time I was playing a Tele with a Little 59 into an Orange Tiny Terror, and the second time I was playing a Les Paul with the Slash signature pickups into a modelled Marshall both times, with no effects. And my rendition of the Comfortably Numb solo that I got the most awesome reaction ever for was an SG with EMGs in it, plugged through the RAT into a Fender Blues Junior. In this video of me attempting the Comfortably Numb solo, Im using a Seymour Duncan STK-S6 Custom Stack Plus (the noiseless version of the SSL-5), through a cheap modelling unit. + +None of this is really anything like what David uses. So lets look at what you can do to pick up that vibe in your playing. + +First off bending. David bends a lot. And were not just talking bending the seventh up to the root here. Were talking one-and-a-half, two, even two-and-a-half step bends. Sometimes he plays an entire melodic lick by bending one note up and down through the different notes that make it up. There are lots of quarter bends. The one thing that is completely consistent is that the bends are absolutely to pitch. If you want to be able to play like David, then your number one priority is to be able to bend to pitch accurately, every time. In fact, you even need to be able to bend the string to pitch accurately before you play the note. So get practicing. + +Davids right-hand technique is quite aggressive on lead work. There is lots of digging in and almost every note will see a little skin touching the string after the pick. This means that there are lots of subtle harmonics on top of the main note. + +There is no shredding here. Davids notes are individually chosen for effect and held for as long as they take to sink in. Vibrato is applied at various speeds and with left hand or tremolo arm depending on the desired effect. The only way to get a feel for this is to listen to the songs and then try to play them. diff --git a/Books/Music/Articles/Satriani.txt b/Books/Music/Articles/Satriani.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d1d4692 --- /dev/null +++ b/Books/Music/Articles/Satriani.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1596 @@ +ARTIST: Joe Satriani +GENRE: Rock, Art Rock, Blues Rock +CONCEPTS: Target notes, pentatonic scales, melodic phrasing, ballad soloing +SOURCE: Next Level Guitar +TOPIC: Satriani's licks melody, and phrasing + +Joe Satriani is one of the most influential modern rock guitarists. In "What The Hell?" my opinion he has revolutionized rock guitar much in similar ways and then they that Jimi Hendrix and Eddie Van Halen did. + +throw it away and + +He set the guitar world on its ear with his landmark 1987 release keep on playing "Surfing With The Alien". It was the first instrumental rock album to -Joe Satriani reach the BillBoard Top 40 charts. + +His uncanny ability to re-invent common blues licks into catchy melodies is truly amazing. He is also known for his fluid legato technique, unique two hand chord and arpeggio tapping, exotic melodies, super interesting and unique chord voicings, shifting modalities, and musically compelling song structure. These all help define his unique guitar style. + +Although he is recognized as a virtuoso, he views his relationship with the guitar as much more than the mastery of technique. His focus seems to be on songwriting and the creation of melodies and drawing his audience in with instrumental storytelling, + +He stated, solos I kind of care less about. I know most people probably think that's what I care most about, but it's really the melody playing that is the cornerstone of what I'm working on. + +His playing is as melodic as it is technical. He produces expertly crafted pieces of music drawing from his deep well of musical and guitar creativity combined with his black belt in music theory. + +Satrianis brilliant and creative playing has influenced countless guitarists all over the world. We can all be inspired and empowered through his playing and his twenty five year catalog of recordings. + +Now letss get started + +3 of + +Things to keep in mind: + + + +Keep in mind my teachings focus on giving students a well rounded + + + +musical education. This does not mean you have to master every lead KEY guitar avenue or scale before moving on to the next. You will want to work on multiple things at once by dividing up your practice time. + +Throughout this eBook I teach many lead guitar avenues so feel free to + +hop around. Some are more challenging than others and take more time Keep in mind not to + +to learn and apply. neglect your Over time you will find the principles and techniques sink in and rhythm playing. + +eventually become automatic. Then you can let your ear take you to all Your lead playing + +so much but rather focus on emotion and feel. the right notes. You wont have to think about techniques and application will only ever be as + +good as your + +It can be overwhelming with so much to learn and so many learning rhythm playing. + +materials readily available. Try not to take on too much at once as you may become overwhelmed and frustrated. You dont want to rush things and then end up skimming over important topics leaving voids in your + +playing. Keep in mind that + +Its critical to take the extra time to learn the why things work. Learning no matter how good + +the whys will give you the musical knowledge to blast these principles a solo is..in the and techniques across all your playing. It will give you the lead guitar end its the song + +confidence to be able to instantly know what avenues are possible when soloing and improvising. that will be Use these lessons as templates to learn the whys and then develop remembered. + +them into your guitar arsenal through practical application. Then you will have the tools and confidence to blast these playing techniques across all your playing at any given time, in any given jam, and in any given song. + +As you further develop your lead guitar skills you want to keep developing your rhythm skills. Your rhythm and groove are critical elements to your overall abilities on the guitar. + +Your lead playing will really only ever be as good as your rhythm playing. No matter how good a solo is, its the song that will always be remembered. + +KEY POINT: Keep in mind that there is just no substitute for practicing the right things, learning scales, studying the sounds and relationships between chords and scales, developing your ear, practicing and honing your skills using jam tracks, and continually pushing yourself and refining your art. 4 of + +Practice Items & Tips: + +Below are some general study avenues for rock and blues guitar. Because students of various levels will be reading this eBook these are broad jump off points for consideration. Work down the list and see which you are comfortable with and which needs work. Many of the below items will be addressed in detail in this eBook. Remember your guitar playing is an evolution. Use some of the items on the below list to set some musical goals and then chip away at them a little each day. + + + +- Learn the notes on the neck cold. No way around this one, it is super critical. + +-As you study lead guitar, continue to learn chords and work on your rhythm playing. You will be playing rhythm often so your lead playing will really only ever be as good as your rhythm playing. + +-Learn some music theory. It will help propel you faster along in your guitar journey as well as you will be able to better communicate the language of music. + +-Dont just learn scales alone. Learn the scale but also learn how to apply it. Learn when it works, over what chords, and how to play it in all keys. Knowing the scale itself is only half the battle. + +-Kick off your lead guitar journey by learning the Minor Pentatonic scale. Start with the basic box shape and then learn all five boxes and expanded scales. Pentatonic scales are the cornerstone for blues rock soloing. + +-Learn how to convert minor pentatonic scales into major pentatonic scales by using the concept of major to relative minor. This is a huge help as you wont have to learn another full neck of scales. + +-Dont just learn shapes. Take the extra time to learn the notes of the scales you are playing and the notes that are in chords. This will help you immensely in so many ways along your guitar journey. + +-Be sure to know how to solo comfortably in both minor AND major key. + +-Always try to compliment the song with your lead lines. Remember, no matter how good a solo is, in the end its the song that will be remembered. Play for the song, not for yourself. + +-Learn some triads and arpeggios. They really open up your playing, add color and variety, and get you out of playing straight scales. They are super useful and can be super melody builders. + +-After you have a firm grasp on pentatonics scales and how to apply them start to learn Major and Natural Minor Scales. These are the building blocks to learn the modes of the major scale. + +-Learn the modes of the major scale. For rock and blues playing start with Aeolian, Dorian, and Mixolydian. + +-Study and learn the leads of some of your favorite players. Learn why their leads work and what you like about them. Then make their licks your own, put your own spin on them. Also try imitating the melody of a vocal line on your guitar. This really helps to understand and build melodies on the instrument. + +-Practice soloing and improvising over jam tracks. Know the chords of the rhythm track and just get lost in it. Its critical to practice and apply what you are learning in a musical context, and jam tracks are awesome practice. + +-Develop your ear, dont rely solely on tablature. Try to learn songs and licks by ear and listen for the color of chords and try any ear training that you can get your hands on. Its hard work, but well worth it. + +-Keep in mind that at this stage of your lead guitar journey there is just no substitute for practicing the right things, learning scales, studying the sounds and relationships between chords and scales, developing your ear, practicing and honing your skills using jam tracks, and continually pushing yourself and refining your art. + +5 of 35 5 of + +Notes On The Fretboard: + + + + + +Open Strings + +Eddie Ate Dynamite Good Bye Eddie + + + +# = Sharp + +b = Flat + + + +The twelve-note scale consists of: + +A, Bb, B, C, C#, D, Eb, E, F, F#, G, G# + +Memorize the order of the 12-note scale + +as the notes always appear on the + +guitar neck in the above order. + +Examine the notes along one string + +vertically. Notice how the notes always + +repeat in this same order. The notes + +then repeat every 12 frets. + +Once you have the 12-note scale + +memorized start applying it to the frets + +on the guitar and memorizing where the + +notes live on the fretboard. + +Take it slow and work on one string at a + +time. Start with the low E string. Once + +you memorize that string you will also + +know the note names on the high E + +string as the note names on those two + +strings are the same. + +Once you have the E strings memorized + +then move on to the A string, then the D + +string, and so on. Chip away at getting + +each string down a little each day. Add + +learning the notes to your practice log - + +you can do it!. + +6 of + +Key signature & chord analyzing + +In rock and blues you will often solo over progressions that are in either major key or minor key. In blues usually its major key and often using Minor Pentatonic & + +dominant chords. But you want to have the tools to be able to solo over Blues Scales - four + +both major and minor key. + +great applications: + +Knowing the key is important, and a good place to start. But to go + +get the complete roadmap for soloing options. Always start with what 1. Over all chords in minor deeper you have to analyze the chords that make up the progression to + +are the chords and what is the key. key (except a major V chord). + +Soon these techniques will become more automatic. But first doing it in 2. Over any minor type chord + +a very systematic and methodical way will get you used to these when treating each chord as a + +principles. separate event. + +Remember there are many lead avenues to choose from, so explore 3. Over all the chords in major + +them all and and see what sounds best to your ears. key I-IV-V blues jams, swings, + +and shuffles. + +KEY POINT: Analyze the chords to determine what solo avenues to take. Its the chords that give the complete roadmap to the various 4. Over all the chords in rock + +soloing avenues the key signature is only part of the equation. jams or jams using power or + +5th chords, (except major + +Its important to understand why these principles and techniques work sounding jams and ballads). + +so that you can solo and improvise over any progression. Armed with this knowledge and practicing in a musical context will give you the lead Soloing in minor key: + +guitar confidence to solo over any progression. When playing over all the + +chords in minor key, what + +KEY POINT: Remember that as soon as you hear that very identifiable relates to all, you can I-IV-V blues, swing, or shuffle, it is wide open as there will be many always use Natural Minor + +different soloing avenues to try. Scales, (Aeolian Mode), + +UNLESS there is a major IV + +Key Points To Determine Soloing Avenues: chord or a minor ii chord, in + +those cases use the Dorian + +1. Determine the key signature Mode. - often you will be soloing in minor key or major key. Knowing the key is the first step. Even when you are just noodleing around on the guitar, always know in what key you are playing. + +2. Analyze the chord progression its the chords that will give you the complete roadmap to what you can utilize for soloing and improvisation. Analyzing the chords is critical to get the full lead guitar picture. + + + +The points listed throughout these materials are guidelines to get you started, not rules forged in stone. Often in jams you have to use your discretion. You want to learn the principles and techniques so you have 7 of + +a solid jump off point to get creative and then start bending the rules. + +The Choices When Soloing: + +When soloing/improvising there are TWO + +CHOICES: + + + +1. Solo with what relates to all use the same scale or mode KEY over all the chords. No matter what chord is sounding, play the same scale over each chord. You play what works over ALL the + +chords. There is no This is the most common choice and definitely what most players substitute for learning + +do when first developing their soloing skills. Start with what scales and studying + +relates to all. Get proficient at this before moving on to the next the sounds and + +choice described below. relationships + + + +Or you can: between chords and scales. + +2. Treat each chord like a separate event- this choice is more challenging but yields a very sophisticated sound. By Keep developing + +treating each chord as a separate event you solo with a different your ear and practice + +scale or mode over each chord and change the scale or mode using jam tracks. + +with each chord change. This techniques does not stay within the Continually push + +confines of the same scale as with what relates to all. yourself to the next + +With this approach you must listen to what is going on underneath level. Stay positive + +the soloing. You have to listen to which chords are sounding and and remember.. + +also for the changes. Then time your playing and change scales YOU CAN DO IT! + +as the chords change. + +Employ this technique whenever there is enough time on a given chord. If the chords are flying by fast, there wont be enough time to treat each chord as a separate event. + +This technique takes practice but it will skyrocket your playing to the next level. Practice this technique with slow tempo progressions where there is lots of time on each chord and remember to listen for the changes. + +Remember, at first practice with jam tracks with slow moving changes to perfect this technique. You want lots of time on each chord. + +KEY POINT: The above two choices are NOT mutually exclusive, you can mix them both together. Treat each chord as a separate event, then switch it up and play what relates to all. Toggle back and forth and get lost exploring within the jam track. 8 of + + + + + +Minor Key Soloing + + +You want to be comfortable soloing in both minor key and major key. If a progression is in minor key you can usually solo with Minor Pentatonic & Blues Scales over ALL the chords, (with a few Minor Pentatonic & + +exceptions). Blues Scales - four + +So minor pentatonic over minor key should be a default setting. As great applications: + +soon as you hear minor key, you know one option is to solo over all the chords with Minor Pentatonic & Blues Scales as they relate 1. Over all chords in minor + +to all. key (except a major V chord). + + + +Also if its a major key bluesy I-IV-V, like the Satriani inspired Jam 2. Over any minor type chord when treating each chord as a Tarck in G, one option is to solo over all the chords with Minor separate event. Pentatonic & Blues scales. An exception to this rule is if its a + + + +minor key progression with a major V chord. You have to be 3. Over all the chords in major careful over that major V, one option is to use Harmonic Minor key I-IV-V blues jams, swings, Scale over just that V chord. and shuffles. + +A minor mode will also work over all the chords in minor key. 4. Over all the chords in rock + +Usually its Aeolian or Dorian. To determine which one you have to jams or jams using power or + +analyze the chords. For now just memorize the below key point for 5th chords, (except major + +soloing in minor key over all the chords: sounding jams and ballads). + +KEY POINT: When playing over all the chords in minor key you Soloing in minor key: + +can always use the AEOLIAN mode, UNLESS there is a IV major When playing over all the + +chord or II minor chord, then use the DORIAN mode. (Exception - chords in minor key, what + +If there is a V major chord then use Harmonic Minor over just that relates to all, you can V chord). always use Natural Minor + +Scales, (Aeolian Mode), + +Aeolian mode is the same thing as Natural Minor or Pure Minor. UNLESS there is a major IV + +chord or a minor ii chord, in + +those cases use the Dorian + +Use Minor Pentatonic & Blues Scales (4 Mode. + +applications): + +1. Over all the chords in a minor key, (few exceptions). + +2. Over all chords in major key I-IV-V blues, shuffles, and swings. + +3. Over any minor type chord when treating each chord as a separate event. + +4. Over all the chords in rock type jams, or jams using power or 5th chords, (as long as the jam is not ballad/major sounding, if so then use major pentatonic or possibly full major scales). + +5. Use the same key Pentatonic Scale over different chords - at + +times you can play different key pentatonic scales over the same 9 of 9 of 35 chord, not just the root scale. + + + + + +Major Key Soloing + + +You want to get comfortable soloing in both minor key and major key. If a progression is in major key one choice is you can usually solo using Major Pentatonic Scales over ALL the chords. + +So major pentatonic over major key should be a default setting just like Major Pentatonic + +minor pentatonic over minor key. As soon as you hear major key, you Scale applications: + +know one option is to solo over all the chords with Major Pentatonic, as it relates to all the chords. + +Major pentatonic produces that sweet, bright, major sound. Be sure to 1. Over all chords when in a + +play the scale and listen to the sounds created. Its a very different major key. sound than the bluesy Minor Pentatonic Scale. Like I always say, its all about the sounds and mood. 2. Over any major type chord + +MAJOR KEY I-IV-V blues, shuffles, and swings: when treating each chord as a + +separate event. (especially + +You will hear these rhythms all the time in blues music. If a progression + +dominant 7th chords in blues + +is a major key IIVV blues, swing, or shuffle there are MANY avenues + +jams - very popular choice). + +to utilize when soloing and improvising, its wide open. + +3. Over all the chords in major + +You can solo with what relates to all and also by treating each chord + +key I-IV-V blues jams, swings, + +as a separate event. Here are some suggestions to try over these type + +and shuffles. + +very common progressions: + + + +1. Try 4. Over all the chords in rock Minor Pentatonic & Blues scales over all the chords in the key major sounding jams and of the progression. This yields that dark, bluesy, minor sound. (Minor especially major ballads. Pentatonic & Blues 1,b3,4,b5,5,b7) + +2. Try Major Pentatonic scales over all the chords in the key of the Soloing in major key: + +progression. This produces that sweet major sound ala BB King/Allman Be careful as there is not as + +Brothers. This will be a totally different sound than Minor Pentatonic. much room for error in major + +(Major Pentatonic 1,2,3,5,6) key and sour notes will + +really stick out. You can at + +3. Mix Minor Pentatonic & Blues and Major Pentatonic. You will hear times combine major + +this a lot in the lead playing of Eric Clapton and BB King. The switching pentatonic with minor + +and mixing of Minor and Major Pentatonic is an awesome sound. (Minor pentatonic to produce hybrid + +& Major Pentatonic 1,2,b3,3,4,5,6,b7) scales with elements of both + +minor and major. + +4. Try the Dorian Mode over all the chords. Dorian is the second mode of the major scale and is considered more of a minor mode but its intervals have elements of both minor, (b3, b7), and major (2nd, 6th). + +So Dorian works great in any situation where you know both Minor Pentatonic and Major Pentatonic will work. Give it at try over I-IV-V blues progressions and you will be surprised how killer it can sound. (Dorian Mode 1,2,b3,4,5,6,b7) + +5. Try the Mixolydian Mode as it works great over dominant chords like 7th and 9th chords. Try to play this mode over each chord independently in the key of the chord. (Mixolydian Mode is the fifth 10 of 35 + +mode of the major scale 1,2,3,4,5,6,b7). + +Joe Satriani Inspired G Jam Track + +Key - G Time Signature: 4/4 + + + +Tempo - 110 BPM Length of Track - 10:31 Blues Scales - Minor Pentatonic & + +Chords: G5 - C5 - D5 I-IV-V 4 great applications: + +This rocking Satriani inspired jam track is in the key of G and follows a 1. Over all chords in minor key + +standard I-IV-V change using power/fifth chords. (except a major V chord) + +Since we are using 5th chords the jam is pretty wide open. Fifth chords 2. Over any minor type chord + +are made of just a root and fifth interval, no third. So with no major or when treating each chord as a + +minor 3rd there is no rub against major or minor sounding notes. separate event + +When a rock jam utilizes power 5th chords you can instantly consider 3. Over all the chords in major + +utilizing minor pentatonic & blues over all the chords as one soloing key I-IV-V blues jams, swings, + +option, (memorize the four key minor pentatonic application points and shuffles illustrated on the right, note #4). + +4. Over all the chords in rock + +However, to get the complete soloing picture you have to analyze all jams or jams using power or 5th + +the chords. Its the chords that give the complete soloing roadmap. chords, (except major sounding + +jams and ballads) + +On this track there is enough time on each chord to also treat each + +chord as a separate event. Remember, if the chords are flying by fast Soloing in minor key: + +you dont have enough time to solo on each chord independently. In those cases you would be playing more of what When playing over all the relates to all. + +chords in minor key, what + + + +A. This is a rock jam using power 5th chords in the key of G. So we What Relates to all the chords: relates to all, you can always use Natural Minor Scales, (Aeolian Mode), UNLESS there instantly know G minor pentatonic & blues scales works over all the is a major IV chord or a minor ii chords. No matter which chord you are playing over, solo with G minor chord, in those cases use the pentatonic & blues scales as those scales relate to all the chords. Try Dorian Mode. to groove and swing your bluesy licks as outlined in the video lessons. + +B. G Natural Minor Scales, (G Aeolian mode) - In rock jams as well as in minor key, a minor mode usually relates to all the chords. Play G natural minor scales over all the chords, G Aeolian = BbMajor. + +G Aeolian = G, A, Bb C, D, Eb, F + +Bb Major = Bb, C, D, Eb, F, G, A + +C. Mix both G Aeolian and G minor pentatonic & blues scales over all the chords for some killer sounds. Be creative and try to resolve your licks on strong chord tones and refer to the video lessons for playing examples using both G minor pentatonic & blues as well as G natural minor, (G Aeolian Mode). + +11 of 35 + +Put on the track and just get lost in it - experiment and get creative! + +Joe Satriani Inspired E Jam Track + +Key - E major Time Signature - 4/4 + +Tempo - 75 BPM Length of track - 6:31 + +Chords - E and B droning chords + +This is a very atmospheric jam track in the style of Joe Satriani. This track is basically just an E droning chord. I designed this track as a practice tool to be utilized in learning and exploring the sounds and moods that can be created by utilizing various scales and modes. This track is wide open so there are a TON of different soloing and improvisational avenues to explore. + +Often in jamming and modal playing there is lots of room for improvisation and creativity. You have to use your discretion and determine what sounds best to your ears, which sounds and moods that you like best. + +So you will want to try all the different moods and textures that can be created. You want to explore and experiment and seek out to which you are most attracted. + +This track is a perfect practice tool to do just that - explore. You can test drive all the possible moods created by utilizing modal playing. You can also work on applying all the techniques that you have learned throughout the video lesson series. + +Modal playing and modal application is taught in great detail in the video lessons as well as in the coming pages of this eBook, please refer to them as necessary. And remember its all about the sounds and moods that you can create, so be sure and listen carefully to each mode as you play them over this track. + + + +Try these over the E drone Jam Track: + +1. E Lydian - Start on the fourth note of a B major scale and play from the E note to the next E note and that produces E Lydian. B major and E Lydian consist of the same notes. Play B major scales but start on and emphasize the E notes for E Lydian. You can also try straight E major scales over the track, but personally I like the more mysterious mood that E Lydian brings to the table - but try both and see what you like best. + +2. Pentatonic Scales - if you rather utilize pentatonics try B major pentatonic, which is the same as G# minor pentatonic, (major and relative minor). This will still produce a Lydian mood as all the notes in B major pentatonic are also in E Lydian. You can also try E minor pentatonic and see how you like the more minor sounds over the track. E major pentatonic also works for that sweet, major sound. + +3. E Phrygian - Start on the third note of a C major scale and play from the E note to the next E note and that produces E Phrygian. C major and E Pyrygian consist of the same notes. Play C major scales but start on and emphasize the E notes for E Phrygian. + +4. E Phrygian Dominant - Phrygian dominant sounds awesome when played over a long lingering major chord. This mode is the 5th mode of the Harmonic Minor scale. Play A Harmonic Minor scales but shift emphasis to the E notes for E Phrygian Dominant. + +5. Mix and combine modes and scales - mix together all the above. There is no rule that states you have to stay in one mode or just use one scale. Mix it up and come up with all kinds of creative ideas. + +12 of 35 + +Understanding and learning scales is a critical element in your guitar journey. Scales are the building blocks Scales Defined to creating licks and the roadmap to the fretboard. Pentatonic Scales are the most common scales used in most genres of music so they are a great place to start, especially for blues and rock. + +Scales are a group or collection of notes in ascending or descending order that we use in music. Scale notes are listed out in order and usually sound from low to high. + +The order of the notes used in a scale is crucial as that order provides a measure of musical distance. The distance between notes is called an interval. How scale notes line up, or the intervals, will give the scale not only its name but also its mood or musical color. Just like certain chords have a mood to them, scales also produce a certain sound or mood. + +One critical aspect of a scale is its root note. The root note is the starting note and note which all the other scale notes gravitate toward. I like to call the root note home base. Most other notes seem to want to resolve to the root as its the tonic center for the scale. Often you can determine the key of a given progression by just listening for what sounds like home base, what are all the chords are pulling toward. + +When learning scales, always make mental notes as to where the root notes are in that scale. In this eBook the root notes are illustrated with black ovals. Its critical to know your root note locations. + +The successive notes in a scale are divided by steps, or tones. A half step is also called a semi-tone and is one fret on the guitar. A whole step is also called a whole tone and is two frets. A minor third is three frets and a major third is four frets. + +The table below illustrates some common scales and their intervals. Scales titled in blues are the modes of the major scale. When learning scales also learn their application and how to play them in all keys. + + + +Major Scale 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 + +Natural Minor Scale 1 2 b3 4 5 b6 b7 + +Minor Pentatonic Scale 1 b3 4 5 b7 + +Blues Scale 1 b3 4 b5 5 b7 + +Major Pentatonic Scale 1 2 3 5 6 + +Major Pentatonic Sus4 Scale 1 2 3 4 5 6 + +Ionian Mode (Major Scale) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 + +Dorian Mode 1 2 b3 4 5 6 b7 + +Phrygian Mode 1 b2 b3 4 5 b6 b7 + +Lydian Mode 1 2 3 #4 5 6 7 + +Mixolydian Mode 1 2 3 4 5 6 b7 + +Aeolian Mode 1 2 b3 4 5 b6 b7 + +Locrian Mode 1 b2 b3 4 b5 b6 b7 + +Harmonic Minor Scale 1 2 b3 4 5 b6 7 + + + + + +Minor Pentatonic - The Basic Box Shape + + +Pentatonic scales are the most commonly used scales in most genres of music, so you will want to get very comfortable with them. Often they are the first scales students learn on their lead guitar journey. + +Penta is Latin for five. Like a penta-gram has five sides and a penta-gon has five sides, pentatonic scales are constructed from five notes. + +The minor pentatonic scale is constructed of five notes of the natural minor scale. The intervals in minor pentatonic are root or 1, b3rd, 4th, 5th, and b7th. + + + +The scale illustrated on the right is the most common basic box position. This scale has its low root played with the first finger on the low E string. The root notes are illustrated with black ovals and the numbers inside the circles indicate the fingering to be utilized when playing this scale. At first try utilizing one finger per fret. + +We are going to build upon this scale in coming lessons. Eventually you will need to learn this scale in all positions all over the neck, and in all keys. + +Start with this basic box, then on to the Expanded I, and eventually all five box shapes as illustrated in the coming pages of this eBook. + +Practice the scale utilizing the fingerings illustrated. Sound each note clean, with no string buzzes or overtones. As you move through the scale make a mental note of when you hit the three root notes. + +The key signature is determined by which root note is played. If you play this scale starting at the third fret on the low E string it is a G minor pentatonic scale consisting of notes G, Bb, C, D, and F. + +If you were to play this scale starting on the 8th fret, it would be a C minor pentatonic scale consisting of notes C, Eb, F, G, and Bb. + +Much like moveable bar chords this scale can be moved up and down the guitar neck and the root note will determine the key you are playing. Practice the scale in all keys. + +This scale will form the building block of many concepts to come. You want to be very familiar with this scale pattern, but do not rely on it exclusively. + +We are going to build on this scale extensively. Next we will be expanding it across the fretboard. This will make it a more fluid sounding scale that you can move laterally across the neck combining multiple box positions. + +14 of 35 + + + + + +String Bending in Minor Pentatonic + + +Bending strings is one of the most expressive things you can do on the guitar. You will want to get very + +proficient and accurate with string bending, its an art. + +When bending strings, it is imperative that you are bending notes in pitch to the proper target note. You + +dont want to over bend or under bend notes, as they will then sound sharp or flat. Practice bending + +strings and then check the pitch by sounding the note you are attempting to bend to, your target note. + +This is a good self-check to ensure you are bending in pitch. + +You can also practice string bending in pitch by plugging into an electronic tuner that has a needle and + +watching the needle as you bend a note and ultimately see it hit pitch. Keep doing it over and over until + +you feel the bend strength string tension-wise, as well as hear the bend in pitch matching to the target + +note. + +Play the box pattern scale illustrated on the right with a fifth fret low-E string root. That root note would + +make this an A minor pentatonic scale. Once you learn the string bends listed below, practice them + +using different shapes and in all keys. For now try the bends in A minor pentatonic using the basic box + +shape. + +1. b3rd to major 3rd bend. Bend the b3rd or C note a quarter to a half step to the major 3rd. This is a very cool + +bend as the b3rd is a very ambiguous note in this scale. It sometimes will sound great as the b3rd but also as a + +major 3rd. This note has some play in it and you dont have to be exact with the bend, play with it and you will + +soon be utilizing this bend all the time. + +2. Bend the 4th a half step to the blue note. Bend the D note 7th fret G string up one half step to the Eb note. + +Hugely popular blues bend. + +3. Bend the 4th degree a whole step to the fifth. Bend the D note 7th fret G-string up one whole step to the E + +note. The 4th or D note can be bent either a whole or a half step. + +4. Bend the b7th a whole step up to the root. Bend the G note 8th fret B string up one whole step to the A root + +note. You can also bend the same note an octave lower at the G note at the 5th fret on the D string up one whole + +step. + +5. Unison bend. Use your 4th finger to bend the G note 8th fret B string a whole step to an A note while playing + +the A note 5th fret high E string with your 1st finger. + +6. Unison bend. Use your 3rd finger to bend the D note 7th fret G string a whole step to an E note while playing + +the E note 5th fret B string with your 1st finger. + +7. Bend the b3rd a full step to the 4th. Bend the C note 8th fret high E string one whole step to the D note. + +8. Double stop bend. Bend two strings a half step each with your 3rd finger by barring across the 7th fret with + +one finger. Bend the D note 7th fret G string one half step while also bending the F# note 7th fret B string one half + +step. + +8. Double stop bend. Use your 3rd finger to bend the D note 7th fret G string a whole step while playing the G + +note on the B string 8th fret with your 4th finger. + + + +Experiment and get creative with these string bending ideas. Remember to keep checking your bends to ensure + +you are bending in pitch. + +15 of 35 + + + + + +Minor Pentatonic - The Five Box Shapes + + +The five minor pentatonic box shapes illustrated below cover the entire guitar neck. These are must-know scales, especially for blues and rock. Take your time learning them, chip away a little each day. As you move through each scale make a mental note of when pass through a root note, which are illustrated in black. + +These five positions are the architecture to build endless licks and runs. They also connect into longer expanded scales that you will learn in the coming pages. To avoid getting stuck in one position be sure to learn ALL the positions and practice them in different keys over jam tracks. + +These scale shapes are moveable and the key is determined by the low root note. For example, if you want to solo with Box #1 in G minor pentatonic use your first finger starting at the third fret on the low E-string and play the shape. Third fret low-E string is an G note. That makes the scale an G minor pentatonic scale with the notes G, Bb, C, D, and F. + +To try another pentatonic box in G minor play box #3 using your 3rd finger at the 10th fret A-string. Fret ten on the A-string is a G note. You are playing the same five notes as in the above example, G, Bb, C, D, and F, just in a different position on the guitar neck. + +Along with memorizing the scale shapes it is also critical to know what notes you are playing and how to apply these scales. Too often, guitarists memorize only shapes. Dont just learn scale shapes, take the time to also learn the notes and how to musically apply the scale, in the end it will make you a better musician. + +Another critical element when learning scales is to not only memorize the scale but also learn its application. Learn how to apply it in a musical context - over what chords, in what key. Start by memorizing and practicing the four applications for minor pentatonic as listed in this eBook on page nine. Practice these scales in the key of G over the G Satriani inspired jam track. + + + + + +16 of 35 + +Minor Pentatonic - The Expanded Scales + +Lets build on the minor pentatonic scales that you learned in the previous lesson. We will expand the scale two frets in each direction combining three box shapes to double the playing area. These expanded scales will get you playing ACROSS the neck and eliminate the stuck in the box scenario. + +We are still going to play the same five-note pentatonic scale but these expanded scale produce a more fluid sound as opposed to staying in just one vertical box. You certainly want to have all the box patterns in your playing arsenal, but these expanded scales open the pathways and lead guitar avenues. You will utilize these expanded scales all the time, they are invaluable. + +illustrated below you can see part of three box patterns encapsulated within each of the longer shapes. The expanded shapes are stretched two frets in each direction combining three adjacent boxes. The expanded I scale combines boxes 5, 1, and 2 while the expanded II scale combines boxes 3, 4, and 5. + +These expanded pentatonic scales double the fret span of the single box patterns. Practice these expanded scales in different keys and add them to your playing arsenal. + +Just like the box patterns these expanded scales are moveable and the root note determines the key. Same principle applies to finding them in the proper key as with the individual box shapes. + + + +Practice these scales in the key + +of G over the G Satriani inspired + +jam track. + +To play these expanded scales + +in G minor first find the G notes. + +To play the expanded I scale in + +G minor, start with your third + +finger on the 3rd fret of the low + +E-string and play the shape. + +Third fret low E-string is an G + +note. + +To play the expanded II scale in + +G minor, start with your third + +finger on the 10th fret of the A- + +string and play the shape. Tenth + +fret A-string is an G note. + +To locate these scales fast just + +find the low root note. The + +expanded I uses 3rd finger root + +on the low E-string and the + +expanded II uses 3rd finger root + +on the A-string. Find the root + +notes and blast away from there! + +Practice in all keys and over jam + +tracks - keep on rocking! + +Minor Pentatonic & Blues- The Five Boxes + +Now we will add one note to the minor pentatonic scale and turn it into the six-note blues scale. Pentatonic & Blues scales are the most commonly used scales in most genres of music. + +We can add the flat 5, (b5), or blue note to the pentatonic scale, making it a six-note scale called the Blues Scale. That b5, or blue note, adds a lot of tension and color to the scale. These are must-know scales especially for blues and rock so be sure to memorize them add them to your playing arsenal. + +Most of the time when soloing with minor pentatonic scales you can also use the blues scale. To be safe, at first, use the blue note more in passing for color, dont hang on it too long. Hanging on that flat five too long can sound a bit dissonant. Its a great note though, so experiment with it and let your ear guide you. + +The five box shapes illustrated below cover the entire neck. These five positions are the architecture to build licks and runs as well as to connect into longer expanded scales. To work freely across the entire neck you will want to memorize all five positions as well as the two expanded scales illustrated on the next page. + +These scale shapes are moveable. The key is determined by the root notes illustrated in black. If you want to solo in G minor pentatonic over the G Satriani jam track play box #1 using your first finger starting at the 3rd fret on the low E-string and play the shape from there. Third fret low-E string is an G note. That makes the scale an G minor pentatonic & blues scale consisting of the notes G, Bb, C, Db, D, and F. + +Remember that along with memorizing the scale shapes it is also critical to know what notes you are playing. Too often, guitarists memorize only shapes and forget what notes they are actually playing. Dont just learn scale shapes, take the time to also learn the notes. In the end it will make you a better musician. + +To avoid getting stuck in one position be sure to learn ALL the positions and practice them in different keys. Use the blue notes in passing, resolve often to the root notes and land on strong chord tones. + + + + + +18 of 35 + +Minor Pentatonic & Blues- The Expanded Scales + +Lets build on the minor pentatonic & blues scale that you learned in the previous lesson. Now we will expand the scale two frets in each direction thus combining three box shapes and doubling the playing area. These expanded scales will get you playing ACROSS the neck and eliminate being stuck in the box. + +We are still going to play the same six-note scale. However, the expanded scales exude a much more fluid sound that set up additional lick opportunities. You certainly want to have all the box patterns in your playing arsenal, but these expanded scales really open the pathways and lead guitar avenues. You will utilize these expanded scales all the time, they are invaluable. + +Illustrated below you can see part of three box patterns encapsulated within each longer shape. The shape is expanded two frets in each direction combining three adjacent boxes. The expanded I scale combines boxes 5, 1, and 2 while the expanded II scale combines boxes 3, 4, and 5. + +These expanded blues scales double the fret span of the box patterns. Practice these in different keys over jam tracks and add them to your playing arsenal. + + + +Same principle applies to finding + +the expanded scales in the + +proper key. To play these scales + +in G minor over all the chords in + +the G inspired Satriani jam track, + +first find the G notes. + +To play the expanded I scale in + +the key of G minor, start with + +your third finger on the 3rd fret of + +the low E-string and play the + +shape. Third fret low E-string is + +an G note. + +To play the expanded II scale in + +G minor, start with your third + +finger on the 10th fret of the A- + +string and play the shape. Fret + +ten on the A-string is an G note. + +To locate these scales fast find + +the low root note. The expanded + +I uses 3rd finger root on the low + +E-string and the expanded II + +uses 3rd finger root on the A- + +string. Find the root notes and + +blast away from there - enjoy! + + + +19 of 35 + + + + + +The Major Pentatonic Scale + + +The major pentatonic scale is a five-note scale consisting of five notes from the major scale. The intervals are 1, 2, 3, 5, 6. You do not play the 4th and 7th degrees of the major scale. This incredibly useful scale produces a sweet, happy, major sound and is utilized often in blues, rock, and other musical genres. + +Major pentatonic often works over all the chords in major key when playing what relates to all. Also, utilize major pentatonic over most major type chords when treating each chord as a separate event. + +You can locate the major pentatonic scale all over the neck by going through the minor pentatonic. You wont have to memorize a whole new batch of scale shapes for major pentatonic. We will use the concept of major and relative minor to easily tackle major pentatonic scales across the neck. + +For every major key there is a relative minor key with exactly the same notes. We will use this to help find where these major pentatonic scales live on the fretboard. Minor pentatonic lives a minor 3rd, or three frets away, below the major pentatonic. + +Illustrated below is the basic box shape D major pentatonic. Find it easily by using your fourth finger on the root note low E-string. Its relative minor, B minor pentatonic is illustrated on the right. D major pentatonic scales can also be viewed as B minor pentatonic scales. Both scales consist of the same notes D,E,F#,A, and B. There are lots of ways to look at these, personally I think of pentatonics more in terms of minor. + +The starting and emphasis notes determine which scale you will be playing. D major pentatonic and B minor pentatonic consist of the same notes, just different starting and emphasis notes. It all comes down to what notes you are emphasizing, emphasis is critical. + +Play both scales starting and ending with the roots. Listen how the major pentatonic is sweet and happy sounding when starting on and emphasizing the D notes. Play the same shape but start and end on the B notes and you get the darker, bluesy, minor pentatonic scale. Same notes, just different start and emphasis points, and you have two very different sounding scales. + +One scale gives you the sweet, bright, major sound while the other gives you the dark, bluesy, minor sound. Try playing minor pentatonic over minor chords and major pentatonic over major chords within the same jam track. Be sure to change scales as the chords change and listen for the sound differences between the major and minor, and get lost in the fun. + + + + + +20 of 35 + + + + + +The Major Pentatonic Scale - Key Points + + + + +The major pentatonic scale is constructed from five notes of the major scale. This is similar to how the minor pentatonic scale is constructed from five notes of the natural minor scale, (see below table). + + + +1 2 3 4 5 6 7 = major scale KEY 1 2 3 5 6 = major pentatonic scale + +1 2 b3 4 5 b6 b7 = natural minor scale For every major key there 1 b3 4 5 b7 = minor pentatonic scale is a relative minor key + +with exactly the same + +Remember that you can find all the major pentatonics by going through notes. the relative minor pentatonic scales. Just flip the minor pentatonic shapes to their relative major pentatonic and change emphasis notes. Here are all the major keys and their corresponding relative minors: When soloing in major key + +A major = F# minor use major pentatonic over Bb major = G minor B major = G# minor + +C major = A minor C# major = Bb minor D major = B minor all the chords when + +Ebmajor = C minor E major = C# minor F major = D minor playing what relates to F# major = Eb minor G major = E minor G# major = F minor all . Also use it over any + +For that sweet major pentatonic sound utilize all of your minor major type chord when + +pentatonic scales, but emphasize the root major. For example, when treating each chord as a + +playing in D major pentatonic think of the relative minor B minor separate event. pentatonic. Just start and emphasize on the D notes, not the B notes, to sound major. + +Find major pentatonic + +The blue note does not always apply to major pentatonic and, at times, scales by going through the + +can sound sour. Experiment with it and see how it sounds to your ears. relative minor pentatonic + +The major pentatonic lives three frets ahead of the minor pentatonic. scales. Memorize majors + +For example, if you want to play in D major pentatonic put your pinky and their corresponding + +finger on the D note 10th fret low E-string. Using one finger per fret the relative minors. relative minor will always be three frets back. + +Your first finger will always fall on the relative minor. In this case the B note at the 7th fret of the low E-string. Find the relative minor of any major using this device. + +There is not much room for error when soloing in major key as sour notes can really stick out. You also cant slur passing tones like when when using minor pentatonic. + +Be careful with your note choices and let your ear help guide you. Practice these scales in all keys and listen for the sound differences between minor and major, its all about the mood, emphasis notes, and the sounds and moods the scales produce. 21 of 35 + + + + + +The Major Scale + + +All music theory compares back to the major scale. You are probably familiar with the sound of the major scale doe, re, me, fa, so, la, ti, doe. We all sang that song endless times in elementary school. There are many different fingerings and ways to play major scales all over the guitar neck. + +Below is a system of six major scales. With all six memorized, you can utilize the entire guitar neck. The scales overlap each other and on the next page you will learn to link these scales together. + +The major scale is constructed from seven notes built from the scale degrees of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. Memorize the scales one at a time. Take your time learning them, perhaps chipping away a little each day. As you move through each scale make a mental note of when you hit the root notes, illustrated in black. + +The key signature for each scale is determined by its root note. First learn the scales below in the key of G major. The scales line up nicely in G, so G major is a good place to start. To play the #1 scale in G major put your 2nd finger on the 3rd fret on the low E string, G note, and play the shape. You will now be playing a G major scale which consists of the seven notes G, A, B, C, D, E, and F#. + +To play scale #2 in G put your first finger on the G note on the low E string at the 3rd fret and play the shape. These scales can be moved up and down the guitar neck and should be practiced in all keys. Know your major scales cold and then you will also know all the modes of the major scale. More on that to come later in this eBook as we will be utilizing B major in the Lydian modal video lessons. + + + + + +22 of 35 + + + + + +Major Scale Links + + +Now that you know six major scales from the previous lesson lets link them together and play them across the neck. These links help view the entire neck as one big scale. + +Below are two examples of three octave major scale links that combine three shapes. These are incredibly useful and are easy to play. Both utilize easy to remember repeated fingerings. These scale links help you to practice playing laterally across the neck. Shift with your first finger for both these examples when you get to the D and the B strings. Shift up a whole step, two frets, with the first finger for the 1-1 finger combination. Practice these links in all keys, they are super useful. + +Link 1 utilizes 1-2-4 fingering to play the entire scale link. Shift up with the first finger as indicated. Link 2 utilizes 1-3-4 fingering to play the entire scale link. Again, shift up with the first finger as indicated. Be sure to always make mental notes when passing through root notes. Just like the other scales we have discussed in thie eBook, these scale links are moveable with the root note determining the key. + +To locate these scales fast, first find the low root note. To play these links in G major, first find the G notes. To play the Link 1 in G major, start with your 2nd finger on the 3rd fret of the low E-string and play the shape. Third fret low E-string is a G note. + + + +To play Link 2 in G major, start + +with your 4th finger on the 15th + +fret of the low E-string and play + +the shape. The 15th fret low E- + +string is a G note. + +Find the root notes and blast + +away from there! + +If you have a minor key jam, for + +example, a jam in the key of A + +minor you can still utilize these + +major scales in the parent scale + +of C major. C majors relative + +minor is A minor. Use major and + +relative minor as discussed a + +previous lesson. + +Convert both of these shapes + +back to the parent scale of C + +m a j o r a n d s t a r t o n a n d + +emphasize the A notes for A + +Aeolian, (A natural minor). + +R e m e m b e r , i t s a l l a b o u t + +emphasis and mood. + +More to come on that in the + +Modes lessons coming up next + +in this eBook. + +23 of 35 + + + + + +The Modes Of The Major Scale - Overview + + +There are seven modes of the major scale and each one has its own mood, or distinct sound. Knowing the modes gives you the ability to create various moods and textures. They also open the door to additional soloing options. + + + +Modal playing is often thought as a very abstract and mysterious entity. KEY One that requires a black belt in music theory to understand. That is not true and you can be playing modally with just a little coaching and + +practice. Think of the Modes + +Utilizing the modes will generate interval structures that are different than simply as variations of + +the major scale and therefore produce unique sound qualities. the major scale. + +Each mode has its own unique sound or mood due to its unique interval structure. Some modes are more major sounding and some more minor Anytime you play a + +sounding. My modal methodology requires that you first know your major major scale and start + +scales. We will get to all seven modes through the major scales. on and emphasize a + +Think of the modes as being variations of the major scale. All you will be note other than the + +doing is starting on and emphasizing a note in the major scale other than root, you are playing in + +the root note. the modes. There are seven notes in the major scale and each one corresponds with a different mode. So there are seven modes of the major scale and they Each mode has its own + +always appear in this order: Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, unique sound or + +Aeolian, and Locrian. Memorize the mode names and their order. The mood due to the + +order of the modes is very important. unique interval + +Learn the major scales and how to link them as they are diagrammed out structure of each mode. + +in this eBook. Once you know your major scales you dont have to learn a whole new set of scales for each mode. You will then know all the modes Some modes are more + +of the major scale because you will be using those same major scale major sounding and + +shapes to play all the modes. some more minor + +You will be starting on any of the six shapes on a note other than its root. sounding. Keep in mind its all about the mood or distinct sound of each mode - thats the key, its all about the sounds. + +Besides knowing your major scale, (Ionian Mode), get proficient with the Aeolian Mode, Dorian Mode, Lydian, and then Mixolydian mode. These modes are used most often in blues and rock and we will focus on them in the coming pages of this eBook and in the video lessons. + +THE SEVEN MODES OF THE MAJOR SCALE + +1st mode - Ionian (same as the Major scale) + +2nd mode Dorian (same as Aeolian but with a raised 6th) + +3rd mode - Phrygian (same as Aeolian but with a b2nd) + +4th mode Lydian (same as Ionian but with a #4th) + +5th mode Mixolydian (same as Ionian but with a b7th) + +6th mode Aeolian (same as Natural Minor) 24 of 35 + +The Modes Of The Major Scale - Application 1 + +The key to understanding the modes is to look at the interval structure that defines each mode and then match them with corresponding chords and progressions. Lets discuss each mode and how to apply them. + + + +With any mode or scale its not enough just to know the scale, you also KEY have to know how to use it and apply it in a musical situation. Many of the modes are very similar in their structure. Some have just one note difference. But these slight differences create unique moods and textures. Each mode has its own unique mood and tone. With any mode or scale + +its not enough just to + +The table below shows each mode and its interval structure. The last know the scale shape, + +column denotes which modes are considered major modes and which are considered minor modes. you also have to know + +how to use it and apply + +Memorize which are the major modes, Ionian, Lydian, and Mixolydian, and it in a musical situation. + +which are the minor modes, Dorian, Phrygian, Aeolian, and Locrian. Knowing this will help guide you to utilizing the correct mode over a given chord or progression. Memorize which are the + +major modes - Ionian, + +Lydian, and Mixolydian, + +#mode name intervals type of mode and which are the 1 Ionian 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 major mode minor modes - Dorian, 2 Aeolian, Phrygian, and Dorian 1,2,b3,4,5,6,b7 minor mode* + +3 Locrian. Phrygian 1,b2,b3,4,5,b6,b7 minor mode + + + +5 Each mode has its own Mixolydian 4 Lydian 1,2,3,#4,5,6,7 major mode + +1,2,3,4,5,6,b7 major mode unique mood and tone. + +6 Aeolian 1,2,b3,4,5,b6,b7 minor mode 7 Locrian 1,b2,b3,4,b5,b6,b7 minor mode + + + +*Dorian is considered a minor mode because it has strong elements of minor (b3, b7), along with major (2,6). However, it can be played in some major key progressions. + +Dorian works great over all the chords in major key I-IV-V shuffle, blues, or swing type progressions. For those type progressions you can also use minor pentatonic for that minor bluesy sound, major pentatonic for that sweet major sound, or combine elements of both for the Dorian sound. + +Phrygian can also be used in some major key progressions that have a b2 chord. So, there is lots of room for creativity with the modes. + +Like with many lead guitar avenues, you have to use your discretion and find what sounds best to your ears. Experiment and be creative when utilizing the modes and practice over jam tracks. Listen for which modes sound best to your ears. 25 of 35 + +The Modes Of The Major Scale - Application 2 + + + + + +KEY POINTS TO APPLYING THE MODES: + +1. Understand your choices when soloing and improvising. You can + + + +solo over the entire chord progression with what relates to all, or play KEY over each chord independently, treating each chord as a separate event. 2. Know and analyze the chords you are playing over. The chords provide the complete roadmap to what you can utilize for soloing. Just knowing the key signature is not enough. Know what chords are in the Understand your + +progression, and then analyze them to determine what scales, modes, options when soloing + +and landing notes to utilize. and improvising. Know + +and analyze the chords + +The ACE principle for modal playing: you are playing over. + +Memorize these three steps for utilizing the modes (the ACE principle): + +To apply the modes + +1. ANALYZE the chords and/or the progression to get the roadmap for just remember ACE + +which modes you can utilize. Analyze, Convert, + +2. Once you determine which mode or modes to use, CONVERT that Emphasize. mode back to its mother or parent major key. + +3. Play the mode using the parent major scale patterns but shift to and Remember that its all + +EMPHASIZE the root of the mode. about MOOD and + +EMPHASIS when + +This is a very systematic and methodical approach to analyzing chords to playing in the modes. + +determine soloing options. Over time your ear will take you to the right notes and this whole process will be more organic. However, at the start there is value in analyzing chords and progressions while honing your skills to a sharp edge. + +These three steps are absolutely critical to your success playing in the modes. This will take a good amount of practice, chip away a little each day and you will get it. Remember you are creating a mood - feel it! + + + +KEY PRACTICE: At first try playing a mode over the whole progression or what relates to all the chords of a jam track. + +Eventually you will want to try and treat each chord as a separate event and play a different mode over each chord. Get creative and give it a try. + +Take your time, dont overwhelm yourself, and practice utilizing jam tracks. Really hone in and listen for the chord changes and the moods you create with the different modes, its all about the sounds. + + + + + +The Modes Of The Major Scale - Aeolian + + +The Aeolian Mode is a seven-note scale often used in blues, rock, jazz, and many other musical genres. It is also called Natural Minor or Pure Minor. Aeolian is considered a minor mode and is always the 6th mode in any major key. + + + +Aeolian produces a sad, dark, and mournful sound that is different than KEY minor pentatonic and Dorian. It adds melodic half steps and additional lick and string bending opportunities. The scale degrees are 1, 2, b3, 4, 5, b6, and b7. + +Aeolian is always the + +Play this mode over minor chords when treating each chord as a 6th mode of any major + +separate event. Also utilize Aeolian over ALL the chords in a minor key key. jam UNLESS the IV chord is major or the ii chord is minor. + + + +If you want to play G Aeolian over the G inspired Satriani jam track utilize Starting on and + +the ACE principle as taught in the previous lesson. Aeolian is the 6th mode. To play in G Aeolian ask yourself what major scales sixth note is emphasizing the 6th + +an G? The answer is Bb. The sixth note of a Bb major scale is an G note. note of any major + +To play in G Aeolian start on the sixth note in a Bb major scale and play scale produces the + +from the G note to the G note and you have G Aeolian. As you can see Aeolian Mode. + +below, Bb major and G Aeolian are both constructed from the same notes. + + + +Bb Major = Bb, C, D, Eb, F, G, A G Aeolian = G, A, Bb, C, D, Eb, F Aeolian is also called Natural Minor major and relative minor or Pure Minor. + +Remember, its all about MOOD and EMPHASIS when playing in the modes. Which note you start on and emphasize give you the different moods and sound textures of each mode. Remember, its all + +about MOOD and + +Below are two common shapes for Aeolian. One has the low root note on EMPHASIS when + +the low E-string and the other has the low root on the A-string. Find these patterns fast by using your first finger on the low root. Start with these, but playing in the modes. + +learn all the shapes to play Aeolian across the whole neck as per the major scale lessons in this eBook. + + + + + +27 of 35 + +The Modes Of The Major Scale - Lydian + + + +The Lydian Mode is a seven-note scale often used in jazz and rock. Lydian KEY is considered a major mode and is always the 4th mode in any major key. + +Lydian is very similar to a major scale, (Ionian Mode), except it has a #4. This one alteration gives the mode a very pretty, emotive mood, almost mesmorizing. The Lydian mode scale degrees are 1, 2, 3, #4, 5, 6, and 7. Lydian is always the + +4th mode of any major + +Lydian is not as commonly utilized as Ionian, but it brings a hip tension with key. that sharp fourth interval. Simply raise the 4th degree of any major scale a half step, and you have Lydian. + +Play this mode over maj7, maj9, maj6, and maj6/9 chords when treating each Starting on and + +power chords and major triads. Lydian also sounds great over rock ballads. emphasizing the 4th chord as a separate event. Also try it over Lydian modal chord progressions, + +Try E Lydian over the E drone Satriani jam track. Lydian always is the 4th note of any major + +mode. To play in E Lydiian ask yourself what major scales fourth note is an scale produces the + +E? The answer is B. The fourth note of a B major scale is an E note. Lydian Mode. + +Start on the fourth note in a B major scale and play from the E note to the next E note and you have E Lydian. As you can see below, B major and E + +Lydian are both constructed from the same notes. Lydian is often the + + + +B Major = B, C#, D#, E, F#, G#, A# E Lydian = E, F#, G#, A#, B, C#, D# mode of choice over major 7th and major 9th chords. + +Remember, its all about MOOD and EMPHASIS when playing in the modes. Which note you start on and emphasize produces the different moods and sound textures of each mode. Remember, its all + +Below are two common shapes for Lydian. One has the low root note on the about MOOD and + +low E-string and the other has the low root on the A-string. As you can see EMPHASIS when + +they are almost identical to a major scale except your play a #4. playing in the modes. + +Find these patterns fast by using your first finger on the low root. Learn all the shapes to play Lydian across the whole neck as per the major scale lessons in this eBook. + + + + + +28 of 35 + + + + + +The Modes Of The Major Scale - Phrygian + + +The Phrygian Mode produces a very distinctive dark, exotic, Spanish type of sound. Often its called the Spanish Minor Scale. Phrygian is a minor mode and is always the 3rd mode in any major key. + + + +Often you will hear the Phrygian mode played in hard rock, metal, fusion, and KEY flamenco guitar. You dont hear this mode utilzed as often as Aeolian or Dorian, but it is super fun to experiment with and get some killer exotic tones. You can try this mode over minor chords, but it can sound a tad exotic, some may say dissonant. Often its the mode of choice when you see a b2 chord, or play it over a m7 chord, minor triad, or power chords. + +Phrygian is always the + +Phrygian has only one note different than the Aeolian. Phrygian has a flatted 3rd mode of any major + +2nd, (b2), while Aeolian has a natural 2nd. The scale degrees of Phrygian are key. 1, b2, b3, 4, 5, b6, b7. + +Try playing E Phrygian over the E drone jam track. Remember that Phrygian is always the 3rd mode in any major key. To play in E Phrygian ask yourself + + + +what major scales third note is a E? The answer is C. The third note of a C Starting on and major scale is E. Play C major scales over the E jam track but emphasize the emphasizing the 3rd E notes. C major and E Pyrygian consist of the same notes. note of any major + +C Major scale - C, D, E, F, G, A, B scale produces the + +E Phrygian - E, F, G, A, B, C, D Phrygian Mode. + +Remember, its all about MOOD and EMPHASIS when playing in the modes. Which note you start on and emphasize produces the different moods and + +sound textures of each mode. Refer to the video lessons for Phrygian Remember, its all + +examples and devices over the E drone jam track. + +about MOOD and + +Below are two common shapes for Phrygian. One has the low root note on EMPHASIS when + +the low E-string and the other has the low root on the A-string. Find these playing in the modes. + +patterns fast by using your first finger on the low root. + +Dont think of shapes or positions as modes. Get in the habit of looking at the entire fretboard as the vehicle for the mode, not just a certain position. Learn the mode and its interval structure across the entire fretboard. Start with the scales below, but learn all the positions as per the major scales lessons in this eBook to play across the entire neck. + + + + + +29 of 35 + + + + + +The Modes Of The Major Scale - Dorian + + +The Dorian Mode is a seven-note scale often used in blues, rock, and many other musical genres. Dorian is considered a minor mode and is always + + + +the 2nd mode in any major key. KEY Dorian produces a mystical, minor sound that is a bit sweeter than Aeolian. The Dorian scale degrees are 1, 2, b3, 4, 5, 6, and b7. There is only one note difference between Dorian and Aeolian - the 6th. + +Although you will probably utilize Aeolian over the Satriani inspired jam track, Dorian is always the + +you still want to learn Dorian as you will be using it often in other scenarios. 2nd mode of any + +Utilize Dorian over all the chords in a minor key jam when there is a major IV major key. chord or a minor ii chord. You can also use Dorian over minor type chords when treating each chord as a separate event. + +Remember Dorian is the 2nd mode in any major key. To play A Dorian the Starting on and + +question is what major scales 2nd note is an A note? The answer is G major. A Dorian would be converted back to its parent scale of G major. emphasizing the 2nd + +To play in A Dorian start on the 2nd note in a G major scale and play from the note of any major + +A note till the next A note and you have A Dorian. You are playing a G major scale produces the + +scale from the A to the A and voila, you have A Dorian. Dorian Mode. + +Playing G major scales starting on the 2nd note and emphasizing the A notes, not the G notes, produces A Dorian. This establishes the tonal center as A. G major and A Dorian are constructed from the same notes. + +Dorian has one note + +G Major scale G, A, B, C, D, E, F# difference than Aeolian. + +A Dorian scale - A, B, C, D, E, F#, G Dorian has a natural 6th + +while Aeolian has a b6. + +Below are two common shapes for Dorian. One has the low root note on the Dorian has a bit more + +low E-string and the other has the low root on the A-string. Find these sweeter, mystical + +patterns fast using your first finger on the low root. sound than Aeolian. + +Start with these but learn all the shapes to play Dorian across the neck as in the major scale lessons taught earlier in this eBook. + + + + + +30 of 35 + + + + + +The Modes Of The Major Scale - Mixolydian + + +The Mixolydian Mode is a seven-note scale often used in blues and rock. + + + +Mixolydian is considered a major mode and is always the 5th mode KEY in any major key. Often its the mode of choice played over dominant chords. + +Mixolydian is basically a major scale, (Ionian Mode), but with a b7. The scale degrees are 1,2,3,4,5,6,b7. Try this mode over dominant chords like 7th and 9th chords when treating each chord as a separate event. Mixolydian is always + +the 5th mode of any + +Mixolydian is the 5th mode and the key is to shift the tonal center to the major key. root of the mode. For example, to play G Mixolydian over a G7 chord ask yourself what major scales fifth note is a G? The answer is C. + +The fifth note of a C major scale is a G note. Play C major scales over a G7 chord but emphasize the G notes for G Mixolydian. C major and G Starting on and + +Mixolydian consist of the same notes: emphasizing the 5th + +C Major scale - C, D, E, F, G, A, B note of any major + +scale produces the + +G Mixolydian - G, A, B, C, D, E, F Mixolydian Mode. + +Although you probably wont be playing Mixolydian over the Satriani inspired jam tracks, you still want to learn the mode as its super useful. + + + +To play E Mixolydian over an E7 chord ask yourself what major scales fifth Mixolydian is often + +note is a E? The answer is A. The fifth note of a A major scale is an E note. Play A major scales over an E7 chord but emphasize the E notes. A major the mode of choice + +and E Mixolydian consist of the same notes. over dominant 7th + +Remember, its all about MOOD and EMPHASIS when playing in the modes. chords. Which note you start on and emphasize produces the different moods and sound textures of each mode. + +Below are two common shapes for Mixolydian. One has the low root note on the low E-string and the other has the low root on the A-string. Find these patterns fast by using your first finger on the low root. + + + + + +31 of 35 + + + + + +The Harmonic Minor Scale + + +While there is only one major scale there are three types of minor scales. Natural minor (Aeolian Mode), Harmonic Minor, and Melodic Minor. The Harmonic Minor scale is a very exotic sounding scale that will add color and + + + +depth to your sound. KEY While you hear Harmonic Minor played often in neo-classical, metal, and shred guitar, the scale is also utilized in flamenco, East European, Middle Eastern, Indian music, as well as mainstream rock, jazz, and even bluegrass music. Harmonic Minor has a very distinctive tone, kind of Spanish or Middle Eastern sounding. It is a Natural Minor scale with a raised seventh. Natural minor has a Harmonic Minor + +flatted seventh while Harmonic minor has a natural 7th. Remember the key note produces a super + +in the scale is that 7th, and it is always a half step behind the root note. cool and different + +Check out how the scale degrees are almost the same as Natural Minor except exotic tone. for the 7th degree: + +Harmonic Minor - 1, 2, b3, 4, 5, b6, 7 + +Natural Minor - 1, 2, b3, 4, 5, b6, b7 + +The modal scales hidden within the Harmonic Minor scale are fantastic. In the Phrygian Dominant + +video lessons we explore the Phrygian Dominant scale. This scale is the 5th is always the 5th + +mode of the Harmonic Minor Scale. Over the E drone jam track E Phrygian mode of the Dominant sounds amazing! We can get to that mode by going through the Harmonic Minor Scale. Harmonic Minor + +Over the E drone jam track try E Phrygian Dominant. Phrygian Dominant is Scale. always the 5th mode of the Harmonic Minor scale. So we have to determine what scales 5th note is an E. The answer is A. So to play in E Phrygian Dominant play + +all your A Harmonic Minor scales but start on and emphasize the E notes. Harmonic Minor has + +Harmonic minor also sounds great when played over a major V chord in a minor just one note + +key progression and over minor plus seven chords. Try resoling the 7th degree to difference than the + +the root for a nice tension and release feel. Aeolian mode. + +You can also play the scale over straight minor chords and over minor key Harmonic Minor has + +vamps, but it will sound a bit exotic. Experiment with the scale and see what a major 7th while the + +sounds best to your ears. + +Aeolian mode has a + +Below are two scale shapes that you can grab fast and easy in any key. Play the flatted 7th. root note with your first finger on the 6th string root in the one shape and the 5th string root in the other. Over time learn this scale over the entire neck as well as the harmonic minor scale link diagrammed out in the next page in this eBook. + + + + + +32 of 35 + +Harmonic Minor Link & Phrygian Dominant + +Now that you know a few Harmonic Minor scale patterns lets link them together and play them laterally across the neck. Below is a three-octave Harmonic Minor scale link that will take you over half the neck. + +This scale link is incredibly useful and easy to play as it utilizes repeated fingerings. Slide up a half step with your first finger when playing the low-E, D, and B strings. Shift up a half step, or one fret, with the first finger for the 1-1 finger combinations. Remember, the key note in Harmonic Minor is that 7th, and it is always a half step behind the root note. + +Practice this link in all keys and be sure to make mental notes when passing through root notes. This scale link is moveable with the root note determining the key. To locate these scales fast, first find the low root note. + +Now let's apply Harmonic Minor to one of the jam tracks. Like I always say, knowing a scale or set of scales is only half the battle. The other half is application. Knowing how to use the scale, what chords it works over, and how to apply it in musical situations is the other half. + + + +Over the E drone jam track you can play E Phrygian Dominant. Phrygian Dominant is more a major mode that sounds awesome when played over a long ringing major chord. + +Phrygian Dominant is also called the Spanish Phrygian Scale. Its like a major version of the Phrygian mode. Phrygian has a minor 3rd, while Phrygian Dominant has a major 3rd - all the other notes are the same. + +Phrygian Dominant - 1, b2, 3, 4, 5, b6, b7 + +Phrygian - 1, b2, b3, 4, 5, b6, b7 + +Get to Phrygian Dominant by going through the Harmonic Minor scale. Phrygian Dominant is always the 5th mode of the Harmonic Minor Scale. So to play in E Phrygian Dominant you want to determine what Harmonic Minor scale's 5th note is an E. The answer is A. + +To play this Harmonic Minor Scale link in the key of A start with your 1st finger on the 4th fret of the low E-string and play the shape. You start a half step below the root and slide with that first finger on the low E-string. Refer to the video lessons for Phrygian Dominant examples over the E drone jam track, sounds very Satriani-ish! + +Utilize the 1-3-4 fingering to play the entire link and slide up a half step on the low E, D, and B strings. Find the root notes and blast away from there! + +Play A Harmonic minor but start on and emphasize the E notes for E Phrygian Dominant. Keep going back to and landing on those E notes to emphasize E Phrygian Dominant. + +To determine which parent scale to convert use the same techniques that we discussed in the modal lessons earlier on in this eBook. Utilize the Analyze, Convert, and Emphasize - the "ACE" principle. + +Remember that it's all about the sounds and moods that you create. Be sure to listen to the sounds of harmonic minor and phrygian dominant and their textures over certain chords and chord changes. 