<pony>Fluttershy (Piano Improvisation)

[LoreRD]

So...... part 3 of my mane 6 piano improvisations. Figured I might as well post this here
Anyway, just curious to see what MLR thinks

[LunchBagMusic]

well it looks nice n -- HOLY COW THIRTY MINUTES.


...bring it on.

---
So you've recorded this piano really well. I'm impressed. How did you do it? What was your set up like?

As with a lot of improvisations, this isn't not tied to a theme or anything that I can pick out. But you've approached it with a sense of beauty and tenderness I haven't really heard on these forums before.

Just a warning:
Don't get caught in the trap of having a lead foot. The pedal is a great tool, but using it all the time muddies your sound and the rhythmic passages get lost in the ambience.

It is possible to maintain a gentle tone without the pedal.

Ok, ten minutes in
Kind of feels like a second movement. Another thing that's peeking out here is your lack of attention to the LH. The melody is wonderful and flowing, but the LH is sounding neglected.

Certainly 8ves and 5ths fit well into that area of the piano, but the octave ostinato is starting to repeat itself just a little too much. While I'm not asking for polyphony, just a little bit of independence in the LH would flesh this out. Chord progressions are not defined by the bass note alone.

I've just hit the 6/8 (3/4? 3/8? 3/8.) section and you've got a good three-step ostinato going. I know how hard it is to keep the 3-beat nature of this signature without some sort of ostinato (wow it's looking like "ostinato" is the word of the day for me).

Still keeping your original approach here at 17 minutes in, good job!

I'm not sure, but I think I can hear poor hand shape at 18:20-ish. Make sure that the force of the playing comes from as far up as the shoulder area if you need to, and measure the shape to the note.

oooh shit just go minor. New section? 19:30-ish

Good job keeping up with yourself, sometimes I get too carried away and my fingers can't keep up.

Keep your fingers soft at the top of the piano (~24:00) pressing them to forcefully can give a harsh timbre.

I think at ~25:00 you're starting to loose sight of your goal. Given the length of this improvisation, it is going to take quite a while to "wind it up" - a coda-esque thing should be beginning around

yep there it is at ~27:00.

I don't think the big finish is quite in the spirit of Fluttershy, I feel it would more drift away and such.


---
Well, congratulations, that was quite an effort. The pianist in me felt obliged to correct stuff and I apologise.

At the start you had this tenderness which was fantastic and in future it would be great if you could carry something like that through the whole thirty minutes.

Also speaking of thirty minutes:
quality not quantity. There's heaps of music that goes for a long time out there, but the music needs that long to fully develop. You've spent more than the length of an MLP episode here but haven't really said much more than what you could say in 10 minutes.

It's still a fantastic effort and I'm happy I took the time to listen to the whole thing.

[LoreRD]

First off, thank you so much for such a detailed (and positive) response!

What was your set up like?

I used three microphones: two Line Audio CM3s, one directly above the piano to the right and one directly above the piano to the left. Then I also had a sEX1 Condenser Microphone, which was standing about a metre behind me around head level. All three tracks were recorded into GarageBand. In GarageBand, I duplicated each track so that there were six and then added to each a reverb effect. I also made sure that the left microphone(s) were in the left side of the audio, while the right ones were in right side.

Don't get caught in the trap of having a lead foot. The pedal is a great tool, but using it all the time muddies your sound and the rhythmic passages get lost in the ambience.

I've noticed this problem in a lot of my previous stuff, so I'll definitely make sure to improve on it. What parts in particular sounded muddled in this improvisation? (It would help to use it as a reference for the future)

Another thing that's peeking out here is your lack of attention to the LH. The melody is wonderful and flowing, but the LH is sounding neglected.

Another thing I've noticed I'm likely to end up doing. Sometimes I do it on purpose to sound minimalist (something like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqm9ZS4KcVU), though I can see how that can start to sound neglected.

I don't think the big finish is quite in the spirit of Fluttershy, I feel it would more drift away and such.

The last part (after 19:30) was sort of going to be Hurricane Fluttershy-esque. Sad/minor focus slowly building into a more triumphant ending. If that didn't end up sounding fitting, then I'll keep in mind that that kind of approach didn't work out completely. I do agree with you that a short (~20 seconds) section with a "drifting away" feeling would have helped it. Oh well

Also speaking of thirty minutes:
quality not quantity. There's heaps of music that goes for a long time out there, but the music needs that long to fully develop. You've spent more than the length of an MLP episode here but haven't really said much more than what you could say in 10 minutes.

For now, I still plan to have the last three for the mane six be ~30 min in length, but I'm more unsure now, as you're not the first to bring length up as something to keep in mind and improve on. Do you have any tips for making 30 minute stuff sound more focused/worthwhile? If not, then I may just end up doing 10 min stuff.

------

As I said, thank you so much for the incredibly detailed response!

[LunchBagMusic]

Although the mane 6 have more character depth than you would expect for a shoe of it's calibre, you would have to start delving into fanon aspects (fanfic, art, other music, etc.) to sustain a massive 30 min story of Fluttershy.

Really the only things that you could draw on are:
Her general overall kindness and selflesness when it comes to her friends
Her general fear of everything
Her ability to overcome such a fear when her friends are in danger.

And it would be very easy to say such things in 10 minutes, but would take a lot of inspiration and skill to flesh this stuff out to ~30 mins.

Of course in an improvisation the following can happen:

"Right, so what was my theme again?"
"DON'T SAY THAT NOW THIS IS A TRICKY CADENZA"
"Oh right sorry. But really what are we doing?"
"SHUT UP GODDAMMIT -- OH NOW LOOK WHAT YOU'VE DONE. WE'VE FINISHED ON COMPLETELY THE WRONG NOTE. I DON'T EVEN THINK THEY HAVE A NAME FOR THAT."

...and your screwed.

When you go into impro, you need to have a goal and an idea of how to get there. You're goal was obviously Fluttershy, but your idea wasn't really there. Hence, you got a little sidetracked and eventually lost your vision that you had at the start.

[LoreRD]

Think I'll try 30 min at least one more time to see if I can do it better (clearer idea, better focus, etc.).
Thank you for taking an interest in it and being so thorough with your feedback!

[Peak Freak]

First tone, piano detuned -.-
-> needs to be played on a steinway grand... DO IT!

[LoreRD]

First tone, piano detuned -.-
-> needs to be played on a steinway grand... DO IT!

I would love to, but I'm afraid that's somewhat difficult to accomplish
The piano I use is an upright Malmsjö piano. Really nice sound (imo), but..... I agree, not quite steinway-level of quality.