Yesterday a storm blew into Deal and the winds have been so tumultuous. The whistling in the eaves kept waking me in the night. It’s been very grey and dismal and dark. I think this culminated in an improv that feels very melancholy, if pretty. I’ve been really enjoying Fleet Foxes’ eponymous album ‘Fleet Foxes’. So much so, in fact, that Spotify said I have to upgrade or buy the songs to listen to it. Sigh. White Winter Hymnal is one of my favourite songs at the moment. I think in the improv I was playing some chords progressions which felt like the spiritual brother of the typical Fleet Foxes’ harmonies. Overall, I was quite pleased with it, although I had a huge hiccup. I had set up to record, and thought it was recording (the red bar was being created in realtime, which looked normal) so I had finished doing this improv (take 1) and discovered none of it had been recorded. I was gutted. So, technically I recorded it in two takes, though it was still an improv as I had made it up on the spot today. The first take had better progression and a nicer ending, but this second take has prettier melodic lines. Win some, lose some.
happy belated valentine's day
Anyway, I thought it might be fun to record my improvisations. Most of the time, I sit down at the piano to play, then regret not recording it later.
The plan is to record the improvs I play when I first sit down at the piano, which are sometimes rubbish, and sometimes brilliant. I won’t record more than one take. I might start again if I do something completely stupid in the first few bars. I found that the magic seems to happen before I hit record, and if I try to repeat it, like lightening, it doesn’t strike twice. But overall, I plan to share them, warts and all, an occasional dud note, etc. I will probably do covers as well.
This week’s improv is loosely based on a song I wrote called “Sweetest Melancholy”. It was originally piano and voice. The song itself took a very long time to be born. It’s one of my favourites.
