|
|
|
|
Well, I said I'd record myself improvising, and I have.
Unfortunately it's not on a real piano -- I don't have easy access to one at university. It's on a Yamaha PSR-292 electronic keyboard.
I admit this does not sound like improvisation. I assure you it is -- I recorded a couple of hours of myself making noises along a certain theme, and then went through afterwards and cut out the bits that worked and stuck them together to form the "piece" you hear here. It comprises something like 12 separate "takes", of literally hundreds that didn't work. You can hear a few mistakes even in those takes that did. None of this music has ever been written down and I'm not sure I can even remember how to play it now!
I used it as a project to teach myself a piece of software called Nuendo. It's a test mix because it's not really finished -- audio levels need tweaking and there are a couple of other things I can hear that could be improved slightly. I might submit it for a (film) sound design class -- not because it's really sound design, but because I've wasted so much time on it I might as well see what other people think.
I know it's not professional standard, but piano-playing is one area in which I am happy to call myself an amateur. I'd appreciate comments.
The file is here (2.2 MB, two and a half minutes, MP3):
http://www.davidjoy.org/music/deeej-testmix4.mp3
Best wishes,
David
[Updated on: Wed, 18 October 2006 18:06] |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
You are good!
Jay
So say what you want
(You know I'm wasting all my time)
You've gotta mean it when you say what you want
(You're only safe when you're alone)
And everybody's on your mind
Saying anything to get you by
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
jack
|
 |
Likes it here |
Location: England
Registered: September 2006
Messages: 304
|
|
|
well done much better than what i could do.
reminds me of my school days.!
life is to enjoy.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Thanks, Jay. I can play stuff like that for hours. It drives my family up the wall, especially when I play the same chords over and over again, loudly, on our proper piano.
I don't think my music is likely to get any better, unfortunately. I stopped formally learning the piano when I was 13, and didn't touch a piano again until I was 19.
David
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
It dose not sound like that to me.
So say what you want
(You know I'm wasting all my time)
You've gotta mean it when you say what you want
(You're only safe when you're alone)
And everybody's on your mind
Saying anything to get you by
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Deeej, I don't mind having it replayed, so I have saved it on my harddrive.
You've got a small, beautiful romantic theme in the middle - slightly schubertian, perhaps?
Leonard Cohen's words spring to my mind,
Oh my love, oh my love
Take this waltz, take this waltz
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Hi Sailor,
Thanks for your comments.
It's a hotchpotch -- whatever came to my mind at the time. Listening to it again, a few hours after recording, I can already hear bits I would do differently, perhaps even remove altogether. But that's why I'd call it improvisation rather than a polished piece.
As a whole, it's not very musically "interesting" -- it's unadventurous in its harmonies. I "wrote" it to make me laugh, hence the corny, jaunty tune, the waltz timing for much of it, and the abrupt ending (which was originally going to get faster and faster until the tune fell apart completely). So that's where it's coming from -- it doesn't have any pretensions.
I'd be interested to know which bit you think is small and beautiful -- if you can give me a specific time I'll see if I can elaborate on it a bit more!
David
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Whoooppeeeee! That was really good. I can imagine what it would sound like on our baby grand. Yamaha keyboards are some of the best built. I got that saved to a special place. I got my viloin and worked with your song for a few minutes and came up with a pretty good duo. You are very good at what you do. We all cant be the best in the world, but we dont have to be mediocre. And you are not in the mediocre catagory.
I believe in Karma....what you give is what you get returned........
Affirmation........Savage Garden
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Thats wired I play the viola. for those of u that don't know what that is. It's bascily a violan but the E A D G string, Are A D G C.
So say what you want
(You know I'm wasting all my time)
You've gotta mean it when you say what you want
(You're only safe when you're alone)
And everybody's on your mind
Saying anything to get you by
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
No Message Body
The paradox has often been noted that the United States, founded in secularism, is now the most religiose country in Christendom, while England, with an established church headed by its constitutional monarch, is among the least. (Richard Dawkins, 2006)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I like the friendly style of your 'hotchpotch' piece, especially the small part in f minor starting at 1 min 20 sec, continuing for some bars - until the start of the duplets.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Mm, yes, that's the bit I was happiest with (and also the bit I came up with last). I admit I go a bit over the top at the duplets (about 1.45 -- I became a bit repetitive) but I wasn't really sure where to go with the tune: I think I was trying to get back to the main theme at that stage. It came too late in the piece to find a life of its own.
