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Notes On Improvising Solo Piano
(Photo: Amir Doreh) While I’m not a particularly skilled piano player, I regularly improvise on the instrument and record the results. Improvising piano is different from producing music, mainly because there’s nowhere to hide–it’s just you at the instrument. There’s one sound, not eight or eighteen. Everything happens in the real time of the performance.… Continue reading
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Resonant Thoughts: J.A. Baker’s “The Peregrine” (1967)
“The hardest thing of all to see is what is really there.” “What is, is now, must have the quivering intensity of an arrow thudding into a tree. Yesterday is dim and monochrome. A week ago you were not born. Persist, endure, follow, watch.” “The peregrine sees and remembers patterns we do not know exist:… Continue reading
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Database: Pole On Creating Rhythmical Structures
“The idea is to create a rhythmical structure with chords, bass, little sound snippets and delays that combine to create melodies by themselves. For example, if you repeat a single note in a delay and put it into a room, it starts resonating and builds a melody on top of the basic chord. You never… Continue reading
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Database: Thom Yorke On Speed Of Access And The Weird Fight
“The speed of access is now a problem over everything. You know, quick decisions, throw away, modify, constant automation on your DAW. That stuff is all well and good, but the reason people are going back to previous stuff is that everyone is looking for forms of restriction, I think. (…) You throw something in… Continue reading
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Resonant Thoughts: Jaron Lanier’s “What My Musical Instruments Have Taught Me” (2023)
“Some of my favorite moments in musical life come when I can’t yet play an instrument. It’s in the fleeting period of playing without skill that you can hear sounds beyond imagination.” “In Western countries, the social institutions that kept classical music alive—conservatories, instrument builders, teachers, contests—were being sustained by an influx of stunning musicians… Continue reading
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