What are your usual noodling melodies when you're drawn magically towards a piano or synth?

[dark water]

Greetings,

You know those cool geezers who stroll up to pianos/synths and start ''bashing out'' a few light jazzy notes, or maybe a beautiful classical melody, that gets everyone's respect instantly?
I'm not one of them.
I wish I was: then my dream of wearing sunglasses at a cruise ship piano when I'm 75 and getting free drinks from the pretty young bargirls in their mid-40s might actually succeed...


I digress.

Usually, I find myself suddenly playing some curious gabba-tempo arpeggiator based around Pachelbel's Canon in D, which has been stuck in my ''repetoire'' for more than 20 years.

Occasionally I might do some hideous sped-up version of Chariots of Fire, depending on how sick I'm feeling with the Gabba Canon.

(And yes, I really need to learn how to play some jazzy tunes competently if my cruise ship dream isn't to shrivel and die as I approach my mid-seventies).


Anyway, what melodies do you usually find yourself playing when next to a piano or synth?
I might nick some of your ideas...

And are you one of those talented sods who can improvise something half-decent at the drop a hat when you're near a keyboard?


Cheers,
DW

[cryophonik]

I usually improvise in Cmin or Gmin with lots of extended chords...don't ask why. Occasionally, I'll throw in a badly played George Winston song (girls always dig it).

[harryupbabble]

Me? No. I don't have a piano.

But speaking of testicles, mine have absolutely no wrinkles. I just checked. They are a bit lop-sided though. And they are always itchy, to the point of bleeding because I have to constantly scratch them. My doctor said "It's normal". I plan to do some Googling.

[Aloysius]

Just some random clicking on the virtual keys via a usb mouse. That's my usual.

[KBSoundSmith]

Sometimes some sort of blues lick in c minor. Which is odd, since that is the only context where I do anything remotely blues-inspired.

Otherwise, it's usually whatever melody I'm in the middle of writing.

[dark water]

I usually improvise in Cmin or Gmin with lots of extended chords...don't ask why. Occasionally, I'll throw in a badly played George Winston song (girls always dig it).

Excellent! I might try to copy this idea if it gets the girls

@Aloysius - sounds about my standard when using the laptop too.


@Harry - I'm going to edit out my brief joke about gentlemanly bits because this thread is really about music. I wish you well with your ailment(s).


@KBSoundSmith - cool, blues licks - got to learn a few of these myself

[foosnark]

The Charlie Brown theme song, Bach's Tocatta and Fugue (not very smoothly), the bassline from Duck Tales, Carol of the Bells, The Final Countdown, and probably some others I'm forgetting at the moment.

But I can also improvise jazzy stuff at the drop of a hat.

[Numanoid]

Either The Lion Sleeps Tonight or Ode to joy (Beethoven)

[Jafo]

Generally a few riffs and chords in d minor or d dorian. Oddly enough, D Major is my default on guitar; I suspect that D- and D+ are my grades in each instrument. But lately I've been obsessed with Lydian mode film music stuff and just telling functional/diatonic harmony to f**k off.

[dark water]

Generally a few riffs and chords in d minor or d dorian. Oddly enough, D Major is my default on guitar; I suspect that D- and D+ are my grades in each instrument. But lately I've been obsessed with Lydian mode film music stuff and just telling functional/diatonic harmony to f**k off.

Yeah, I know what you mean about finding yourself sticking to one noodling key.
Mine tends to be A Minor - somewhat shamefully/lazily, I think more than half of my productions start in, or switch to, A Minor at some point

@foosnark - sounds like an impressive and fun number of tunes!

@Numanoid - haha, cool: I wish I could play The Lion Sleeps Tonight / Wimoweh.
Talking of which, did you know that Brian Eno does (definitely) the best version!
And Desmond Decker's version is possibly the funniest?

[Rappo Clappo]

Flea Waltz

[TheCatBurglar]

I usually jam various melodies in a blues scale, often C!

[CinningBao]

Axel F, always Axel F

[Aloysius]

Stairway To Heaven?

[foosnark]

Axel F, always Axel F

That's one I was forgetting, though I don't use it nearly as much as I did in the 80s

Likewise, Jump.