Melsen's Piano Log

After playing duets with Dad, and after a rather messy performance of a Chopin G Major Prelude, I wanted to play just one more time before moving on to find our departure gate at the airport. If you're familiar with the prelude, you'll hear how I started there with this improvisation. I think this is the most exuberant one of the day, and a fitting end to the string of Portland public performances. Playing piano makes me so happy, and getting to play for other people even more so. Thank you for listening :)

Here is the second duet improvisation with my dad, Philip Carlsen (www.philcarlsen.com). In this one, I'm playing bass, and he's playing treble. I snuck a peak around us during the middle of this, and a sizeable crowd had gathered. It can be such a relief in a stressful situation like an airport to be able to make and listen to live music!

And then my dad joined me and we improvised two duets. This is the first: he is playing bass and I'm playing treble. I grew up listening to him compose at the piano, and I have been heavily influenced by his sense of musical adventure and creation. Check out some of his work on his website: www.philcarlsen.com. You can listen to clips there and on Soundcloud. Also, there is a professional recording of me playing a piece that he wrote for me, "October", put out by Parma Recordings. Here's a link to the recording on iTunes: https://geo.itunes.apple.com/us/album/october/id897219922?i=897220124&mt=1&app=music (but you can also find it on Rhapsody, and probably other music streaming services)

This is the second recording from the Kawai baby grand at PDX, and the third recording from last Saturday. By now, if you've been listening to this podcast for a while, you'll recognize this style of improvising: fast arpeggiated chords, where the content is a slow harmonic transformation with the illusion of a fast pace because of the many notes used, and where there is often a slow melodic line that sparkles out of the top. After I spent a week on the Oregon coast with the constant backdrop of the pounding Pacific surf, playing in this style took on a special significance.

This Kawai baby grand piano was just sitting in the terminal at PDX. The security guard said that sometimes they paid performers to play on it, but otherwise it was available for anyone to play. My family and I had a couple hours before our plane left, so my dad and I ended up playing for almost an hour! We did some pieces we knew, but we also improvised a lot. This is my first improvisation on that piano.

I was recently on the Oregon coast for a family reunion, and on our last day, some of us spent some time in Portland. To my delight, we found not one, but two public pianos to play! The first was part of the Piano Push Play project, and was installed outside the Portland Art Museum. It was a gorgeous day, and it had the feeling of the Boston Street Piano project all over again. This is the recording I made there. One of the keys had a missing hammer (and therefore couldn't play) - can you tell which one?

My partner and I visited my dad and his wife last weekend. He had recently gotten his baby grand piano back, after living in small apartments for a few years. It was sweet to re-familiarize myself with it. I spent hours practicing on it when I was in high school. I woke up on Saturday morning, and before anyone else was up and about, I started this recording. You will hear Dad in the kitchen making breakfast at the end.

A little over two years ago, my grandmother passed away. I played at her memorial service, as well as many other times that weekend. Here's a recording I made when I was warming up on the stage where we were going to hold the service.  She played piano as well, and I spent a lot of time that weekend poring over her music books, and reading her notes in the margins. I grew up on the other side of the country from where she and my grandfather lived, so I didn't get to see her very often. It was very cool to be able to learn more about who she was, and to discover similarities I didn't realize we had.

I made this recording right after the last one, again with the Sony PCM-M10. It's a bit longer. Because of a very busy work schedule over the past few months, I've had a hard time finding time to even play piano, let alone record. It was really nice to be able to sit down and make these tracks.

Trying something new with this recording. I recently bought a Sony PCM-M10 Portable Audio Recorder, which records in stereo. So far, I'm really liking it! I'm able to record in much higher resolution than I did on my smart phone. Plus, this device is able to filter out some low frequencie sounds (like wind or household noises), and it also limits the levels so there is hopefully no distortion at the louder end of the spectrum. This recording is on the mellower side.

I'm considering starting to compose finished pieces using ideas I've explored in these improvisations. I would then make recordings and release them in albums. I would also make the sheet music available for sale. These are grand ideas, and because of the nature of my day job, there are only certain times in the year when I would have enough creative energy and time to devote to such a project, but...it would be so cool, wouldn't it?

Here is one that has a very dreamy quality.

Here's another recording from March, released after the fact! It's a long-format one. I've been thinking about why I typically choose the keys I do to play in. And what makes a key feel like it does? I find I gravitate towards flat keys, but what does that even mean? A-flat Major is technically the same as G-sharp Major. But I believe I always think of it as A-flat when I'm improvising. Similarly, I often think of D-flat Major, not C-sharp Major. B-flat minor, not A-sharp minor. Is this typical? I wonder! But I also wonder if my penchant for flats steers me away from improvising in keys that just have sharps in their key signature - like B Major and E Major...

This was an improvisation inspired by a piece I wrote in elementary school called "A lot of Jazzy Jazz" (which was itself a variation on an earlier piece: "A little bit of Jazz"). Not sure how actual jazzy this ever was, but it was fun to play with!

