Piano Meditations Podcast

A dozen people tonight! When we have a good crowd like that, we open it up for applause; if it's just a few people it sort of sounds sad, so I play straight through without applause. I don't think any quotes came into the fingers tonight. Definitely digging into more energetic playing. Next week will be the 200th episode. After that I plan to take a break for a while, regroup and start again in th...

Small group tonight; I was feeling more introspective and just went with it for the most part. I also felt a little disconnected from the "muse", but I didn't want to fall back to tried and true sonorities, so towards the end I just started playing really randomly and didn't try to "make sense" of it. At some point I just went with the energy and it kind of turned into a strange Stravinsky-meets-C...

I've been exploring more rhythmic and energetic playing. Part of it is knowing I have some dancers in the dining room, and others tuning in and moving to the music! The "Meditations" part of Piano Meditations is really about my attempt to get into a flow state and let the music literally flow out; it is not so much about providing music for meditation! A lot of my playing does tend to be more intr...

Drummer Dan Burke joined us again! Once again, the music went in totally new directions with the addition of percussion. Most of the music was still completely free improv, but I went in a more jazz sound and played a blues (or sort of a blues!) and a rendition of When Sunny Gets Blue. It feels strange to ask people not to clap (so that the podcast is just the music), so you'll hear that. But hey,...

As I was playing the first piece, I realized I was touching on Bach's "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring", so I just went for it. Later, the first two chords reminded me of Stephen Foster's "Jeannie With the Light Brown Hair" so I went for that too, but somehow it turned into a rag! I played one piece that was pretty atonal, which sometimes helps me get out of "functional harmony" habit. It was fun.  We...

After two weeks away from the piano, there's a feeling that I might not be in my best form, but often the opposite happens, as it did tonight. I think it's because my ears are more attuned to the notes because it seems fresh and new.  Not many quotes tonight, but one was pretty funny; I was doing a waltzy thing and somehow "The Bear Went Over the Mountain" popped up. Go figure.

It's my wife's birthday tomorrow so we invited a bunch of our friends for a quick celebration before the music. 14 people! I started with the piece of music I wrote for Sharon when we first met, "Thomas Pond" (didn't practice it first; whoops!). Then I did an improv on the same piece. I was feeling my old ballet accompaniment roots, so lots of steady rhythms and four bar phrases! 

Except for one piece that was sort of atonal, I felt pretty good about most of the music tonight. It's unrealistic to expect myself to be inspired on every piece! Sometimes I'm just not sure what I'm doing, but now I keep going rather than bail out. It's like riding a horse; sometimes there's a great connection between my brain and my fingers, sometimes not. 

What a treat to have a guest musician! Sometimes you don't realize just how much you're missing until it comes true. Drummer Dan Burke fully embraced the totally-free music-making, and provided a rhythmic foundation to every piece. His support gave me a sense of confidence with my own rhythm, and I felt the music went in a whole new direction! We had a big audience, too, so it made sense to includ...

I was wearing a very bold striped shirt tonight and a few guests mentioned barbershop quartets, so of course the music was influenced! Most of the pieces had a "functional harmony" feel, and I tried a jazzy walking bass kind of thing. Enjoy.

I keep diving into romantic harmonies! Rachmaninoff is a big influence, so why the hell not. One piece was a one-off jazz ballad. I ended the evening with a new-agey, impressionistic Garden of Eden kind of thing. Enjoy.

Fresh tuning; sorry about the last few weeks! Had a boisterous crew tonight, so I felt like diving right into something dramatic. After that I was in the mood for a waltz and a rag! I played a piece that borrowed a feel from Mendelssohn's Songs without Words, and a quasi 5/8 piece that borrowed a left hand riff from Chick Corea. Also played a standard I love, When Sunny Gets Blue. Enjoy.

Had a bunch of people over for chili and homemade bread before the music! I tried to approach the music with an image in my mind, and thought it could be an inspiration for what to play. It didn't work. The music itself took over.  Enjoy. 

Felt like stretching harmonically tonight, which was fun. Hearing two different chords simultaneously helped to open my ears to some new directions. Enjoy!

Stretched a bit on a couple pieces, and it reminds me of the balance between playing it safe and going out on a limb. The pieces felt a little uncomfortable and awkward, but I've learned not to bail to and just power through. I'm including them because that's kind of the point of this podcast! You might hear some melody snippets of songs you know; will leave it to you to find them!

One of the pieces began like Paul Simon's Sound of Silence, but I went elsewhere. At the end, some chords evolved into rising thirds, which reminded me both of Silver Bells and Blue Monk, so... I kind of played both at the same time!

Tonight I dug into the kind of sonorities I was wanting to hear, reminding myself that so much of this project is to do exactly that. Sometimes I try to challenge myself to go into unfamiliar styles or genres, and that is a good exercise, but I feel most at home with a particular sound that seems to draw my ear into it, and I more successfully become absorbed in it. I also messed with the mixer se...

I didn't feel very psyched to play tonight, and I wondered if the music would feel stiff and unimaginative. I didn't share this with our guests and started playing as usual. Sure enough, the music just kind of takes over, and everything felt fine! 

Three people here tonight. Went in several different directions tonight; started a rolling thing that turned into a tribute to Stephen Sondheim. One piece became an epic 50s ballad, and the last piece began as an imitative melodic counterpoint which somehow evolved into Simple Gifts. Enjoy.

Felt like playing faux jazz standards tonight. I attempted to create melodies that sounded like songs! I suppose it was inevitable that real songs would show up. First came Oh What a Beautiful Morning, which associatively led to America, which led to Imagine. I'll leave it to you to figure out those associations.. It was a little shorter tonight, sorry!

Ten people here tonight! On the night before Thanksgiving! Pushed myself a bit tonight; tried a few new pathways, and hit a few stumbly notes! Hey, it's all grist for the mill. Went back to my days as a ballet accompanist and played a boisterous waltz. One piece was all about how chords can spill into each other. Another piece felt a little Russian folk, perhaps? 

Really dug into some thematic elements tonight. A motif of a few notes really can be the fuel which propels the music forward. It's also a balancing act, because you also don't want overdo a theme and render it boring. It's certainly fun to play with the balance! Enjoy.

Nice group tonight! Worked with some motifs and explored different harmonies with them. Towards the end I started a blues, but I wasn't really feeling connected to a "free blues" so I segued into a version of God Bless the Child. After that I still felt like staying with a jazz sound so the next piece was Manhã de Carnaval, also known as Black Orpheus. Enjoy.

I do tend to follow a certain arc to each evening's music; the first one is a rolling piece that evolves gently, then I tend to dig a little deeper into some more complex harmonies, then try a rhythmic  thing that moves and builds. After that I often do a more simple, easy thing, then maybe another energetic piece, or a very somber dirge. Whatever the particular flow, I try to have variety and som...

Something happens when you don't question your choices. The confidence to own your choices creates a kind of inevitability of the music, and by allowing it to happen, it somehow generates music that has a deliberate quality to it. The more I explore this kind of expression, the more it takes on a life of its own. Thanks for joining me on this exploration.