What is it with Eb?

[panolof]

Pushing the boundaries with the D and the Eb.
I had fun 😊

"A Shadow of Doubt in a Glimmering Pond"
Improvisation no. 17
01-06-2016

It seems Winter isn't so bad after all 🙃
I like the unity that comes about in this improv - it takes a few minutes to get to thematic material (D-Eb) which ties the piece nicely together.

Why Eb? --- well, it felt right.

But maybe subconsciously:
Today, I performed in a piano competition and played Chopin's 3rd ballade(which begins on Eb), twas a good performance 💜

In part 1 of 2, I hint at Chopin's 3rd ballade at 8:17. Nowhere else do I do this.

I really couldn't have performed as I did in the competition today without a hug from my mom and a special someone - I guess I really like this special someone.
I walked this someone quite the distance after the competition, I was content ... She left home, I philosophised, then I improvised.

My question to you is this: what do you "LIKE" about the improv?
Is it the (D-Eb)? 🌊🌅🎹Eb🎹🌅🌊

Part 1/2:

Part 2/2:

[mjames]

It's relative to cminor; the key of champions.

[panolof]

It's relative to cminor; the key of champions.

I like that

C minor is quite the key, as in it is one of my preferred keys when improvising because of the emotions sitting behind it. I reflect well with c minor.

James, what key do you prefer?

[lostinidlewonder]

My question to you is this: what do you "LIKE" about the improv?

I like that it looks like you are enjoying your improvisation process. But..... you know when freely improvising it is not something that necessarily is worth sharing with others and in fact sometimes what you feel while playing it will not really present listeners with anything interesting at all. It doesn't matter if your improvisation sounds bad unless you aim to give listeners something enjoyable to observe, personally I improvise mostly in private and rarely share it with others, it is my personal meditation and not always something worth sharing because its benefit to me is a deeply personal one and doesn't require any observers. So if people like or hate your improvisations it makes no difference.

There is also an improvisation section to this website:
https://www.pianostreet.com/smf/index.php?board=31.0

[maestroanth]

I like that it looks like you are enjoying your improvisation process. But..... you know when freely improvising it is not something that necessarily is worth sharing with others and in fact sometimes what you feel while playing it will not really present listeners with anything interesting at all. It doesn't matter if your improvisation sounds bad unless you aim to give listeners something enjoyable to observe, personally I improvise mostly in private and rarely share it with others, it is my personal meditation and not always something worth sharing because its benefit to me is a deeply personal one and doesn't require any observers. So if people like or hate your improvisations it makes no difference.

There is also an improvisation section to this website:
https://www.pianostreet.com/smf/index.php?board=31.0

Nah, I disagree. It takes *balls* to improv something and share it with people.  That's more to admire of someone than 'keeping it to themselves'.  

I mean I got bored of the strumming 'B' in the LH at the beginning then after a while he moved it up to 'D' and I heard some cool intervals.  But what I find as 'bored' other's may find as enjoyable, and I could see why, so there is no objectivity in this.....

HOWEVER, the OP's videos sounded nice and he felt to me having a sincere professionalism about his videos.  Which are the two most objective factors I can judge on really, so I felt he deserved to be "LIKED"

[lostinidlewonder]

Nah, I disagree. It takes *balls* to improv something and share it with people.  That's more to admire of someone than 'keeping it to themselves'.  

I think you might have misunderstood me a bit. I don't mean keep it to yourself only, yes share it but only if you can judge that it is something worth sharing for listeners. Improvisation is not necessarily something that needs to be shared, that is my point, since it is usually a very personal connection to the piano and more often than not the feeling you get while improvising is the real reason you are doing it and the sound that is produced is really secondary.

[ted]

....more often than not the feeling you get while improvising is the real reason you are doing it and the sound that is produced is really secondary.

This is interesting, because it was the way I too felt forty years ago, that is to say the improvisational process was more important than its end product. However, now I am old these priorities have reversed, and I am at a loss to explain why. In fact, I had not even thought about it until I read your post, but it has to have some significance, some explanation. There is, of course, the purely technical reason that cheap recording devices have only very recently advanced to such a level that an improvised piece can stand in its own right as a lasting work of art without notation, but this explanation only goes so far. There is more to it. This is a discussion I would like to continue in a more suitable section of the forum, without diverting this thread from its original intention.

[marijn1999]

It's a key, it's root is E-flat. It has three accidentals (B-flat, E-flat and A-flat). Most brass instruments are tuned to E flat, including the alto saxophone, baritone saxophone, alto clarinet and (if I'm right) the alto horn. I think that covers up just about the most important information about E flat.