Inkling! - Possibilities?

I have just completed my most recent composition which was inspired by the news that I might have a second grandchild on the way. Hence it's title and the tentative nature of the main melody. Just yesterday the news was confirmed so the timing is perfect. If you are on the look out for new things to play all my compositions are available here and this particular piece can be viewed and downloaded from here.

Denmark - A heads up to Chick Corea's Spain

I composed this tune for Jazz quintet in 2010 and posted about it here that year also. I have since reworked the piece for solo piano which I have presented here. There are a few slips and I need to learn to build my solos and control the tempo but this piece does really needs to romp along a bit. The staid correct and much slower effort I originally recorded just did not cut it in that way. So warts and all this is my take on how to decorate the changes from Chick Corea's Spain. The dots for both the original quintet version and this version for solo piano can be obtained here and here respectively.

It has been exactly 4 years since............

....... I embarked on this learning the piano journey. If you have been following this, of late extremely intermittent blog, you might remember that formerly, I was a classical guitarist and made the decision to eschew that instrument in favour of the piano. In the main, I did this as I had always been so envious of the wonderful repertoire that the piano offered in comparison to the guitar and wanted to gift myself with the opportunity to explore it. And OMG? Talk about opening a door! Well, I am claiming that I have now made the transition from guitarist to pianist and this blog will now be set alight with a far more regular posting regime as I show you proof of the fruits of my endeavours. As well as thoroughly and utterly enjoying exploring the classical repertoire, I am also attempting to become a reasonable jazz pianist too as I have finally realised that improvising is fundamentally my raison d'être for playing music. I found the guitar a little limiting in this respect adding a further reason to make the switch to the piano.
My first offering is a piece I composed in memory of one of our local Arts community luminaries, Andy Ducker, who passed away a year or so ago. It is called "Andy's Song" and is an improvisational like melody based on an ostinato like arpeggiated chord sequence in the key of F minor. I also use it a lot for improvising using the F minor natural, C minor pentatonic and chromatic scales. Even if I say so myself, there is something special about this piece of music and I never tire of playing it. You can get the dots for it here.

This was recorded on an iPhone 5 running in IOS 7 Beta 2 using a Glif tripod adapter from Studio Neat mounted overhead using a microphone stand. Enjoy!

Brilliant!

Play it again!

It's been too long! I can barely believe it has been 6 months since I lasted posted here. That is just appalling. It's not like I have given up playing the piano or anything like that. Far from in fact as I an as keen as ever and have progressed well since I last posted. More on that for another day as this post is about Alan Rusbridger's great new book "Play it again". In the main the book is about Alan's extraordinary quest, being an amateur pianist, to learn the horrendously difficult 1st Ballade of Chopin within a year! Interspersed with much detail relating to this onerous challenge is some other most interesting reading as it just so happens that he is also the editor of one of the UK's most prestigious newspapers. The Guardian! Alan has chosen a pretty momentous year news wise to mount this marathon learning task for himself as it is the year the Guardian and others collaborated with Wikileaks to report the leaked US State Department documents, the phone hacking scandal and the Libyan crisis occurred. This has meant that a  session of only 20 minutes was possible early in the morning and often he was not able to fit it in.

The book is such a great read and most informative as along the way as he speaks to many other teacher's and pianist's, both professional and amateur, about their take on the piece and how to practice a work of this level. 

Well worth your while to grab this book if your are in to the piano in anyway at all!

21st century piano student

I use both my iPad 2, iPhone 4 and the Jawbone Jambox to assist with my piano journey. Here you can see the iPad loaded up with Musician's Practise Journal, a great little app for organising and tracking one's practise and overall progress as a student. I have found this app has really tightened up my practise routine and enhanced the results I am obtaining especially in scales. It tracks the time and provides a means to record the last metronome setting. After the practise is finished, it provides both a written overview of each individual session and a graphical one of all practise sessions. Using sensibly named folders it also helps to keep track of all your repertoire and the stage it is at in the practise process. I highly recommend it.
I am using the Visual Metronome app on the iPhone which is great but it does not quite have enough volume. I could use wired or even wireless earbuds/phones but they restrict being able to hear the piano sound. Instead, I am sending the audio to a most awesome personal wireless speaker, the Jawbone Jambox, sitting on top of the piano to amplify the output so as I can hear it more clearly.
I also send the audio to the Jambox to listen to the hundreds of scores, I have on the iPad whilst using ForScore to view them. It does so very well, is quite functional to use to play from also and has an auto page turn facility.

Half yearly piano lesson report

So, I have been having piano lessons for half a year and I can report that I have certainly progressed and that I have every intention of continuing lessons with the right Reverend Franz Moeller.
I now have some 10 pieces in my repertoire including:
1. The first 4 Duvernoy studies
2. The first two pieces from The Children's Bach
3. A transcription of the theme from Schubert's Unfinished Symphony from John Thompson's 3rd grade book
3. A Tarantella by John Thompson also from his 3rd grade book
4. A transcription of the first motive from the Andante of Tchaikovsky's 6th Symphony
5. The Purcell Minuet from Easy Classics to Moderns Volume 17
6. All 3 movements of the Clementi Sonatina also from Easy Classics to Moderns
The main change to my technique that I have had to concentrate on is playing much more lightly than I am used to in order to get a more singing tone. Apparently, this is a common problem for players who have only ever used a digital piano. So after 6 months and the assistance of an acoustic piano in the U3, which, thankfully, is finally getting tuned as I write this post, I have started to habitually do this much to Franz's relief.
I have also been playing the following 2 octave scales with two hands in contrary and similar motion.
C, G, D, A & E major scales
A, E & D minor scales
I am very keen to be as competent a sight reader on the piano as I am on the guitar because it is so advantageous in being able to play lots of repertoire. So yesterday, I was very pleased to hear from Franz how impressed he was with my sight reading of the 2nd piece in The Childrens Bach. So I am on track there also. I have also continued the study of jazz piano under my own steam. Currently, I am concentrating on learning standards focusing on being able to:
1. Play the melody over the chord progression using rootless shapes.
2. Improvising over those same rootless shapes and
3. Transferring those rootless shapes to the right hand for comping.
I have also continued to practise improvising the blues in different keys over various walking bass patterns using minor and major pentatonics and the diminished scale. I am absolutely delighted that after 2 and a half years of playing the piano I can finally improvise over the shuffle rhythm Root, 3rd, 5th, 6th, 5th pattern that one hears in the blues so often. It is still a little insecure but well on the way to where I need to get it. This new found independence has opened up the possibility of further interesting variations in the left hand.
So all in all I am happy with my progress and look forward to seeing where I have go to in another 6 months!