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Stuck to tried and true harmonic moves tonight; there's something incredibly free when using the pentatonic scale and scale-tone chords. Everything just sounds good. Also, taking a few notes and repeating them while changing the chords underneath makes for interesting movement. 

We had our neighborhood latke party tonight, so, naturally since it was Wednesday it came with a concert! When we only have a few guests I ask that there be no applause, 'cause it just sounds pitiful, but we had about twenty people so applause was not a problem! Hopefully it won't be jarring for podcast subscribers. Feel free to comment with your feedback.

Felt the pull to go simple tonight, and try a little more long-form playing. I stuck to a smaller palate of harmonies on each piece and took the time to explore them deeper and longer than I tend to, and it really felt good. 

Tending towards minor and sort of Slavic/Spanish?? I'm drawn to the tension with some of these modes, which creates momentum to continue and build. Finding inner lines also helps to get into deeper listening. A couple pieces had a slow time getting started, but eventually I found a path to explore. 

A new listener tonight, always a treat! It's a lot of fun to share the sound of this beautiful piano, and be able to play any notes I want in whatever order I choose, to hear the music I want to hear, and have people actively listening and enjoying it. In eleven more evenings it will be the 100th episode!

Small but appreciative audience tonight. However, this podcast is getting some real action, I'm excited to say! Over 400 listens yesterday, and more than 5000 this week. I'm continuing to focus on listening to where melodies and harmonies want to go, and doing my best to "follow the music". 

Three friends in the audience tonight; I'm glad they came because the previous two hours I was trying to figure out a way to do Livestreaming through my podcast host, to no avail. I was frustrated and hadn't had dinner or warmed up my fingers, much less gotten into a good musical headspace. Having people here who were ready to just listen to some nice music was very centering and appreciated!

Pushing through a cold, but once the music started I forgot all about it. Having an interesting inner dialogue about the balance between interest, variety and boredom. Tonight I stayed with some sonorities longer than I usually would, and I was wondering if the audience might be losing interest because there wasn't enough variety, but I also realize that sometimes I may not give my audience enough credit to stay with the music and I mix things up before it needs to be. What do you think?

OK, so the night before Halloween you gotta do some minor keys! I explored some unusual minor chord changes which create a kind of cinematic excitement and tonal ambiguity.  

A couple new listeners tonight! The weather was stormy, we got a fire going, settled in after a delicious dinner, and then the music! That's what I call a nice night.

Except for one quasi-pop piece which never felt like it got started, the music tonight seemed to have a nice flow and an organic development. 

It's getting harder to really challenge myself to explore new territory. I've got a nice sound going that's tonal, relatively mellow, and highlights the resonance of the piano. When I go for more high-energy technique I can feel my limitations, and then I pull back so as not to totally crash. Maybe that's just the right spot; I'd be taking that approach if I was racing a car!

Bonus episode! This is audio from a concert at our local library, recorded with the phone. Audio quality is not so good, but it captures the afternoon. I deleted the applause after most pieces, in keeping with the usual sound of the podcast, but at the end the music was still going when the crowd jumped in, so... how could I resist? ;)

Had a small audience tonight after two weeks solo! It does make a difference knowing people are hearing the sound of the Steinway live. It makes me listen more intently to the sound of the notes ringing in the room. 

Just me in the living room again tonight, but I know I have online listeners and it still feels like there's an audience! Felt a little subdued tonight; just kept leaning towards melodies curling around each other. One piece was intentionally "bad" or at least intentionally off-key. I felt I needed to shake myself out of a gauzy tonality! Enjoy.