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Change of the season month

Here is my contribution to kick off this month's Piano Bar. Improvised, called:

Tergeversation
https://app.box.com/s/qx44dxn540ytftse6amqefg23oy8pjhd

Glen

Glen I enjoyed it. do you ever play in a lounge somewhere I would like tickets

my contribution this month an oldie but a goodie, at least I hope,

Its also another old video from last year




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q988kKnYopc

Very nice, Glen. I'm curious about this: I do not remember ever hearing anything in your improvisations that sounds like a regret. What I mean is that I imagine that in the course of an improvisation, there is some time between the creation of the musical expression in your mind, and the playing of it. The time between the moment you imagine where you are going, and the point in time when you play it, be it 1 second or 4 seconds. It seems your ideas come sufficiently in advance that you are able to play them smoothly without stumbling, the way I suspect it would happen if the idea only came to you only a very brief moment prior to the arrival of the time for playing. Your smoothness suggests to me that you are doing the creative mental work well in advance of the point in time at which you play it.

Am I understanding the process of improvisation, as you do it, correctly or accurately? And, if so, just how far in advance of playing do the specific ideas of "what" to play come to you?

Thanks again for playing for us.

Sor, I'm so glad you post in video form. It is encouraging and inspirational for us beginners to see what relaxation and command of one's self and of the keyboard look like. It was a very nice performance, and I enjoyed it.

Inlanding - verb (used without object), tergiversated, tergiversating.
1.
to change repeatedly one's attitude or opinions with respect to a cause, subject, etc.; equivocate.
2.
to turn renegade.

Hmmm, what could be the meaning of this within the context of the improvisation? It was a beautiful, fluid, mood piece. That is for sure. I love the way that you can cascade waves of notes over the rich harmonies without a hint of sounding of scale playing.

Sor - Why is your video labeled a comedy? It is not funny how well you played that classic. You attacked it with gusto, and it came alive. Well done.

Inlanding- Very relaxing! nice playing:)

Sor- very well played!

Someday, I might get back into recording songs..:)

Glen, very laid back, melodic, listenable performance, as usual. And I see I am not the only person you sent to the dictionary!

Sor, that was excellent. Loved the exciting part!

I'm going modal again this month with a tune called Milestones, by Miles Davis. It is written in G Dorian and A Dorian. Interesting contrast, there. I am playing from a lead sheet. The solo may sound a bit planned out, because I am consciously experimenting with some of Oliver Prehn's concepts for adding structure in modal improv.

Ed

Milestones

HI Augustina~~ great to see you back.

Thank you, Sor! Playing a regular gig would be fun. It would be a good way for me to spend more time at the piano.

Ed~ that was a fantastic expression of Milestones! The tempo seems so difficult to maintain and you make it sound easy. How you manage to keep those change while creating your own melody is so good. This is a great take - such spirit!

Ken, thank you for your kind words about that improvisation! I think I was engaging in tergiversation already, before the playing started. There were a few attitude changes and there were some liberties with making changes in time.

Ralph - that is a very thoughtful comment and question and I want to respond in kind. Here are some immediate thoughts on it - You're right - there are ideas about a structure, albeit looser at times, and there are smaller ideas based on somewhat familiar patterns, at times. Playing in different keys also creates its own sets of patterns because of where it is on the register, how my hands fit the shape of the chords/inversions/chord patterns and individual note patterns, if it's a familiar sound/pattern (or not). Having taken some classical piano lessons helps with new ideas and technique. Some of the improvisation is based on an existing musical vocabulary (a loaded term, but it does explain some of what happens). If it's improvising with a back track, it feels more tense so as to avoid making mistakes with changes in time. It's an achilles heel, but getting better. I should take more time to play music with others - it is a good challenge on so many fronts.

Glen

my first song in several months, maybe longer. I hit the wrong button at the beginning of the recording. I just started playing this piece last week, so it has a long ways to go:)

Stargazing by Michele McLaughlin

https://app.box.com/s/zfkqvi3kjwhii2l254cpldiz9s0xnnyt

Man, keep those modal tunes coming, Ed! You had a lot of nice repeating patterns following up and down the Dorian pathways. It really makes it sound like well-intentioned lines of expression. Tell us more about Oliver Prehn...

Glen, thanks for the comments.

Augustina, nicely done. It even has a feeling of twinkling starlight, I would say! You seem to pick up confidence as you proceed through the song.




Thanks, Ken.

I was experimenting with the idea that Oliver Prehn explains in this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqff2HnhbyI

The idea is that a Dorian (or any mode of the major scale) contains three minor (or major) pentatonics, and you can improvise on each of them separately in a way that adds structure. Specifically, for example, over Dm7, play something on D minor pent starting, say, on D above middle C, then sequence it in A minor pent starting on the A above that, then E minor pent starting on E above that A. So at first your solo sounds very inside (because D minor pent is so consonant with Dm7), but less so with A minor pent and even less with E minor pent, where you will have some some maj 7 intervals. So as you go up and down the keyboard there is at least a small increase and decrease in harmonic tension, even though it is all D Dorian, which reminds me of the kind of metaphor they use in music theory about progressions like 1251 - feeling at home, feeling as if you are leaving home, being far from home, returning home (as you return to the tonic). Anyway, it sounded interesting to me so I thought I would play around with it.

BTW, I have just discovered other videos by Oliver Prehn, which seem very interesting.

