Melsen's Piano Log

Another longer post. Here in Boston, we have had so much snow in the past month! The snowbanks are at least 9 feet tall on either side of our driveway, and our little street is like a bobsled tunnel. The last time I remember seeing this much snow, I was a child, and the walkways went over my head because I was tiny! Needless to say, I have had snow on the brain. So this improvisation ends in a little tune I remember from when I was that small child, watching a sweet movie about another child and his snowman.

I made this recording in Davis Square, Somerville, MA. The piano was part of the Boston Street Piano Project. If you follow the link and scroll down, you'll find a video of me playing!

I recently purchased a Zoom iQ6 X-Y Stereo Microphone for iOS from Guitar Center, and this is the first recording I made with it. I have been making all my recordings on my iPhone, but the recording quality hasn't been great for music. I'm still working out the best settings to use, but I think you'll notice the difference!

This is the second part of the improvisation I did with my brother Eric in a practice room at Wellesley College after listening to the Alloy Orchestra in concert (Performance to Man with a Movie Camera). I think you can tell that some of the inspiration comes from what we just heard.

A little background: Eric and I grew up listening to our dad, Philip Carlsen, composing at the piano. We both studied piano while we were growing up, and we both loved to just sit at the instrument and improvise (I think we preferred this to practicing our classical music pieces!). Periodically, we would jam together. Now, after we've both graduated from college and are working as graphics/media designers, we still take every opportunity we can to make stuff up together.

In the first recording (see the previous post), I was playing bass and Eric was playing treble. For this recording, we switched. Enjoy!

Eric's website - animation, graphics, and multi-media storytelling

Dad's website - Philip Carlsen, composer

This is the first of two recordings I made with my brother Eric after a performance at Wellesley College by the Alloy Orchestra (Performance to Man with a Movie Camera). He's playing treble on this one, and I'm playing bass. We're down in a practice room, playing on a baby grand.

On our way to this concert, we had been listening to a James Booker Pandora station in my car, and I think our first improv session was loosely inspired by that music. Our second session was heavily influenced by Alloy Orchestra's performance. It was cool how that turned out - it wasn't a conscious choice!

Eric's website - animation, graphics, and multi-media storytelling

This was the second piano I recorded for the "Play Me I'm Yours" Boston Street Piano installation.

Link to Boston Street Pianos 2013, Franklin Park Zoo

This was the second piano I visited during the "Play Me, I'm Yours" street piano installation in Boston. I arrived as the piano tuner was finishing up, so I sat in the shade and ate my breakfast as he worked. As I was waiting, I got to watch the stream of people in line for the zoo, and I loved how a lot of them stopped to see what he was doing. Public pianos can be such a spectacle. They draw the attention of so many people, especially young children.

Link to Boston Street Pianos 2013, Franklin Park Zoo

In October 2014, I found a free piano on Craigslist. It was so out of tune that some of the higher keys (which have three strings each) played three different distinct notes at once! But I have played many, many upright pianos by now, in various states of disrepair, and I liked the feel of this one. The keys were intact, the soft pedal and damper pedal worked, and it was very resonant.

I paid movers to transport it to my apartment, and I hired a piano technician (Jay Natale) to fix up the action. When we opened up the cabinet of the instrument, we found so much dust and mold! So my task for the next couple months was to clean the keys and vacuum the interior as thoroughly as I could. Jay did an excellent job on the action. When we finally put it back together, I attempted to tune it myself. I had adequate tools, and a relatively good ear, but it was my first time, and I didn't realize that a bunch of the tuning pegs were loose.

Yesterday, I hired Jay to tune it professionally, and he showed me how some of the pegs were so loose, they could slip very easily. So, I'm going to keep track of which keys slip out of tune, and eventually I will use a hammer to drive those pegs deeper into the wood of the soundboard before I get it tuned again!

I made this recording within two hours of having the piano tuned. It's a longer format than usual - I couldn't resist! Enjoy.