Morning Routine - Piano, Improv
Right-Click on CD to Download. Please let me know how you like it. | Here is this week's improv set, and its a bit all over the board. This is a take on a piece of mine called "Morning Routine," which was named by my little sister, Victoria. She explained it made her think of a person getting up, doing stuff, going to work, etc. I never know what to name my pieces, usually, so I let it go. Timing is the thing to listen to in this one. I switch between 5/4 and 3/4 and some stuff that doesn't seem to fit a time signature. It's nowhere near as interesting as that just sounded.... Let me know if you like it, or not. | ||
posted by SafeTinspector at 8:44 PM
13 Comments:
I listened to this one and the one above. You said on your blog you wanted feedback, and what I thought was that
- your playing has a similar level of density consistently throughout, there always seems to be between O I don't know, 3 and 6 fingers on the keyboard. Maybe a bit more variety here? Esp in the left hand.
- reminiscent of the music from The Piano, perhaps because it's harmonically quite simple?
- I'm not sure if you're trying to be jazzy or if you mean improvisation in a different way, but I think maybe you could benefit from listening to Bill Evans eg on Everyone Digs Bill Evans, the eery and light use of his left hand in some of those pieces in particular might interest you.
Anyway, I liked!
Not necessarily jazzy. I meant improvised in that I started with no plan and made it up as I want along. Its not in any jazz key, and I don't think I'm playing jazz chords. I have limited musical vocabulary, so I may be wrong on my descripts.
The block chords on my left usually are four to five notes, although in this piece there are progressions where my left plays 1+3 instead of 4...not sure if I'm talking about it right. My right usually is only poking out one to three notes at any one time, though, so your total matches up. :)
Your criticism is dead on. I never seem to let my hands roam far enough from their comfort zones on the keyboard.
I'll look up Bill Evans...
What is "The Piano"?
I looked up "Everyone Digs Bill Evans"
For some reason I was thinking you were clueing me in to a blog name. But no, Bill Evans was a famous jazz pianist that passed away in 1980.
Is there a specific track you would recommend?
Anyway, thanks for the feedback and criticism. I often feel there's something missing in my music, but I need help figuring out what it is, or even if its worth looking for.
Could I trouble you to critique some of these other tracks?
The Piano is an half-arty film from the 90s with a soundtrack that sold well. It's nice, quite simple but quite intense, the soundtrack I mean. At least I think it's called The Piano.
My favourite track from that album is Some Other Time, or Peace Piece, they're basically the same, which are precursors of one of the tracks on Miles Davis's Kind of Blue, the fifth one, if you have that album.
I'll have a listen to some more tracks next weekend. Remind me on my tagboard if I don't!
& definitely carry on developing your music!
Thanks, I'll be sure to badger you incessantly in the days to come. There are two other weeks worth of live crap here already, but I plan on adding another track or two next weekend.
Around Wednesday is the next arranged piece, and it will be another 8-bit. There are a couple already here...
Thanks again, and consider me fisted.
Uggh! I'd really rather not consider you fisted! Feel free to leave a tag on my board linking here if you like, btw, for my other readers I mean.
I wasn't thinking Fisted in a negative way, although I suppose I must consider the fact that, as a straight man, there really is no definition of fisted that isn't negative.
As for linkin' on your site, you already have a link to my main page, and I have made it a policy never to post links to my own blog in another person's blog unless it is to a posting which is appropo.
Okey dokey, but consider 'permission to spam' granted if you change your mind!
Have you ever listened much to Bach's Fugues, or played them, incidentally? Because they're harmonically extremely logical too, but the left hand in them doesn't play out supporting chords, but instead is a part of their mellifluous interweave of melodies. (Bach was an improviser - in Royal Courts - too, indceintally!)
I love J. S. Bach.
I mention this here: Beginnings
When I was a child a travelling organist and Bach historical impersonator visited my parochial school and knocked my socks off. (the attached church had a huge pipe-organ, and he rocked it!)
A former neighbor of mine with a masters degree in composition has told me that many scholars believe that J.S.Bach was the greatest composer that ever lived, when considering from a technical standpoint.
My favorites are Mass in B and Air On A G String, and Stoccata and Fugue in D Minor and, and, and...
I can never do Bach. I'm 33 and haven't done it, I doubt if I ever will.
But I do count him as an inspiration, and as the weeks go by and I unwrap more of my compositions, you'll see the pale shadows.
Incidentally, Bach isn't the only one I can't do.
I'm pretty crippled, musically. I can only play my own compositions. I mean, I've hunted and pecked the melodies to some tunes, occasionally, but never figured out the chord structures.
I can't play by ear, and I can't read music.
You can't read music? Good Lord! I'd have never guessed. Good that I got the Bach connection right. I can't remember the names of my favourite Bach pieces, can't remember much, but I think they're Violin concertos in A minor and E minor.
Yeah, I tought myself how to do what I do.
I do feel resentment that my mother and step-father never noticed all the time I was spending in the den with the piano and never offered me lessons.
My baby sister was, thankfully, not overlooked in this regard. While she is not so good as a pianist, she is quite a singer!
Just to show nature vs. nurture, my mother gave a baby up for adoption four years before I was born. That girl tracked my mom down about five years ago and, turns out, is quite a pianist.
My grandfather on my mother's side was a gifted violinist as well.
My mother, oddly enough, has absolutely no musical talent. She's tone-deaf and has terrible timing.
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