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my piano improvisation
 

offline marlowe from Antarctica on 2007-11-21 11:57 [#02146480]
Points: 24571 Status: Regular



hi, I just recorded a piano improvisation, which I'm
uploading here... please listen and let me know what you
think!

tha ks!

ZeBox Page.


 

offline Drunken Mastah from OPPERKLASSESVIN!!! (Norway) on 2007-11-21 12:08 [#02146482]
Points: 35867 Status: Lurker | Show recordbag



First part isn't my thing, but towards the end when it turns
into "classical" classical, it's great: Nothing too much,
just simple, but effective, scales or whatever!

Also, is that your computer making all those little clicks?
They're good!


 

offline marlowe from Antarctica on 2007-11-21 12:30 [#02146486]
Points: 24571 Status: Regular | Followup to Drunken Mastah: #02146482



I think the clicks are me hitting the piano keys :D

I've been practising Bach preludes, fugues, and inventions,
with the intention of recording some of them---it's easy to
play a piece competently and well, but it's well hard to
play it flawlessly (especially Bach!), which is required
when recording


 

offline w M w from London (United Kingdom) on 2007-11-21 12:41 [#02146489]
Points: 21386 Status: Regular



This sounds like ass, like an amateur mashing randomish
keys. GOOD JOB!


 

offline dariusgriffin from cool on 2007-11-21 13:03 [#02146502]
Points: 12194 Status: Regular



It might just be the recording but it sounds like you're
hitting the keys way too hard all the time. Maybe you were
angry at something, in which case good job.


 

offline marlowe from Antarctica on 2007-11-21 13:08 [#02146507]
Points: 24571 Status: Regular | Followup to dariusgriffin: #02146502



It was highly impassioned playing :J


 

offline It_is_a_beaver_ from Happy Land! (United States) on 2007-11-21 14:14 [#02146539]
Points: 94 Status: Regular



Sausage Fingers


 

offline marlowe from Antarctica on 2007-11-21 15:24 [#02146556]
Points: 24571 Status: Regular



O.K. so I stopped mucking about and recorded a 2-part
invention by J.S. Bach--I'm not entirely happy with it (of
course), but I didn't want to be playing it over and over
all night.

b.a.c.h.


 

offline w M w from London (United Kingdom) on 2007-11-21 15:55 [#02146566]
Points: 21386 Status: Regular | Followup to marlowe: #02146556



G(Ox2)D


 

offline Drunken Mastah from OPPERKLASSESVIN!!! (Norway) on 2007-11-21 17:05 [#02146580]
Points: 35867 Status: Lurker | Followup to marlowe: #02146480 | Show recordbag



I remixed it. Hope you don't mind.

My favourite things.


 

offline J198 from Maastricht (Netherlands, The) on 2007-11-21 17:09 [#02146581]
Points: 7342 Status: Lurker | Show recordbag



clearly some mario galaxy inspired tunes in there. brilliant
stuff.


 

offline freqy on 2007-11-21 17:19 [#02146587]
Points: 18724 Status: Regular | Show recordbag




theres defo some comedy moments in there. could almost see
chapin, laurel n hardy dancing in dresses and jumping down
staircases...oh wait i can .!!!! lovely.... oooh now thats
nice.





 

offline marlowe from Antarctica on 2007-11-21 17:22 [#02146590]
Points: 24571 Status: Regular | Followup to Drunken Mastah: #02146580



It's funny, I was hoping someone would tamper with it...
this isn't what I'd imagined, but it's awesome :D Also, I
love that song anyway.. and have the sheet music for it ;J


 

offline freqy on 2007-11-21 17:23 [#02146591]
Points: 18724 Status: Regular | Show recordbag



the visuals are awesome, inspired by the great frequencies
delivered by this improvisation.

i thank you for this moment.


 

offline marlowe from Antarctica on 2007-11-21 17:28 [#02146592]
Points: 24571 Status: Regular | Followup to freqy: #02146591



You're very welcome, freqy :p


 

offline portal13 from United Kingdom on 2007-11-21 17:34 [#02146595]
Points: 295 Status: Regular



LOL that remix is awesome.

Haven't composed anything worthwhile on the piano in a
while.

nice one on the improvising.


 

offline marlowe from Antarctica on 2007-11-21 17:37 [#02146597]
Points: 24571 Status: Regular | Followup to portal13: #02146595



Thanks--it wasn't a serious improvisation (obviously!)... I
was just mucking about :D


 

offline w M w from London (United Kingdom) on 2007-11-21 18:15 [#02146610]
Points: 21386 Status: Regular | Followup to Drunken Mastah: #02146580



lovely

Man, jesus christ, you should have smelled these farts I've
been laying. That's what happens when you don't eat anything
for two days, then suddenly eat a half bag of chips and 8
granola bars. Usually farts smell brown, but these smelled a
poisonous pungent grey. Smelled like dead bodies and
maggots. I can fart in a ziplock bag and send it to someone
if they want to smell.


