Song of the Good Friday Sunshine

[ted]

While my wife was singing at her service I neglected my domestic duties and instead produced the long, uncharacteristic utterance of which this is the concluding third. There'll be trouble later ! I reined in my technique somewhat to better absorb the sound of a newly tuned piano, which is always a treat. I might have been influenced by one or two recent recordings by other members here, but I shan't say whose or which.

[kalospiano]

we've already talked about it and I know that you feel very much inclined toward this free-flow, stream-of-consciousness-like improvisation with never ending cascades of notes but I really wish some of the material you played in this improv had been further explored before being abandoned order to move to the next thing: for instance at about 1:03, 1:20, 3:03 and 4:28 some beautiful melodic material appears, but doesn't stay for long. Nice transition between 2:06 and 2:30. Some interesting, possibly jazzy moments at 9:30-10:00, 12:15-13:00, 16:13-16:40, 18:20-18:50 and at 19:35-20:10. I know that you don't like to go back on a improv a second time, but I think you've got many nice bits here that could be isolated, developed and transformed into full pieces each in its own right, and if you'll ever want to

[ted]

Thank you for listening and taking the time to provide such thoughtful comment. I had to listen to it again as aside from broad features I usually forget very quickly what I play in the way of detailed cell content. However, certain ideas are liable to reappear in subsequent playing either consciously or unconsciously, although rarely as precise quotes. I privately term these ideas "attractors" and it seems to me most improvisers have them in one form or another. Some are close to permanent, some last a variable time and some are close to transient.

If you mean could I take one or two ideas and make written pieces from them then I probably could, but the tedium of writing even fair approximations to what I play takes the joy out of music making for me; I know because I have tried it many times in the past. If you mean could I restrict another improvisation to one or two ideas then yes, that would be a much easier task for me. The personal difficulty I have with it is an inability to reject anything because my own perception of quality vacillates so much from one listening to the next. In other words, one day I think, "Gosh, that is a really good bit" and the next day for the same passage, "Ugh, that bit is better forgotten". I keep wanting to insert spontaneous material, even when I play classical, which is likely in itself to exclude me from serious performance.

This does not detract from the validity of your suggestion, it is just that I personally would not enjoy doing it. Please feel free to use any of my ideas in your own playing though.