Author: melsenc

Piano Log 2015-1-12

In October 2014, I found a free piano on Craigslist. It was so out of tune that some of the higher keys (which have three strings each) played three different distinct notes at once! But I have played many, many upright pianos by now, in various states of disrepair, and I liked the feel of this one. The keys were intact, the soft pedal and damper pedal worked, and it was very resonant.

I paid movers to transport it to my apartment, and I hired a piano technician (Jay Natale) to fix up the action. When we opened up the cabinet of the instrument, we found so much dust and mold! So my task for the next couple months was to clean the keys and vacuum the interior as thoroughly as I could. Jay did an excellent job on the action. When we finally put it back together, I attempted to tune it myself. I had adequate tools, and a relatively good ear, but it was my first time, and I didn’t realize that a bunch of the tuning pegs were loose.

Yesterday, I hired Jay to tune it professionally, and he showed me how some of the pegs were so loose, they could slip very easily. So, I’m going to keep track of which keys slip out of tune, and eventually I will use a hammer to drive those pegs deeper into the wood of the soundboard before I get it tuned again!

I made this recording within two hours of having the piano tuned. It’s a longer format than usual – I couldn’t resist! Enjoy.

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Piano Log 2013-4-21

I was out on Whidbey Island, off the coast of Washington State, for my Grandad’s memorial service. I live in the Boston area, and I have rarely gotten out to this place in my lifetime. My brother and I flew out there together with our mom, and we spent a couple days on the island. The woods were so incredibly lush and green!

We had the memorial service at the Senior Center where Grandad had spent a lot of time. As people were starting to trickle in, someone expressed their disappointment that my mom hadn’t brought her violin to play. Very shortly thereafter, someone suggested that I try my hand at the upright piano that was sitting in the front of the room. This is the first music I played. Sometimes my partner asks me if what I’m playing is “right now.” Almost always, if it is improvised, then the answer is yes, and this music was no exception.

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I just found an upright piano for free on Craigslist, and I’m working on cleaning it up while a piano technician is fixing up the hammer mechanisms (the “action”). The piano is from 1900, and when we opened it up, there was a LOT of very old dust inside. I’m currently cleaning the keys one by one. So excited for it to be ready to play!

Melsen’s Piano Log on iTunes

It’s official: Melsen’s Piano Log is available to download as a podcast in the iTunes Store! This tumblr feed will still feature the larger selection of recordings, whereas the iTunes podcast will be more curated.

I’m so excited to be making this step! Now, you will be able to download this music to listen offline. Please send me a message if there are particular recordings you want to see included.

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2-26-14

I’m going to try to get back in the swing of things after a long break from recordings. That street piano project was intense! Tonight, I recorded from my keyboard with GarageBand. It’s a completely different sound from the raw street recordings – absolutely no background noise at all!

This piano log is influenced by the concert I gave recently with some friends where we played soul, pop, and show tunes. I did a lot of playing from chord tabs, which is a relatively new thing for me. The underlying structure is very straight-forward, but you have to play around with your voicing and melodic lines to make it interesting!

10-13-2013 – Piano #40 – Titus Sparrow Park

This was the last public piano I played. I chose it because Nancy-Lee (the artist of this particular piano) actually messaged me on my tumblr feed, and I wanted to play her piano before they were all gone. It was so beautiful!

For the first time during this whole project, I did an improvisation with my left hand only. It was getting late, so you can’t see much from the video except the light from my phone and the pink Pru in the background, but you’ll also see my watch glinting in the half-light.

I was so sad to see this installation come to an end. I hope that someday “Play Me I’m Yours” comes back to Boston, and I’m taking inspiration from it to make more public music on my own.

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)