Baldwin Broke Medley

[furtwaengler]

I'm horrible at naming names. This Baldwin upright is not really broken, however it's a horrible to think of college students actually practicing on it. But the instrument becomes such a big part of where improvisation leads. It's an exploration of that specific space, that specific time, and well, the sound, feel, range and resonance of the instrument...mixed with the mood and the mind and everything else.

This was Friday night September 28, 2012 (the same days as Derek's baroque pieces...I love keeping track of these things as if there could be some connection, and yet how different are the two worlds.) Friday, at the end of the day, in a different place on a different piano...lights out just for the separation. And just a releasing, a letting myself go, rid of self conscious guards. The recorder was on for 40+ minutes, in which I could separate 11 different "pieces," and I allow four to make the cut, though it ought to be five - there's no reason to get carried away.

[pankrpec]

The three legged dog made me smile from the first moment, the tune seems so familiar and yet I can't place it. It makes me think of some clunky piano in a western or something, pretty cool.

The 'almost pretty' is really pretty almost to the end, it somehow falls apart after the 2nd minute or so, perhaps that's what you meant by the title? Was it impossible for you to stay with the initial mood or did you not even try and just played what you wanted? (<- This sentence came out different in writing than I wanted it to be, please don't think that it is a criticism, just simple curiosity.)

[furtwaengler]

The three legged dog made me smile from the first moment, the tune seems so familiar and yet I can't place it. It makes me think of some clunky piano in a western or something, pretty cool.

The 'almost pretty' is really pretty almost to the end, it somehow falls apart after the 2nd minute or so, perhaps that's what you meant by the title? Was it impossible for you to stay with the initial mood or did you not even try and just played what you wanted? (<- This sentence came out different in writing than I wanted it to be, please don't think that it is a criticism, just simple curiosity.)

Thanks Pankrpec! I'm glad the three legged dog made you smile. It is meant to be humorous. Now on almost pretty, do not worry about how your comment came out, I think I understand the question. First, yes it is almost pretty because it did not remain pretty. Now I love the question, "Was it impossible for you to stay with the initial mood or did you not even try and just played what you wanted?" As best as I can reckon, it has to do with me and my magnetic attraction to certain dissonances and tension on the one hand, and on the other the fact the piano I was playing could not sustain the basic idea I was feeding it. These reasons go hand and hand like a sheep wandering his own way in a valley of deep darkness.

[Derek]

I really enjoyed "almost pretty." I am not sure I understand the word "almost, "as I found the whole thing quite pretty. And interesting. It must be having heard almost nothing but Beethoven and Vivaldi and Bach growing up, but I always like music based 80 to 100% on traditional scales better than the alternative for some reason. I like the part that sounds like tremolo picking near the end. Nice little cadenza.

[tyler_johnson]

Very Gershwin'y in A Three Legged Dog named Happy. I dug the thick chords and jazzy harmonies as well as the rhythms!

I think overall you could do with a little more structure, be thinking about A sections, B sections while you're playing, to make it sound a bit more like an actual composition, which is what I think the beauty of well done improv is, the listener shouldn't know it's made up on the spot