Hear my New Piano!

I promised over a month ago that I would post a video so you could hear my new piano!  I wanted to wait until after I got it tuned, of course, and recently I finally got around to recording something.

In this YouTube video, I’m playing a short piece I composed during undergrad called “Contemplation.”

This is a piece I composed in 2007 during my senior year at Hope College. It was written for an assignment for a Form & Analysis theory course for which we were supposed to compose a piece using the Schenkarian techniques we were studying in class. The structure of this piece is based on a descending line using scale degrees 3-2-1. This descending line is also used on a more micro level as a motive throughout the piece.

In the next video, I am playing a piece that my six-year-old student back in Central Michigan composed before I moved away.  He composed a melody called “Goodbye,” and wanted me to compose the left hand part for it.  I was so touched by his request!  

View the rest of my YouTube channel here.

In the first video, I used my Zoom H2 recorder.  In the second video, I used the built-in microphone of my MacBook Pro.  It’s amazing to hear the difference that better recording equipment makes!  I’m still experimenting with finding the best placement of the microphone in order to achieve the best results.

I also wish I had a video camera to improve the video quality.  Both videos were recorded using the built-in iSight camera of my MacBook.  I think I know what I’m going to ask for on my Christmas list this year!