33 of 35 + + + + + +Soloing Review Tips + + +KEY POINTS TO DETERMINE SOLOING + +AVENUES: + + + +1. Determine the key signature - Most of the time you will be soloing in KEY minor key or major key. Knowing the key is the first step. Even when you are noodling around on the guitar, always know what key you are playing. Many guitarists make the mistake of just looking solely at the key that wont give you all the needed information. + +Its the the chords that + +2. Analyze the chord progression - Its the chords that give you the give the complete + +complete roadmap to what you can utilize for soloing and improvisation. roadmap to all the + +Analyzing the chords is critical to get the full lead guitar picture. Knowing soloing and the key is only part of the equation. The chords provide the road map for improvisation options. + +what scales, modes, and arpeggios you will want to utilize. The chords also point to the strong notes to land on, resolve to, and emphasize. + +Take the listener on a + +Remember that you can mix soloing techniques. Mix what musical journey - draw relates to all + +with treating each chord as a separate event. Treat each chord as a them into your solo and + +separate event, then switch it up and play what relates to all. have them latch onto + +At times you can also use both major and minor scale elements as well as what you are playing. + +modal playing. In those examples you can throw a bunch of different soloing applications into the soup. + +Even when you are just + +A critical key in unlocking all the potential of these scales and modes is in noodling around on the + +learning their interval structure and listening to the mood of each one and guitar, always know + +how it sounds over a given chord. This way you will know when it is what key you are + +appropriate to apply each in a given soloing or improvisation scenario. playing in. + + + +Two goals of lead guitar playing: + +1. Compliment the song in the end, no matter how great a solo is, its the song that will be remembered. Play for the song, not for yourself. + +2. Draw people into your solo you want the listener to latch onto what you are playing and to be on the edge of their seat wondering, what will they play next? + +Take the listener on a musical journey with ups and downs, great emotion, and passion. Play from the heart while telling a story, and always be aware of melody. + +Remember to experiment, its okay to bend and break the rules. Nothing is etched in stone. Work on developing your own style and pulling from all your musical influences. + +34 of 35 + +Keep up all that hard work on that guitar and keep honing your skills and + diff --git a/Books/Music/Articles/Satriani2.txt b/Books/Music/Articles/Satriani2.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c9d338c --- /dev/null +++ b/Books/Music/Articles/Satriani2.txt @@ -0,0 +1,36 @@ +ARTIST: Joe Satriani +GENRE: Rock, Art Rock, Blues Rock +CONCEPTS: Target notes, pentatonic scales, melodic phrasing, ballad soloing +SOURCE: Guitar World +TOPIC: Joe Satriani on scales + +I was left to my own devices to practice. The idea behind learning scales I think was really revolutionized by my high-school music theory teacher who pointed out to me a couple of different things. + +"He said that by the time I grew up, it may turn out I wasn't such a good guitar player that I thought I was gonna be, but I shouldn't let that hold me back. That the most important musical development was gonna take place in my mind. And that was limitless, so just keep feeding it, keep developing it. + +"And one of the things that he did was to instruct me to sing scales to learn their intervals, to know what it was on paper, and to be able to generate it with my voice in any key that my vocal chords would allow. And then to look at it on the guitar, but not in terms of performance, but just in terms of learning what the space between each note really felt like. + +"So I'm in G right now, I'm playing the notes of the G major scale. But he had me singing one, two, one, three, one, four, one, five, one, six, one, seven, one, one. And if those notes would be altered for a scale then I would say that altered interval. Like: one, flat second, one, major third, one, augmented fourth, one, augmented fifth... I would sing those notes in succession and I would have these little flash cards that had 15 scales on them. And I would learn how to play those scales in two octaves. I think that came from Billy Bauer. + +"Billy Bauer was a local guitar teacher in Glen Cove. I'm not really quite sure how my mother discovered that he was in Glen Cove giving lessons. I don't think she knew that he used to play with Lennie Tristano. I certainly didn't. I didn't even know who Lennie was at the time. But I would appear down at the dinner table after practicing for hours and hours saying 'I've gotta find somebody to tell me what's going on. I'm just whipping myself to death and I don't know what I'm doing. + +Billy gave me a lot of information. I took three lessons from him but I got back these little pamphlets on scales and arpeggios and things. It was a great way to organize it, especially for the singing exercise. Because I could just sort of forget about it and start singing, 'One, augmented fourth, one, five...' and really start to feel the difference in my body and hear it in my body. + +"And then I could start to look at it but I kept thinking, 'I don't care what it looks like yet.' I'm just thinking about if I hear those two notes coming from a song on a radio I want my brain to say 'I know that! I recognize those two notes.' + +"That was sort of like what Bill Wescott, my high-school music teacher, was trying to get at. He wanted me to do this 'one, major second, one, major third, one, perfect fourth, one, augmented fourth, one, perfect fifth...' And I would go through major, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, natural minor scale, Locrian, Phrygian dominant, harmonic minor, melodic minor... I think that was about it around that time, that were all the scales that I was thinking about. + +"I didn't bother with the pentatonic scales or anything less than seven-note scales. I don't even think I bothered with the diminished scale either. That was enough actually, just that. And I think I stayed in G because it was the only part of my vocal chords that would really hold steady long enough. + +"Once I started to think about this long enough, I though. 'Well, I should be able to do it against a pedal note.' And I started doing that sitting down at a piano because it seemed a little bit easier. Because I wanted to do it in C or G or different keys and it's very hard on the guitar. + +"So if I have this E drone and then I start playing the notes. And I just sort of soak it in and then I play something slightly different, which is a Lydian scale major scale with a raised fourth. And I sort of register in my mind why is it so different than [the major scale]. With this note [drone E] it really made a difference because I could hear the tension and not so much tension. So when I did other [modes] it really made big difference to Phrygian dominant versus a Phrygian. + +"And I was sort of making the fingering upas I went along. Since my high-school teacher was not a guitarist, he would look at me play guitar and go, 'It's so complicated, you just have to learn the notes everywhere.' And I thought 'That's easier said than done!' [Laughs] You just can't look at it and find them. + +"But actually, yes, you can just look at it and find them. So why couldn't I? It's because I don't know the names of the notes. That was another big deal. And although I had a bunch of my time with all these things - learning the chords, learning the scales, singing the scales and the modes, figuring out the different fingerings, one octave, two octaves, three octave plus, all over, scales on one string at a time, learn the names of the notes on every string on every fret - I still had the school to go to and trouble to get in and all sorts of stuff. [Laughs] + +"Eventually I said, 'Okay, I'm going to find E everywhere and I'll do that for five minutes. And then I'll do a couple of finger exercises. And then I'll do that where I'm singing [the intervals]. It was like building a giant structure starting with a big block of stone. I just though it's gonna work. Eventually there will be a beautiful statue here but I'm just gonna have to chip away at it bit by bit. But that's how I started it, that was really the beginning of working on those scales. + +"The greatest resource now is just type it in and the internet will give you a million versions of where and how to play it. And just pick one, start from there. And most of the time the internet's correct, so you've got that going for ya. + diff --git a/Books/Music/Articles/Satriani3.txt b/Books/Music/Articles/Satriani3.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3cc04e3 --- /dev/null +++ b/Books/Music/Articles/Satriani3.txt @@ -0,0 +1,35 @@ +ARTIST: Joe Satriani +GENRE: Rock, Art Rock, Blues Rock +CONCEPTS: Pitch Axis +SOURCE: Music Theory For Guitar +TOPIC: Joe Satriani's Pitch Axis + +The Emotions Behind Joe Satriani's Pitch Axis + +guitar pitch axis + +One of the compositional "secret weapons" of virtuoso guitarist Joe Satriani is the so-called Pitch Axis. In fact this is one of the ideas that made him famous, even if he is not the only one who uses it. I have seen good explanation of the Pitch Axis online, but I have not seen anybody tackling how Pitch Axis can help express specific emotions, so here we are. + +The basic idea is simply to take all the modes that have the same root note (say, A) and freely use any chord from any of those modes in the same chord progression. + +Here are the chords for the major scale modes with root A: + + A Ionian: A Bm C#m D E F#m G#dim + + A Dorian: Am Bm C D Em F#dim G + + A Phrygian: Am Bb C Dm Edim F G + + A Lydian: A B C#m D#dim E F#m G#m + + A Mixolydian: A Bm C#dim D Em F#m G + + A Aeolian: Am Bdim C Dm Em F G + + A Locrian: Adim Bb Cm Dm Eb F Gm + +Yes, those are just the modes of the major scale. To be complete, we should consider also the modes of melodic and harmonic minor scales, but we will start with the basics, ok? You can add the other modes later once you master those. + +The problem is: now that you have all these modes and A LOT of chords to choose from, how do you use them to express emotion? How do you create shades of happiness and sadness, of brightness and darkness by using the modes? + +Well, here's how: \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/Books/Music/Articles/Satriani4.txt b/Books/Music/Articles/Satriani4.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f945f59 --- /dev/null +++ b/Books/Music/Articles/Satriani4.txt @@ -0,0 +1,57 @@ +ARTIST: Joe Satriani +GENRE: Rock, Art Rock, Blues Rock +CONCEPTS: Pitch Axis +SOURCE: Wikipiedia +TOPIC: Joe Satriani's Pitch Axis + +Pitch axis theory refers to a way of thinking about chord progressions and modes, that was heavily used and popularized (though not invented) by the guitarist Joe Satriani.[1] + +When composing using this concept, the pitch axis is simply a chosen note (a specific pitch), which is thought of as the tonic for a sequence of chords, which must all have this pitch as their root note. However, the other notes in each chord may be drawn from completely different keys. A mode (or any other scale) is chosen that fits with each chord, and also has the "pitch axis" as its root note. This sequence of scales is then used for creating a melody or improvising a solo.[2][3] + +The term "pitch axis theory" has been criticized as misleading, as the above techniques do not represent a separate theory of music, and simply refer to the application of scales according to standard music theory over the common technique of a pedal point chord progression. However, the approach has also been praised as a useful compositional tool and perspective, which encourages experimentation with frequent key shifts and movements between parallel scales.[4] +Examples +Simple Example + +As a simple example,[5] consider the following chord progression, which is non-diatonic (the chords are taken from multiple different keys), but all have root A. + +| Amaj7(?11) | A7 | F/A | A7 | + +In order to create a melody or improvise over this progression, we could use the following sequence of modes - which are different scales, but again, all have A as their root. + +| A Lydian | A Mixolydian | A Aeolian | A Mixolydian | + +In Satriani's terminology, this is a composition with a "pitch axis" of A +Joe Satriani: "Not of This Earth" + +Satriani chooses E Lydian, E Aeolian, E Lydian, and E Mixolydian as the modes to use for each chord. + +The First chord, E?13, contains the 1st, 3rd, 6th, and 7th degrees of the E major scale. A common choice here might have been the Ionian mode (major scale), but Satriani prefers the Lydian scale with its ?4 - which is a perfectly acceptable choice as the chord itself does not specify ?4 or ?4. +The Second chord is a Em7b6 with no 5th, making the E Aeolian mode (E-F?-G-A-B-C-D-E) a possible choice. However in the Context of coming/modulating from E Lydian, another option would be keeping the #4/b5 Bb note, implying a much more fitting "Aeolian b5" or "Locrian nat2" scale (aka Bayati Shuri/Kartzigar) which is the 6th mode of the Melodic Minor Scale. +The Third chord is a EMaj7add6 with no 5th, where similarly, and given the Context, E Lydian mode could be used. +The Fourth chord is a E7sus4 without a 3rd and 5th, where E Mixolydian mode could be used. Or again, Lydian Dominant if one wanted to preserve the #4/b5 note. +Ultimately a number of different scales/modes could be used in the entirety of the progression, +and it would be up to the personal taste/interpretation of the performer or composer to decide what would be a better fit, or which type of harmony to apply. +Dream Theater: "Lie" +The chord progression from "Lie" by Dream Theater. + +The transition to the guitar solo in Dream Theater's "Lie" is built on Pitch Axis Theory.[citation needed] The bass and guitar play the root (B) while the keyboardist implies the chords in the progression: B5, Bm7, Bm6, G/B, A/B. + +Ignoring the root, the scales used for each of these four chords would be B Aeolian (natural minor), B Dorian, C? Mixolydian, and E Aeolian, respectively. However, from the perspective of pitch axis theory, we consider all scales to have the B root - so we would say that the progression is B Aeolian, B Dorian, B Lydian, and B Phrygian. +Joe Satriani: "Satch Boogie" + +A more complex example is the bridge of "Satch Boogie", which still remains entirely in the "pitch axis" of A.[6] +"Satch Boogie" bridge progression Play?. +Artists who use pitch axis theory + +These artists use pitch axis theory and shifting modes in their music. + + Joe Satriani[5] + Dream Theater + Marty Friedman + Guthrie Govan[7] + Planet X[ + Yngwie Malmsteen + Greg Howe + Meshuggah + Steve Lukather + Nick Johnston \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/Books/Music/Articles/Satriani5.txt b/Books/Music/Articles/Satriani5.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8b49c5a --- /dev/null +++ b/Books/Music/Articles/Satriani5.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +ARTIST: Joe Satriani +GENRE: Rock, Art Rock, Blues Rock +CONCEPTS: Pitch Axis +SOURCE: Goodreads +TOPIC: Joe Satriani's Pitch Axis + +pitch axis theory, which I learned in high school from my music teacher Bill Westcott. It is a compositional technique that was actually developed at the turn of the last century, so this is something that had been around for a long time. I remember Bill saying, "I'm going to teach you this very cool compositional technique," and he sat me down at the piano, and he went, "Watch this: I'll hold this C bass note, and then I play these chords, and each chord will put me in a different key, but it will sound like C 'something' to you . . ." I was fascinated by it, because I thought, "That is the sound I'm hearing in my head." To me it sounded very "rock," because rock songs don't travel around in too many keys, and it was the antithesis of the modern pop music that had been around for fifty years. It was the total opposite of most commercial jazz, but not all jazz, as I learned when I started really listening closely to modern jazz. I realized, "Wow, John Coltrane is using pitch axis theory. Not only is he doing that, but hes going beyond it with his 'sheets of sound' approach," where in addition to building modes in different keys off of one bass note, he was building modes off of notes outside the key structure as well. He had taken it a step further. But thats not what I was looking for, except for in a song like "The Enigmatic," which has that sort of complete atonal-meetspsycho melodic approach. I was more interested in using the pitch axis where you really could identify with one key bass note, in a rock and R&B sort of fashion. Then all the chords that you put on top would basically put you in different keys. So on Not of This Earth, you have these pounding E eighth notes on the bass, and your audience says, "Okay, we're in the key of E." But the chords on top are saying, "E Lydian, E Minor, E Lydian, E Mixolydian in cyclical form." And I thought, "Well, this gives me great melodic opportunities, I'm not stuck with just the seven notes of one key. I've got seven notes for every different key that I apply on top of this bass note." And I just love that sound, so I applied it to quite a lot of my music. + + + + diff --git a/Books/Music/Articles/Satriani6.txt b/Books/Music/Articles/Satriani6.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..dce585b --- /dev/null +++ b/Books/Music/Articles/Satriani6.txt @@ -0,0 +1,53 @@ +ARTIST: Joe Satriani +GENRE: Rock, Art Rock, Blues Rock +CONCEPTS: Pitch Axis +SOURCE: Goodreads +TOPIC: Joe Satriani's Pitch Axis Theory and the Modal Method I: The simple concept + +For those of you unaware of the details of pitch axis theory, the idea is basically to connect scales or their modes via an unchanging, or changing as little as possible, bass note. Used by classical composers such as Wagner and Stravinsky as well as modern guitarists like Joe Satriani and Steve Vai, it is a useful tool. But is it just another name for a technique that has been used before? + +The first track on his first album, Not of this Earth, demonstrates Satrianis use of pitch axis theory perfectly, a pedal note of E, and four bars with a change of mode on each: + +E Lydian E Aeolian E Lydian E Mixolydian + +Now, another way of putting it is that Satch is playing in the following keys but staying on the same bass note: + +B Major G Major B Major A Major. + +Now we can see the interesting idea behind the sound of the modes, a large leap from B Major (5 sharps) to G Major (1 sharp), back again and then back twice in the circle of fifths to A Major (3 sharps). + +It is quite an art form, choosing modes that suit the following or preceding of another, but we can see now the pattern: + +Lydian Aeolian Lydian Mixolydian + +Now, none of this is new, there are plenty of instances where J. S. Bach uses multiple modes over the same bass note, notably over a bass that is acting as a dominant pedal. + +Here is an example: + +Mixolydian Phrygian Major Harmonic Major Dominant #2 Double Harmonic + +The example above is played over a constant bass pedal, say A. That gives us the scales: + +D Major D Harmonic minor A Harmonic Major D Harmonic Major D Hungarian minor + +This sequence is typical of Bach as he has created a symmetrical sequence, with scales on D, D, A, D, D. + +The Modal Method can help to take this concept one stage further. Say over a constant A bass I play the scales from the sequence: + +G Major A Melodic E harmonic minor B Neapolitan Major A Neapolitan Major E Locrian natural 7 (which is one of my favourite sequences). We get the modes in pitch axis theory of: + +A Dorian A Melodic A Dorian #4 A# Altbb3 A Neapolitan Major A Phrygian #4 + +I have simply used the sequence of scales that I have worked out using the tables in section I and played them over a static bass note. Its that simple. NB: Although the A# in the Altbb3 mode clashes against the A bass note, it is consonant enough if resolved quickly and adds a good tension to the sequence. + +I intend to add pitch axis examples as and when they come up and make a comprehensive list, so please add your ideas below in the comments. Here is a Steve Vai one, The Riddle: + +E Lydian E Lydian + - E Mixolydian E Lydian + +The scales are: B Major B Melodic A Major B Major + +So now we have: + +1) Not of the Earth: Lydian Aeolian Lydian Mixolydian (Satriani) + +2) The Riddle: Lydian Lydian + - Mixolydian Lydian (Vai) \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/Books/Music/Books/Strange Beautiful Music - Joe Satriani.txt b/Books/Music/Books/Strange Beautiful Music - Joe Satriani.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..51d0eb2 --- /dev/null +++ b/Books/Music/Books/Strange Beautiful Music - Joe Satriani.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2589 @@ +Praise for + +STRANGE BEAUTIFUL MUSIC + +"I have known Joe since I was 12 years old, and every time Joe puts his fingers on a guitar what comes out sounds like inspired music, even if it’s just a finger exercise. He created and branded a niche with his own voice and in so doing he wielded an entire genre, and he continues to do so with no excuses. He paved the way for many others!" + +—STEVE VAI + +"Joe Satriani’s my favorite guitar player." + +—SAMMY HAGAR + +"Joe Satriani is in and surf’s up, y'all! It’s all about the wickedness of the wave and when the sand is shakin', you know Satch be earthquakin', makin' loud of his superbly satisfying signature sound. And when I say surf, think, 'The Silver Surfer' who stands out. . . shiny and showy . . . instant connectivity with Satch when his chome-plated silver 6-string thing is strap'd up, ready to slang, bang, and tang-the-tang. Ya' gotta dig on some Joe, now. A pleasantry in the purest with performance and power to please the most particularly picky of palettes. Jang on with Joe Satch, Brothers and Sisters. Surf’s up." + +—BILLY F. GIBBONS + +"After all the times I had been on stages with Joe, been on the side of stages watching and listening to Joe, and all the times I have been in the audience cheering for Joe, I continue to have no idea how Joe does what he does. How does he do it? In 52 years of playing with others in public, very few have given me the personal and professional support that Joe has. It is exceptionally rare that a player of this standard is also this generous." + +—ROBERT FRIPP + + + + + +Copyright © 2014 by Joe Satriani and Jake Brown + +All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. + + + +BenBella Books, Inc. + +10300 N. Central Expressway, Suite #530 + +Dallas, TX 75231 + +www.benbellabooks.com + +Send feedback to feedback@benbellabooks.com. + +First e-book edition: April 2014 + +Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data + +Satriani, Joe. + +Strange beautiful music : a musical memoir / by Joe Satriani and Jake Brown. + +pages cm + +Includes bibliographical references and index. + +ISBN 978-1-939529-64-0 (trade cloth : alk. paper)—ISBN 978-1-939529-65-7 (electronic) 1. Satriani, Joe. 2. Rock musicians—United States—Biography. 3. Guitarists—United States—Biography. I. Brown, Jake. II. Title. + +ML419.S227A3 2014 + +782.42166092—dc23 + +[B] 2014000811 + +Editing by Erin Kelley + +Copyediting by James Fraleigh + +Proofreading by Cape Cod Compositors, Inc. and Laura Cherkas + +Cover design by Ty Nowicki + +Cover photo by Chapman Baehler + +Text design and composition by Silver Feather Design + +Printed by Bang Printing + +Distributed by Perseus Distribution | www.perseusdistribution.com + +To place orders through Perseus Distribution: + +Tel: (800) 343-4499 | Fax: (800) 351-5073 + +E-mail: orderentry@perseusbooks.com + +Significant discounts for bulk sales are available. Please contact Glenn Yeffeth at glenn@benbellabooks.com or (214) 750-3628. + + + + + +I would like to dedicate this book to the visitor from outer space who saw fit one night so many years ago, out on a distant lonely road, to beam me up to his spaceship, teach me how to play electric guitar, and return me to Earth, just to see what would happen next. Seriously now . . . This book is dedicated to all my wonderful fans around the world. + +—JOE SATRIANI + + + +This book is dedicated to my beautiful fiancée, Carrie Brock (Brown by the time this book is in stores!), for being so patient with my creative process and so loving to me personally throughout the journey that was writing this book. + +—JAKE BROWN + + + + + +Contents + +Foreword + +Chapter 1: The Hendrix Experience + +Chapter 2: High School Confidential + +Chapter 3: Learning Curves + +Chapter 4: Satch Goes West + +Chapter 5: Twists of Fate—The Joe Satriani EP, 1983–1984 + +Chapter 6: Not of This Earth—1985–1986 + +Chapter 7: Relativity + +Chapter 8: Surfing with the Alien—1987 + +Chapter 9: Launching the Silver Surfer + +Chapter 10: Flying in a Blue Dream—1989 + +Chapter 11: The Bearsville Experiment + +Chapter 12: The Extremist—1992 + +Chapter 13: Eponymous—1995 + +Chapter 14: G3/Crystal Planet—1997 + +Chapter 15: Engines of Creation—2000 + +Chapter 16: Strange Beautiful Music—2002 + +Chapter 17: Is There Love in Space?—2004 + +Chapter 18: Super Colossal—2006 + +Chapter 19: Professor Satchafunkilus and the Musterion of Rock—2008 + +Chapter 20: Chickenfoot I—2009 + +Chapter 21: Black Swans and Wormhole Wizards—2010 + +Chapter 22: Chickenfoot III—2011/2012 + +Chapter 23: Unstoppable Momentum—2013 + +Conclusion: 2013 and Beyond + +The Gear: Album by Album + +Acknowledgments + +Index + + + + + +Foreword + +Queen used to work in Munich a lot, in a studio called Musicland, well known for its output of rock recordings. Our producer/engineer was called Mack—who notably made a song called "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" into a record in a matter of hours (with a little help from Freddie and us boys). One day Mack phoned me up and said, "I'm working with a young lad called Joe Satriani, who is an admirer of your playing. He wants me to send you the material we're working on so you can hear it." Just a young lad. Well, that first Satriani album arrived in the form of a cassette tape, and it’s now one of my most treasured possessions. The content, as you all know, was spectacular, and the Man Who Surfed with the Alien has never looked back since. + +A few years later, I was the musical director of a one-night stand in a set of shows in Seville, Spain, called Guitar Legends. Ours was the Rock Night. It was an amazing opportunity to put a set of brilliant guitarists together on one stage—including Steve Vai, Joe Walsh, Nuno Bettencourt, and, of course, Joe. I asked Paul Rodgers to come and galvanize us all—a smart choice, as it worked out; no matter how technically adept a guitarist is, I have never met one who didn't rate playing "All Right Now" with Paul as one of the great moments of his life! We all turned up for early rehearsals, so we were actually able to work together to make some unique collaborations. Joe was already a mighty star by that time, but he and his band jumped at the offer of going on first. I remember wondering if I was mad allowing this to happen, but I was backstage watching a TV monitor when Joe hit the stage smack on the dot of showtime, live on Spanish national TV It was one of the most spine-chilling moments I can ever remember. It was as if the TV screen caught fire. + +I'm proud to say that Joe became a great friend and we have played together a few times over the years. He’s one of the most modest men I have ever met, and always makes me feel like I'm special, but I never get over the feeling of awe standing next to him on a stage. Joe has refined his own style of playing to a point where he’s forever up there in the stratosphere of excellence that is reached by very few musicians. His technique is flawless, dazzling, and peppered with so many special bits of magic that few can even try to emulate. But over and above his technical skills, Joe has a burning passion in his playing that clinches his mastery and makes him one of the great guitar heroes of all time. + +Among all the fireworks, Joe never lost his earthy edge. One of my great delights recently was playing the debut Chickenfoot album for the first time. I just couldn't stop smiling all the way through— especially in "Sexy Little Thing"; hearing Joe get back to ground level and lay down a riff as part of a great big hard-rock band outing was, to me, the greatest joy. I keep it in my car as the best pick-me-up I know for when I feel down. Yeeeeouch! + + +—BRIAN MAY + +June 2013 + + + + + +CHAPTER 1 * * + +The Hendrix Experience + +Jimi Hendrix was my biggest influence growing up, and on September 18, 1970, the day that Jimi died, I was crushed, for reasons I can't fully explain. It’s impossible to go back in my mind to that moment as a teenager. Even now I can't quite say what happened in my head, but I know that because he died, I decided to become a guitar player. That moment of decision was immediate and profound. It changed my life and everything about me. + +That same day, I quit the football team and announced to my coach that I was going to become a musician. At home that night, I told my family I had decided what I was going to do with my life: be a Professional Guitar Player. + +After all the dust settled at the dinner table, my sister Carol offered to donate her first paycheck from working as an art teacher at the local high school to buy me an electric guitar, which speaks to the extremely supportive and musically inclined family I came from. + +When I was growing up, my mom would spin classical music records as we played, with the intent of educating us, but the music she and my dad listened to was jazz. Mom would play the most popular classics, so we heard Mozart, Beethoven, Wagner, Puccini—all the usual suspects. Then we would hear Miles Davis and John Coltrane, all the way to Dave Brubeck and, later on, Stanley Turrentine and Freddie Hubbard when the seventies began. She was also a big Wes Montgomery fan (I think she had all his records), so we listened to him, too. My dad was a bit more big band-ish, but he listened to all styles of music throughout his life. He would tell me great stories about going to see all the great swing bands for a nickel as a kid growing up in New York City. He said he'd walk into these places, and it would be free half the time—you could get a beer for a nickel and watch the greatest big bands of all time. When my parents hosted parties they would spin all kinds of music and dance to all of it. They were both very open-minded and progressive in their appreciation of music. + + + +Me at 15 with my first electric, a Hagstrom III + +PHOTO BY SATRIANI FAMILY ARCHIVES + + + +Being the youngest kid in the house, I grew up listening to what my older sisters and brother listened to, so that’s how I heard early rock 'n' roll, Motown, and all the pop music that was around. Then, during the mid-sixties, when rock really started to become a thing, they brought that home, and as a little kid I was exposed to all of it. In 1966, when the first straight-ahead rock albums were being released by the bands who used to play pop, I was on the verge of turning ten, and being ten years old in the mid-sixties was a lot younger than being ten years old today. There was no Internet or anything like it, so my only new-music influences were what was on the radio and the music my siblings were bringing home. + +I think the first time I connected with music was when we were on a summer vacation up in Vermont, and my sisters were going to a dance. So they let me stand inside the door of the dance hall for, like, half a minute, and I'm maybe eight or nine years old, and when I heard this band playing "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction," by the Rolling Stones, it was a life-changing moment. It was the best-feeling and best-sounding thing I'd ever experienced in my life. That feeling never left me. + +I think when I started to see the Beatles and the Stones on The Ed Sullivan Show, that sort of awakened my desire to play drums, so that’s how I started out on drums. There was a piano in the house that my mom played jazz standards on. My three sisters struggled unsuccessfully with piano lessons, but my brother and I were somehow given a free pass—we never had to suffer through that. I think they had just given up on forcing us to take music lessons. Once I started playing drums at nine, I took lessons for a year or so, but that was really my whole musical education at that point. I was basically left to my own devices. + +I remember quite clearly the first time I heard Jimi Hendrix, the Who, Led Zeppelin—these were the bands that my sisters were listening to. Their boyfriends would bring albums over, and they would get a kick out of the fact that I, just this little kid, had an appetite for this new music. I guess they thought it was cool, so they would say, "Hey, look at this, Jimi Hendrix, when he plays this part"—I think it was on Electric Ladyland—"no one knows how he does it." I'd listen to it obsessively. As my sisters would stop listening to their old 45s and LPs, they would pass them on to me. I also inherited a portable record player, the little suitcase kind. I would go to a quiet corner of the house, plug it into an outlet, put on the records, and listen to them constantly. So I assume my family witnessed this—me, just hanging out with the record player, listening to records over and over again and not playing with my toys while the music was on. I would just sit there staring at the record player and the LP jackets. + +The conflict early on with that was that every time I would try to participate in making my own music, it was a bit of a failure. I couldn't play the piano as well as my mother; I could never get my brain around the left-hand/right-hand thing. Then I had my year of drum lessons, but I reached a wall where I recognized that I wasn't really progressing. So then I moved on to guitar, which was also a struggle, but I saw hope because I made these small, incremental steps forward every time I would play. I'd love to say that in 1970 I knew I was going to be an amazing guitar player, but I think it was more of a desire than a confirmation of any talent I recognized in myself. + +My older sister Marian was a folk guitarist, so as a kid I got to hear her play, write songs, and even perform at her high school. Her acoustic guitar was the first one I started playing—she told me that I could play it whenever I wanted. She also showed me the chord chart she had in her guitar case, and explained it to me by telling me to just put my fingers where the dots were and to follow the numbers. That was it. She was very encouraging and just left me alone with the guitar, so I taught myself the first basic ten or twenty chords based on that chart. The next step came when a friend of mine told me about a guy he knew who could teach me barre chords. So I went over to this kid’s house and he wrote them out on a piece of loose-leaf paper. I took them home and taught myself how to play those chords. + +By that point, my parents had decided that if I was determined to play the guitar, I was going to have to take lessons. They were not adverse to one of their kids becoming a musician, because they knew that it could be done, that not everyone needed to go the conservative route of getting a college degree in order to survive. But they did have a hard-knock attitude toward it, sort of like, "If you're gonna do it, you're gonna do it." So I took three lessons from a guy in town. He was the epitome of what you would call a square guy who was quickly being left behind by the current generation. He looked square, he played square, and he was teaching guitar as a secondary thing while he studied to become a chiropractor. So after three lessons where he tried to teach me to read the sheet music to "Jingle Bells" while I was bringing him Jimi Hendrix’s first album, asking to learn "Purple Haze," we parted ways. + +For the next three years, I just taught myself. My parents had no interest in spending a lot of money on a guitar (especially since I'd just washed out on the drums!), so, with my sister Carol’s offer to buy me my first electric, I was on my way. There was this white Hagstrom guitar at a local music store that looked like Jimi's—I was so naïve at the time that I didn't even really know what a Fender Stratocaster was!—and it was only $125, so I thought it would do. Once I got home and sat down with it for the first time, I quickly realized it was a completely different animal from my sister’s acoustic. The art of electric rock guitar is really learning how to play all over the neck. I quickly started to realize how difficult it was to get the sound right, too, because I didn't have an amp back then. This was due to the understandable fact that there was no way my parents were going to buy me an amplifier just yet, because they were waiting to see if I was going to progress musically and stick with the guitar. + +As a substitute, I managed to fashion my first guitar amp out of this old Wollensak reel-to-reel tape recorder my parents had at home. I don't know how I figured out that I could plug my guitar into it, but it made a cool little amp. I also found the only way I could hear the sound come out of its small, built-in speaker was to put on a reel of tape and push the RECORD button. So by the nature of the process, after I would play for fifteen minutes, I could listen back to what I had just played. + +This discovery had a very big impact on me. It was really funny how it worked out, because once I started listening to myself play, I remember thinking how horrible I sounded, so I started to work on trying to "sound" good. The tape recorder also had a function that allowed you to play on top of what you had just recorded, essentially giving me my first exposure to multitrack recording. Once I discovered that, it also helped me work out this idea of playing solos on top of a rhythm, so that was what I did for about six months or so. After listening to me work like that for a few months, my dad broke down and bought me a small Univox amplifier. I'd turn it up to 10 and it sounded all distorted and I remember feeling like I was in heaven! My first effects pedal was an Electro-Harmonix Big Muff Pie fuzz box that I bought through the mail after seeing an advertisement in Circus magazine, and it was the biggest, fattest fuzz ever created. This was the first of many pedals to come. + +It was very confusing when I first played with these pedals because I had no idea how to use them, or how to make myself sound like Hendrix! There was no YouTube back then to instantly instruct you on how to set things up, or on what sounds you could get out of a new piece of gear—you were pretty much on your own. After starting with the Big Muff, the next thing I got was a Maestro Phaser unit with the three buttons on it, and then the MXR, another phaser unit, and then a wah-wah pedal showed up eventually. I really didn't have a whole bunch of pedals back then. I was still trying to get my amps—which were small—to sound really big, and so I would turn them all the way up. Besides the Univox, I eventually used a few small Fender amps that I would borrow from friends. I wish I still had those amps from the early days . . . + + + + + +CHAPTER 2 * * + +High School Confidential + +Almost as soon as I got that Univox amp and my electric guitar, I started playing with some older guys in school. I was in a few no-name, no-gig bands before I joined a group called Mihchuacan. This was a band of guys who were a year or two ahead of me in high school. I'm not even sure how I got in the band, but somehow I wound up playing with these guys. + +I learned A LOT from the guitar player, John Riccio, who could not only play a lot of different styles of music, jam, and improvise, but he could also play rock very well, either with a pick or by Travis picking. He was a very versatile player, and I was not; I was just a straight-ahead electric guitar player who used a pick. We had a lot of great times playing together, just the two of us, as he would instruct me with the band’s material before we got together with the whole band for practice. + +I remember the first show I ever did was a high school dance in the gym. I had extreme butterflies, so to help with that, I brought my Hendrix candle to the show. It was a very small, empty bottle of cheap champagne with a multicolored candle stuck in it. I would burn this candle and several candles like it every time I practiced. It was like a confidence booster to get me in touch with the spirit of Hendrix, to increase my talent, I guess. I don't know what I was thinking at the time—I just wanted some Hendrix mojo. So I brought it to the gig, and we played on these little risers that the school had provided for us. I was kind of in the middle by the drums. I remember feeling exhilarated the first time I stepped onstage to perform before a real rock 'n' roll crowd, but at the same time, I had my back turned to the audience, and I was petrified. I remember thinking it was the greatest thing ever, even though I don't think I really faced the audience throughout the whole performance! + +After that, I went from being a kid on the football team to being a kid who just wanted to play music all the time. At the time I must have been responding to Jimi’s pure genius, tempered with his sound, which was completely unconventional. In other words, he sounded like a virtuoso who never practiced a day in his life. He just sounded like a totally natural guitar player. Of course, years later, I'd learn that wasn't the case. I toured with Billy Cox, Hendrix’s bass player, who told me that Hendrix practiced all day long. He said, "You hear those silly stories about someone sleeping with a guitar, that’s the way he did it. He always had the guitar on, he was always working on his rhythm-and-blues guitar playing. That was his love, and he would practice it over and over again. He wouldn't practice scales; he would practice rhythm." + +Once I'd caught the fever, I became obsessed with practicing, to the point that I was relentless about it: I had to do it every weekday, and then on the weekends. When I got to be sixteen and seventeen, I would stretch it longer when the summers came. I would just stay in and practice all day long. My friends would always call me on a Saturday night, asking, "Where are you?" or saying, "We're going to this big party," and I would say, "I'll meet you there after eleven. I'm busy practicing." I had to prove to myself that I could play as well as I had the day before, as well or better. + +As I continued to grow more and more into myself as a guitar player, I started playing with a group called Tarsus, which featured Tom Garr on drums, Steve Muller on bass, and Danny Calvagna on vocals. Pete Maher replaced Tom on drums when Tom went to college, and we added a second vocalist, Paul Lancaster. It was a lot of fun. I did a lot of growing up through crazy rock 'n' roll experiences, the kind you have when you're young and in a band! + + +Steve Vai: Joe and I went to high school together. He was three or four years older than me, so his social group was very different from mine. He was part of the older cool kids. When you're twelve years old, a sixteen-year-old that plays the guitar can seem like a god. But there was no mistaking that he was very well known in our school and town as a great guitar player. He was the only one in our town, or many surrounding towns, who could really play. He was in a very cool band called Tarsus and they did rock covers from Led Zeppelin. I was in a band with the younger brother of the singer who was in Joe’s band. We tried to emulate them in every way—we even named our band "Susrat," which is Tarsus backward. + +Joe was different from anyone else in our school. He exuded a cool that permeated the vicinity he was in. He had the longest hair of anyone and everything he did or said just seemed cool to us. We all looked up to him and talked about him all the time. We would wait in the hallways that we knew he was going to pass through just to say hi to him. My standard presentation was a nervous smile, a little wave of my hand, and a "Hi, Joe." Any elicited response from him was fetishized and discussed among our group. + +It was really great having someone like that in our fold that we could worship. I mean, this was a guy who could actually play the solo to Led Zeppelin’s "Heartbreaker"! Although I was listening to guys like Jimmy Page, Jimi Hendrix, and Ritchie Blackmore while growing up, in all honesty, I thought Joe was better than any of them. I couldn't figure out how someone who was living in my town, who was sitting in front of me, could be so good. Better than my so-called heroes. Joe was my hero. Even when I was becoming successful with folks like Zappa and Roth, I would talk to the press about this guy who was leagues above us all. I thought that if the idea of a person becoming successful was based on their talent, then Joe would be an icon one day. I discovered this to be true because I can count on one crippled hand the number of people I have felt this way about, and Joe is one of them. + + + +As soon as I started playing high school dances, kids started to ask me to give them guitar lessons. So when I was still fifteen, I started giving guitar lessons in my bedroom! My parents thought it was the greatest thing ever, mostly because it gave me money to buy my own guitar strings. It was mostly kids, but I had a few grown-up students as well. That’s where I wound up teaching Steve Vai, and that’s how we started our long friendship. + + +Steve Vai: There’s no way to quantify the importance my lessons with Joe had for me. From the first time I ever laid eyes on a guitar I was enamored with it. I never felt I was good enough to own one or play it, perhaps because of self-esteem issues. Finally, when I was thirteen years old, I got ahold of a guitar but never told anyone I played it. A friend of mine who lived a few houses down was taking lessons from Joe and he gave me Joe’s number. Joe’s a great teacher for many reasons, firstly because he could really play! He knew all the cool songs that I wanted to learn and his rock playing sounded authentic. Every time he touched the guitar something musical came out. he had a vast understanding of music theory and how it could apply to the guitar, and was very strict and demanded that I understand and memorize any theory he taught me. + + + +When you're a teacher, you realize that you have to clearly encapsulate some unrelated technical ideas that you take for granted and understand and put them into words so someone else will understand them. That process crystallizes the lesson not only for the student, but for the teacher as well. So, I found the process of having to organize my thoughts about music helped me crystallize them for myself, and maybe understand them just a little more. + +I got a kick out of sitting across from a thirteen-year-old Steve Vai and realizing, "This kid is going to be playing better than me." I knew it, I just instinctively knew it. One thing was for sure: When I suddenly saw talent in front of me, like I did with Steve just innocently playing, it instantly made sense to me that there was no other way to be a teacher than to simply surrender everything that you knew. It was amazing to watch him take something that I figured out maybe just months ago, and watch him learn it and come back and play it better than I could. I thought, "Well then, if you're a teacher, you have to do it, surrender everything you know." You're bound by some sort of moral compass to do it that way. + + +Steve Vai: He set an amazingly high standard and pulled me up to it. I'm sure he gave freely to all of his students. He was a selfless teacher, meaning he gave you everything he had. But most importantly he inspired you to find yourself within it. He taught me to think independently and to find my own voice on the instrument. He always seemed to have a warehouse of information that never stopped flowing. He was very effective when teaching things such as form, style, exercises, scales, chords, theory, and so forth, because he was an example. I was able to see with my own eyes that what he was teaching he had mastered. That’s the richest kind of inspiration. Along with that, he did not skimp on the academics. I was a subpar student in school and struggled terribly to comprehend and retain anything I learned in academic studies, but when Joe told me to learn something I committed it to memory unconditionally. It’s amazing what you are capable of doing when someone you deeply respect has great expectations of you. + +There was no time more exciting than 4:00 P.M. Thursday afternoons when I would walk across town to his house and sit in his room for my lesson. Even his room was the coolest. He had rock 'n' roll posters covering every wall, a stack of exceptional records, amplifiers, guitars—the works. My lessons were the most important thing in my life. They were treasures. They were my escape from some of the personal challenges I was going through. My lessons were my sanctuary and were all I cared about and focused on. My entire goal in life at the time was to make sure that Joe would approve of how I learned and grew from the previous week’s lesson. Just being in his room was glorious. There’s a psychological exercise that people do if they are experiencing a difficult time in their life. They focus on a "happy place," a time or place in their life where they felt safe, content, happy, and secure. For me, one of those places is Joe’s teenage bedroom and my guitar lessons. + + + + + +CHAPTER 3 * * + +Learning Curves + +During this time, when I was sixteen and seventeen, I would turn on the radio and be mesmerized by what I was hearing. But every time I played the guitar, even though I loved it, there was always that frustration of wishing I could play better. I think for every musician, that’s a daily reality where, if you're lucky, you can say, "Wow, I am a little better today than yesterday. I do remember this. I'm not in the dark with this concept." Even with that, I always ended every session thinking, "I wish I was better—maybe tomorrow." + +Back then, influences were flying at me from all sides of the music spectrum. Growing up in the seventies exposed me to a crazy variety of musical styles. The radio was playing the Beatles; Led Zeppelin; America; Steve Miller; Steely Dan; Crosby, Stills & Nash; the Stones; Queen; Humble Pie; all that classic rock. So from 1970 to 1974, my formative years of learning how to play electric guitar while in high school, I heard all that music, everything from James Taylor through Black Sabbath, and I loved all of it. So I kept thinking, "I want to be able to play acoustic like James Taylor; I want to be able to make this dark, incredible music like Tony Iommi." I was still chasing Hendrix, but I was curious about all these other artists like John McLaughlin and Allan Holdsworth, and what they were doing. To me, it seemed like I needed time to stand still, so I could have another couple decades to work this all out. That’s why I was staying in on Friday and Saturday nights practicing: because I was overwhelmed by the amount of talent out there. I would ask myself, "How do I get to the point where I sound as good as Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck? How do I play this Black Sabbath song and really sound like I'm where Tony Iommi is?" I was totally driven at that early age, from fourteen on through my later teens. + +In high school, I had this brilliant music theory teacher, Bill Westcott, who really unlocked the power of the musical brain to me. His message was, "Your fingers may fail you, you may not turn out to be as physically talented as you think, but your mind can keep going, and the musician in your head is the one who’s going to instruct your body how to best use your physical talent or lack thereof." This was a very important lesson to learn, and a very tough one when you're a punky teenager playing Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin in a band and getting the adulation of your peers. To have some guy say, "Hey, you may suck when you turn twenty-two, and it may turn out everybody’s better than you." So teaching me music theory, music history, ear training, learning how to sight-read better—all those things were invaluable. I really count that as the most important instruction of my whole life, those two years taking advanced music theory at Carle Place High School. + + + +Me and high school music teacher Bill Westcott at Carle Place High School in '73 + +PHOTO BY SATRIANI FAMILY ARCHIVES + + + +I remember very clearly back in New York—when I was already playing guitar at a point where I thought I was pretty good—sitting on my bed and turning on the radio, and on came a song by Yes. I remember sitting there listening to it, thinking, "I don't know what they're doing—what is that? How does a band create a piece of music so easy to listen to, and yet it’s made up of parts I can't even recognize. How are they building that? How are they putting that together? How do they understand music rhythmically and harmonically and melodically, and make it all fit together?" And then of course the sound was fantastic as well. That’s when I realized that I wasn't really that good after all, and that I could benefit from some music theory. + +As a beginner, I would learn some chords, I would hit one chord I really liked, and then play another chord. I started playing them back and forth, and I would think to myself, "That sounds like a song," like I could hear somebody singing on top of that. So I would write the names of the chords down, and then I would say, "What does it sound like?" So I'd come up with a name for the song, and maybe write a description, like, "This song is about a bluebird." So every time that I would pick up the guitar to practice, that’s what I would do, play my made-up little two- or three-chord song. This was before I took lessons, before I started playing with any other friends who played guitar. So I was left to my own compositional devices for material to play. As time went on, what I found was that it was more interesting, more compelling, and more artistically satisfying for me when I would play or work on music that came from an inner vision. Every time I went back to a song like that, I said, "This is where it’s at; this is what makes the world go 'round for me. Not playing this other song that’s popular in my school at the moment." + +Early on, I experienced the emptiness of simply playing other people’s music, even when it went over well. I realized that it wasn't like playing my own music, that I didn't have that insight into the composition process like I did with my own music. I learned in my music theory classes how conductors would really have to learn and understand a piece of music. They'd have to get into the heart and soul of the composer to properly direct the orchestra. And I thought, that’s what it is—when I'm in a band playing a Black Sabbath song for a high school dance, I don't know why the guys in Black Sabbath wrote it. Well, no wonder I liked playing my own music, because this is a very long, accepted tradition in music, to be emotionally connected to what you're playing. That’s the mark of a true artist. + +What I started to understand was that the whole thing was a musical statement, that I couldn't just break it down and listen to the guitar part and say, "He’s not doing much." That’s when I started to understand that "technical perfection" had very little to do with it. So, for instance, when you hear John Lee Hooker singing "I'm in the Mood," you really can't find any way to dissect it, because what he’s playing is such a beautiful, unique, and original statement that you have to figure out how to classify it in a way that doesn't break it down to its technical elements. It’s selling the music short to say, "Well, he’s playing the E chord, and then he’s singing this note on top of it . . ." Because that’s really not what’s happening. If that’s what was happening, then everybody who knew how to play a guitar could do it. + +As I felt myself continuing to develop as a player, I applied my new listening lesson to Hendrix, and from there, I applied it to other players. Jeff Beck is so different from Hendrix; as players they're two different people. That’s what we hear when we hear these guys: we hear them. Music gets filtered through their fingers and the technique they've picked up along the way, but their talent is really getting their unique personalities to come through their music. And that to me was the most important musical quest. I knew that’s what I should be practicing at that age. I learned theory and fingering; I learned how to Travis pick, the details. But those are just little things in comparison to the real lesson: how to bring "yourself" out and represent it musically. + +Jimi remained my greatest teacher throughout it all, directly influencing my use of feedback within melodies, solos, and even as harmonic beds. All that probably comes from him directly, from his recordings, both in the studio and live. He could use feedback to be musical—in other words, he would play with the notes melodically, just the way a horn player would. Before Jimi, people didn't really do that. They would use the noise simply to be a noise. I picked up on what Jimi did and it became part of my style. My blues style of playing is really based on his blues style; I know that his style is based on Buddy Guy and Albert King and a host of others, but I started with him. Then, as I got better at playing blues, I looked to Jimi’s influences and educated myself all the way back. Today I know that every time I play blues, I'm pacing myself and looking for the same end result that I heard when I was listening to Hendrix’s "Red House" back as a teenager. + +By the time I was seventeen, I was so focused on mastering my craft and pursuing my dream that I actually graduated high school half a year early. I was a disruptive element and the school was happy to see me go. Hard to believe now, but back then, a rock 'n' roll playing, longhaired guy was just someone they didn't want in the school. It was a public high school in a small town on Long Island, and in retrospect, it’s laughable, because that group of us who were musicians were actually the good guys, the harmless ones. The real troublemakers were the ones who didn't look like it, but society back then still did not like longhaired rock musicians, so we were vilified for wanting to do what we wanted to do. So they didn't want those of us who were good students but looked like rockers around. Maybe by getting a few of us who were musicians out of there, they were thinking, "They may not be playing at the high school dances anymore, but they won't be influencing the other kids to grow their hair," or whatever. They also probably thought we were doing drugs all the time, which we weren't. What I was doing all the time was practicing music. + +When you're young, you don't realize you're being observed every day by your parents, and they're worrying about you. But that’s what was happening with mine, and they must have thought that I was really crazy about music, but I just needed a little bit of help. My parents let us rehearse in our basement, which was crazy, and I don't know what possessed them to let us do that. I remember being very proud of them when they would talk down the police, who would come over to try to stop us for making too much noise. Once in a while, my mother would be concerned about the kind of songs we were singing, if she heard sexual connotations or demonic verses or something. We were just acting out, I suppose, trying to be like the bands that inspired us. But the neighbors hated us, and they would call the police, and I'd see my parents arguing our case and think they were really cool. They earned the respect of all my friends as well because they would stand up to the square neighborhood. + +I still felt like I was going nowhere, mostly because the musical ambitions of the other guys in the band were different from mine. I still felt like I needed to understand the secrets of music, and I wasn't getting it from being in a rock 'n' roll band, and I didn't know what to do. I didn't know how I was going to understand what Mozart understood, or Miles Davis, or Jimi Hendrix, and no one was offering up any hints to me. The other big problem our band had was the lack of money. It was very difficult to make enough, and I didn't want to have to get a regular job. I was trying to figure out how musicians really made a living so they could take care of themselves. + +Back on the academic front, I didn't get into Juilliard, which broke my heart. After that, I was accepted to the Berklee College of Music and went up to Boston to check it out, and I was horrified that it really was more like Animal House! I wanted the secrets of the musical universe unveiled to me, but it was so disappointing. My parents helped me look for a college, and we found this place on Long Island just starting up in their first year, Five Towns College. I attended that college for one semester, and that did not go well, because to me it was a joke being in classes with kids who knew one-sixteenth of what I knew. It was just a waste of time. So after a while, I told my dad I was ready to drop out and go pro. He said, "Go for it." + +During this transition, I was fortunate to take two months of intense music lessons from bebop genius and father of cool jazz Lennie Tristano. He taught me what true musical discipline was. His ideas on improvisation as a way of life were eye-opening to me. However, his most important lesson was this: Don't live in the "subjunctive mood." Never worry about what you should have, would have, or could have played. Only play what you want to play. That’s a lesson I still work on to this day. + +I soon wound up in this disco band before it was called disco— they called it "progressive dance" back then, but it was really disco. For almost a year, I was in this band, and it was like being in hell, but I was working, playing music, and making money. The band was like this little corporation: The guys in the band were much older than I was, and they had it all worked out. Although I thought the music was horrible and didn't want to do it for the rest of my life, I really admired these guys who had figured out a way to be musicians and make a living. One guy was a music teacher but he played sax in the band. Another guy, all he did was this: He was the band leader, wrote the charts, and figured out how to get a loan to buy a van we could use to travel on these short tours around the East Coast. That was the first time I went on tour, the summer of 1975, and the whole thing was pretty interesting. Ultimately, that’s also when I learned that I would never do that again, and that I should avoid it if at all possible, as if my survival depended upon it. It was a soul killer, something where you would slowly die as you stood on a bandstand playing popular music for people who didn't really care about you or what you had to say. + + + + + +CHAPTER 4 * * + +Satch Goes west + +In the winter of 1976, when I was nineteen, I made my way out west and moved into an apartment with one of my sisters in Berkeley. When I arrived in the Bay Area, I realized that everybody out here was an oddball, so I figured I'd fit in, too! It seemed like there was very little conformity going on. Even the number of famous artists who lived here did nothing to try to be like one another, and that was just something I liked. + +To be honest, when I think back on what drew me out to the Bay Area, I have to say the weather was an obvious factor, because in Berkeley it was mild and gorgeous, compared to where I grew up in New York! No more suffering through freezing winters and humid 100-degree summers. It was also a lot cheaper to live out on the West Coast if you were at the bottom of the financial ladder. Since I was young and penniless, it seemed like a lot of fun. + +I wound up renting a house in Berkeley right across from a music store called Second Hand Guitars, right next to Fat Albert’s restaurant. I'd go across the street and play guitar all day long. One day the owner, Jim Larson, asked me, "Hey, you're not going to buy anything, are you?" I told him I wasn't, so he offered me a deal. I could come in and play as often as I wanted, so long as I also gave guitar lessons. I said straight out, "I don't want to get into that again," but he ended up convincing me. + +"Let’s just try it," he said. "I'll put an ad in the paper, and you can teach in the back room or during off-hours." + +We worked out a deal where he got something like $2 off the top of what I was charging per lesson. It was very equitable, and it was fun to teach in a store that had fantastic vintage guitars on the wall and an overall cool environment. + + +Larry LaLonde, Primus lead guitarist: Within my age group around town, which was thirteen to fifteen, some of the other guitar players I knew had guitar teachers they were taking lessons from around the Bay Area, and it turned out in a short time we all learned that, ironically, OUR guitar teachers were all taking lessons from this guy Joe Satriani. And we were like, "Whoa, who’s this guy?" And the buzz on Joe at that time, just locally, was that "this guy is better than Eddie Van Halen." As far as kids my age who played guitar were concerned, there was Eddie Van Halen and Randy Rhoads. So when we heard about this guy Joe, who at the time was also in this new band called the Squares, the question among my peers was, "How can we hear this guy?" because most of us were still too young to get in the clubs where his band played. So as fate would have it, I had around that time saved up enough money to go in and buy this Marshall cabinet at a place in Berkeley called Second Hand Guitars. And the day I went in to buy it, I saw this advertisement on the wall for "Guitar Lessons with Joe Satriani"! I couldn't believe it was him, so I immediately signed up for a lesson and he wound up becoming my teacher. + + + +My teaching had to be flexible, because each student was so different. In one day, I might see Alex Skolnick, Larry LaLonde, David Bryson, and Charlie Hunter. Everyone who took lessons from me had to know the name of every note on the guitar and of every chord. I insisted on it, because otherwise we'd have no basis from which to move in whatever direction a particular student wanted to head. + + +Larry LaLonde: Joe was very good at assessing what your level as a player was right off, which for me at that time was still very low. The way it worked was: He would give you an assignment to learn over the next week, which was some form of exercise, a scale, for instance. When you came back in for the next lesson, he would also have you bring in a song you really wanted to learn, which he would figure out in two seconds. And the deal was, if you could pull off whatever technical lesson he'd given you to learn the week before, he would show you how to play whatever Van Halen or Randy Rhoads riff. So it was kind of a motivation to practice and learn the things he wanted you to, and it really made me want to practice, practice, practice whatever the technical lesson was that week. It would often be something repetitive and not that exciting from a playing point of view, but it was really fundamental exercise as far as getting your fingers together. It was the kind of routine where you would go up and down the neck of the guitar and if you'd miss even one note, he'd make you start over. So I would sit there and do these things that were hard exercises week after week, so even when I was practicing on my own, he had ingrained a discipline into me in which if I missed even one note, I would have to go back and start over. That turned out to be a really good method of practicing, and it helped when he started teaching me theory and how notes, scales, and chords went together, which at the time made no sense to me. So, for the first couple of months, he would explain these things to me, and I'd nod my head, secretly confused. Then I remember one day it all clicked and I was like, "Oh my God." It was a pretty amazing moment for me as a player. + + + +Along with Larry, I was also teaching guys like Kirk Hammett and Alex Skolnick, who had gigs already where people were depending on them not only to write music, but also to shred. So part of the lesson always had to be about lead guitar, which would always involve more hard-core practicing. They had a real desire to get some work done fast. So if a guitar player like Alex came in and wanted to know how Allan Holdsworth, Hendrix, and Michael Schenker did what they did, then I'd tell them, and that’s what we'd work on. That was our deal, and they happily took abuse from me because they said they wanted to be the greatest, and I'd always be very up front with them: "You want to be the greatest, and you want to be the greatest by next week? Then this is what it takes . . ." + + +Kirk Hammett, Metallica lead guitarist: Even back then he sounded like he does now. I mean, all the components of his guitar style were in place back then. I was just so totally blown away by his technique and his style. The first thing he said to me is, "Okay, if you're going to take lessons from me I expect you to learn your lessons. If you come in next week without learning the lessons, you're just going to be wasting our time and there’s no real reason for you to be taking lessons." So he basically told me to have my act together when I came in the next week. So I had the lesson, learned everything over the week, and came back the next week. It just totally grew from there . . . I learned a lot of things from Joe, a lot of things about technique especially. I also learned that feel is better than anything and everything. So I've always strived be a player with a lot of feeling rather than a player with a lot of technique. I was always aware of the fact that you can say just as much with five notes as you can with five thousand notes. Learning that was very, very important to me.1 + + + +As I got more popular, I wound up with sixty students, and I could teach seven days a week, eight hours a day. I had a long waiting list, so that’s how I made my living while I was playing with my band. + +The Squares, my West Coast band, got together in late '79. When I first moved out to California, I had hung out with my sister’s soon-to-be ex-husband, Neil Sheehan, a guy I'd written music with back when I was fourteen years old. He was a very smart guy and an engineer, but he'd also had a short stint playing with a pop band called the Critters that had some marginal success before my time on the East Coast. He was also a creative songwriter. He and I decided to try to put a band together where he could be a manager and a songwriter, and we both could find really cool guys to play with. He knew a little bit more about the local scene than I did; I was still quite young and not old enough to go to a lot of the clubs. So the Squares were born one night after my brother-in-law and I went down to the Old Waldorf club to see a local performer, Jane Dornacker, play. Her backup band was these two guys, Jeff Campitelli on drums and Andy Milton on bass. After the show, we went up to them and said, "You know, we're thinking of putting a band together from scratch, and want it to be this kind of a band. Would you be interested in doing it?" + + + +The Squares playing in Sproul Plaza at UC Berkeley circa '80 + +PHOTO BY RUBINA SATRIANI + + +Jeff Campitelli, drummer: I remember Joe had come down to one of our shows to check out the band I happened to be playing in with one of his students, and we just hit it off backstage. We started talking and quickly found we had very similar interests in music, and he said he was putting together something, and he really liked my drumming and our bass player. So we got together at Joe’s apartment the very next night and he started playing some demo ideas he had, and, of course, just listening to his playing, I immediately thought, "Wow, this guy’s really good. He can actually play!" And at that time, I was coming from more of a school of playing with a lot of punk-type bands, just real fast three-chord stuff, and I remember being impressed by the fact that Joe could rock, but that he also had this incredible technical ability. So it struck me right away that it was pretty amazing. We all decided that night to get together and play. Within a couple days after that, we got together in my parents' garage—I was still living at home at the time—and played some Beatles tunes and a couple of Joe’s tunes he'd been writing with his brother-in-law, and we just hit it off musically. It was one of those things you don't question; it just felt right. So we just started the band right there—we all said, "Hey, this is pretty cool," and started rehearsing. Andy had star quality without a doubt, and was one of those very strong yet extremely vulnerable, beautifully gifted singers. He was a fun bass player; he wasn't a guy who would ever consider trying toward any kind of virtuosity. He just wanted to rock 'n' roll; that was his thing. He had a beautiful voice, and the combination of being big, tall, and handsome and really sensitive was just this thing that made you want to watch him. + + + +I could sense that Jeff liked the same drummers that I did, and although he was a lot younger than I was, he had elements of Ringo Starr, Charlie Watts, Mitch Mitchell, John Bonham, and Keith Moon. These were drummers who were all part of my foundation—they played in the bands that I thought wrote and played the greatest music, yet they were all different from each other. So it turned out that Jeff and I had this mutual appreciation for how different these drummers were and how they were at the core of the bands' ways of expressing themselves. If you had tried to switch their drummers out, they would kind of fall flat, so we knew it was more than just the technical ability: It was their feel, and that’s what attracted me to Jeff’s playing. I just thought he had a great feel on his own, and then when you presented him with music, he would seek out what he thought was the best feel for that piece of music, as compared to other drummers, who might simply take whatever you had and filter it through their "thing." + + +Jeff Campitelli: I remember Joe had a really great Marshallamp rock tone, and at that time, he came into the group playing what was—and I don't want to pigeonhole him—a style that was a little more Van Halen-esque, because at the time they were huge. Back then, Joe was also playing through this Roland JC-120, which gave him a nice clean, chorus-y sound, and he could blend them together. I was coming from a more John Bonham, heavy-rock background. Back then, the Police were breaking, too, and New Wave was becoming more commonplace and breaking on a larger scale, and we were all three drawn to that. Once I heard Stewart Copeland, I thought, "Ooh, I can do a little fancy hi-hat thing," and Andy was definitely into Sting and trying to sing a little more like that. So we had a few ska-influenced beats and vocal parts coming in there, and collectively, along with my style of playing, I thought we stood out because we had this great pop vocalist and this heavy, great guitar player who really rocked. When we started rockin', it just felt right—an interesting combination of heavy but good melodies and some great background vocals, with some pop in there, too. So we thought, "All right, it’s different," because nobody else was really doing anything like it at the time. + + + +What made the Squares stand out from our Bay Area peers began with our very unique approach. For some reason, we decided right away that the band wasn't going to be about shredding at all—that was the part of the Squares that reflected New Wave music. It was guitar, bass, and drums, and a lot of the lead vocals were sung harmonized all the time, sort of like the Everly Brothers. + + +Jeff Campitelli: It was a really great music scene, with lots of clubs, lots of gigs, and lots of bands, and we immediately jumped right in. We had local management that came through Joe’s brother-in-law—he did all the schmoozing with club managers so we didn't have to, because Joe and I didn't hang out a lot at these places. Andy was more social than me and Joe, but we were able to open up for some of the larger bands in the area. So for instance, our very first gig was opening for Greg Kihn at Keystone in Palo Alto, which was probably a 500- or 600-seat club. Then we found ourselves opening for Huey Lewis, and the Go-Go’s would come through town and we'd open for them, and Squeeze, just all these great, larger touring bands! + +We worked because we were different enough but still could fit in with some of the more punky, New Wave bands, so we played a ton of shows with bands like that. Then, when the metal stuff started to happen, some of those bands would open for us. So in a short time we built up a nice following, which allowed us to start headlining on the weekdays because we got to know all the club managers. We could just kind of keep up with everybody. We were all pretty good players, and I still get compliments to this day, like, "Man, you guys were the best band 'cause you guys could all play. We were all trying to write 'My Sharona,' and you guys would just come out and just jam for ten minutes on a song." Joe would stretch out on a solo, but we would hold the audience’s attention throughout our shows. So quickly we also found ourselves headlining on weekends, and before long, we were selling 300, 400, or 500 tickets a show on Friday and Saturday nights. + + + + +John Cuniberti, producer/sound engineer: The first time I met Joe was when the Squares were playing their very first gig. I was actively involved in mixing live sound and hadn't really done a lot of studio work up to that point (although I was building a studio with a friend of mine at the time). I was mixing at the time for the Greg Kihn Band. They were local and had a hit record called Jeopardy, and they were packing them in, so I was mixing front-of-house for them. I remember one night, this band from Berkeley called the Squares was opening for Greg, and their manager came up to me and said, "Hey, it’s our first gig, we're really nervous, the house sound guy here isn't very good, we like what you're doing with Greg, these guys are all from Berkeley, you may even know some of them—would you be willing to mix for them?' And I said, "I'd be happy to." And when they walked out onstage and started playing, I was instantly blown away! I said, "Who are these guys?" and specifically that guitar player—"Who is that?!" + +I remember there was the general feeling that the band was unstoppable, and it was really going to be a big thing. There were bands at the time like the Knack who had clever, hooky little tunes, but they couldn't play like these guys. It was like the Squares were on another plane. I think their audiences would be divided between the musicians who saw them and would go, "Holy cow, these guys are on another level, and that guitar player is definitely someone to reckon with," and then there was the female side of the audience who just loved the lead singer because he looked a little like Elvis and sang like a bird. They were a very good-looking band, so people knew the Squares were doing something different and were going to go places. + + + + + +Me onstage with the Squares in '81 + +PHOTO BY CATHERINE ANDERSON + + + +We first met John while I was playing in the Squares and we were in desperate need of a sound guy. We were learning what you needed to be a good band, and that was the first realization: "Oh, the guy behind the mixing board, he’s the Wizard of Oz! We need to find our own Wizard of Oz." We had heard John mix other bands, and we just thought, "If we could get that guy, that would be amazing." Whenever John mixed live, you heard the power of the punch in everybody’s part, but you