In a departure from my usual prog rock (or perhaps not ), here's a short solo piano piece I've written. I haven't come up with a suitable title for it yet.

FLAC [13.4 MB]

OGG [ogg7, 5.4 MB]

MP3 [320 kbps, 10.8 MB]


It was recorded and mixed in Ardour, running on Linux.

I just wish I could play it more to my satisfaction, with better control of the dynamics - my left-handedness really gets in the way of an even balance. But it's most of the way there and I eventually did a take without hitting a wrong note so I'm fairly satisfied.

I started writing it almost exactly three years ago . I delved back into it a bit in the winter of 2010 and then picked it up again a few months ago and after a concerted effort and a lot of work have finally managed to complete it.

Comments welcome. Enjoy.

I really enjoyed this. Thank you. And thanks also for making it available in high quality formats.

I think that solo piano is one of the most exacting musical skills. If you make even the slightest mistake there is absolutely no way to hide or fudge it.

Many thanks for listening and taking the trouble to comment. I'm glad you enjoyed it -- that means a lot as I get the impression you usually prefer more uplifting music and this, whilst as one person put it "has fleeting glimmers of hope", is a tad on the depressive side

Personally, I wouldn't bother putting up anything except FLAC. But I think you need to have MP3 and OGG if you want people to listen, which is sad really, especially on a music forum. I think solo piano also makes great demands on audio quality as well so it's beneficial to have the FLAC up there and bandwidth isn't really an issue these days.

Thanks again for listening and commenting.

If you have trouble getting a complete take without the occasional finger flub (as I am wont to do), don't forget that you can comp a piano track as easily a vocal track. That way you can combine the best parts of several tracks to get the best possible result.

BTW, this is a nice piece. I have done some things in the same vein, so I am especially appreciative to see others explore this same kind of music.

Thanks for listening and I'm glad you liked it.

I did end up making a single edit to correct a hesitation that ruined an otherwise very good take; it was a lot easier than I thought it might me.

I dismissed the idea of comping as I was concerned that my playing was probably far too inconsistent from one take to another to be able to get a coherent sounding comp and my (over) use of the sustain pedals means there aren't many clean breaks, making it more difficult. I do normally comp things such as guitar solos to death, perhaps I should have given it a try here as well.

Very nice
A great pleasure.
Great job. Good, nice
Thank you
FRED

I'll take that at face value and say: no, thank you for listening and commenting and you're welcome.

bravo, very nice played an I liked the composition. the piano sounds very convincing...did you play this in realtime audio on a acoustic instrument or is it a good sampleset?

thanks for posting and the best wishes!

wolf

Hi Wolf

Thanks for listening and posting. It's played in real time, but it's the Sampletekk Black Grand Ambient running in LinuxSampler, not a real piano. I do have a nice piano but it needs tuning and I don't think I could make a decent job of recording it, so I was lazy instead .

Unfortunately LS doesn't support convolution so I couldn't use that part of the gigfiles. But I used the body resonance, soundboard and other impulse responses that ship with some of the other ex-PMI/Sampletekk pianos mixed in low with the piano itself when I mixed it; I don't know whether that's made much of a difference.

Thanks again.

gave me the chills

I enjoyed this. Thank you.

Thanks I'm glad it provoked a strong reaction, whether that was or - was it creepy chills or sad chills (or maybe some other sort)?


You're welcome, glad you enjoyed it.

Thank you so much
That is truly moving / inspiring.
Wont go into the reasons why
Others are better at that

Youre a star

Wow, thanks. I'm really touched (no, not like that ) that you connected with it so strongly.


That's a shame, but I understand. Drop me a PM though if you want, I'd be genuinely interested to hear.


Now you're just making me blush Many thanks for listening and commenting

That's really nice.

It starts off a bit film noir moody, switches to an almost Rachmaninov feel and then gets romantic.

I really will have to brush up on my keyboard skills again! Listening to stuff like this makes me want to play more.