Best Playmeimyours Podcasts (2024)

After playing duets with Dad, and after a rather messy performance of a Chopin G Major Prelude, I wanted to play just one more time before moving on to find our departure gate at the airport. If you're familiar with the prelude, you'll hear how I started there with this improvisation. I think this is the most exuberant one of the day, and a fitting…

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Piano Log 2015-8-22 Part 5 - collaboration with Philip Carlsen 5:05

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9y ago5:05

5:05

Here is the second duet improvisation with my dad, Philip Carlsen (www.philcarlsen.com). In this one, I'm playing bass, and he's playing treble. I snuck a peak around us during the middle of this, and a sizeable crowd had gathered. It can be such a relief in a stressful situation like an airport to be able to make and listen to live music!…

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Piano Log 2015-8-22 Part 4 - collaboration with Philip Carlsen 4:19

9y ago4:19

4:19

And then my dad joined me and we improvised two duets. This is the first: he is playing bass and I'm playing treble. I grew up listening to him compose at the piano, and I have been heavily influenced by his sense of musical adventure and creation. Check out some of his work on his website: www.philcarlsen.com. You can listen to clips there and on …

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Piano Log 2015-8-22 Part 3 4:52

9y ago4:52

4:52

This is the second recording from the Kawai baby grand at PDX, and the third recording from last Saturday. By now, if you've been listening to this podcast for a while, you'll recognize this style of improvising: fast arpeggiated chords, where the content is a slow harmonic transformation with the illusion of a fast pace because of the many notes u…

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Piano Log 2015-8-22 Part 2 4:22

9y ago4:22

4:22

This Kawai baby grand piano was just sitting in the terminal at PDX. The security guard said that sometimes they paid performers to play on it, but otherwise it was available for anyone to play. My family and I had a couple hours before our plane left, so my dad and I ended up playing for almost an hour! We did some pieces we knew, but we also impr…

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Piano Log 2015-8-22 Part 1 9:52

9y ago9:52

9:52

I was recently on the Oregon coast for a family reunion, and on our last day, some of us spent some time in Portland. To my delight, we found not one, but two public pianos to play! The first was part of the Piano Push Play project, and was installed outside the Portland Art Museum. It was a gorgeous day, and it had the feeling of the Boston Street…

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Empathy - Children With Their Stories

9y ago

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A Closer Look RSSBy Daniel Roccapriore

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Piano Log 2015-8-8 9:29

9y ago9:29

9:29

My partner and I visited my dad and his wife last weekend. He had recently gotten his baby grand piano back, after living in small apartments for a few years. It was sweet to re-familiarize myself with it. I spent hours practicing on it when I was in high school. I woke up on Saturday morning, and before anyone else was up and about, I started this…

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Piano Log 2013-7-12 8:23

9y ago8:23

8:23

A little over two years ago, my grandmother passed away. I played at her memorial service, as well as many other times that weekend. Here's a recording I made when I was warming up on the stage where we were going to hold the service. She played piano as well, and I spent a lot of time that weekend poring over her music books, and reading her notes…

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Piano Log 2015-7-30 Part 2 4:39

9y ago4:39

4:39

I made this recording right after the last one, again with the Sony PCM-M10. It's a bit longer. Because of a very busy work schedule over the past few months, I've had a hard time finding time to even play piano, let alone record. It was really nice to be able to sit down and make these tracks.By Melsen C

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Piano Log 2015-7-30 Part 1 2:28

9y ago2:28

2:28

Trying something new with this recording. I recently bought a Sony PCM-M10 Portable Audio Recorder, which records in stereo. So far, I'm really liking it! I'm able to record in much higher resolution than I did on my smart phone. Plus, this device is able to filter out some low frequencie sounds (like wind or household noises), and it also limits t…

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Piano Log 2014-3-11 Part 1 4:10

9y ago4:10

4:10

I'm considering starting to compose finished pieces using ideas I've explored in these improvisations. I would then make recordings and release them in albums. I would also make the sheet music available for sale. These are grand ideas, and because of the nature of my day job, there are only certain times in the year when I would have enough creati…

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American Influence in Munich 39:41

9y ago39:41

39:41

A Closer Look RSSBy Daniel Roccapriore

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Piano Log 2014-4-1 Part 1 4:40

9y ago4:40

4:40

Here is one that has a very dreamy quality.By Melsen C

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Piano Log 2015-3-3 Part 2 11:21

9+ y ago11:21

11:21

Here's another recording from March, released after the fact! It's a long-format one. I've been thinking about why I typically choose the keys I do to play in. And what makes a key feel like it does? I find I gravitate towards flat keys, but what does that even mean? A-flat Major is technically the same as G-sharp Major. But I believe I always thin…

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Piano Log 2015-3-29 Part 1 3:19

9+ y ago3:19

3:19

This was an improvisation inspired by a piece I wrote in elementary school called "A lot of Jazzy Jazz" (which was itself a variation on an earlier piece: "A little bit of Jazz"). Not sure how actual jazzy this ever was, but it was fun to play with!By Melsen C

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Piano Log 2015-3-29 Part 3 1:53

9+ y ago1:53

1:53

March 2015 - Day 31 Here it is - the last post for March. I wrote Ocean Squalls when I was in late elementary school. On Sunday night, I read through it a couple times and then put my music notebook away. This is me playing it from memory, and taking a little artistic liberty. I hope you enjoy!By Melsen C

