Piano meditation: On the breeze
Here’s my latest piano improvisation, a short piece that I think I channeled my inner Erik Satie to create. Again, I’ve used a simple motive, in this case the movement between two chords, and have tried to create a piece that has steady degree on movement without relying on harmonic changes and instead leaning on a repetitive rhythm and dynamic changes to create the mood. It reminds...
Read MorePiano meditation: The steps
When I sit down to record a piano improvisation sometimes I just empty my head, play what I feel until I’ve said what I need to say. But sometimes I like to restrict myself to a specific motive, one of music’s oldest tricks, to create the piece. You’ve already heard my “one note” meditation, as well as my exploration of the V-I progression. However, for this latest...
Read MorePiano meditation: The tempest
Who said program music is rightfully dead? In fact, I love it when music evokes a scene, mirroring some living phenomenon. It already mirrors, amplifies and often juxtaposes our emotional and spiritual experiences. In the case of my next piano meditation, the idea was simple: a storm. In order to create the effect I played a series of arpeggios, often faster than my fingers could move, causing a...
Read MorePiano meditation: Peace, dark or light
My last piano improvisation was on the more abstract side, an experiment in using one note only while still telling a musical story. In this next one, it’s back to an exploration of mood, especially a minor mood. I based the meditation on a simple V – i resolution, stepping in and out of it, meandering through outside chords always with the inevitable V – i resolution in...
Read MorePiano meditation: One note, no more
I’ve always been disappointed the One Note Samba by Antonio Carlos Jobim doesn’t stick to one note, though the tune is catchy as hell. So for this second piano meditation I decided to try sticking to one note, and only one note. That doesn’t mean one frequency. In this case I used five different octaves of G, but never left G. It’s not all that pretty, and I made a point...
Read MoreThe first keyboard meditation
This is an exciting post for me, because I’ve decided to start posting some improvised piano music here, taking a risk, but getting it out there. For as long as I’ve been playing piano I’ve held these types of personal sessions, where I hang my head and wail on the piano, following every idea as it pops into my head, encapsulating the mood of the moment in notes and chords and...
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