New Music – Reminiscence

Finally, some new piano music!  Current plan is to release on SoundCloud (plus short articles for Patrons).  Ideally, I’d get some artwork and create some interactive YouTube videos (like from Bebop Isolation), but that’s a bit too much post-production for me right now.  I want to spend my time writing more music.

All of the music I’ll be publishing will be finished compositions and mixed to the best of my abilities (my mixing lessons continue!) As usual, I’m happy to answer any questions. Hope you enjoy!

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A few years ago, I started experimenting with generating interesting piano chord sequences.  I built a “chord factory” in Ableton (maybe I’ll share that someday).  This composition was one of the first things I wrote using this chord factory.

After Ableton spews out all these random, unpredictable chord sequences, I always go back and edit to make everything more intentional, playable and ‘human’ (sheet music attached!).  Because they’re so chaotic, these chord sequences only make up a short portion of the whole composition (2:30-3:00).

I don’t remember what inspired the rest too be honest, except that I wanted something simple, meditative, and uses only the white notes on the piano. Most likely, I improvised at the piano, and edited it to make it more unified and succinct.

I originally wanted to have this as a solo piano piece, but my meanderings in Ableton were encouraging me to explore more sound design. The piano itself is a Frankenstein monster of piano samples from various packs (PianoTeq, Una Corda, The Gentleman, Ableton’s Upright).  These sounds are then layered with mechanical sounds, ‘note-off’ release samples, pedal samples, and more.  The electronic layers include reversed piano sounds, a sub bass, various pads, and something that sounds like a cricket.

I really enjoy this workflow – improvising at the piano, editing, adding sound design etc. Because this composition itself is very free and improvisational, I can see myself using this workflow to write more music with a similar vibe.  It’s an interesting question I’ll be considering as I write more music – should I explore different workflows, or practice one I’m already familiar with?

Thanks for listening!