Trying a new recording/filming setup here. Somewhere in the ten or so times of getting up to reset the recorder and camera I must have dislodged the angle and managed to crop out the entire keyboard. Wasn’t worth reshooting though, I figured. This is one of the pieces I’ll be playing for my upcoming ARCT exam (for those of you familiar with RCM), and hopefully I’ll be able to record video of the rest of my repertoire in the coming weeks. If nothing else it’s a good exercise, putting myself in something resembling a pressure situation so that when the time comes I can actually perform the music as opposed to hoping desperately that I don’t hit a wrong note.

(I do not succeed at that here.)

now that i’ve got a half-decent piano recording setup, i want to start posting more piano videos. this is christopher o’riley’s arrangement of true love waits, from his album of the same name.

the recording process is something i’m still getting used to. it’s a different sort of pressure than a live performance. there’s also dealing with the frustration that comes with having to repeat the same piece multiple times, and not allowing that to come through in the music. this version here was the best of 20 takes, and there are still a few errors. my guess is that it would take something like 50-100 takes before i felt really comfortable with it, and would be able to get a recording i was happier with. if nothing else, it’s a good way to learn a piece inside out.

seriously, one of the best interviews i’ve seen in a long time. i feel like an idiot, the whole time i couldn’t get over the fact that it was flow 93.5. i haven’t listened to real radio in years, but i always assumed flow was just some mediocre hip-hop station. the host, though – ty harper, i think – he’s clearly an intelligent dude. the interview is incredibly thorough and thought provoking, a level of quality rarely seen in hip-hop interviews. this is just part 1, but you HAVE to watch the other five.

Shad – Rose Garden

lovesong is an old favourite, makes me think of 2004. i came up with this “arrangement” (if you want to call it that) based on a fragmented memory of the song. it’s not exactly note-for-note, but maybe that’s the point. you stick a shiny coin in the machine and it comes out flattened with a picture of a train on it.

it’s an ongoing problem that my voice is quiet. it’s something i’ve only really come to realize once i started recording myself singing: what feels like YELLING to me is everybody else’s inside voice. finding this out now is sort of like finding out you’ve been walking around with your fly open YOUR WHOLE LIFE. i’ve attempted singing in public twice before, and looking back i’m surprised they could hear me at all. one of those performances was iron & wine’s sodom south georgia. maybe i’ll try and redeem myself one of these days, but at the moment it’s beyond my abilities.

i dont use my youtube channel as much as i probably should, but i dont have any cool stuff of my own to put up there yet. so i thought i would start by posting videos of me singing other people’s songs. i don’t think of myself as a singer or a guitarist, but this is a nice, simple song that (i think) is difficult to butcher. if people enjoy it or don’t actively hate it then i might do more of these?

Arnold Schoenberg – Sechs Kleine Klavierstücke, op. 19

Frédéric Chopin – Étude op. 10 no. 3