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 me of a see-saw, or a sunflower swinging back and forth on a growing and fading summer wind.
I’m happy with the outcome, it’s peaceful.
Enjoy.
Piano Meditation …

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 one, it’s all about octaves.
To create this each hand only plays octaves, so the harmonies never include more than two notes. The result is …

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 few muffed notes and blurred passages that I felt the captured unevenness of a whirling rainstorm. At one point, I break the rhythm altogether, …

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 mind.
At the same time, I kept the movement of the piece very slow, almost decelerating  at times, all to create a very somber …

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 of breaking up the rhythms so the time and tempo felt fluid. In fact, the piece is a bit stressful at …