Melsen's Piano Log

Welcome to Day 6! I've gone back to recording directly from my iPhone while I try to get the new microphone fixed. You may have noticed some microphone static in a couple of the more recent recordings. It's been getting worse, so I'm probably going to just get the microphone replaced. In the meantime, I have a shock absorbing mic stand for my iPhone which is pretty cool! It definitely helps reduce the background noise in the recordings.

Yet another one from the Boston Street Piano Project. This was the first recording I made that day, after tower bell ringing practice at Old North Church. This is one of the fast arpeggiated ones, in the vein of my Davis Square recording.

This one is more informal and playful. During the Street Piano Project, there would often be people milling around the pianos - waiting to take their turn, just listening, or wanting to join in. I started playing Autumn Leaves, and a guy who was standing behind me started singing along. Then he asked if he could play too, and we had some fun!

Part of the Boston Street Piano Project. This one explores different realms of sound from my usual palette. I mean, part of what I'm trying to do is be original and try something entirely new every time. But my ears and fingers have patterns they love to revisit. Sometimes I have to really push myself to shake things up, and I think this recording really did that!

This is a longer, meandering one. References to Dream Girls (a little bit!), as well as themes from previous Piano Logs.

For this improvisation, I found myself touching on a Chopin piece I've never actually learned. See if you can tell which one it is!

And, welcome to March 2015! For the month of March, I'm going to be publishing one podcast episode a day, so please check back regularly!

Part of the Boston Street Piano project. A trumpet student was practing a part from the Ravel G-Major Piano Concerto, so I did this riff on it.

You can view a video of this improvisation here on YouTube.

This is one I imagine playing for a dancer.

Part of the Boston Street Piano project.