could still hear everybody’s part. That’s the key, because there’s nothing worse than when you're watching a band and you see somebody do something, but you can't hear what they're doing. With John it sounded to us like how our instruments sounded when we played standing next to each other, so this guy must get it. After meeting him, we realized he was a musician himself—he was a drummer and had a history of making records—so he had been through several stages of his music life and brought with him that experience. + + +John Cuniberti: I think the sound and the presentation of the guitar in the band was definitely going to be an element, not unlike Andy Summers in the police. The sound of his guitar in those early records was definitely instrumental in the sound of the band. The Squares also had a sound, and Joe’s playing and sound and technique were definitely in effect; I think he even borrowed a little bit from Andy Summers. Because it was a three-piece, there was always this dilemma of, "How do you fill it out?" When you go to a solo, what kind of solo do you play when there’s only a bass player playing? So Joe would rely on chorus and delay and reverbs to try to help fill out the sound. He was experimenting even then. + +I just felt that Joe was serious. Up until then, I'd worked with a lot of people who weren't so serious, and I just knew Joe was going to be famous, from day one. I thought he'd be famous in the Squares—of course, it didn't work out that way, but I always knew Joe Satriani was going to be a famous musician. + +I knew that first night hearing him play that I wanted to work with him. Two things really grabbed me about Joe. First, his command of the instrument, his authority. I'd worked with a lot of bands, all of which had lead guitar players, but those players were always looking at the necks of their guitars and struggling, trying to work to make their thing happen. By contrast, when Joe walked out, he just played things that were interesting and made it look effortless. His fingers would just flow across the fretboard. He would do things in one song that most of the guitar players I'd worked with up until then could barely make happen on a whole album. So his prowess and command of the instrument was the first thing. The other was that his solos weren't just typical blues-based phrasing and stuff. They were very melodic and singer-songwriter-like—in other words, thought-out. You could tell that he probably played the same solo every night the same way; everything was very structured and sculpted. But the whole band had a lot of energy and looked great, and I was immediately attracted to their music. So after they got done that night, I went backstage, found Joe, went up to him, and said, "Hey, man, I'm building a recording studio, and I want you guys to come in and record." + +These guys were exceptionally well rehearsed. In comparison to bands I had been in and had worked with, which might rehearse two or three times a week if we were lucky, the Squares got together practically five nights a week. They were hell-bent on being the next big thing, and they knew that took a tremendous amount of practice. You could just tell by Joe’s playing that he really practiced; he really made this a full-time job. I think he raised the bar for the other two guys in the band to also see it that seriously, because they had an attitude like, "This isn't for kids. If you really want to be successful, this is what you have to do: practice four to five hours a day," and Joe was a music teacher and came from that ethic of, "If you really want to learn how to do something, you're going to actually have to sit down and practice it— otherwise, don't waste my time." + +He had no tolerance whatsoever for slackers. It’s always been that way. You could hear it in his playing; every night those guitar solos were basically the same. There'd sometimes be some changes—sometimes he would change them completely, but only because they were still in development— but he played everything pretty much note for note, night after night after night after night. There was no jamming, the arrangements were super-tight, and the other two guys in the band had to get with the program. They had to learn their parts, and they had to play it exactly the same way, and Joe absolutely had no tolerance for "F-ing around." The lead singer/bassist, Andy, was a little looser, more old-school rock 'n' roll, you do it a little different every night, you drink a little too much, you have fun with it. Joe just couldn't tolerate that at all. + + + +It was definitely insane, because we would practice five days a week, even if we didn't have any gigs during that period, for at least four hours a night, and we would just work it to death. + + +Jeff Campitelli: Four shows a month, easy, and we'd rehearse five nights a week, because we just loved to play, that was our thing. Joe would teach till eight o'clock, and then we'd start rehearsals at about nine and go until two in the morning. We did that Monday through the end of the week till our next gig. We'd take maybe one day off, and then do it all over again. We never really burned out because we really loved playing that much, and had a good time—it was our entire scene. + + + +Compositionally, I was the group’s leader. Andy was not as prolific, and that was a bit of a sore point because we couldn't get him to really take over in the role that we assumed he would. It’s a funny thing: What he brought to the band, his voice, was so unique, none of us could even compare to it. It was a band where everybody had strengths and weaknesses. If I had one strength, it’s that I was prolific, and if Andy said, "Oh, I'd love to write a song about this," I could write six songs about that for him, and that would be our starting point. Andy also was just a player by ear; he had no formal musical training and didn't understand chords or anything, so even with his own songs, he had to sit down with you and say, "You've got to help me figure this out. What am I trying to do here?" So a lot of musical work wound up on my lap, and I had to dictate how things were going to go, which turned me into musical leader. + + +Jeff Campitelli: We all played our part and shared in the writing credits because we all felt we brought something to the table that the other guys might not have come up with. Joe took the lead because he was definitely the most prolific. Joe knew music inside and out. He was a master of theory and of which notes went together and which didn't. How that worked was, Joe might come in with a riff or some cool chord changes, start playing them, and I would come up with a beat, and then either Andy would start working on a bass line and humming a melody or Joe would have an idea for a melody. Then we would give the melody to Neil, the manager, and he would write all the lyrics. So it was four of us who were contributing and sharing in the songwriting credits, but again I would say Joe was definitely the most prolific because he was bringing in the most stuff, and he knew the most about music theory. + + + + +John Cuniberti: Jeff, the drummer, was laid back, and was the youngest, and was just going along with the proceedings, and Andy was a bit of a loose cannon. He was a little unpredictable as far as his behavior, and he wasn't the musician Joe was. He tried, but he certainly wasn't going to be able to play the bass as well as Joe played the guitar. So I don't think there was any question that Joe was the musical leader of the band. + + + +John understood us, and he allowed us to be ourselves during the recording process. It was great to be back in the studio with my own band. We had a sound; we had our own songs; and we had a lot of energy and momentum going because we'd already played in front of club audiences that really liked us. + + +John Cuniberti: At the time, my friend and I had just built our studio and had a 16-track, and because my background was in live sound, it was a fairly straightforward process to bring a band in, set them up, throw some mics up, and get the stuff recorded. Those first recordings we made were a good documentation of what the Squares were doing live, because in those days, in the very late 1970s, people made demos—you didn't make a record. Back then, only artists who had record contracts got to make records, so there was a real clear division between a demo tape, which meant cassettes, and a record contract where you had a real producer, worked in a real studio, and ended up with a final record that sounded like a vinyl album. There weren't a whole lot of overdubs done. There was one song where we put some acoustic guitars on it, and then there were some background vocals and double-tracking of vocals—stuff like that. But it was pretty straight ahead, and I liked the songs the Squares played, and the sound we made in the studio. I was doing other records with other musicians, but a lot of them—as much as I enjoyed the process of recording—weren't bands I went home and listened to at night. But with Joe and the Squares, they were actually making music I wanted to listen to, so that made it a whole lot easier. + +Between Joe and me, I believe Joe saw that I was as passionate about recording music as he was about playing guitar. We both saw each other as allies in becoming famous recording artists. At the time, and still I guess to some degree now, recording engineers needed a band as a vehicle to become famous. You couldn't just be the house engineer and build a reputation by doing little bits of this and that. You really needed to be the guy responsible for a band becoming famous, and then you would be tied to that, and other bands would seek you out based on that reputation. So I was hellbent and seriously focused on having a career as a recording engineer, and I think Joe saw that, saw my seriousness, when he showed up at the studio and noticed I'd been there an hour before and had everything set up. I'm a bit anal when it comes to everything—the gear, making sure everything’s working all the time—and I think he was, too, and appreciated it. + + + +That first demo John recorded and mixed for us is the way we like to remember ourselves. He captured the moment perfectly. Ultimately, the later demos led to the band falling apart for me because it didn't seem like we had the right ingredients to compare with the fantastic singers and writers who were ultimately going to be our competition. We got more prolific, we got more detailed, but we never quite captured that "moment" again, and we never really got any better. + + +John Cuniberti: The first set of recordings I did with the Squares were the most spirited. They were very "ruckus," very straightforward, and just filled with life. Even back then, it was absolutely an ambition of Joe’s from day one to get signed, so the next time we were back in the studio, that was when we started making more "serious" recordings. By then, I had moved to another studio in San Francisco, and we were recording on a 24-track in nicer rooms and stuff, so the management and people who were representing the band and trying to get them a recording contract had a lot of say in the direction of the band and the material. People were saying, "You don't have a hit song," et cetera, and I think their influence on the proceedings really kind of made it awkward for Joe. I think after the first set of demos, the band got steered in a direction that was uncomfortable for Joe, and he didn't like it. From my observations, there was way too much emphasis on trying to get a hit single and be really pop, and he didn't really have as much of a voice as he had before. He could only control it so much, but he wanted to be successful and was willing to make compromises. I just think those compromises that required him to be a pop star were really beginning to rub him the wrong way, and I think it showed in the material and the performances and ultimately led to the demise of the Squares. + + + +As things with the Squares came to a close, it was complicated because I definitely felt musically like it was not satisfying anymore, that the band could not really grow how I wanted it to grow. That meant that as a team, we weren't writing songs that I liked anymore. The Squares was a power-pop band— how would I be able to express the elements that I put into Surfing with the Alien with that band? In a band that did not like long guitar solos, that was a thing we just didn't do. + + +Jeff Campitelli: Near the end, it got to be a little more trying for Joe because Andy didn't want to become a bass player with lots of chops; he wanted to be the singer. In fact, there was actually a time toward the end of the band when we were auditioning bass players, and Andy was fine with that. + + + +Because Andy was not an improviser, you couldn't just wink at him and say, "We're going to do this for five minutes." He just couldn't do it, and didn't want to. It just naturally was not something he was into. It was one of several real problems with that band. One of our big challenges was we were not making enough money to survive, even as well as we were doing live. We had been turned down every time we tried to get a record deal, and our demos were getting technically better, but musically worse. The energy was not there anymore, and even though we all may have hoped we'd grow together in the same direction, we were actually splitting up over what we really wanted to do. + + +Jeff Campitelli: Our decision as a group to split up was mutual. What was happening at the time, in truth, is we were maxed out. We were headlining every club, to where I remember walking out onstage on any given Friday night to do our hour-and-a-half set, and the show would be sold out, and we were each making around $500 cash, but after a while it became a ceiling to us. We'd reached one level of success that was satisfying locally, but we all had bigger ambitions, and the groupthink near the end of the band was, "Man, we gotta get signed!" We were making a living just playing original music in clubs throughout the Bay Area, and it was a wonderful period. + +As this was all happening and the buzz was going on around our band, we were starting to get offers from other, more established acts to join. For instance, I got an offer around that time to leave and join Eddie Money’s band. Also, during all of that going on around the band, internally Joe and Andy weren't getting along all that well, and I felt after a while like I was just the nice guy in between trying to hold it all together. That in time would prove distracting to our focus compositionally, because near the end, if you listen to our demos, the music was just all over the place. One song would be more this direction, and another would be in the opposite direction, which translated to us scaring away ALL the big recording companies who were checking us out at the time. From all that it was just obvious that things were coming to a close. I remember talking to Joe one night and telling him about the offer from Eddie Money to play much bigger venues—2,000- to 3,000-seaters—and I just told him, "This is a good opportunity and I think I'm going to take it," and he was cool with it, because I think he was heading at that point in his own direction musically. + + + + +John Cuniberti: For a while after the Squares broke up, I got the sense Joe was really discouraged by the whole process, and I would venture as far as to say he was maybe even second-guessing whether the whole thing was going to be possible or not. I think that led him to take more direct control of his music from that point on and focus on becoming a solo artist. + + + +I felt the artistic drive to strike out on my own, and I thought, I've got to do it in a way where maybe I'm not using it to make money or to be a career; it has to be a purely artistic venture. That’s why I got so into playing, and to accomplish this, I was going to need to control it. I couldn't ruin it by trying to bring it into my reality as a working musician. I had to keep it as a new thing where I could control every element, where trying to make it go commercial never entered into it. I knew instinctively if I got the people I knew involved in it, that it would be compromised. Therefore, if I wasn't expecting to make money off of it, I didn't have to include anybody. It could be like sitting at home and painting weird pictures for yourself without worrying about the outside world and how people will review them or if they'll buy them or not. So once I'd crossed that threshold, I realized, "Wow, I can do whatever I want." So that was a great leap for me, intellectually and emotionally. + + + + + +1. Courtesy of: www.GibsonGuitar.in, The Gibson Interview, May 6, 2011. + + + + + +CHAPTER 5 * * + +Twists of Fate — The Joe Satriani EP, 1983-1984 + + +"Though it’s packed in a plain white cover with the artist’s name in black block letters, this is anything but generic rock and roll. The much-needed clarification that 'every sound on this record was made on an electric guitar' is still hard to believe, especially with the sound effects that begin 'Talk to Me' and the popping 'bass' in 'Dreaming Number Eleven.' Satriani comes highly recommended by guitar wizard Steve Vai. Spacey but melodic and soulful." + +—Guitar Player magazine + + + +There was a place where we used to rehearse, next to this small publishing operation that did how-to books on just about everything— starting a business, getting a divorce, all kinds of things. We'd stand outside our barn door and have a smoke and drink and check out their Dumpster, which was overflowing with misprinted books. So we'd be standing there laughing at the books with titles like How to Get a Divorce and How to Run a Juice Stand and so forth. One day I spotted a book about starting your own business, so I took it home, read it, and realized I could start my own record company if I wanted to. I thought, "Why am I not doing this?" + +At the time, I remember, I was trading phone calls, letters, and cassettes with Steve Vai, who had been living out in L.A. and working with Frank Zappa. He was obviously having the time of his life working with a genius who understood everything about how to use recording as a medium unto itself. Steve started experimenting with multitrack recording, and those early recordings were so wonderfully bizarre, I just loved them. There were tracks made of vocals sped up and slowed down, unbelievable guitar harmonies, unusual time changes—and of course he was recording with musicians who were absolutely incredible. + + +Steve Vai: Back then, I was completely enamored with the idea of sound-on-sound recording, and the moment I had enough money to purchase a 4-track sound-on-sound recorder, I would record stuff all day long. Hanging out with Frank Zappa and watching the way he made his music was paramount. He taught me how to edit analog tape. The entire recording and editing process held infinite possibilities and I would experiment constantly. Recording things backward, sped up, slowed down, overdubs on top of overdubs, using EQs and any effects I could find, building guitar and vocal harmonies that were previously impossible, recording conversations, events, TV commercials, cats screaming— you name it and I'd figure out a way to use it! Then taking that stuff and cutting it up and recording over it, streams of consciousness, bizarre guitar riffs with beautiful and disturbing harmonies, et cetera, et cetera. I could have been the sixth Beatle! It was like every day was Christmas. + + + +Toward the end of high school, I had inherited another Sony 2-track reel-to-reel tape recorder, and not only would I be making 2-track guitar recordings, demos, and things like that for the band, but my friends and I would also make these goofy comedy recordings that were like the Fireside Theatre. So I remember playing that stuff for Steve when he was a young kid taking lessons, and he of course was fascinated with it. I think Steve has a recording from that machine of the two of us improvising at a guitar lesson. When I left New York and moved to California, I no longer had this tape recorder, but I did take with me all those hours of experience playing with tape recorders, and I kept thinking, "I've got to get back to that one of these days." So fast-forward five years, and I'm in the studio with Jeff Holt (an engineer I'll introduce you to in a moment), thinking, "I remember doing this, and I know you can create fantasies with a tape recorder." Even though we'd made all these demos for the Squares in professional studios, they left me feeling flat. They still just sounded like really great recordings of the band, and I already wasn't really happy with the band, so obviously these recordings didn't mean much to me. But the recordings that I had from my previous life in New York meant much more to me, even though they were really weird sounding. So I had these tapes, and I'd listen to them and think, "That’s just so much more satisfying because it’s so odd," and that brought me to the realization that I needed to make what became the Joe Satriani EP. + +It all started to crystallize: knowing Jeff, taking in Steve’s recordings, listening to stuff by Robert Fripp, Adrian Belew, and the like . . . Plus living in Berkeley, where there certainly were a lot of oddballs that I identified with, exposed me to artists who were producing their own music and going against the commercial trends of the time. All these elements came together and made me realize, "Wow, this is something that’s been part of me since I left New York, and maybe I want to go back to how I started out." + +So I took three or four weeks off from practicing incessantly with the band, and during that break I decided that I would start my own company and record an album. My experience with the Squares was winding down because the conflict in the band was winding up, so it was almost like a knee-jerk reaction: "I'm going to make a record, and I don't want to deal with band politics, so how do I make a record by myself?" + +Musically thinking, I knew there were many artists like Brian Eno, Fripp, and Belew who were all making music that engaged me. I realized I had all this odd music that I suspected would get spoiled by a band, because the drummer would want to rock, the bass player would want to create his or her own riffs, and the "unusualness" of my music would be compromised by being made accessible. I didn't want to be accessible. I knew I had to do something to catch this odd approach to music, but I wasn't sure exactly what that something should be. That’s when I started making phone calls and hooked up with Jeff Holt. + +I'd first met Jeff because he was volunteering to record the Squares. I got to know him and I thought, "I like this guy. I think he’s very talented as an engineer, and he seems to be at the right place at the right time with the right kind of ideas." I felt Jeff fell into this rare category of someone who understood that different bands need to be recorded in different ways. He had his own studio, Likewise Productions, which meant he could do whatever he wanted because he wasn't answering to a studio owner. So I got to know him better when I called him back years later with the idea of doing this solo EP, and he was not only receptive but he also had the inclination to try to pursue it with me. Neither of us knew exactly what we were doing, or how it was going to turn out. But he had a very positive attitude and the engineering chops to improvise with me. + + +Jeff Holt: When I was working with a local San Francisco FM rock radio station, "Rockin' the Bay KMEL," I was also writing and recording seven-second sound clips at my studio, Likewise Productions in Oakland, California. The radio station was celebrating its fifth birthday and asked me if I knew any local band that wanted to record a version of "Happy Birthday" to be played at a concert at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley. I figured it'd be a great chance to record my favorite local band. So I had Joe, Jeff, and Andy come in on Thursday, December 8, 1983. We came out of the session with a slick, quick version of "Happy Birthday." Kind of like the Squares meet Van Halen. I remember Joe playing through a Marshall half stack with great tone. Jeff had that fresh pop on the snare and bright cymbals, with Andy through a Countryman direct box. Once we had the sound dialed in we did about seven takes. It was a blast! So when Joe called me up, I was excited about the chance to work with him individually, which stemmed from an admiration standpoint, too, because by that point I was very familiar with his live performance and just really dug his sound. There weren't many guys doing what he was doing, and I definitely knew he was going to be "the guy," so to speak. Joe definitely had that aura about him, so it was all exciting, especially with his concept for the EP because he wanted to create these songs using just the guitar, which meant tapping on his pickups for the kick drum and above the neck for the snare. + + + +I remember arranging the songs for the EP while sitting on the front stoop of my Ward Street apartment, notebook in hand, asking myself, "Okay, I'm going to produce this album, so what do I want to happen? How does a producer do this? How do they write a script or a storyboard, a musical timeline that is more than a musical manuscript?" I would write out these particular chord progressions with a note for scraping technique, and then I would write, "Kick drum will be Allen wrench on neck pickup for the whole piece," with a note to myself: "When do I record this?"—that would be a note I would write to ask Jeff. Next thing would be, "What do I do for cymbal-type activity?" because I knew I was going to need quarter, eighth, or sixteenth notes to replace the typical hi-hat/ride cymbal pattern. So I'd write a note saying, "Scraping strings over the peghead," or "Cymbal hi-hat simulation." And I would write these little things where they would go for a certain amount of time and stop, and then it would come to a point where I might say, "Guitars coming from reverb abyss to the forefront totally dry and in your face. How do I do that?" You can see how personal this music was. It wasn't like the Squares' stuff where we were aiming toward an idea of a band—this was really strange music that came from inside of me, that I wasn't compromising at all for any reason. So I was ready to lose myself in bringing this sound to life. + + +Jeff Holt: On the first day of recording, Joe came in with a notebook full of ideas, and I could see he was just ready for it. It was all new territory for him, being his first one-on-one experience recording in the studio. Still, with Joe, you're dealing with a very adept solo artist. I could see that in the eighties, there was an unwritten law that the engineers and producers should keep the musicians on the other side of the glass, if you will, so that they held the mystique and control of getting musicians to get their sound. Being a musician myself, my theory was that if I can teach these guys about faders and panning knobs, stuff like that, really try to get them involved in their own sound, they would come back to work with me again. And especially with a guy like Joe, he definitely was a sponge, soaking it all in, and he was really interested in knowing what made the transmission of his sound to tape. I felt that was one of the reasons he chose to work with me on this first thing: I gave him total access. I don't know if I was really breaking any unwritten rule, but I felt that by going about it how I did, we had a good working relationship. Even though we were working in a really small studio, there weren't other people around, because this place was in the basement of my house, so it was definitely a private situation where Joe could focus without distraction on his vision for the record. + +It proved a very conducive atmosphere to getting him behind the controls and showing him as much as I knew. It’s amazing how in instances where you work with people of Joe’s talent they wind up teaching you, because they're asking all these questions. Some musicians don't want to know about recording—they get really uncomfortable—but Joe fit right into that role. I know in my case it helped me out a lot because, as an engineer, you're able to perform what an artist wants right there while they're sitting next to you. So I was getting the immediate response of the effect I was putting on because Joe was sitting right there with me in the control room, which was important. He definitely wanted to know as much as he could, and he was the guy listening in the middle of the speakers to the stereo pan, to make sure that imaging was there. + + + +As we started recording, I remember being really fascinated from day one with the recording process itself, and there were so many times when Jeff would show me something, and I would look at him like a little kid and say, "You mean I can do that?" + +All of this was important because I was learning a lot about how to make some of my crazy ideas a reality based on his experience, and Jeff was open enough to teach me how to do it as if he were teaching another engineer. I think it was necessary for him to understand what it was that I was trying to achieve, and for me to be happy artistically. Likewise, I needed to feel that I could gain control of those engineering elements. So he was there to enlighten me on how to use the studio to complete what I started on the guitar. How could we get the vision from my brain to the guitar to the tape? So as I would come into the studio with these notes, Jeff and I would talk about the song. + + +Jeff Holt: From the first day of recording, those conversations were wild. I remember Joe instructing me that the first thing we were going to do was go into the reel of tape, advance it, and flip the reels over. We recorded the backward intro that can be heard on "I Am Become Death." "Wow," I thought, "this is going to be a crazy set of studio sessions!" The record had no live drums or drum machines—the whole idea was Joe would tap with an Allen wrench on his pickup to get the kick drum. + + + +A word on how an Allen wrench became my drummer: When I worked on music in my apartment, I'd have to play with headphones, so I was sitting there using that 4-track tape recorder. The Kramer Pacer I was playing would go out of tune if you just looked at it, so I was endlessly tuning it with an Allen wrench. Ultimately I'd be sitting there with the headphones on, changing strings or something, and the magnetic pull of the pickup would pull the Allen wrench against it, and I would hear a thump. And I guess that just registered in my head as a cool sound. So I started to play around with that, and it crossed my mind, well, if I've got a thump, how would I make a snare sound? So I'd go looking for some other part of the pickup or something else on the guitar to hit with the wrench. It really started from that. + +When I brought it to Jeff, I said, "Listen to this! I'd like to use it for the kick drum." He said, "Well, okay, how do I control this sound that’s got this huge transient? How do we get it to fit in?" So he looked at it as if it were a guy on the other side of the glass stepping on a kick drum. That’s when I was introduced to how we could use limiting, adjust attack time and threshold, and manipulate equalization so we could carve the sound that we wanted. By muting the high end so the listener would hear the thump of it, and with the right limiting, it would always come in at the right volume. That was the genesis. Accidents sometimes create innovation. Maybe Johnny Cash’s famous dollar bill flew between his guitar strings one day, and he said, "Wow, that sounds cool . . ." + +Like all good engineers, Jeff knew the relationship between the pitch of a note and what frequencies were its most fundamental, and so we were able to get that two-note bom-bom on "Banana Mango" to sound like it was some kind of a Taiko drum or something, but it was actually just me playing a detuned guitar string. That same guitar is on that track playing these beautiful harmonics, a '54 Fender Stratocaster. And as I mentioned earlier, a lot of it came about when Jeff would ask, "What do you want to do next?" I would tell him, but I would also end with a question, like "This is what I wanna do. How do you think we should do it? Should we play it loud? Should we do it quietly?" And he would have to make that decision, because I didn't know anything about microphones, which mics to use, and I'm sure he was thinking, "Well, Joe wants this to eventually be a very low-sounding piece, where there’s a lot of low-end being accentuated from it," so he might suggest to me a different volume level so that he could use a different mic that was better at picking up low frequencies. If it was a really biting, typical lead guitar thing, he might suggest the traditional setup with an SM57 and just go out there and turn it all the way up. Those were the things he had to interpret for me. + +By that point, I also had two guitars for which I had gathered all the pieces from scratch. They were mostly made from Boogie Bodies; one of the guitar necks was an ESP, and the other may have been a Boogie Body neck. As far as the parts I bought, I think I had Seymour Duncan pickups. Bill Knapf did all the wiring, and a local guy did the finishing. Those guitars looked beautiful. Also, toward the last year of the Squares, I bought the Kramer Pacer, which had the very first version of a Floyd Rose vibrato bar. This was a big deal, because in trying to extricate myself from the late sixties and early seventies and really embrace the eighties, I'd gotten rid of playing with a vibrato bar, just as I'd sworn off ever using a wah-wah pedal again. But at this point, I noticed that everyone around me was using this Floyd Rose bar, and I started thinking that maybe there was a way I could use the bar and not just sound like someone who wanted to play like Eddie Van Halen. So Jeff Campitelli and I hit the Guitar Center in S.F. for one of their "midnight madness" sales, and I picked up the Kramer for about $400. It had all the wrong hardware on it, but I loved the guitar. It really did have a beautiful tone, and I just totally got into the vibrato bar it had. After I'd avoided using the bar for years, it revolutionized my playing style, so obviously that’s all over that first EP. + +Another thing I loved about that guitar was it allowed me to indulge in being the Hendrix freak that I was. I worked on depressing the bar, getting the strings to be slack, bringing notes up, and then connecting them to a fretted note. This was something I'd picked up from Hendrix, who had used it a lot on Electric Lady-land, and specifically on "Machine Gun," so there are little things like that where I'd be paying homage to Hendrix. I noticed that I started trying to make some unusual noises, like taking the bar and pressing it against the strings itself, which would give me all sorts of strange clanking and metallic noises—that was something that I didn't hear anyone else doing at the time and I worked that into different songs. + + +Jeff Holt: On the EP, it was very impressive because Joe came in with everything together gear-wise on his end. He came in with a notebook full of ideas and some crazy stomp boxes. We experimented with mic placement on the speaker cabinets to get different tones. I remember he was definitely using a Marshall, and Randy Stapman, the local guitar tech, worked on Joe’s amps and was able to change the bias on the tubes, and it was all about getting the combination of the tubes. So early on, Joe was into maintaining his gear, and he would usually use a couple of half stacks—he never went for the double stack. He had a lot of little stomp boxes—the DS-1, the MXR, stuff like that. He didn't have a tech that set any of that stuff up; it was all me and Joe. He had a van he'd pull into the driveway, and we'd set all his gear up together. + + + +At that time, I believe I only owned two Marshall half stacks, because that’s what I had been using in the Squares, and I didn't have any extra equipment. So I had the two Marshall slant-bottoms and the two Marshall heads. One was a late-sixties 100-watt, slightly modified, and the other was the MKII Lead, but I didn't own any small amps. I believe I had an MXR Flanger. In different moments on that record, I definitely needed distortion, and I think I had my original Big Muff Pi by Electro-Harmonix, which was still working at the time, and DS-1 and OD-1 Boss pedals. I used my two Echoplex tape delays as well. Every time Jeff and I would start recording, it was a brand-new experience for me. + +Jeff would always come in with a good word of caution. For instance, on "I Am Become Death," after the backward stuff, the song is a bunch of single lines and harmony, and I was using the pick to scrape the strings down by the bridge to create a violin-bow effect. And I'm describing to him how I want it to sound, and he, of course, being the voice of reason, is saying, "Let’s record these things flat and dry, and then we can add the stuff later." + +I realized he was right, that I didn't want to commit too early to certain things, just in case they didn't work with the other things I wanted to try out. Jeff never knew exactly where I was going to take everything, because I wasn't clear in my own head—there was always 10 or 20 percent where I was going to wait to see how it developed. But we had to start somewhere. + +I'd first come across the Maxon Digital Delay rack mount when they'd just started putting out consumer-level, rack-mounted digital delays, in '83 or '84. Jim Larson, the owner of Second Hand Guitars, where I was teaching, was importing some of these things, and I realized they had this hold-and-repeat function. You could set it at 1,000 milliseconds, you'd play a figure, push the button, and it would just simply repeat that figure. It was trial and error, but Jeff and I were able to create the end of "Banana Mango" with a set of hold-and-repeat figures that would go left channel/right channel, left channel/right channel. When we were recording that ending, to me it sounded like something no one had ever done before. It was just so unique, and I remember being so excited at how much it sounded like I had imagined it. Sampling is one of those things that maybe goes past people today, but back then it was just being born because of this technology. We were fascinated that a unit could capture a short burst of something, manipulate its time, and use it as a rhythmic figure, as if it were a recording of somebody doing something over and over again perfectly. Plus it had a little bit of distortion, just a certain tone, slightly degrading as it repeated. It was something that we found beautiful, and it finished that song so wonderfully. + + +Jeff Holt: Joe had been using digital delay live at the time as an outboard effect, because a lot of the live clubs back then just had basic reverb and delay. It was a real high-end piece of gear, and it was rare for a player to walk into a club with his own outboard gear. So both onstage and when he brought it into the studio, I thought that was a really cool example of his natural desire to push the boundaries of what other people were doing in context of his own sound. We came up with this thing on one song where the old machines had this VSO feature where you could slow the tape down, so we played around with that, and also with panning, and I had this really cool Lexicon Prime Time, which had different outputs, so we were able to throw the sound around in different delay lines. + + + + + +Control room at Jeff Holt’s Likewise Productions, '84 + +PHOTO BY JEFF HOLT + +As we finished the part of the record-making process that I greatly enjoyed—creating and playing—we arrived at a part I wasn't so crazy about, where we might be almost finished with a song, everything’s perfect, and then something would suddenly go wrong. A piece of equipment might make a noise, or a knob was acting funny, or when you made that one little fader move, maybe you went a little bit too far. For instance, when you pushed a fader up it might react a little differently each time, and you've got two people leaning over each other with their arms on the board making moves. Jeff would say, "I'm going to do tracks one to seven, and when we get to here, do me a favor, reach over and turn this knob like that, and then I'll move over to that part of the board." It was like a four-handed organ performance, and one of us would always do something a little different. + +When we were dealing with nonautomated mixes, the good side of it was you had to make a decision, and then you moved on. Those were things I learned again later on, from Andy Johns, who said that in the old days of multitrack recording, they had to commit on the spot to effects and submixing of vocals and guitars. He would tell me, "The idea was: If you had a guitar part that was in reverb, you just recorded the guitar part with the reverb—done." You never went back and said, "Oh, is it too much reverb; is it too little reverb?" You'd just say, "I made that decision, and now we're living with it," and that’s how you made records. That’s why, when we go back and listen to the records made in the sixties, what we're hearing is bold decisions made by people who knew how to make decisions with the attitude of "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!" They got good at cutting tape, too, which John Cuniberti would introduce to me later during the making of Not of This Earth. His idea was that if we couldn't get through the mix in one pass, we would mix only those sections we could get through. Then we would mix the next section, and so forth, and then we would splice all the sections together and have a final mix. I thought he was nuts, but when I heard the result I just couldn't believe it, because it sounded like one beautiful mix. + +From that experience I gained a new respect for working with another person. Every time Jeff would say, "I think we have it," or "I think we should do it again," or that it should be brighter or less bright, I trusted him, and when we went back to it, I realized he was always right. When you're the one actually playing the music, you can't truly evaluate the performance. Certainly the way that I play, I lose perspective. I go headfirst all-the-way emotionally into a performance, but that’s the only way I can get the whole "Joe" into the music. But the lesson was that I needed somebody to tap me on the shoulder and say, "Do it again," or "I'm not going to let you do that again because it’s so unusual." That’s another way Jeff helped me—by telling me when I got it right—because he would say from time to time about a particular performance, "I really think you have it. That’s so unique, please don't make me erase that," and he was correct each time. So you've not only got to find that person you can work with, but you have to learn to trust them. You have to be open to when they give you very interesting comments, be they technical or emotional. They might say, "We've got to change the mic," or "You've got to go outside and walk around the block"— you never know what it might be. That was the most important thing I learned while working with Jeff, and I remind myself of those lessons every time I make a record with anybody. + + +Jeff Holt: I think making that first record was something Joe needed to get out of his system—doing an instrumental, all-guitar record. This was a very different approach, which is why it falls in the category of experimental, because when the EP was done, it wasn't a traditional record, more of a sound-effects type of situation. That record was a big breakout moment for Joe from the band construct, and he proved to me he was a very deep musician and composer, because he was coming up with stuff that wasn't consistent with the power pop of the time. From a production standpoint, Joe has a great ear for tone and I could tell he was taking it all in. I'm sure these early experiences behind the board helped him with ideas for future projects. + + + +At that point in the mid-eighties, we were doing things on that EP that other people hadn't done before. For instance, on "Banana Mango," I tuned the guitar to a D7 with an added 4th, and I put the guitar in my lap, and with both index fingers I tapped the guitar on the twelfth fret—almost like I was tapping a dulcimer. After you hear the initial rhythm guitar come in, which is just a single-performance figure, when you hear these other dulcimer-sounding harmonics come in, that’s me tapping the guitar as it’s sitting on my lap in the open tuning. And to this day, whenever I listen to those three guitars, I think, "I have never heard anything with that sound, ever." It’s a dream. It sounds so un-guitarlike, and yet Jeff and I just did it on a Stratocaster with some interesting tuning. + +After the record was finished, I showed up with the recording at the next series of Squares rehearsals and said, "Look what I did, guys! We should be doing this, we should be going our own route." And it was a very interesting moment, because the manager hated it, the bass player hated it, but Jeff Campitelli said, "This is cool." That was unusual because the record had no drums on it, so you'd think a drummer would say, "I hate this," but he said, "This is really cool. You did this on your own?" Those reactions were a big part of what started to make me think, "This band is going nowhere," because, besides Jeff, I didn't think they understood what was happening in the world. I knew in my heart that was the real end of my days with the Squares. + + + + + +CHAPTER 6 * * + +Not of This Earth —1985-1986 + +When the EP was done, I was excited because I was so pleased with how Jeff Holt and I were able to capture all these unusual moments. The record was a funky little EP that most people played at the wrong speed (I'd manufactured it as a 12-inch EP at 45 RPM, and most people played it at 33 RPM) and thought I was on heroin or something. But artistically, I thought it was fantastic. I couldn't believe that I'd made all those sounds. I was so happy because I thought I had been captured completely without compromise, being as weird as I could be, combining R&B phrasing with all the odd recording techniques and scraping and all the other odd things I had done. But as pleased as I was with it, I realized that for people to really get into my style, I needed to record an album with bass and drums. + +Leading up to that time in the mid-eighties, I was always thinking that I would be lucky to be like a Jimmy Page-type figure in a four-piece rock 'n' roll band, with the singer being one of the quartet. That classic rock-band model had always made sense to me, and as I got older and more honest with myself about my abilities, I began thinking that that’s where I could thrive the best. I knew I could write—I was prolific—and I liked working with vocals-oriented rock music. The music I listened to over and over again, year after year, was made by bands pretty much like that: these three-, four-, and five-piece bands, guitar/bass/drums/singer, maybe a keyboard. So that’s what I kept working on. It really wasn't until after I did the record with Jeff Holt that I started thinking there was any hope of playing instrumental music professionally. + + +John Cuniberti: With Joe, we've always seen that he has a rhythm section, then a melody guitar—and it can have harmonies or not, usually a harmony to the melody would happen at some point. And that could be a two-part, three-part, or even five-part in some cases. Then there’s what we'd call the solo sections, and we always saw those three things separately. It’s not unlike a pop song where you have your rhythm section, you have your lead singer, and then your soloist. So the records have always been constructed in a very similar manner. In other words, when Joe says to me, "I'm going to do a rhythm guitar part," I know what that means—it doesn't mean a solo or melody part. And when he says he’s going to do his melody, I know it doesn't mean a solo; it’s what someone would sing if there were a singer. It’s what’s played during the verse and what is played during the chorus, and what might be played during the bridge—it’s the melody line. So he could take his guitar and make a full band out of it. + + + +I arrived at that evolution in my sound after I recorded the EP, which I felt was more of an experimental calling card. In other words, I had to make that record just to show people how artistically odd I was, that I wasn't just the professional pop-rock guitar player that had been gigging around town with the Squares. And because there was no outlet where I could do that music, the only way I could do it was to record it, send it out, and see if there was someone out there who would respond to it. Even then, I wasn't thinking about replacing vocals with my guitar playing—I was writing serious, original guitar music. It really wasn't until I saw a review of the EP in Guitar Player magazine that I caught a glimpse of my musical future. + +This was when I was selling the EP out of the trunk of my car, and there were maybe fifty copies floating around, so I had no real idea who it was reaching. That changed one day when I was at a rehearsal with a band I'd been playing with following my exit from the Squares, and I remember our bass player, Bobby Vega, came in with a copy of Guitar Player, handed it to me, and said, "Hey, you're in this magazine," which was a little surreal. I remember as I read the review, they were talking about this guy, Joe Satriani, who they thought was one of the strangest, most avant-garde guitar players they'd ever heard. Once I read it, I realized they didn't know who I really was. They thought I was some obscure musician, somebody new on the scene. They had no idea I was Joe, formerly of the Squares and now struggling to find another band to play with. + + + +Promo shot for NOTE + +PHOTO BY PAT JOHNSON + +That’s when I knew I wanted to be that guy they were talking about. I wanted to be that odd, new guitar player. I saw a glimpse of my future, and said to myself, "You've got to figure out a way to be 'that guy.'" So I quickly left that group I was playing with and decided I had to figure out a way to make a record with real bass and drums, because my EP could only get me so far. That really was the next step in putting together what would become Not of This Earth. The challenge was how to maintain my odd sense of tone, harmony, and melody, while bringing in the elements that people relate to—drums, bass, guitars, and keyboards, playing together like a band. + +Before I recorded the EP, Steve Vai and I had been communicating with each other regularly. He was still sending me these odd tapes, just some of the most bizarre recordings of the stuff he was making in L.A., where he was becoming a composer, learning all about recording on his own, and actually becoming the Steve Vai that we all know. He'd been up to see the Squares, and thought it was fascinating and yet strange that I would be in a band like that, because he knew my other self. + + +Steve Vai: I would send much of this stuff to Joe. Stuff that I would not dream of letting anyone else hear. Tons of stuff that, to this day, he may be the only one who has. It was all obviously very crudely recorded with little real production value or time spent on things to make it actually sound good. + + + +I had all this unusual music in me, and now there’s this magazine review, and they have no idea that I'm this struggling guitar player here in San Francisco. They think I'm a successful nut job who’s at home in his studio creating this odd music, and the outside world actually thinks that’s who I am, because it’s written down in this magazine. And the review was actually quite favorable, too! + + +John Cuniberti: Honestly, at first, I'd been terribly disappointed when the band broke up. It was like, "God, after all that work . . ." Because we had recorded nearly two albums' worth of material, and there were a couple of trips to L.A. for showcases, but they could never get themselves a record contract, so after a while everything just dissolved. So when Joe’s band broke up, he went about his way and I went about mine. I was making records with other people, and I didn't see Joe again for at least a year and a half to two years, and he was teaching and did his first solo EP with Jeff Holt, which was an all-guitar-based recording. + + + +Once I had John in place as engineer/coproducer, I realized I needed to bump up the budget. After I'd formulated this idea for the record, I assumed that I could get what they used to call a "spec deal," where you go into a studio, they front you the time to record, and then—and this is right out of the film Boogie Nights—when you get a recording deal, you pay everybody back. That was a very naïve way of looking at things, but I had so much confidence in it, even though John was of course the first guy to tell me, "Are you out of your mind? Nobody is going to front you money for instrumental rock, it’s not even a genre anymore!" And he was right. + +I remember returning home from that discussion feeling quite deflated, worrying that I'd never get this project off the ground. By some stroke of fate, the next day I got a credit card in the mail, preapproved with a $5,000 credit limit. This was the eighties, when banks all over the country were sending out preapproved credit cards to total strangers. I probably qualified because I'd been successfully paying off the van we'd purchased so I could drive the Squares around. They didn't know that in reality I was a broke musician. The letter said something like, "Joseph Satriani, because of your good standing in the community, we're giving you this credit card and it comes with $5,000 worth of checks." So I took that checkbook to John and said, "What if I paid you up front, what kind of a deal would you make for me?" So John worked out this deal where I would pay him and the studio up front, and I wrote $4,700 worth of checks to the studio that day so I could get Not of This Earth recorded. + + +John Cuniberti: I was managing the studio at the time, so I had a little bit of leeway with what Joe’s rates were. We'd worked a thing out where he'd come in some days after a session had ended at seven or eight at night, and we'd work till three, four, or five in the morning at some ridiculously low rate, and we did that a lot for that record. + + + +As a player by this point, stylistically, I was a weird combination of a guy who would listen to Prince and Van Halen and would tune in to dance music stations, but also would still be into Weather Report, John McLaughlin, and Alan Holdsworth. I've always been the kind of person who listens to a wide variety of music and really identifies with all of it. Along with that, there was a lot of music at that time, in the early eighties, that was drum machine driven—a lot of new rock from the UK and Europe. I was also a fan of bands like Kraftwerk, and there were very few bands like Kraftwerk. But you either responded to that music or you didn't. Part of me really loved that strange, drum machine style of music, with humans overdubbing on top of repeating drum machine patterns. When I started to hear the way the new bands were getting a drum machine to sound like a drummer in a big club, I started to get more excited about it. I realized that the music I was writing didn't really have that sort of verse-verse-chorus-bridge thing where we really needed typical drum fills. What I was really writing was stuff that had more of a "stream of consciousness" approach to it. That was the phrase we used a lot. + + +John Cuniberti: He'd done demos at home with a drum machine, and he'd basically write and build his parts and create his sound in a song with these relentless, perfect-time drum machines. But when we first got into a studio and attempted to use a real drummer, the whole thing would fall apart. Joe would say, "Those parts that I'm playing—that picking during my rhythm guitar parts—they don't make sense now when you've got a drummer out there thrashing around. They don't work anymore." So when we started Not of This Earth, I just assumed we were going to use Jeff or some other drummer to play the stuff, but we learned early on that absolutely wasn't going to work. So Joe had basically developed his whole sound style around the fact that everything was more or less locked. + + + +The decision to go with drum machines was also a sonic decision. John and I had worked together in the studio for five years previous to this with the Squares, and we both had a bad taste in our mouths from trying to get these modern drum sounds. So we thought, to hell with it. Let’s listen to all these bands that are using drum machines. If you remember the New Romantic era, music was coming over from the UK around this time made by bands playing New Wave pop using drum machines, but they had drummers playing along with them as well, playing cymbals and overdubbed percussion. John was well aware of that, and he had produced other bands this way, so he said, "We can do this. We can have Jeff come in and only do the snare drum and the hi-hat for Not of This Earth, and we'll use the kick drum from the machine because it’s very dependable and we can use that as the element that’s always perfect." So we were going into it thinking we wanted part of this to sound like modern rock, as we called it, which was the sound of machines and synths together with guitars. So it was an artistic decision, and it worked with the budget, too! + + +John Cuniberti: We soon discovered that these drum machines actually weren't perfectly in time. They would drift, and that became quite problematic. We started to realize it during Surfing, when we started actually using MIDI and computers. We started to realize, "Man, these things just don't feel right. There’s something funny about the feel of this thing." So we really, really, really struggled with it. For Not of This Earth it was a little more straight ahead. + +The drum machine we used for the broader album was an Oberheim DX, and this particular one had chips in it that you could pull out and replace with different kick and snare chips. We had a couple of different snare and kick drums we could use, so we would mostly do kick and snare with the DX. Joe and I (and sometimes Jeff) would write the drum parts, we would record it, and that was it. Then we'd unplug it and put the thing away, and then Joe would play everything against that machine. There was no time code, no MIDI, nothing. + + + +I remember very clearly one very embarrassing moment when a friend of ours, who went on to be a successful songwriter, came into Studio D at Hyde Street, after we had just done all the bed work for the song "Rubina," and he’s listening to it, and he said, "Wow, that’s really beautiful. How did you do this . . ." I explained how John had engineered some really great stereo recording of Jeff, with John and myself playing random percussion instruments on top of the harmonics guitars, the synth bass, and the drum machine pattern. "That’s really great!" he says. Then he asks, "So you put down time code so you can replace and reprogram the drums later?" And I realized I didn't know what he was saying, and I was kind of embarrassed and just answered, "Oh yeah, yeah yeah . . ." When he left, I asked John, "What’s time code?" And he looked at me like, "I can't believe you don't know what time code is!" + +I realized how naive I was about recording with these machines, because I literally did not know that these machines spit out a code that you could record, and that later you could reprogram the machine, and the time code would instruct the machine to play it in synch with everything else. So when John explained it to me, I asked, "Why didn't we do that?" + +And he said, "Well, there’s two reasons. One, you didn't tell me you wanted to do it because I thought Jeff was going to come in and replace everything, and two, there are some problems with time code." So he advised, "If we're doing these quiet guitar things, we can't have time code sitting on an adjacent track, because you'll hear it." + + +John Cuniberti: Another challenge within this process came with the fact that, in those days, drum machines had really terrible cymbals, because a lot of them were just 8-bit. Joe and I recognized very quickly that the cymbals sucked, so Jeff played cymbals on everything. Every song that had a hi-hat or a cymbal crash on it, Jeff played it. We would set up the cymbals, and he would sit there like he was sitting at a drum kit and just whack those cymbals. + + + + +Jeff Campitelli: When we were doing NOTE, Joe had a budget, a tight, tight budget, and of course this was Joe’s baby, and he had for any given number of songs, four, five, or even six guitar overdubs with every little part worked out. So he would work for hours and hours and hours and hours to get the guitar parts just right for each song. Well, when it came time to head in to record, originally the plan was: "Okay, on Thursday night from midnight to 8 A.M., we're going to record the drums for the entire album." And I was thinking, "Oh yeah, Joe and I have been playing together forever. I'll just sit down and start playing drums and we'll play ten songs in a row and the thing will be done." + +That was NOT AT ALL how it wound up working out. I remember one of my drum students had just invested $5,000 in this brand-new Simmons kit, and didn't even know how to use the damn thing, so we borrowed it, brought it in, and originally I didn't even bring a regular drum kit. Joe and I were both thinking we could just use the electric drum sound for something new and exciting. Well, as it worked out, it was like playing on a Formica tabletop: hard, plastic, and no one had any idea how to run the thing, so we couldn't get the sounds right, and the outputs were all plugged in wrong. After a while tensions were running pretty high in the studio. I remember by 2 or 3 A.M., we didn't have anything recorded, and Joe was freaking out because we only had the budget at that point to go on for another day recording drums. So we raided a closet, found a little twenty-inch kick drum without a front head, I threw my jacket inside the drum, and we found a bass pedal, and luckily I'd brought a really good snare drum. So we cranked that up and found a couple of cymbals, and we just basically put together this makeshift kit on the spot! We didn't have any toms, so we tracked the song "Memories." It was just whatever we could do to finish a song that night. + + + +That full set of Simmons electronic drums was another thing that went wrong with the percussion on Not of This Earth. We brought them in because we had some songs that would use drum machines; we wanted the whole album to have this sort of semisynthetic drum sound, and we couldn't afford to spend all this time miking drums. We needed to be able to plug something in and go with it. But it was such a disaster. I remember the evening Jeff came in to work on the song "Memories," and after hours of trying to get these things to work, we had to abandon it. But I had to record Jeff that day— we had to get it done. So we literally put a drum kit together with drums that were in the building from various different studios, and Jeff somehow—by two or three in the morning—was able to perform on this totally held-together-with-rubber-bands drum kit made up of all different drums and cymbals, and we recorded this beautiful performance for that song. We were so wiped out after that, that we were all like, "Oh, the hell with that, no more live drums!" + +I had the Oberheim drum machine at home, so I wrote as much as I could from the drum machine patterns. Jeff would then "play" the drum machine in the studio. It had dynamically sensitive pads, so a really good drummer like Jeff could become comfortable with it and create cool performances. + + +Jeff Campitelli: That experience basically made up the blueprint that Joe decided to follow from there for the rest of the album’s rhythm tracks. It was a real shocker because I didn't want to record that way, but we didn't know how to do it any other way. It wasn't like, "Oh man, we're heading in this amazing direction: We're gonna have the kick drum from the DX, and then Jeff, you're gonna play live snare and overdub some hi-hat. Then you'll do the tom fills and crashes." So we were just really winging it, and while I was thinking, "Well, of course, I'd rather be playing live drums all at the same time and really giving a good performance," as we went along, the songs were taking on this kind of eerie quality and a life of their own that—being a musician first, and a drummer second—I thought was kind of nice, and inspiring, too. That process defined the sound of the album. + + + +Once we turned to recording guitar tracks, I think John was fascinated with the fact that he could elicit performances out of me by creating the proper environment in the control room. He was very good at that, from a producer and engineer’s point of view. He was very sensitive to my moods and would try to get me as comfortable as possible to create the proper performance. That’s why I liked being in the control room. + + +John Cuniberti: In setting up at Hyde Street Studios to record the album, it made sense, because I'd recorded there a lot with the Squares. So it’s not like it was new to me; I'd been there a lot. I was comfortable working there because I thought it sounded great. Every room sounded like a real recording studio. It had been the original Wally Heider Studios, and great, great records had been recorded there. So when I walked in there I realized, "It’s totally my fault if I can't make this place sound good, because there’s been so many classic albums made here." And I think at the time, coming into the city had sort of bumped up my energy level as well. I was still living in Berkeley then, which was a lot more laid back, so when I'd come into San Francisco—and Hyde Street is in the middle of the Tenderloin, a horrible neighborhood in the city—I enjoyed it. That whole grittiness of interfacing with the city and coming into this building that had four studios running in it. There were a lot of people coming in and out of there, and the next client would always be standing by the door looking at you, wanting you to get out. The attitude there was exciting, and everything that Joe played always sounded amazing and wasn't like anything I'd ever heard before. That was always very exciting to me, too. So when Joe started playing that stuff, I thought, "Oh my God, I've really got my work cut out for me." + + + +The first solo we were going to do was "Memories," and I remember John was thinking, "I've recorded Joe before: We do a solo, it takes twenty minutes, we're done." So we go to the section, and the song has a long guitar solo, and three and a half hours later, John asks, "Oh my God, Joe, is every solo going to take this long? 'Cause we're going to have a problem with the budget." So this was John’s brain really working very well, while mine was not because I was just completely emotionally involved in the music. All I kept thinking was, "The guitar solo is like the ultimate expression of the song, and that’s what I'm going to put into this record." And of course, John was thinking, "If Joe’s going to take three and a half hours for every one of these guitar solos, then that’s thirty hours or more!"