Bob Farrell
Hello, my name is Bob Farrell and I play improvised piano music inspired by my favourite classical composers (Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Rachmaninov, to name a few).
I live in London and practice once a week (unfortunately I don't have a piano at home) on a very nice Kawai grand piano. I started recording my sessions to help me work on my composition, and I decided to share them here. I pick one improvisation from each session and put it up here.
I use an Olympus LS-10 to record and cut the recordings up with the Audacity audio editor.
I welcome all feedback, so please feel free to comment on anything I've done and speak your mind.
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Piano Improvisation XX
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Plays 45 Downloads 209
Mon Jan 25 11:59:37 2010
This is loosely in D minor but deviates all over the place and has quite a contemporary feel and becomes quite atonal in parts.
I think it worked out really well - it conjures up a lot of images in my head and has a really rich texture and doesn't bore me.
A friend had come along with me this week so I had an audience which helped, although I think she was a bit terrified by this particular piece.
Piano Improvisation XIX
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Plays 28 Downloads 194
Sat Jan 16 20:35:00 2010
As it's been so long since the last time I uploaded, here's a second one from today. There's a distinct motif at the start, after that it plays around with a few mellow melodies and then returns back to the original motif at the end. This one also makes me think of ships and waves and storms !
In this piece (and my playing in general) I'm trying to keep it simple without forcing ideas into being and letting them develop, and repeating things if I feel like I don't know where to go rather than wandering, which I think results in the music being a lot more digestible.
I actually cut off the first couple of minutes of this piece as they were a bit weird and aimless.
Piano Improvisation XVIII
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Plays 13 Downloads 195
Sat Jan 16 20:23:11 2010
This is the first recording of the new year. It's a slow and dark piece with plenty of banging and crashing.
It makes me think of ships and waves and storms !
Piano Improvisation XVII
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Plays 59 Downloads 249
Sun Dec 20 16:42:27 2009
I've been playing a lot more with chromatics and generally trying to avoid getting stuck too strictly in one particular key. My playing's a bit rusty having not played for a few weeks but I'm really happy with the result.
It's a little impressionistic in parts but hopefully it doesn't come across too much as nonsense.
Piano Improvisation XVI
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Plays 29 Downloads 210
Sat Nov 21 20:10:24 2009
I was near the end of the session and wasn't feeling very inspired so was just messing around and started playing something very similar to how this piece starts (and what turns out to be the backbone for the duration) so I started with it and tried to develop it.
The result is marred a bit by some unfortunate vibrations caused by a badly mounted microphone and a creaky stool I was sitting on but otherwise I think there's some really cool things going on in this music.
Piano Improvisation XV
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Plays 32 Downloads 226
Sat Nov 21 20:05:07 2009
This is a slow and fairly minimal piece. I think it's one of the nicest I've done so I'm really happy to have it recorded.
There's a section that I'd rather wasn't there or was better thought-out but apart from that I think the piece progresses really nicely and is pleasant to listen to.
Piano Improvisation XIV
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Plays 7 Downloads 232
Fri Nov 13 11:45:58 2009
This is the first time I've uploaded something contemporary like this. I usually don't play this kind of thing but sometimes it's really nice to play without having to think so much about classic form.
I'll probably stick a few more things like this up in the future, though I appreciate it's not something that everyone's going to like.
Piano Improvisation XIII
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Plays 18 Downloads 238
Fri Nov 13 11:41:40 2009
Lots of crashy chords and fiddly right hand fingering with a quite nice recurring melody.
I think I got a pretty good balance of development and progression without the piece getting off track and getting boring - it's about half the length of the last one but seems to have about as many ideas, so the density of ideas has increased, which I think is a good thing. And the playing seems to have improved too.
Piano Improvisation XII
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Plays 4 Downloads 237
Sun Oct 11 18:50:23 2009
I have only had a chance to listen back to this once, but I really enjoyed it. It's pretty long but I think its texture varies quite well as the piece progresses.
I've been focusing on trying to make more use of the major keys in my improvisation, being less reliant on the sustain pedal and trying to use more interesting textures. I think it worked out quite well in this recording.
Piano Improvisation XI
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Plays 1 Downloads 127
Mon Oct 5 10:27:32 2009
This is also from the same session as the last one and more in my usual style. Having listened to it a couple of times I decided I liked it enough that I didn't want to lose it (this website is the only way I really have of keeping a record of my music) so I thought it would be a shame to forget about it.
Piano Improvisation X
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Plays 2 Downloads 125
Sun Oct 4 23:22:01 2009
This short piece shows the influence baroque and classical have had on my music; I've been trying to work on this kind of style a lot recently and this is the best so far, though it obviously still needs work. I think there are some good ideas here so I'm going to try to develop this style further over the next few weeks.
Piano Improvisation IX
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Plays 2 Downloads 127
Sat Sep 19 20:29:09 2009
I'm very hungover today but this one seems to have turned out pretty good ! A few too many mistakes but whatever.
Piano Improvisation VIII
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Plays 0 Downloads 117
Sun Sep 13 15:41:39 2009
This one is pretty similar to the last one I uploaded (though with more mistakes) but it's the best one from yesterday's session; I haven't been practicing enough lately so this one isn't too great.
Piano Improvisation VII
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Plays 14 Downloads 108
Sat Aug 8 17:04:39 2009
Been a long time since I last played (been busy busy busy) so I felt pretty stiff for most of the session, but managed to get this one out; definitely the best one of the whole session. There won't be one next week and possibly not the week after but after that it should be back to one a week, I hope !
Piano Improvisation VI
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Plays 0 Downloads 123
Sun Jul 12 21:54:39 2009
I'm overall very pleased with this one. There's a nice recurring theme that I managed to land on at the beginning and managed to remember it well enough to bring it back and do variations on it. I'm generally pretty pleased with it as a complete piece - it has enough contrast and shape to keep my attention.
Piano Improvisation V
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Plays 1 Downloads 108
Sun Jul 12 21:46:36 2009
This is basically just me trying to play as fast as possible; some people seem to like this kind of thing. I'm not very keen on it, but it'll be interesting to listen back to this in a year or so, so I'm putting it here anyway.
Piano Improvisation IV
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Plays 1 Downloads 116
Sun Jul 12 21:29:28 2009
I'm still catching up on backlog here (picking one piece from each week's practice session) so I'm a bit vague on what was going through my head at the time, but I think I was pretty hungover.
Piano Improvisation III
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Plays 0 Downloads 110
Sun Jul 12 21:16:02 2009
A few people gave me feedback saying that my improvisations lacked some kind of underlying direction, that it didn't appear to be telling a story. So with this one I focused on a specific story from my life and tried to tell it in music. I'm pretty happy with the result.
Piano Improvisation II
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Plays 5 Downloads 116
Sun Jul 12 21:07:30 2009
This week I spent the whole practice session trying to focus on bringing themes into my improvisation. The end result is something pretty repetitive and not that great, but it was an interesting exercise anyway.
Piano Improvisation I
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Plays 3 Downloads 119
Sun Jul 12 20:04:33 2009
This is the very first recording I made of my practice session, and this is the first thing I played.