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Piano Log 2015-3-29 Part 5 10:51

9+ y ago10:51

10:51

March 2015 - Day 30 Only two days left in March, including today! I'm trying to decide how frequently to continue posting to this podcast. I recently went through all my files, and I have more than 200 recordings. They are not all ones I would want to share publicly, but many of them are. If I continue to record a few new piano logs every week, I s…

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Piano Log 2013-10-4 Part 3 4:40

9+ y ago4:40

4:40

March 2015 - Day 29 This piano was in a little courtyard at Harvard Law School. I had the feeling of being in a sort of room, even though I was outside. It felt oddly private. Perhaps as a result, I think this improvisation ended up sounding more introspective.By Melsen C

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Piano Log 2013-5-29 7:31

9+ y ago7:31

7:31

March 2015 - Day 28 In 2013, this young person passed away after a tragic bicycle accident. I played thinking of him, and thinking of the people he left behind who grieved his passing. Often, music can express things when words aren't helpful. And also, I'm not a traditionally religious person, but sometimes for me, playing music is the most direct…

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Piano Log 2013-9-30 Part 1 3:48

9+ y ago3:48

3:48

March 2015 - Day 27 I drove over the river from work in Watertown on my lunch break to play this piano. It was unusual in that the keys were painted in addition to the cabinet.By Melsen C

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Piano Log 2008-12-2 10:12

9+ y ago10:12

10:12

March 2015 - Day 26 This was one of my first ever recordings of piano improvisation. Up until 2008, I had improvised so much, but I had never thought to record. It had been my way of warming up at the keyboard, relaxing, or even practicing techniques. But that was all. I didn't take it nearly as seriously as my classical training. Which is perhaps …

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Piano Log 2013-9-29 Part 8 3:50

9+ y ago3:50

3:50

March 2015 - Day 25 This is the last piano I played on the first day I ventured out to play street pianos. It was a baby grand sitting out in front of the MFA, and it was decorated with an easel and tubes of paint!By Melsen C

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Piano Log 2013-10-13 Part 5 4:31

9+ y ago4:31

4:31

March 2015 - Day 24 My friend Maggie was dancing to this improvisation. You can see a video of this and many other street piano performances on YouTube.By Melsen C

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Piano Log 2015-3-22 Part 4 7:08

9+ y ago7:08

7:08

March 2015 - Day 23 For this one, I focused on a left hand melody with right hand accompaniment to start. I think it has an eerie quality.By Melsen C

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Piano Log 2015-3-22 Part 1 10:33

9+ y ago10:33

10:33

March 2015 - Day 22 I recorded a few piano logs today - here is the first! More to come throughout the coming week...By Melsen C

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Piano Log 2012-2-23 4:37

9+ y ago4:37

4:37

March 2015 - Day 21 Spring has come! And there are only ten days left of March! This is a recording from 2012, when I didn't have a home acoustic piano to play. My Casio keyboard really saved the day during those months when I wanted to keep playing.By Melsen C

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Piano Log 2013-10-12 Part 1 3:06

9+ y ago3:06

3:06

March 2015 - Day 20 This piano had no working damper pedal! So I made the best of it. What follows is a very upbeat, staccato improvisation, with many sequences. Sequences can be very satisfying!By Melsen C

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Piano Log 2013-10-5 Part 15 2:49

9+ y ago2:49

2:49

March 2015 - Day 19 My second recording from the South Station pianos. I had at least a couple spectators - you can hear them in the background!By Melsen C

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Piano Log 2013-10-5 Part 14 1:52

9+ y ago1:52

1:52

March 2015 - Day 18, part two! I launched into this jaunty tune. Seemed very appropriate for South Station. There were actually two pianos set up next to each other there, which was unique.By Melsen C

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Piano Log 2013-10-5 Part 13 0:09

9+ y ago0:09

0:09

March 2015 - Day 18 I'm releasing two recordings today: this first one is tiny - it's just a clip of a woman I met who had been hanging out at the South Station public piano for multiple days, hours a day. She was trying to amass signatures for a petition to save the pianos. I wonder what became of that?…

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Piano Log 2015-3-12 Part 3 13:12

9+ y ago13:12

13:12

March 2015 - Day 17 Here is the rest of that improvisation I posted yesterday. This one is much longer. I think there are many cool sounds that emerged...enjoy!By Melsen C

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Piano Log 2015-3-12 Part 2 4:28

9+ y ago4:28

4:28

March 2015 - Day 16 This one is from earlier on last Thursday. I thought that I would try to shake things up by trying to intersperse unexpected and odd chords with my more habitual flow of improvisation. You'll hear more things than usual that could sound like mistakes, but I try to run with them and see where they lead. This is really the first o…

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Piano Log 2015-3-12 Part 5 2:54

9+ y ago2:54

2:54

March 2015 - Day 15 My last recording of the night on Thursday. I had tried some improvisations earlier with a relatively large concentration of random chance chords and sonorities (you'll hear these ones soon). In this last one, I gravitated to one lovely, dependable key: the fabulous F major! Enjoy...…

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Piano Log 2013-10-2 Part 2 6:29

9+ y ago6:29

6:29

March 2015 - Day 14 Here's one from the Esplanade at night. I was pretty close to the hatch shell. What a fun, weird experience to play a piano outdoors in a park. I somehow think this improvisation even sounds like night music...By Melsen C

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