—and I'd given him my checks, so he knew how many hours I had paid for. So once he informed me of this potential problem, I said, "Look, I don't know, sometimes the solos will go quickly, but the guitar solo for each song is going to be the most important statement of the song. So if we have a problem, then we'll deal with it, but I'm not going to skimp on this." + +That was a very important day, because a lot of things happened during the recording of the "Memories" solo where I learned about how John could punch me in to fix certain sections. Then, when I started to hear the artifacts that were created from punch-ins, I liked them, and started to ask John to punch me in to places where I hadn't made mistakes but where I just wanted the sound of the artifact to be part of the solo. He thought I was nuts, but I really loved the effect, so I had him punch me in in all these different places for the effect. I drove him crazy, the poor guy, because I had him punching me in and out in 32nd notes, 64th notes, so he had to sit there and we'd have to go over it dozens of times before I could explain to him exactly where I wanted him to punch. It was pretty nerve-racking for him to have to punch somebody in so precisely. We became quite a team after that record because of his ability to adapt to what I was learning about the studio, how you could punch in and out to create very compelling musical statements. + + +John Cuniberti: There were things that would evolve in the studio that would bring something to the song that we didn't expect, and it was a pleasant surprise. Joe always came into the studio very organized and prepared for the day’s events. During the recording process, every night when we finished, he would bring a cassette home with him of what we'd done that day. Joe would then come back the following day with an idea about a new part, or possibly a change to something he had done the day before, or wanting to completely redo something—you would never know. It was always a surprise. + + + +John, Jeff, and I often reminisce about how we would leave that studio at 3:30 in the morning with the worst indigestion from drinking the studio coffee, which had been burning in the pot for five hours. We were always there between midnight and 8 A.M., because that was when the time was cheap, but it was very stressful working on that schedule. It was also exciting, and even felt musically dangerous at times, because anyone who might have stuck their head in the studio and listened to what we were doing would have said, "Why are you guys wasting your time with this?" None of our music sounded like anything that was popular at the time, so anybody listening from the outside would give us that sort of dismissive look. I think that emboldened us even more and made us feel we were doing something quite unique, and that in the end, we would show everybody because we were doing something quite artistic. That played into how we used all the effects that we had, and made sure we got them recorded, because the guy who ran the studio liked to move equipment around and sell it, so you never knew if the cool gear was going to be there next week. + + +John Cuniberti: When Joe first played me what he had in mind, I remember thinking, "I've got to do something now with the sound of everything else to make that work." How do you play something like that, which is truly not of this earth, and just have it go along with a silly little drum machine? How’s that going to work? So I spent a day looking for that drum sound, and we found it on a reverb by EMT, the 251, which looks like R2-D2, it’s a little rolling thing that was fairly rare and stupidly expensive. Dan Alexander, who co-owned the studio and was an audio dealer, just happened to have one in the studio. So this EMT 251 reverb had a switch on it called "Non Linear," and that’s what those drums are on Not of This Earth—it's the kick and snare run through the EMT 251 switched to "Non Linear." Well, Joe and I loved the sound so much, and wanted to feature it, but I was so afraid Dan was going to sell that unit before we were done with the record. Sure enough, when Joe and I came back a week later, the thing was gone! And he said, "Oh man, the reverb’s gone," and I told him, to his relief, "Don't worry, I printed it on two tracks, we still have it." Because that really made the difference. That track would never be as cool if it didn't have that on there. + + + +The EMT 251 was definitely one of my favorite pieces of outboard gear, first of all because it looked really cool; it had these funny robotic arms with little rubber things around them. It was just the funkiest-looking thing ever. We did a lot of crazy things with that machine. For instance, on "The Enigmatic," where the snare drum comes out of a deep reverb and then is suddenly in front of your face, John manipulated the 251 live while tracking! He was so comfortable with the EMT that he would play it like an instrument. The studio was truly his realm. + + +John Cuniberti: "The Enigmatic" was my personal favorite of all the Satriani recordings I have made. We were using the DX drum machine, and Jeff was playing crash cymbals and a huge artillery shell. The song starts with me starting the MTR-90 tape recorder at the same time Jeff hits the brass artillery shell. Because the machine takes time to get up to speed you hear it slide down to pitch. It took me and Jeff a long time to make it work, with Joe wondering what the hell we were doing. + + + +The progression of guitars I had used through that point began with the Hagstrom guitar. Then I bought a Telecaster that John Riccio found for me in the local classifieds. I believe it was a 1968 maple-neck model that somebody had refinished black, and it had a Bigsby vibrato bar on it. I later went into Manhattan and had Charles LoBue and Larry DiMarzio put in a humbucker in the neck position. That became my main guitar through all of those high school bands. Then right at the tail end, I traded it for a Les Paul Deluxe in a private trade, and that became my main guitar until I had more money from all the work I was doing with the disco band. At that point I bought a refinished '54 Fender Stratocaster, and that became my go-to guitar for quite a while. So during that period, from the start of that twelve-year run, I had this Les Paul Deluxe and this Strat. Eventually I got rid of the Les Paul and started building my own Stratocasters with humbuckers in them, because Boogie Bodies had come into existence, so for the first time you could buy separate body parts. I was teaching at Second Hand Guitars then, and through being in that store, I realized I could buy every component and screw together my own guitars. + +So many guitar players of my generation—the easiest one to point to is Eddie Van Halen—grew up loving Hendrix and Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton, all of whom had their Fender period and their Gibson period. And so what did we all do? We wound up creating guitars that were Fenders with Gibson electronics. When Van Halen came out, I felt vindicated, like, "Yeah, here’s someone doing what I've been trying to do, and he’s going to legitimize it for all of us," and that’s what Eddie did. I think that first Van Halen record shocked people because they didn't realize there were thousands upon thousands of guitar players around the world who felt the same way that Eddie did. We wanted a Strat guitar but we also wanted the Gibson sound; we wanted a bar but we also wanted it to be in tune. We had these desires because we'd grown up on the classic rock records, which were a combination of the Fender and Gibson scenes. We were products of all those third-generation electric blues players and we wanted to propel their sound into a new era, but we needed a new piece of gear. And that’s what it was: it was the 25½-inch-scale guitar with the Gibson sound. For me, it just let the melody speak. It gave me the fatter sound I needed because I was playing in the Squares, which was a trio. So I built these two guitars that were sort of retro-looking, because part of our scene was New Wave. I was playing stereo into two Marshalls, a Wall of Sound kind of approach, so I needed that humbucker fatness but I wanted the snappiness of the Fender scale. + +For the '85 studio sessions, I started plugging my guitars into a Tom Scholz Rockman, which I really liked as a direct amplifier, primarily because my record didn't sound like traditional rock music at the time. I had played through 100-watt Marshalls for a good five years already, and I was getting kind of tired of the straight-ahead guitar-into-a-Marshall approach. My competitors were all doing that—they were in studios with their Marshalls turned all the way up, trying to continue the dream of the late sixties and early seventies. And I thought what would really sound more modern to me, especially if I had some drum tracks that were drum machines, would be to get the guitar into that space as well. So if I've got a drum machine and a synthesizer, how could I get the guitar to sound like it’s coming from the same space as them? + +That’s where the Rockman came in. It sounded like it was coming from the same aural space as the Prophet-5 synthesizer and the Oberheim DX we were using. It made them more mix-able, to my ear, and they presented a more unified sonic sound. We rarely used big amps—we were using very small one- and two-speaker Fender amps for this stuff. The sound seemed to be more easy to place; I liked the fact that it was somewhat compressed, and the drums were very much like that as well, because they were coming from a drum machine and already had a sort of recorded sound. + + +John Cuniberti: Throughout the album’s recording, there would be occasions where Joe would need to get close to his amplifier for a particular sound, but it was very rare. Even then, he was using foot pedals for distortion and setting his amp up clean. He never really took to the loud amplifier-standing-in-the-room kind of approach. + + + +John wasn't always a fan of me using small amps, and I remember there were moments when we would definitely argue back and forth about it, because John had a long history of getting great guitar sounds out of amps, so he was pushing for using mics. I remember I showed up for that record without an amp, and John asked, "What do you mean?" And I said, "I want to use whatever the smallest little amp is you've got," because I was really Mr. Antithesis, and I just didn't want to waste time getting a big rock sound because I thought it would never fit. As we got deeper into recording for the record, I think he understood that sometimes the part would sound better technically if it was played through the Rockman. But other times he would provide me a more upscale path and say, "I know what you want. Let me show you how to do it better," and we'd go direct. He introduced me to going into a vintage mic pre, directly to tape, and then using very expensive signal processors to recreate stereo chorus and delay. So we wound up using that instead of the Rockman. It was a balance, back and forth. + +Along with the Rockman, my go-to traditional amplifier was the Roland JC-120. We used it quite a bit, and I still have that amp; it’s fantastic. It wasn't really great at distorted guitar sounds, because it had this high end that revealed itself as being a transistor amp. But for clean sounds it was excellent, because it had a quick, snappy, transient response in the high end, and it had that unusual, wide stereo chorus effect. It’s a unique acoustic phenomenon, and recording it is tricky, but we got good at it. I found some small silver-faced Fender amps in the closets at Hyde Street that I would borrow sometimes, and if I needed a Marshall, I still had my half stacks. + + +John Cuniberti: As far as effects pedals, Joe was primarily playing through his orange Boss DS-1 Distortion pedal and CE-2 Chorus and that was pretty much it. All the echo-delay types of effects—reverbs, chorusing—we did with outboard gear. Typically, I would use a Universal Audio 1176 limiter for rhythm guitars and bass, and a Universal Audio LA-2A limiter for melodies and occasionally solos. Because again, those were limiters you would use for a singer, and since Joe’s phrasing and playing and arranging were that way, I tended to use the same processors as I would if there were people singing. An LA-2A’s not unusual for lead vocals, so of course that’s what I'd use on Joe’s melodies. + + + +Along with all the guitars, I decided to play all the bass guitars and keyboards on the record. I've played bass for as long as I've played guitar, so composing bass lines has always come naturally. I've written quite a few songs on bass, too. While we were tracking, I remember that recording DI, direct-input, was a new thing for me. Because I'd never been a bass player in the studio, I really didn't know how bass recording was done, so John was saying, "We gotta do DI. We'll get more control over everything, and it’s more mixable." And then for some songs where we needed some sort of distorted element on the bass, we would send another signal out to a bass amp we would borrow and use that Boss OD-1, and then blend the upper frequencies of the distorted bass with the solid, low frequencies of the DI bass. + + +John Cuniberti: One really interesting thing I remember about this stage of recording was that there was a lot of experimenting going on with miking. I was a big fan of the AKG C-12A, a really great-sounding microphone. I used that exclusively on Surfing and quite a bit on Not of This Earth. The mic had a very smooth but extended top end; it didn't have the high-frequency bump that an SM57 would, but it also had a really remarkable low frequency. In other words, it had an extended range both on the highs and lows, and was a very wide microphone, but it could also handle the dynamic range of a guitar. It could handle the sound pressure level like a 57 does, but it has a wider dynamic range than that mic, and didn't have that ugly presence peak. That mic could handle anything Joe would be throwing at it from the playing side. The C-12A and the Shure SM57 were the two microphones I used 80 percent of the time. + + + +Among the many techniques I employed on Not of This Earth was pitch axis theory, which I learned in high school from my music teacher Bill Westcott. It is a compositional technique that was actually developed at the turn of the last century, so this is something that had been around for a long time. I remember Bill saying, "I'm going to teach you this very cool compositional technique," and he sat me down at the piano, and he went, "Watch this: I'll hold this C bass note, and then I play these chords, and each chord will put me in a different key, but it will sound like C 'something' to you . . ." I was fascinated by it, because I thought, "That is the sound I'm hearing in my head." To me it sounded very "rock," because rock songs don't travel around in too many keys, and it was the antithesis of the modern pop music that had been around for fifty years. It was the total opposite of most commercial jazz, but not all jazz, as I learned when I started really listening closely to modern jazz. I realized, "Wow, John Coltrane is using pitch axis theory. Not only is he doing that, but he’s going beyond it with his 'sheets of sound' approach," where in addition to building modes in different keys off of one bass note, he was building modes off of notes outside the key structure as well. He had taken it a step further. + +But that’s not what I was looking for, except for in a song like "The Enigmatic," which has that sort of complete atonal-meetspsycho melodic approach. I was more interested in using the pitch axis where you really could identify with one key bass note, in a rock and R&B sort of fashion. Then all the chords that you put on top would basically put you in different keys. So on Not of This Earth, you have these pounding E eighth notes on the bass, and your audience says, "Okay, we're in the key of E." But the chords on top are saying, "E Lydian, E Minor, E Lydian, E Mixolydian in cyclical form." And I thought, "Well, this gives me great melodic opportunities, I'm not stuck with just the seven notes of one key. I've got seven notes for every different key that I apply on top of this bass note." And I just love that sound, so I applied it to quite a lot of my music. + +With the title track’s sequence of angular, dreamlike chords bouncing back and forth, I knew I wanted sort of a stream-of-consciousness rhythm section behind it. I wanted the rhythm section to sound and feel like it was on its own unstoppable trajectory, with the melodies and solos trading off and embellishing the track at different times. The song, after all, was about someone who was "not of this earth," so everything about the song and the recording had to reflect that. + +As I readied my experimental concepts and techniques for the studio, I knew that I would need help getting them on tape. During the sessions I would present them to John and he would help me brainstorm a recording plan. He might suggest, "Well, maybe we should change the guitar sound dramatically when we get to this point, go from a faraway to a close-up, or a close-up to a faraway, change the microphones . . ." He would come up with all sorts of ways to answer my desires that were more on the artistic side of things. + +The recording of Not of This Earth had kind of a dramatic ending, too. John’s car had been broken into behind the studio, and while we were mixing the last song, he went out to take a look at it. As he was trying to get the thing in shape so he could drive it, he wound up cutting his hand. So he came back into the studio, his hand was bleeding, he had a Band-Aid on it, and he said, "We need tape." This literally sent us into the garbage pail! We had to pull tape out of the garbage, because we had no more mix tape and needed a long fade-out, and John had to splice it all together with his hand all bloody. It was crazy watching the mix go by, made up of tape of all varying lengths, covered in blood. I was just trying to get the record done, but at the same time I was fascinated that you could make a record with bloody pieces of tape from a garbage pail and still have it sound great! And that’s to John’s credit. I don't know how he pulled it off technically. It was funny because he would always work hard to answer my musical questions, like "How do I get a train noise to go into a double hammer-on whammy thing?" He would just work out how to record and mix it. So when I informed him, "I don't have any more money for another reel of mix tape," he figured out a way to pull tape out of the trash and splice it together. + +The drama continued through the very last song we recorded. I remember we had almost finished the album, and there was a song called "The Last Jam" that was part of that disaster night when the Simmons drums didn't work out. We had a performance from Jeff, but the drums were all distorted, and John refused to put it on the record. I agreed with him—the whole thing just didn't work out. So I said, "We'll do another song," and I went home and wrote this other song. When I brought it in, John said, "Well, we need another reel of tape, or we have to erase that other song." Well, I didn't have any money to buy another reel of tape, which was $150, so I said, "Erase the song, the hell with it." It was a big deal to do that, but these were the decisions you made in the old days with tape. So we simply rolled over that piece of music, recorded this new piece of music that went down pretty easily, and Jeff came in and helped program the drum machine for me, the Oberheim DX. + +We had to do that really fast, because I was late in ending the session, and people were standing at the door with their arms folded, fuming. It was like four o'clock in the afternoon, and I was still trying to do these arpeggios, because I'd told John after we did the main guitar that I wanted to double it, and he was like, "Are you kidding me? How are you going to double that?" And I said, "I know I can do it." Meanwhile the clients are standing there looking at their watches, saying, "Will you guys get out of here?" because they were booked to start at four. So I finished that track, "Driving at Night," with people breathing down my neck. + +Mixing was equally as pressured because, first, from the technical side, we only had so many tracks within a given mix to work with. In those days, it wasn't like Pro Tools, where you have unlimited space for tracking and mixing. When you were dealing with analog tape like we were, you had to have plans. It wasn't like you could just keep going, because you'd run out of tracks very quickly, so everything had to be thought out. Every step of the way, if you got an idea, you had to deal with the problem of space. "Where does it go? How’s it going to be mixed? Is there another way to achieve this idea?" So you always had to be planning. + +We were constantly aware throughout recording that we would be battling the clock right up until the end, so from very early on, if we started going creatively to a place John knew would be unmixable later on, he would say, "We have to pause and make a decision." So if he asked me, "Is there anything else?" and I'd say, "I want to add two more guitar parts," then he would tell me, "Well, then we're going to have to take some of what’s recorded and mix it now into a submix," which meant we had to make a mixing decision because once the tracks were submixed, they couldn't be unmixed and broken out again. That was a dangerous decision, so we didn't do that very often. + +Looking back, I was grateful for John’s ability to get me to economize, and I was very impressed with that from the start of recording all the way through the end of tracking. Instead of saying, "Oh, it would be great to have six guitars," he'd ask, "Why? Let’s figure out a way to get two guitars to do it. Is it the way that you're playing it, or is it the sound, because if we can do it in two that will leave us so much more room." It got me to focus more on how to make each performance on each track really count. I learned from John that if you just fill things up, every new thing you put on may cover the tracks of the previous thing. Again, being the guitar player and the writer, I'm really focused on that main instrument sometimes, but I had to learn how to pull back and pay as much attention to the drum kit as a unit, and the keyboard as a section, and the bass as what it needs—just the way an engineer would look at everything and try to get the whole band to sound good. Since we had no band, the danger was that we'd just start piling one thing on top of another. So, for instance, if we wanted the drums to sound like we were in a big room, that meant we had to hear the room, so we couldn't cover it up. And if I came with a guitar part that on my demo had lots of echo on it, John might say, "You know, if there’s all that echo and delay and stuff on it, it’s going to cover the performances by these other instruments, so let’s start flat and see where we go." So as the track would get built up, I'd begin to see his wisdom about leaving room for the other instruments so the audience could hear their performance, too. + +I have to admit that in those early days, beginning with NOTE and for the first couple of records, it was just so emotionally traumatic to listen to a record when it was done, because I had to really let go. I realized I couldn't mix it anymore, so I had to come to grips with my disappointment in, say, my performance or my writing, or the way I thought the album was going to come out. And I didn't have sophisticated listening gear at home, just average consumer-grade stereo systems, so it was hard for me to know if what we were doing was right. John would call and say, "It sounds great in the studio. I've got this gear at home, and it sounds great." And I'd go, "I can't hear the guitar," or "The guitar’s too loud," and he'd ask what I was listening on, and I'd describe it to him, and he'd say, "You can't evaluate your record if you're listening to it on that crap." + + +John Cuniberti: Amazingly, for as much work as it feels like, looking back on it, I would say we probably didn't spend more than two weeks of studio time making Not of This Earth. That was spread out over maybe two or three months because of Joe’s teaching and studio availability, and my schedule, but it went very, very quickly. We only had so much money. Joe had gotten this credit card in the mail with a $5,000 limit on it, and he went, "We're going to keep recording till this thing is full." And I was working for $20 an hour, and getting him studio time for $25 an hour, so we got a lot of studio time for his $5,000, but once the money was gone, the record was done. + + + + + +CHAPTER 7 * * + +Relativity + +At the end of recording Not of This Earth, I was $5,000 in debt, the maxed-out limit on my credit card. I couldn't make the payment on it, and I had the credit card company telling me they were handing me over to a collection agency by Friday—and this was a Monday. I remember being at Second Hand Guitars, giving lessons, thinking, "This is really bad, how did I get myself into this?" + +Unbelievably, a lightning bolt of luck struck about a half hour later in the form of a phone call from Steve Wright from the Greg Kihn Band. He sounded panicked. "Joe, it’s Steve. We're recording at Fantasy Studios and our guitar player’s strung out. Would you please help us out? We'll pay you to finish the record, and if you agree to be with the band for the next year, this is how much more we'll pay you just so we can get this record and tour off the ground." That call was my saving grace. + +After hanging up, I canceled the rest of my lessons for the day, went right over, and by the end of the afternoon, we had recorded three songs. The manager gave me a couple thousand dollars cash, and then laid out terms for a salary if I decided to join the Greg Kihn Band. I couldn't believe it! The very first thing I did the next morning was call the credit card company and tell them, "I'm sending a check and paying my balance off." Once I paid them, I suddenly found I had a completed album, recorded on my own label, published by my own publishing company, and I was in a band, making a salary, and I didn't have any more credit card debt. In a matter of weeks, my life had totally changed! + + + +Me and Greg Kihn live at a UC Berkeley outdoors show in '86 + +PHOTO BY ZAK WILSON + +When I got into the band, it was clearly falling apart. Back when I was in the Squares, we'd done a lot of shows opening for Greg Kihn, and I just knew them as a really great local live band. But as I drifted away from pop music, I had paid less attention to them. Still, from having played with Greg, there were several things that I immediately found very impressive about the band. For one, Greg himself was a fantastic front person. He had the gift. I think he was the first lead vocalist I ever worked with who had it and was comfortable with his position. He could walk out onstage with very little planned, talk to people, and get them to have fun. He was a great talker, he had a good voice, and the other guys in the band were very much what you would expect for their positions in the band. Especially Steve Wright, with his personality as a bass player and his great bass technique: how he played, how he tuned his amp, how he used compression live—I'd never known a bass player at the time to use a dbx compressor in his rig. I was so surprised that someone would do that, but he got this big fat sound and it was fantastic. + +Once I started playing with the band, I remember standing behind Greg Kihn every night, saying to myself, "This is what a lead singer is supposed to be doing." I thought Greg and Steve were just so unique. Everybody else in the band was new; we had a new drummer and keyboard player, and me, the newest of the three guys, so it was more like a gig to us. But Greg and Steve were the original guys, and I just thought they were exhibiting the sort of great rock 'n' roll musician traits that I should be paying attention to. It came to a tragic ending—I was with those guys from the end of '85 to the end of '86, and it was like being on a 747 that was on fire, slowly crashing into the ocean. It was kind of sad in a way, but at the same time, during the better gigs and moments when they were very good at what they did, I was able to learn from that professional side of them. The other benefit of the tour was that I had started writing "Surfing with the Alien," "Ice 9," and other songs for what would become the Surfing album, and recording demos in various hotel rooms between shows. I wrote many of the album’s songs that year. + +While I was out on the road, Steve Vai and I had been talking on the phone, and I told him that I'd decided to release Not of This Earth as the second record on my own label, which at the time was called Rubina Records, after my wife. Steve told me about this label in New York that had agreed to manufacture and distribute Flex-Able, Steve’s first solo record. That piqued my interest a little because Steve’s record was much stranger than mine, and so he said, "You know what, if this guy is going to put out Flex-Able, I bet he'd put out your record. Can I give him a copy of the cassette?" I agreed, but I wasn't expecting anything to come of it. + + +Steve Vai: Once I moved out of Carle Place, Joe and I always stayed in touch, exchanging tapes and stories and marathon phone calls. That’s when I was able to shed much of that high-school-kid bewilderment and teacher-student dynamic and allow our bond as true friends to grow. We obviously had a great bond, though, and shared some personal moments in those early days. There was this huge field between the schools, and now and then Joe and I would drive there in his Volkswagen and sit and stare out into the field and just talk for hours about everything. We called that area the "Sea of Emotion." Those were treasured moments. But the greatest moments were when my lessons evolved into these long jams in his backyard, up to six hours at a pop. We would just sit back to back and play. There’s a very intimate place you can go with someone you are sharing music with, if they have the ears to listen and respond creatively and without prejudice. And to this day, those backyard moments of pure sharing and expressing musical ideas with Joe are my favorite musical memories. There is nobody I have ever played with who can listen and respond like Joe. + +There has been, and still is, amazing synergy in our careers together. After I recorded my first solo record, Flex-Able, I tried to find a record deal. It was difficult, and the one label that offered me a deal presented something that was a music-business eye-opener. Conventional record deals at the time seemed completely lopsided (and still do today). From working with Frank Zappa, I learned to never get emotional about a deal or sell myself short. If it doesn't feel right, just don't do it. Do something else. So I set off to get my music out on my own and studied the infrastructure of the music business. I discovered that I could start my own little label and go directly to a distributor instead of a label, thus cutting out the middleman that would usually take ownership and control of your music and pay you a mere pittance for it. What I didn't realize was that finding a distributor was more difficult than finding a label that would sign you. I sent my stuff to everyone, and the only person who responded was Cliff Cultreri at a distribution company called Important Records. Cliff actually knew some of my work with Frank and saw that I had some kind of a built-in audience because of that. He gave me a distribution deal that was much more lucrative than a record deal. Because Joe and I were trading tapes all the time, I sent some of his stuff to Cliff and hooked them up. It was a good pairing. + + + + +Cliff Cultreri: I had known Steve Vai for a while, and one day in early 1986, he stopped by my office and was hanging out for a bit, and I remember he kind of nervously pulled this ragged-looking cassette out of his pocket and said, "I usually don't like doing this, but you really have to hear this guy, I've taken some lessons from him and he’s really something special." So I put it in the cassette player and a minute or two in I stopped the tape and looked at Steve to ask, "WHY did you wait so long to give me this. What the hell is wrong with you?" I listened to that tape over and over. Well, Steve had Joe’s phone number on the tape, and so the very next day I cold-called him, introduced myself, and he started firing away questions at me. + + + +During that first conversation, Cliff let me know that he really liked my compositions. It was a real boost of confidence, and a recognition that my approach to strike out on a different path from everybody else was perhaps worthwhile artistically. When you do something different from the popular crowd, you really feel you're out on your own. You realize, "I don't fit anywhere. Nobody’s doing this like me." When people hear your music for the first time, you're afraid they won't know how to categorize it, or how or when to listen to it. And all it takes is one person to say, "I get it, I know what you're doing, DON'T COMPROMISE. Keep being yourself." For me, Cliff was that guy. + + +Cliff Cultreri: As we began talking back and forth about a P&D [pressing and distribution] deal for Not of This Earth, Joe was really sensible about it all—that’s the best word I could use. Among his concerns were the guitar lessons he was giving at the time, which was how he made his living, and his questions were things like: What does he do to replace that? How does he support his wife? How does he support himself? What becomes of his students? How soon does all this happen if it does happen? He was very smart about it, and certainly expressed interest in wanting to do it, and he explained what his situation was and what his needs along the latter lines were going to be to make it happen, so I tried to put a deal together that worked for him and protected him. That was no problem for me because I already knew I wanted to sign him before I called him. + +One thing I knew was that for instrumental guitar rock to be successful in that era, it had to take the place of the lead vocalist, and it needed to be lyrical. Those guitar riffs and lines had to put the listener in a place where they're sort of making up their own words to the music, and Joe was completely about that. Every song, all the way through each song, was just so incredibly lyrical and memorable, so you could just let your mind wander with the music. I thought if anybody was going to break through as an instrumental artist, he was the one. + +If you sort of look at history, there was a big instrumental hit with the Miami Vice theme a year or so before I started talking to Joe, and ten years prior to that, there was a huge hit over in Europe with Jeff Beck's Blow by Blow. So it seemed like every so often, the cycle repeated where instrumental music sort of got its foot back in the door and got some of the attention it deserved. So to me, hearing Joe’s album was perfect timing in that context, because the guitar was back dominating again, and you had the new wave of British metal bands, you had a new wave of American hard rock and metal bands, and even the alternative rock that was popular at the time was shifting from synthpop to more guitar-driven pop music. So the guitar was certainly in the limelight. + + + +After my first phone call with Cliff, Rubina and I drove down to L.A. one weekend to meet him. It took almost the whole year to get the deal done, but Cliff really wanted to get it released. So I thought, "Okay, I'll hold off on putting it out myself." In the interim, I had the gig with the Greg Kihn Band, so that sort of tided me over until Cliff was able to work out my deal with Relativity Records to get the album released, which finally came in November of 1986. + + +John Cuniberti: I thought the album was pretty amazing when it was done, but honestly, I didn't ever think anything was going to come of it really, for the simple fact that Not of This Earth began as essentially a vanity record. It wasn't for a label, but rather I think something Joe had to do musically for himself. He had all this music in him, and all these frustrations from the Squares, and he really needed to prove to himself that he really could do something remarkable and special. I never remembered a time when we were together making that record where we thought to ourselves, "Man, this is gonna be a fucking hit." Remember, this was an instrumental record, and was way before there was any progressive music movement, so there were no record labels dedicated to this type of thing. Everything happened for a reason—it’s quirky, it’s weird, you can shoot holes through it, or take exception to it, but as far as I'm concerned, it’s a perfect little piece of art and I couldn't have done it better. I just felt it was something Joe had to do to show the rest of the world that he was a guitar player who was going somewhere. + + + +Along with the support I received from John and Steve along this journey toward getting signed, Cliff Cultreri was now providing me all kinds of energy—catalytic, creative, and supportive—which is what makes a great A&R guy. He really made things happen for people. Very often, artists just need that one person to help them with the creative connections that make an album happen, which was absolutely the case with my next record, Surfing with the Alien. Cliff was the one who really pushed Relativity Records president Barry Kobrin to bring me to New York for a showcase so everyone at the label could see me do it in the flesh. He knew what kind of record we were making, and no one had really made a record like that before for Relativity, so they were in virgin territory as well. + +Cliff really believed in me, partly because he and I thought alike. I liked him, I liked his taste in music, he understood where I wanted to go with my album, and he was very encouraging all the time. After I got off the road from touring with Greg Kihn, Cliff hooked me up with this Swedish bass player named Jonas Hellborg, and I was off on this crazy tour of Scandinavia for about a month. It was a very interesting time, where a lot happened in a period of two months, as I continued to lay the foundation for my future as a solo artist, finishing with a make-or-break showcase that Cliff had set up for me at the China Club in New York. + +I remember this clearly: The first time I met Barry Kobrin, he shook my hand and in front of everybody from the label, said, "You don't look like a rock star." He was sort of laughing when he said it, but I think he was nervous, because I think he was looking for someone that looked more like Steve Vai: somebody tall, handsome, with long hair, wearing leather and chains, doing what rock stars did during the mid-eighties. I was not that guy at all. + +I remember the afternoon before the show, I'd brought bassist Mark Egan and drummer Danny Gottlieb down and showed them the songs literally about an hour before we were going to play. They were really cramming. The executives at Relativity were basically checking me out to see if they wanted to go beyond the P&D deal that we had for Not of This Earth. So when everyone from the label got there, we played some of the new pieces, and I think it was "Satch Boogie" that convinced them of my direction and style. I'd told them I wanted to make a guitar record that celebrated all the aspects of rock guitar, from Chuck Berry to Hendrix and everything else. Relativity was primarily a thrash metal label at the time; that’s what they were really putting out, so this was a test, a showcase of sorts. When Barry heard "Satch Boogie" and saw me play it, he was completely knocked out and finally "got it." He shook my hand and said, "This idea you have"—which was going to become Surfing with the Alien, although it didn't have a title at the time—"I get it. I understand you now, and I want you to go do it. Let’s make a deal." + + + + + +CHAPTER 8 * * + +Surfing with the Alien — 1987 + + +"In 1987, with the release of his multi-Platinum album Surfing with the Alien, Joe Satriani rose from obscurity to worldwide prominence." + +—Guitar World magazine + + + +Surfing was an important album for me, partly because every single song on it contained elements of what collectively crystallized into my signature style. The writing process was different for each song as well. Sometimes I would start composing a melody and immediately have a full grasp of its primary inspiration and how I wanted its message to unfold. From there, I might ask myself, "What kind of band could play behind this?" Other times, it would just be a groove, along with a mental image, and I would write a musical story to go with that image. The inspiration for the compositions always came first, straight from the heart. + +When we started Surfing with the Alien, we were all excited because we felt we were going to make a record that hadn't yet been made by other guitarists in my field—we felt we were on our own cutting edge. At the same time, I also wanted the album to be a celebration of all the styles that made up my musical roots. There were things I really loved about the records that made up my foundation as a young musician: the guitar playing of the mid-sixties through the early seventies, that was my foundation and how I learned to play. The late-sixties guitar sound is really what woke me up to wanting to be a player, and I wanted to put a modernized celebration of that into the record. I didn't want to make a self-promotional shred record where it was just me playing fast and furious all over the place. The songs had to be "classic" high-quality compositions, not simply vehicles for improvisation. I wanted each song to be very different from the next, with variety not only in the way I played and composed them, but also in the way we recorded them. Equally, I didn't want to come in with such a preconceived idea of a song that I would shut myself off from the spirit of the moment. + +As a guitar player, I was excited to make the kind of record that showcased some of the new ideas I was working on, both compositionally and technically. For example, Surfing with the Alien's first solo is announced by an unexpected high-register trill. What’s different there is the way that I used it and how I did it. I used the edge of the pick instead of my fingers to execute the trill, which gave it a pronounced, almost glassy tone. Compositionally, I'm using it to announce the first solo section in its new key, using the root and flat 9th of the Phrygian dominant scale. It’s a very dramatic shift of key signatures and the pick-trill is a signature moment. It’s brought to life with a wah-wah, a Chandler Tube Driver, and a Marshall 100-watt half stack. + +Quite a few guitar players over the years have mentioned to me the opening phrase of the solo in "Echo" as another signature moment. It announces itself boldly and then has a way of just "tumbling down" and ending on a low tone, then taking a breath. Players would say, "I never thought that you could do that, build a guitar solo by making an opening statement, then waiting, using silence, then continuing on, and building the solo with a variety of phrases." I didn't even notice what I'd done while recording it. I was just following my muse, channeling the great saxophonist Lester Young, I think. But it opened other players' eyes up to the possibility of what you could do with an electric guitar solo. We used a DS-1 into a Roland JC-120 for the melodies and solos, miked with an AKG C-12A, I think. + +"Echo" turned out so cinematic-sounding partly because it had a traditional-style melody utilizing big intervals over lush chords, and it was in an odd time signature, too. The chorus’s chord sequence is very unusual, moving through a few different keys, but the way it resolves is quite traditional. I was really trying to subvert that sort of chord journey that you hear in almost every commercial song when they go into their B-section, or when they're leading into their chorus. My style of playing over multiple key changes and in odd time signatures focuses more on smoothing things out, making the listener feel more comfortable, and delivering the song’s resolution gracefully after a long melodic journey. + +On the whole record you hear me using feedback, using the whammy bar, picking a lot, or using legato. I'm throwing in about everything that you would consider the history of guitar techniques for the last 100 years, by players like Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, Billy Gibbons, Eric Clapton, Brian May, Tony Iommi, Alan Holdsworth, and John McLaughlin—to name a few! + + + +From Left: Jeff, John, me, and Bongo Bob Smith at Bill Graham’s house in Mill Valley + + + +When I wrote Surfing with the Alien’s title track, I was inspired by the thought of being visited by an alien, but with a twist: The alien would want to do something fun while visiting Earth, and so we all go surfing. That was really it, just a little daydream that popped into my head. + +"Always with Me, Always with You" began as a love song for my wife, Rubina. I remember composing most of it in my Berkeley apartment one afternoon. The chord sequence uses suspended triads arpeggiated over a major-key bass line. On top of that, a lyrical melody in counterpoint with the arpeggios, and a little pitch axis B-section. There’s even some two-handed tapping in there as well! John, Jeff, and Bongo Bob Smith helped me keep the end result sweet and as light as a feather by adding the perfect accompaniment and a unique final mix. All the guitars were recorded using a Rockman, and then straight into mic pres on that song—no amps! + +With a song like "Circles," I'm using dyads to create a harmonized melody against an exotic rhythm section that shifts gears suddenly with Jeff Campitelli’s amazing footwork on the kick drum. It’s a crazy arrangement that was a lot of fun to work out in the studio. DI guitars for the main melody, amped-up rhythm guitars combined with the Rockman for the solo. For me, it was a new way of combining melody, rhythm, and harmony to create a memorable hook. The trippy ending with all the swirling percussion and sound effects completes the song’s fantasy. + +I was sixteen or seventeen years old when I came up with the two opening chords for "Lords of Karma." I had returned home from partying on a Saturday night and couldn't sleep. It was an hour before dawn, and I was sitting on my bed playing the guitar when I wrote those two chords, repeating back to back. Two things happened: I was writing down everything I was feeling at that moment about what those chords represented to me, and night was fading—you could tell the sun was going to rise in about an hour or so. So my young musical brain at the time was saying, "I think no one’s ever put these two chords together before." I sorted through my musical mind but couldn't recall borrowing those chords from anybody or find them in my memory of any rock, jazz, or classical compositions. + +"Wow," I thought, "you've just created something nobody’s done before, those two chords as a cyclical chord progression." It represented my take on the pitch-axis style, where each chord changes the key, but I was still using A as my bass note, my main key note. The chords: A (no 3rd) add +4 to A 13 sus4 (no 9th). The keys I built off of the chords were A Lydian and A Mixolydian, respectively. That fascination stayed with me for over a decade, but I couldn't write a song around these chords to save my life, so when I was getting ready to record Surfing with the Alien, I said, "You're finally going to finish this song!" It just flowed out. That song is very special to me. Every time I play that chord sequence it brings me back to that place— being home, the sun coming up, guitar in hand, having a profoundly creative moment. + +Back then, critics would really focus their energy on the lead player, who had all the chops. What I wanted on Surfing with the Alien was a record that had the instruments sounding as if they were played by an actual band with a unified vision, so you didn't have everyone trying to show off their fusion chops, or whatever school of playing they were coming from. When I look at the techniques on the record, I feel like I made a conscious effort to pull back, to tell you the truth. On the title track, for example, the rhythm guitars are very straight-ahead rock 'n' roll rhythm guitars, and I'm doing Chuck Berry licks and Hendrix-y things. They wanted you to do that "over the top" rock guitar thing at that time, but I wanted to be different. I wanted to use more space, stronger phrasing. That’s what I heard in the music I grew up with. Jimi Hendrix and Keith Richards are masters of that. They came up with these great riffs and solos that you remember forever. It’s not a matter of filling every space; it’s picking your moments. That was an important lesson I put into making Surfing. + +I also worked hard trying to innovate song structure. Take "Satch Boogie" with its pitch-axis-meets-two-hand-tapping chord sequence. From a compositional point of view, the song starts off as a swing piece, turns into a rock boogie jam, then breaks down to a half-time beat with a pitch axis composition stuck in the middle of it. It’s got the weirdest bridge ever, too! I started with what was very popular at the time, a very Van Halen-like two-hand tapping technique, but I did something very different with it by playing a chord sequence that veers way outside the rock idiom. + + + +The visionary Cliff Cultreri and me at a platinum award presentation dinner + + + +There were things on Surfing that we thought were really groundbreaking for its time. John’s use of nonlinear reverb and the FS-1 Cyclosonic Panner for 3-D imaging of sound I thought was quite unique. The way we used sampled instruments to enhance sections of songs like "Hill of the Skull," "Circles," "Lords of Karma," "Midnight," and "Surfing." These were things you wouldn't normally find on a rock 'n' roll guitar album. We were trying to make this something extremely fresh and artistic, and I suppose that’s the best way to explain it in the fewest words. + + +John Cuniberti: Every time Joe picked up the guitar and started playing it, I heard something new. I don't think I ever took it for granted, but it was absolutely stunning how he could just continually pick up a guitar, play it, and produce music that you'd never heard played like that before. The chord changes he would pick and the way he would construct music was unlike anything I'd ever heard. So I was always excited to hear what he had to play; everything was always a surprise, especially with the material he brought in for this new LP. I've never known where he gets that stuff from—what are those chord changes he’s playing, what key is that in? I was always mystified by him musically. + + + +There was a lot of planning when it came to how each song on the album was supposed to sound. John Cuniberti wanted to make sure that everything sounded unique and specific for each song. He was great at finding the sweet spot out of any amp’s speaker, too. "Crushing Day" and its triple-tracked rhythm guitar sound is a good example of that. A song like "Hill of the Skull" has at least six electric guitars on it, using one Marshall head daisy-chained into another, really loud, very distorted. There was literally nothing else on the album that was recorded like that. Similarly, if you take the first three songs, "Surfing," "Ice 9," and "Crushing Day," each of those was recorded quite differently in terms of what amps and stomp boxes were used. Back in those days, "the team" was me, John Cuniberti, Jeff Campitelli, and Bongo Bob Smith. John and I were the principals, but Jeff and Bongo had a big influence on Surfing as well. + + +John Cuniberti: Joe was comfortable with the strict time of the drum machine, because up till then he always worked in a band with a drummer and wrote and played music that worked in a band-type scenario. Once he found a drum machine and started playing to that, he completely changed the way he wrote music. It opened up the door for him to do all sorts of very interesting things rhythmically, where if the guy was throwing a big fill in or changing the pattern on the hi-hat, it kind of made Joe compositionally change what he would have to play. + + + +Bongo Bob’s musicianship had accelerated and gone into this new era of programming where he could play an SP-12 drum machine with his fingers and make it sound like it had more feel than a real drummer! His body was very musical, and yet his head could also get into the programming aspect of music, which was great. He had a university degree in ethnic percussion, but he also knew his way around the latest technology, either synthesizers or drum machines or the latest cutting-edge samplers. He could come in and program the drum machine with great feel, and then add some African percussion on top of that. + + +Bongo Bob Smith: At the time, I was working as a drum programmer for the biggest producer in the world, Narada Michael Walden, and we were doing what I call the crap of the eighties, but doing it very well, from Whitney Houston to Lionel Richie. I wouldn't say it was crap so much as it was not a musician’s kind of music. I was doing that by day, so when Joe came to me saying, "I have this idea for this record . . ." to me, it was like, "Oh my God, I would just LoVE to be a part of that," because it just sounded really interesting. I'm a percussionist, so I had studied African, Cuban, Brazilian percussion, the migration of rhythms out of Africa into the Americas, and that was my life. So the idea of what sound could do and what rhythm could do to a particular song was very, very important to me. I think my biggest contribution was, "How far can I go to stay out of the way? To what depths can I go here to stay out of the way?" Because NOBODY has ever said, "Wow, those drums on Surfing with the Alien, those are amazing." [laughs] + +They've never been spoken, those words, and I applaud that, because the idea with what Joe had set out to do with the drums was to have them support what the guitar was doing. The simplicity was very important because it really propels the guitar. It made his guitar bigger than life because everything else—the keyboards, the bass and drums—are just so simple around it. So as we recorded, we were thinking, "How are we going to make this stuff really speak and how can we contribute when there’s no singer?" Because up until that point, I had always been taught, "You're here to support the singer," and in the world of production—from back then until now—any great producer’s going to sit there and ask, "How am I going to get this piece of music to fit around the singer? How do I sculpt this?" And in our case, the singer was the lead melody, so we were trying to always inspire that. + + + +I wasn't playing perfectly to the machines. I was dancing around them. Bob pointed that out to me one day. The curious effect it created was a "hook"—it drew you into the music. The drum machine "performances" actually had this very interesting quality that made the music more listenable in a modern, cinematic way, and when you removed them, there was some sort of charm that evaporated. I couldn't figure that out at first, because all of our instincts were to have a live guy playing drums, but the live kit would somehow make the music sound less special. At the same time, there were other songs where it was so obviously better, like with "Satch Boogie" or "Circles." For the songs on Surfing where Jeff did wind up playing live drums, it sounded amazing. So what we wound up with was a lot of songs where the drum parts were essentially a hybrid of live and programmed. + + +John Cuniberti: Initially, Joe and I would get together with Bob, play him the demo, and then talk about what a real drummer might play, and where the fill might be. And if there was going to be a fill, what kind of fill is it, and when does he come off the hi-hat, when does he hit a cymbal, all that stuff. Joe approved all the drum parts, but he wasn't a drummer, and so was happy to have the assistance of a real drummer who could come in and program the machine to play like a real drummer would play it, but with this real strict groove and time that was necessary for him to be able to play these songs the way he envisioned them being played. We'd made what was, in my opinion, the brave decision to dive headfirst into MIDI and computer-generated drum machines. + +So what we did was Joe and I would huddle with Bob around his computer, and we'd lay out what we believed to be the drum performance, and that was based off Joe’s demo, what he heard for the song, and how complicated he wanted to be. I would decide on the samples we were gonna use and what Jeff was ultimately going to have to play, because again, I never liked the cymbal sound and wanted Jeff to play hi-hat and smash cymbals to get a sense of fidelity. Once that was done, we would book the studio, and Bob and I would go in there, and I would take all these outputs from our tape drum machine samplers and plug them into mic pres and EQs and get them printed, and get the whole drum performance printed. It wouldn't include Jeff’s performances, as those would come later, but we would have computer-generated brass for guide tracks for Jeff to hear later and know where to put them. + + + + + +John Cuniberti and me at Hyde Street in '87. . . shirts tucked in! + +PHOTO BY JON SIEVERT + + +Bongo Bob: Alongside Joe and John Cuniberti, Jeff Campitelli and I worked together in the studio in kind of a backward way from what was traditional to the times in that it wasn't, let’s say, him playing a drum set and then me playing, let’s say, percussion or bringing in the drum loop. The way we worked, he actually came in and laid down his live drum parts as overdubs on top of the drum machine part, from drum fills to whatever he wanted to add to the groove, and then together we would both spice it up with cymbal hits to different other little percussion bits where we were trying to add to the collective. + + + + +John Cuniberti: Because the drums back then were being generated by computer, we were always given eight or ten tracks, then other tracks were set aside for rhythms, others for melodies and solos. So when we started a song, I would pull out a track sheet, and go, "Okay, give me an idea of what you hear in this song, how many tracks you're thinking about, et cetera, so I can start laying this thing out." Because I didn't want to run out of tracks and get to a point where I had to say, "We don't have any tracks for that because I did those last two guitars in stereo." I kind of needed to know ahead of time what he had in mind track-wise—how many guitar parts he heard, if he was going to add a keyboard, if the harmonies were going to be one- or three-part—and the track sheets would be laid out more or less the same. So as we'd work through the project, there would always be a couple of empty tracks until there weren't any, and there were times when we'd get to a point where we were filled up, and I had to start moving some things around. Then I would print all these drum parts. Once it was all printed, then Joe would start to build the project. He oftentimes would pull out a bass and play a bass track. More times than not he would lay a guitar track and just to be sure the thing was feeling right—if he got through the thing and it still felt good to him, and he liked the way it sounded—then we would move on to other tracks till we'd finally built the song up. That process could take a day or it could take a week; it just kind of depended on the song and how evolved it was by the time he arrived at the studio, and then what happened as we recorded the song. + + + +I knew that I had to be flexible, because there were some great ideas that John would have after listening to me play for a bit. Also, we would work on the parts of these songs—the bass part, the drum part, the first rhythm, the second rhythm, the keyboard—for hours before we would get to any kind of solo part. + + +John Cuniberti: Joe was always in the control room when he recorded, and from then on throughout his career, he spent most of his time in the control room with just him and the engineer, one on one, just layering his guitar tracks. As he tracked, we'd lay a drum machine down first, and then he'd play either a rhythm guitar part of some kind or bass, and then we'd build the tracks up like you would any rhythm section. He'd do rhythms, then bass, then melody, and then there might be some clean guitars that come in during the bridges or choruses, and we'd build it all up until it got to the point where it was time for the lead singer, so to speak, which in Joe’s case would be the melody guitar. I would say he’s stayed loyal to that structure throughout his career. When Joe and I worked on guitar overdubs, generally the rhythms pretty much stayed what they were in the demo. If the arrangement called for a solo, he would have worked on something at least stylistically ahead of time, so that he knew where on the neck he wanted to play and what technique he wanted to showcase for a particular solo, and he basically would know more or less how he wanted it to end up. + + + +We wanted every song to have its own vibe and unique juxtaposition of instruments. It wasn't going to be about Joe and his guitar technique. It was going to be about the songs, their melodies and their arrangements, the guitar tones, the use of outboard gear, and the technique of recording—bringing the art of engineering and mixing to a higher level, making a record that you could listen to top to bottom and walk away from with a feeling that you'd just been blown away. + + +John Cuniberti: When we would listen to his demos, or when we would start recording a track, a lot of times I would be inspired by what I heard. So for instance, with "Always with Me, Always with You," I thought, "The simplest we can make this, the better," so let’s not have a drummer playing a drum part; let’s just keep it super simple. Other songs might have a vibe to them, a sound that would inspire us to do more reverbs or delays. So a lot of times the music Joe would play would inspire me to do studio tricks, and then the studio tricks would in turn inspire him to play differently. So it was kind of a circular, organic process we would go through. So from Not of This Earth through Surfing and really all the way up through Flying in a Blue Dream, it was highly experimental. Joe didn't really know what these records were going to sound like till they were done, and neither did I. I had a lot of free rein to do a lot of screwy things to the sound, and Joe allowed me the freedom to try anything I wanted. He may not have always liked it, and if he didn't, I would dump it and try something else. But I had a lot of latitude. + +Once we laid a rhythm track down, and maybe he had played a melody or a solo, he might say, "Something’s missing. It would be nice maybe if there were these other guitars playing this other part. Give me a track, let me try something." A lot of times, he would come in and start playing, and I would make suggestions like, "It’s too bright or too muddy, maybe we should make it more ambient. Let’s put this delay on it . . ." Then he would start playing a solo a little differently because he was actually playing now to the sound that we then created in the studio, which of course was something he couldn't do at home. + + + +My ideas would build a song over the course of a couple of weeks. If we were spending a week on the rhythm section, the next week we would do rhythm guitars, and then we'd rent a keyboard for a couple of days. The solos didn't get on the album until maybe a month or two later. By then, I'd had a lot of time to both think about what I wanted to play and to just react. So as I was listening to a rough mix of the guitar, bass, and drums, no melody or solo, I'd start to imagine, "Wouldn't it be great if the solo did something like this?" So I'd go into the session and maybe say, "John, this solo is going to be very in time, very structured," like "Crushing Day." For the solo on "Echo," I might have said, "I don't know what I'm going to do here, but it’s going to have me starting and stopping, playing long phrases and using some open spaces." + +With "Echo," I was looking for a very emotional sound out of the melody and solo guitars, and John thought he could record the guitar coming out of the JC-120 and limit it "before" it went to tape. I was getting really into the tone he was getting by limiting the guitar this way, but it was a dangerous thing to do because we had delays running through the amp as well. Once recorded, we'd be stuck with those repeats, so if we'd wanted to do a punch-in or something, it might get problematic. But that’s a good example of me reacting to how the sound was evolving, and to what John was suggesting as he listened to me play. + +Prior to working with John on these records, I just assumed you put a microphone in front of an amp and its cable went into the wall and then it made its way to the desk and the tape machine. John would flat-out say, "Let’s NOT put your guitar through the desk. I want people to hear your guitar just like it sounds when I stand in front of your amp." I gave him carte blanche to figure out the most direct way to get my guitar onto the tape. He had these Neve mic pres, and other ones from old recording desks that were used on classic records, and we would use them religiously. Since we were doing single tracks, one at a time, we could use the same mic pres for all the guitars, all the bass guitars, and so forth. I really loved the sound I heard coming out of the speakers so much that it helped with my performance. + + +John Cuniberti: When we'd started Surfing, I had gotten a hold of a pair of Neve 1073 mic pres, which at the time was unheard of. I wanted to record a record on a Neve console, but we didn't have one—in fact, there wasn't one in the Bay Area, particularly not an old one. My friend who owned Hyde Street Studios had gotten a hold of an old Neve and had pulled out all the modules, and when I saw them, I asked him, "Can we put these in a box, so I can use all these mic pres and EQs?" I went to a woodworker right here in town, said, "See these modules? I want these in a box and upright, and an aluminum back panel, etc. . . ." and the guy built me a box, and I had those for years after that. Relative to Joe’s sound, we primarily used that one on every track. Because we were recording one track at a time, I got to record the album on a Neve. So my plan was to record it on a Neve and mix it on an API. That was my game plan for Surfing. + + + +I recorded the album on just a few guitars: my home-built black Boogie Bodies "Strat" thing, another similar guitar that my wife had painted for me, my two Kramer Pacers, a borrowed Coral Sitar, and a Fender P-Bass. I was very comfortable using the Kramer’s Floyd Rose bar, which by now was a tunable Floyd Rose. I had one on my white Kramer Pacer, but the body’s wood was so soft the bar would eventually fall right out of the guitar. Back then, luthier Gary Brawer had to put hard wood dowels into the guitar body so we could screw the Floyd Rose unit in again and again. My Boogie Bodies Strat from way back in the Squares days had two different pick guards: one with humbuckers, one with the three single-coil Stratocaster-type pickups. So sometimes, like with "Circles," I took the humbuckers out, put in the single coils, and recorded the song’s main melody, and then did the same thing for all of "Midnight." When I wanted a crunchier sound, I'd put in the humbucking pick guard configuration. + + +John Cuniberti: Even as we were making all this amazing progress, it was definitely difficult for us to complete that record, both because of the timing and the money. I think the mix process produces high anxiety, because as long as you're recording, there’s hope. There’s always this sense of, "Well, the rough mixes don't sound right, or the song isn't really working yet, but when we mix it will be fine." When you start mixing is when you realize what you have or in some cases don't have. It can be devastating. You can spend a lot time of recording, thinking that you've really got something, but when it’s done and you push up the faders you say, "What happened?" By then it’s too late because the money’s gone. + + + +It was difficult for me to complete the record because of scheduling and budget issues. Sometimes I'd wind up with three hours at one studio and four hours in another studio but only between eight and midnight or midnight and four in the morning. I couldn't always get John when I needed him, so the recording schedule dragged a bit. We couldn't afford lockout time, so I had to just book hours here and there that were sometimes separated by days, weeks, things like that. We were also working on different equipment, so we literally would finish two hours of recording in Studio C at the Hyde Street building, pack everything up and move to Studio D, set up all over again, and record some other part of some other song. It was crazy. + +Relativity originally set the recording fund at $13,000, which was ridiculously low. We reached that $13,000 limit pretty fast, so I kept having conversations with Cliff Cultreri, my A&R guy, asking for a doubling of the fund. Cliff was an inspirational guy who really believed in me and argued my case every time I called the label asking for more money. We eventually spent $29,000, which is still a tiny amount to make a record. + +What was never reflected in the budget, however, was that I was trading studio work, hour for hour, for studio time to finish the album. John did everything he could to find a way for me to get free time or trade my services at any studio that was functioning at the Hyde Street building. I was working with Sandy Pearlman, the producer who was working on the Blue Öyster Cult album Imaginos, and instead of getting cash, I said, "Just give me studio time." So I'd do a session midnight to 4 A.M., then show up the next day at noon and use those "earned" hours myself! I did other sessions in the building for the Hyde Street studio co-owner, Michael Ward, and some other clients that John had arranged. With Surfing we really needed a lot of extra studio time because it was just a few guys making the record, one small step at a time. It wasn't a rehearsed band where you could go in and play your whole set in a couple of days. Every once in a while we'd have Jeff come in to do percussion, or Bongo Bob, and even John got in on the action sometimes, but I was doing 99 percent of the playing. + +The biggest stress of that final schedule was going back to Hyde Street, working hard hours, day after day. Having a home studio in later years helped me tremendously because I could put a song to bed, then two days later, come back to exactly the same spot on my Pro Tools session, capture better performances, and get a better handle on what I was really recording. + +But back then, my schedule had me teaching, playing, and performing ten hours a day, and it took a heavy toll. Good things can come of it if you've got a good team with you, but you can wear your hands out that way, too! I would be playing a lot of different instruments as well, going from guitar to bass to keyboards. On top of that, if the song wasn't working out, I'd have to rewrite that part right there in the moment, which was definitely stressful. Remember, we recorded the album on only three reels of 2-inch tape! The only performances saved were the final ones. No outtakes left behind. + +By the time we were finally ready to mix Surfing, I remember not liking anything I'd done! I really felt I needed another ten years to work on the album. Mixing meant you were finished playing, so I came into the process with a lot of anxiety. Of course, John, having mixed so many records before, thankfully knew what mixing was really about. I was using it as an extension of making the record, but John had other, more practical things to get to first. Balancing in the days before automated recall, for instance, took a long time, and engineers need to be given the space and time to get that balance right, and that's before you'd start to get crazy with mixes and things like that. John was meticulous in making sure the album sounded gorgeous, and he somehow always found a way to make cool ideas we came up with work. + + +John Cuniberti: Some of the songs were easier to mix than others—as always. In those days, I would start a mix, and then Joe would come in and sit down and we would finish it together. That was pretty much how we did it. Sometimes Joe had working titles for his songs that stuck, but often-times the titles came much later, after the songs were finished. He would come up with an order during mixing and run it by me, and I might like it or make suggestions, but the track order and the song titles usually evolved after the mixes. For Surfing, I think we'd gotten $25,000 to do that record, and by the end of recording, we did wind up going a little over budget, because after the first round of mastering, we decided to remix at least one or two songs, and then had to go back and remaster again. But $30,000, even in those days, wasn't a lot of money for making a record. So oftentimes, by the point where we'd gotten to the mix stage, we were either almost out of money or damn near, so it wasn't a situation where if we didn't like a mix, we could come back the next day and do it again. + + + +One morning, returning to the studio to finish mixing "Lords of Karma," we found that the cleaning staff had removed our "magical" mix of the song’s bridge, which was hanging on the coat rack, and thrown it in the Dumpster! It couldn't be saved, so we had to mix it again, using more precious mix tape, which was getting harder to pay for. And the drama didn't end there. + +When we first heard the final album mixes at Bernie Grundman’s mastering studio, it was a shock. Side one had a noticeable left/right balance discrepancy. It turned out to be a recording-desk issue back at Studio C where it was mixed. After a few angry phone calls to the studio manager, we packed up and returned to S.F. to remix side one. The label thought I was nuts, but I insisted. We had to get this right. We returned a week later with properly balanced new mixes and mastered the record using the new Dolby SR system. It sounded beautiful, and Bernie did a wonderful job cutting the album to disc and preparing it for CD. + +I should have been overjoyed. I wasn't. I was so emotionally distraught after the album was finished that I could only listen to it—I kid you not—slowed down and distorted. I'd put a cassette of the mastering on my 4-track and slow it down and turn it up. It was the only way I could get through it without having a heart attack. I thought it wasn't good enough. I'd put everything I had into it and thought it was the last record anyone would ever let me make. I loved Not of this Earth, but I knew it was a little weird, so I didn't think it had too much broad appeal. Surfing was the first record that was sanctioned by and paid for by Relativity Records, and they were expecting something great. Surfing really crystallized a moment for me. Why wasn't I satisfied with it? It summed up all the different styles that I related to musically and everything I'd been working on as a guitar player since I was a kid. Yet despite all the trials and tribulations in making it, Surfing turned out to be a real gem after all. + + + + + +CHAPTER 9 * * + +Launching the Silver Surfer + + +"Joe Satriani’s 1987 breakthrough can be seen as the gold standard for guitar playing of the mid-to-late '80s, an album that captures everything that was good about the glory days of shred." + +—Billboard magazine + + + + +Steve Vai: I always knew Joe would be recognized as a musical guitar giant, and it’s easy to say that now, but the truth is that I always saw him that way from when I was twelve years old. But I did not know how things worked in real life, if real talent could be recognized or if it was just luck when someone became successful. In looking back and knowing what I know now, it is unequivocally clear that there was no other way for Joe’s career to have gone but up, up, and up. It’s very comforting to know that true talent can be recognized. + + + +Lords of Karma was the original title of the album before its release, but after a journalist expressed his displeasure about it I started to have second thoughts. I scanned the record’s songs for a new title and thought how could anyone object to Surfing with the Alien? It’s so obviously a title with a sense of humor. So I called the Relativity office in New York and told production manager Jim Kozlowski my new title. He responded with, "Let’s put the Silver Surfer on the cover. It’s my nickname!" I replied, "What’s a Silver Surfer?" Jim sent me a few issues of the comic straightaway and I was blown away. The Silver Surfer was the perfect image for the cover. It was bold, iconic, and positive. I could identify with the Surfer, even though I had never been on a surfboard! + + +Cliff Cultreri: Now that the record was done, we needed a cover concept that was as exciting and original as the music and the record’s new title. We approached Marvel Comics and got the license for using the Silver Surfer art for the cover. + +Our next move made sense because I knew that the odds were definitely against us in terms of, "Can he become a crossover artist to any degree? Can we get MTV? Can these types of things happen for him?" I knew in my gut there was a possibility of it, because there was really nobody like him happening at the time, and again, I felt if anybody had the music to do it, Joe was the one. But in the end, his first big break didn't actually come from radio or TV or any of those traditional venues that record companies use to break new artists and get the momentum behind an artist. + +What happened was the music committee for the Winter Olympics approached us wanting to license the rights to use some of Joe’s songs during some of the winter sporting competitions, and so naturally we said, "Great, what’s the deal?" They said, "We'll give you X amount of dollars and you supply us with a master," and I started sort of kicking and fussing, asking, "Well, is there any way we can turn this into something bigger?" So what we came up with was instead of taking the up-front money that was being offered, we asked if in exchange they would show Joe’s name and the album’s title somewhere at the bottom of the TV screen while the music was being played so viewers would actually know who he was. That was the problem when you had these sporting events that used an artist’s music: Unless you're on a stage playing at halftime and being announced, most people don't know who the artist is performing the music. So they agreed to that, and now we had—just like when an MTV video is playing—in the bottom left corner of the screen, every time one of Joe’s songs came on, something that read to the effect of "Joe Satriani, Surfing with the Alien," the name of the specific song, and "Available on Relativity Records," et cetera. + +It wound up being a boon for us promotionally, because they ended up using a gang of songs from the record. I remember we were getting such great promotion during those Olympic Games that sales started picking up, and pretty soon radio started to come on board. So all the bits and pieces of promotion we were doing culminated in what proved to be a pretty big piece of the puzzle, and I remember feeling Joe’s music was a perfect fit for it. With so many millions of people watching the Olympics, it was better than having a video in rotation on MTV! + + + + +Mick Brigden, Manager: The day Joe came down to S.I.R. Rehearsal Studios to audition for the Mick Jagger gig, we had background singers, all the moving parts of a big stadium show set up that day. When Joe walked in the door, I remember being instantly impressed by the fact that he was not intimidated at all. He still was exactly the way he is to this day, and didn't change from that moment to this moment as the guy I know. He had his guitar in his hands and was comfortable playing whatever anyone threw at him, and they were throwing a bunch of material at him—not just Stones songs, but everything they were going to play onstage. They were just grooving and jamming, so there was a bit of blues going on, and some riffs going on, and Joe was just feeding off people, and Jagger was staying out of sight deliberately, because he didn't want to make it about who was onstage. + +I was watching this all, and Mick just waited, and then at one point came out from behind the amps, blowing a harp on a blues jam, and just fell in with the groove, and Joe didn't bat an eye! There was no change in his state of being, and Joe’s obvious talent came to the fore, and Mick looked around and gave me a thumbs-up, like "We've found him, haven't we?" So that’s all it took—Joe just had to show up and play, and Mick was blown away and everyone in the band thought, "This guy can do anything we want to do," and they didn't even know how much Joe could do at that moment. They'd just had a two-hour taste, but it felt like Joe was born for this moment. + + + +I had managed to get on the covers of a couple of magazines, but the success of the record hadn't really kicked in yet. It was that first Jagger tour of Japan and the following spring and summer solo tours of '88 that made things start to happen. I did two Jagger tours that year, separated by about five months of my own touring. Touring with Mick and the guys was so much fun and very intense, playing the Stones catalog and Mick’s solo music. I was influenced by this historical rock 'n' roll library that I was playing every night, the lifestyle, and Mick’s professionalism in general. I started to understand that it was okay to have fun and do whatever you wanted to do musically—in other words, "Don't be afraid, don't hold back, just do what you want, put your heart into it. If things don't turn out, be a man about it. Take your lumps if people don't like it, but you definitely don't wanna hold back, and you definitely don't want to do it because you think it’s going to make you popular. You've got to love it and live it." + + +Cliff Cultreri: Once Surfing with the Alien really started to click, I knew Joe was definitely writing a new chapter: he was that next great, great musician to take the guitar and bring it to the forefront and really just push the boundaries. There were a lot of great rock-metal players doing their thing, from Eddie Van Halen to Angus Young, and they created a sound, a rhythm, and a feel, but Joe took the instrument and pushed it in every direction. He really just pushed the boundaries like nobody before, and it was a remarkable thing to watch young players listen and start learning from it—that was a tremendously important thing. Not only was Joe entertaining people, but really anybody who was listening to him was getting an education in playing. + + + +The thing is, it’s easy to say—especially with Surfing because the record was a multiplatinum success—that "Everything that happened in the studio was good." But had the record not been a success, it would have been just as easy for us to say that everything that happened was bad. Ultimately, you can only rate the record on its artistic success and how fans embraced it. Playing live onstage and hearing people shout in excitement when you start to play a song, like "Always" or "Memories"—even the first few notes—that’s pretty amazing. I remember when there was none of that, and now all of a sudden, there are millions of fans and they know my music. They put it on at all times during their life—that to me is the most important thing ever, because it’s the thing I've used to connect myself with other artists, too. That’s how we all use music: We put it on when we need it, and it’s extremely important in our lives. You put on a jacket when you're cold, and you put on music when your soul is in need. And when millions of people choose you and your music, nothing gets more profound than that. + + +Cliff Cultreri: The album was such a hit. Did I expect it to be a hit record? No, I was hoping it would get recognition and acclaim, and I think it outperformed everybody’s expectations, which I think turned out to be a tremendously pleasant surprise for everyone. + + + +It was a big deal. I believe we wound up selling more instrumental guitar records than anybody else has in history. That was cool, but personally, the audience knowing the material was the main thing for me—and they loved the material. That was the most striking thing, because before the album really took hold, I'd heard about people playing Surfing on the radio, but it didn't register with me until I was playing it before them live. I just couldn't believe that people knew every song on the album, and quite a few from the previous album, too! To me that was the greatest part. I knew you could win awards, you could get on the cover of magazines, you could be on TV—it didn't matter. Being famous was not the same as being embraced by your fans; it was very different. To actually connect with fans, and have them sing along, clap, and acknowledge full songs or even parts of songs . . . I was overwhelmed that this connection had been made. It was the same one that I had with artists I liked, and I thought, "Wow, that means it’s really happening. People really love the music on the album." This was the most important thing to me, the connection with the audience. + + + +Jonathan Mover, me, and Stuart Hamm after a San Francisco show in '88 + +PHOTO BY PAT JOHNSON + +Postscript: Late in 1987, just before everything was about to "pop," Guitar Player magazine asked me to record an original piece of music for a Soundpage to be included in the February 1988 issue where I was to grace the cover—my first! I jumped into the studio with John and Jeff and recorded two pieces of music: "The Power Cosmic," a solo guitar piece, and what would become a hit for me, "The Crush of Love," a soul song with a lilting wah-wah melody over a funky bass and fat backbeat. With my new Ibanez 540 Radius guitar in hand, Rockman amp, and Casio CZ-101 keyboard, we recorded and mixed the new music in a few hours at Hyde Street Studios. It eventually was added to a live EP called Dreaming #11 that was released about a year later. The live performances, recorded at the California Theatre in San Diego, featured Stuart Hamm on bass and Jonathan Mover on drums, my touring band that year. + + + + + +CHAPTER 10 * * + +Flying in a Blue Dream —1989 + + +"One of Satriani’s most brilliant early strategies: to subvert, re-energize, and recast common blues-rock licks as catchy and memorable instrumental 'verse' melodies played over irresistible rhythmic grooves." + +—Guitar Player magazine + + + +By the end of 1988, Surfing was still on the charts, and I was on the covers of magazines around the world, and I had just finished two tours with Mick and a few of my own as a new solo artist. With the release of the live EP Dreaming #11 coming up, change was in the air. I had lived, celebrated, and survived that whole year, and come off the road thinking, "I've got to do something new and challenging, something to push me into a new artistic space." + +I never intended to go into this genre as though it were going to be my career. I was still a rock guitar player, and I sang in bands my whole life, so I kept thinking, "Don't fall into the trap that many artists do of thinking they have to cater to their past success, because it will kill you in the end." So I said, "Look, I'm going to take a big risk: I'm going to sing and I'm going to play a larger variety of music. Artistically, I'm going to take it more out and more in. This record is going to be big and sprawling." I wanted to take that risk. + +Because ultimately, the people who heard me on the radio only heard three songs at best: "Always with Me, Always with You," "Surfing with the Alien," and "Satch Boogie." They didn't hear "Midnight," they didn't hear "Hill of the Skull" or "Echo"—those things never got played on the radio, so they were thinking, "Joe Satriani is this boogie guy, who also has a fascination with aliens," but that was only a little part of me. So I had to bump it up and say, "No, it’s going to be 'Big Bad Moon,' 'The Mystical Potato Head Groove Thing,' and 'I Believe,' and it’s going to be 'The Forgotten (Parts 1 and 2)'—it’s going to be Flying in a Blue Dream!" + +I knew that John felt the same way—that we should just make a more adventurous, better-sounding album, and try to do things we'd never done before. We wanted to expand on what we'd accomplished with Surfing, and the good news was, in contrast to that record, when we started working on Flying in a Blue Dream my budget was something like $125,000! What that meant was lockout time! This was a gift for any recording artist, because now I could rent a studio for two weeks and no one was going to go in there, from the time I started renting it till the end of that two-week period. So all the amps and microphones, console settings, everything was left set up, which was a great time saver. + + +John Cuniberti: When we got together for preproduction sessions on Flying, there was a pressure I could see mounting on Joe being newly successful. There was now an infrastructure relying on prosperity based on his record making. + + + +Initially, we moved to a new studio, Windham Hill’s Different Fur Studios, and ran into technical difficulties almost immediately, beginning when we went to lay down some chunky rhythm guitar for Flying in a Blue Dream. As we were trying to get this guitar sound in the control room, I noticed that every time I started to turn my volume control up, this radio or TV broadcast would come through. Well, we quickly discovered the studio had a problem with RF interference. We wound up recording and using the RF we were picking up as part of the intro to the title track! + + +John Cuniberti: As a solution, we first tried a Faraday shield, which was basically chicken