At first, I didn't think I would put this up. These recordings were made as a test to see if I could get a good sound out of the piano and mike. The results were mixed - I was happy enough with the sound, but the piano needs tuning and you can hear lots of noise from the keys and pedals. The performance is also easy to criticize, showing off my dumb left hand and my sociopathic glee in sustaining chords into a stew of dissonance. But nitpicks aside, there were enough "keeper" moments in this improv session that I decided to go ahead and post it.
I only added significant effects to the middle section, which was already pretty weird anyway. The first and last bits just have minor tweaks to liven up the sound.
Negative Lad
1 - I'm A Big Fish
2 - In An Empty Pond
3 - Better Learn To Walk
If I were a less lazy person I would devote more time to practicing piano, because I do love it as an instrument.
Ps. Negative Lad is my superhero identity. Don't tell anyone.
Irrational Planet - a blog with an eccentric orbit
Monday, July 28, 2008
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Post-Awesome
And now, the post-Mannette Festival depression phase of the summer.
Bleargh.
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Off to the Festival of Steel
Today I'm heading out to West Virginia to attend the Mannette Festival of Steel so I won't be updating for a couple of weeks.
The Mannette Festival is emblematic of how good it is to be involved in steelpan. Many of the world's foremost players and composers come to the festival to perform with students and amateurs.
Pan is a marvelous instrument, and a marvelous movement in culture worldwide. It is still an infant in accoustic musical instrument years, and much of its potential remains to be explored. It combines the possibilities of rhythm, melody, and harmony into a complex but accessible whole. The classical canon of pan, or the nearest thing to it, is calypso, a genre not so long gone that we can't still understand it and dance to it. Even the most intense competitions of skill on the instrument are festive occasions. All music has the power to move us, but perhaps none is so blatantly fun as steelpan.
It is probably for these same reasons that pan is not often taken seriously. In America we typically hear the instrument as a soundtrack for "Girls Gone Wild" commercials late at night, as generic Caribbean atmosphere in "Under the Sea" and "Kokomo*," and occasionally in synthesized form in the Super Mario games.** It's not that pan is even counterculture; it's simply viewed as a novelty if it's recognized at all. It is a shame for the instrument to be overlooked. It is a great way to get people into music - especially young people.
I'm reminded of how lucky I personally feel to have discovered this instrument. I spent a number of years without a direction in life or any connection to people outside of my close circle of family and friends, and pan played a big part in turning things around. I'm still looking for a way to sustain myself with my creativity, but I feel, for the first time, confidence and satisfaction(and this blog has become a significant aspect of the process).
*A song which mentions some ten different Caribbean islands yet manages to overlook Trinidad and Tobago...
**Not to say that these things are equally disreputable. In fact, as Mario stands for both fun and a high standard of quality, I don't object to that association at all.
The Mannette Festival is emblematic of how good it is to be involved in steelpan. Many of the world's foremost players and composers come to the festival to perform with students and amateurs.
Pan is a marvelous instrument, and a marvelous movement in culture worldwide. It is still an infant in accoustic musical instrument years, and much of its potential remains to be explored. It combines the possibilities of rhythm, melody, and harmony into a complex but accessible whole. The classical canon of pan, or the nearest thing to it, is calypso, a genre not so long gone that we can't still understand it and dance to it. Even the most intense competitions of skill on the instrument are festive occasions. All music has the power to move us, but perhaps none is so blatantly fun as steelpan.
It is probably for these same reasons that pan is not often taken seriously. In America we typically hear the instrument as a soundtrack for "Girls Gone Wild" commercials late at night, as generic Caribbean atmosphere in "Under the Sea" and "Kokomo*," and occasionally in synthesized form in the Super Mario games.** It's not that pan is even counterculture; it's simply viewed as a novelty if it's recognized at all. It is a shame for the instrument to be overlooked. It is a great way to get people into music - especially young people.
I'm reminded of how lucky I personally feel to have discovered this instrument. I spent a number of years without a direction in life or any connection to people outside of my close circle of family and friends, and pan played a big part in turning things around. I'm still looking for a way to sustain myself with my creativity, but I feel, for the first time, confidence and satisfaction(and this blog has become a significant aspect of the process).
*A song which mentions some ten different Caribbean islands yet manages to overlook Trinidad and Tobago...
**Not to say that these things are equally disreputable. In fact, as Mario stands for both fun and a high standard of quality, I don't object to that association at all.
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