Podcasts by Melsens Piano Log

Piano Log 2015-8-22 Part 6 from 2015-08-28T04:00

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...

Piano Log 2015-8-22 Part 5 - collaboration with Philip Carlsen from 2015-08-27T16:01

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...

Piano Log 2015-8-22 Part 4 - collaboration with Philip Carlsen from 2015-08-27T16:00

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 infl...

Piano Log 2015-8-22 Part 3 from 2015-08-27T10:56:45

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 sty...

Piano Log 2015-8-22 Part 2 from 2015-08-26T16:35:59

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....

Piano Log 2015-8-22 Part 1 from 2015-08-26T11:51:10

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 wa...

Piano Log 2015-8-8 from 2015-08-13T04:30

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 myse...

Piano Log 2013-7-12 from 2015-08-11T11:48:24

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 ...

Piano Log 2015-7-30 Part 1 from 2015-08-01T14:09:02

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 resol...

Piano Log 2015-7-30 Part 1 from 2015-08-01T14:09:02

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 resol...

Piano Log 2014-3-11 Part 1 from 2015-06-10T11:02:34

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 ...

Piano Log 2014-4-1 Part 1 from 2015-06-01T11:16:46

Here is one that has a very dreamy quality.

Piano Log 2015-3-3 Part 2 from 2015-04-07T11:03:59

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 l...

Piano Log 2015-3-29 Part 1 from 2015-04-03T02:38:50

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 a...

Piano Log 2015-3-29 Part 3 from 2015-03-31T04:30

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 mu...

Piano Log 2015-3-29 Part 5 from 2015-03-30T11:55:21

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...

Piano Log 2013-10-4 Part 3 from 2015-03-29T06:30

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...

Piano Log 2013-5-29 from 2015-03-28T05:30

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...

Piano Log 2013-9-30 Part 1 from 2015-03-27T05:30

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.

Piano Log 2008-12-2 from 2015-03-26T05:30

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 ...

Piano Log 2013-9-29 Part 8 from 2015-03-25T05:30

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 wi...

Piano Log 2013-10-13 Part 5 from 2015-03-24T05:30

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  Listen

Piano Log 2015-3-22 Part 4 from 2015-03-23T05:30

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.

Piano Log 2015-3-22 Part 1 from 2015-03-23T00:04:24

March 2015 - Day 22

I recorded a few piano logs today - here is the first! More to come throughout the coming week...

Piano Log 2012-2-23 from 2015-03-21T14:30:41

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 real...

Piano Log 2013-10-12 Part 1 from 2015-03-20T05:00

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...

Piano Log 2013-10-5 Part 15 from 2015-03-19T05:00

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!

Piano Log 2013-10-5 Part 14 from 2015-03-18T05:30

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 u...

Piano Log 2013-10-5 Part 13 from 2015-03-18T05:00

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 multi...

Piano Log 2015-3-12 Part 3 from 2015-03-17T05:00

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!

Piano Log 2015-3-12 Part 2 from 2015-03-16T05:00

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 f...

Piano Log 2015-3-12 Part 5 from 2015-03-15T05:30:07

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 (y...

Piano Log 2013-10-2 Part 2 from 2015-03-14T05:00

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 thi...

Piano Log 2013-10-5 Part 12 from 2015-03-13T05:00

March 2015 - Day 13

This is one of 17 recordings I made on October 5, 2013. As you have heard previously on this podcast, I started at Old North Church right after tower bell ringing ...

Piano Log 2015-3-8 Part 4 from 2015-03-12T05:00

March 2015 - Day 12

Here it is - the improvisation I had to do directly following Professor Souhad Zendah's presentation. I was haunted by the image of her at 17, having to spend 4 ho...

Piano Log 2015-3-8 Part 3 from 2015-03-11T05:00

March 2015 - Day 11

This is the third recording from last Sunday's service at the Community Church of Boston. I played this one after community announcements, joys, and sorrows had be...

Piano Log 2015-3-8 Part 2 from 2015-03-10T05:00

March 2015 - Day 10

This is the second recording from Sunday's church service. See Part 1 for a longer description. It was the first official music offering in the service.

Piano Log 2015-3-8 Part 1 from 2015-03-09T05:00

March 2015 - Day 9

I just attended an incredibly intense and heartfelt talk by Tufts Professor Souhad Zendah about her experiences growing up in Gaza, her life afterwards, and the liv...

Piano Log 2013-10-5 Part 6 from 2015-03-08T06:00

March 2015 - Day 8

This was arguably one of the most populated places I played during the Boston Street Piano project. You can hear all the people moving around and talking in the bac...

Piano Log 2015-3-3 Part 1 from 2015-03-07T06:00

March 2015 - Day 7! It's been a whole week, and I've still got so many recordings to share! Thanks to all of you who have been tuning in and downloading the podcasts. I really appreciate your in...

Piano Log 2015-3-1 from 2015-03-06T06:00

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 reco...

Piano Log 2013-10-5 Part 1 from 2015-03-05T06:00

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 one...

Piano Log 2013-10-4 Part 12 from 2015-03-04T06:00

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....

Piano Log 2013-10-4 Part 11 from 2015-03-03T06:00

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 ev...

Piano Log 2015-2-26 Part 2 from 2015-03-02T12:30

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

Piano Log 2015-2-26 Part 1 from 2015-03-01T14:12:47

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,...

Piano Log 2013-10-1 - Longy School of Music Part 2 from 2015-02-26T12:30

Part of the Boston Street Piano project. A trumpet student was practin...

Piano Log 2015-2-24 Part 2 from 2015-02-25T02:57:47

This is one I imagine playing for a dancer.

Piano Log 2015-2-24 Part 1 from 2015-02-25T02:55:47

Piano Log 2013-10-1 Longy School of Music, Part 1 from 2015-02-24T12:30

Part of the Boston Street Piano project.

Piano Log 2015-2-16 from 2015-02-19T03:42:35

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 tu...

Piano Log 2013-10-3 Part 1 - Davis Square from 2015-02-06T13:25:41

I made this recording in Davis Square, Somerville, MA. The piano was part of the Boston Street Piano Project...

Piano Log 2015-1-31 from 2015-02-02T15:37:58

I recently purchased a Zoom iQ6 ...

Piano Log 2012-4-2 Part 2 from 2015-01-29T06:01

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...

Piano Log 2012-4-2 Part 1 from 2015-01-29T06:00

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 t...

Piano Log 2013-9-29 Part 3 from 2015-01-22T06:01

This was the second piano I recorded for the "Play Me I'm Yours" Boston Street Piano installation.

Listen

Piano Log 2013-9-29 Part 2 from 2015-01-22T06:00

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...

Piano Log 2013-7-27 Part 2 from 2015-01-15T06:01

Piano Log 2013-7-27 Part 1 from 2015-01-15T06:00

Piano Log 2015-1-12 from 2015-01-13T13:35:25

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 ...

Piano Log 2013-7-27 Part 3 from 2015-01-12T22:18:06

I played this thinking of my partner's uncle who had just passed away.

Piano Log 2012-2-6 from 2015-01-12T22:02:19

This particular piano was an old, very moldy baby grand, in a room off the lobby of the Thornewood Inn in Great Barrington, MA. I couldn't play long, because my sinuses got very irritated, but I...

Piano Log 2013-4-21 from 2015-01-12T21:25:04

I was out on Whidbey Island, off the coast of Washington State, for my Grandad's memorial service. I live in the Boston area, and I have rarely gotten out to this place in my lifetime. My brothe...