wire, which this expert said we needed to run around the entire building. This was a two-story building in the middle of San Francisco, so we couldn't do that. Then I tried to build a shield—basically a smaller chicken wire fence—around Joe, and that didn't work either, so we left after a couple days. Following our departure from Different Fur, my plan had been for us to set up shop at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley, but it wasn't available right at that moment. So we wound up back at Hyde Street working out of Studio C, where we'd done Surfing, basically with our tail between our legs because they had been pissed that we weren't going to do the new record there. In those days, when a band decided not to do a record at a studio, that produced a lot of bad blood and a lot of hurt feelings. + + + +To try to alleviate getting bogged down, we picked a schedule that gave me breaks. So we didn't go in for two months straight and finish the record in one shot, with all those songs. We wound up going in for three weeks, and then we would stop and I would have a chance to do rewrites. So it wasn't unusual for me to be continually writing like that. But having the breaks really helped, because physically it was rough. I couldn't maintain a schedule of every day for two full months; I just wouldn't have been able to handle that kind of thing. + + +John Cuniberti: Our work schedule was erratic. We'd work for four or five days, and then I wouldn't see him for two weeks. Then we'd get together, and he'd listen to everything and want to redo it all. He'd come up with new ideas, throw some old songs away, and get some new songs, and then we'd get together for a couple of days and record some more stuff. It went on like that for months, which made it difficult to book studios and try to get a momentum and feel for the album. There was a lot of things going on for Joe, and his life got very complicated very quickly. + + + +At the end of '88 two things happened to me that would drag me down physically for another year. To start, I contracted the intestinal parasite Giardia, which went undiagnosed for twelve months! I must have picked it up in Jakarta while playing a show there with Jagger. I'd have these incredibly painful attacks and have to go to the emergency room, where they would always fail to figure out what was wrong with me. Second, I decided to get a full compliment of dental braces to correct a TMJ problem. I told my orthodontist he had a little less than one year to get the job done. He could put me in as much pain as he needed to, but in eleven months he had to take all the braces off because I was going to be photographed and filmed. I was miserable continually for a year. I lost weight and felt uncomfortable in my own skin while trying to make this big artistic leap forward. And that wasn't all. + +As we started recording Flying, my father suffered a massive stroke. He had suffered a smaller stroke years before, but this one sent him into a coma from which he never recovered. I realized then that he was gone. In my heart I knew that if I stopped working on the record and traveled back to New York to be with him, I'd probably just stay until he passed. I knew that wasn't what he would have wanted, so I stayed in California to finish the record, hoping he would hold on until I was finished. It didn't turn out that way. "Into the Light" was about the situation my dad was in. The song is more a prayer, a spiritual message. That’s the best way to put it. He passed away as we were mixing "I Believe" in July that year. + +I wrote "I Believe" about that whole period. I poured a lot of emotion into the performance, which made it even more difficult for me to sing, because the song was about dealing with hardships in your life. I first had the idea for the song when walking past this painting in the hallway of the Berkeley apartment where Rubina and I were living. It was a large multimedia painting that a friend of my wife's, Nunu Skrimstead, had made, and Rubina was the subject of this painting. Rubina was my emotional rock and the inspiration for the song, so concentrating on her portrait helped me focus on writing a song about hardships in general and how I believe you can turn things around no matter how hard they get. + + + +Me at the mic in Studio C at Hyde Street, getting ready to sing "Strange" in '89 + +PHOTO BY KEN FRIEDMAN + +"The Bells of Lal (Parts 1 and 2)" also came out of this period. My wife came home with these bells that were called Bells of Lal, and she told me they were put around camels' necks when they have a long journey through the desert. The sound distracts them from the hardships of the journey and keeps them moving forward. The bells were on this thin metal harness, almost like a necklace, and because they were very old and rusted, they had a very unique tone. I hadn't heard bells chime like this before. I realized I needed my own Bells of Lal to put around my neck to keep me going so I wouldn't stop and dwell on the harshness of the reality of what was happening in my life. I imagined I was in a vast desert. And I wondered, "If you could fly very close to the surface of the sand, over thousands of miles of desert, what would that sound like?" I thought the idea of a long journey should be represented not by a song that’s got short little parts—versus, bridges, and choruses—but rather one long part. + + +John Cuniberti: We moved over to Fantasy Studios from Hyde Street around this period as well. Our feeling was that it was a better-run studio. It had very professional maintenance staff, it had a better microphone selection, the rooms were bigger, the quality of the assistant engineer was higher. I lived in Oakland, so it was very convenient for me. Most of all, it served our end of being a different venue—we just really needed a different atmosphere, a fresh start all around, and Fantasy definitely gave us that because it was a big step up. First off, when you walked into their huge, multi-story building, there were pictures of Creedence Clearwater Revival and just about everybody else that’s famous on the walls there. It was just a full-time studio that made you feel like you were moving up. That album was recorded in three different rooms, I think; we were definitely in D, where we mixed and did some drum recording; we were in B; and I remember doing something in Studio A. So I think we used almost every room except for the MIDI room. + +When Joe was at the studio recording, he didn't accept anything less than your very, very best from anybody. Throughout my career working with him, if you're not at your best, he can't tolerate it. He hates people fucking around in the studio, and in those days, he really saw himself as the star in the room, and that was true. Everybody else in the room really was working for him. And he was really starting to build an infrastructure of management, family, engineers, assistants, and a guitar tech. They were all relying on Joe and his talents to pay their bills. This was kind of a new thing for him. The pressures on him to make bigger and more successful records were really nearing a pinnacle at that point, so this time Joe basically couldn't suffer fools. + + + +When I'm playing and recording music like that, I'm not really hearing it the way other people do. I'm hearing the music coming a few bars ahead and I'm still listening to the music that I've played a few bars back. It’s just an emotional way that I experience the music, so when I'm sitting in a studio, listening back to something falling flat, it annoys me because it sounds nothing like what I've played. Of course, John will say, "That’s exactly what you played," but I can't get the exact feeling of the experience of how I'm playing onto the tape, so I'll look for effects like backward delays that represent that transcending of time I experience when I play music. I don't feel that I've ever fully been able to represent that properly, but things like backward reverbs and backward delays are my best attempts to convey how the music sounds to me as I'm playing it in my head and my heart. + +The album’s title track actually came to me while I was working on "Big Bad Moon" and was taking a break from trying to write lyrics. I played these two chords and thought, "This is about me having flying dreams as a kid. Wouldn't it be great if there was a melody that was so smooth it would 'fly' over these chords? What’s my guideline for the opposite of what I've been doing for 'Big Bad Moon'?" For some reason, I thought of Frank Sinatra singing these songs where he starts off mellow at a lower register before ramping it up. The lyrics would reveal more of the "story" while his vocal line rose in pitch, and the chorus was the last few lines of his story. I'd always thought that was a beautiful way of playing a melody, because it wasn't an obvious verse-bridge-chorus kind of thing. It was a very elegant, simple way of telling a story and putting it to a beautiful melody, then having it peak. From that flash of inspiration, recalling my flying dreams, I wrote the rest of the song right there in about two to three minutes, all while taking a break from writing another song! + +"The Mystical Potato Head Groove Thing" was another favorite from the Flying record that took a lot of work. I remember telling John I'd written this song and wanted it to be on the record, but it was going to take me two or three weeks to prepare for the recording. I'd come up with this idea to use arpeggios as the song’s chorus, but they were so hard for me to pull off. Up until that point, I don't think I'd ever really experienced any kind of arm pain before, but after three weeks of practicing those arpeggios almost eight hours a day, I had a pain in my left forearm and hand that was unbelievable! When I brought the song to John, I said, "When the chorus comes, it’s actually just this flurry of notes, but we have to create this beautiful tone, and it’s got to be perfect." I played them on my Ibanez "Black Dog" guitar using a DS-1 into a Roland JC-120. I tied a scarf around the neck of the guitar at the 5th fret to keep the string noise down, while muting the strings a bit with my right hand at the bridge. It’s all left-hand hammer-ons performing the arpeggios. + + +John Cuniberti: The success of Surfing allowed Joe to broaden the palette and maybe have a little bit more fun. I think he wanted to branch out and do other types of music and presentations, and there’s a danger in that, of course— there always is. I wasn't surprised that he wanted to sing. I remember he was quite nervous about it, and I think Rubina and I were the only two people who thought he could pull it off! I thought it was great, and in fact, my favorite song is "I Believe," one of the numbers he sang on; it’s one of the highlights of the record for me. The way he sings it is just beautiful, the lyrics were heartfelt, and he really believed in what he was singing. And he really suffered in the studio singing that, and when he nailed it, I just thought it was great. + + + +I really had to follow John’s lead when I sang in the studio. John knew I was a background singer and that I had no knowledge of how to record a voice, nor what microphone was best suited for what kind of song. John had years of experience at this working with singers, so he would just say, "Oh, we're going to use this kind of mic today," and I wouldn't even know what it was. My world was in the headphones, and if it sounded comfortable to me there as I sang, then John could get a good performance out of me. I'm not a real singer, but I feel really good singers have this ability to communicate that supersedes their range or vocal quality. Bob Dylan and Neil Young have unusual voices but are great at being lead vocalists because they have that gift of communication. + +Each of my vocals on Flying is sung "in character," which made the album more interesting for me. The vocals for "Big Bad Moon" weren't working at first, but we figured out a way to make my voice sound more menacing by changing the song’s speed, singing to it at a faster speed, and then returning it to its normal speed—that did the trick. We'd heard a lot of other artists did this, including Prince. Once I heard it back, I thought, "Okay, that’s my character." + + +Cliff Cultreri: Joe would always be sending cassettes and DATs—"What do you think of this?" and "Check that out"— and I remember hearing bits and pieces and knowing it already had become a very different writing process for him by his third LP. So on Flying in a Blue Dream, you can really start to hear tremendous stylistic variation in the makeup of the music and the songs. He always had that going on, but I think not to the degree of Flying, and he did it in a way where he took you along for the ride. It wasn't different for the sake of being different; it was more like a natural evolution where he really took you on a ride on a lot of those songs. In a way, it almost was more of a progressive style of writing on many of the songs on that album, but it still was very listener-friendly— I don't think it put off any of the Surfing audience. I think what it did was take them further out much in the way Hendrix did. Here Joe was doing it his own way. + + + +Just as I was finishing the recording of Flying, Cameron Crowe called me out of the blue and asked me to write a song specifically for his directorial debut, Say Anything . . . He filled me in on what the movie was about, then sent me a very rough cut of the film on VHS. Cameron wanted something rocking that would represent John Cusack’s angst during a kickboxing scene. "Just do what you do," he said. "I don't care what you do, just be Joe Satriani." So I wrote "One Big Rush" and he loved the way it turned out. + +Looking back, for me as a multi-instrumentalist and solo artist, Flying was a lot of work. Making records with Chickenfoot, by comparison, is really easy because you go in as one of four guys, play a song half a dozen times, and that’s it. On Flying, I played all the guitars, basses, and keyboards, and I sang on six of the eighteen songs. Sometimes, after a hard day of recording, I would return home to get some rest and wake up the next morning having dreamed that I was in the studio and would feel like I hadn't slept! I think the biggest stress of having a recording schedule like that was having to go back in day after day. It was fun, it was exhilarating, I loved it, but at the same time the process of making that record was definitely stressful! + + +John Cuniberti: The record was a huge advancement from the first two albums. It was incredibly ambitious. I thought it was going to blow people’s minds and really be well received. The song "Flying in a Blue Dream" was the most beautiful thing he'd ever done. I was really, really proud of the record. + + + + +Mick Brigden: We were lucky in the fact that the success of Surfing opened all these doors, so Joe was a headliner overnight. He didn't go through the phase of being an opening act. He went straight to headliner. Joe’s set obviously had some landmark material, but he didn't have an awful lot of it. That changed very quickly when he promoted Flying in a Blue Dream, because he gave us a broader scope instantly and he brought in vocals. We wanted "Big Bad Moon" as a single. Joe felt the title track was the most important song on the record. Relativity and management knew that if we could get "Big Bad Moon" on the radio and the video on MTV, it would be a hit. We also knew we had "I Believe" in the back pocket. We shot great videos for both of those with a then unknown David Hogan. We put a lot of effort and time into broadening Joe’s audience, as did he, because ultimately it all comes from Joe. He handed in a record with such a wide variety of sound and composition that he opened the door for us to have so many different ways to market this guitar hero beyond just six strings. + + + +My personal take on Flying once we'd completed work on it was that I'd moved to this higher level that was new for me. I'd elevated my technique and was playing new things that you'd never heard on the first two albums. There were stream-of-consciousness clusters of notes, like in "Flying in a Blue Dream"; very worked out, purposeful-sounding arpeggios like on "The Mystical Potato Head Groove Thing"; and crazy out-and-out soloing on "The Bells of Lal (Part 2)." Then there was the personalization of the legato technique, which was a continuation of what I'd just started with "Echo" on Surfing, and I wasn't afraid to use this legato technique as the forefront of my musical statement on Flying, too. It wasn't something I just dashed off with for eight bars for effect, because I knew it was going to be a cornerstone of my technique. + + + +Me and my six-string Deering banjo at Fantasy in '89 + +STILL FROM JOHN CUNIBERTI'S VIDEO + +Looking back on some of the other techniques I had fun with on Flying, I had taken my two-hand tapping style to another sort of extreme compositional level. "Day at the Beach" is a good example in that it was more developed and complex as a song than similar stuff on the first two records. I felt that if I was going to put my own stamp on tapping, I had to move it to some higher level of compositional expression and drop the "wow, look at me" factor. + +Oddly enough, when "Flying in a Blue Dream" was released, the star of the album actually wound up being the title track, so the one that nobody thought anyone would ever play turned out to be the one that got the most airplay. It was the same thing with Surfing with the Alien: The label never picked "Always with Me, Always with You" as the single; instead they picked "Surfing," "Ice 9," "Satch Boogie," but "Always" was the one that everybody wanted. For this album, the record label actually really wanted to use "Can't Slow Down" as the first single, but one of the A&R people at the label just had a real problem with the solo section (I never figured out what it was that she didn't like about it), so eventually they went with "Big Bad Moon" and "I Believe." + +We started out the live shows feeling everybody was going to like the whole album. We always knew "Flying in a Blue Dream" was going to be a great song live—it was just a perfect opener. The lights would dim and then the recording of the RF intro started and those beautiful chords and the feedback would unfold. It just had so much drama to it and was so unique at the time. There really wasn't a song like it. "Big Bad Moon" turned out to be a great live song that has stayed in the set to this day. To our surprise, songs like "The Mystical Potato Head Groove Thing," "I Believe," and "One Big Rush" became fan favorites, too, and stayed in the set for a very long time. + + + + + +CHAPTER 11 * * + +The Bearsville Experiment + +When I decided to begin working on my next album after the Flying in a Blue Dream tour, I wanted a change of studio scenery, and the legendary Bearsville Studios in Woodstock, New York, fit the bill for me because it had a big live room and it wasn't in an urban setting. As far as John was concerned, he felt the studio had the necessary facilities to handle what we were looking to accomplish, and I think I was just attracted to going back to New York because I grew up there. When you say "Woodstock," it just has an allure because of its history, but I had never been there before, so I arrived like a tourist to some extent. I was looking for a musical adventure. + +I think the experience of being a live act for the last three years was the biggest factor in my decision to shift from computers to a live rhythm section in the studio. After touring not only for the first two records, but also with Mick Jagger, I was thinking, "Wow, I've gotta work more of this live energy that I've experienced into the next record." I figured, "I'm just going to trust my instincts, go to Woodstock with John and with the guys from the Jagger band," so I hired Simon Phillips on drums, Phil Ashley on keyboards, and Doug Wimbish on bass. I wanted to introduce more musicianship into the mix, and that sort of creativity you get from having different kinds of players in the band, but I also wanted to make sure I could control it. That concept really blossomed on some songs—"New Blues" and "Rubina’s Blue Sky Happiness," for example—because each of the players felt (I think) he had room to move creatively. + +Unfortunately, everything broke down when I discovered I couldn't get them to follow this disciplined approach to instrumental rock that John and I had pioneered on the first couple of records. So, for instance, trying to get them to play and create the same effect we got on "Flying in a Blue Dream" or "Ice 9" was very difficult because they didn't think or feel that way as players. It was entirely my fault, because I picked these guys and they're amazing at what they do, but, in retrospect, they were the wrong musicians for the project. + + +John Cuniberti: This was ironic to me, because those guys are so creative, and they love music so much, that as soon as they walked in the room and picked up their instruments, they would just play and play and play—and Joe enjoyed that. where I could tell things weren't working for Joe was, traditionally on his prior records, when he would come in for a playback and listen, you could tell when he felt a drum part wasn't working if it was a live player, and he would turn to the drummer and would basically be directing the drummer on what he was looking for. Well, at Bearsville, when he attempted to do that, Simon would either argue with him about it, or say, "Yeah, sure," then go back out in the studio and play whatever the fuck he wanted. Simon played Simon Phillips music, which is like this progressive, showy style. It seemed like Simon felt, "Joe’s been making these weird records with funny drum machines. Now he wants to make a real record with real players in a real room, and that’s why he’s hired us." So that’s exactly what Joe got, and it’s exactly what Joe didn't want. + + + +I remember at one point Phil Ashley taking me aside and saying, "Perhaps you need to be more descriptive, more detailed in what it is you're trying to get out of Simon and Doug." I thought the songs were getting softer and having less of an impact when drums, bass, and keyboards were allowed to wander through the arrangements, and this was a problem because these guys were very expensive! The whole trip out there was very expensive, and suddenly we're running into a problem where I started thinking, "I won't be able to overdub on these performances and get them to really hit hard." So I started to realize after a few weeks—and I think John was pretty shocked when I told him this—"I'm not happy with this. I don't like what my songs are becoming." + +As it had started to build up, I had a few key realizations, the first being that they didn't respect me enough to take my direction seriously. I could understand that because I was the "new guy." The second was that they didn't understand my directions because I couldn't figure out how to be more descriptive. So each morning, I'd go to the studio telling myself, "I'm going to turn it around today. I can try to see where their influences will make the song better, change my approach, and see if I can explore their approach. Maybe they're right." But each day, the opposite would happen, and I'd wind up getting a little bit more discouraged, and I would walk back to my cabin at night, thinking, "That didn't get better, that got worse." + +When we started "Summer Song," that’s when I really knew it wasn't working. There was a small dining room off the kitchen where we used to eat communally, and each morning, John would prepare the previous day’s roughs for us, and we would sit there in the morning and listen to everything. I remember everyone listening to "Summer Song" and feeling really good and excited about it, while I was thinking to myself, "That is weak," because I was used to the hard-edged rhythm sections on the Surfing and Flying records. I felt that was a signature of my sound by then, and I noticed once it was removed that there was something NOT better with what was replacing it. I think my creative faith at the time was that once I removed the rigidity, the music was going to blossom, but I didn't hear that at all. I remember it blindsiding John when I announced, "I'm not happy with the way this is going," because he had originally figured—as I had—that these were the greatest musicians we'd ever worked with, but now it was, "How could it not be working?" He probably was trying to figure out, "What is it that Joe’s not hearing, and what can I do to help him out?" Because he was my partner in this, and to a certain degree, I was not being totally open about what I was disappointed with, because I didn't want to totally spoil the vibe of the sessions. I didn't want to stand up and say, "This sucks!" even though that’s precisely how I was feeling. + +Eventually I had to pull the plug on the Bearsville experiment. That was an even scarier decision because of the money I had spent, and maybe wasted. + + + +Phil Ashley, Doug Wimbish, Simon Phillips, and me at Bearsville in late '90 + +PHOTO BY JOHN CUNIBERTI + + +John Cuniberti: There were times when Joe would walk into the control room for a playback and just stand there like he was pissed off, and I'm sure Joe went back to his cabin every night shaking his head, asking, "What have they done to my song? I came with this idea to have this song that looks like ABC, and instead I have XYZ, and I'm supposed to go into the studio tomorrow at $2,000 a day and record that?" So as the session started to unwind, Joe opted for what I thought at the time was a soft landing of sorts, because he was pretty unhappy and he decided it was time to take a break. We came home the day before Thanksgiving, and after the holidays we talked, and he said, "I want to get back in the studio. We got a lot of good stuff here. Let’s book some studio time in the Bay Area here, and sort of address all the issues." + + + +Following that, when we went home for the holiday, John and I started to plan around the idea that maybe we'd be able to reconvene and do what we did before. John offered, "Let’s go back to San Francisco and you record your guitars just the way you always do it. Then we'll bring in a drummer, or we'll do the drum machine thing." + + +John Cuniberti: Joe had played and we had recorded a lot of great guitar takes, and he was trying to preserve a lot of those performances: rhythm guitars, solos, melodies. So he started replacing Simon Phillips’s drum tracks with drum programming, and trying to manipulate the music the way he wanted, and I remember it was very, very, very difficult. We started to run into tuning issues, and tempo issues, and those guys were much more free-flowing, so Simon was playing all over the click—in front of it, behind it, around it— and everyone’s playing to him, so when you take his drums off and try to lock a drum machine to it, nothing made sense anymore. We struggled and struggled trying to put Band-Aids on it, and got a few nuggets that were pretty nice that ultimately ended up on the record. + + + + + +CHAPTER 12 * * + +The Extremist —1992 + + +"The chugging 'Summer Song,' the warm 'Friends,' the slamming 'Motorcycle Driver,' and the crunching 'The Extremist' show Satriani’s talents as a guitarist are undiminished, while the more traditional neo-folk approach to 'Rubina’s Blue Sky Happiness' and the bluesy 'New Blues' are different from anything he has done before!" + +—Billboard magazine + + + +With The Extremist, I felt like my playing style had really grown and I had sort of reconnected with a lot of guitar playing that I grew up listening to, like Jimi Hendrix and Jimmy Page. My other records were a little more modern for their times, but with this record, I was not holding back from bringing out my roots of the late sixties and early seventies. So that meant I was showing more of what I could play, which was an important part of my growth as a musician. I also think that the range of composition was HUGE on this record. At the time I was wondering, how was I going to get "Tears in the Rain," "New Blues," "Why," "Cryin'," and "The Extremist" to stylistically fit together on one record? How was I going to justify that there was a song like "War" on the same record as "Rubina’s Blue Sky Happiness"? Were people going to like the sort of Celtic country style of "Friends," because it was very much not like "Ice 9"? I also felt that I'd really matured compositionally, and that was something John had felt at the beginning, too. He just thought that the material I'd brought in was really exceptional, and I think his reaction to it also gave me a little bit of courage to see it all the way through. + +Even though I was conceptually excited about this album, starting over after the Bearsville debacle was so difficult for me because there was this incredible sense of guilt that I had spent too much money and had failed to pull the project together. It really affected me in a creative way, and I distinctly remember calling Bill Graham Management from Studio D at Hyde Street one day and telling Kevin Burns that I didn't feel like playing my guitar anymore. I had lost all the necessary drive to continue. + +When I called the office that day, it was to ask Bill and the management team, "Can I stop, again?" Their answer was, "Of course you can, just pack up and stop." My management company was great; they told me to take some time off and not to rush back into it, which was the right advice, so I just shut everything down and took a year off from recording. My wife and I had recently bought a house up in the Sierras at Lake Tahoe, and we finally got to spend some time with each other, because it seemed like we had been working like crazy for years and years. I'd spent a lot of time on the road, and she was working as well, so I think we just needed time to hang out together. I also performed at the Guitar Legends Festival in Spain that year, so by then, early '91, it was the first time Rubina and I had a chance to travel together. + +With the time away, I was starting to reevaluate everything I was doing in the music business. I started to think that it was just a matter of stepping out of it for a while so I could come back with a fresh attitude. That led me to think, "I've got to be more like other musicians. I've got to play around." Bill and the guys at the office were saying the same thing: "Every artist we know eventually works with new musicians, engineers, and producers." + +Months later, on October 25, 1991, we lost Bill in a tragic helicopter accident. It was a staggering loss for his family and all of us who knew and worked with him, and a huge loss for the music world. + +We had to continue on. I had to pick myself up and complete my vision for The Extremist. It was time to find some new collaborators. I'll admit, I found that thought to be frightening at first, because John and I had shared some of the greatest moments, creatively recording and mixing together. We would spend hours in the studio stretching ourselves into areas where we felt we were just walking on the edge, and then we were ultimately rewarded by platinum success, but I wanted to keep pushing myself. By the end of the year I realized this was where we were, so my manager, Mick Brigden, started to field ideas about working with some different producers. + +I traveled down to L.A. and met with a few producers, including Mike Clink (Guns N' Roses) and Dave Jerden (Jane’s Addiction, Alice in Chains), and then I met with Andy Johns at Eddie Van Halen’s studio. I found myself feeling a little starstruck. I couldn't believe that I had a chance to work with somebody like Andy because I'd been listening to his recordings ever since I was a kid. When we first met, Andy was like a total wildcard. He was a very colorful character and very animated in a rock 'n' roll way. An important part of Andy’s talent was that he was extremely musical. He was a musician himself; he may not have been able to play drums, but he could zero in on the delicacies and intricacies of drum patterns and go out there and instruct a drummer. He could help you arrange keyboard parts and harmonize guitar lines—he was that musical. The conversation we had in just the few hours we spent listening to my demos at Eddie’s studio that day reignited my passion for the project. + + +Andy Johns: I invited him to meet me at Eddie Van Halen’s house because I was producing a Van Halen record at the time, and so just for a joke, I said, "Why don't we meet there?" which was a little mean, because Joe was still a little bit starstruck. So he was very happy to meet Ed, and he played me some stuff. Up to that point, Joe was still into using drum machines and playing through boxes, not using proper amplification, and the way I work is very organic—I like to have people play off of each other and use real amps and all that. So that was sort of a condition, that we try doing work that way, and he was more than cool with it. + + + +As excited as I was to be working with Andy, it wasn't the same as starting fresh with a new producer. I had no intention of starting fresh because I'd put so much work into quite a few of the tracks, and thought "New Blues," "Rubina’s Blue Sky Happiness," and "Why" were beautiful tracks that, if anything, just needed some touches on them. With "Summer Song," all we needed were new drum and bass performances, since John and I had finished all the guitars and keyboards earlier in San Francisco. Andy realized that we had a lot of it done, and he loved what John had recorded, so he thought, "How hard can it be?" + +Once I was ready to start working on the album again, I started asking different people for opinions on players. Steve Vai suggested the Bissonette brothers, two guys he'd been playing with, and sure enough when I was down in L.A. actually auditioning a bunch of people, Matt and Gregg turned out to be the best team I played with out of four or five sets of players. No matter what I threw at them, they seemed to rise to the occasion. Since they had worked with Steve before, I knew that they would understand any odd directions they might get from me. They would understand how sometimes you've got to play it really straight. I think maybe some musicians, when they get famous for being themselves, they're rewarded for idiosyncratic behavior, and then that’s all they can play. Other players who naturally take direction well and are versatile develop an attitude and technique that furthers their abilities—and that makes sense. When I would ask Gregg, "Could you reverse that beat, and play it super loose?" he would do it. Then if I said, "Sorry, I changed my mind. Could you play that straight and forward?" he would do it, and he seemed to really relish taking direction and providing me with what I wanted. He never had a negative attitude about trying it again in a completely different manner, and I had never played with anybody like that. + +Matt Bissonette was the same way. They both had this fantastic attitude in the studio of wanting to make the session work. And they were very creative and intuitive, so when I would say things like, "This part really needs to soar. I want it to fly," Gregg and Matt both understood what I wanted them to do, instead of needing concrete examples. I think that’s how we wound up getting keeper takes for "Summer Song," "War," "Motorcycle Driver," "The Extremist," and "Friends." What they did with "Friends" was just so amazing, and it was because they could take direction, not only from me but from Andy as well. + + +Matt Bissonette: We were at Mount Rushmore playing softball, looking at the presidents' heads, and just goofing off, and I'd heard Joe’s name because Steve was always talking about him. I remember all the roadies were listening to Surfing with the Alien on their headphones, and they were all way into it and kept telling me I had to hear it. So I finally heard the album, and of course figured out right away that he was an amazing guitar player. After that, I started listening to him more and more, and then when he called Gregg and me a few days later to come and audition for The Extremist, we showed up and just started jamming really well. + + + +With my new producer and band now complete, we settled on legendary Ocean Way Studios in Los Angeles. Everyone from Ray Charles to the Rolling Stones had recorded there. The first day we got to the studio, I remember we were playing in the big scoring room, and it sounded so beautiful! It’s just one of the most beautiful-sounding rooms I've ever been in. It’s just a magical, magical room where music sounds wonderful, no matter where you put stuff, and just listening to the sound of the drums and bass coming from the room is amazing. Allan Sides had designed the control room’s speakers, and the control room itself was tuned beautifully. And here is this legendary, towering figure in Andy Johns—drinking, smoking, laughing, screaming at the top of his lungs—at the helm of it all. Andy was very rock-star, rock 'n' roll royalty: high energy, lots of emotion, lots of drama. When he was happy, it was infectious, and he got everybody up and the performances were great. It was a lot of fun, because when you did something right and he got it on tape, the experience in the control room with him playing it back at 120 decibels, hugging everybody, smiling and joking, leaning into the speakers, just thoroughly rocking out to the recording, was very inspiring! It was just one of many things that were exciting about that time. + + + +Me and my favorite JS6 in '92 + +PHOTO BY NEIL ZLOZOWER + + + +On top of that, when I arrived in L.A. to start the rehearsals for the record, I remember being pulled into the room with Matt and Gregg and getting a phone call from Rubina telling me the wonderful news that she was pregnant with our son. That was a huge motivator for me, because suddenly the album stuff was not nearly as important as it was before getting the news. All at once, everything was put in perspective, and I think I lightened up a little bit because the most important thing in the world now was that we were starting a family. + + +Andy Johns: My foremost focus heading into work on The Extremist was on getting drum sounds with Gregg to replace those blasted drum machine boxes, which have as much soul as a stamp, perhaps less than a stamp because I collect stamps. I did come up with a theory of using room mics, which in actual fact I had started with Blind Faith on the "Can't Find My Way Home" album [Blind Faith]—it's all done on just two mics. Then when I did "When the Levee Breaks" with Led Zeppelin, I got Bonzo out in the fucking lobby and used two mics, so I was trying to get the drums to sound like they actually sound in the room. Gregg Bissonette, being an experienced cat, had some very good stuff, and I fiddled around with his kit a little bit, and I remember thinking that we got a pretty good drum sound on that one. We had this big live room with that old, sort of '50s linoleum tile, which is just great for drums. I put a couple of room mics in behind the drums—for some reason that seems to work in that room. And I had a 1308 mic pre to run the toms through, so that they showed up in the room mics a little bit more. Then I just found the right drums and tuned them right, and that was the secret, you know—the source of the sound has to be recordable. + +On Gregg’s kit, everything was miked up. When I'm getting a drum sound, what I do is, I listen to the room mics to see how the balance of the kit is in the room, because if one cymbal is really loud, or the toms are dead, you're fucked. So when I started, I added in the bass drum, then added in the snare, and built it up like that. Take "Summer Song," for example. What I did with the kick drum to get that sound is, I liked to have the front head off without a bloody hole in it, cut a piece of foam to size—so it’s just like a quarter of an inch—over the lip of the shell, and then where the air hole was, I got one of the techs to cut a cable and run it through the hole, then solder it back together, and had like a 421 on a mic box or something, so it was not resting on the foam inside. Then I put a FET 47 on the outside, and I tried to get the drummer to use a wooden beater (they always complain, "Man, this thing keeps bouncing back," because they're not used to playing with a proper front head). So I used coated Ambassador heads for the bass drum—none of that rubbish stuff with all the fucking foam going 'round the edge. Then I deadened that down myself so I could adjust it, and of course, you have to have the right drum. That’s the most important thing—because I knew where the mics go, fuck if I didn't know that by then. I had a snare drum that I've used on a couple of number ones, I think, and a bunch of other hits, that I'd tote around with me for insurance; I called it my "Black Beauty," and we used that on The Extremist. + + + +Andy understood when I told him that the problem I had was "swinging versus straight," and that I wanted the album’s sound to be big and heavy and to rock, that I did not want a fusion or jazz album. I didn't want an easy-listening record, and that was my struggle even before recording Surfing with the Alien, explaining that to people. We were not doing "easy-listening background music" or fusion. The songs were rock songs; they had verses and bridges and choruses and solo sections, and everyone had to play specific parts. I think Andy liked that and took the project on because he understood what I was trying to accomplish. + +In a way, working with Andy was a return to the earlier way John had recorded me with the Squares, having me plug straight into my Marshalls and play live in the room with the band—the main difference being Andy was doing his "Andy Johns" thing, which was creating this huge foundation of drums and bass guitar with all this powerful ambience, which was entirely new to me. There was a bass going into an SVT and DI, and there’s drums miked up in a huge room, with the kick drum being put into its own PA and then being pushed out into the room and re-miked. And then with my guitars, I was plugging into a vintage Marshall 100-watt full stack turned up to 10! + + +Andy Johns: Joe had a bunch of Marshalls which sounded really good. He had a nice 100-watt combo that we used, too. Now, when we're doing the record, we had five different amp setups, and about fifteen guitars, so therefore you could find any fucking sound you wanted appropriate for the room. My miking would probably have been a couple of 57s and a 414, my standard setup of a 57 on the speaker, another 57 about 45 degrees so the phase is all cool, and the one that’s angled gives you the bottom end, and the one that’s straight up gives you the top end. The 414 you mount on another speaker on a 4x12 and you get a bit more woof. And now, in the end, it sounds like one of the best rehearsals any band ever did; I was quadruple-tracking rhythms, and doubling them through 4-tracks, but it meant he had to play in time, and he went for it. + + + +A lot of the guitar work on that record was done using my original Black Dog JS and my new JS6 prototype Ibanez guitar. As far as the amps: I had a nice collection of old Marshall heads and cabinets, a Soldano 100-watt head, and a Boogie 4x12 bottom that had two different sets of speakers in it. Part of our aim once the record was in Andy’s hands was to make the guitars a little bit tighter, and to prepare for more overdubs that would complement each other. So, for instance, when you hear the rhythm guitars on "Friends," you're hearing one live electric guitar on the left side, my JS6 going into the Marshalls turned all the way up. On the right side, you're hearing a stack of six-stringed instruments—guitars, banjos, Nashville-tuned guitars, and dobros—all bounced down to one glorious mono track! In the center the main melody is played on my JS6. This was the way Andy would work. He would invent and innovate and tweak and have me play things over and over and over until he felt that we'd arrived at something magical. His studio technique was very unique, and together he and John Cuniberti created the sound that is the Extremist album. + + +Andy Johns: Joe is as close to a genius as [Cream founding member] Jack Bruce. He’s a very clever man, and centered— meaning when he makes his mind up to play, he just leads you from one moment to another, and that is more than admirable. But along with being very soulful, which he definitely is, no question, he also has this technique; his knowledge is bigger, and more than anyone I've ever worked with. And when you ask him, "Why did you play that?" he'll literally answer, "Well, the pentatonic scale leads me to believe this; therefore, when I bend this note I can go back into the fruition of the resolving F . . ." 'cause he actually really knows. With some people, it’s bullshit; with Joe, it’s a fact. + + + +I remember being especially excited when "Summer Song" finally started to come together. Going back in time a bit, the writing of that song is actually a very interesting story. When I was out doing radio promotion with David Counter, a promotion rep from Relativity’s L.A. office, we used to have great conversations about songs and life. And as I was getting ready to start work on The Extremist, he said, "You know, the next record is gonna be huge. It’s gonna be fantastic"—he was talking like a radio guy—and he continued, "All I need is that one song . . . I need a summer song." And as soon as he said it, I thought, "'Summer Song' . . ." I loved the sound of it. I wrote it down on a slip of paper, and later on, sitting in my San Francisco apartment practicing, I'd just stare at that piece of paper as I played. I don't know why. I just thought that torn little piece of paper had some mojo on it, so I just never discarded it. I would go into my little studio room and I would just stare at that thing and play and play, and I kept thinking about all the good times I had over summer vacations growing up in New York. + +Slowly the song started to emerge. When I sense inspiration coming on, I have learned over the years to do whatever I can to clear a path so I can get it written down or recorded as soon as possible before the glorious moment fades and it becomes only an intellectual memory. It’s always good to finish writing it, or at least get most of it down, while you're in the first throes of the inspiration. With "Summer Song," I started out by writing the first two chords, and I would sit there and play that pattern for like three hours a night and just imagine a soundtrack to my summertime memories. Making it a song was going to depend on that melody, and the melody was going to have to be very long because the chord pattern was very short. It’s just a little two chord/four bar pattern, so I'd ask myself, "How am I going to tell my summer story over these two chords? How am I going to make it compelling and have drama?" Slowly I got to the point where I thought, "Okay, here’s this nice, long melody, but I still need more," and I'd never really written a "guitar" song where I could play two verses back to back, and maybe take the second verse an octave higher. I was beginning to wonder, "Wow, how does a guitar instrumental get away with that?" It would be more common to just write one verse, one chorus, one set of solos—that kind of thing. + +I decided "Summer Song" was going to feature one dominant guitar sound from beginning to end playing the melody and solo. This was a new approach for me, and it wasn't like "Surfing," where I'd had all these different guitar sounds trading off. When the song got into Andy’s hands he imagined something entirely different for the rhythm section, and as a result created a very unique canvas for my guitar. I have to say, it’s not pop rock and it’s not heavy metal, but the energy level is so high and sustained that that’s what he achieved. And even though the main guitar parts were recorded a year earlier by me and John in San Francisco, it all turned out great in the end, ultimately producing what became my biggest international radio hit to date. + +Andy was really great at capturing energy, not only sonically, but I think in personal performance. So as we would go out and do takes, he would run out from the control room and tell Gregg, "Try 'boom, boom, bop bop boom' when you get to this part," and he'd say, "Hey, Matt, would you try using this other string when you go to that part?" Then later on, when we were overdubbing guitars, he'd have me play things over and over again until he thought it captured this thing he was after. When he was mixing "Summer Song," it was the same thing: He was trying to create this sound that was a very high-energy sound, which is NOT just turning things up louder or making them sound aggressive. It has to do with the ambience and bringing out the energy of each musician’s performance, which is a very difficult thing to do. We all struggled with it for a very long time, and when we started mixing it was driving Andy crazy, literally driving him crazy! I remember he was getting very frustrated, and a couple of times he'd leave the studio for hours just because he didn't think it was working. + +The breakthrough came in a perfect example of his ability to be totally creative with something by starting from scratch, and he would do that all the time. He would sit there and pull all the faders down, then start from scratch and throw them back up. And it would freak me out to do that because it would be so hard for me to get back to where I was. But I think all good mix engineers, Andy and John included, have no fear of breaking down a mix and starting from scratch and looking at a mix from all different angles. I remember early one morning Andy called me at my hotel to say, "When you get to the studio, press PLAY. I've got a mix up. I don't know if I've totally ruined your career or if this is the greatest mix ever? I've tried something radically different from what we've been trying for the last couple days." So when I got to the studio, I pushed PLAY and turned it up loud and couldn't believe how great it sounded! + +First, the rhythm section was huge and rockin', and there was this delay effect he created for the harmonics in the beginning, which turned that little performance into a true hook and some delicious ear candy, too. He was looking for something more with those harmonics, and I had never heard it that way; I had always heard it just played straight without any of the delays on it. But Andy had made it work with this ping-pong delay effect. And then he got rid of one of the rhythm guitars, too, using only one of the original rhythms with one of the new rhythms, and split them left and right. This was a big deal because we were now in that age where people had started to double, triple, quadruple guitar tracks, playing the exact same thing left and right, and it was something Andy never liked. So he was always looking for smaller-sounding guitars that were playing differently. We had that double-track thing going on from the very beginning and he was just working with it for months until his breakthrough idea was to get rid of it! It made more room for the bass and drums and helped propel the natural rhythm of the track. + +The final thing Andy focused on was my melody guitar line, which he fed into a combination of Prime Time chorusing, reverb, and compression and brought its return back on a separate fader. By creating this unique space for the sound he was able to give it a depth that allowed you to find it instantly without it having to be loud and in your face. He would ride that fader during the mix to create a changing "space" for the main guitar. That solved the problem of placing the wah-wah guitar sound in the mix, and it was a brilliant idea. + + +Andy Johns: Joe came into the control room the next day and listened to what I had in mind, and I remember he turned around to me and gave me a very nice compliment when he said, "I didn't know you were doing all that, man. I've never heard myself sound like that. That’s absolutely fabulous." + + + +One of my other favorite songs from that record is "Friends," which is a difficult one to describe stylistically. I remember the idea for the song came to me one afternoon when my mother and sisters were over visiting us in Berkeley, and we were all going to go to lunch. And I said, "You know what? I'm going to stay home. I feel like I'm gonna write a song, so I'd like to just hang out for a few hours." So they all left me alone in the apartment, and I had a photo book that Rubina had brought home with the smiling faces of children from around the world. I remember looking through the pages, and I came across a page of some six- or eight-year-old kids, maybe somewhere in Africa, just beaming and smiling into the camera. So I left that page open and wrote the song on bass while I was staring at that picture. It was just one of those things that was very easy and fun to write. It’s a celebratory song, and I'll never forget the excitement when we heard our first take of "Friends" played back for us at Ocean Way. Everyone was wondering beforehand, "What’s this going to sound like? Andy’s a crazy guy . . ." He'd called us in and said, "I think you guys should come in and listen to this." I don't think any of us had ever heard anything so big and beautiful, ever! Hearing it made us want to run out there and play all day long, because each one of us was saying, "My instrument sounds bigger than it has ever sounded before. It’s finally captured in all its glory!" We were just so psyched about it. + + + + +Gregg Bissonette: With that song, Joe and Matt and I hit it off because we wanted the same thing: we wanted Joe to have an album that he was proud of. So whether he'd ask me to play a beat forward or backward, if it’s something you want, and you're paying me to play on your record, and we can succeed in getting the sound you want, that’s the greatest gift ever. + + + +I was excited about "New Blues" as well. The melody and chord sequence of the chorus section was new and exciting territory for me, and we had a lot of fun tracking the song back in Bearsville. The rhythm guitar in that song was done live, and it’s all two-hand tapping. Funny thing is, when the album came out, nobody asked me about that, and I realized that no one had ever done that before, working two-hand tapping into the structure of a real song where the technique wasn't the "showboat element" of the song. It wasn't meant to be, "Hey, look at me, I'm tapping!" It was part of the ensemble and it went over everybody’s head, so part of me patted myself on the back and said, "You did your job. That’s what you wanted to do, to show the validity of two-hand tapping as part of the ensemble." But the other part of me said, "How come no one patted me on the back for pulling that off?" Ha! I guess I did it too well, and it just went under the radar. That’s part of the art of arranging and composing: You don't want to reveal the structure and distract people like that all the time. It’s really about the music, not about the technique. And I truly loved that song, as it brought a lot of my jazz roots to the record. + +"Crying" was a difficult song to record because it was about my father’s passing and my grieving process. When writing the song, I guess I was at that point where I was focusing on the good memories and trying to carry on. So each time I would go to work on the song there'd be this emotional intensity, but I would have to be professional about it as I tried to get people to play it. It was also a bit heartbreaking during the sessions when I couldn't get people to play it the way I wanted them to. It was always difficult for me to get into the proper head space, because you either open the floodgates or you keep them closed—you can't just open the door a little bit and think you're going to get a great performance and keep your act together. If you're producing a track, you can't be an emotional wreck. So I arrived at the last sessions with the Bissonette brothers to once again try to do this track. I was thinking, "I've gotta give the definitive performance on this song, get this cathartic thing recorded and carry on." The emotional roller coaster of working on the song was wearing me out. + +I remember being in the control room with Andy while Gregg and Matt were out in the music room, and we did this take that turned out remarkably well. Andy turned around and said to me, "Amazing! That was the take! What are you plugged into?" It wasn't supposed to be "the take" for me; it was supposed to be a guide track for Matt and Gregg. I wanted this to be my ultimate emotive performance on the album, and we recorded it almost by accident! + + +Andy Johns: He actually made me cry because he was playing like a bird. His elegance in the melancholy moment, you can hear the man thinking, and when he was done, and I listened, of course I shed tears. And he has this absolutely astounding technique, which isn't just rich on purpose, it’s to emote. I admire that so very much. I really do think one of the things on that record that blew me away most was the song "Crying," because he did play that through a box, and I thought, "This is a very soulful thing. I'm going to leave the room and let him get it on his own." when I came back in, he played this spectacular thing and it made me cry, and I took it home when the record was finished, and I and my wife got a couple bottles of Champagne—as she does whenever I finish an album—and I put it on my system, which is a pretty good one, and I turned around and one of my kids also had tears running down his face. So Joe’s take definitely had the desired effect upon people. + + + +When I finished playing it, I was relieved, because I had carried that performance in me for years. When I finally heard the playback I thought, "That’s it. That’s what I've been waiting to perform," and I didn't care that I had put my guitar through a Zoom headphone amp and not a "proper" amp. Just, "Thank God we have a recording of it." + +I had an unusual experience writing "War." I was in a local supermarket in San Francisco, where we'd just moved from Berkeley. I remember I was doing some shopping, and the news was on about the war that was getting started in Iraq. And I just remember thinking, "War is hell. People should avoid war at all times. It never turns out good," and I started writing that riff right there in my head. Anytime that happens to me, I get very excited about finishing something—if I've created something that sounds so easy and yet the structure of it is so bizarre, I get very excited by it. When I got home, I picked up the guitar and started to flesh out the song, and there were a lot of things about it that were important to me. Harmonically I thought it was a very interesting way to suspend tension and hold off resolution. This served the meaning of the song well. The chord combination in the chorus was unique, too: D minor to D minor (add) 9 followed by A flat 6/9/Major 7th (#11). I thought to myself that nobody had tried that before. + +It’s one of those things nobody ever noticed or asked me about, but I loved it! I never heard, "Man, what’s up with that chord progression?" and I'm happy I didn't in one respect, because that means I did my job very well. I didn't make them think about the structure, in other words; all they're doing is reacting to the music, which is what I wanted. But at the same time, part of me was saying, "I just wish one musician would come up to me and say, 'Wow, the bass line drops a flatted fifth while the upper partials are suspended second chords dropping by a whole step . . .'" Those are the things that, when I'm composing, I go, "Wow, look at that harmonic structure, and look how I can play a melody on top of it that sounds so powerful and yet is so simple." That’s what creates the tension and resolution. That’s what tells the story. That’s where the art form of harmony can really be put to work. I love that—that’s what I've devoted myself to in part as a composer, to unlock the secrets of compositional harmony. + + +Cliff Cultreri: Joe came up with the title for the album, The Extremist, while he was visiting me down at my house in Hermosa Beach, actually at a cookout at the house of a neighbor friend of mine. He was grilling some fish on the barbecue and doing his wonderful gourmet thing, and we were talking about the concept, batting around different ideas for the title, and Joe was talking about going from the precise drum machine— everything perfect, every beat here and there—to the question of "How do we do live in the studio?" And I always favored that, because I didn't just want a live-in-the-studio album, but I wanted something that was almost a little bit chaotic in a way. I wanted some energy—let’s see what happens when things aren't all mapped out and going by the numbers— because I would always cite certain albums and how they were recorded, and Joe was on the same page. So as we're talking about doing this, my friend Philippe says, "Joe, you're crazy, you're such an extremist." And that’s where the album title came from, my neighbor calling Joe an extremist because of the way he wanted to work and push these new boundaries! I think it allowed him to finish it by using the title as kind of an inspiration. + + + +By the time our focus began to turn toward the mixing stage, we'd been working on "stage three" of the project for almost too long. I had been living in a hotel room in L.A. for four or five months by then, and I was beginning to go crazy. I wanted to go home. I didn't want to hang out in L.A. by myself anymore. The Extremist was very much a throwback record to celebrate classic rock—it just came out at the perfectly wrong time! I really didn't know what was going on outside of my world until I packed up my car in L.A. after mastering and started driving home. And on that seven- or eight-hour drive home, listening to the radio, I thought, "Oh my God, what radio station will play anything off of this record?" + +I realized now they were playing Nirvana and Soundgarden, and there was no room for my record; I was too young to be on the classic rock stations, and I wasn't young and grungy enough to be on the active rock stations. I remember going on MTV's Headbangers Ball and Riki Rachtman saying to me, on television, "Some of this stuff could be very New-Agey," and I almost killed him right there on television. I couldn't figure out where he was coming from . . . It’s a funny thing to think about, because I wasn't thinking of it like that while I was tracking. I was just trying to make the best recording of the best performances of what I thought were my best songs at the time. So I didn't know what we were going to do about it. + +When the record came out, I knew that there was a lot going against it because of the trends at the time. Here in America it met resistance to some degree because it was very straight ahead. Outside of the U.S., it was received more openly, for what it was. Within the U.S., however, we had what was proving to be a bit of a problem . . . until Sony used "Summer Song" in a Walkman commercial, which re-broke the album for us! + + +Mick Brigden: Joe by this point was a star worldwide, and BIG worldwide, because on the Flying tour that preceded Joe’s returning to the studio to make The Extremist. We had toured A LOT of shows in Europe where we were headlining theatres and going to arenas in France. In the U.S., we had gotten to amphitheaters and multiple theater runs. That’s where we were by the early 90s. Now Joe’s touring and record-selling market is the world, not just the U.S. That’s something that I knew from working with Carlos Santana, that a guitar player with great melodic songs can be very successful outside the U.S., and Joe had built a worldwide market and he had toured those markets and had great songs. + + + + +Cliff Cultreri: Once the Extremist album was in stores, we knew we had a lot of momentum behind Joe, and his live performances were just perfection. There are not too many musicians who have done or who could do what Joe does live, and you can probably count them on one hand: Steve Vai is there, Jeff Beck is there, certainly Hendrix, but you're talking about a very elite few who really, really could deliver like that. By that point, he had already reached the status of living legend because he was a cut above the rest—and not in an egotistical way or anything, but his listeners recognized that. He was really something special, a very special artist. + + + +The Extremist tour was fun. I had Gregg and Matt Bissonette on drums and bass, and Phil Ashley on keys. It was a great band and we were able to record some good live shows, too. We all began wondering if it was the right time for a live record, so I began brainstorming this idea to do a live album that would have a retrospective component. We could use the recent live recordings as well as older live stuff along with studio outtakes, and so forth . . . So I started to pull out all of my DATs, listening to everything in my archives. By this time, I knew that I wanted to call this album Time Machine, though I still had to sell the idea to the label, and Cliff was very helpful with that. Thankfully, when we pitched it to Relativity, they were totally behind the idea. + + + +Me and my Ibanez JS "Tele" prototype at a video shoot in '93 + +PHOTO BY JOHN CUNIBERTI + + + +The work that went into the record was extensive, though. John had to compile all the live and studio music, mix it, and get it properly mastered; the art department at Relativity, which was fantastic, worked with photographer Michael Llewellyn, who shot and designed the awesome cover; the label pressed vinyl versions of the album in addition to releasing it on cassette and CD; Matt Resnicoff wrote the extensive bio and liner notes; we had to get permissions from all the photographers, who provided a wonderful batch of photos, and so on . . . Everyone involved pulled together to make it a great project. For an instrumental guitar player to be able to put out a package like that on an independent label was very, very cool. And the fans loved it! + +Ultimately, all these things you do when you release records, they stay around forever—they really do. Your music stays there year after year after year, gaining new audiences, and at the time we were right to push for Time Machine's release, because it turned out to be a hit. The album was essential for my future; it allowed people to better understand what I was all about, where I came from, and where I was headed. In other words, I wanted them to know about all the different kinds of music I was into. I felt that it really was an important artistic statement and that it was going to help my career keep moving forward. + + + + + +CHAPTER 13 * * + +Eponymous — 1995 + + +"Home (is) . . . exactly where we find Satriani on his latest offering, Joe Satriani. On it, visions of the raw, screaming electric blues of Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page permeate the album, which some have called Satriani's Blow By Blow. Produced by veteran helmsman Glyn Johns (Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, The Who), Joe Satriani abandons the guitarist’s trademark overdubbed, highly produced guitar attack in favor of a more honest, jammy, live feel that’s fully entrenched in the magical vibe of the late Sixties/early Seventies. The result is an album that sparkles with some of the most soulful and moving guitar playing of Satch’s career." + +—Guitar World magazine + + + +When I first picked up the guitar, I started with the blues. My primary influences were Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, and Eric Clapton, and through them their heroes: Robert Johnson, Buddy Guy, Albert King, and everybody in between. When it came time to record the last installment of the Joe Satriani LP, I wanted to honor those blues roots of mine, but in a new way. + +Something important to remember here is that we were doing this in 1995, so it was not the early 1990s anymore. This was a different era; there had been, I think, a cathartic process happening in the music business, and by the time we got together in 1995 for these sessions, people were running from the late-eighties/early-nineties thing. So the feeling was, "Boy, we gotta do something raw, but different." + +When producer Glyn Johns and I first got together, I was looking for him to guide me during this process by weaning me from my old way of making records and put me in a new position that all of my heroes had been in before. Glyn had recorded many of the guitar players who make up my roots: Keith Richards, Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton, Pete Townshend, and Steve Miller, to name a few. He understood how to put an artist in a situation where he would have to rise to the occasion and create a record that could potentially affect a generation. + + +Mick Brigden: As soon as we put the two of them together and they sat and listened to Joe’s demos, Glyn became an instant fan, which is the way it should be. Glyn is not the kind of guy who you would ever be able to convince to make a record if he didn't like the musician or the music—he’s not that kind of guy. Better than that, he thought, "This is a challenge. I've never made a record like this," and Joe gave him so much support in helping him put together how they were going to make the record, which meant putting an album together in a way Joe was not used to making. + + + + +Glyn Johns: Joe was very respectful to me. I was a rather odd choice because Joe’s normal method of recording is completely different from mine. But he was open to the idea of making a record in the way that I do and went along with it. I just wanted to give him a different environment that allowed him to just play and not have the responsibility of every other aspect of making the record. I definitely wanted to give him a bit of a challenge, though, because it seemed that was what he needed. The record he'd made with my brother Andy, The Extremist, I thought was a phenomenal record; I'd heard that, and thought it was a remarkable album on many levels. I think my brother is probably the finest engineer of that type of music that there is, and I think that record is a really good example of his abilities. But I wanted to put [Joe] in a room with people who would react to music in a positive way and for him not to tell them what to play, basically, so that it would just leave him to play the guitar and be the artist, but not necessarily have the minute control, which apparently he normally had. I'm not knocking that approach—it had been extremely successful for him—but my object was to try to put him in a situation with musicians who were as competent as he was. My understanding had been that he'd already obviously worked with really good guys, but I think his tendency had been to tell them pretty much note for note what to play. + + + +We assembled an all-star backing band that represented the créme de la créme of the world’s finest session musicians, including drummer Manu Katché (who played with Peter Gabriel), bassist Nathan East (Stevie Wonder, Eric Clapton), and rhythm guitarist Andy Fairweather Low (Eric Clapton, Roger Waters). Unfamiliarity might have proved a handicap in the hands of a lesser group of world-class musicians, but this band instead thrived in the face of considerable pressure. + + + +Nathan East, me, Andy Fairweather Low, and Manu Katché at The Site in '95 + +PHOTO BY MICHAEL KIRK + +These guys were very expensive. I could only afford them for a total of fourteen days, two of which I missed. So we basically had twelve days to make the record and there was no time for preproduction rehearsals. We would gather at The Site studio about eleven in the morning, listen to a track, do about three takes, break for lunch, come back, and listen to see if we could do it any better, and that was it. Sometimes we would come back and listen, and both Glyn and I would be just knocked out by the intensity of the performance. Other times, everybody would learn something, and Andy or Manu would come up with a suggestion and then we would go and see if it worked. Since everybody was learning and developing their parts at the same time, we felt that it was the right thing to do to allow them to come up with ideas of their own. Being the great producer that he is, Glyn was fantastic at managing us. + + +Glyn Johns: My method of recording and producing a record is exactly the same as it was in the late sixties. My approach in setting a band up and recording them is exactly the same. I'm not the least bit interested in doing composites, or changing the tuning on something, or other things you can do with Pro Tools. There was very little overdubbing. Joe might have put an additional guitar on the odd thing, and of course there’s a vocal on one track he overdubbed, but most of it was done live. Pro Tools is totally meaningless to me. I still mix a record without a computer and personally don't see the necessity if you've got really good musicians, and I tend to work with really good musicians. Most of the legendary guitar players I've worked with—Keith Richards, Eric Clapton, Pete Townshend—have been "feel" players, obviously all entirely different from each other and from Joe, and Joe’s style of very fast, fluid, extraordinary bit of gymnastics on the guitar is not my normal listening pleasure. But I was astounded by his ability. He’s an extraordinary musician; there’s no question about it. I think he has two huge assets: He has an extraordinary ability to write very listenable instrumental music, which very few people in that genre do; and technically, he’s a genius. It’s extraordinary what he can physically accomplish. + + + +For this album I had to learn a different way of recording that was completely opposite from my usual method. Glyn wanted everything played live. With John Cuniberti or Andy Johns, we would usually overdub melodies and solos, and would brainstorm guitar sounds after we had our basic tracks. We would work on those tones for hours until we came up with something we thought was really fun and unexpected, and then we would go about overdubbing a performance. Instead, here I am in a live room with a couple of effects pedals plugged into a small amp setup, and Glyn saying, "Do it all live." I tried to explain that wasn't how I did things, but Glyn’s idea was, "Give me the whole Joe, all at once." He didn't want me to sit there and work on it because he felt it didn't need any more work. He felt there was no need to polish anything beyond the first or second take. So, I had to come up with something on the fly for each song. On "S.M.F." I had to play my guitar and harmonica simultaneously, live! That was a first for me. + +Glyn saw what I was going through. Every song that we finished would turn out so different from what I had expected. I kept waiting for that solo moment like in "Surfing" or "Ice 9" or "Summer Song," and it wasn't happening. We were making an entirely different kind of record. + +Glyn took me aside once and said, "It’s not your job to decide what people will like. It’s your job to play your guitar." So while there were times when we would celebrate what we got in the studio, there were definitely other times when he had to pull me aside to keep me motivated. He'd say, "Believe me—it’s going well. You're doing great. It’s going to happen. Just keep moving forward. Don't rely on what you used to do." + +Glyn would encourage me to go even further away from where I'd been, to work further from my comfort zone, because he saw something else in me. He saw the method of me overdubbing, and critiquing myself, then doing another twenty takes on a track as an obstacle to artistic growth. He'd say, "You've done it. You've already done these stunning albums that will be great forever. All these records, why do them again? Now you need to move on and do something else that will be equally outrageous, and the only way to do it is to do it." It’s the most obvious piece of advice, but it is very often the hardest thing for an artist to fully embrace: to do something completely different. No artist wants to stumble, certainly not in front of their audience, but sometimes that’s what it takes. + + +Glyn Johns: Hearing Joe play was jaw-dropping! The one thing that I remembered more than anything is that we would do a take that we would all feel completely stunned and blown away by, and Joe would come in and hear in his own performance—not necessarily in anybody else's—all kinds of things he wasn't happy with, but to me it was all completely stunning. That was a little bit frustrating from my point of view; however, obviously I bowed to his better knowing—it was his record and he was judging his own performance. I might argue with him and point out that we all thought it was really good, but if he wasn't happy with something, of course we'd go and do another take. It wouldn't be a matter of him replacing his part; it would be a matter of everybody going out and doing another take. There’s no problem with that. You never know, and you have nothing to lose. + + + +Each time we played, Glyn got unique performances out of each of us. We were improvising and thinking fast on our feet. We had to react to changes that the other musicians or Glyn would throw at us, which happened a lot. We'd finish a performance, and someone would say, "Are you going to play that? Because if you do, then I'm going to change my part like this," and Glyn would come out sometimes and say, "It sounds great, you've done it, let’s move on," or he'd say, "I'm not happy. Where else can you guys take it?" + +With "Down, Down, Down" for instance, we did three heartbreaking takes, then broke for lunch. It was an emotionally heavy song to dig into and perform repeatedly. When we came back and listened to what we had played, everyone was like, "Wow." That was the first time I turned to Glyn and said, "I had no idea I could ever sound like that." There’s so much personality in the performance, yet it’s so naked and unadorned with effects of any kind. It’s my JS Black Dog going into a Wells amp coming out of a Marshall bottom. That’s it. Originally I was thinking of a more produced version, but Glyn saw the heart and soul of the song and said, "Do it stripped down and at a slower tempo. It will be more emotionally powerful that way." He was right. + +The first ten days of recording, we did "Cool #9," "Down, Down Down," "S.M.F.," "Home," "Moroccan Sunset," "Slow Down Blues," "Sittin' 'Round" and "Killer Bee Bop." They were amazing sessions. As I listened back to the music, I heard some great moments where it felt like I'd grown light-years, right there on the tape. On every song, I heard a new side of my playing, a new facet to my musicianship. + +I had actually started the record a year earlier with engineer/ producer/drummer Eric