The Pianists Piano Competition 2007 Aug 04
2007 Sep 15 : I heard from the competition organisers that I did not make it into the final 20 performers. I’m glad I took the time to create a CD – its all part of the learning process…
I’ve recorded four pieces of my solo piano pieces for the Yamaha/The Pianists magazine competition. I don’t like the concept of competition, especially in the field of music, but “it felt right”, and here they are :
1. Never A Single Love Song.mp3
3. Ben Jorge and Blues in G.mp3
4. Once Was Scarborough Fair.mp3
These were all recorded, somewhat in a hurry, one take each, give or take a few technical hitches with the recording. I was quite nervous – they could be heard by anyone;)
The setup was a Yamaha Clavinova CLP-250 used as a Midi keyboard (I love the feel of the keys), connected via Midi to a Yamaha PSR-550 which has a vastly better sound. I used a mix of 001 Grand Piano and 017 New Tines which gives a brighter sound than the straight piano. I fed the headphone output to a PC (677MHz Pentium) running the PolderBits Sound Recorder, then I used the Polderbits Sound Editor to convert to MP3s. I’ve used 128 kbits/s as I don’t think you can hear the difference between that an 192 kbits/s on piano sounds, and the files are smaller.
Here is the text from my cover note for the competition :
About the music on the enclosed CD :
Track 1 : “Never A Single Love Song” I wrote
for/about my now ex-wife, about 2003/4, a few years before our divorce in 2006.
It is also a mix of a few other chord sequences that seem to fit.
Track 2 : “Christine” I wrote for my mum when I was
about 19 or 20, so circa 1974. I used to play some rather “heavy” blues/R&B
pieces and Christine asked once if I could “play something a bit quieter”.
Sadly my mum died in 1982.
You may get the impression from the last two tracks
that my life is a bit sad – this, I’m happy to say is not true! The next two
are a bit brighter :
Track 3 : “Ben Jorge and Blues in G” started out as
a song by a Brazilian composer, Ben Jorge (sorry I forget the song title). This
still reminds me of a holiday in Spain in the late 1970’s, and two friends,
Maya and Osanna who sang this song with guitar. I transcribed the chords to
piano and it grew from there. I threw in the Blues in G at the end, again,
because it seems to fit.
Track 4 : “Once Was Scarborough Fair” as its title
suggests was once Scarborough Fair. I was trying out a different chord sequence
to the classic tune, and playing with the result.
I have been playing piano since I was 18, not
counting failing Grade 1 at age 12. I’m now 52.
In August 2005 I had the opportunity to play in the
“House Band” at the Subud Congress in Austria, with several professional
musicians. This inspired me to practice half and hour a day, until last year
when I found playing the piano helped me get through my divorce, so I tried to
practice one hour a day.
I learnt to perform by playing at Café tents at
Glastonbury. I’m trying to get better all the time!!!
Enjoy!
Howerd Oakford 2007 Aug 04