The Song that won’t record = finally recorded

There’s a composition I’ve had in my head for a while now, it refused to be recorded because I was unhappy when I made a mistake, missed the click track, couldn’t get the timing right – I gave myself many many reasons not to capture it.

However, this morning all bets are off. I woke up at 6.00am realising that if I didn’t get this down, the perfect version of this beautiful tune will just remain contained in my head. I lay in bed for a few more hours before breaking ranks, and hitting record here in my studio. So, here’s an imperfect version of the wonderful music that is never far from my world, complete with mistakes, fluffs and stuff I would like to change. Also, because the track is so complex, the MIDI is glitching in parts! The song has inspired me to get more RAM or if necessary, get a new machine.

I have decided the fluffs and mistakes make the song alive – it’s OK that we have scars, it shows we have experienced the world and it’s left its mark on us. I feel as if I have let out a huge breath I didn’t even know I was holding.

It was recorded in just one take, and I’m going to post it before I change my mind.

More than anything I want to perform my live compositions at a beautiful piano in a wonderful recital hall. I would create musical pieces and as the composition continues the music will be inspired by how the audience respond – a fabulous musical feedback loop!

tons more music at itunes.com/ljrich cdbaby.com/ljrich and stream on spotify plus loads more on soundcloud.com/ljrich

Music Live-Blogging – Classical Piano on the Fly

At a recent event, the Music Tech Fest in Boston, I took part in a 24-hour hackathon.
Ostensibly I was filming it for the show I present on, BBC Click. But as well as recording it for the programme, the experience and the people I met that weekend left a deep and lasting impression on me.

For the first time, I was surrounded by those who live comfortably in the centre of the Venn Diagram of Music and Technology – I found it to be an incredibly nourishing few days. I was able to talk openly about my synaesthesia and the very sensitive musical side of me that I don’t normally talk about during my day job. That’s since changed –  this week’s show is all about Music Technology.

Plus I finally had the guts to do some live composition in front of people I hardly knew – and their response was incredibly positive, which led me down the path of putting live-composed piano music up on the web.

 

Each piece of music was recorded live, in just one take.

For years I spent a lot of time fixing every little thing in my compositions – a bit like proof-reading a book for spelling mistakes, but here I’ve deliberately left the mistakes in, this goes up completely untouched by anything – I don’t even record to a click track. And actually, it feels kind of exposed and fantastic all at once to send this out to the world.