I’d been listening to a lot of Sparks Nevada on the Thrilling Adventure Hour podcast, so I was thinking of the Martian Wild West when I played this.
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I started with a strong “I want” feel (I’m upset about a scheduling conflict for the summer–it’s a first world problem) and then played with moving to different keys, which I need to get better at. I tried to incorporate my mistakes, especially my hesitations, into the fabric of what I was doing.
I recorded this right after practicing Poulenc’s Sanglots, and you can hear it. I tried to really listen to the sound of the piano more than I had been, and kept my focus reasonably well. I had one magic moment where I heard the overtones from a low Db and brought in the F right above middle C to match them, but I wasn’t crazy about what I played afterwards; it felt cheesy. At the end, I couldn’t remember my original melody, so I just did some modal noodling (if I ever make an album of these, “modal noodling” might be the perfect title).
This started out as a right hand exercise for rotation with a supported thumb–all the right hand is just thumb and pinky for most of it, though I did use other fingers towards the end. The second half was just playing around with counterpoint, which I really enjoyed. I tried to make the last resolution soft but audible; if this were a real (e.g. edited) recording, I’d probably mess with the volume to make it clear.
Play It Again Swig 