Improvisations
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.
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.
10-13-2013 – Piano #1, revisited – Part 2b
Here’s the version where you can see all the dancing!
10-13-2013 – Piano #1, revisited – Part 2a
I wanted to play one more improvisation at JP Licks, and I thought Maggie was done dancing, so I turned the camera away, but she starting dancing again! In this video, you get a better view of me and the onlookers, but you’ll have to mostly imagine the dancer! However, Maggie’s wife – Mel – did take a video of Maggie dancing, so I’m going to post that next!
10-13-2013 – JP Licks – Piano #1, revisited – Part 1
After Washington Square, we came back to JP and decided to visit the JP Licks piano. In this video, Maggie danced on the picnic table. This video really shows a lot of her dancing, and it is especially beautiful to see her silhouette against the sky behind. About the sirens, I can only smile. They were a constant backdrop for these public pianos, and you’ll hear them in many of my recordings.
10-13-2013 – Washington Square in Brookline – Piano #39, Part 2
Theadora brought her West Side Story sheet music, so I sight-read “I feel Pretty!”, and Maggie danced during the second half. There was a mini-party happening at this piano when we got there, so we had a lovely appreciative audience!
10-13-2013 – Washington Square in Brookline – Piano #39, Part 1
My friends came with me to a couple pianos on my last day of the “Play Me, I’m Yours” project. Maggie brought her tutu and danced!
10-12-2013 – NEC – Piano #38
This was the last piano of a long day. I grabbed it as I was biking home from ringing my first wedding at the Church of the Advent. Whew!
10-12-2013 – Hostelling International, 19 Stuart Street – Piano #37
I was so happy to be able to go indoors and order a cup of hot tea on this cold and blustery day! This was my sixth piano of the day. It seemed like nobody was paying any attention, but I really didn’t mind. So much of piano playing is an oddly interior activity. It’s public, and other people can hear it, but I find that when I’m playing, I’m much less aware of what’s going on around me. During my travels around Boston, I’ve seen many other people play, and many of them seemed like they could play for hours, mesmerized by the instrument.