 

offline rad smiles on 2007-11-21 18:23 [#02146612]
Points: 5608 Status: Lurker



please do!


 

offline freqy on 2007-11-21 19:03 [#02146621]
Points: 18724 Status: Regular | Show recordbag




im still listening to this masterpiece.

it takes me everywhere. its funny , sad ... angry ,
unsure, most positive. , deep and rather wonderful....black
and white, yet in colour.







 

offline marlowe from Antarctica on 2007-11-21 20:47 [#02146641]
Points: 24571 Status: Regular | Followup to freqy: #02146621



coolioso :D I recorded the ImProV kneeling in front of the
piano because the laptop was on the piano stool: that's why
some of the fingering is a little bit awKwArd.


 

offline Drunken Mastah from OPPERKLASSESVIN!!! (Norway) on 2007-11-22 04:09 [#02146689]
Points: 35867 Status: Lurker | Followup to marlowe: #02146590 | Show recordbag



Haha, yeah, that's where I found the lyrics.. I just saw the
sheets lying in front of me, and started singing it.


 

offline Skink from A cesspool in eden on 2007-11-22 09:34 [#02146757]
Points: 7483 Status: Lurker



Downloading currently. I shall give some comment as soon as
i can.


 

offline Zephyr Twin from ΔΔΔ on 2007-11-22 18:17 [#02146968]
Points: 16982 Status: Regular | Show recordbag



I felt the same way as Drunken... the first half-or-so of
the track isn't really to my liking, though perhaps it would
grow on me with repeated exposure. There just wasn't
anything in the first half of this crazy improv that really
moved me upon my initial listen. (After reading your
comments, I think perhaps it wasn't supposed to.) Once it
changes into your "experiment" with scales, however, it's
actually quite beautiful. How long have you been
practicing/playing piano, marlowe?


 

offline marlowe from Antarctica on 2007-11-22 18:24 [#02146971]
Points: 24571 Status: Regular | Followup to Zephyr Twin: #02146968



I've been playing since I was about thirteen. It's funny,
because I stopped playing soon after it settled into the
arpeggios (It was mainly just D minor moving up to F major a
couple of times, then descending to B-flat+7 descending
downwards to G minor, then back to the D minor arpeggio)
because I thought the fun had gone out of it :]

Be sure to listen to the Bach Invention on the same
page! My aim is to record a full set of either his
2-part inventions, or his little preludes, and build up to
some of the "preludes & fugues" from the 48... there are a
few that I can play fine already, but I'd rather practice
more to nail them lucidly (that Bach recording is obviously
not good enough to be included in my planned "proper"
recording). It's so much easier to play the piano without
the knowledge that you're recording yourself--I'm one of
those people who just grin inanely if a video camera is
pointed at me, or else resort to swearing :D

thanks for having an earful though, sorry for the
long-winded reply :]


 

offline Zephyr Twin from ΔΔΔ on 2007-11-22 18:33 [#02146977]
Points: 16982 Status: Regular | Followup to marlowe: #02146971 | Show recordbag



I actually did have a listen to that b.a.c.h piece that you
recorded, and it was really great. To be honest, I didn't
even notice any flaws in that one, though when I play for
people they usually can't tell when I screw up, so I guess
the player is always the most aware of his own mistakes.

"It's so much easier to play the piano without
the knowledge that you're recording yourself"


Goodness, is this ever the truth. There've been times where
I've started writing/playing a piece that, by all rights,
should have been out of my league, but by some fluke of
dexterity and concentration, I manage to pull it off. (odd
time signiatures, complex arpeggios, etc). Unfortunately,
the moment I attempt to show someone else, or record what
I've been doing, I can't play it worth a damn.

No need to appologise for a long-winded reply, by the way.
I'd rather read everything you have to say than a quick
"thanks for listening" post. :)


 

offline marlowe from Antarctica on 2007-11-22 18:41 [#02146982]
Points: 24571 Status: Regular | Followup to Zephyr Twin: #02146977



Aww, thanks. The joy of the piano is that sometimes you
really hit a transcendental peak where you are playing
perfectly: the rhythm, the clarity of tone, the expression,
and you are almost detached from yourself playing, glowing
with a mix of amazement, joy in both your playing &
the actual written music, and a buoyant acceptance of it...
it is those times, being utterly relaxed and
all-encompassed, that make up for the times when your
fingers won't operate, you get flustered and hit the wrong
keys at the wrong time, and take bites out of the sheet
music.

It's a truly wonderful feeling, and from what I've read,
it's a proper "spiritual" peak experience.


 

offline freqy on 2007-11-22 18:54 [#02146989]
Points: 18724 Status: Regular | Show recordbag




i recommend you try out a high quality vibe and a harp for
your midi keyboard if you haven't already.



 

offline marlowe from Antarctica on 2007-11-22 19:10 [#02146997]
Points: 24571 Status: Regular | Followup to freqy: #02146989



My uncle had an electric piano with a nice bassy vibes
setting on it.. I enjoyed playing it.