March 2015 - Day 31 Here it is  - the last post for March. I wrote Ocean Squalls when I was in late elementary school. On Sunday night, I read through it a couple times and then put my music notebook away. This is me playing it from memory, and taking a little artistic liberty. I hope you enjoy!

March 2015 - Day 30 Only two days left in March, including today! I'm trying to decide how frequently to continue posting to this podcast. I recently went through all my files, and I have more than 200 recordings. They are not all ones I would want to share publicly, but many of them are. If I continue to record a few new piano logs every week, I should be able to post at least two every week for a long time. Stay tuned! What I've learned through the course of this month is that I love doing this podcast, so it shouldn't be hard for me to continue! Yesterday, I went through my tiny composition notebook from when I was very young. I was born in 1982, and there were little pieces in there from '87 to '92. My dad is a composer, and most of them are written in his handwriting. Many of them are very much in the style of the beginner pieces I was working on. The first one is "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star", but with "Mel Bass" instead of Alberti Bass. The last one is a piece called "Ocean Squalls", which I was very proud of. I recorded that one yesterday as well, and I'll be posting it tomorrow.

March 2015 - Day 29 This piano was in a little courtyard at Harvard Law School. I had the feeling of being in a sort of room, even though I was outside. It felt oddly private. Perhaps as a result, I think this improvisation ended up sounding more introspective.

March 2015 - Day 28 In 2013, this young person passed away after a tragic bicycle accident. I played thinking of him, and thinking of the people he left behind who grieved his passing. Often, music can express things when words aren't helpful. And also, I'm not a traditionally religious person, but sometimes for me, playing music is the most direct and raw way of connecting with something larger than myself. I don't really ever choose to attend religious services, but I am always so willing and grateful to be able to play music for them, because I believe I'm helping to hold that open space for the people who are listening.

March 2015 - Day 27 I drove over the river from work in Watertown on my lunch break to play this piano. It was unusual in that the keys were painted in addition to the cabinet.

March 2015 - Day 26 This was one of my first ever recordings of piano improvisation. Up until 2008, I had improvised so much, but I had never thought to record. It had been my way of warming up at the keyboard, relaxing, or even practicing techniques. But that was all. I didn't take it nearly as seriously as my classical training. Which is perhaps entirely appropriate. So, here it is - my first attempt at recording. I had no idea what was going to happen when I hit the record button, and I guess I still don't!

March 2015 - Day 25 This is the last piano I played on the first day I ventured out to play street pianos. It was a baby grand sitting out in front of the MFA, and it was decorated with an easel and tubes of paint!

March 2015 - Day 24 My friend Maggie was dancing to this improvisation. You can see a video of this and many other street piano performances on YouTube.

March 2015 - Day 23 For this one, I focused on a left hand melody with right hand accompaniment to start. I think it has an eerie quality.

March 2015 - Day 22 I recorded a few piano logs today - here is the first! More to come throughout the coming week...

March 2015 - Day 21 Spring has come! And there are only ten days left of March! This is a recording from 2012, when I didn't have a home acoustic piano to play. My Casio keyboard really saved the day during those months when I wanted to keep playing.

March 2015 - Day 20 This piano had no working damper pedal! So I made the best of it. What follows is a very upbeat, staccato improvisation, with many sequences. Sequences can be very satisfying!

March 2015 - Day 19 My second recording from the South Station pianos. I had at least a couple spectators - you can hear them in the background!

March 2015 - Day 18, part two! I launched into this jaunty tune. Seemed very appropriate for South Station. There were actually two pianos set up next to each other there, which was unique.

March 2015 - Day 18 I'm releasing two recordings today: this first one is tiny - it's just a clip of a woman I met who had been hanging out at the South Station public piano for multiple days, hours a day. She was trying to amass signatures for a petition to save the pianos. I wonder what became of that?

March 2015 - Day 17 Here is the rest of that improvisation I posted yesterday. This one is much longer. I think there are many cool sounds that emerged...enjoy!

March 2015 - Day 16 This one is from earlier on last Thursday. I thought that I would try to shake things up by trying to intersperse unexpected and odd chords with my more habitual flow of improvisation. You'll hear more things than usual that could sound like mistakes, but I try to run with them and see where they lead. This is really the first of a two-part recording. I stopped recording, then decided I wanted to continue, so started again where I left off. You'll hear the second part tomorrow. Also, I have now officially made it halfway through this one-recording-per-day project for March! Woohoo!

March 2015 - Day 15 My last recording of the night on Thursday. I had tried some improvisations earlier with a relatively large concentration of random chance chords and sonorities (you'll hear these ones soon). In this last one, I gravitated to one lovely, dependable key: the fabulous F major! Enjoy...  

March 2015 - Day 14 Here's one from the Esplanade at night. I was pretty close to the hatch shell. What a fun, weird experience to play a piano outdoors in a park. I somehow think this improvisation even sounds like night music...

