Inside the Piano, touching the strings + Improvisation

[lostinidlewonder]

This is my first experiment with playing inside the piano by rubbing/tapping the strings with my hands only. I just wanted to test out some effects. Some boring effects but some really interesting ones. What do you think? Someone told me some parts of it would fit in a horror movie Someone else said it reminds them of a piano reduction of Crumbs Black Angels lol.  I find how the piano is effected by vibrating sound is really strange. Sometimes strings you haven't touched start sympathetic vibration and then start ringing out themselves with a really eerie effect like after 6:30 listen to how the bass draws itself out without me doing anything. I thought of a monster trying to escape a prison for some reason! At 8:00 u can hear it trying to escape shaking the prison. Then it finally escapes with a roar. Scary! I also got some feeling that I was on an old creaking ship on the ocean. On my Bechstein Grand at the Anglican Church down the road from me.

Also added is one improvisation I did on the same day after this touching the piano on the inside business This improvisation somehow makes me feel a little disturbed (as in its not very good). Like most of my improvisations I like to try to make it constantly change, I don't like doing the same thing for too long.

[lostinidlewonder]

I've added an MP3 of a professional composer, Henry Cowell, his "The Banshee" which is offered free on the internet anyway for download. This is where I got the inspiration to experiment with playing on the piano strings.

[furtwaengler]

This is quite a trip. Can you still speak to your piano the same way, or is it awkward? I like the improvisation a lot. It reminds my a little of Thomas Ades (nothing particular...just his coloring). 30 people should have commented!

[lostinidlewonder]

Thanks furtwaengler for your appreciation. I don't come across many people who appreciate a more "far out" style of improvisation. I also improvise with the basic chord, scales and tool progression of "normal" sounding music, but I find I can't "space out" enough I use improvisation as a form of meditation where the mind doesn't have to worry about what the right note to press is, just play without thought and get pulled by the sound.

I am facinated by how versatile the piano can sound, when I first hear Cowell's "The Banshee" I couldn't tell which instrument was being played! I didn't know a piano could sound like a woodwind almost! There are certainly ways to touch the strings on the inside that we haven't developed, but I don't think it is interesting for a mainstream audience. Afterall our musical journey is more for ourself that others isn't it?

When I play piano I pretty much play in 4 different styles. Almost a change of technique and personality at the keyboard. Classical, Jazz (cocktail, blues, ragtime etc), Improvisation (Classical,Jazz and misc style), Other (messing with insides of the piano, prepaired piano and whatever strange ways to use and abuse the piano ).

I do see the styles effecting and creeping into each others domain. For instance, when I play with the insides of the piano for a long while then go back to normal playing, I tend to hear the piano more as a wind instrument, although one strikes the note in a percussive fashion you can almost imagine that the sound coming out is coming from a breath or singing voice. Also I find that in mindless improvisations I catch myself playing shapes and patterns of normal classical music that I recently have been studying. So although I like to think them as seperate they do blend into each other but personally it enhances my experience rather than hinders it.

Thanks a lot for introducing me to Thomas Ades I will get a listen of his music.

[furtwaengler]

Well-sir, I'd love for you to share more of this, for I'm obviously interested in these things! (Especially the more abstract ones).

I don't think I've ever thought of the piano sounding like woodwinds, at least not in my momentary memory, but I like the idea, and the mention of Ades...he uses woodwinds in a unique way, very bright colors that are unique to him.

Have you ever thought about the possibilities of bowing the strings? https://www.coloradocollege.edu/dept/mu/Ensembles-BowedPiano.asp

I know Quantum has done some pretty wild stuff inside the piano in some of his contributions here that are worth checking out.

I enjoy it all.

[lostinidlewonder]

furtwaengler I did forget to mention that that link you provided of the bowed strings was really amazing. I watched it a while ago but never thanked you.

Hey guys, I did another one of these inside the piano things recently. Haven't really looked into it, I want to buy myself a cheap piano to test it out more. I tested out some more single note things, and more restraint. I was a little annoyed that the first mins of it was distorted because I was playing too loud, nothing I could do would recover it so I cut it out.

Nice and short, only 2:42mins.

[furtwaengler]

I actually love the resonance from the strings at the start of the recording, left over from whatever had been played previously. I love these explorations you've posted. There are limitless possibilities. I hope you do get that piano.

(What a different world if you'd encountered that unearthy voice in this context!)