CD45 track 4

Hey Ted, I like some of your ideas that you had in there. Some of the phrygian stuff is pretty nice, and I like when you get more impressionist in about 3 minutes in. Do you find your technique dictates what things you choose to play? Or do you try to incorporate ideas that 'fall outside' your fingers too?

In any case I'm glad to hear someone else posting improv here, too!

Cheers,

I am pleased you enjoyed it. Sorry, I don't know what phrygian means.



I have never thought about it; a bit of both I think, probably much more of the latter. I usually play well within my technique, as here, but sometimes I go for broke - no good if you can't have some fun and push yourself.

Oh, were you asking if technique, as opposed to the mind, actually generates ideas ? Yes, of course, very often.

Hi Ted,

The lydian (which I called phrygian--oops its late) reference was about using a #4 in a scale, or emphasizing it and then falling to the third. Technically you didn't really play in the phrygian mode (FGABCDEF for example) but your lingering on the IV chord (like a CFA) with a B on top that falls to the A is pretty nice. Its used in jazz quite a bit in ballads.

And yes, I was asking about technique dictating ideas. I find that if you play in unfamiliar keys (to the fingers at least) you may run into note combinations that you wouldn't normally do in the familiar keys. The trick is to ensure that you're not just doing scales and arpeggios for the sake of it.

edit: I'm a moron at times. lydianlydianlydian

Agreed. Any pattern or figure, no matter how good it sounds the first, spontaneous time, can become a sort of habitual attractor if remembered and recalled to the extent that it is trotted out for the sake of doing anything rather than nothing. Quite a few very famous players seem to do this though. The boundary between an intrinsically vital personal characteristic and a hackneyed mannerism is sometimes very hard to judge, and indeed, is often dependent on who is listening.

Purely technical figurations I keep for my daily few minutes on my silent Virgil Practice Clavier. At the piano I want to make music.

Thanks for explaining that harmony. Goodness, how embarrassingly little I know about what I play !

I would have to think a good deal about your point concerning familiar and unfamiliar grips within keys. It's quite personal and complicated, is it not ? I have always felt that one key is as good as another for me. There certainly can't be any aural difference for me because I don't have absolute pitch. Therefore if differences exist they must pertain to convenience of phrase relative to grip, recalled associative sound imagery from thousands of hours of repertoire, composition and improvisation, and of course, simple habit. It's actually too complex for me to analyse it ! Sorry.

Technique, it seems to me, can dictate ideas but in saying that I don't mean trivial scale "fill in" sections and the like - they're not really ideas at all. But it is possible that the physical way we play a phrase or figure profoundly alters which parts of it we carry forward into the next cell of improvisation. That is a different, non-trivial process, and is one I have been trying very hard, not too successfully, to understand over the last few years.

Nice improvisation, Ted!

Some great passages in there ...

BTW, can I ask you for how long have youve been playing and how did you achieve the technical ability in your right hand - was it mostly through pieces or have youve been practicing alot of scales, arpeggios etc., too?

Delightful improv Ted. Some professional sounding passages in there.

You play very well.

Thanks, I am pleased you like it. Now I have a Zoom recorder the whole process is much easier so I hope to post more of my music on forums. I have been playing since early childhood, Astra, but I have had no tuition at all in technique. However, I have had a silent Virgil Practice Clavier for forty years and I have found that a few minutes with that in the morning and at night is sufficient to maintain dexterity. It also means I can use all my time at the piano to create music, which after all is the object of the whole business for me. I do enjoy playing a small repertoire of classical, stride, swing and classical and contemporary ragtime. However, I am not really good enough at either interpretation or performance to pursue that aspect outside my own living room.