 

offline CS2x from London (United Kingdom) on 2007-11-22 19:13 [#02146998]
Points: 5079 Status: Lurker | Followup to Zephyr Twin: #02146977



Yeah, that is very true. Also true is that when you
improvise with another comptetent musician, you easily
stumble across great little ideas and things flow nicely and
the piece seems to structure itself. Then, we you've both
agreed that what's going on is worthwhile so you go press
"record", neither can pull off anything as interesting as
what went before. Well, that often happens anyway...

(sorry for my dreadful writing.)


 

offline marlowe from Antarctica on 2007-11-22 19:16 [#02147000]
Points: 24571 Status: Regular | Followup to CS2x: #02146998



It's a damn big psychological wall which needs demolished.
My plan is to just press RECORD on my laptop and play over
and over.. that's what I did with the Bach piece. Only
problem, eventually the concentration goes completely...
just before that 'final take' I wasn't even able to focus on
the music and couldn't get past the first bar!


 

offline CS2x from London (United Kingdom) on 2007-11-22 19:30 [#02147004]
Points: 5079 Status: Lurker | Followup to marlowe: #02147000



Your passion makes me want to go back to learning classical
music again. :-) I have a friend who is at Glasgow doing
piano and vocal studies, and he describes similarly intense
spiritual experiences when practising Bach preludes and
fugues, even playing them for a final time after 6-hour
sessions. I never quite experienced that, at this point in
life I'll be able to find similarly deep and satisfying
experiences in the performance of other composers' great
music, rather than an impatience to just improvise instead.
:-)

About the recording thing: The times when I've began
improvising with one musician and others have been present
and secretly pressed record have yielded rather nice
results. You could just get a massive external hardrive for
your laptop and leave it recording all day, I suppose, and
when you sit down to play half way through the day after
some port/water/bread/wine you'd have forgotten it's
recording and will capture some inspired, inhibited Back
playing.


 

offline CS2x from London (United Kingdom) on 2007-11-22 19:31 [#02147006]
Points: 5079 Status: Lurker | Followup to CS2x: #02147004



*even after playing them



 

offline freqy on 2007-11-22 20:15 [#02147015]
Points: 18724 Status: Regular | Show recordbag




check out kontakt ochestra for vibes and harps .rain piano
and akoustik piano for high detailed piano samples, 6gigs i
think for 24bit less for 16bit multiple velocity sampled for
each key even has the friction sounds of the piano pedals as
you press the sustain(pedal) I like character of the 'rain
piano' sounds more intriguing to me. been a while tho since
i heard them , but they are very impressive,


 

offline Zephyr Twin from ΔΔΔ on 2007-11-24 19:55 [#02147486]
Points: 16982 Status: Regular | Followup to marlowe: #02146982 | Show recordbag



"The joy of the piano is that sometimes you
really hit a transcendental peak where you are playing
perfectly: the rhythm, the clarity of tone, the expression,
and you are almost detached from yourself playing..."


I know and love that feeling... I've even managed, at times,
to play the piano for so long that, by the time I've
stopped, I can't remember the last 15-or-so-minutes of
playing. It's very intriguing to ponder the notion of being
able to continue playing while the mind wanders. I think it
would be an interesting experiment to simply press record
and play for as long as it takes to reach that "meditative"
state, and then go back and listen to what my body was
creating without my mind being fully aware of it.

CS2x said:
"The times when I've began improvising with one musician
and others have been present and secretly pressed record
have yielded rather nice results."


Hah! It's funny you mention this, because this is almost
solely how my friend Lucas and I recorded our musical "side
project." I quote side project not because we had more
important musical endeavors at the time, but rather because
neither of us took it very seriously. Even when you don't
feel pressured at all, it can still be nerve-racking to try
to play when you know you're being recorded. We continuously
told each other to "just play it a few times to practice"
and then secretly hit record. The results spoke for
themselves.


 

offline Zephyr Twin from ΔΔΔ on 2007-11-25 12:54 [#02147681]
Points: 16982 Status: Regular | Followup to CS2x: #02147004 | Show recordbag



"Your passion makes me want to go back to learning
classical music again."


I was thinking the same thing... Marlowe's zeal has a rather
infectious quality. His attitude causes me to consider
practicing the classics more. Maybe I'll dust off my old
books and give Chopin another try. :)


 

offline Skink from A cesspool in eden on 2007-11-26 08:28 [#02147937]
Points: 7483 Status: Lurker



I think i have achieved the same meditative a few times
whilst playing shows. It usually happens that i remember the
first few bars of the first song and then sometime later
walking of the stage. It leaves me very high, naturally.
It's a great feeling.

Ok, to the piece. I again think the latter half was the best
bit. I was waiting for something which never came though. It
would have been interesting if it had. I am going to
download the Bach piece now. I shall report back again soon
on that. Although, i am not sure of what worth my opinion
will be. I don't know a lot about classical stuff.


 


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