Harmonically that part is very simple -- the left hand just plays Fs and the right hand other chords on top. The progression's a pretty familiar one.
I'll doodle around and see if I can make a whole piece along the same lines.
David
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Aussie
|
 |
Really getting into it |
Registered: August 2006
Messages: 475
|
|
|
My comments for what they are worth (Not much actually)
Your piece made for very easy listening and I can imagine you being able to come up with a very catchy theme for a movie which could put you in the big league. Some which it reminded me of were, Sting and As Good As IT Gets.
I also thought it was slightly overdone on the repetitions at the end but not enough to spoil it.
Overall, plenty of potential, keep working on it.
Aussie
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
marc
|
 |
Needs to get a life! |
Registered: March 2003
Messages: 4729
|
|
|
Well, it starts off with a variation of a rag time piece i know but I just can not put a name to but I am pretty sure it was featured in either the movie "The Sting" or "Great Gatsby"
Then it seems to drift to something similar I remember from a local celebration/festival/faire type thing played by the local band in a band stand.......
All in all..... it is fairly nice...... although in some places the pace seems to drag.......
Let us hear the finished piece....
Life is great for me... Most of the time... But then I meet people online... Very few are real friends... Many say they are but know nothing of what it means... Some say they are, but are so shallow...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I can assure you that the main melody itself is original. The chord sequence, however, is not entirely (there are only a limited number of nice-sounding permutations in existence) so I imagine that it is ringing a bell somewhere.
F - F - C - Dm - Bb - F - G - C
F - F - A7 - Dm - Bb - F - C - F
If you can tell me which piece you think it's a variation of then I'll listen to it, but I'm pretty sure it's not Scott Joplin. (Edit: Unless you're thinking of 'The Entertainer'? http://www.davidjoy.org/music/Joplin%20-%20The%20Entertainer.mp3 )
It might also make a reasonable (if unoriginal) chord sequence for a hymn.
As for the second melody, I'd never heard it before (if I had I bet I wouldn't have spent hours trying to get the middle of it to sound right -- I still don't think I managed it!), but again it's derivative and intended to sound like band/fairground music.
Thanks for your comments.
David
[Updated on: Thu, 19 October 2006 23:18] |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Lots of good things! I have always been told that improvising is so important. It helps develop key sense, melodic memory, as well as just plain old aesthetic judgement.
Now, finally, where I live, improvisation is a part of the national curriculum for ALL music students from day 1. Maybe now we won't have to wriggle uncomfortably in our seats when a poor kid gets a memory-block at a concert; s/he'll just be able to improve his/her way out of it 'in the style of'!
Keep vampin'!
Spunky
[Updated on: Tue, 14 November 2006 10:14] |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Oliver,
Thanks for your comments. I wish I'd started improvising earlier; I did a bit when I was little, but it was very basic and I didn't really try to develop it. (I would hum a tune and then try and play it on the piano, maybe putting in the right chords underneath; but it never occurred to me that you could do it the other way round, and base a piece around an interesting sequence of chords.) It was the mindless drudgery of scales and practising the same difficult pieces over and over again that stopped me playing at 13 (at about grade 5 standard), and I didn't restart until 19, and then only very casually (as it has been since). Improvisation is much more liberating, because there is not very much that is "wrong". Even if something definitely sounds wrong, it may suggest something else that sounds wrong in an interesting way, or even something that sounds originally and wonderfully right.
David
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
You wrote:
>Even if something definitely sounds wrong, it may suggest something else that sounds wrong in an >interesting way, or even something that sounds originally and wonderfully right.
but that is how, sometimes, the best pieces are created! Bach, (most of them) Beethoven, Mozart, Liszt, Gershwin, most jazz musicians - were all master improvisors - Keep going!
All the very best
Spunky
[Updated on: Tue, 14 November 2006 10:15] |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I'll doodle around and see if I can make a whole piece along the same lines.
Please do!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Will do.
I seem to be able to make a theme last for about 16 bars... but then I don't quite know where to go with it. It is very rare that I can come up with a melody that can just go on and on limitlessly. After those 16 bars I'm in the habit of switching to another tune for 16 bars, and then another, and so on. It's a lazy way out that means that I never develop anything very substantial.
The first thing, I think, is to break myself of this habit.
David
|
|
|
|
|
Goto Forum:
|
] 
A Place of Safety
Search
Help
Register
Login
Home
Bravo, David! Bravissimo! 
