#6 Just another procrastination...

Ok, fact: I am really REALLY terrible at updating this blog on a regular basis.

Hopefully however, in about a week or two after all my exams have been expunged I can finally crack down and start recording the 5-6 ideas quite recently lodged in my head and start producing some decent improvs!

EXAMS!!! That's all it's been so far for the last 3-4 weeks and boy are they are an unwelcome kick in the crotch o_O! There's literally been a 'time-freeze' placed on all things social, hobby-ish, most sporting endeavours and everything non-academic related.The days/nights/all-nighters are now filled with reading, writing, your general cramming sprinkled with a touch of procrastination (or in my case a dollop right in the midst of it all).

*major sigh-age*

So basically, unable to concentrate any longer I decided to sit at the piano and bang out 'whatever'. Fortunately for me, I also had a fully-charged camera (this is actually quite a rare occurrence) sitting on the kitchen counter as I made my way over to the piano and I thought: "Hey. Why not?"

Fingers randomly decided to start playing on the C Sharp keys, which was very inconvenient seeing as I had no idea which key I was in seeing as I'm actually quite unaccustomed to C Sharp related keys, but none-the-less, this is 'improv', so I ploughed through and hopefully it didn't turn out that bad in-the-end =S.

Tried a new style this time, worked out eventually that the key was actually A Flat Major with a key change that I don't know slipped somewhere in there. A great moment of serendipity (YES! I've been wanting to use that word in a sentence for months now!) as I've now learnt of a new chord progression.

The song is a reflection of how I was feeling at the time of playing. Stresssssssed, but a lil' relaxed with the help of (without wanting to sound too much like a typical muso) the piano.

#5 Improv. in D

Really really REALLY didn't want to upload this one.

But I did.

Mucked around (with no particular conscious thought) in D for a bit straight after recording the "#3 Improv. - And the itsy-bitsy spider climbed up the spout again" (which is in the same key), and ended up with some classic 'mind muddle'.

Undecided on whether Muddle is someone I like yet.

#4 Replay Accompaniment

Just thought I'd try improvising over the top of Replay by IYAZ for fun.

Nothing special. Nice waste of time though =].

#3 Improv. - And the itsy-bitsy spider climbed up the spout again

*Okay for some reason when I start recording myself my endings go to shit but on other occasions I can produce some fairly nice ones...*major sigh-age*.

Anyway...

Today's improv piece was done whilst looking at a photo that one of my more talented friends took for one of her blogs (see her amazing work right here - http://gratedslices.blogspot.com/). The problem however, was being able to convert those feelings supposedly produced from the photo onto the piano itself, especially seeing as today wasn't particularly rainy (one major conundrum)!

Unable to re-conjure the appropriate feelings that I needed to play the actual piece I just ended up playing what was the natural feeling at the time (which I guess was the whole point of the blog in the first place). Courtesy of me trying to semi-incorporate the 'rain' feeling combined with the actual sun just edging through the windows around me; I felt that immense feeling that one gets with the rising of the sun 'after' the rain, and lo and behold 'this' came out.

I have a thing for D major recently which is slightly odd seeing as in the past I wasn't really a fan. I also have a thing for two chord progressions which is also odd seeing as most of my songs are done in four. Hope I'm not catching something.

Key: D Major
Feeling: Sun After Rain
Dedicated to: Natasha (though it's the wrong song - promise to do it when It Is 'Actually' Raining =S)

#2 Improv. ft. "Apologize" Chords

Here took One Republic/Timbaland's "Apologize", and took it back to its basic chords before messing around with it. I have a feeling that the whole new 'uploading-every-video-even-if-it's-crap' regime I'm trying to get going is going to get on my nerves eventually.

Not too fancy, but couldn't resist playing the C Blues alongside it somewhere near the end. Didn't really aim for a repeated melody (or even an original one) or anything succinct as I was waaaay too tired to think on the spot (hence some average improv.). Clearly overdid the end *sigh*, but what can you do (lamest ending ever -_-!!).

#1 Improv. in F.

Okay, thanks to the inspiration of a few of my closest friends (who also happen to be phenomenal artists - and hence, have inspired me to 'create'), I have decided to make a 'Music Blog' in order to somehow capture the majority of my improvisation ideas on the piano - about time (I've been trying to store them in the limited space in my head for years)!

So the idea is to, whenever I'm feeling any form of pent up emotion, I'm going to sit down at the piano and just let it flow out onto the keys. There probably will not be that much conciseness (or patterns) to the way I play, but there will always be a feeling and at least one idea/technique that I wish to improvise with.

And by 'improvise' I mean 100% spur-of-the-moment playing (ie no prior playing/practice - make-it-up-as-you-go-kinda-thing) so as to properly project my true feelings.

Wish me luck!

This song is done in F and only revolves around two keys (F and B Minor). So it does tend to stagnate near the end as I'm just looping the same feelings over-and-over again until satisfied to finish. Finger slips here and there, overuse of some held phrases, and a very poor ending but otherwise this was the first song that actually passed my own highly-critical self-examination to actually put up online, so ah..'hooray'? (had over 300 video attempts to start this blog already)

F Major. Feeling: Carefree. Very simple technique, played along several different octaves (will probably redo this in the future).

Dedicated to Sarah, Natasha and Min-Yee for the belief.

Peace. Jono