Valentine. After returning from a tour playing with Deep Purple in the summer of '94, Eric and I recorded the beginnings of "Cool #9," "Look My Way," and "Luminous Flesh Giants," and finished a song called "Time." "Time" was a big, sprawling composition that John Cuniberti and I had started recording during the Surfing sessions back in '87! Eric and I finally finished and mixed it at The Site in 1994, but Glyn wasn't keen on including it on the record because he thought it didn't fit stylistically. I thought it was the best thing I'd ever done! Oh well . . . It eventually found a home on the Crystal Planet album, where it fit perfectly. + +A second set of sessions with John Cuniberti in early '95 would yield "You're My World," "Look My Way," "Z.Z.’s Song," the start of "Home," part one of "Slow Down Blues," melodies and solos for "Luminous Flesh Giants" and "Cool #9" (version one), and some other pieces that would take even more time to mature. So by the time the project landed in Glyn’s lap he had a lot of material to sort out. + +When we started the last set of sessions, Glyn said that when we were done recording, he wanted me to write one last song that summarized my experience making the album. I wrote "If" as I was driving to The Site for the last band session. When I got to the studio I sat down with guitar, pencil, and paper, sketched out the song, showed the band, and then we recorded it on the spot. I'd never done that before! It was all part of Glyn’s plan. + + + +Eric Valentine mixing "Time" at The Site in '94 + +PHOTO BY JOE SATRIANI + +When Glyn was mixing the record, I remember being shocked: only seven or eight active faders on the desk, and none were labeled! Nothing labeled "Kick drum," "Guitar," "Bass," et cetera . . . Only Glyn knew where everything was. Aside from the few faders, he operated a little reverb/delay unit sitting on his lap, and that was it. That’s how he mixed the record! It was both fascinating and frightening. To be honest, mixing that record was one of those things I couldn't be there for. After mixing records with John and Andy, meticulously adjusting tracks and effects for hours, moving things up 2 dB here and 1.5 dB there, I was ready to step outside the studio while Glyn mixed because I was getting a little toasty around the edges. I can see it when I watch Reel Satriani, the documentary we filmed about recording Joe Satriani. By then, I was just beaten down by the whole experience. + +Still, the way that the recording sounded coming through the speakers was a revelation to me. What I had heard from Glyn’s work with all of my guitar heroes was the artist’s performance exploding full of personality, and he brought that to this record. The process of making the broader album was in fact a growing period for me, and that’s exactly what Glyn had promised. He was trying to get me out of my old skin and into a new place, and he was always confident that when I landed there, I was going to want to make that new thing part of who I was. + + +Glyn Johns: I was very happy with the record when it was finished. As far as I remember, he was very pleased with it when it was done. He didn't seem particularly enamored with it while we were doing it, but at the end of the process, when we'd actually finished, he was very pleased. I think Joe liked the record when we finished it, but let’s put it this way—he’s never gone back to that way of recording. + + + +Each time I record, it’s not like I've got a band that I'm always touring with that can just pop into the studio for a week. The process of going in and recording live before we've had a chance to play the music, and before I've played with those musicians, didn't make any sense to me at the time. + +Unfortunately, the documentary Reel Satriani captured only the last two days of recording at The Site. It made for a good, gritty, Let It Be type of film, but it hardly scratched the surface when it came to telling the whole story. The album actually contained work and performances from four different producers and four different rhythm sections, and took a year of recording at three different studios! In the end, though, it was well worth it. + +The week that the Joe Satriani album was released, my longtime label, Relativity, was absorbed and then dismantled by Sony, and we struggled to get the word out on the new record. Retail would call for a box of Joe Satriani records and there was literally no one answering the phone. It was a disaster because it was a very important record for me and I got no support from the label in the States. Still, in places like the United Kingdom, the record was a smash. We played London’s Wembley Arena on the record’s subsequent tour! I think anyone would feel validated playing a place that size. I felt overwhelmed that a record that was such a risk to make was being embraced by a new wave of fans around the world. + +A funny side note: Mick Jagger came to hang out and watch the Wembley show in the fall of '95. While we were playing "Moroccan Sunset," he moved from watching us at the mixing desk to the side of the stage, and during the song’s breakdown I actually got him to strum my guitar a few times, and it rang through the house as we reentered the song. No one saw it. It was a cool, private moment in a very public setting. Mick was strumming my guitar, and it was reverberating through the arena. It was one of those "Oh, wow" moments for me: "Mick Jagger is strumming my guitar on 'Moroccan Sunset.' How did I get here?" + + + + + +CHAPTER 14 * * + +G3/Crystal Planet —1997 + + +"A dream come true for guitar fanatics." + +—Billboard magazine + + + +Even after all the success I was enjoying as a solo artist, I was beginning to feel a bit isolated from my peers. I had to remedy the situation, and from that simple desire to play with other guitarists, G3, my own little mini-festival, was born. In a phone call to my manager, Mick Brigden, I asked, "What if I toured with two other guitarists, then jammed with those two players at the end of each show?" That way I'd get to jam every night with players that I'd handpicked! Why three players together on one bill? If we had seven guitar players, we'd never find a promoter to take on that many guitarists playing on one night, and no artist would sign on to the tour to play for only ten or fifteen minutes, so we had to figure out what length of time would be attractive for the artists. Forty-five minute sets for each band was key to making the show work to everyone’s advantage, especially the fans'. You'd also have to leave time for a jam, because the audience is really waiting for that. That’s the big climax. Mick soon came up with the name G3, and then the real work started. + +Once we'd settled on the concept of three stars, Mick asked me, "Okay, who do you want it to be?" and I instantly said, "It’s got to be Steve Vai and Eric Johnson." The role of getting players to sign on fell to me. I had to call Steve and Eric up directly and talk to them over and over again about why it was a great idea. We worked on them for months. It took a very long time to convince them, their management, and the record labels that competition would not be an issue, but I knew in my gut that the audience would love this show. I'm sure Mick spent just as much time talking to their managers trying to get those guys to agree, because up to that point, there was a very well-organized music machine with rules like "don't play with your competition." + +Concert promoters were a bit reticent to have three headliners play on one night, in one venue. Not only was it expensive, but it put a lot of their eggs in one basket. They felt audiences would prefer to see me in March, Steve Vai in April, and Eric Johnson in May. That way the audience would buy tickets to every show, and if there were a problem, they'd have spread out the risk on three different nights rather than one night. It would have been a dream for me to see Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck, and Jimmy Page all on one stage together in a G3-like setting. It would never have changed my mind about who was better or whom I liked more. So we had to convince everyone to forget all the rules about competition and risk, and take a leap of faith. + + + +Me, Steve, and Eric at a photo shoot at the Capitol Records building in L.A., '96 + +PHOTO BY NEIL ZLOZOWER + +The other cool thing about G3 was that we weren't out there just promoting our new albums and playing our new singles. It felt more like a rock 'n' roll victory lap, celebrating our musicianship, our camaraderie, and the genre itself. And at the end of every show, the audience responded so positively to the fact that we were all just standing there on the same stage together and trading solos back and forth, improvising with our guards down. We felt their excitement and it made every show better and better. + + +Steve Vai: G3 is a celebration of the beautiful guitar by people who love the instrument and have devoted their lives to it. Joe has put great care and attention into making sure that the musicians who take part in a G3 tour have something valuable to offer an audience that loves the instrument. I feel tremendously grateful for its success! + + + + +Mick Brigden: There’s no way any of our promoters knew what the results would be; they were going off our energy to tell them to trust us. Plus Joe was strong enough on his own to be able to put numbers down where we weren't going to come out looking bad either way. But its success actually went way beyond what we thought. I absolutely have to say, I would NOT have been able to imagine that what happened that first fall of '96 was going to be as successful as it was. The very first shows of the tour sold out right away, so we were blown away! + + + +Standing next to other guitarists playing really well night after night, you can't help but notice similarities and differences with your own playing. You marvel at what they do and also realize how different you are as a guitarist. I think I began to know more about myself as a player as I was going through those first six weeks of the G3 tour. + +Back in the States, after our G3 Euro Tour, I was now signed to Epic/Sony and had John Kalodner, the legendary A&R man, as part of my team, along with Mike Fraser, my new engineer/producer. Kalodner had worked with Mike quite a bit, and he brought him in for the G3: Live in Concert project. John was very keen on us using Mike for the next studio record, too, and since we already liked working with him, it seemed like a good idea. I was excited to see where this new producer was going to take me. + + + +Digital editor Eric Caudieux checking a mix from the G3 live show + +PHOTO BY JOE SATRIANI + + +Mike Fraser: Joe and I go back to the eighties, when we had first talked about doing a record together. It just didn't work out timing-wise for us. Then we ran into each other again at a live show, and said, "Hey, we should do something together." Joe explained his G3 concert, so I went out and recorded and mixed it, which sort of launched us into working together on Crystal Planet. We just wanted to make a really good band record and bring him back to his instrumental roots. Up to that point, he'd experimented a lot with singing and vocals. CP was one of the first records in a while where he'd returned to the instrumental part of it without worrying about vocals. The focus was on getting a really solid band thing with Jeff Campitelli and Stu Hamm, a three-piece thing, and later on we added the keyboards and all that. But essentially, the nucleus of it was a three-piece. + + + +Although not a musician himself, Mike Fraser is very musical and good at coming up with melodic, harmonic, or rhythmic suggestions. He might say, "Maybe a higher harmony," or "Maybe a more relaxed groove." His ideas are based on his own natural musicality. + +As my new producer, Mike was looking back over my catalog and said, "I'm going to respect what you've done before, but what can we do that will move you into a new territory? Why don't we see what we can do with capturing more energy?" He was really keen on capturing the energy and creativity of the unit—me, Jeff, and Stu—and then bringing in my overdub ideas on top of that. I was trying to create live melody and solo performances that were keepers, too, and the effects were really part of each song’s personality, so I had to treat it like a live show as we were tracking. When we got into the studio, we were able to set up like a live trio, and we would do just six or seven takes at a time. Everyone was encouraged to expand their own performances with each take to see just how interesting we could get. + + + +Playing Chrome Boy at The Plant in '97 + +PHOTO BY NEIL ZLOZOWER + +The influence of my son, ZZ, was everywhere on Crystal Planet, starting with "Z.Z.’s Song." I recorded that particular piece of music back during the previous record’s sessions, which turned out to be the eponymous album. + +On that session I had all of my amps set up in a line in Fantasy’s Studio C. There must have been eight or ten amps set up, and I think I was plugged into a JC-120, a Marshall 6100, and my Wells amp. In the end, John wound up using the Wells amp, and the JC-120 in stereo for ambience. It’s just a live recording of me playing, with John miking everything up. Technically, it was a very delicate but fun piece to perform. I used to play it for ZZ through headphones I would place on my wife’s belly before he was born. I don't know whether he liked it or not, but we used to feel him kicking! + +We moved into our new house on the day ZZ turned four. A few days later we were on the G3 U.S. tour. That was his first time going on tour. My wife was with us, too, so the three of us were traveling together as a family. I shared so many experiences with ZZ on that tour that it was natural his influence would be felt on Crystal Planet. One day we were looking out the window at a series of clouds. ZZ pointed up and said, "It looks like a train of angels." I remember thinking, "That’s just the coolest phrase I have ever heard," and I wrote it down. + +Kids that age say stuff like that every day. One day, when asked if he needed anything to drink, he said, "I just need a piece of liquid." I felt like if I was going to use "A Piece of Liquid," "A Train of Angels," and "Psycho Monkey" (another of his offerings) as song titles on the record, I should give him proper writing credit. It really is like a never-ending muse when you see a child with his or her mind developing in leaps and bounds—it’s fascinating and at times funny the way they put things together as they learn how to express themselves. + +The title track of Crystal Planet came from a book I was reading to him. It was a science book and in the first paragraph, it said something like, "We live on a crystal planet." I remember looking at that phrase and thinking, "That is a great way to express what it is I've been thinking," because this new record was going to be about the underlying structure and the beauty of music, but I just hadn't quite thought of the title yet. I hesitated to use the phrase for a while because I thought people would think it was another album from me about aliens or outer space, but to me, it suggested something much more organic and down-to-earth. + +I started writing more material for the next record after the G3 tour. I keep notebooks from all my previous albums of all the music and production ideas. Everything’s written down, even where to put sound effects. + +One thing I did differently for Crystal Planet was to not make any recorded demos. When I sat down to write, I had my guitar (though it wasn't always plugged in), a metronome to get the tempos and keep me focused, a notepad, and a pencil. Then I'd write out the song and the chord sequence, writing little notes about what I thought the song could sound like. So the first time Mike Fraser and the band heard the songs in full form was when we played them live at rehearsal. I didn't want them to be influenced by a drum machine demo. I thought that maybe that was what had been so difficult on previous sessions, getting musicians to make that leap from the demo to what a song should sound like when a band plays it. + +Mike and I thought it would be a great idea if we rehearsed first, and I wanted to see if he could capture our sound the way he did on the G3 recordings. So for a week, Stu Hamm, Jeff Campitelli, and I rehearsed Crystal Planet, and everybody got to take tapes home. By the time we pulled into The Plant to record the album, we were well rehearsed and ready to rock. + + +Stu Hamm: Making Crystal Planet was a good creative process, I had some great bass tones involved in that, and great grooves, and we'd been on the road for a while, so it was good to get in the studio together. I think it’s great to bring in different musicians to motivate and inspire you, and after a while, Joe knew so many different musicians and what they did that he was able to write for specific players. He knew that in this or that particular song, a musician’s going to be able to come in and add what he was looking for to get a spark, and maybe find something in a song that he hadn't heard initially. We would always record as a band for Crystal Planet—that's the essence of any rock record, because, believe me, in the final product, you can hear when there’s a rhythm section actually playing and working up a sweat and looking at each other and communicating, versus studio musicians trying to play the part effectively and correctly according to the chart. + + + + + +Jeff Campitelli, me, and Stuart Hamm at The Plant in '97 + +PHOTO BY NEIL ZLOZOWER + +For Crystal Planet, my original Peavey 5150 amp got the most use, along with my Marshall 6100, a Zoom headphone amp, and the rack-mounted SansAmp. My Ibanez Chrome Boy, Black Dog, and assorted JS1000s saw the most action in the guitar department. On a few songs we would add a vintage '58 Stratocaster, a '58 Les Paul Jr., my '58 Esquire, or even a Flying V, just to expand the sonics a bit. + + +Mike Fraser: I usually mic each of Joe’s cabinets with a 57 and a 421, and then I'll put a 414 just somewhere nearby the cabinet, but in the room, just to kind of capture some of the room sound. With Joe, I'm working to get sort of silkier guitar sounds as opposed to aggressive, brash, rocky guitar sounds—they have to be a little bit more fluid sounding, which requires a slightly different approach. I still mic him generally the same as everything else, but it comes down ultimately to what Joe’s playing—if he’s running it through some chorusing effects or some delays, we will change his amps up a bit to get his tone singing a little more as opposed to jumping at you. + + + + + +Producer/engineer Mike Fraser at the console, The Plant, '97 + +PHOTO BY NEIL ZLOZOWER + + +With Joe’s sound, you have to take a little bit more care with things, because a lot of that sound we're looking for would come from the amps, so we'd start there and play around with how much distortion he wanted to have on the note. Because obviously, the more gain you have, the better the sustain, but then the note gets a little bit crunchier, so it’s not as silky. So there was a lot of balancing between how much gain to get that sustain, but at the same time we kept the sound smooth and easy and would play around with different levels of mid-range, boost, and all that stuff. And then sometimes I'd have to go and adjust my mic placement a little bit so it’s not right on the cone of the speaker, which would get a harsher sound. Then if you pulled it off the cone, it got kind of a more mellow sound, so it was a matter of finding that combination. But once we found what would work great within a track, depending on how thick that track was with other parts, it went pretty smooth. We knew where we had to go with the amp settings to get this tone, and Joe would add maybe a couple of pedals on to help push that tone to that direction. + +Joe would usually say, "Okay, let’s try this out," and at the end of the first pass, sometimes I'd say, "Hey, in the second verse there, why don't we try doing this?" and he'd give it a try, and as we tried that, we might stop and agree, "Yeah, that didn't work. Let’s go back to how you originally did it." So that process was ongoing as we were working on the album, versus being something that was sort of preplanned. Joe’s open-minded to any suggestions, but he does have an idea of tones and how he wants a particular guitar to speak and what voice it has. He had a pretty good idea of what personality he wanted in there as it related to effects, but he’s always been open to ideas on how to best create that. + +Working with an artist like Joe, who doesn't have a singer, your role as a producer changes in terms of what you pay attention to because there’s a lot more guitar layering. So there will be some rhythm parts put on there, and then the melody/ lead guitar sort of becomes the vocal. We had to make sure with each sound of the guitars that they were not going to keep building up the sound on top of each other. To do that, we had to make sure they left room and space for the other guitar parts to work, and for that melody guitar to come up in the middle, front end of the mix and still really sing. + + + +It is my method to create a unique voice to play the melody. If a singer had a radically different song he was about to sing, an engineer would use a different kind of microphone, or surround the vocal performance with a unique set of equalization, limiting, compression, reverb, delays, and so forth . . . It all creates a vibe that eventually transports the listener and delivers that extra magic. The sound of the vocal also carries with it a message. Since I don't have lyrics, I need to put more emphasis on that sound to create a kind of "voice." Every song’s melody winds up with its own voice that is not duplicated on any other song on the album. I'm searching for that perfect tone that allows me to tell the song’s unique story. + +A good example of that process in play on Crystal Planet would be "Love Thing," because the lengths that we went to just to record that beautiful love song were insane. It took months, four or five different recordings, using different key signatures, and different musicians and instrumentation. We finally ended up using three acoustic guitars for the rhythms, all tuned to an open E. I used my 1948 Martin 000-21 that had had its intonation adjusted by Buzz Feiten, specifically for the open-E tuning. + +Another new approach we explored on Crystal Planet was digital editor Eric Caudieux’s involvement in the tracking. Since I was trying to add "techno" elements to the sound and feel of the record, I asked Eric to work up some techno versions of the songs using loops and that sort of thing. We then would monitor those backing tracks in our headphones as we recorded our "real" performances. Crazy idea, but it worked: We were energized by hearing all that extra musical information in our ears as we explored each take. Eventually, we used a very small amount of those modern textures in the final mixes, but their effect was evident in our performances. The song "Raspberry Jam Delta-V" is a good example of the synergy we accomplished with this approach. + +As we wrapped up tracking on "Crystal Planet," John Cuniberti had just finished refitting the new Coast Recording studio, which was a large facility originally operating as the San Francisco Recording Academy. John put a Neve console in the control room and it sounded so beautiful! Upon returning from our G3 Euro Tour we were able to book time in the studio and commence mixing. The studio itself had a lot to do with the sound of the album—it’s very fat and "Neve" sounding. I told Mike I wanted this album to sound really great on headphones, too, so we were listening to every mix carefully through speakers as well as using the headphone amp in the Neve console, which was a fun way to mix. + +No matter what the techniques I've highlighted on a studio album, I've always done my best to keep them fresh and updated. When I look back on Crystal Planet now, of course, it’s 2014 and I just can't believe we got it done! And I'm so happy we stuck to our artistic guns, so to speak, didn't change anything, and just followed our creative impulses and made the record we wanted to make. Because when all the dust settled and the anxiety of the moment was behind us, the record stood tall on its own artistic integrity. + +I should also mention that in early 1996, I decided to shave my head while we were on the Joe Satriani tour. I'd appeared that way on the subsequent G3 live DVD, but the Crystal Planet album cover was my first studio project to be promoted with that new, bold look. It was a moment of reinvention, and an interesting way to announce the next stage of my career. + + + + + +CHAPTER 15 * * + +Engines of Creation —2000 + + +"Engines of Creation . . . blended electronica with rock guitar elements without losing that characteristic Satriani sound." + +—Premier Guitar magazine + + + +After Crystal Planet, I was coming out of a whole period where there had been a lot of live work, so I was personally feeling, "Okay, after all that, I've been about as live as I want to get for a while. What can I do that’s totally different?" I wanted my next record to represent the ULTIMATE radical shift in terms of how my audience heard my music. + +The millennium was coming and the big question was, "What’s going to happen?" I saw that society was shifting to an online life in a HUGE way, and I wanted to do something where I felt like I was jumping into the future, and part of that had to do with thinking that I shouldn't record in a studio or even with a band. I approached Epic/Sony with three ideas for the next album: a "classical" record with my guitar on top of an orchestra, a straight-ahead rock 'n' roll record, or a techno record. I had enough material written to get moving on any one of those ideas. + +Sony said, "We'd LOVE a techno record," and that felt like the right direction to head in to me as well. My new coproducer/ engineer, Eric Caudieux, and I decided as part of that departure to record this album entirely "in the box." In other words, we'd do it all on Pro Tools in his living room: no studio, no other musicians, we were going to do it all ourselves. It was exciting! First of all, Eric was a fantastic guitar player and a composer himself, so it was really great to work with a musician of his caliber who could understand exactly what I was going through, from my fingertips all the way to what I was aiming for compositionally and conceptually with the technology. + + +Eric Caudieux: When Joe and I started writing together for Engines of Creation, there weren't many loops involved, so I composed the beats that you hear on the record. It was pretty much Joe’s music that dictated what I did, and the ideas for the beats would come when Joe played me his demos or something live in my living room. For instance, with the title track, I remember Joe played me the arpeggio part on the guitar live, and I came up with the rest based off what he played. + + + +A good example of our writing process for that album is the song "Borg Sex." I gave Eric a drum groove with a completely atonal keyboard improvisation on top. There was no guitar on the demo! "This is about a female and a male borg having sex," I said to Eric. "This is like conversation, foreplay." That was all I had. Eric said, "Whoa, how do we get this thing going?" + + +Eric Caudieux: That song became one of my favorites from the record, and was probably one of the first one or two that we did as well. When we started that track, we had no clue where we were going, because it hadn't been done before as far as I can recall, for a rock musician to do a song like that. With "Borg Sex," I remember Joe gave me a melody line, and I remember just taking that and doubling, quadrupling it, putting it out of phase and then putting it back till that melody line opens wide and makes you feel funny in the stomach. I knew I wanted a ton of dynamics, because usually you hear machine music and it’s just one thing that goes from top to finish, and that’s about it. So I wanted basically a machine record that sounded live, and I had so much fun with that one. + +The studio was in a house right in Laurel Canyon. There was a gigantic living room with crazy tall ceilings where I put all my gear and setup. There was a tracking room for the drums upstairs, which we didn't use because everything was machines, and I had a tracking room for the amps, which we didn't use because again it was all in the box, but we worked in the living room primarily. I had set it up that way because I'd always thought the problem with any studio for anybody who collects gear is not having the gear right there: when you can't look at it, you forget about it. I also remember I'd gone out to IKEA and they had a shitload of shoe racks, small ones for small shoes and big ones for big-ass boots. Since we had small pedals and big pedals, I placed them accordingly so you could literally look at them all, grab whatever pedal you wanted, and try it at any time. It worked great, and there were loads of amplifiers used, just no speakers—we had amplifiers galore. + + + +I remember Eric’s living room was completely taken over by every kind of amp and pedal you could think of. He had purchased a couple of hanging shoe racks, except instead of shoes there were effects pedals inside each compartment. I was like a kid in a candy store! This alternative recording environment gave a boost to our creative approach to each song. On "Borg Sex," for example, we put together the strangest combination of effects pedals just to see if we could get the guitar to be the "male borg." Then we'd set up another configuration to be the "female borg." We were making it up as we went along, with Eric encouraging me to just freely improvise. Anything I played was going to be saved and we could manipulate it in any way we wanted. If anything, we had a bit too much freedom, but we were sort of intoxicated with this idea that we were not recording a conventional album. We were fully embracing the idea of recording and mixing "in the box" without any other musicians, in a living room in Laurel Canyon. + +The sessions were so different from the way I usually worked. Sometimes we'd create right in the moment, and with other songs, Eric would ask me to leave him alone for three days so he could construct the drums, bass, keyboards, create original samples— anything we had discussed that was going to be the "band" around my guitar performances. He encouraged me to trust the process because he knew my history was to record in a more conventional manner. He kept telling me, "It’s gonna work, you'll see." + + + +Eric Caudieux’s Studio City living room filled with amps, guitars, and keyboards in '99 + +PHOTO BY JOE SATRIANI + +Because Eric was a musician, he could listen to a demo of a song, then create a version of that song electronically. That’s when he was ready for me to listen. I'd fly down, plug in my guitar, and start to record over his grooves, keyboard pads, and bass lines. We had Neve preamps, a GML mic pre, and a '64 Fender Bassman head that wound up being used 50 percent of the time. My guitar went into an amp, which would then go into a Palmer speaker simulator, and from there into a Neve mic pre, and from there right into Pro Tools. Sometimes we'd use a Hafler Triple Giant, which was a 4-channel guitar preamp. You hear a lot of that on "Borg Sex" in the intensity of the distortion. + +Most of the time, I used my JS Chrome Boy and Black Dog guitars. We also used a '58 Fender Strat quite a bit. As far as pedals, we were using the Electro-Harmonix Micro Synth, Dunlop Cry Baby wah-wah pedals, Fulltone pedals, and the DigiTech Whammy pedal quite often. + +As we started seeing these ideas come to life, I started to realize how much flexibility is inherent in that kind of creative process. It changed my whole approach to tracking. For instance, there was no reason to put down guides like you usually would for a drummer or bass player, just to give them an idea of what’s going on in the song. I realized that I could make it up as I went along. I would come up with twelve different performances in one afternoon and each could be going in a new direction. We could have a Brazilian approach, a techno approach, a heavy rock approach, and a blues approach, and we could just sit back, relax, and pick or combine the ones we thought sounded the most interesting. The difference was, when you have a band in a studio and it’s costing you $4,000 or $5,000 a day, you'd better have your mind made up about what you want people to play. Here we had removed the element of time and money from the recording process, so I wasn't paying to record an album by the hour. I didn't have to settle on a band’s performance each afternoon. We could build the tracks over a period of months, changing them and letting them evolve, which was fantastic. + +Compositionally, each song was built differently. I'd decided to work with a new piece of gear this time around, the Kurzweil K2000, a digital audio workstation (DAW) keyboard with these beautiful sounds in it. I'm not a keyboard player primarily, but whenever the mood struck me, I would turn that keyboard on, push RECORD, and just improvise. The DAW made it so easy and fun, so I started to use the keyboard as a writing tool for some of the songs, especially "Borg Sex," "Until We Say Goodbye," "Champagne?," "Attack," and "Slow and Easy." Some of those keyboard performances wound up on the final recordings, too. Once I realized how simple it was, I could email Eric a MIDI file that he could open up and assign almost any sound to it he wanted. I could also send Eric a little audio file to cue him to the kind of sounds I was looking for. + +The album’s title, Engines of Creation, came from skimming an article in Time magazine. At one point, the writer paraphrased K. Eric Drexler’s book title, Engines of Creation, in his piece. Unaware that it was Drexler’s book title, I wrote it down in one of my production books. Months later I came upon it and realized I had to write a song around it. I just thought it was such a beautiful phrase, and it was the perfect title to represent this trance/techno record I was working on. + + +Eric Caudieux: I composed beats for the record based off the moods of Joe’s original compositions, so if a song was more joyful, then the beat would be more that kind of upbeat thing; if it was a little more mournful, then we'd go more for that kind of vibe. With that album, we did all the little tricks you could do in the box at that time: doubling, tripling, quadrupling, anything you could get to create the thickness, the detuning stuff, sticking it left/right, and creating that weird out-of-phase what-the-hell-is-going-on kind of vibe! + + + +When we were putting beats together for the record, I was experimenting with different ways of getting rhythmically inspired. We were using Eric’s own loops a lot and I was also experimenting with the sequencing software program Reason. We took advantage of digital editing to get away from the sound of just a guy playing his guitar in a studio. Everything had to sound edited to a degree. So if I was going to play rhythm guitar, Eric was not going to ask me to play something for an hour; he would instead ask me to play something for thirty seconds and then we'd go and make our own sample from my performance. That way, the repetition would have an effect on the overall sound and vibe. Then I would perform the solos and the melodies in the traditional way. Those would be the live elements, but we wanted the background tracks to have that sort of cut-and-paste, looped quality to them. + +"Devil’s Slide" was a great example of machine gun-style synergy between the rhythm track and guitars. On a rock record, the ensemble parts would be a lot looser, but I wanted to make it sound completely automated. So Eric would trim and edit each guitar harmony part, so together they would be completely diabolical sounding. We wanted the guitars to be one with the automated loops. That meant everything had to get chopped into pieces so it sounded very robotic. + +With "Attack," the entire track was recorded on my K2000 first, and then the architecture of it and some of the sounds were transferred to the master template in Eric’s Pro Tools session. We'd synched Pro Tools and Logic together on two separate machines. The challenge for us was to see how we could create a guitar sound that could mimic the keyboard sound. We used a Moog Moogerfooger filter pedal for the main effect, then used either the SansAmp, the '64 Fender Bassman, or the Hafler Triple Giant. It was something that was just an entirely different way of saying, "This is a melody—dig this!" The juxtaposition of the song’s sections is quite unusual in that I'd written this dreamy breakdown piece that was used for the solo. I was thinking that in the middle of a fierce battle, there’s a moment when time seems to stop, or go into slow motion, and the warrior is having a moment of clarity, a moment of spiritual searching of some kind. I wanted that breakdown to suggest some sort of dream state. + +In a completely different way, with "The Power Cosmic 2000— Part II," my approach in that solo was something that mystified even Eric at the time. "What are you doing?" he asked me. "I can't follow this." There was a chord progression in my head, but I didn't want anybody to hear it! I kept changing the scales that revolved around the key note of C that had this techno-bass thing going. I was playing five or six different scales but changing them deliberately at certain times. That was something I hadn't heard anybody do before in the context of a trance/techno song, and certainly I hadn't done anything like it on any of my records before. + +The idea behind having "Parts I and II" was to complete something I'd recorded for a Guitar Player Soundpage back in 1987. The original "Part I" contained the main chord progression played as cascading, eleven-note arpeggios, with no melody on top. I updated it and composed a melody to be played over the main chord progression. I wanted to write a more futuristic-sounding "Part II," so I started with a loop on Reason and sent that off to Eric. We then used the loop as the driving force underneath the melody and chord sequence of "Part II." Once Eric had laid out the song’s master template, we "flew in" my cassette demo’s melody, recorded with a Zoom, for the new "Part I," then added melody and solo guitars over the new sections. The new guitar sounds on that were created using a Fulltone Ultimate Octave pedal, and two Whammy pedals as well, one going an octave lower and one an octave higher. It’s one of my favorite guitar tones. It’s just so beautiful and complex. + + +Eric Caudieux: "Power Cosmic Part I" was different from the rest of the album because the melody was on a cassette that Joe gave me. The big challenge with this one was that he told me he could never repeat it, with the sound he'd used. I took the cassette, cleaned it up a little, and just programmed some stuff around it for "Part I." For "Part II," we were working with a different challenge entirely, because the solo was three different parts that he played all at once: one Whammy up, one Whammy down, all going through Neve mic pres, and the guitar going directly distorted through a Neve mic pre. For the solo in "Part II," he played one solo, then another. By the time we got to solo number twenty-five, we wound up listening back to the first solo he'd laid down, and it was beautiful and wound up being the keeper take. + +Throughout the recording of Engines, what we were doing was manipulating in the box all those guitars and whatever sounds we had. That was basically the cleanest path to be able to work with the sounds that Joe was giving me, going DI, or in the case of the amps, we'd go to the load box, into a mic pre, into the computer, and that would give me the cleanest path to basically go either to a synth—the Korg MS-20 or Minimoog—or into the computer to affect it even more with several plug-ins I had to completely change the sound. So that’s why it was so important to have the sound as direct and pure as we could. + + + +I was very happy with the album as we were finishing up. I felt we had really made something "new" and creative. But I knew once we took it out on the road to play for people around the world, a big transformation was going to have to happen. I had no intention of going out with a DJ or something like that, but I thought the album would serve as a springboard for doing something totally different with the songs live, which was eventually captured on Live in San Francisco. We did rock-band versions of the songs "Until We Say Goodbye," "Devil’s Slide," and "Borg Sex," and they became "new" again, and were just fantastically fun to play in front of an audience. + + +Eric Caudieux: Once we hit the road, the transition to the live stage was really, really easy. What we had to decide was: Do we want to recreate the stuff we did in the studio, or do we want to play as a band? And once the decision was made that we wanted to play as a band, it was easy because everybody played their part and that’s just about it. Obviously the bass played the bass line, and Jeff [Campitelli] had to figure out what the vibe of each song was, and since it was just one guitar, bass, piano/keyboards, and drums, we just played the parts that were needed naturally, so it was far easier than you might think or expect. + +One I'll never, ever tire of is "Engines of Creation," because Joe stays—from a musical standpoint—basically on one note that still has so many different melodic and harmonic variations on that one drum-bass note. Also, if you listen to it, you go through the cycle, but there’s never any conclusion to it, you just want it to go on and on and repeat itself. And every time it comes back, it makes you feel happy—you know it’s coming back and you want it to—it grabs me. The music itself really, really grabs me. He plays those arpeggios over and over, and it doesn't resolve—that’s what it is, I LOVE music that doesn't resolve! + + + +When Engines finally came out, there were techno fans who started listening to me for the first time, with this record. When they went back and listened to Surfing or Flying, they'd go, "Ooh, what the hell is that? I like this Engines of Creation guy, whoever he is . . ." And it was very interesting. The same thing happened with the 1995 eponymous release—some people thought, "Finally, he’s made something I can listen to," and others thought, "Hey, it’s not Surfing with the Alien or Flying in a Blue Dream . . ." The Extremist did that to a certain degree as well, in that some people missed the drum machines from the earlier records, and others said, "Finally, a record of Joe’s with real drums on it." + +What I learned from Engines is the same thing I knew other artists had learned when they changed directions: You gain some new fans, you lose some old ones, and there’s a dedicated core that appreciates how cool it is that you tried something they weren't expecting. An artist is not supposed to second-guess his or her audience. It really leads to disaster. Just do what you do. Be happy when they like it and move on when they don’t. + + + + + +CHAPTER 16 * * + +Strange Beautiful Music — 2002 + + +"This album is one of his best." + +—UltimateGuitar.com + + + +Strange Beautiful Music was the first record I made using Pro Tools at home. This allowed me to overcome specific problems I had with demos made on cassettes and laptops, or just writing things on paper. It was a creative renaissance for me. By demoing straight into the computer I could easily pull up and listen to every session I was working on for the record in a matter of seconds. This gave me a clearer understanding of where I was heading with my new music, and it was so much fun! On top of that, each performance could be a potential "keeper" track. + +My producer, John Cuniberti, set me up with the Millennia Media Origin SST-1 mic pre, which included an optical compressor and a parametric EQ. This allowed me the flexibility to record keyboards and bass, along with direct guitar, and to reroute stuff that was done directly. If I wanted to use a real guitar amp, I would run it through a Palmer speaker simulator instead of a speaker cabinet, and sometimes I would run it through the Millennia for effect, too. Other times, I would just go directly into Pro Tools. + +This may sound too technical for some, but for me it’s exciting to share how much more flexibility Pro Tools gave me. I could finally record music all by myself and work without looking at the studio clock, thinking, "Damn, I have to move on to record the bass now." Or not being able to spend any more time on the guitar because the budget won't allow it. The biggest upside of recording at home without a schedule was that if I sat down to do a solo and was not into it, I could just put the guitar down and walk away. + +On another level altogether, my home studio offered an important refuge from all the chaos going on in the music business at that time. I remember a lot of people were fired from Sony during the Strange Beautiful Music sessions, and being able to record whenever I wanted at home helped me focus just on the music itself. Not having to worry about a budget also let me be so much more creative in how I constructed each song. + +I could sit in my studio and keep working on the music, go outside and mow the lawn, go to the market, for a run, or to the beach, then come back and work on the song some more. I could record it in the middle of the night, early in the morning, in the middle of the day; musicians could come by and listen, and I could make my own rough mixes. There was no time and money hanging over my head, and I think that allowed my creativity to be truly unchained. + +While this approach made recording a lot more flexible and freed up money for other things, it also created challenges. My job in the studio was now to function as the record’s producer and engineer as well as the artist. Before, the way it would have worked is I would sit there recording a melody, and maybe John would have said, "Okay, that’s the best you got, Joe. We're done." Then we'd move on to the next song, never to return. Now I could literally record a million performances and never have to throw anything away. + +Digital recording isn't just about making something perfect, though. It encourages spontaneity, which in turn can lead to capturing "once in a lifetime" performances, and it did so throughout Strange Beautiful Music. A great example of that process was "You Saved My Life." I was focusing on my wife and my son, thinking, "Where would I be without these loved ones in my life?" And from there, I was deeply inspired and started composing and tracking right there at home. The end result was an ensemble of guitars playing the melody with changing harmonies. I had never done anything like it before, but it perfectly represented the story I wanted to tell. Having the home studio setup allowed me to be creative on a new, deeper level. + + + +Eric Caudieux explores early VR technology. + +PHOTO BY JON LUINI + +"Oriental Melody" is a song that has an interesting history. Back in the mid-nineties, I had a black-and-white Apple laptop that had a recording feature on it using its own microphone. I wasn't very computer savvy yet at that point, so I thought this feature was pretty unique! So back then, if I was in a hotel room without my recording gear and got an idea, I recorded it on the laptop. One day when I was working on modes, I played one I just loved, and I wondered why I hadn't written anything around it. So I came up with a riff and recorded just the riff by itself on that laptop. It was a small clip, just eleven seconds, but this little file followed me around with every new computer I had for the next six or seven years. I finally heard the clip years later and realized it used the Oriental scale, so I set about writing an entire song around that short piece of music and "Oriental Melody" was born. + + +John Cuniberti: Strange Beautiful Music was the first all-Pro Tools session I had done, and the first time Joe and I had made a record that was entirely in digital. I was faced as an engineer with how to manage twenty tracks of guitars once Joe brought them in. That, I think, was the challenge of this record, managing what he had recorded at home. Once Joe was ready to transition into the live studio, we set up at The Plant in Sausalito and structured the recording like the old days, where we would spend two weeks cutting drums and bass and rhythm guitars, and then Joe and I would spend another two or three weeks together doing whatever guitar overdubs he hadn't recorded at home that were still left to track. + + + +John has always been perceptive enough to notice when I've written a song that’s close to my heart. His approach would be, "What can I do to help enhance this creative experience?" When I'd bring in these unusual performances and tell him, "It may not be the guitar-through-an-amp with a Shure 57 on it in the big room that you want, but it is a performance I will never be able to reproduce," he would understand and respect that. That spirit was on every track of SBM and was part of what made it so different from the records we'd made together up to that point. + + +Matt Bissonette: When Joe called me up to come and play with him and Jeff Campitelli on this record, I of course said "Yes!" right away, and brought all my stuff up in my van from L.A. The day before we started, I remember being in downtown San Francisco, and I had fifteen basses in my van, just loaded up, and I turned to get up to the Golden Gate Bridge and my transmission blew out! So I had to be towed over the bridge and buy a new car the day we started, and I just remember thinking, "You gotta be kidding me . . ." + + + +Before that album, I'd never paired Jeff with Matt before, so I didn't know how it was going to turn out, but once they started jamming together, they discovered they both felt time very much in the same way, which was a great relief. They share a lot of the same influences, too. On Strange Beautiful Music, I gave them the freedom to improvise quite a bit, and that was very important to the feel of the record. I've always found that tapping into a player’s creative nature is where all the good stuff is. A good example of that is "Oriental Melody," where, once again, starting out there were a lot of tracks I'd written and already recorded at home: the keyboards and all the guitars, I believe, and some pretty distorted, funky-sounding guitars. John, Jeff, and Matt really liked the song, though, and really made it shine with their unique ideas and live performances in the studio. + + +John Cuniberti: As well as this process was working overall for Joe, I remember we didn't know if we had the record until we mixed it. Back in the 24-track days, once you got done recording on a song, you could have a rough mix in front of you and everyone could go home with it for the night. Today, if we spent all day recording thirty or forty tracks of guitars on Pro Tools, the last thing any of us wanted to do was sit down and start weeding through all the performances just to get a rough mix. You might get a rough mix of something but not really even know what it was. When we were limited to four or five guitar tracks, at the end of the session we could go, "Let’s just use tracks thirteen and fifteen." By contrast, if you have ten guitar tracks, which two do you want to use? How representative will this be of the final product? It really did create in its own way a whole host of new problems, but I know it gave Joe a lot of benefits as well, having the time to create performances he was really happy with when he brought them in for the band to work on. + + + +Listening back through the songs during mixing, I realized that each represented a special moment in my life. "Starry Night," "What Breaks a Heart," "Mind Storm," "Sleepwalk" with Robert Fripp—all songs very close to my heart. I was also thrilled with songs like "Hill Groove," which had a fresh, funky attitude. It was also the first time I had used a MIDI-guitar interface to record the "organ" performance. It sounds like a funky guy on a B3, but it’s really me improvising on guitar plugged into a Roland MIDI controller with an organ patch dialed up. + + +John Cuniberti: I enjoyed making that record partially because of the fact that Joe had a new air of confidence about him—he was more philosophical in his approach to recording. At that point in his career, it seemed like it was more about expression and having fun, and didn't take on the importance that his earlier records seemed to have. During the earlier records, he was really trying to establish himself, build a career, pay his bills, not be rejected by the music community, and by the time we got around to doing this record, he was a rock star. So it was more fun, it was more relaxed, and I really enjoyed making the record as a result. I think Joe was very happy with the album when we were done—it was very different, very powerful, and I think it was a smart move to make the album he did. + + + + + +CHAPTER 17 * * + +Is There Love in Space? — 2004 + + +"One need not know a thing about guitar to appreciate the man’s sense of melody, and that’s really his biggest gift. He may possess flying fingers of gold, but what grabs most ears is the deft way he handles moving songs forward without vocal accompaniment." + +—BlogCritics.org + + + +Before reuniting with John Cuniberti, Matt Bissonette, and Jeff Campitelli to record Is There Love in Space?, I started recording the new songs at Studio 21, my home studio, trying once again to break my own style down and rebuild it into something new. I was deeper into Pro Tools now and having much more success and fun with it. The new record would feature quite a bit of compositional variety, with lyrical-sounding melodies and more angular-sounding solos— and two vocal tracks! + +At Studio 21, I was using a Korg Triton DAW keyboard, Universal Audio 1176 and LA-2A compressor/limiters, an Empirical Labs EL8S, old API EQs, the Millennia Media STT-1 mic pre, and Palmer speaker simulators. For guitar amps I had an interesting collection: Soldano, Mesa Boogie, Cornford, Vox, Wells, and several vintage Marshalls. Added to that group was my new Peavey JSX prototype head. Everything just started to sound better! + +I was getting into pairing differently tuned or stringed guitars together and creating arrangements that featured the unique nature of those pairings. "Up in Flames," for instance, was a six-string JS1000 with a drop-D tuning, into a Cornford/JS prototype amp, pretty raw and in your face sounding. "Hands in the Air" was a couple of seven-string guitars paired with twelve-string electrics and some slide guitar. "The Souls of Distortion" and "Searching" were also seven-string-based songs. + +With "Souls of Distortion" I wanted to see if I could create a song where the distortion itself had a life of its own. I was trying to imagine a piece of music that when played on piano would sound beautifully simple, but when played on seven-string guitars and plugged into distorted amps would have its sonic message become more mysterious and compelling because of the complex nature of the distortion itself. + +The title track was inspired by a painting that my son, ZZ, had done of what looked like an alien staring straight at you. It was hanging in my studio and I would look at it every time I sat at my keyboard. One day, I was wondering if the concept of love that we know so well here on Earth is recognized elsewhere in the universe. So I looked at ZZ’s alien drawing and wondered how I would describe love to an alien who had no concept of the emotion. + +"Bamboo" was a song I recorded primarily by myself at home, although the idea for the song had first come to me years earlier on the road. I wrote the body of the song while on the Flying in a Blue Dream tour. I was really into doing those two-handed tapping pieces at the time, but the piece never really went anywhere. Years later, I'd come up with this other two-handed tapped arpeggio technique, which you hear as little flourishes in the beginning of the song, but at the time I didn't know what to do with that either. Finally, during the making of this album, I was inspired to take those two elements, put them together, and create a song around them. That included enlisting ZZ one afternoon to use a violin bow on a five-string bass to record the bridge section’s big bass tones. The only thing I didn't record at home was that really strange/beautiful octave-jumping chorus melody. That was done live in the studio using a '64 Fender Bassman amp with my JS1000 going through a Whammy pedal. + +The song still needed the right ending. One morning, when Jeff Campitelli had just come into the studio, I said, "Just go out there and be funky." So next thing you know, he gave us this slinky, funky performance that brought the whole song together and gave it a proper ending, too. After that, we added a backward guitar solo I had recorded at home, and it all just grooved together beautifully. It was the perfect last song for the record. + +At the start of the album, I knew I wanted to sing on "I Like the Rain." Lyrically, this song was inspired by Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top. I imagined myself playing a character who likes what everybody else doesn't. Billy has changed the way people view the composition of rock music. ZZ Top is an institution, its own genre, and Billy’s playing style is likewise unique. He’s really elevated the art of blues-rock songwriting. No one really comes close. When Jimi Hendrix heard Billy Gibbons back in the day, he said Billy was "the future of music." He got that right! + +Every time I bring a vocal song into the studio, there’s always the chance that it’s just not going to work. I need some sort of trick to get me in the mood, so I sang "I Like the Rain" with a sense of humor, and in character, as I did on "Big Bad Moon." One afternoon my tech, Mike Manning, was pulling up to the studio on his Harley, and I thought how great it'd be to record Mike on his bike for the start of the song. We had him ride up to the side door of The Plant and stuck some microphones out there. He started up the bike, revved it up, and pulled away. That’s what you hear at the start of the song. No samples used there! + +"Lifestyle," the other vocal track on the record, goes back to '85 for me. I recorded a demo of the song at Jeff Holt’s Likewise Productions with the idea of "placing" it. Specifically, I thought it would be a great song for Steve Miller. It featured me singing in harmony, imitating Steve’s cool way of triple tracking himself, and a crazy, vibrato-bar, multitrack riff that was the song’s instrumental hook. I never did get it to Steve, but I always thought it was worth a second look. As I write this I'm thinking, "I wonder if Steve would consider doing a version of this now?" + + + +Jeff Campitelli and his drums, The Plant, '03 + +PHOTO BY JON LUINI + +I thought that as an engineer, John would appreciate the creative approach to this album. He liked the variety of stuff I would bring in, such as something live like "Searching" followed by something unusual like "Bamboo." I think he liked the outrageous nature of some of the songs and was really up to trying to capture me getting more and more creative. I knew this was a project he would really enjoy sonically as well. Like all engineers, he would have preferred it if I did everything in the studio, with him in control, but by this point in time most engineers were used to artists bringing in projects where half of the album or more was already recorded. That’s just where the world was going. + + +John Cuniberti: At heart, I wanted to do a live analog record. Instead we ended up doing the record in digital because by this point, Joe was doing a lot of recording himself at home on Pro Tools. This was a new process. On our first day of recording, Joe walked through the front door with a hard drive filled with hundreds of guitar parts! Is There Love in Space? was recorded in digital, but I decided to go retro on Joe for the song "Searching." To try to keep the live vibe going with the band, I rented a 16-track head stack for a Studer 2-inch tape recorder, and we recorded analog. I told them I didn't need more than 16 tracks to record the three of them. Since this was live, I allowed a couple of overdubs. I wanted Joe, Jeff, and Matt to go out there, practice this song, and then I'd record it, and we'd just keep recording it till we had something really wonderful. And that’s what happened. My hands were full just handling the engineering chores and making sure everything was recorded properly. Joe, as a producer, was really guiding Matt and Jeff through the process of getting good takes. When we were done recording the album, Joe decided to bring in Mike Fraser to mix it. There was a trend at that time for records to be recorded by one guy and mixed by another guy. Mike did a perfectly fine job mixing this record. + + + +When principal tracking was over, we decided to bring in Mike Fraser to mix the album. We had a feeling that Mike would add a big, round quality to the sound, along with some new ideas. John and I had talked about bringing in a mix engineer for just about every other record we'd ever done, but we'd avoided it because we didn't want other people to "screw up" our records. Sometimes, though, you want what another mix engineer might add to a project. Such was the case with this record. + +Mike mixed that album at The Plant, in the same room we recorded it in. When it was finished, John and Mike together produced a really beautiful-sounding album for me. + + +Mike Fraser: John and I got along great, and I don't think on either side of us there’s ever any jealousy or competition or anything like that. Joe will do a record with me, then a record or two with John, then be back working with me again. It’s whatever personality is going to help him create what he’s looking for on that specific project. + + + +With some songs, it’s very difficult to unlock their secrets in the studio, while with others it’s like an unlocked door opening up into a whole new world. "Searching" was one of those "whole new world" experiences for us. I had never before presented an opportunity to the band like that: go in with a song in mind, show it to the band, improvise the arrangement on the fly, and record it as a trio, live to 2-inch tape. They all wanted eight more songs like that! I liked the way the material on Is There Love in Space? was balanced. It was similar to Hendrix's Electric Ladyland, where you had some songs that were meticulously worked out, and then you had others that were obviously jams in the studio. I like that kind of variety on a record. From "Gnaahh" to "Lifestyle" to "If I Could Fly" to "Searching" to "Bamboo," we achieved a creative mix of songwriting, recording techniques, and performances that gave the record its own unique balance. + + + +Matt Bissonette and his bass, The Plant, '03 + + +A while after the album’s release, it gained new notice because it contained the song "If I Could Fly." I had started writing that song on 1990's Flying tour, and it had taken me over ten years to finish it! I felt it was the most lyrical-sounding message of love I had ever written up to that point. The recording captured an innocence, too, an honest, straight-from-the-heart quality. The song also achieved quite a bit of attention for an unintended reason, about which I can only say, "No comment." It remains a fan favorite and always brings a smile to my face when I hear it. + + + + + +CHAPTER 18 * * + +Super Colossal— 2006 + + +"Some of the most technically accomplished guitar music ever written." + +—BBC News + + + +When I'm writing for a new record, I write freely without my inner critic getting in the way. For instance, I don't start writing a slow song, then stop myself and say, "This should be an up-tempo number like 'Summer Song.'" I just write until I'm finished with a piece and then I start writing another one. So I keep an artist’s point of view right to the end. There’s usually a month or two where I know that I've got some kind of a deadline to demo up. That’s when I gather together all the new song ideas on little scraps of paper written in hotel rooms, tour buses, backstage, and all around the house. I put those together with the full songs I've written in manuscript, on Pro Tools, on my laptop, or on my phone. I usually take between forty and fifty songs into this review period. Then I decide which songs I'm going to pursue and which I'll save for a future record. I usually end up with twelve to sixteen cuts that I think will be fun, challenging, cohesive, and interesting to work on. + +Once I have those tracks, I look to see if there’s a trend that ties certain songs together. Early on I realized that "A Cool New Way," "One Robot’s Dream," "The Meaning of Love," and "Made of Tears" were a group that could be tied together, almost like their own separate chapter. I approached drummer Simon Phillips with an idea: "I'll send you four tracks, sans drums, and you record yourself at your own studio playing whatever you feel like playing." It turned out great. He gave me memorable performances that swung and grooved just like they needed to, and his recording technique was very hip, too. The rest of the album’s tracks would feature Jeff Campitelli’s drumming, which we recorded up at Armoury Studios in Vancouver, British Columbia. + +Once I had written the title track, it gave me a direction for the album as a whole. I felt like this album’s cornerstone was going to be this daydream about a 100-foot-tall guitar player. The song hinged on a simple riff turned gigantic by way of an Electro-Harmonix POG pedal. I ordered it online from Musictoyz.com, got it in two days, opened the box, plugged it in, and wrote "Super Colossal" in about ten minutes! Sometimes it’s just that easy and fun. + +Writing music for the record, I was getting really excited about using my JS1200, too. It has such a unique sound to it, and there’s a lot of it on the album. We had just put in this new DiMarzio PAF Joe pickup in the neck position, and as for the guitar itself, I could swear that the sound on it was different just based on the candy-apple-red paint job it had! I was really getting into the sound of using the neck pickup and was also getting a good DI sound with Pro Tools. By this time I was using a "real" HD Pro Tools rig, which was a big improvement from my earlier home studio setups. I also had the Marshall SE100 speaker simulator, which improved the signal path from my amp to Pro Tools as well. + +I had a better, more balanced-sounding environment now, so when it came, for instance, to recording "Made of Tears," it inspired me to play harmonics on two electric twelve-strings with delays paired with a bass guitar to create a new atmosphere for my melodies. The tone of the album’s songs, like the title track or "Redshift Riders"—where there have to be about eight guitars—was really big, but the clarity in my studio allowed me to stack those things up and still get a really powerful sound. So when I brought those tracks up to Mike Fraser in Vancouver, it was easy for him to incorporate live drums and make the guitar, bass, and synth tracks all work together. + +Mike’s strength, aside from his being completely unflappable, is that he can be creative and bring all his technical knowledge into play no matter where or when you bring him into a project. It could be something where he’s involved from the ground up, like Chickenfoot III, or something that’s halfway finished, like Super Colossal. Nothing fazes him. He always excels! + + +Mike Fraser: When Joe and I record, there’s not too many outsiders. There may be a weekend where some of his friends come through with his wife to say hi, but they're brief moments. He’s pretty focused in the studio. If somebody else is in doing keyboard overdubs or something like that, Joe will be sitting on the back couch doing his email or whatever, but he’s always kind of got an ear to what’s going on. He'll give his opinion, so he’s always involved. Even when his parts are done, he doesn't leave: he’s there the whole time. He oversees the production from A to Z. + +Joe was always in the control room for his overdubs and solos, but for rhythm tracks Joe’s out with the band because there’s a lot more energy and more of an eye contact thing that you just can't get with him in the control room—especially for endings and stops. It’s hard to do that without looking at each other. We put him off in a little booth out on the floor, because with the drums, you really have to crank your earphones up to hear anything. So he'll sometimes stand in a little iso-booth area, which at least cuts down on the thunder of the drums, and he can keep his headphones down a little quieter. That said, recording Joe is pretty much the same every time: set it up and turn it up! + + + +The kind of songs I was putting on this album were a huge leap forward for me artistically, so making Super Colossal was great fun! With "A Cool New Way" specifically, I thought that song was aptly titled because it was a new side of me that I'd never really showed people. The pacing of the song was much longer and more spread out than other pieces of music I'd done on previous albums. It had this structure that was just so open and groove oriented, while on the melodic side, there were these different melodies on top of repeating chord structures that traded off until the song’s chorus. Then there was the use of the harmonies and the unisons, which were quite different than what I'd done before. There’s also a jazz and R&B element at play there, too. I love that song and I love playing it live. It’s very cathartic playing that piece of music live because I'm going all the way back to my bebop lessons with Lennie Tristano and just pulling out music that I heard from my childhood when I was listening to my parents' jazz records. + + + +My home studio during preproduction in '05 + + +"Redshift Riders" was another song that I had so much fun recording. The idea of it came from my thinking about the property of redshift. As I understand it, around large, celestial bodies, there’s a warping of space-time because of their gravitational force. From that I came up with my own theory that perhaps people traveling through space, with technology we don't yet have, would be able to use this warping of space-time as a kind of slingshot to travel faster and farther. I envisioned that maybe as part of my sci-fi daydream there would be a select few space travelers who had figured this out. My questions were, "What would their adventures be?" and "How do I represent vast distances and warping of time and space musically?" + +When it came time to compose the melody, I knew that I needed to use large spaces between the notes, big intervals to create that feeling of open space and that slingshot effect I imagined. + + +Mike Fraser: Joe’s game for all styles and he’s quite eager to try new things. Even though he’s in a genre and you can tell it’s Joe Satriani right away, he works pretty hard at trying to switch up melodies, do different tones and different effect-y things on his guitars to make each song more interesting, and "Redshift Riders" was a great example of that off of SC. Usually when we're in the studio, we have three or four guitar setups, and once we're finished with drums and everything, you gain a lot of your board back and can use those channels. Among our guitar setups, we had one really loud, rocky setup, one that was sort of a melody-type setup, and a solo sound, and then we'd have cleaner, smaller amp guitar setups. It’s probably about a day’s process for each song to lay some of the overdub guitars down, and maybe even at the end of that day you may or may not have a solo yet. + + + +"It’s So Good" is a great example of one of those songs where the experience in my studio was so wonderful compared to previous records. That’s got to be the most gorgeous-sounding recording on the album. How Mike Fraser mixed it is amazing and how Jeff played on it was just beyond my expectations. It’s not flashy like "Satch Boogie" and there’s nothing on there that would make a list of the top twenty most outrageous guitar performances, but it feels like a huge step over that hurdle that separates guitar-nerd music from the music that everybody else in the world listens to. When that song comes on, I feel like everybody can enjoy this, because it’s not bogged down by guitar-centric ideas and agendas. Everything about that song sounded perfect. The clean guitar sounds were so beautiful, and I can't remember a bass sound I've liked more on any track I've ever done. I feel the same way about "Just Like Lightnin'," which has got one of Jeff Campitelli’s biggest and fattest grooves. + +For many years I've tried doing a call-and-response thing with the audience, but the problem seemed to be that they weren't comfortable improvising. I set out to solve this dilemma with the song "Crowd Chant." Whether you're in Spain, India, Sweden, or the U.S.A., audiences like to participate in the show and sing along with whatever you might ask them to. Sometimes, though, you get a lot of empty, blank-looking faces, or people just randomly yelling. The problem, as I saw it, was that these fans didn't know what to sing. I thought if they knew what they were supposed to sing ahead of time, maybe they would really want to participate. I wanted to put a call-and-response song on an album that wasn't a "live" recording from a show, but asked myself, "Could I really do that? Is that too cheesy?" I decided to try and see. + +When I sat down to do it, I combined the elements of an opening riff, a few call-and-response sections, and a deep, melodic section. I'd been playing with the "Pavane" piece written in 1887 by Gabriel Fauré for a few years, and while I'd already written another song around it, I thought this would be a good counterpoint. My idea was to have a very simple, blues-rock call-and-response thing with a big, heavy riff and then shift to this classical piece in the middle, and you could have people sing this beautiful melody at the end. I imagined it would be like a great juxtaposition of music all behind a big, concert pulse that Jeff was going to provide. + +Next, I mapped out the song in sections, and then recorded the main riff. I then recorded between twenty and thirty "calls," then sat back and listened through them all, asking, "If I was in the audience, what would be fun for me to 'respond' to? Which lick has too many notes? Which lick is too simple? Which are the most inspiring licks?" From there I picked what I thought were the winners, and then arranged them until I got to what I thought was an uplifting and powerful song. This is an example of a song that took a lot of listening back to in different environments, because I kept thinking the song would be unconvincing if it was arranged the wrong way. And I also thought, "If I don't put some humor in there to balance out the seriousness of the Faure classical piece, the audience may not get it." + +When I showed the song to Mike, I said, "I've got this unusual song—here’s what it sounds like with a drum machine, here are all the keyboards and all the guitars, now how are we going to get a group of people in a studio to sound like an arena full of people chanting?" + + +Mike Fraser: I don't think either of us knew if it was going to work until the night we recorded it. That one was a stand¬out and one of the things coming in that Joe really wanted to establish on this record, so that when he played it live, the crowd would sing along. First we had to authentically pull that off on record in the studio. For the big call and re-sponse, I called up a bunch of singer friends of mine, and we all had a good night at the studio there to track that. I used 87s for that song to record the crowd. + + + +I still didn't know if it was going to work until we were there that night. After recording the singers on ten consecutive passes, Mike heard the playback and said, "It’s too big. We don't even need half of what we recorded." When we sat back and listened to it, we realized this was going to work. It wasn't corny. It was really powerful. It’s such an important part of my live performances now, because we put it on the record first. The whole concept of it worked, and Mike brought it to a higher level, higher than I ever thought it could go. + + + +Mike Fraser at Armoury Studios, Vancouver, '05 + + +You can tell if an album really makes a difference when, years later, any songs from it always have to be on the set list. "Flying in a Blue Dream," which was never picked to be a single, wound up being a song we have to do live. The audience decides for you what songs get played from an album long after it’s released. "Crowd Chant" was a song I wrote specifically with a live audience in mind, and the audience has thankfully decided it’s a track we have to play. Now, every time we play somewhere, we've always got one song where everybody in the audience knows exactly what to do. + + + + + +CHAPTER 19 * * + +Professor Satchafunkilus and the Musterion of Rock— 2008 + + +"Satriani shines in his ability to hold back and write tasteful verse/chorus songs with memorable hooks. Like the majority of his songs in his ever growing catalog, most of these are technically impressive numbers that never go overboard with the showboating and rely on a sense of feeling rather than virtuoso technique." + +—MTV/AllMusicGuide.com + + + +For many years I've owned a beautiful-sounding Petrof upright piano made in the Czech Republic, and it’s been very good to me. Whenever I sit down early in the morning and start playing, a song comes out. One day, I sat down and wrote an intriguing chord sequence and quickly jotted it down on a piece of paper with the title "It’s a Mystery." That word mystery kept haunting me, so I looked up the word’s etymology online. The word musterion came up, which led me to a very interesting story about the Apostle Paul traveling to Greece to spread the word of his Messiah, Jesus. According to the story, Paul took the Greek word musterion, which actually had a negative connotation to it, and flipped it around to suit his purposes. He would tell prospective followers, "You can't understand these stories I'm telling you now because you've not yet received the musterion. Once you've received the musterion, then the secret of God’s message will be revealed to you." When the English translation for the King James Bible was done, the translators had no word for musterion, so they translated it as mystery. + + + +Top row: Mike Manning, Jeff Campitelli, Eric Caudieux, Matt Bissonette, and Mike