Meddlings: Movement IV (Post 4)

Key changes will be made... to my workload this coming week.

Hello everyone! I hope you've been enjoying the last movement and my vlog... This week: Movement IV is finally out! This is going to be a relatively shorter post, but before we get to the recordings, a bit of nitty-gritty chit-chat.

So... the TED Talk presentations are now scheduled to be Friday the 20th and all during the following school week. I have taken a position on Wednesday the 25th. As the date draws nearer and nearer I am brimming with anticipation. And stress. And anxiety. But, oh well - I'll just have to believe in my improvisation skills that I've "honed" this project, as well as my ability to write a TED Talk.

Moving on, this week was about chord changes. I chose this as a last goal since switching from one key to another is relatively simple. There are plenty of super-complicated ways to change keys - but I've found that experimentation works pretty well. Different chords will set up for different transitions. It helps when one chord in a chord progression overlaps into different chord progression in a different key. Additionally, rests can serve as good transitions between keys. The big clincher, I guess, is what happens after the transition.

If you change from one key to another, and you don't do anything different, other than change the key, it's extremely boring. So I've found change a feel, tempo, rhythm pattern, or dynamic really accentuates the change - evolving the song, if you will - so that it's a little different with each change.

And... I'm back on the normal piano! Bigger dynamic range, in tune, clear, and nicer to look at than my homemade synthesizer studio... Though the lighting is a bit off... ah... I'm just being a bit nit-picky. Here are your recordings.

Nightfall
This one's key changes are a lot more - abstract. going against what I said previously about key changes needing changes in style (to an extent) to be more interesting. The changes are a lot more intertwined, switching fluidly, between G, D, and C Major, with an emphasis on the minor chords. The result was a bit of a darker, lower melody - minor, but hopefully kind of thoughtful too.

Saturday Revue
This one is 6 minutes long. Yes. 6 minutes. 5 key changes - four transitions - four changes in style - four keys (C-A-G-D-C). I kinda went all out. Since the whole concept of this song was to improvise a little differently in each key, I kinda went all out doing my best to make it sound good - and it ended up being really long. I'd like to say its my most complicated improv piece to date. It starts off kinda of slow, with a lot of block chords, eventually loosening up through the changes, before going into the final change, where it speeds up and the chord chorus reaches max volume.


I hope you find them both enjoyable!


Well, that's all folks... about my next post... I'm not yet sure if it's going to be my TED Talk reaction, or if it will be a recording of some complicated improvised song that incorporates what I've learned. The 6 minute song above was a bit of precursor - incorporating a lot of different elements of the project using key changes as a point of transition. Hopefully the final result will be more fine-tuned, (concise), and even better.

Have a great week!
- Josh

P.S. Shout out to my friend Trevor. He turned 16 today. Check out his blog here.