Warmup improvisation

[ronde_des_sylphes]

I was recording some material yesterday, so before I started, some improvisation to relax the fingers...

[ted]

Thanks for posting this, pure Wright effect I have always loved. I recall your saying ages ago you couldn't understand why I liked it so much. Neither can I, but it reinforces my private conjecture that musical meaning is imposed by the listening mind. Everybody spouts masses about creation and interpretation (combined when improvising) but the all important third component of musical experience, listening, is hardly ever discussed. Just how deep and variable this is came to me inadvertently as a youth. I was listening to Cziffra playing Carnaval and was struck by the prolonged syncopation in the Davidsbundler. Would you believe it wasn't until years later I realised I was listening with a displaced metre ? You know, like one of those optical illusions where a pile of isometric cubes jumps between two apparent states.

It seems trivial but I believe it points to something rather profound. In the case of your music I have to conclude that I hear it in a highly individual way. But is there a "correct" or universal way to perceive a given musical sound anyway ? I submit there is not.

A beautiful piano sound here, what make is the instrument ?

[ronde_des_sylphes]

I've come to the conclusion, over many years, that "pure" improvisation is my strongest suit as a musician, even if the material being produced isn't as polished as, for example, meticulously thought-through compositions. Undoubtedly one of the nicest things about allow yourself to perform in this manner is the complete associated freedom from the restrictions of the score...

The piano is a Weinbach, which I believe makes it equivalent to a Petrof. Not a full-size grand but close and the church I was in has nice acoustics. The video was completely unprocessed audio direct from my phone! I played it as a warmp for a recording session and it was literally uploaded to youtube while I was running through some other pieces!

I did record it on my proper equipment, so I've uploaded a version with light denoising.

[ted]

A Weinbach, how interesting ! Same as mine, no wonder I thought it sounded nice ! I have a 5'10" Weinbach, which I bought new in 1971. I had the action rebuilt in 2005 as I had reduced it to tatters. I decided against a new piano as, perhaps through habit, I couldn't find anything in the shops to equal its response. It is true that their action, along with that of Petrofs, is deemed heavy by many players but as I've used a Virgil Practice Clavier daily for fifty years on seven or eight ounces I don't notice it.

I decided to go for recorded improvisation as my principal creative medium around sixty when I retired and have never regretted it, although other people might !

[ronde_des_sylphes]

I didn't find it heavy at all, in truth. I've played on it a few times before and it seems to have a pretty full sound considering it's not absolutely full-size.

[ted]

Mine has that rich sound too, quite unlike anything else I've tried in the shops, even the high end ones. You probably have athletic fingers from years of playing virtuosic stuff, the same end result as my work on the Virgil has given me, just the means are different.

[ronde_des_sylphes]

̀ suspect, although it's a long time back now, that I got my scales and arpeggios trained through improvisation! I was improvising long before I discovered the likes of Liszt's etudes and fantasies.