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Solo Piano

Acceptance - Music to Grieve to

Acceptance - Music to Grieve to

I’ve been writing music since I can remember.  My first memories are not of scales and baby Mozart, they’re of the piano in Singapore where Angels and Demons lived at opposite ends of the keyboard and played battles through my fingers.

I was three when I met my first piano teacher, eight when I wrote my first song, thirteen when I played my first rock show and sixteen when I wrote my first Hymn.  Yes – this track was the Hymn.

Written for a school music competition the task was to take the the Hymn “These Things Shall Be!” from the poem “A Vista” by John Addington Symonds 1840 – 1893 and create new music.

I think I came second!

My Father

The reason this track makes it onto the album is that my Father fell in love with it.   Out of all the things I had done it was this track that resonated with him and he asked for it to be played at his funeral.

When the time came – I couldn’t.  The piece wasn’t finished and it would have felt – just odd – weird and ultimately - wrong.

This version is solo piano – which is what he was familiar with – but I hear this with full orchestra and a bloody great church organ delivering a final crescendo - I think he would've dug that.

Acceptance & The Five Stages

This track was always going to be the last one on the album - and when I was still working with the idea of a track for each stage of the Kubler_Ross model, it was fitting that this was going to be called acceptance.

There is a hopefulness to the track - particularly in the coda where it’s all about imperfect and perfect cadences all resolving positively around the G major root.  The reality of grief is that life does go on, and while the grief may never fully subside, it does fade and we do get to feel good again.

Acceptance is about reaching the point where it’s OK to feel good again.  The final notes of the album are the opposite of the beginning, they are still the major triads but this time they are major and instead of descending, they are uplifting, ascending the keyboard to finish on a high, hopeful note.

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Development Track: 191 Bpm - 31-01-03-02

Development Track: 191 Bpm - 31-01-03-02

 

Development track from the 191 Bpm playlist - this is a spin off the theme from Session 2 into the underlying theme from the forthcoming Session 3.


 

Session 2 - 191 Beats Per Minute

Session 2 - 191 Beats Per Minute

 

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Track Notes:

The big lesson I am learning this year (again!) is the whole:

 "listening as much, if not more, than I play." 

Process

I don't use pen and paper to compose - I sit at the piano and play whatever comes into my mind.  I record everything and listen to it later when I'm working on Simply Friday.

When I have development tracks on in the background, I'm listening for ideas, for themes, for things that resonate with me.  If a piece of music grabs me, the next time I sit at the piano, I hold the idea of that music in the front of my mind and set an intention to play with it.

Listening Again

Once I've narrowed in on a theme, the more I play it, the more it becomes familiar to me.  The more I listen the more its form becomes apparent and over time the full track begins to take shape.

Of course, once I've produced a version of the final track, it then needs to be listened to again and again to smooth out the mix and get it ready for publishing.


191 Beats Per minute Playlist

This is the second track in the 191 Bpm playlist and is markedly different from the first theme.  I'm in love with the simple C to F7 to Dm7 to G7 progression that appears in the second half.  

The third and final theme has already popped out (thankfully!) so it shouldn't be too long before we have a new track and a new playlist! 


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