Melsen's Piano Log

Welcome to Day 6! I've gone back to recording directly from my iPhone while I try to get the new microphone fixed. You may have noticed some microphone static in a couple of the more recent recordings. It's been getting worse, so I'm probably going to just get the microphone replaced. In the meantime, I have a shock absorbing mic stand for my iPhone which is pretty cool! It definitely helps reduce the background noise in the recordings.

Yet another one from the Boston Street Piano Project. This was the first recording I made that day, after tower bell ringing practice at Old North Church. This is one of the fast arpeggiated ones, in the vein of my Davis Square recording.

This one is more informal and playful. During the Street Piano Project, there would often be people milling around the pianos - waiting to take their turn, just listening, or wanting to join in. I started playing Autumn Leaves, and a guy who was standing behind me started singing along. Then he asked if he could play too, and we had some fun!

Part of the Boston Street Piano Project. This one explores different realms of sound from my usual palette. I mean, part of what I'm trying to do is be original and try something entirely new every time. But my ears and fingers have patterns they love to revisit. Sometimes I have to really push myself to shake things up, and I think this recording really did that!

This is a longer, meandering one. References to Dream Girls (a little bit!), as well as themes from previous Piano Logs.

For this improvisation, I found myself touching on a Chopin piece I've never actually learned. See if you can tell which one it is! And, welcome to March 2015! For the month of March, I'm going to be publishing one podcast episode a day, so please check back regularly!

Part of the Boston Street Piano project. A trumpet student was practing a part from the Ravel G-Major Piano Concerto, so I did this riff on it. You can view a video of this improvisation here on YouTube.

This is one I imagine playing for a dancer.

This is a sound journal of Melsen improvising on different pianos. Practically everything you will hear is raw and unrehearsed. There will be sounds of life happening in the background, and many of the pianos are not in tune. Mel has been improvising at the keyboard since he was very young, but he began making regular recordings in 2012. This podcast is a curated selection from the larger body of recordings he has made since then. Many of the pianos featured here were part of a public art installation in Boston during the fall of 2013 - "Play Me I'm Yours" - the Boston Street Piano Project.

Part of the Boston Street Piano project.

Another longer post. Here in Boston, we have had so much snow in the past month! The snowbanks are at least 9 feet tall on either side of our driveway, and our little street is like a bobsled tunnel. The last time I remember seeing this much snow, I was a child, and the walkways went over my head because I was tiny! Needless to say, I have had snow on the brain. So this improvisation ends in a little tune I remember from when I was that small child, watching a sweet movie about another child and his snowman.

I made this recording in Davis Square, Somerville, MA. The piano was part of the Boston Street Piano Project. If you follow the link and scroll down, you'll find a video of me playing!

I recently purchased a Zoom iQ6 X-Y Stereo Microphone for iOS from Guitar Center, and this is the first recording I made with it. I have been making all my recordings on my iPhone, but the recording quality hasn't been great for music. I'm still working out the best settings to use, but I think you'll notice the difference!

This is the second part of the improvisation I did with my brother Eric in a practice room at Wellesley College after listening to the Alloy Orchestra in concert (Performance to Man with a Movie Camera). I think you can tell that some of the inspiration comes from what we just heard. A little background: Eric and I grew up listening to our dad, Philip Carlsen, composing at the piano. We both studied piano while we were growing up, and we both loved to just sit at the instrument and improvise (I think we preferred this to practicing our classical music pieces!). Periodically, we would jam together. Now, after we've both graduated from college and are working as graphics/media designers, we still take every opportunity we can to make stuff up together. In the first recording (see the previous post), I was playing bass and Eric was playing treble. For this recording, we switched. Enjoy! Eric's website - animation, graphics, and multi-media storytelling Dad's website - Philip Carlsen, composer

This is the first of two recordings I made with my brother Eric after a performance at Wellesley College by the Alloy Orchestra (Performance to Man with a Movie Camera). He's playing treble on this one, and I'm playing bass. We're down in a practice room, playing on a baby grand. On our way to this concert, we had been listening to a James Booker Pandora station in my car, and I think our first improv session was loosely inspired by that music. Our second session was heavily influenced by Alloy Orchestra's performance. It was cool how that turned out - it wasn't a conscious choice! Eric's website - animation, graphics, and multi-media storytelling

This was the second piano I recorded for the "Play Me I'm Yours" Boston Street Piano installation. Link to Boston Street Pianos 2013, Franklin Park Zoo

This was the second piano I visited during the "Play Me, I'm Yours" street piano installation in Boston. I arrived as the piano tuner was finishing up, so I sat in the shade and ate my breakfast as he worked. As I was waiting, I got to watch the stream of people in line for the zoo, and I loved how a lot of them stopped to see what he was doing. Public pianos can be such a spectacle. They draw the attention of so many people, especially young children. Link to Boston Street Pianos 2013, Franklin Park Zoo

This is a sound journal of Melsen improvising on different pianos. Practically everything you will hear is raw and unrehearsed. There will be sounds of life happening in the background, and many of the pianos are not in tune. Mel has been improvising at the keyboard since he was very young, but he began making regular recordings in 2012. This podcast is a curated selection from the larger body of recordings he has made since then. Many of the pianos featured here were part of a public art installation in Boston during the fall of 2013 - "Play Me I'm Yours" - the Boston Street Piano Project.

This is a sound journal of Melsen improvising on different pianos. Practically everything you will hear is raw and unrehearsed. There will be sounds of life happening in the background, and many of the pianos are not in tune. Mel has been improvising at the keyboard since he was very young, but he began making regular recordings in 2012. This podcast is a curated selection from the larger body of recordings he has made since then. Many of the pianos featured here were part of a public art installation in Boston during the fall of 2013 - "Play Me I'm Yours" - the Boston Street Piano Project.

In October 2014, I found a free piano on Craigslist. It was so out of tune that some of the higher keys (which have three strings each) played three different distinct notes at once! But I have played many, many upright pianos by now, in various states of disrepair, and I liked the feel of this one. The keys were intact, the soft pedal and damper pedal worked, and it was very resonant. I paid movers to transport it to my apartment, and I hired a piano technician (Jay Natale) to fix up the action. When we opened up the cabinet of the instrument, we found so much dust and mold! So my task for the next couple months was to clean the keys and vacuum the interior as thoroughly as I could. Jay did an excellent job on the action. When we finally put it back together, I attempted to tune it myself. I had adequate tools, and a relatively good ear, but it was my first time, and I didn't realize that a bunch of the tuning pegs were loose. Yesterday, I hired Jay to tune it professionally, and he showed me how some of the