Ed

Fabulous job of keeping the monthly bar humming everyone. Lovely playing, Augustina. Well, everyone and nice to see you here.

Remembrance is observed coming up and my Sister had a posting on her facebook time line that I would like to post here now;

"I am the granddaughter of Ernie Green from Sunderland England. He married Mollie Devlin from Dublin and together they raised five boys and one daughter in London Ontario. With religious roots in Church of England and Catholic they raised their brood Baptist. I suspect they had good daycare programs. Perhaps they drew straws.

All I ever heard about Ernie from his grown sons was what a tyrant he was. His rage could be triggered in an flash that frightened and confused his children. He died when I was only seven and I had never known him to be unkind or short tempered but granddaughters get to see a softer side I guess.

There was a letter written by Ernie to his young bride with a vow of never taking to drink to the point of causing her to worry. He had seen the harm it could do to a family and she would be free from that pain in her life with him. That vow was not kept. She stood by him with her own vow of 'peace at any price' which strained her relationship with her teen daughter and five sons. The legend of Ernie the tyrant remained long after he passed away.

Thirty years later when clearing out my mother's apartment after her battle with cancer was lost I happened upon a small envelope in with her things. It was a simple white envelope marked
"Ernie's buttons, first war, medical corp".

My understanding of the family dynamic took a sudden twist. I had heard the songs that my uncles learned in the pubs of England during WWII. Most of them were filthy ditties sung with a gusto at family gatherings. My aunt's husband flew bombing raids over Berlin but rarely spoke of it. Uncle Jack, the eldest, had flat feet and stayed out of the war. Brother Bob was a flight navigator, Bill was a tail gunner flying over Europe, George/Duke was a radio operator & flew ferry command escorting supply ships from Canada to Iceland and my Dad (the baby of the family) was in air cadets when the war ended overseas. I also think Mollie was holding onto the baby for all she was worth. Other families in the neighbourhood had all their children in the war. I had never heard stories about Ernie's war ... the 'Great War' or 'the war to end all wars'...until there was another one.

Those buttons told me very little and yet so much as well. He had likely seen the ugliest sights in the ugliest war. There was no understanding of PTSD when he returned home. He and Mollie raised a family who came of age only to be returned to the soil that he had fought in. He came back changed by his experiences but he came back. He raised a family of six in London Ontario with his wife Mollie Devlin. I've learned more of the war that took a young man from his bride and returned the man she likely did not recognize but one she defended.
On November 11th each year I lay a poppy in memory of Ernie and the boys he served with. I take a handful of brass buttons in my pocket to the cenotaph and say a blessing to Ernie the soldier, the father, the tyrant and the man that I knew as grampa.
I am the granddaughter of Ernie Green from Sunderland England
a soldier in the medical corp, WWI.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ditto for me, I guess. I don't do the thing with the Poppy and Brass Buttons. Definitely sounds like a sister thing to me though. If I think of it I may play a tune.

Here is the tune

I am the grandson of Ernie Green from Sunderland England
a soldier in the medical corp, WWI.

Ed~ once again, you have motivated me to

Sor, good job on Fur Elise! While it's given often to folks relatively early in their piano playing journey, playing it well like you did takes a fair amount of seasoning to capture the dynamics a mood swings throughout.

Jeff~ I always enjoy that tune and I like your delivery of it. Very nice of you to post the note from your sister's FB page.

Glen

Greener: Thank you for sharing your song and your sister's facebook post.

There is no way for any of us to fully understand your grandfather's experience, or the changes it may have wrought within him. I think we just have to content ourselves with the reality that we will never fully grasp it, and will always be left in a state of underappreciating what those men did for the rest of us, or the heavy the price it exacted from them. It is a debt we can never repay, and a gift we will always be incapable of fully appreciating.

Thank you for the tune.

And a special, but inadequate, thank you to Ernie and the boys.

Raubucho: You are welcome anytime I record I just use my iPhone so most of my recording will always be in video format, Im glad you enjoy this medium I always enjoy a performance more when I can see the performer.

Kenjazz: thanks for the compliment, when I upload to youtube I don't really look at all the setting I just post up my video and forget about it, I suppose comedy is the default setting when I post my videos

Inlanding: thank you for your compliment , although I was very much a beginner at the time of the video about 7 months into playing the piano however I still consider myself a beginner…

and thanks to everyone else who enjoyed my contribution this month.

Here's a slow and simple take on a 1941 Standard, 'Tis Autumn, by Henry Nemo.

https://app.box.com/s/ol87eartz2vrg1mj9frp

Glen

Things are a bit slow in the Piano Bar this month...

Here's a tune from 1944 - lyrics by John Blackburn and the melody by Karl Suessdorf. Then a short improvisation.

Moonlight In Vermont
https://app.box.com/s/sxf1nwd1vyg9bmpnek82opmowmr86uhm

Improvisation - Freeplay
https://app.box.com/s/pkl6bp9n0y9uuewjmjy3v3e5vah9bzt6

Glen

Enjoyed it Glen, thanks for sharing

You do this stuff very well, Glen. Your inimitable style here. I love to mess about in so so fashion, but never seem to get around to recording these days . . .

Nice work man! On a decent piano by the looks o` things. Good to see new faces. Makes up for the old curmudgeons who`ve dropped off lately . . Well, I`m back!