March 2015 - Day 13 This is one of 17 recordings I made on October 5, 2013. As you have heard previously on this podcast, I started at Old North Church right after tower bell ringing practice. I then made my way down the greenway, over to Quincy Market and the old State House, back by Government Center, by this park, then over to the Chinatown gate. Quite a long tour! I liked this piano because I thought it sounded a lot like a hammer dulcimer.

March 2015 - Day 12 Here it is - the improvisation I had to do directly following Professor Souhad Zendah's presentation. I was haunted by the image of her at 17, having to spend 4 hours in an ever-narrowing tunnel, walking past countless sniper guns and enduring constant shouted threats from unseen soldiers on speakers, waiting to get out of Gaza into Israel, so she could travel to the West Bank for university, not knowing she wouldn't be able to go back home - to this day. Something I noticed about this recording - it starts with a repeated F, eventually moves to a repeated G, and then a repeated A at the end. Throughout, the motive incorporates those three notes as well. Somehow, I hope this conveys the message of hope Professor Souhad was sharing.

March 2015 - Day 11 This is the third recording from last Sunday's service at the Community Church of Boston. I played this one after community announcements, joys, and sorrows had been expressed. This was paving the way for our presenter, Souhad Zendah. See Day 9 for a longer description of the service. This is another one in the arpeggiated style. After listening to it, I think it references "Become Ocean" by John Luther Adams, performed by the Seattle Symphony Orchestra. I've been listening to that recently. That is a very cool piece, and I really recommend seeking it out!

March 2015 - Day 10 This is the second recording from Sunday's church service. See Part 1 for a longer description. It was the first official music offering in the service.

March 2015 - Day 9 I just attended an incredibly intense and heartfelt talk by Tufts Professor Souhad Zendah about her experiences growing up in Gaza, her life afterwards, and the lives of all the people who live there now. I do not have words to convey this adequately. I have learned some about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict over the years, but I really had no idea it was this bad. Simply, it sounds like Gaza is a prison. And I'm terrified for the people who live there. My heart goes out to them. I played for the service at the Community Church of Boston, and I ended up making 4 recordings. You'll hear them all. The first three happened before Professor Souhad spoke. The last one happened directly after. I had to close my eyes to keep from crying. I'm going to post them in order, starting today. This recording was the opening music, calling people to come sit down and get ready for the service.

March 2015 - Day 8 This was arguably one of the most populated places I played during the Boston Street Piano project. You can hear all the people moving around and talking in the background!

March 2015 - Day 7! It's been a whole week, and I've still got so many recordings to share! Thanks to all of you who have been tuning in and downloading the podcasts. I really appreciate your interest!

Welcome to Day 6! I've gone back to recording directly from my iPhone while I try to get the new microphone fixed. You may have noticed some microphone static in a couple of the more recent recordings. It's been getting worse, so I'm probably going to just get the microphone replaced. In the meantime, I have a shock absorbing mic stand for my iPhone which is pretty cool! It definitely helps reduce the background noise in the recordings.

Yet another one from the Boston Street Piano Project. This was the first recording I made that day, after tower bell ringing practice at Old North Church. This is one of the fast arpeggiated ones, in the vein of my Davis Square recording.

This one is more informal and playful. During the Street Piano Project, there would often be people milling around the pianos - waiting to take their turn, just listening, or wanting to join in. I started playing Autumn Leaves, and a guy who was standing behind me started singing along. Then he asked if he could play too, and we had some fun!

Part of the Boston Street Piano Project. This one explores different realms of sound from my usual palette. I mean, part of what I'm trying to do is be original and try something entirely new every time. But my ears and fingers have patterns they love to revisit. Sometimes I have to really push myself to shake things up, and I think this recording really did that!

This is a longer, meandering one. References to Dream Girls (a little bit!), as well as themes from previous Piano Logs.

For this improvisation, I found myself touching on a Chopin piece I've never actually learned. See if you can tell which one it is! And, welcome to March 2015! For the month of March, I'm going to be publishing one podcast episode a day, so please check back regularly!

Part of the Boston Street Piano project. A trumpet student was practing a part from the Ravel G-Major Piano Concerto, so I did this riff on it. You can view a video of this improvisation here on YouTube.

This is one I imagine playing for a dancer.

04:19 clean Upbeat! Melsen CMelsen CThis is a sound journal of Melsen improvising on different pianos. Practically everything you will hear is raw and unrehearsed. There will be sounds of life happening in the background, and many of the pianos are not in tune. Mel has been improvising at the keyboard since he was very young, but he began mak

Part of the Boston Street Piano project.

Another longer post. Here in Boston, we have had so much snow in the past month! The snowbanks are at least 9 feet tall on either side of our driveway, and our little street is like a bobsled tunnel. The last time I remember seeing this much snow, I was a child, and the walkways went over my head because I was tiny! Needless to say, I have had snow on the brain. So this improvisation ends in a little tune I remember from when I was that small child, watching a sweet movie about another child and his snowman.