Boden. Bottom row: Me and John Cuniberti. The Plant, '07. + +PHOTO BY JON LUINI + +Today we say, "The mystery of faith," but that’s completely misconstruing what Paul’s original message was. Having grown up Roman Catholic, I thought the story was outrageous. How come I never learned this in Catholic school? But what really interested me was how a word could be so powerful. I knew then that I wanted to use the phrase "Musterion of Rock" in the next album title and, in a humorous way, suggest that you have to receive a musician’s "musterion" to be able to hear the real message behind their music. I was also toying with the idea of using "Professor Satchafunkilus" as the title, but in the end found the two titles together were better than either one alone. + +I saw Professor Satchafunkilus and the Musterion of Rock as an opportunity to try different things. Some of that had to do with performing in different parts of the world on tour. For instance, we wound up in Istanbul for four days and our promoters were so kind as to guide us through the city, showing us the best of what it had to offer. One of the promoters gave me some Âşik Veysel records because he had a feeling I'd love his music. I'd never heard of him, but when I played those CDs back home, I remember thinking how beautiful this music was. It’s folk music from the Turkish countryside sung in the old Anatolian language. I didn't know what the words meant, but that freed me up to just associate with the songs in a more musical way. I came up with a story imagining that Veysel would have traveled to Spain at some point and would have been influenced by Andalusian music as well as some heavy rock, too. I tried to keep it in the harmonic framework that his music often centers on, the Dorian mode. The guitar performance on the album was recorded in one take at my home studio. Jeff and Matt improvised around it later on when we got together at The Plant studios. + +For "I Just Wanna Rock," I got an idea about a robot that starts to gain consciousness, goes out for a walk, and comes across a small rock concert happening in a park. The robot asks people at the show what their purpose is because he literally doesn't understand what’s happening. Everyone in the audience tells the robot, "I just wanna rock." As he learns more about the process, he finally sings, "I wanna learn how to rock with you," but his voice changes from his distorted robot voice to one with a more humanlike quality. I know that sounds crazy, but it’s just how I think about these things when I'm writing! + +I recorded the vocals using an old 57 microphone I had at home that I put through Low-Fi, Sci-Fi, and SansAmp plug-ins. I recorded myself maybe three times and stacked the vocals so it would sound tight. When I brought it into the studio, the plan was to record it with better equipment so it would sound better. I spent about an hour in front of a great microphone doing the same thing I'd done at home, but we could not get it to sound anywhere near as good, so we went with the takes I'd recorded at home. + +I originally wrote "Out of the Sunrise" years earlier for the Crystal Planet record. It started out on a piece of paper because I didn't demo anything when I wrote for that album. I hadn't written enough of it, but I remember just loving the whole vibe of the piece. It was about trying to capture that moment when you stay up all night and watch the sunrise. Very often it’s a cathartic experience where you gain some sort of insight about who you are and your life in general. + +"Professor Satchafunkilus" came about while I was driving ZZ to a friend’s house. We were listening to the hip-hop artist Mos Def when ZZ said, "You should try doing something like this sometime." From there, we started talking about how interesting it is that some artists like Mos Def have this cool feel that just sounds so musical, even outside of the lyrical message that he’s giving. We talked about how different the song would be if you removed that special personality from the track—it wouldn't really hold up. From there the conversation turned into "How would I, as a guitar instrumentalist, approach this style of song and add some compositional weight to replace that special personality?" In that scenario, you wouldn't have lyrics or the attitude and message of the rapper. So the idea started from a brief conversation as we were driving in the car, listening, and having a good time, but it made a big impression on me, because I immediately drove home after I dropped ZZ off and started to record what became "Professor Satchafunkilus." + +I'd already recorded most of "Professor Satchafunkilus" by the time ZZ got home later that evening. I played some of it for him and then suggested, "I think you should play sax on this." He was just learning how to play the instrument with the high school jazz band, so one night after he finished his homework, I set up a mic in my studio and said, "Just play some random riffs for me, whatever you want, and keep it in this particular kind of a key, and then I'm going to fly it in later." So he just started blowing some licks. I wound up using one or two and placed them at the beginning of the song and put some delays on it, and I had him do it again later in the song. Then he gave me a long, foghorn kind of a tone for the breakdown section. He’s so used to me making music every day that there’s no ceremony around making music at home. He just walked over from his skate ramps, through the door into my studio, picked up his sax, and played. + +After I got ZZ on there, it was interesting because the song itself had a long jam at the end with this electric piano part, and I remember thinking, "Oh, it would be great to have this long improvisation at the end where more of the 'familiar' Joe starts to come out." Then we worked on it for an hour or so, and although I put down a bunch of solos, I remember just not liking it and decided to edit it out of the song entirely. We just cut the whole third solo section out, and suddenly the song really didn't have a solo at all. Instead, it ended with ZZ playing a few riffs, and when he heard it, John thought, "Wow, that’s really weird. He’s got to have a guitar solo in it 'cause it’s Joe," but I was thinking, "No, this is really what Professor Satchafunkilus would do, because he’s already made his statement. His statement is the entire funky-guitar ensemble throughout the song—he doesn't need a solo!" + + +Matt Bissonette: It seems natural that ZZ would be playing on Joe’s albums, and making albums with Joe was really becoming a family affair by this point. We got closer and closer after another record and another tour, and all the drama that comes with the road, and becoming closer friends through dealing together with all the good and bad of that kind of life. So you just kind of realize that you've become a friend where you know somebody’s personality, the good side and bad side, and know what to do. With certain people i've played on records with over the years as a hired gun, you don't really get to know that side of them, but with Joe, as time went on, I kind of knew what he was going after and what was going to work and what wasn't going to work on a record. + + + + +John Cuniberti: Shortly after the Strange Beautiful Music album, the whole atmosphere started changing. Joe started recording more stuff at home and using less and less studio time, which dramatically cut down on his overhead. I would say it was 75 percent for artistic reasons, but if he records 50 percent of his guitars at home, he’s probably saved $20,000. For that kind of money, you can buy some pretty sweet gear, versus coming to the studio and paying a thousand dollars a day. We'd had discussions even before then about how he could take the $20,000 we'd need to record those guitars and go buy three great mic preamps and some EQs, and then sit at home working for a month on the parts, or as long as he needed. When he started to make that pro Tools transition, it was kind of a no-brainer for him. + +I had a guy come in and tune his room with an equalizer to get it more sonically together. In reorienting him in his room, we redid the acoustics of the room and I had the room retuned for him, which was probably the biggest change we made because acoustically, one of the problems in his project room was, first, it wasn't a big room to begin with. He had a lot of gear in there, of course, and he had his platinum and gold records hanging on the walls, photographs, all these highly reflective surfaces. Joe was never really happy with the way the room sounded, and I told him, "We have to really get this room acoustically better, because you're never going to get it right with all these reflective surfaces." + +He asked me to come up with a plan, so I went in and measured the room and came up with a solution for both absorption and reflective types of treatments. We put bass traps into all the corners, and we took down all the reflective surfaces. There was a large window on one side that we covered, and because the room is a rectangle, I changed his orientation so the length of the room was to his back now, and put him one-third of the way into the room—which mathematically is what you're supposed to do for the best acoustics. + + + +When an artist goes into the studio, everything is about time and money. The musicians you hired need direction right then and there, because if you have a band, they want to know what to play. Every hour you're there is more than what seems logical, and every day when you walk out of the studio, you know you've just spent thousands of dollars. You wonder if you got anything that you're actually going to use. Now, things have gotten to the point where you can tweak a room in your home so that it sounds almost as good as an actual recording studio. + +Right before I started the project, I had a local engineer, Leff Lefferts from Cutting Edge Audio Group, come in and tell me what upgrades I needed to make. He’s worked at The Plant, and currently works at Skywalker Sound as a sound designer for Lucasfilm, so he knows his stuff. When Pro Tools made the leap into HD, I changed my system. I also had my studio tweaked by Manny LaCarrubba from Sausalito Audio, who analyzed the room’s sound with computer programs and then adjusted it and made suggestions. I was still using my Genelec speakers, which are highly detailed and polished sounding. They're the opposite of, let’s say, NS10s, which throw out a lot of midrange. + +I was using an old Marshall SE100 as my main speaker simulator, which meant I was going guitar into amplifier into Marshall SE100 into Pro Tools directly, or through the STT-1 if I wanted to shape it with some EQ or optical compressor. Additionally, the SE100 has some really clever ways of simulating a microphone being right at the cone, at a slight angle, or at a big angle. I like using the 30- and 60-degree angles—off axis, they call it—and it worked pretty well. It really does sound like an amp being miked up by a 57, so that setup worked in my room. As far as guitars, I was using the Ibanez JS1200 and the JS1000 most of the time. What mattered more than the equipment by that point was that another two years had gone by where I continued getting more proficient at recording with Pro Tools in general. + + +John Cuniberti: Joe’s become such a competent sound engineer in his own right that there’s a lot less pressure on him during recording. When I go over to Joe’s studio and see how he’s got his system hooked up, it’s an interesting way of doing it because he’s not coming from a technical background. He’s more experimental with the way he goes about it. He can walk into the studio with performances that have been edited and feel and sound the way he envisioned them. Back when the studio clock was running, we could go two or three days and not get a guitar performance and/or sound that he was really happy with. So he’s eliminated all that by doing it at home, and he’s feeling more comfortable and confident about his parts. There’s not this anxiety about it, because the problem was that if he wasn't playing something the way he believed it should be played, the band would be playing to that subpar performance. Then if Joe decided to throw his parts out, what the other guys played with him had to be scrapped, too. So whenever we're making a record, he’s kind of splitting roles, and it’s got to be tough producing your own instrumental guitar record, because that’s a ridiculous amount of pressure that I personally wouldn't want to have. + + + +When you're producing, you've got to make some decisions ahead of time just to try to get things done, but when you're out there with your instrument strapped on, you just feel like it’s more natural to change direction based on what you feel in your gut is the right thing to do at the time. + + +Matt Bissonette: Joe does a lot of the legwork, and like any great producer has always been remarkably composed and relaxed under the circumstances. As we recorded Professor Satch live in the studio, I remember there was more time spent screwing around because we were getting the work done faster. It takes the pressure off when you're on a budget to know the songs are in the bag, and he got more relaxed and was not so much stressing about the little stuff, and just kind of grew like everybody grows, and knew what to sweat and what not to sweat. So toward the end, Jeff and I were just dying laughing half the time about whatever the situation was, and it was just really relaxed. That said, Joe throughout the years has always definitely known what he wants, and he’s got no qualms about telling you if something isn't working. As a producer he'll let you know, and that’s his job. + + + +The lines Matt creates between chord changes are just very unique. He’s a great bass player for all the obvious reasons, but I think the particular thing that always struck me as very unique to Matt Bissonette is his actual creativity in writing connective bass lines. He won't necessarily look at a chord and then put notes in between. That would be your average bass player’s approach. Instead, Matt will somehow look to the third, the fourth, the sixth chord down the line, and he'll make a determination as to what is the real important landing point. Then he'll create a bass line that arcs over a few chords and lands on one you weren't expecting. He continually surprises me as a player. + + +John Cuniberti: The kind of music Joe wants to make is highly technical yet has to have a feeling and soul to it. How do you put soul into something so technical? He’s been able to walk that fine line. When Joe’s working with a band, he wants to know what each of these guys is going to do to make this a better record. + + + +A good example of that interplay was the recording of "Andalusia," where the acoustic rhythm guitars that begin and go all the way through the song were recorded at home via DI. The solo at the beginning was played on a Sexauer Pernambuco acoustic guitar, and was recorded at The Plant. The song’s electric solo required an unusual approach—I already had "Asik Veysel," which was a first take of this total compositional solo kind of thing, and then when I got to "Andalusia," I thought, "Well, okay, this is similar in the way that it’s another long song that’s got another long solo in it, so I need to come up with a different way of doing it." The guys had a demo solo that they were listening to while tracking that gave them the idea of the arc of the piece, how long it would last, and the intensity of it. Then I had an idea. + +When I got to the studio one morning around 11 A.M. , John was already there with assistant Mike Boden and editor Eric Caudieux, and I said, "Here’s my plan: I want to record ten solos. However, the song is seven minutes long, so if you think about it, to do ten solos and tune up in between each one, we're talking an hour and a half of constant playing." So then I suggested, "I'm going to play these ten solos in a row and then I'm going to leave for a few hours. You guys listen to the solos, and if you hear one you like or want to 'comp' a few of them together, you can do that. Just don't tell me what you did." + +So I just went crazy, ten solos: BAM, BAM, BAM, BAM, tuning up in between takes, and when I finished, my left hand and arm felt like they were going to fall off! So I left for a couple hours and when I got back, they were all looking at me funny, like, "Oh, you're going to love this." So they played me the whole solo, and I thought, "That is really great," but I literally did NOT remember what I'd played. So it almost sounded like someone else had played it, some other "Joe." I just knew that I went in there and sort of went crazy ten times in a row. I think they may have comped the solo, but I can't really tell you what bits from which takes they took. In the end, though, it was a successful experiment in producing myself, and we got a very emotional and powerful solo out of it. + +I've never recorded acoustic guitars with microphones at home— I'm always plugged in. There’s a lot of extraneous noise at home: phones, dogs, street noise, and the risk that somebody could walk in right as you're playing your best stuff. Also, to use a mic at home is pointless because I can't hear the sound the way my producer, John, can hear it while standing right in front of me. That’s the way you need to be miked, by someone who’s standing in front of you, not someone who’s leaning over the guitar. Another thing we did differently with this record compared with past band-oriented records was mix the entire record "in the box," not using the studio console. + + +John Cuniberti: The beauty of my home setup by that point was that when Joe called me and said something like, "Hey, can you bring my solo on 'Out of the Sunrise' down a dB?," I could do that for him in ten minutes. Then I could send him back that mix within an hour for him to approve. By contrast, if he'd wanted to do that on a console, I would have had to call The Plant, book a session, be sure that everything was thoroughly documented—all the outboard gear in the room, all the patch points, all the cabling—recall everything in the console, which would take me and the assistant engineer probably an hour to do. Then once we got the mix up, we'd need to compare it to the first mix, then continually work on it until we'd gotten it as close as we could to the original, but in truth, it’s never going to be exactly the same. Only then could I make the change for him. Not only is that a pain, but it costs $2,000. Joe loved this new immediacy, being able to just pick up the phone, and so mixing the whole record here at home for him was an easy sell. When he came to my studio and sat down with me on my system, we were doing just fine-tuning. It was fairly painless and effortless. + + + +Songs like "Asik Veysel," "Andalusia," "Revelation," "I Just Wanna Rock," and "Musterion" all felt fresh to me in terms of how they came together, but there’s one song that brought out the composer nerd in me. The chorus in "Ghosts," which wound up being a digital-exclusive bonus track, was a series of minor keys strung out in a particular order I'd never heard used before. I came up with a melody that used two whole-tone scales over these two minor keys. When I was writing it, I was so excited about how they worked together. It was one of those moments when I was so intrigued by the compositional architecture of it, and later on I couldn't believe no one had picked up on it. It was definitely one of those times when you're reminded that the rest of the world does not hear music like you do. Ultimately, the kind of feeling I get when I'm working on a new record is one I love: I just want everybody to hear it because it’s a new version of my creativity. + + + + + +CHAPTER 20 * * + +Chickenfoot I—2009 + + +"Satriani, rock’s leading instrumentalist and hero of a thousand guitar magazine covers, has joined forces with rock’s most irrepressible front man and his monumental rhythm section." + +—San Francisco Chronicle + + + +I was just getting ready to master Professor Satchafunkilus when I got a call from Sammy Hagar inviting me to Las Vegas for a celebrity jam with Chad Smith and Michael Anthony. I didn't know Sammy that well, but it seemed like a fun thing to do. As it turned out, the twenty minutes we played together was so much fun, we decided to become a band! + + +Sammy Hagar: I’m okay with the “supergroup” label, because we are: We're super players. We're superstars in our own right who got together, but we didn't do it for the supergroup reason. We did it for all the RIGHT reasons. We're doing it because we want to play this kind of music together and with no fame-and-fortune business attached. We just wanted to do it and it’s so unique because this is like Van Halen without the business end for me. + + + + +Chad Smith, drummer, Red Hot Chili Peppers: I’m the founder of Chickenfoot. I’m sure Sam will probably dispute that [laughs]. It started with us both living in Cabo San Lucas. I moved down there in 2002, and Sam of course is like the mayor down there. I first met Sam when I went down to his club one night for a birthday bash concert he was throwing. When I pulled up, there was a line out the door, and on the street there was a big screen with Sammy playing with Jerry Cantrell, Tommy Lee—all these guys are down there, right in the middle of this little weird Mexican town! We hit it off immediately. He loved the Chili Peppers and I was a big Montrose fan growing up. We had a shot of tequila together, and fifteen minutes later he said, "Come on, let’s jam!" We became fast friends and whenever he would go down there, which was a lot, he would call me up. We'd hang out in his club and just play whatever—James Brown, Zeppelin, the Doors—whatever we wanted. It was really fun. + + + + + +Producer/engineer Andy Johns at Sammy’s studio for Chickenfoot I sessions in '08 + +PHOTO BY JOHN CUNIBERTI + + +Michael Anthony, former bassist, Van Halen: Sammy came up with the name Chickenfoot. It’s like the three talons on a chicken’s foot. + + + + +Sammy Hagar: When we were Chickenfoot without Joe, we were jamming and playing other people’s songs: Led Zeppelin, Cream, the Who, whatever. Chad was the one who said, "Let’s get together and make a record." I said I wouldn't do it unless we had a great guitar player because I just wanted to sing. I cannot be a great guitar player and a great singer. Chad’s too good of a drummer, Mikey’s too good of a bass player, and we needed a guitar player as good as those guys. Chad asked, "Who are you thinking?" and my immediate reply was, "Joe Satriani’s my favorite guitar player." + + + + +Chad Smith: In 2007, the Chili Peppers were taking our first real break for at least a year, and we hadn't done that in ten years. I told Sam, "Hey, I got some time off if you want to do something. Let’s do it now." Sammy said, "I'm going to get a real guitar player. I'll call Joe!" I asked, "Joe?" Sammy said, "Yeah, Joe Satriani!" I was a little reluctant to believe Joe would really be into it. A month or so later, Sammy called me up about a Super Bowl party he was playing in Vegas and said, "I called Satriani up and he said he wants to come and jam. Let’s get up for the encore!" + + + + +Michael Anthony: You never really know what to expect when you are live onstage. It could have been, like, five minutes of jamming the blues, then "See you later." There’s a magic and chemistry that can happen, though, and for me, it’s happened three times. Once when I joined Van Halen, the second time when Sammy joined Van Halen, and the third time when Chickenfoot jammed for the first time. We were having such a good time onstage, and it was great because after all the crap you go through— and that I went through in my career in Van Halen—to get together with some guys and not even have to think about anything but purely jamming with some buddies and having fun is the best feeling that there is. That’s basically why we all decided to get together and keep this thing going. There was no talk of, "Hey, let’s get together and form a supergroup." It was more like, "Wow, that was so much fun!" I remember when we were up there at that very first jam, we'd played through two or three songs, and Chad yelled to the crowd, "You want to hear more?" They just went wild, and he started Zeppelin’s "Rock and Roll." Chad wasn't ready to leave the stage that night and neither were the rest of us. + + + + + +At Skywalker for Chickenfoot I sessions + +PHOTO BY BRYAN ADAMS + +I think the central idea for Chickenfoot’s stylistic direction was like an early-seventies rock band. Underneath that, it’s obviously the blues. We were celebrating the very early stage of classic rock. That was a surprise to us, but it just seemed to be where we naturally went. Chad didn't just bring his Chili Peppers stuff to the band, I didn't bring all my solo guitar stuff, and Mike and Sam weren't trying to be Van Halen. I think that’s what surprised us and what’s kept us together as a group. We created a fifth element that we all loved and were surprised by, and that really is the sound of the band. So as a group, as a four-piece, we performed really well, but it was amazing how much bigger we were than just four guys when we got together. There was something extra that came out of us, and that’s what we decided to call "Chickenfoot"—that extra thing. + + +Sammy Hagar: It was very bold because the music we were playing was very unfashionable, and it still is. We're playing brand-new classic rock. We're bringing fresh songs to that format. The only thing we discussed before we started was, "Let’s play the music we like to play." We didn't know what we were doing because we were on the front line, just digging the hole and stepping in it at the same time. We weren't looking to be something else that we're not. + +The only learning curve was being confident around one another and feeling comfortable to show your ass. When you play music—especially when you're writing and nobody knows exactly what they're doing just yet—it can be uncomfortable around people you don't know or trust to really go for it. A lot of guys—mainly singers—will kick everybody out of the room when they're doing vocals or won't sing in front of people. We don't do it that way—we fucking just go for it. I just make HUGE bad notes before I know what I'm singing sometimes. That’s the only learning curve, getting to that point where I could say, "Joe’s not gonna make fun of me, though Chad’s gonna make fun of me," but that’s okay because that’s what he does. If Mikey makes a mistake, he knows we're gonna go, "What the fuck were you playing?" We joke with each other but we're not there to intimidate anyone or make anyone feel like they need to tighten their shit up. We really get loose around one another. + +Joe in his pre-Chickenfoot incarnation wasn't really a jam kind of guy. Joe is a perfectionist. I know he can jam but his songs and his shows were usually ones where every lick was worked out precisely to end at a certain time. That’s kind of how he did things when we started because he wanted it to be perfect every time, and when you jam, things aren't perfect. So me and Chad really turned Joe out because Chad and I had been jamming together for at least five or six years before he came in the picture—Mikey too, but mainly me and Chad. We're brave souls and we're not afraid to show our asses. We're not afraid to make a mistake and go for it and try anything. Joe loved that, and he got so into it that he fell right into the same attitude. So as Chickenfoot started playing more together as a band, I could feel him getting off the hook and loosening up. I'm always telling him that "We turned you out," which is like we took a virgin and made him a whore [laughs]. And he fell in love with it, too, knowing he didn't have to be perfect. + + + +Our chemistry was surprising to us. It didn't feel like something that was manufactured. This was not a record company-brainstormed band, this was just four guys who got together, surprised one another, and just went with it in a natural way. We would write and record, sit back and listen, and if we liked it, we'd release it. Both Chickenfoot albums have been do-it-yourself projects, with no label involved until we were absolutely finished, so artistically it’s our own thing. + + +Chad Smith: Once we knew we wanted to make a full album together, someone said, "Let’s get Andy Johns to produce us!" Joe had worked with Andy on The Extremist and with Sammy and Mike on For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge. I'd never worked with Andy but knew he'd been an engineer on Led Zeppelin IV. Here was a chance to work with a guy who worked on "When the Levee Breaks"! YEAH, I'll work with that guy! + + + + +Sammy Hagar: Andy’s brilliant, and musically, he'll sit and fucking work five hours straight on something with you, trying to get one note right. When you put your drums in a room and Andy starts listening, he starts moving mics around, putting mics here and mics there. He comes up with some great live rockin' sounds! + + + + +Andy Johns: In the studio, we understand each other very well. They know what I'm thinking and I know what they're thinking. When I got the call for Chickenfoot, we worked at Sammy’s first and did some demos, and I had quite a bit to do with how that went. Sammy was all on fire and eager. We continued recording at George Lucas’s Skywalker Ranch and it went really well. + + + + +Chad Smith: The studio was really big—obviously orchestras record in there—and it was very comfortable. We actually didn't really utilize the live room; we used about a quarter of it with baffles during tracking. + + + + +Sammy Hagar: When Joe and I first got together, in one session we wrote "Sexy Little Thing." Within a day or two, we had three or four songs written. "Learning to Fall" and "Turnin' Left" both came out of that and I knew it was working! + + + +With "Sexy Little Thing," I was playing a friend’s '63 Stratocaster in my upstairs music room, looking out into the backyard. When I started writing it, I recorded it on a laptop and called it "Trekking Song." It sounded like an esoteric little instrumental. It had a Celtic feel to it, but I didn't really know what was going to happen with it until I brought it downstairs into the studio and listened to it a few times. I thought it could be a very accessible song. It didn't necessarily have to be some unusual Mixolydian-based instrumental. I think I'd written it before the Chickenfoot thing came together, but once Chickenfoot happened, I realized I had to write a bunch of songs before I went on tour. I started thinking for the first time, "What would I want Sammy Hagar to sound like if I had a chance to point him in a new direction?" My feeling was that he could dip into blues, sing in a lower register, and add elements of the Faces and Humble Pie and the Rolling Stones, and all that early-seventies rock stuff. I just had a sense that he would click with that. Going into our first writing session, all I had was the music and the title "She’s a Sexy Little Thing." It was enough to inspire him to create a story and melody line and a whole arrangement. + + +Sammy Hagar: With all the other songs outside of those we wrote in that first session together, Joe would bring me the music, and I would hear a melody first. Ninety-nine point nine percent of the time, I hear a melody to every piece of music and I just start singing. And 99.9 percent of the time, I end up keeping my first melody idea. I may have to tweak it, change a line, or make a phrase a little better, but that’s it. Then I write lyrics to my melody. My melody is usually what dictates the individual lyrics, but it’s Joe’s music that usually dictates the title. So, for instance, with "Oh Yeah," I just immediately started singing that for the chorus, and knew it was going to be the title. With that song, I didn't know what I was going to talk about in the verses. I could have written that one about a thousand different subjects. So for most of them, I came up with a title based off Joe’s initial idea—like with "Sexy Little Thing"—and then I just started writing the most tongue-in-cheek, dirty, sexy lyrics I could think of. + + + +Sam has a great amount of experience being a successful writer of hits, and because he’s a singer and a really great communicator, he has an innate sense about how to communicate an idea vocally. That’s not my strong point, so when I bring ideas in, I'm always looking for something that’s a little bit left of center and strange, because that’s the kind of stuff I like to listen to over and over again. When Sam gets some of my ideas, I think he tries to figure out "What is Joe getting at?" and he tries to bring it to the people. He tries to make it something you can actually grasp. "Sexy Little Thing" is a good example of where he took something that, if I had written it, I would have made it a little bit odd and not as accessible. Since he’s the guy standing in front of the band holding the mic, looking at everybody in the audience, his thing is to reach the biggest number of people and get them to understand this idea. His gift is to cut through my weird guitar stuff and then figure out what to sing about and how to sing it so that everybody can relate to it. + + +Chad Smith: Joe would come up with the riffs and the basic song ideas and he'd email them to us. We'd say, "Yeah, I like that one. That’s a cool riff," and Sam would say, "I got something for that." It was real relaxed. Then Mike and I flew up one weekend, and we all got in Sam’s studio and demoed six or seven songs. Probably five of them wound up on the album. You know what’s really cool and rare is when you get together and play with someone, and think it sounds cool, and then go in the control room of the studio, listen to a playback, and go, "Fuck, that sounds better than I thought it was when we were playing it!" Microphones don't lie. They're naked and you can't get away with shit. + + + +You can't worry about appearances when you're working on music. You have to go with what ultimately makes the song better. When I'm in Chickenfoot, where I'm playing with other players who are very creative and extremely capable and always ready to deliver, I always remind myself that I haven't hired these guys and they haven't hired me. We're all giving ourselves latitude. No one tells anyone what to play or not play. I love collaborating and I recognize that although it can be difficult when you're in the middle of it, the end result is worth it, and usually far better than you would have done on your own. + + +Chad Smith: It was great in the studio because nobody was telling anybody what to play. Everyone was just doing their thing, just eye contact and "play." It was really free. Of course, everybody’s a songwriting pro with building bridges and choruses and solos and shit, but we didn't want to overthink everything, and I love that, personally. I think that’s lacking in music today because Pro Tools makes it so easy to be so perfect. We just got in a room and played with no clicks, no editing. It was just an old-school band playing like the guys we'd all grown up loving. + + + + +Michael Anthony: I remember Chad and I talking to Andy quite a lot about our desire to really keep this thing fresh and loose and not try to get too precise on takes. In Van Halen, even if there was a little slipup, we'd leave it in. It’s just the energy of it, you know. I've been in so many situations with Van Halen where you beat a song to death, and even though it sounds great, you listen to it and go, "Man, it just wasn't like when we first picked up the instruments." We wanted to keep that excitement there with Chickenfoot because that’s what it was all about! + + + + + +The band in Skywalker’s control room for Chickenfoot I sessions + +PHOTO BY BRYAN ADAMS + +During recording we'd play a song several times and let everybody kind of experiment a bit. Then slowly we'd say, "I liked when you did this more than that." It’s a process of being allowed to experiment, all of us throwing out options, new ideas, and suggestions for how how to improve something. We'd do that from about noon until three o'clock, when we'd decide we were finished with a song and wanted to lock it down. The important thing is that musicians can deliver a performance after taking in criticism. It’s easy to agree with criticism and to acknowledge new ideas, but to actually implement those ideas takes a whole higher level of musician. Sometimes you're in a situation where you say, "Make it funkier," and then the band says, "Yeah, we understand. Let’s do it," and it turns out that they can't. They just don't possess the talent. With Chickenfoot, we always seem to be able to move in the direction that we agree on as a group because we're fortunate that we've got a lot of ability in the band to change direction on a dime and take advantage of any inspiration that pops up out of our unique synergy. + +"My Kinda Girl" was one of those kinds of songs. I had a riff, and when I first played it for everybody, it had more of a metal/heavy rock crunch to it. As Chad, Mike, and I worked on the arrangement, it started to get more Stones-y sounding and we liked it better. Chad is not a fan of metal music at all, so anytime I brought something in that had hints of metal, he would slowly veer in the other direction. Where we wound up was with something we all really liked, so then we just had to come up with another little section where I had to write a solo and riff kind of thing. Then the three of us arranged the whole song as we were going along! + + +Sammy Hagar: "Future in the Past" was something we wrote as the last song for the album, and it is one of the greatest things I've ever been involved in writing in my life. That song in concert has just turned into this special thing. I brought in the first riff for it—believe it or not, that was a musical piece I was working on. Joe took it and made it the greatest thing ever. When that song was done we went in and listened to that vocal. I always let the band pick which track to use, so out of twenty takes, they said, "We like take seventeen." I sang it live every time because I was working out my lyrics and my phrasing. I took that take home, listened to it, and came back the next day and said, "I don't want to re-sing this. I don't want to fix anything or do anything to it. This is the one." Everybody had goose bumps on their arms. That’s a magical thing that only happens once in a while. It happened with "Love Walks In" and "Cabo Wabo" with Van Halen—one take, reading the lyrics, boom, it’s done. No reason to sing that again! + + + +Sammy had this idea of what "Future in the Past" would sound like in the beginning, and then how we would use that chorus at the end to be this big crescendo and big ending. I took those chords and his two verses and shortened them to about a quarter of their length. I then combined the two verses into one, to make it a bit stronger, and presented it to him with the idea being that we would start very quietly with what had been his chorus thing, but then go into my miniaturized version of his original two verses. Then at the end of the song we could bring back his opening thing and play it loud and combine guitar and vocals with it. We needed another part, though, so I came up with this little funky piece with drop-D-tuning on the spot. I asked Mike, "Does that sound cool? Do you want to do that?" Then Chad came in the room, and as a band we arranged it and recorded it. It was that fast. We went from Sammy just strumming the chords to having a finished take in maybe three hours! + + +Chad Smith: I didn't really know how the other guys had worked, but for me, with rock 'n' roll, if everyone can play— and everyone can play in this band—we just get in a room and play off each other. Sam would sing, but a lot of times he didn't have all the words yet, so the vocals weren't kept. He was in there for the vibe, though, which is really important, and we'd keep what was on the bass and guitars. It wasn't like we ever said, "We need to completely redo the bass," or "We need to completely redo a guitar." All the basics were kept. + + + +I remember Glyn Johns used to tell me, "You can never go back to a party that’s over." Back when we were doing the Joe Satriani record in 1995, he wanted me to play all my parts live. I told him I was an overdub guy. He replied, "Now’s the time to change. Once the party’s over, good luck trying to overdub the main parts on this stuff." He was right. It’s very difficult with a live band because it’s not a matter of just being in time. It’s that the swing of the moment is almost impossible to get back to. + +The basis for all Chickenfoot records is the band playing live. Then we add stuff to it. Everything recorded was always with the group, either at Sam’s studio or at Skywalker. The performances are always slightly ragged because they're not layered perfectly with computers. Everything’s done without a click so it’s just raw performances, with overdub bits applied later. We do it this way because those live sessions always pull us in some new direction from where we thought the song was going or where the demo was heading. + + +Sammy Hagar: The sound Joe gets is always WAY beyond me. I would have accepted the first sound he had plugging his guitar directly into the amp. I would have said, "Wow, that sounds great," but he'd always say, "No, no," and then he changes it and changes amps and changes guitars and ends up with this AMAZING sound. THEN he starts playing his parts. His first solo on the live take always sounds incredible. I ask him, "You're gonna keep that, right?" He says, "Oh, I don't know." I come back a few days later and he’s changed it and it’s better, and he says, "I want to do a couple more little things." I mean, he just thinks SO FAR beyond my satisfaction range. That’s why I'm not the lead guitar player in Chickenfoot, because Joe can take it so much further. Why eat a hamburger when there’s a steak sitting there? Joe’s also one of the greatest rhythm guitar players ever. You don't think of Joe Satriani as a rhythm guitar player. When I'm singing a song and he’s playing a rhythm part behind me, oh my God, you don't even need a drummer. I know right where the pocket is. Joe is in the pocket, and I REALLY noticed it right out of the box because I'm a guitar player! He’s so clever and it’s something that people would never know unless they played with him. + + + +When I started playing guitar, along with trying to play like Hendrix, I was intrigued by the blues. My older brother John played blues harp, so I was exposed to John Lee Hooker and players like that during that whole period. I knew Jimi Hendrix was into Buddy Guy and that they all listened to Muddy Waters and Jimmy Reed. I remember as a young player sitting down and playing the blues very slowly, trying to get to that space, and realizing it was something special that I wanted to make part of my playing. When I became a successful solo artist, people defined me by songs like "Surfing with the Alien," "Always with Me, Always with You," "Summer Song," and "Flying in a Blue Dream." They didn't associate me with my blues playing, although it was a big part of my style and background. Chickenfoot was the first band where I had a natural place for all my blues influences, and I think that drew out similar elements from Sammy as well. + + +Andy Johns: I think Joe in Chickenfoot was more confident in his own ability, not that he'd lacked confidence before. He was just a little more experienced and a little more relaxed about stuff. He laughs a lot more than he used to. Joe’s quite aware of how good he is—there’s only one Joe Satriani, like I said before. He can play anything he hears in his head and can fucking do it perfectly. If you ask him to do a certain kind of thing, boom, there it is. He’s very easy to work with. Joe and I got very involved on the overdubs. That’s the fun part because you never quite know what Joe’s going to come up with. Joe had pedals and I got him to use the wah-wah a few times. Joe is just all-around fucking unbelievable and I'm very lucky to have been able to work with him. I'm not just saying that. I really believe that. I'm very lucky to have worked with that man! + + + + +Michael Anthony: Andy would always have a great story at the end of the day. We'd all be sitting around bullshitting and us guys in the band would look like little kids sitting around the campfire. Andy would be telling us stories about Zeppelin or someone else that he'd worked with. He always had a great story about his past that would have us captivated. + + + + +Sammy Hagar: When the album was done we all loved it a lot and were very proud of it. We couldn't WAIT till our generation of rockers and people who like this kind of music heard it. They were gonna freak out! I expected it to be successful because of the name value, because our backgrounds professionally are pretty steady—we'd always delivered something good for our fans, so none of us were trying to make a comeback here, but we weren't expecting to sell out arenas. As it happens, Chickenfoot was one of twelve records to go gold that year. Fuck! + + + + +Michael Anthony: In this day and age, you have people who put together these so-called supergroups, and fans don't really take the supergroup type of thing too seriously. It’s like, "Okay, these guys are getting together to make a bunch of money and get a bunch of publicity, go out and tour, shake hands, say good-bye and that’s it." By contrast, our approach to everything that was happening was rooted around the reason we first got together, which was that we wanted to do something that wasn't ego or money driven. We all had money and had done what we'd done in the past, and so we wanted to do this purely for the sake of playing music and having fun. In Chickenfoot, we knew we had something there, that we all had a connection. And the songs, I thought, were fucking great! But you never know what to expect when you're getting ready to release it. I know going top five was a big surprise to all of us. It was like, "Crack the Champagne," because after Van Halen, you've been in one big band, you realize something like that rarely ever happens again in someone’s career. And here it was happening to us! So all this stuff was happening while we were on the tour. All of a sudden, we're getting gold albums. What a trip! + + + + +Chad Smith: Our decision to go with the Best Buy label was smart of us because they really promoted it a lot at their stores. Gary Arnold loved our band, was out on the road with us, was passionate about the album, and that really made a difference. Also, we're not competing with the Lady Gagas and Rihannas of the world. We're, like, old fucking rock dudes. We did have a certain amount of hype, "supergroup" this and that, and I thought our first record was strong and a good record. Going gold with no hit singles and with MTV gone, I was impressed. + + + + +Sammy Hagar: Once we got out there and started playing in front of people, Joe got really loose playing on the road. I'm telling you, this band’s been so good for Joe, because he plays so different in this band than he does as an instrumentalist. + + + +Just a few months before my mother passed away, Chickenfoot was playing at the Beacon Theatre in New York City. She was a great supporter of mine. Growing up during the Depression in New York, she understood how hard you had to work to get anything out of life. She had a great work ethic and understood why I practiced like crazy and never gave up. When I was a young kid, she never tried to stop me from playing and always encouraged me to keep going. + +My mother had seen me perform at the Beacon at least ten times, but for some reason that night she decided to sit on the side of the stage. She had never done that before. During "Future in the Past," where Sammy and I are doing a very long intro together, Chad walked her out onstage. I knew she was having a hard time walking so I told him, "You cannot let go of her." She LOVED being onstage. My mother and Sammy had a good conversation with the audience for about a minute while I repeated the song’s intro, then Chad came over and very gently led my mother offstage. It was very much a part of my mother’s personality to feel totally comfortable walking out in front of three thousand people and saying, "Hello, I'm Joe’s mother!" + + + + + +CHAPTER 21 * * + +Black Swans and Wormhole Wizards — 2010 + + +"Apparently his time in Chickenfoot made Joe Satriani want to get back to where he once belonged, so he goes retro on 2010’s Black Swans and Wormhole Wizards. About as far away from the heavy-footed party rock of Chickenfoot as possible, Black Swans is pure guitar prog, filled with compressed boogies, sci-fi synths, exotic flourishes, and all of Satch’s phasers and flangers in full-tilt overdrive." + +—Billboard magazine + + + +Between the Chickenfoot record and tour and then the Experience Hendrix tour—where I was playing with quite a few other musicians in a kind of revue—I'd racked up a lot of live and studio experience that was very different from playing solo. I wanted to isolate what was good about those experiences, what would bring me forward artistically, and use it as a positive influence for the next solo record. + + +Mike Fraser: Joe wanted a "band feel" on this record as opposed to a studio-manufactured record. His intent wasn't to make a live record, but he wanted a band-feel record, and that’s done by everybody playing together. Our focus this time around was on getting the takes where we could keep most of the performances without having to come back and redo them. We didn't want to sort of chop it all up, put it on a grid, and make it all proper. He just wanted a little bit more of that ebb and flow that a real band playing gets. + + + + + +Tracking at Skywalker Sound in '10 + +PHOTO BY ARTHUR ROSATO + +When I was writing for this record, one of my favorite memories of that process is of "Littleworth Lane," which is an actual street in Sea Cliff, Long Island, where my mother owned a house up until she passed away. The house had been built in the late 1600s and was very unique by American standards. I wanted to start that cathartic process of writing about my mother’s life and her influence on me and the rest of the family. I thought I needed to write something that reflected the kind of music she would relate to. She was into jazz and soulful music and had expressed to me many times over the years the kind of music she wanted at her funeral. One night, driving away from the house, I wrote this song in my head and I kept it there until one afternoon, backstage after a sound check. There was a piano in the dressing room and I realized I was ready to play this thing, so I took out my iPhone and did a quick recording of it. That wound up being the demo of "Littleworth Lane" that I sent to the band. + +With "Solitude," I was thinking about how I often require time to be alone, much as my parents did, and I coupled that with my mother’s absence from her house once she passed. It was so profound, I couldn't put it into words. I was working on a song called "Heartbeats" at my home studio one afternoon when the inspiration came. I was thinking "Heartbeats" needed some kind of introduction, but instead I started writing a piece that was much bigger. It was a song about my moments of solitude, and the lonely feeling in my mother’s house now that her spirit had moved on. It eventually found a home on the record right before "Littleworth Lane." I played my JS1000 direct into my STT-1 for that recording. + +The idea for the title "Pyrrhic Victoria" came from a story about King Pyrrhus, who defeated the Romans in battle but lost 99 percent of his army doing so. He is quoted as proclaiming, "If we are victorious in one more battle with the Romans, we shall be utterly ruined." That’s where we get the term Pyrrhic victory. This is a tune where the flexibility that I had at home working with Pro Tools and software synthesizers allowed the song to grow. It started in the most organic way: I was in my studio, plugged into a JS customized Two-Rock amplifier, just having fun improvising. My studio room is relatively small, which can overemphasize the low end, but it makes the guitar sound and feel 100 feet tall. I recorded the improv using QuickTime Pro on my laptop before going out to dinner. When I returned home and listened to it, I thought, "That is REALLY cool! Now let’s add an orchestra!" + +"Dream Song" was a song that literally came to me in a dream. When I woke up I had the entire song in my head. I thought for sure I'd been listening to music until I realized I'd been asleep and it was dead quiet in the room. I spent the next three hours recording what I remembered from my dream before the memory of it faded. The organ arpeggios and all the wah-wah guitars were done in my home studio—as a matter of fact, all the guitars on that particular song are from home. They just seemed to tell the story the way it needed to be told. + +With "Wormhole Wizards," I had been reading about black holes and theories about parallel universes and people traveling faster than the speed of light. Around that time I was speaking to Jeff Campitelli about the number of songs that I had finished, their tempos and time signatures, and I mentioned that I had a fast song inside of me ready to come out. Sure enough, that night I got inspired to put something together. Instead of using BFD to start my drum track, I wanted to use another program for the drums that had more of a drum-machine feel to it. I created the bass line on keyboards using a cool Fender Rhodes plug-in, and then I could see where the song was going. It turned into a spacey but driving soundtrack about traveling through wormholes in space. + +I didn't want this record to be a radical departure from the last one because I'd done that before. The Extremist, Joe Satriani, and Engines of Creation were all radical shifts, but I didn't want to rock the boat that much this time. A lot of the record was already tracked, and I was learning how to record myself in a more transparent manner. Ultimately, the vibe of the album would depend on the personality of the musicians and coproducer, so I took a chance that Mike Fraser would click with the other band members: Mike Keneally, Allen Whitman, and Jeff Campitelli. + +Black Swans was all about unique band performances— interactions between Allen, Mike, Jeff, and myself. We needed a studio like Skywalker Sound because I felt both Allen and Mike needed lots of space. Allen’s a big guy with a big personality and I thought he would blossom if he was given not only musical space but physical space. Mike is a super-talented multi-instrumentalist and it was great to offer him two grand pianos, a B3, and a Wurlitzer that we were allowed to keep set up, so he could freely experiment. I wanted the guitar, bass, and drums close enough but not too close, so we could interact with one another while not being bombarded with one another’s sound. + +For this album, the process wasn't about working out every arrangement detail and forcing people to play it. Sometimes that works, but other times you have to throw the music at the musicians, let them explore it on their own, and then capture that exploration. + + +Mike Fraser: For the Black Swans record, I remember I set the drums up in the middle of the room and baffled them off a little bit because it was almost a little bit too roomy. I had Joe’s cabinets off in another little iso booth and Allen Whitman’s bass off in a nice little room, and then Mike Keneally came in and played keyboards on the basic tracking. That’s something new that I've done with Joe, to have the full band tracking. It’s usually just bass and drums. That added a lot to this record, as did the input of keyboardist Mike Keneally. He'd say, "Hey, let’s put a Rhodes in this part" or "Let’s distort this Rhodes and put it through this pedal." He was cool with that kind of stuff, and Joe was open to those suggestions. + + + +It was important to have the time we gave ourselves during tracking because you're looking for unusual performances. You might do seven to ten takes each time and in between each performance, the band’s members are all talking to one another. Someone might say, "Would you mind if I went from the organ to the piano?" Or, "I want to change my entire drum kit." Fraser was also there to guide us along and tell us how the music was popping out in the control room. Because we were all in the studio together, we could change direction on a dime if that’s what felt good. Then we had the luxury of sitting back and listening to all of our performances to see which ones were really making the song most exciting. + +"God Is Crying" was originally supposed to be on Professor Satchafunkilus, but there was a day in the studio when I asked everybody in the band, "What two songs would you like to stop working on?" I was totally shocked when they voted it off, but it turned out to be the right call. When I brought it back, this band was much more excited about playing it, and they brought a whole new feeling to it. Mike Fraser was encouraging us to jam right up until we counted the song off, and we eventually used one of those jams for the intro. I think it was Mike’s design all along to trick us into basically creating a new part for the song! + + +Mike Fraser: With Joe and the band, as we tracked these songs, everybody played off each other a little more, which was the intent all along. So there were times when, for instance, we decided that instead of doing a part of Joe’s as an overdub, we said, "Well, he’s such a great player, let’s just do it live and see what we can grab." Recording Joe’s solos was quite an easy process because he’s so good at coming up with great melodies. With singers, you have to make sure the lyrics are right, and he’s singing in tune and all that, but with Joe, it goes pretty easy. Sometimes you give your opinion on what direction that one run was leading, but Joe always comes in with everything sort of preplanned in his mind, and he knows what he wants and what’s going to work. Sometimes he just needs somebody to bounce ideas off of. When you listen to Black Swans, the tracks are all different, which is amazing because how many instrumental songs can you keep doing and they're still all different and interesting? It’s a process I find quite fascinating because he’s got such a great grasp on his musicality and on what notes are gonna make that song flow. I'm always baffled every time I watch him play. He makes it look so easy. + + + +This time I told Mike Fraser that I wanted to reach people more deeply with my guitar playing. I said, "If you're watching me do a solo over and over again, the one that I want you to keep is the one where you feel I'm really reaching people." + +While recording "The Golden Room," a song about protecting yourself from negative spirits, I wanted it to be as improvisational as possible while working around a basic structure and melody. A prime example of this approach at work is the keyboard introduction, just something Mike Keneally had played at the end of one take. Fraser loved it so much he grabbed it and popped it into the beginning as an intro. He asked us, "What do you guys think?" and we all agreed we had to use it. It’s a good example of how it’s not just the band that is part of the creative process. Your engineer/coproducer is also listening, taking notes in the control room, and keeping track of things that you're just throwing out there but perhaps not remembering. Unless the musicians think they really nailed it, they forget half the gems that they're offering up. + + + +Mike Keneally playing multiple keyboards during the BSWW sessions at Skywalker in '10 + +PHOTO BY JON LUINI + +Mike Keneally pulled the same trick with "Wormhole Wizards." We found a sound on the Korg and started recording. People were coming in and out of the room, there was food out on the table, and we were all joking out loud about it because we weren't recording with microphones. Mike just kept sitting there improvising, riff after riff, arpeggio after arpeggio, and each thing he played was more brilliant than the last. He did that piano part in ONE improvised take from the beginning of the song all the way to the end. When he was done, I said, "Okay, Mike, see you later! Your job’s done!" + + + +Guitar cases lined up at Skywalker, '10 + +PHOTO BY JON LUINI + + + + + +CHAPTER 22 * * + +Chickenfoot III—2011/2012 + + +"Joe Satriani’s imprint on the musical world extends far beyond his own ethereal talents. Now, with Chickenfoot, Satriani fans can see him rip into leads with the same singer as Ronnie Montrose and Eddie Van Halen." + +—Huffington Post + + + +The most exciting part about being in a band with great energy and chemistry is that you're all inspired as performers and writers. When you get an idea about a song with a grand arrangement, you're encouraged to imagine all the possibilities because you know that these guys can make that song a reality. I know Michael Anthony is going to come up with some bass line that’s going to be thunderous behind these chords. I know Sam’s going to come up with some incredible and unique vocal. I know that Chad’s going to exert his influence as an arranger on it and come up with an exciting drum part like he always does. With Chickenfoot, you always feel inspired and encouraged to move forward and bring ideas in. + +There was no preproduction for our second album between when we finished touring for Chickenfoot and the next time I saw the guys again in the studio. It had been over a year, and it was extra rushed because with Chad’s Chili Peppers commitments, we only had him for about ten days. I realized early on in recording that we had to move at a very fast clip, make decisions as we went, and stick with them because there was no going back. + +On the first tour, we'd done a lot of spontaneous writing backstage every night before shows. For instance, the second track on III, "Alright Alright," is from an improv we did backstage. + + + +Chickenfoot with 3-D glasses in Sam’s control room, '11 + +PHOTO BY JON HILL + + +Sammy Hagar: "Alright Alright" was a great example of what can happen in this band when you're goofing off jamming. You'll start doing something stupid like shouting, "Alright, alright, alright, alright!" like I'm yelling at my old lady, "Alright, alright already!" It was just kind of a spoof or joke against this punky kind of Clash-y riff Joe was playing. I remember we were in Atlanta backstage filming our first DVD. It didn't come out good so we did it again in Phoenix, Arizona. We were there all day, so we were getting a little stir-crazy backstage, and that’s when that song came alive. From there we played it all the time, that whole tour, and then it came together in Europe when I finally came up with some lyrics and a verse idea, and all that stuff in Switzerland at the Montreux Jazz Fest. I told Joe, "Just do a jump break, and I'll sing against the doo-doo-gaa-gaah beat," and "I just need a vocal break and a place where I can just yell some belligerent shit, then you can play, then me and the drums." That really came together in Montreux, and the song was done. Joe really came through. + + + +That song is definitely reflective of the kind of stuff that makes its way from tour to a record, because I don't think a song like that would have come about in a planned way. It was just one of those silly things where you start playing some chords, and everybody starts singing a chorus that’s just kind of odd enough to be catchy. So we had lots of moments like that where there were interesting little nuggets, and if they didn't actually suggest a song, they would suggest to one or all of us a kind of style of playing or something we wanted to take advantage of. Once we get started, Mikey, Chad, and I are like a freight train, so I made a note in my musical mind to make sure to write songs that had big, heavy riffs where we played together as an ensemble. + + +Sammy Hagar: Joe and I are the band’s songwriting team, but Joe is the musical foundation of this band. On the second record, I think Joe had the confidence to put his opinion out there and really kind of lead the band musically. I'm the spiritual motivator and front guy, the mouth you might say, but Joe’s really like Jimmy Page in Led Zeppelin. I'm the spark plug, no question about it, but Joe’s music dictates everything. I love writing lyrics and melodies and singing to his music. It’s like when Van Halen was good—I loved it. It was the same thing, before Eddie and I hit rock bottom. Of course, it’s no fun being creative with a guy that you're not getting along with. That’s a hard gig, brother. But Joe and I aren't there and hopefully we'll never get there. + +He’s really a fun guy to create with, and he comes through with his part. For instance, if I say, "Maybe we'll write this song kind of like a midtempo groove, like "Every Breath You Take"—you know, just throwing a title of a song out there that is vibe-y like that, or a Pink Floyd thing—Joe comes through. The next day, he'll come back with a piece of music that’s beyond what I was talking about and is definitely not ripping anybody off. He just goes in his heart, or what I like to call his little safe of music, and comes out with stuff that is ALWAYS great. I just love that. Like I said, he’s the musical dynamic behind this band. + + + +We made a really strong effort on this LP to try to get into some unknown territory. I kept telling Sam, "I know you're powerful in this area. We've just got to write songs to let you get there," and he really delivered! I love the way that Sammy sings on III. + + +Sammy Hagar: Heading into the second record, I remember I told Joe, "I wanna do something different. I want to sing some way I've never sung before," and Joe went, "Wow, that’s really what I want from you." So I said, "Okay, write me some music that makes me want to do that!" He came through, and I came through with "Something Going Wrong," which is a huge stretch for me. Another one I think’s a pretty damn good stretch is "Come Closer." I'm touching on R&B gospel on that bridge, man, but the verses are kind of almost talking. I love it. The hardest thing to do as a singer is to stretch yourself, because it’s so personal, and if you do something stupid, you feel embarrassed. It’s embarrassing to sing, is really what it is, but having Joe around just makes it so much more comfortable. A lot of times I'm real insecure about doing it and so on the edge trying to stay on key, and it’s just hard to do something new. But when I finish it and hear it back and go, "Wow, I'm so proud of that," I look at Joe. We high-fived MANY times because of "Something Going Wrong" and "Closer." They were stretches. + +On this record, I really wanted to capture our power, and with a song like "Something Going Wrong" that captures our creativity, we're able to do things like that. But I think the band is about songs like "Soap on a Rope" and "Oh Yeah" and power. Because for four guys live, we can put off some POWER coming off the stage. So when it’s rockin' like that, from "Turnin' Left" to "Future in the Past," there’s a lot of bands, man, who can't bring that power without a bunch of overdubs and backing tracks. We're raw, straight-up live! + + + + +Michael Anthony: Obviously from all that time playing and hanging out on the first tour we found—I don't know if I'd call it the Chickenfoot sound—but more of the niche of what Chickenfoot really is. + + + +As excited as the band was about the new songs, it was still difficult to get together in one place with our competing schedules, so the challenge as always was that we didn't have much time. We were picking a song in the morning, working on an arrangement, recording it for the album right then and there, then moving on a few hours later before we even knew what the song was going to be about. The plus side is all the spontaneity and energy that you get. That is the benefit of moving at a fast clip in the studio. No one gets bogged down and none of the recordings suffer from being overworked. They were all underworked. + + + +Me and luthier Gary Brawer at Real Guitars, S.F., getting guitars ready for Chickenfoot lll sessions. Gary has worked on my guitars for decades; he’s the best. + +PHOTO BY ALLEN WHITMAN + +The Chickenfoot experience is extreme. There’s always a lot of joking around and a super amount of energy. Personally, though, it was a challenging transition. For my solo records, I take two months to work on my songs, then bring them into the studio with guys who've had the demos and learned their parts, and then we very carefully go about recording stuff. Then we go out on tour and play these meticulously rehearsed arrangements. Then I jump from that right into Chickenfoot, where it’s completely the opposite approach. + + +Michael Anthony: The one thing that I wish we had was more time just to work the songs up. In Van Halen, we'd play a song, God, a hundred times before we decided to record it. With Chickenfoot, when we all got in the studio, and we were all on a pretty heavy time schedule because Chad was getting ready to pick back up with the Chili Peppers, we were recording from the time we picked our guitars up to the time we put our instruments down. We were recording the whole time! + + + +Here’s the way it usually worked: Sam would say, "Let’s cut a verse or add a verse." Then Mikey and Chad would say, "Can we do it a little faster or slower? Can we get rid of, or extend, this part?" All four of us are always exerting that influence and that helps make the band work. Everybody truly respects one another, how they play, and their musicianship. That’s what makes the sessions work. We're all listening to one another and nobody tells the other person what to play. Sometimes all four of us would write something new and record it right away, like with "Down the Drain" or "Alright Alright." + + +Sammy Hagar: Chad’s always fucking around on the drums or on guitar and Joe would be playing drums, or I'd be playing guitar and Joe'd be playing bass. We were always goofing, and when you're goofing, things come out of you that you normally wouldn't do, that you'd keep hidden. + + + + +Chad Smith: All of us are good with ideas on arrangements and what works, but Joe's really good at that. Once Sam gets melody and words on top of it, that really helps. I know at some point that frustrates Joe. He'll say, "I don't know what to put down here because I don't know what Sam’s going to sing yet." Sometimes Sammy would have something halfway but not fleshed out at all, and for Joe, who plays a melodic instrument, you have to know what the singer is doing. You can put down a bonehead riff, but why? Somebody like Joe needs more info, so that was the only thing that kind of held up the second record. But it all worked out. I thought it was great! + + + + +Sammy Hagar: My writing process for the band’s music is unique. In every song there’s usually something different, but it’s the same way I wrote with Eddie, and the same way I'd write with any guitar player, where I say, "You write the music. I'll write the lyrics." We only did it one time differently on Chickenfoot III with "Come Closer." I'd written those lyrics and really liked them, and I said, "Joe, would you take these lyrics and write music to them?" He said, "Absolutely, let me try that," which excited me because that’s what Elton John and Bernie Taupin do. The song is one of my favorites I've ever written. I write lyrics that fit in those holes, and it’s hard and stresses me out. It fucking beats me to death because every word’s got to have rhythmical power first, and then it’s also got to say something, so I paint myself into a real bad corner there, but I can't help it. I was a little embarrassed to sing a song like "Come Closer" because I meant that lyric. It’s about my wife and I—we've been together a long time, and I don't want that to happen, where we start to lose that love, and I spoke about it in that song. + + + +"Come Closer" was really quite unique in how it was written because Sammy sent me lyrics first. There were two pages of lyrics with four verses and a whole bunch of choruses. I sat down at my piano one morning and wrote a very moody piece of music to what I felt was a very dark kind of song coming from Sam. I emailed him a recording of it that very morning before going into the studio, and when I got there, he said he wanted to do it right away. Of course the other guys hadn't heard it yet, so I sat down and played it for them on piano. The consensus right off was, "Let’s do it." The problem was I'd never played it on guitar, and I'm not the greatest piano player, so I was afraid that if we tried to track it with me playing piano we wouldn't get a good take. So while Mike and Chad worked up bass and drum parts, I taught myself how to play the song on guitar. We cut it within about an hour and that was it. + + +Michael Anthony: I was really surprised at how well the second album came together. The music was clicking so well that I remember Sammy coming to the studio, we'd tell him, "Hey, we laid another one down," and he'd say, "Hey, slow down. I don't even have any fucking lyrics for this shit yet!" + + + + +Sammy Hagar: The idea for "Three and a Half Letters" first came to me from a sign I saw on the side of the road. There was a little nine-year-old homeless kid, and it broke my heart. I thought "What the fuck?," so I asked Joe to play the most belligerent music he'd ever played in his life, and I was going to try to talk over it. I get these letters constantly from people with hard-luck stories, so I was going to read four or five letters on the song. We wound up with three. Normally, I don't want to dive into politics. I don't want to be judged for it and I don't want to really say what I think because there’s always somebody who’s going to say, "Fuck you, I feel different." I wanted to do that song and I wanted to make the statement. I'm more of an up-tempo guy. But every now and then, I gotta make my statement. Then I'm done with it and want to make people happy again. + + + +On this album, I had started to make the full transition to playing my twenty-four-fret JS guitar almost exclusively, which was a new model for us, the Ibanez JS2400. Believe it or not, when you suddenly add two frets, you've got to rethink some of your playing. By the time I got to recording Chickenfoot III, I was fully comfortable with it. I had also started developing my own acoustic guitar with Ibanez, which was used on the album and in the Satchurated 3-D movie, too. The amplifier that did 99 percent of the guitar work on this record was the prototype for my signature Marshall amp, the JVM410HJS. + +Wrapping up the first Chickenfoot record had been rather traumatic, because toward the end, our producer, Andy Johns, had to be hospitalized and ultimately couldn't finish the production. So we decided for the second album that Mike Fraser, who mixed the first record for us, was the perfect choice for engineer/coproducer. I wanted someone who knew me and how I worked. That decision not to have any other outside influence turned out to be the best thing because we really clicked on this second record. It turned out to be a remarkable group of sessions. + + +Sammy Hagar: I loved working with Mike Fraser on Chickenfoot III. When you're tracking, he doesn't necessarily interrupt you, but rather he gives you all the space you need and allows you to get your thing together. Then he tries to get the best take from you that he can. That’s a beautiful thing. It’s more comfortable working with a guy like that, but I can't say Andy Johns didn't do a genius job with the first record. It turned out working with Fraser on the second record really did save our ass. We wouldn't have gotten Chickenfoot III made without Mike. Our comanager, John Carter, died in the two months it took us to make that record. That put a dark cloud over the thing, but a producer like Mike kept it together, kept it clean, kept it simple, didn't bring any extra drama. Whatever drama we had was coming from the four of us, which really wasn't any, so it was great, and having Mike really helped matters. He’s a real pro. + + + +We were looking to cut ten really tight songs and to be a heavier band. I think Mike was the right producer for the job. He’s got a great personality that I thought fit in very well with the four of us nutcases. He was the perfect producer to keep us on track, and he’s an awesome engineer. + + +Mike Fraser: One of my main ambitions with III was really wanting to get Michael’s harmonies in there because that was the special part of the Van Halen vibe, having the high harmonies right up front. + + + + +Michael Anthony: In this band, Sammy and I talked about us having this really cool background stuff in Van Halen and how we really wanted to get into that a lot deeper in Chickenfoot. For instance, on the first album, the song "Turnin' Left," the lead vocal is actually a harmony where we're both singing lead and harmony. On Chickenfoot III, Sam and I worked a lot with Joe on structure for some of the vocal harmonies that we did, what notes we're going to sing. Sometimes, you'll just do the basic thing that works all the time, and Joe will go, "Hey, why don't we try this?" and spin a different note in there, which is really cool and really expanded our sound a lot more. + + + +My guitar had never sounded so good. I just couldn't believe the sound Mike captured. It was very thick and full of energy and soul, and so "rock 'n' roll band" sounding. I thought Chickenfoot III was the best I'd ever played and the best I'd ever been recorded. I couldn't wait for people to hear it. + + +Chad Smith: Really the best song that Sammy didn't want to sing because he said it was too fast is a song called "FRYDAY." It’s never been released. Joe, Mike, and I knocked it out one morning. We cut it in two takes and it was done. Sammy didn't want to sing it, so sometimes the best shit is left on the floor. That happens with the Chili Peppers all the time, where we come up with this great music, and Anthony’s like, "Naw, I don't really hear anything for it," and you're like, "Nooo." If you can't get a vocal and melody to it, it just gets left in the bin. I was excited about the new album but I wasn't able to tour. + + + + +Kenny Aronoff: I was up playing with John Fogerty at a winery and Mick Brigden came up to me. He told me John Carter, who managed Sammy Hagar, sadly had died the week before. The news caught me off guard and I was devastated. He said, "Chickenfoot have finished a record and they're going on tour, but Chad has to go out on tour with the Red Hot Chili Peppers for a year and a half. Would you be interested in getting together and jamming to see if it’s a fit?" It’s a hard thing to replace Chad. He’s an integral member and personality, but I