TUESDAY, March 2, 2021 – 7:51 AM
Things I’ve Written for Students
Starting this year in 2021 I’m trying to get back to recording. This is about things I’ve written myself and that I teach to my students.
Just a Lonely Night
Mostly written in pentatonic, I wrote this to illustrate a melody with somewhat jazzy sounding inversions of seven chords.
Lydian Soliloquy
I heard a nice electric guitar improv in Lydian and used part of it as a theme. The middle parts uses an octatonic scale.
Variation on a Theme of Chopin
The chord structure hints at a very famous Chopin E Minor Prelude as I illustrate an example of how to use a harmonic structure to improvise a rolling melody.
Le Mystique
I wrote this about a year ago, but I fleshed it out a bit for a more advanced version. It is all about a double harmonic scale, where you start with a major scale and then flat 2 and 6. It’s a scale you won’t here in traditional music until perhaps the time of Debussy or more modern composers.
I listened to Le Mystique and relized it had more notes and was longer than the on I learned.
I listened to Variation on a Theme of Chopin, of the pieces here I haven’t played. The beginning sounded familiar, that’s how I got hooked. It still hooked me in like a fish the whole way through, maybe sometimes slightly boring. It was just mesmerizing to listen to, an eerie charm is how I would describe the entire feel of the piece. It’s just… fascinating.
I liked them all but Spinning song was not among therm
I agree with all the comments made by Inge. I was excited to hear that you are getting back to recording.
To write music that is interesting, not blah-formulaic so that “students can play it”, but it’s interesting, gripping – but students can play it without being super super super advanced – that is a thing almost of genius – rare in any case.
It is wonderful to hear your own playing of these pieces.