jumped at the chance just to go up and play with the guys! The next thing I knew I got a phone call from Sammy, who was the nicest guy in the world. He’s so direct and so present. "Everybody says you're the guy. Chad says you're the guy. I don't want to do it without Chad, but you will be able to keep this thing going. You hit hard and you've got the crazy energy of Chad." I headed up to jam with them for the first time. I had five projects going on at the time but I said, "I'll cancel them to play in this band!" This was the supergroup I'd always dreamed about being in. + + + + +Michael Anthony: I was excited to play with Kenny because he’s played with everybody under the sun! At first, when he came to jam with us in the studio when we were thinking about going out and touring, he'd come in and written out all the drum parts. That’s what he does when he comes in for a session. I remember him and me sitting there before Joe and Sam came in, and I was looking at him, and he had his music stand and was putting all the charts up, and I said, "Kenny, you know as soon as you know all that, you're tearing all that shit up and throwing it out, right? Because that isn't what this band’s about. We want Kenny Aronoff; we don't want a Chad clone. You gotta be you. That’s why we wanted you to come in and jam with us." So as he became more comfortable with us three and hanging out. We made him feel like we wanted him to be part of the band instead of a hired gun on drums. Once he got really comfortable with that, he probably got almost as close to being as crazy as Chad as you can get. It was great then, because it was like, "Alright, Kenny, do your own thing!" + + + + +Kenny Aronoff: We must have sounded pretty good by the end of that first jam because the next day we did the "Big Foot" video and it all just worked. They made me feel so comfortable and they were all the easiest guys to get along with. Sammy decided, "Yeah, let’s go for it," and we hit the road. I've played in great bands, but every single player in Chickenfoot is a virtuoso. Chickenfoot is one of the top three bands I've ever played live with in my life. With Joe, what shocked me when he started playing was his rhythmic feel, which was un-fucking-real! To me, one of the greatest assets of a guitar player is how they play rhythm guitar, and a lot of them don't get it. He gets it. The placement of his 8th notes is so outstanding to me because I try to line my hi-hat up with the rhythm guitar player. If the rhythm guitar player is sitting in the pocket, I put my hi-hat right where his guitar rhythm is and decide then where to put my kick and snare. In that band, Michael was the perfect bass player, but it was Joe who I focused on. It’s not the most typical approach. + + + +I loved the fact that Kenny was a great drummer with super energy. Like Chad, he loves to pick up on the energy of a band and just drive it into the stratosphere, which is a really important part of what Chickenfoot is. Kenny’s a bit different from Chad when it comes to where he places his groove. Kenny lays the snare and propels the band with his hi-hat like nobody else. That’s different from Chad, who propels the band with his kick and brings the band back with the snare, but sort of dances around with the hat. Kenny’s style of drumming is quite unique, actually, and he definitely goes a little bit crazy with us. When he’s playing with John Fogerty, he’s got a very strict set of guidelines that he’s got to stick to, but with us, we've told him, "Go crazy!" + +With Chickenfoot, I'd like to think that we'll be doing the exact same thing ten years from now. I know Sam’s always going to write and record music because that’s just part of who he is. He’s so creative, he’s always writing, he always has energy to sing, and he likes communicating with people. + + +Michael Anthony: We need to keep Chickenfoot on more of the front burner or close to the front of one of the rear burners. When I practice at home, I'll put on old Van Halen songs and jam to a lot of the songs. The other day, I actually put the first Chickenfoot record on and jammed to a couple of the songs. I put my bass down and just cranked it up and sat there listening to it, thinking, "Fuck, what a great album!" As long as everybody in the band does that every once in a while, listens to the music, and then remembers just how great it is, and how much fun we have together, I'm sure they'll remember what a great time we all have when we're all jamming together and we'll do another album. + + + + +Chad Smith: Chickenfoot is something I would love to keep doing. I know I'm the guy who’s been holding it up doing the Chili Peppers the last couple of years. The band started out as me having a break and wanting to go play—then all of a sudden, everybody liked it and we made a second record, and I had to go back out on the road with the Chilis. I'm not going to have another window where I have two years off and can go do another Chickenfoot tour like we did for that first record, but I know we really enjoy playing music with each other, and really love creating music together. To me, even if it was just for that—just to make records, even if I couldn't tour—I would just love to get together and have fun and make new music. I would love to. We are friends and we have a good time together. At this late stage in the game of rock 'n' roll, if you can put that together and have people enjoy each other—not only musically but personally—then I'll look forward to hanging out with them. It’s fun, and if you keep it fun it stays that way! + + + + + +CHAPTER 23 * * + +Unstoppable Momentum —2013 + + +"When it comes to giving every last drop of blood, sweat, tears and soul to your music, Satriani has few equals. He is relentlessly hardworking. . . His 14th studio album to date, it is also one of his most wildly imaginative and stylistically diverse." + +—Guitar World magazine + + + +My musical life has been like a huge snowball rolling down a hill— it just keeps getting bigger and going faster as time goes on, and the more records I put out and the more live performances I do, the more exciting the whole experience becomes. That’s what the song "Unstoppable Momentum" is really about: It’s the soundtrack to that realization. When I start to write a new song, it’s as if time stands still. It’s a uniquely private moment, when I'm alone in my studio and all of a sudden this feeling inside me blossoms and I express it musically. At that point there’s no responsibility to turn it into a full song or a recording, to create an arrangement, to play it in front of anybody, or to see how it does on the radio. The music is still mine— it’s free. It’s pure art, and nothing beats that feeling. As soon as that music leaves the studio, there are expectations. + +With those expectations come hard choices. If you are going to record that music, who’s going to play it? What gear will you use? Which studio are you going to use for tracking? Who is going to help you produce it? How will it do on the radio? Will it be suitable for live performance? How will critics review it? You're no longer in that moment where you've just written something for yourself. During those moments, I sometimes imagine I'm engaging in a pure, solitary pursuit, much like surfing, where it’s just you and Mother Nature. You're not really sharing what you do with anybody. It’s not being diluted by market concerns or any professional expectations. It’s a pure moment in life. I can identify with what painters feel when they finish that last stroke and stand back to look at their painting before anyone else has seen it. It’s a fantastic moment. I feel the same way when I've written something that captures exactly what I'm feeling and crystallizes that moment in musical form. + +In the old days, when I was getting ready to make a new record, I would listen to the demos endlessly. This time around, I kept telling myself I had to get away from that approach. So when I toured with Chickenfoot and then went on the subsequent G3 tours in 2012, I never brought any demos with me. There was a good month or two where I didn't listen to any demos at all. I just kept that music in my head and if I wanted to hear it, I would play it on the guitar. It would be a skeletal version of the song, without any set arrangement. It didn't have the trappings of a demo. This is an important point, because eventually you like what you keep hearing over and over again. They call it "demo-itis"! + +After I got back from the last G3 tour at the end of October 2012, I knew I had to get things together. I didn't know who was going to play on the record, or which songs I was going to record, and I also hadn't yet decided on what kind of album it would be. This was a very different way for me to work, but in the end, it all came together. I wound up using quite a lot of guitar and synth tracks recorded at my home studio from the year’s writing sessions. + +I'm happily blessed with being prolific, so I write constantly. Sometimes they're full pieces, sometimes just little bits. I've got lots of those bits on my phone, on my laptop and my desktop, on scraps of paper, and in my notebooks. At the start of every recording project, the task is to assemble all these bits, see where I'm heading creatively, and make sure there isn't a diamond in the rough that I've forgotten about. Sometimes you come across a complete song, like "Jumpin' Out," or sometimes it’s a little piece of something, like with "Can't Go Back." That was just a little riff I'd recorded on my phone. It came to me one day when there were a bunch of guys doing construction in the house, and the kitchen was the only place for me to hang out. I was sitting there with an acoustic guitar and I wrote that song while thinking about a friend of mine. I wrote maybe six to ten songs that day just sitting in the kitchen, exiled with my guitar. A week later when all the construction was finished, I brought all my notes down to the studio and came across that song. I'd forgotten what it was, but when I played it I instantly remembered the feeling I had when I wrote it, and the rest of the song just flowed. It seems like there’s a constant flow of music in my head. + +When I started writing "A Door into Summer," it had that wonderful feel-good vibe, like summer’s coming and school is ending. It was that same kind of vibe that inspired me to write "Summer Song" back in late 1990. When someone hears a song that resonates with them and some part of their life, that song then becomes a key that unlocks their emotions and memories. I started to think about a new kind of summer song, twenty years later. This time around, I went deeper. + +I brought the first demo into the Chickenfoot III sessions and told Sam, "You don't have to sing the verse. You can talk it." I thought it would be cool to do a song where Sam talked the verses, then sang the choruses. We played it for about fifteen minutes and the band looked at me like I was crazy! I said to myself, "All right, wrong time, wrong band for this song," but I remember going home that day thinking that song had a future with me. I just didn't know how to play it yet. Over the next two years, I would listen to the song over and over again and would sing a kind of guitar melody that I thought would work really well. I kept the melody in my head, vibing on it internally, so that when I finally was ready to record it, the melody would sound natural and relaxed. Ultimately, I wanted it to be about my memories, growing up on the East Coast when winter was over and spring was giving way to summer. School was ending and there were going to be the sort of crazy adventures and new experiences that are so important when you're a young kid. I was celebrating all of those memories. + +I went through a similar experience, on a different emotional level, while writing "Shine On American Dreamer." The imagery I had in my head was that of a battered Cadillac, which is quintessentially American, driving down a road. I could see it just being a great rock 'n' roll rally song, but the song was truthfully about me coming to grips with the economic turmoil that had culminated in market crashes and economic devastation for millions of people around the world in 2008. That really was part of the failure of the American Dream. My grandparents came from Italy, believed in that American Dream, and worked so hard to accomplish it. It wasn't lost on me after reading several books about that economic collapse that a small group of people driven totally by greed would misuse the American Dream and completely destroy the lives of so many people, not only in the U.S.A. but all around the world. In part, what they did was taint that dream for future generations. What I hope the song inspires is a feeling that what we need to do is to keep working and tweaking and fixing our own individual goals and actions to make the American Dream a reality again. + +That’s a really tough subject to write a rock song about, and it’s even tougher without lyrics, but that subject is what got me to play with the emotion I put into it. That’s why the guitar solo is so expressive. It’s not just a straight-electric, hyper-Chuck Berry solo; it’s got a wild, emotional, yet classical sound to it. I wanted to express something heartbreaking during this solo. I also used elements of repetition in the arrangement. It’s the only song on the record that has that kind of intense repetition, the playing of a melodic riff over and over again, and that represented to me how difficult it is to keep a country on course. If you look at the history of the world, nothing lasts. Every country just dissolves and civilizations crumble. + +Keeping the American Dream going will require effort from every American. I asked myself at one point, "Are you crazy, Joe? Can you actually represent this in a song? Will people get it?" Eventually, I get to a point where I just do whatever I have to do to get the music to sound truthful to me. If someone decides later they want to play that song while they're working out, snowboarding, or driving in their car, that’s cool. It’s not my job to force people to think of the song the way I thought of it. Eventually, the artist has to give it away and move on and create more art. + +"Jumpin' In" and "Jumpin' Out" were two songs I wrote and recorded on the same day and then stored in my "Possible Recording Project" folder on my computer. Apparently, after I recorded the demo to "Jumpin' In," I had written an alternate version, "Jumpin' Out." I'd recorded the whole song and totally forgotten about it. I'd even forgotten how to play it! It was in A Hungarian minor and had this kind of swinging guitar-as-tenor-sax kind of thing with the band playing as an ensemble behind me. Upon rediscovering it, I realized that it was a really cool song and that both of these pieces could go together in a yin and yang kind of way—one song about not being afraid to take chances, the other about knowing when not to take chances. + +As the session dates were approaching, I sent Mike Fraser all the songs I was working on and asked, "Which ones do you like, which ones do you think suck, and which ones do you think I'm crazy to even attempt?" because I was at that point where I needed some feedback. + +I hadn't really decided who was going to play on the record until the last minute. I had to go with my gut on which group of guys would be the best to record the album with. It wasn't clear-cut to me this time around because my whole system of not bringing the demos out on the road kind of worked against me in this respect. Had I done so, a lot of that work of deciding who would play on the record would have been figured out. Then, by the time I arrived home, I could have told Mike exactly whom I wanted. It’s dangerous to wait until the last minute because sometimes the players you want aren't available. I can't really explain why I felt that Chris Chaney, Vinnie Colaiuta, and Mike Keneally would work well together. I took a big chance that there would be some unusual chemistry between them. It really did turn out to be a very fruitful decision, because those guys clicked, played so well together, and injected so much life into the material. + + + +Vinnie Colaiuta and Chris Chaney writing charts at Skywalker in '13 + +PHOTO BY ARTHUR ROSATO + +Vinnie Colaiuta has such a different personality and groove from any drummer I've ever played with. His musicianship is awesome, and his timing is the most natural thing you've ever heard in your life. It’s uncanny. My digital editor, Mike Boden, had first suggested Jane’s Addiction’s Chris Chaney on bass. We didn't know if we could get him, but we did, and he wound up being the perfect bassist for the sessions. He was fun, artistic, and had a huge bass sound. Mike Keneally was the last guy I chose. He was quite busy with his producing gigs and his work with Dethklok, and although he plays guitar most of the time, I was hiring him just to play keyboards. He’s a brilliant guitarist and keyboardist, and he can flow between the two. He can see the guitar in his head when he’s playing piano and vice versa. Mike seems to be free of any kind of methodical or didactic keyboard approach. He’s an amazingly pure musician, and extremely creative. + + + +Vinnie Colaiuta at Skywalker in '13 + +PHOTO BY ARTHUR ROSATO + +The level of professionalism with all these guys was really amazing. They came prepared, could change direction at the drop of a hat, and always gave tremendous performances. + + +Mike Fraser: These guys had amazing musicianship. I don't believe they had even heard the songs we were doing until probably an hour before we tracked the song. They'd sit there with their little earbuds on listening to Joe’s demo. Chris would chart the song out, and Vinnie would listen to the song once or twice, and then say, "Okay, let’s try this," and on almost every take, he'd take a different groove until he'd figured out in his mind what he wanted to play. By the time we'd hit take six or seven, he'd know exactly what he wanted to do and nail it. So again, it was a very quick process, and nobody got bogged down and tired of doing the same song all day long. It was a really fresh venture, and they all interplayed off each other, and there was just all this intuitive stuff that was amazing to watch! To see Joe off in his little guitar corner with a big grin on his face the whole time—it was a magical record! + + + +When you make a record, there’s all sorts of things that you're trying to manage: production, the musicians, choosing the right gear, and then there’s your playing and the songs themselves. Then you try to pull everything together and hope that it has that je ne sais quoi that makes it sparkle. What was fun about making this album was that all the elements fell into place in an exciting and natural way. The two weeks we spent in Vancouver mixing the album were emotionally thrilling because I knew I was moving forward into a new creative phase, and I had a great record as proof! + + + + + +Conclusion: 2013 and Beyond + +Once a new record is mixed, I don't spend a lot of time listening to it. I really need to focus on the live performance versions. Just looking at 2012 alone, I had to play "Satch Boogie," "Flying in a Blue Dream," "Crowd Chant," and many other fan favorites hundreds of times. What keeps things interesting is finding new ways to be expressive every night onstage. I try to find ways to apply who I am today to the songs I recorded ten, fifteen, or twenty-five years ago. When I listen to my older material, it’s more confusing than illuminating because it’s not how I experience those songs every night on stage. I do know those versions are what my fans relate to. The studio versions are in their playlists, so that’s what they're relating to day after day. That’s the total opposite of how I experience those songs. I'm living the "live" versions and hardly ever listen to the studio versions once they're done. + +It’s very difficult to say whether I prefer the studio or live versions of songs. One time in 2004, we were playing an outdoor gig in a town square in Wroclaw, which is in southwestern Poland. It was on this weekend where they have live music for almost twenty- four hours straight, all the way until sunrise, in this beautiful square that looks like it must have been built eight hundred years ago. We didn't really know what to expect when we went on. We started doing "Crowd Chant," which was making its first appearance on tour that year, and all of a sudden this crowd of twenty thousand people was synched up with the band and singing this song with us. It was just amazing. I couldn't believe that this little idea I had in my studio was now being chanted by twenty thousand people on this beautiful summer night in Poland! There have been so many nights like that all around the world, where an audience has come to the party with one particular song in their heads, or where they sing the melodies I'm playing on every song. When an audience is with you like that, it’s a very powerful experience. + +Throughout my career, all of my records have been cathartic to a large degree, because I made an unconscious decision way back during my first album that I would concentrate on material that was an expression of my feelings, experiences, and memories. I didn't turn on the radio, listen to the Top 20, and say, "Okay, now write your version of that." I know people who do that and are very good at it, but at the time, I knew this was such a long shot. I was not going to try to break down the door of the music business doing the trendy thing; I knew I had to follow my own path. Whether it sold well or not, I needed to be happy with it artistically. I still feel that way. + +Leonardo da Vinci said, "Art is never finished, only abandoned." I believe this to be true. It’s the letting go of a record, a song, or even a solo that still remains so very difficult for me, and the act is so very cathartic, even after all these years. I still, however, find the process completely exhilarating. I was born to make music in a time when musicianship and originality were celebrated, and they still are— that’s good fortune. + +I wish I could go back and rewrite, rerecord, and replay so much of my music, but I've learned to respect the gift of time over the years. One’s early recordings are like outrageous candid photos taken at a crazy party you wish you could forget, but there they are, reminders of who you were at a specific place and time. They reveal things about yourself that perhaps you missed the first go-round. + +Writing this book has been cathartic enough for me, but not nearly as intense as reviewing John Cuniberti’s wonderful remastering of my studio catalog. He has injected new life into the albums and made them sound more alive and exciting. Even though it’s quite thrilling to undertake such a sweeping retrospective, I still prefer moving forward and not looking back. As I write this passage, I'm only halfway through the Unstoppable Momentum tour, and my fingers are still itching to reinterpret the new material onstage. I want to wrestle with the complexity of "Lies and Truths." And I look forward to being immersed in the emotion of "I'll Put a Stone on Your Cairn" night after night. + +Looking back on almost thirty years of being a "solo artist," I am humbled by and grateful for all the love and support granted me by my fans, fellow musicians, managers, agents, promoters, record companies, press agents, and, most of all, my family. To be able to follow one’s heart and pursue one’s passion in life is truly a gift to be thankful for. Thank you! + + + + + +The Gear: Album by Album + + +The Joe Satriani EP 1984: '54 Fender Stratocaster, '83 Kramer Pacer, homemade Boogie Body and Rubina- painted Strat-type electrics, '67 Marshall Super Lead, '78 Marshall MKII 100 watt-head, Roland JC-120, Boss DS-1, OD-1, and CE-1 pedals, EH Big Muff Pi pedal, Echoplex Tape Delay, MXR Flanger, Maxon Digital Delay + +* * + +Not of This Earth 1986: '83 Kramer Pacer, Boogie Body and Rubina-painted Strat-type electrics, '67 Marshall Super Lead, '78 Marshall MKII 100-watt head, Roland JC-120, Scholz Rockman, silverface Fender Princeton Reverb amp, Boss DS-1, OD-1, BF-2, and CE-2 pedals + +* * + +Surfing with the Alien 1987: two '83 Kramer Pacers, Boogie Body and Rubina-painted Strat-type electrics, vin- tage Coral Sitar, '67 Marshall Super Lead, '78 Marshall MKII 100-watt head, Roland JC-120, Gorilla practice amp, Scholz Rockman, original Chandler Tube Drivers, Cry Baby wahs, Boss DS-1, DD-2, OD-1, and CE-2 pedals + +* * + +Dreaming #11 EP 1988: Ibanez JS1 Prototype "Black Dog," Scholz Rockman, '64 Fender P-Bass; live rig: Ibanez JS1; '67 Marshall Super Lead, '78 Marshall MKII 100-watt + +head, Cry Baby wahs, Boss DS-1, DD-2, and CE-1 pedals + +* * + +Flying in a Blue Dream 1989: Ibanez JS1 Prototype "Black Dog," white Ibanez JS1, '83 Kramer Pacer, Boogie Body Strat-type electric, Fender '63 reissue Stratocaster, '64 Fender P-Bass, '71 Marshall Super Lead, '78 Marshall MKII 100-watt head, Roland JC-120, Gorilla practice amp, Scholz Rockman, Mesa Boogie Mark llc 100-watt head, Deering 6-string banjo, Cry Baby wahs, Boss DS-1, OD-1, and CE-2 pedals + +* * + +The Extremist 1992: Ibanez JS6, JS1, and "Black Dog" guitars, '83 Kramer Pacer, Boogie Body Strat-type electric, Gibson Chet Atkins Nylon String Electric, '69 Marshall full stack, Marshall 6100, Roland JC-120, '64 Fender Vibrolux Reverb, Soldano 100-watt head, Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier head, Deering 6-string banjo, vintage National dobro, Gibson mandolin, Zoom headphone amp, '65 Gibson Hummingbird, Cry Baby wahs, Boss DS-1, OD-1, and CE-2 pedals + +* * + +Time Machine 1993: Ibanez JS guitars and Marshall 6100s for '90s live rig; '88 live rig: '67 Marshall Super Lead; studio tracks: Boogie Body Strat-type electric, Wells amp, Soldano, Marshall 6100, Roland JC-120, 5150 head, '58 Fender Esquire, Fender custom shop Stratocasters, Cry Baby wahs, Boss DS-1, DD-2, and CE-2 pedals + +* * + +Joe Satriani 1995: Ibanez JS guitars, '58 Fender Esquire, Deering 6-string banjo, vintage National dobro, '58 Gibson Les Paul Jr., '84 Gibson Flying V, Wells amp, Marshall 6100, Roland JC-120, Peavey 5150 head, Peavey Classic combo, vintage Gibson Discover Tremolo amp, '53 Fender Deluxe, vintage Rickenbacker lap steel, Chandler Baritone guitar, Cry Baby wahs, Boss DS-1, OC-2, BF-2, and CE-2 pedals, Fulltone Ultimate Octave, Digitech Whammy + +* * + +Crystal Planet 1998: Ibanez JS guitars, '58 Fender Esquire, '58 Fender Stratocaster, '58 Gibson Les Paul Jr., '84 Gibson Flying V, '83 Kramer Pacer, Wells amp, Marshall 6100, Roland JC-120, Peavey 5150 head, Gibson Lab Series combo, SansAmp rack and plug-in, Cry Baby wahs, Boss DS-1, DD-2, and CE-2 pedals, Fulltone Ultimate Octave, Digitech Whammy + +* * + +Engines of Creation 2000: Ibanez JS guitars, '58 Fender Stratocaster, '64 Fender P-Bass, Wells amp, Marshall 6100, SansAmp rack and plug-in amp, '64 Fender Bassman, Hafler Triple Giant rack-mount head, Cry Baby wahs, Boss DS-1, and CE-2 pedals, Fulltone Ultimate Octave, Digitech Whammy, Moogerfooger pedals, EH Micro Synth + +* * + +Strange Beautiful Music 2002: Ibanez JS guitars, Boogie Body Strat-type electric, '58 Fender Esquire, '58, '60, '61, and '69 Fender Stratocasters, '64 Fender P-Bass, '58 Gibson Les Paul Jr., Martin '48 000-18 acoustic, Deering 6-string banjo, '84 Kramer Pacer, '95 Gibson Les Paul, Wells amp, Marshall 6100, Roland JC-120, Peavey 5150 head, Jerry Jones, Coral Sitar, Chandler Baritone guitar, Cornford prototype heads, Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier head, Cry Baby wahs, Boss DS-1 and CE-2 pedals, Full- tone Ultimate Octave, Digitech Whammy, Echoplex Tape Delay, RMC wah pedals + +* * + +Is There Love in Space 2004: Ibanez JS guitars, Ibanez JS 7-string prototypes, '66 Fender Electric XII, Ricken- backer 360 12-string electric, '58 Fender Esquire, Fender custom shop Stratocaster, '64 Fender P-Bass, '48 Martin 000-18 acoustic, '50 Martin D-28, Wells amp, Marshall 6100 and '71 Super Lead heads, Roland JC-120, Peavey 5150 head, Peavey JSX head and cabinets, Vox AC30, Chandler Baritone guitar, Peavey Mini Colossal, Corn- ford prototype heads, Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier head, Cry Baby wahs, Boss DS-1, DM-2, DD-2, and CE-2 pedals, Fulltone Ultimate Octave, Digitech Whammy, Roger Mayer Deja Vibe + +* * + +Super Colossal 2006: Ibanez JS guitars, '58 Fender Esquire, '66 Fender Electric XII, Rickenbacker 360 12-string electric, Fender custom shop Stratocaster, '64 Fender P-Bass, '73 Fender P-Bass, '48 Martin 000-18 acoustic, Wells amp, Marshall 6100, Peavey 5150 head, Wizard 100-watt head, Peavey Mini Colossal, Doctor Z Mini Z, Cry Baby wahs, Boss DS-1 and CE-2 pedals, Full- tone Ultimate Octave, Digitech Whammy, EH POG pedal + +* * + +Professor Satchafunkilus and the Musterion of Rock 2008: Ibanez JS guitars, '58 Fender Esquire, Fender custom shop Stratocaster, '64 Fender P-Bass, '73 Fender P-Bass, '48 Martin 000-18 acoustic, '06 Gibson Gold Top Les Paul, Wells amp, Marshall 6100, JMP, and 800 heads, Roland JC-120, Peavey 5150 head, Wizard 100-watt head, Ben Fargen JS prototype head, Peavey Mini Colossal, Cry Baby wahs, Vox Big Bad Wah and Satchurator prototypes, Fulltone Ultimate Octave, Digitech Whammy, Boss OC-2 pedal, Roger Mayer Octavia + +* * + +Chickenfoot 2009: Ibanez JS guitars, '58 Fender Esquire, Fender custom shop Stratocaster, '48 Martin 000-18 acoustic, Rickenbacker 360 12-string electric, '06 Gibson gold top Les Paul, '06 Gibson JJP #1, Wells amp, Marshall 6100, Peavey 5150 head, Peavey JSX head and cabinets, Peavey JS prototype 100-watt head, Jerry Jones, Coral Sitar, Peavey Mini Colossal, Vox Big Bad Wah and Satchurator, Fulltone Ultimate Octave, Digitech + +Whammy, Roger Mayer Deja Vibe, Way Huge pedals + +* * + +Black Swans and Wormhole Wizards 2010: Ibanez JS guitars, '58 Fender Esquire, '69 Fender Stratocaster, '64 Fender P-Bass, '73 Fender P-Bass, '48 Martin 000-18 acoustic, '06 Gibson JPP #1, Jerry Jones Coral Sitar, '59 Gibson L-5, Wells amp, Marshall 6100 and '73 Super Lead, Peavey 5150 head, Wizard 100-watt head, Marshall JVM410HJS head prototype, '64 Fender Bassman, Two Rock Classic Reverb amp, Vox Big Bad Wah and Satchurator, Fulltone Ultimate Octave, Digitech Whammy, Roger Mayer Deja + +Vibe, Way Huge pedals, Sustainiac pickup system + +* * + +Chickenfoot III 2011: Ibanez JS guitars, '58 Fender Esquire, '06 Gibson JPP #1, '59 Gibson 335, '55 Gibson Les Paul gold top, Rickenbacker 360 12-string electric, Marshall JVM410HJS amps, '59 Fender Twin amp, '53 Fender Deluxe amp, Two Rock Classic Reverb amp, Vox Big Bad Wah and Time Machine pedals, EH POG pedal + +* * + +Unstoppable Momentum 2013: Ibanez JS guitars, Boogie Body Strat-type electric, '58 Fender Esquire, '06 Gibson JPP #1, '83 Gibson 335, '61 Fender Stratocaster, Marshall JVM410HJS amps, '59 Fender Twin amp and assorted '50s Fender amps, Peavey 5150 head, Wizard 100-watt head, Roland JC-120, Fargen Retro Classic, '64 Fender Bassman, Two Rock Classic Reverb and 10th Anniversary amps, Vox Big Bad Wah and Time Machine pedals, Boss DM-2 and OC-2 pedals, Digitech Whammy, Sustainiac pickup system + + + + + +Acknowledgments + +This book started out as a crazy idea from the mind of author Jake Brown. He felt that even after fourteen studio albums much about my creative process was still a mystery to my fans and that they would love to have me shed some light on that process. As we brain- stormed the project it blossomed into something much bigger and more comprehensive than I could have imagined. I'm glad it did, and I thank Jake for coming to me with his idea. + +I actually tried writing an autobiography a few years ago, but found the whole thing to be too cathartic. I felt it was a bit too early in my life to be looking back on everything with such scrutiny, and so it fell by the wayside. This time around, Jake’s idea made more sense to me. We would concentrate on the studio albums, the work that goes into making a record, the creative process, the gear, and the colorful cast of characters who joined me along the way. Jake tirelessly interviewed not only me, but also everyone else who played a major role in helping me record my studio albums. He spoke with the musicians, engineers, producers, record company executives, etc. I must admit, I learned a thing or two about myself reading through the transcripts of those interviews. + +However streamlined Jake’s idea was, I found the whole process cathartic anyway. There was no escaping it in the end. The photographs alone brought back vivid memories both good and bad. Writing this book has proven to be hard work, too, but worthwhile and artistically reaffirming. It seems I've spent my whole life with a guitar strapped around my neck, trying to move forward, not looking back, always jumping into new musical territory. It’s been immensely interesting, artistically satisfying, and fun! Music helps me make sense of the world. I guess it always has. It’s taken a bit of brooding to sort things out along the way, but that process of digging deep into my soul everyday has defined a large part of my life, and has been the method behind my creativity. + +I would like to thank Jake Brown; Glenn Yeffeth and all the good people at BenBella Books; my manager, Mick Brigden; my agent, Wayne Forte; and all my friends and musical cohorts who contributed their precious time and effort into making this book truthful, accurate, and fun to read. + +My parents John and Katherine Satriani must have seen very early in my life that I was crazy about music, and they supported and nurtured me through it all. There is no way to thank them enough. My siblings deserve an apology for all the noise I made growing up, and a big thank-you as well, as they too helped and guided me on my musical adventures. + +Special thanks to my wife, Rubina, and my son, ZZ, for everything they are, the lights of my life. + +—JOE SATRIANI + +* * + +First and foremost, I would like to thank the great Joe Satriani for granting me this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity as a biographer to collaborate on the writing of a book that factually kept me from retiring in 2011 after thirty-three books, took me to another level as a writer creatively, and gave my career a second life. I'll be forever grateful as a fan and author for the honor. + +A million thanks to the indespensible Mick Brigden, the greatest music manager I've ever had the privilege of working with in fifteen years in the business. This book would not have been completed without your steady hand helping to guide the process, from arranging interviews with players and producers to acting as point person with our publisher once the deal was done. It has been a true privilege. + +Thank you to the colorful cast of talented souls who contributed their time and interview commentary to help tell this amazing story, including the awesome Steve Vai, John Cuniberti, Mike Fraser, Glyn Johns, Andy Johns (R.I.P.), Sammy Hagar, Chad Smith, Michael Anthony, Larry LaLonde, Bongo Bob Smith, Jeff Holt, Jeff Campitelli, Gregg and Matt Bissonette, Eric Caudieux, Kenny Aronoff, Brian May, Billy Gibbons, Robert Fripp, and Stu Hamm. + +Many thanks to our amazing publisher, BenBella Books, for giving this book a home, specifically publisher Glenn Yeffeth for first believing in the project, and all of the gifted staff who worked so hard on this book, including our awesome editor Erin Kelley, Adrienne Lang, Alicia Kania, Jennifer Canzoneri, Sarah Dombrowsky, Lindsay Marshall, Jenna Sampson, Monica Lowry, Debbie Harmsen, Adia Herrera, et al. + +On the personal side, first and foremost, a thousand thank- yous to my Carriedoll for giving up two years of Sundays to my workaholism/tolerating my six-day work weeks necessary to undertake the writing of this opus and for inspiring me tirelessly along the way, I love you beyond all words and songs; our devoted pets, Scooter and Hannie; to my wonderful parents, James and Christina Brown, thank you for all your tireless support and love throughout my creative life as a musician and writer; my brother, Josh; the extended Thieme and Brown families. Thank you to my lifelong cast of amazing friends: Alex, Ellen, Jackson, and Willamena Schuchard; Andrew and Sarah McDermott; Sean Fillinich and Lisa Wood; Cris Ellauri; Adam and Shannon Perri; Alexandra Federov and Larry Jiminez; Paul and Helen Watts; Bob and Cyenne O'Brien; Richard, Lisa, and Regan Kendrick; Joe Viers; Aaron C. Harmon; Tony and Yvonne Rose; John Cerullo; Kenny Aronoff; and anyone and everyone else whom I've had the chance to share this wild ride called life with over the past thirty-eight years! + +—JAKE BROWN + + + diff --git a/Books/SongWriting/Songwriting - Bernstein, Samuel.txt b/Books/Music/SongWriting/Songwriting - Bernstein, Samuel.txt similarity index 100% rename from Books/SongWriting/Songwriting - Bernstein, Samuel.txt rename to Books/Music/SongWriting/Songwriting - Bernstein, Samuel.txt diff --git a/Books/SongWriting/Writing Better Lyrics - Pattison, Pat.txt b/Books/Music/SongWriting/Writing Better Lyrics - Pattison, Pat.txt similarity index 100% rename from Books/SongWriting/Writing Better Lyrics - Pattison, Pat.txt rename to Books/Music/SongWriting/Writing Better Lyrics - Pattison, Pat.txt diff --git a/Books/Music/Theory/Augmented Chords.txt b/Books/Music/Theory/Augmented Chords.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..49257ab --- /dev/null +++ b/Books/Music/Theory/Augmented Chords.txt @@ -0,0 +1,102 @@ +Augmented Triads + +An augmented triad is a 3-note chord built by stacking two major 3rds. The term augmented comes into play because the interval from the root of the chord to the 5th is an augmented 5th. Another helpful approach for constructing an augmented triad is to begin with a major triad and then raise the 5th by a step. (Think: Root, 3rd, ?5). + +Major 7(#5) Chords + +Major 7(?5) Chords combine an augmented triad with a major 7th (Think: Root, 3rd, ?5, ?7). Building this chord on the note C, we get CEG?B. Common chord symbols for this chord include C?(?5), C?+ and Cmaj7(?5). You may even see this chord written as a slash chord, E/C. + +Dominant 7(#5) Chords + +Dominant 7(?5) Chords combine an augmented triad with a minor 7th. (Think: Root, 3rd, ?5, ?7). Building this chord on the note C, we get CEG?B?. Common chord symbols for this chord are C7+ and C7(?5). This chord is often associated with the Whole Tone Scale, particularly when the ?9 is included, as in C9(?5). However, C7(?5) is also found in the Altered Scale, where it can be voiced with either the ?9 or ?9. + +Where do augmented chords come from? + +Augmented chords can sometimes be confusing for music students. Certainly, one contributing factor is that out of the four types of triads (major, minor, diminished and augmented), the augmented triad is the only one that does not occur naturally within the major scale. Rather, the augment triad is a diatonic chord that occurs in both the Harmonic Minor Scale and the Melodic Minor Scale (ascending only). In both scales, the augmented triad occurs as the 3-chord (?+) as a result of the raised 7th scale degree. + +The following examples notate and demonstrate the A Harmonic Minor Scale with its corresponding diatonic triads and 7th chords on piano. Notice that it is the 3-chord that produces the augmented chords (C+ and C?+). + +Augmented Triads and Harmonic Function + +Even though the augmented triad occurs in both the Harmonic Minor and Melodic Minor scales as a ?+ chord, it rarely functions this way. In other words, most augment triads youll encounter wont make sense as a 3-chord of a minor key. More often, augmented triads will appear to be a ?+, ?+ or ?+ in a major key. However, as well see later in this lesson, the augmented 5th interval usually results from chromatic voice leading over a major triad (?, ? or ?). In such cases, the presence of the augmented 5th interval is best understood as a passing tone. + +In addition to the Harmonic Minor Scale and the Melodic Minor Scale, there is an additional scale that is also closely associated with augmented chords. The Whole Tone Scale produces augmented triads and dominant 7(?5) chords on each scale degree. For a deep dive on the Whole Tone Scale, check out our Quick Tip on Whole Tone ScaleThe Complete Piano Guide (Int). +How many augmented triads are there? + +Unlike most other chords which have 12 unique transpositions, there are only 4 unique augmented triads. This is because most other chords are asymmetrical (with the exception of fully-diminished 7th chords). However, the symmetrical structure of augmented chords means that all its chord tones are equidistant. In fact, the interval from the 5th of the chord up to the root is also a major 3rd. Therefore, an augmented triad divides the octave into 3 equal parts. Each part is comprised of 4 half-steps (or a major 3rd). Lets take a closer look by constructing augmented triads on the roots C, D?, D and E?. + +Symmetrical Structure = Limited Transpositions + +Suppose we were to build an E Augmented triad. This chord is spelled EG?B?. However, these are the exact same notes as C Augmented (CEG?). In fact, C Augmented in first inversion (C+/E) is identical to E Augmented in root position. As a result, augmented triads dont have an identifiable root, as far as the ear is concerned. How can this be? Well, its similar to the fact that a chromatic scale doesnt produce or imply any identifiable tonic note. + +How to Spell Augmented Triads + +Perhaps youre wondering why some of these augmented triads are spelled as such? One might protest, Is it really necessary to spell B Augmented as BD#F??? (Note, the ?? symbol represents double-sharp). Why not spell it BD#G? The answer has to do with what we mean when we use the words triad and root. Remember, triad does not mean a chord with 3 notesthats a frequent misconception. For example, a sus chord like Gsus4 (GCD) is not a triad, even though it contains 3 notes. Instead, the term triad means a 3-note chord that can be arranged as a stack of 3rds (Think: Root3rd5th). Since Gsus4 cannot be arranged as a stack of 3rds, it is not a triad. However, it still has a rootthe note G. The root is the fundamental note upon which a chord structure is built. Sus4 chords use the structure 145. + +So why cant B Augmented be spelled BD#G? Actually, in one sense it can, and in another it cannot. The notes BD#G are still a triad because they can be stacked in 3rds. For example, if you rearrange the notes in the order GBD#, then you have a stack of 3rds with a clear root-position triadic shape. However, B is no longer the root! The root of GBD# is the note G, and that chord is named G Augmented. + +So, is there a difference between G Augmented and B Augmented? The sound is identical when they are arranged with the same note on bottom. However, they come from different Harmonic Minor Scales. For example, G Augmented is the ?+ chord of E minor, whereas B Augmented is the ?+ chord of G? minor. In modern practice, most arrangers opt to spell augmented chords in a manner that is easiest to read. + +Triad Pairs (Intermediate) + +Professional jazz musicians frequently improvise by drawing on a melodic device known as triad pairs. To improvise with triad pairs, jazz pianists select two complimentary triads from a common scale and then create melodies that alternated back and forth between these triadic shapes. + +Generally speaking, pianists prefer to pair adjacent triads from their source scale. This way, the triad pair will not have any common tones. In other words, one triad pair typically contains 6 unique notes. If you were to choose non-adjacent triads from the source scale, the resulting common tone(s) will reduce your total number of notes. + +Lets consider an example of triad pairs to bring this concept into sharp focus. For this illustration, well create a triad pair with two augmented chords: C Augmented (CEG?) and D Augmented (DF?A?). These two triads are adjacent chords drawn from the C Whole Tone Scale (CDEF?G?A?). + +The first step to improvise with triad pairs is to practice blocking the selected pair through each inversion. This familiarizes your hand with the shapes that youll be alternating between when improvising with the selected triad pair. Therefore, well start by playing C+ and D+ in root position. Then, well continue to ascend through each inversion. Afterward, its a good idea to practice playing the triad pair in descending blocks too. + +Source Scale for the Dominant 7(?13) Sound + +You may be wondering where this voicing comes from? Notice that when we resolve A?7(?13) to D?6/9, our melodic line includes the ?9 and the ?9. In this case, the source scale for A?7(?13) is the A? Altered Scale, which is technically spelled as A?B??C?D??E??F?G?A?. However, that is a nightmare to try to read! Therefore, its much more helpful to think of the parent scale enharmonically as the G? Altered Scale, which is G?ABCDEF?. Do you see the C Augmented triad (CEG?) contained within the scale? Since this specific example is uses the Altered Scale, the chord symbol A?7alt is also appropriate here. If you are not yet familiar with the Altered Scale, be sure to check out our Quick Tip on The Altered ScaleThe Complete Guide. + +In other cases, a Dominant 7(?13) chord symbol does not necessarily imply a fully altered sound. In fact, since this particular voicing only contains 4 notes (A?CE?G?), its impossible to pin down a specific source scale or parent scale without a musical context. For example, all of the following scales produce the Dominant 7(?13) sound. + + Mixolydian?13 Scale: 12345?6?7 + Phrygian Dominant Scale: 1?2345?6?7 + Altered Scale: 1?2?3?4?5?6?7 + Whole Tone Scale: 123?4?5?6 + + +ets find our C Augmented upper structure triad in each scale built on the root of A?. The notes of C+ are underlined for you. + + A? Mixolydian?13 Scale: A?B?CD?E?F?G? + A? Phrygian Dominant Scale: A?B??CD?E?F?G? + G? Altered Scale: G?ABCDEF? + A? Whole Tone Scale: A?B?CDEF? + +Why is this important? There are two reasons. First, you want to be sure to associate the UST ?+ voicing with each potential chord symbol, which includes V7(?13), V7(?5) and V7alt. Secondly, when you are improvising, if you see a V7(?13) chord symbol, just know that it doesnt always represent the same scale, so a little detective work is in order. You could choose any of the scales shown above. However, a good rule of thumb is to look to the melody to supply the harmonic context, as we did in the example above. + +C Augmented UST Over Other V7(?13) Chords + +Earlier, we discussed the symmetrical structure of augmented triads and examined how each augmented triad shape has three unique spellings. Since C Augmented has two other spellings, it should come as no surprise then that it can serve as a UST for two additional V7(?13) chords. If fact, the roots of the three V7(?13) chords that share C+ as an UST outline an augmented triad themselves. In other words, C+ works as a UST for C7(?13), E7(?13) and A?7(?13). Moreover, its not even necessary to change the spelling of the UST. + +C Augmented UST Over Other V7(?13) Chords + +Earlier, we discussed the symmetrical structure of augmented triads and examined how each augmented triad shape has three unique spellings. Since C Augmented has two other spellings, it should come as no surprise then that it can serve as a UST for two additional V7(?13) chords. If fact, the roots of the three V7(?13) chords that share C+ as an UST outline an augmented triad themselves. In other words, C+ works as a UST for C7(?13), E7(?13) and A?7(?13). Moreover, its not even necessary to change the spelling of the UST. + +Augmented USTs for Lydian Dominants + +We can also use Augmented USTs to voice the Lydian Dominant sound. We get these brilliant and uplifting dominant chords from the Lydian Dominant Scale. This scale uses the scale degrees 123?456?7. + +Lets begin by considering the D Lydian Dominant Scale. This scale is DEF?G?ABC?D. Do you see the C Augmented triad (CEG?) contained in this scale? Since C+ naturally occurs in this scale, we can use it as an upper structure triad to voice the Lydian Dominant sound, just like we did for the Dominant 7(?13) sound. We simply need to add a D7 chord shell in the left hand. + +You might ask, But wait, wont this sound the same as the Dominant 7(?13) voicing? No, because the relationship of the augmented triad to the root of the dominant 7th chord is different, as well soon see. + +C Augmented UST Over Other Dominant 9(?11) Chords + +Of course, there are two other Lydian Dominant chords that share C Augmented as and upper structure. They are G?9(?11) and B?9(?11). Notice that the roots of these related Lydian Dominants outline an augmented triad: G?B?D. + +Lets play an example using G?9(?11), shown below. Notice, for this chord, the C Augmented upper structure is not spelled quite correctly, enharmonically speaking. Technically, the 7th of G?7 is the note F?, not E?. However, it is much easier to read this voicing by spelling the right hand as a C+ upper structure and the left hand as a Root+3rd chord shell. + +Since the C Augmented triad is built on the #4 of G?7, we can call this a UST #?+. However, what key has G?7 as a 5-chord? How about C? majoryuck! Therefore, well spell this Lydian Dominant enharmonically as F?9(?11) and well resolve it to B major. However, our UST is not #?+ anymore. It is now a UST ??+. This is a minor detail, but one worth noting. + +We have one more Lydian Dominant chord that can use C Augmented as and upper structure. Lets play our augmented UST for B?9(?11). + +Augmented USTs for Minor-Major 7th Chords + +We can also the augmented triad as a UST for Minor-Major 7th Chords. Jazz pianists frequently substitute minor-major 7th chords in place of regular minor 7th chords, especially in contexts in which the minor chord is not a 2-chord. For example, pianists sometimes play a I? as the final chord of a minor 2-5-1 progression. In addition, jazz pianists frequently use inner voice movement to create voice leading from R??7??7??6. This melodic gesture passes through a minor triad, a minor-major 7th chord, a minor 7th chord and a minor 6th chord, all with the same root (see example below). + +Lets play Am(maj7) using a C Augmented UST. Our right hand will play CEG? while our left hand plays an open 5th with the notes A and E. Since our right is playing the ?7 (the note G?), we must be sure to not play the ?7 in our left hand (the note G?). However, you can play the ?6 in the left hand if you want. + diff --git a/Books/Music/Theory/Basic Music Thoery For Beginners.txt b/Books/Music/Theory/Basic Music Thoery For Beginners.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3df43d6 --- /dev/null +++ b/Books/Music/Theory/Basic Music Thoery For Beginners.txt @@ -0,0 +1,313 @@ + +Basic Music Theory for Beginners The Complete Guide + +This basic music theory guide looks at fundamental concepts musicians use to understand, analyze, and create music. +desk with laptop and sheet music +What is Music Theory? + + + +Music theory is a practice musicians use to understand and communicate the language of music. Musical theory examines the fundamentals of music. It also provides a system to interpret musical compositions. Music theory is a great tool for electronic and pop musicians to elevate tracks. + + + +For example, basic music theory defines the elements that form harmony, melody, and rhythm. It identifies compositional elements such as song form, tempo, notes, chords, key signatures, intervals, scales, and more. It also recognizes musical qualities such as pitch, tone, timbre, texture, dynamics, and others. +How to Learn Music Theory? + +Music theory is a complex and extensive subject. There are several practices, disciplines, and concepts. + +Best to learn music fundamentals first before exploring advanced music theory. The building blocks that form musical compositions include: + + Harmony + Melody + Rhythm + +Solidly understanding these three core elements will help you learn basic music theory. +What Is Harmony in Music? + +Harmony is when multiple notes or voices play simultaneously to produce a new sound. The combined sounds in harmonies complement one another and sound pleasing. + +Chords and chord progressions are examples of harmony. A chord has three or more notes that play at the same time. The chords and chord progressions in a piece of music support or complement the melody. + +Combining vocal parts also creates harmony. The combined voices of a choir are a perfect example. The multiple voices that make up a choir blend to make a harmonious sound. + +However, not all harmonies are pleasing to our ear. There are two main types of harmony: dissonant and consonant . + + Dissonant harmony adds notes that do not sound pleasant when played together. The result adds tension and makes the chord sound unstable. This tension releases by resolving to consonant chords. Dissonant interval examples are seconds, sevenths, and ninths. + Consonant harmony sounds stable and pleasing. All the notes in a consonant chord have intervals that play nicely together. Constant chords also transition smoothly with one another in a progression. Consonant interval examples are unison, thirds, fifths, and octaves. + +Musicians combine consonant and dissonant harmonies to make the music more exciting and intriguing. +What Is Melody in Music? + +Melody is a succession of notes or voices arranged into a musical phrase. A songs melody is often the most memorable and recognizable part. + +Melodies can be created with instruments or vocals. They have two or more notes in a sequence that sound musically pleasing. Most compositions consist of multiple melodies that repeat. + +The two primary elements of a melody are pitch and rhythm : + + Pitch is the audio vibration produced by an instrument or voice. Its how high or low a note will sound. Arranging these pitches in a series creates a melody. + Rhythm or duration is the length each pitch will sound. These durations are divided into beat divisions like whole notes, half notes, quarter notes, triplets, etc. + +Melodies also have two types of melodic motion: conjunct or disjunct . + + Conjunct motion is when notes move by whole or half steps. Conjunct is also the most natural and comfortable to play and sing. There are shorter leaps between notes. + Disjunct motion has larger leaps between notes. Large interval leaps between notes can make the melody difficult to play or sing. Disjunct motion is also less memorable and smooth sounding. + +Musicians combine conjunct and disjunct motion to give melodies more variation and interest. +What Is Rhythm in Music? + +Rhythm is an essential element of music with more than one meaning. For example: + + Rhythm is a recurring movement of notes and rests (silences) in time. Its the human perception of time. + Rhythm also describes a pattern of strong and weak notes or voices that repeat throughout a song. These patterns can be created with drums, percussion, instruments, and vocals. + +The basic elements that comprise musical rhythm include: + + Beat A repeating pulse that underlies a musical pattern + Meter A specific pattern of strong and weak pulses + Time Signature The number of beats per measure + Tempo (BPM) Indicates how fast or slow a piece of music plays + Strong and Weak Beats Strong beats are the downbeats, and weak beats are the offbeats + Syncopation Rhythms that accent or emphasize the offbeats + Accents Refers to the intensity or emphases placed on notes + +Understanding rhythm will help you create great harmonies and melodies. + +Also, the rhythm section or pulse propels a piece of music. It acts as the rhythmic backbone for other musical elements. +The Benefits of Music Theory: Why Study Music Theory? + +Learning basic music theory is essential for enhancing creativity and developing musical awareness. Its a challenging but rewarding set of skills to learn. + +Knowing how music works will make the music production process easier and help you become an effective music producer. + +Is learning music theory required? No. However, you can benefit from learning some aspects of music theory. + +For example, learning basic music theory will: + + Improve your musical development + Help you understand how music works + Help you break through creative blocks + Make it easier to build chord progressions and melodies + Help you make informed composition decisions + Help you achieve expression and evoke emotion + Improve your critical listening skills + Speed up your workflow + Improve your musical form skills + Make it easy to communicate with other musicians + Deepen your appreciation for music + Improve your improvisation skills + Improve your song arrangement skills + Help you discover new creative possibilities + +Note : Musical theory is not a set of rules or guidelines you must follow. Its only a tool to help you understand and explain how music works. +The Fundamentals of Music Theory (Music Theory for Dummies) + +This basic music theory for beginners guide examines the core music fundamentals. It also provides insight into the basic building blocks of music that form harmony, melody, and rhythm. +Musical Notes and Intervals + +Lets start this music theory for beginners guide by going over harmony and melody. This section describes all the available notes and the specific relationships between them. +A piano keyboard with the letters of the alphabet on it +The Music Alphabet + +Notes are the building blocks for all music. The musical alphabet consists of seven letters: A, B, C, D, E, F, G . Each note has a unique pitch. +The 12 Keys of Music + +There are 12 notes on the piano keyboard: A, A#/B?, B, C, C#/D?, D, D#/E?, E, F, F#/G?, G, G#/A? . + +The same 12 notes repeat upwards and downwards in octaves. +White Keys + +The white keys on a piano play the natural notes in a scale: A, B, C, D, E, F, G . + +Playing only white keys places you in either the key of C major or A minor. +Black Keys + +The black keys on a piano play the flat and sharp notes in a scale: A#/B?, C#/D?, D#/E?, F#/G?, G#/A? . + +Each note has a symbol: ? for flat and # for sharp. Playing a combination of white and black keys allows you to write in all available key signatures. +Intervals + +An interval is a distance between two notes. There are several intervals. Measure these intervals by the number of half steps, whole steps, and their position in the scale. + + A half step interval is one semitone + A whole step interval is two semitones + Two half steps make a whole-step + +Intervals are also the foundation of both harmony and melody. Playing two or more notes at the same time creates harmonic intervals (chords). Playing single notes in a sequence makes melodic intervals (melodies). + +Furthermore, we describe intervals by number (distance) and prefix (quality). The interval number represents the number of half-steps between two notes. These numbers are 1st (unison), 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th (octave) . + +Lastly, intervals have using a prefix to describe their quality. The five interval qualities are major (M), minor (m), perfect (P), augmented (A), and diminished (d) . +Octaves + +Octaves are the next highest or lowest pitch of the same note. The interval between a note and a note double its frequency is an octave. For example, an octave up from C1 on a piano is C2. An octave down would be C0. + +There are 12 semitones in the octave. These pitches repeat in the same order throughout the range of human hearing. +Key Signatures + +Key signatures tell you what notes in a scale are sharp (?) or flat (?). There are twelve key signatures, each derived from the twelve available notes. + +Key signatures also help identify the key of a song, which is the tonal center. For example, a song in the key of A minor uses notes from the A minor scale. +Music Scales and Modes + +Musical scales form the building blocks of music. Understanding musical scales and their functions is essential when learning basic music theory. + +This section looks at the two most common scales, their scale degrees, and the seven music modes. +A table showing the key of a song +Music Scales + +A music scale is a set of notes within an octave arranged by their pitch. The ascending or descending interval relationships among the note pitches define each scale. Moreover, the notes from a scale form melodies and harmonies. + +There are several types of scales. However, the two main types are the major scale and the minor scale. You can build both major and minor scales from any note. How you use them depends on the pattern of intervals you use. +Major Scales + +There are twelve possible natural major scales. Natural major scales are bright, uplifting, and happy sounding. + +The seven notes in all major scales follow the same interval pattern: W-W-H-W-W-W-H (whole-whole-half-whole-whole-whole-half) . +Minor Scales + +Natural minor scales are dark, sad, and emotional sounding. The seven notes in all minor scales follow the same interval pattern: W-H-W-W-H-W-W (whole-half-whole-whole-half-whole-whole) . + +There are twelve possible natural minor scales. In addition, there are three variations of the minor scale: natural, harmonic, and melodic. +Scale Degrees + +Each note of a scale has a specific name related to its function, called a scale degree. The name is the function, and a number indicates its position on the scale. + +There are seven scale degrees. These names apply to all major and minor scales. Learning more about these functions takes us into advanced music theory. For now, its good to know the names: + + 1st Tonic + 2nd Supertonic + 3rd Mediant + 4th Subdominant + 5th Dominant + 6th Submediant + 7th Leading Tone + +Music can create and release tension. The function of a scale degree relates to the amount of tension created. It also helps you decide what note(s) should follow to resolve the tension. + +Moreover, remembering the different pitches in major and minor scales is difficult. Referring to the steps of the scale by numbers rather than notes makes it easier to remember. +Music Modes + + + +Musical modes are scales derived from a parent scale. There are seven music modes. + + + +Each mode is a slight variation of a scale. They use all the same notes and interval patterns as the parent scale. + +The main difference is the root note used to build the scale. Starting a scale on a different note defines the tonal center, giving it distinct melodic characteristics. + +The seven musical modes are: + + I Ionian (major scale) + ii Dorian (major scale starting on the 2nd degree) + iii Phrygian (major scale starting on the 3rd degree) + IV Lydian (major scale starting on the 4th degree) + V Mixolydian (major scale starting on the 5th degree) + vi Aeolian (natural minor scale or major scale starting on the 6th degree) + vii Locrian (major scale starting on the 7th degree) + +Learning musical modes goes beyond basic music theory and is more advanced. However, getting familiar with these terms and basic functions is helpful. +Counterpoint + +Counterpoint is the relationship between two or more melody lines played at the same time. These melodies or voices work together to create pleasant-sounding harmonies. + +The melodies that create counterpoint are dependent on each other to create harmony. However, they are independent in rhythm and contour. +Chords and Chord Extensions + +Chords are the harmonious building blocks of music. They evoke emotion and provide the foundation for creating melodies. + +Knowing how to build chords and how they interact with each other is essential when learning music theory. This section looks at basic chord types, chord extensions, and inversions. +Music Producer Playing Mini Keyboard +Photo by Toan Nguyen +Musical Chords + +A chord is a combination of two or more notes played at the same time. Theyre built off a single starting note called the root. + +You can create chords from all twelve notes. There are also four basic types of chords in music: + + Major Has a major third and a perfect fifth above the root + Minor Has a minor third and a perfect fifth above the root + Diminished Has a minor third and a diminished fifth above the root + Augmented Has a major third and an augmented fifth above the root + +The chords and chord progressions in a piece of music support or complement the melody. +Triad Chords + +The most basic chords are triads. A triad is a chord made of three notes. Triads have a root note, a third (four semitones above the root), and a perfect fifth (seven semitones above the root). + +Triads are also the foundation for more complex chords. For example, you can create seventh and ninth cords by adding notes above a tried. +Seventh Chords + +A seventh chord adds a note above the basic triad. Seventh chords have a root note, a third, a perfect fifth, and a seventh. + +For example, a C major seventh has the notes: CEG-B. There are also five main types of seventh chords: major, minor, dominant, diminished, and half-diminished. +Major Chords + +Major chords have a root note, a major third, and a perfect fifth. A chord with these three notes alone is a major triad. + +For example, a C major triad has the notes: C-E-G. You can also add notes to build more complex chords. +Minor chords + +Minor chords have a root note, a minor third, and a perfect fifth. A chord with these three notes alone is a minor triad. + +For example, a C minor triad has the notes C-E?-G. You can also add notes to build more complex chords. +Diminished Chords + +Diminished chords sound tense, dissonant, and dramatic. They have a root note, minor third, and a diminished fifth (six semitones above the root). + +For example, a C diminished triad has the notes: C-E?-G?. +Augmented Chords + +Augmented chords sound dissonant, unsettling, and mysterious. They have a root note, major third, and an augmented fifth (eight semitones above the root). + +For example, a C augmented triad has the notes: CEG#. +Chord Extensions + + + +Chord extension s are notes added to the basic triad beyond the seventh. These notes extend into the next octave. There are four chord extensions: the 9th, 11th, and 13th . + + + +Extended chords create a richer, more harmonically complex sound than basic major and minor triads. They also provide additional voice leading possibilities, which makes chord progressions sound more interesting. +Chord Inversions + +Chord inversions are variations of the same chord. Transposing the bottom note in a chord to the next octave creates an inversion. + +There are two main chord inversions: first inversion and second inversion . + + First Inversion Transposes the root note up one octave. The third of the triad becomes the bass note. + Second Inversion Transposes the inverted triad again. The fifth of the triad becomes the bass note. + +Chord inversions add variation, excitement, and smoother transitions in chord progressions. The more notes a chord has, the more possible inversions. +Chord Progressions + +A chord progression or a harmonic progression is an ordered series of chords. Chord progressions support both the melody and the rhythm. They also provide the foundation for creating harmony and melody. + +Moreover, the key determines the chords used in a progression. A progression can also consist of major and minor chords. +Roman Numeral Analysis + +Roman numerals indicate the chords in a progression. They identify the musical key and the root note for each chord. For example, IV means the chord is built on the fourth degree of a scale. + +Uppercase Roman numerals represent major chords, while lowercase numerals represent minor chords. For example, a chord progression in the key of C major would look like I-vi-IV-V (C-Am-F-G). + +Delving deeper into this topic goes beyond basic music theory. However, it helps to introduce this numerical system. +Voice Leading + + + +Voice leading is the linear movement between melodic lines or voices to create a single musical idea. This technique focuses on the smooth movement of notes from one chord to the next using common sounding tones. + + + +Voice leading also minimizes the vertical and horizontal transitions between notes in a chord progression or melody. These smaller moves sound more natural and pleasing. + +When creating a chord progression, use harmonically related chords. They can share similar notes or have inversions to make the stepwise motion smoother. For example, a C major chord and an A minor chord both have the notes E and C. +Conclusion + +Music theory will give you a deeper understanding of music. But its also essential to remember musical theory is not hard rules. Its a tool to help you create, understand, and communicate music. + +There are several ways to practice music theory. Try applying the concepts in this guide to your workflow. + diff --git a/Books/Music/Jazz Theory.txt b/Books/Music/Theory/Jazz Theory.txt similarity index 100% rename from Books/Music/Jazz Theory.txt rename to Books/Music/Theory/Jazz Theory.txt diff --git a/Books/Music/Theory/Modal_Scale_Reference.txt b/Books/Music/Theory/Modal_Scale_Reference.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c1ec7f9 --- /dev/null +++ b/Books/Music/Theory/Modal_Scale_Reference.txt @@ -0,0 +1,90 @@ +TITLE: Modal Scale Reference +DOMAIN: Music Theory +CONCEPTS: Modes, scales, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian, Locrian, Ionian, intervals, note spelling +CONTENT TYPE: Reference +--- + +The notes in the C Ionian scale are C D E F G A B. +The notes in the C# Ionian scale are C# D# F F# G# A# C. +The notes in the D Ionian scale are D E F# G A B C#. +The notes in the D# Ionian scale are D# F G G# A# C D. +The notes in the E Ionian scale are E F# G# A B C# D#. +The notes in the F Ionian scale are F G A A# C D E. +The notes in the F# Ionian scale are F# G# A# B C# D# F. +The notes in the G Ionian scale are G A B C D E F#. +The notes in the G# Ionian scale are G# A# C C# D# F G. +The notes in the A Ionian scale are A B C# D E F# G#. +The notes in the A# Ionian scale are A# C D D# F G A. +The notes in the B Ionian scale are B C# D# E F# G# A#. +The notes in the C Dorian scale are C D D# F G A A#. +The notes in the C# Dorian scale are C# D# E F# G# A# B. +The notes in the D Dorian scale are D E F G A B C. +The notes in the D# Dorian scale are D# F F# G# A# C C#. +The notes in the E Dorian scale are E F# G A B C# D. +The notes in the F Dorian scale are F G G# A# C D D#. +The notes in the F# Dorian scale are F# G# A B C# D# E. +The notes in the G Dorian scale are G A A# C D E F. +The notes in the G# Dorian scale are G# A# B C# D# F F#. +The notes in the A Dorian scale are A B C D E F# G. +The notes in the A# Dorian scale are A# C C# D# F G G#. +The notes in the B Dorian scale are B C# D E F# G# A. +The notes in the C Phrygian scale are C C# D# F G G# A#. +The notes in the C# Phrygian scale are C# D E F# G# A B. +The notes in the D Phrygian scale are D D# F G A A# C. +The notes in the D# Phrygian scale are D# E F# G# A# B C#. +The notes in the E Phrygian scale are E F G A B C D. +The notes in the F Phrygian scale are F F# G# A# C C# D#. +The notes in the F# Phrygian scale are F# G A B C# D E. +The notes in the G Phrygian scale are G G# A# C D D# F. +The notes in the G# Phrygian scale are G# A B C# D# E F#. +The notes in the A Phrygian scale are A A# C D E F G. +The notes in the A# Phrygian scale are A# B C# D# F F# G#. +The notes in the B Phrygian scale are B C D E F# G A. +The notes in the C Lydian scale are C D E F# G A B. +The notes in the C# Lydian scale are C# D# F G G# A# C. +The notes in the D Lydian scale are D E F# G# A B C#. +The notes in the D# Lydian scale are D# F G A A# C D. +The notes in the E Lydian scale are E F# G# A# B C# D#. +The notes in the F Lydian scale are F G A B C D E. +The notes in the F# Lydian scale are F# G# A# C C# D# F. +The notes in the G Lydian scale are G A B C# D E F#. +The notes in the G# Lydian scale are G# A# C D D# F G. +The notes in the A Lydian scale are A B C# D# E F# G#. +The notes in the A# Lydian scale are A# C D E F G A. +The notes in the B Lydian scale are B C# D# F F# G# A#. +The notes in the C Mixolydian scale are C D E F G A A#. +The notes in the C# Mixolydian scale are C# D# F F# G# A# B. +The notes in the D Mixolydian scale are D E F# G A B C. +The notes in the D# Mixolydian scale are D# F G G# A# C C#. +The notes in the E Mixolydian scale are E F# G# A B C# D. +The notes in the F Mixolydian scale are F G A A# C D D#. +The notes in the F# Mixolydian scale are F# G# A# B C# D# E. +The notes in the G Mixolydian scale are G A B C D E F. +The notes in the G# Mixolydian scale are G# A# C C# D# F F#. +The notes in the A Mixolydian scale are A B C# D E F# G. +The notes in the A# Mixolydian scale are A# C D D# F G G#. +The notes in the B Mixolydian scale are B C# D# E F# G# A. +The notes in the C Aeolian scale are C D D# F G G# A#. +The notes in the C# Aeolian scale are C# D# E F# G# A B. +The notes in the D Aeolian scale are D E F G A A# C. +The notes in the D# Aeolian scale are D# F F# G# A# B C#. +The notes in the E Aeolian scale are E F# G A B C D. +The notes in the F Aeolian scale are F G G# A# C C# D#. +The notes in the F# Aeolian scale are F# G# A B C# D E. +The notes in the G Aeolian scale are G A A# C D D# F. +The notes in the G# Aeolian scale are G# A# B C# D# E F#. +The notes in the A Aeolian scale are A B C D E F G. +The notes in the A# Aeolian scale are A# C C# D# F F# G#. +The notes in the B Aeolian scale are B C# D E F# G A. +The notes in the C Locrian scale are C C# D# F F# G# A#. +The notes in the C# Locrian scale are C# D E F# G A B. +The notes in the D Locrian scale are D D# F G G# A# C. +The notes in the D# Locrian scale are D# E F# G# A B C#. +The notes in the E Locrian scale are E F G A A# C D. +The notes in the F Locrian scale are F F# G# A# B C# D#. +The notes in the F# Locrian scale are F# G A B C D E. +The notes in the G Locrian scale are G G# A# C C# D# F. +The notes in the G# Locrian scale are G# A B C# D E F#. +The notes in the A Locrian scale are A A# C D D# F G. +The notes in the A# Locrian scale are A# B C# D# E F# G#. +The notes in the B Locrian scale are B C D E F G A. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/Books/Music/Theory/extracted_book.txt b/Books/Music/Theory/extracted_book.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e69de29 diff --git a/Chartwell.py b/Chartwell.py index fa091b9..9f62ed8 100644 --- a/Chartwell.py +++ b/Chartwell.py @@ -83,7 +83,7 @@ import torch # ------------------------- # Knowledge base selection # ------------------------- -BOOK_DIR = 'Books/SongWriting' # just a string +BOOK_DIR = 'Books/Accounting' # just a string book_files = [] for f in Path(BOOK_DIR).rglob('*'): @@ -584,6 +584,19 @@ def truncate_at_sentence(text, max_chars): return truncated[:last_period + 1] if last_period > 0 else truncated +# ------------------------- +# Determimne if the question is asking for a creative or factual response +# ------------------------- +def is_creative_request(question): + triggers = { + "suggest", "write", "complete", "finish", "rhyme", "next line", + "come up with", "give me", "idea for", "open", "start", "begin", + "chorus", "verse", "bridge", "hook", "lyric", "lyrics", + "continue", "follow", "what comes", "how might", "how would" + } + q_lower = question.lower() + return any(t in q_lower for t in triggers) + # ------------------------- # Ask question # ------------------------- @@ -600,10 +613,8 @@ def ask_question(question, show_sources=False, filter_term=None): print(chunk[:300]) print("--- End chunks ---\n") -# context = " ".join(top_chunks)[:level_cfg["context_len"]] context = truncate_at_sentence(" ".join(top_chunks), level_cfg["context_len"]) - # Build conversation history string history_text = "" if conversation_history: history_text = "Previous conversation:\n" @@ -612,31 +623,42 @@ def ask_question(question, show_sources=False, filter_term=None): history_text += f"A: {exchange['answer']}\n" history_text += "\n" - prompt = ( - f"You are a helpful research assistant. " - f"Answer the question using ONLY the provided context. " - f"Be direct and concise. " - f"Only say 'I don't know' if the context contains absolutely nothing relevant. " - f"Do not reference outside sources. " - f"Do not repeat or echo the conversation history in your answer. " - f"Do not include labels, separator lines, or notes in your answer. " - f"Stop immediately after answering, ending on a complete sentence." + if is_creative_request(question): + prompt_instruction = ( + "You are a creative songwriting assistant. " + "Use the provided context as inspiration and technique guidance. " + "Generate original creative suggestions. " + "Be concise. Do not reproduce the context. " + "End your response with a single period." + ) + else: + prompt_instruction = ( + "You are a helpful research assistant. " + "Answer using ONLY the provided context. " + "Be direct and concise. Never repeat the context or instructions. " + "Never echo the question. End your answer with a single period." ) - if history_text: - prompt += f"HISTORY:\n{history_text}\n" - - prompt += ( - f"CONTEXT:\n{context}\n\n" - f"QUESTION: {question}\n\n" - f"ANSWER:" - ) - - with lm_model.chat_session(): - response = lm_model.generate(prompt, max_tokens=level_cfg["max_tokens"]) + with lm_model.chat_session(system_prompt=prompt_instruction): + user_message = ( + f"{history_text}" + f"CONTEXT:\n{context}\n\n" + f"QUESTION: {question}\n\n" + f"ANSWER:" + ) + response = lm_model.generate( + user_message, + max_tokens=level_cfg["max_tokens"] + ) answer = response.strip() + # Strip any runaway stop markers and everything after them + stop_markers = ["###", "####", "END OF ANSWER", "Final Answer", "STOP"] + for marker in stop_markers: + if marker in answer: + answer = answer[:answer.index(marker)].strip() + conversation_history.append({ "question": question, "answer": answer diff --git a/Scales.py b/Scales.py new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ee980f3 --- /dev/null +++ b/Scales.py @@ -0,0 +1,38 @@ +NOTES = ['C', 'C#', 'D', 'D#', 'E', 'F', 'F#', 'G', 'G#', 'A', 'A#', 'B'] + +MODE_PATTERNS = { + 'Ionian': [2,2,1,2,2,2,1], + 'Dorian': [2,1,2,2,2,1,2], + 'Phrygian': [1,2,2,2,1,2,2], + 'Lydian': [2,2,2,1,2,2,1], + 'Mixolydian': [2,2,1,2,2,1,2], + 'Aeolian': [2,1,2,2,1,2,2], + 'Locrian': [1,2,2,1,2,2,2], +} + +def build_scale(root, pattern): + idx = NOTES.index(root) + scale = [NOTES[idx]] + for step in pattern[:-1]: + idx = (idx + step) % 12 + scale.append(NOTES[idx]) + return ' '.join(scale) + +lines = [ + "TITLE: Modal Scale Reference", + "DOMAIN: Music Theory", + "CONCEPTS: Modes, scales, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian, Locrian, Ionian, intervals, note spelling", + "CONTENT TYPE: Reference", + "---", + "" +] + +for mode, pattern in MODE_PATTERNS.items(): + for root in NOTES: + scale = build_scale(root, pattern) + lines.append(f"The notes in the {root} {mode} scale are {scale}.") + +with open('Books/Music/Theory/Modal_Scale_Reference.txt', 'w') as f: + f.write('\n'.join(lines)) + +print("Done.") \ No newline at end of file