A Piano Concerto About Nothing (King of Digital)

Paulieworld

I love this synth. I don’t know the developer’s name. If anyone knows, please post it.

McD

It’s longtime Forum member Matthew Fecher who announced this product using the new handle as @AnalogMatthew.

I haven;t listened to your track just yet.

McD

OK… I listened. This sounds like a very creative use of some Piano Motfs MIDI. I think Piano Motifs melodies have a tell
in 2 repeated notes after an interval down with a particular syncopation.

The selections of King of Digital presets works well for the composition.

Paulieworld

@McD said:
OK… I listened. This sounds like a very creative use of some Piano Motfs MIDI. I think Piano Motifs melodies have a tell
in 2 repeated notes after an interval down with a particular syncopation.

The selections of King of Digital presets works well for the composition.

First, I want to thank @AnalogMatthew for this great synth. I was getting a bit carried away. I usually wait a day before posting. Often, things sound horrible the next day. I don’t know if this is any better, but it’s not quite as cluttered as the first one. Oh well, so much for my “experimental period” which ended about a half hour ago.

MrStochastic

@Paulieworld said:

Oh well, so much for my “experimental period” which ended about a half hour ago.

I got that synth right away too. This sounds great; I hope your experimental period makes a come-back.

azul3D_Apps

Great sounds from King of Digital, it looks like a great value. I need to free up space on my iPad. Keep the "experimental period" going!

McD

FYI: I got a message from @azul3D_Apps about my comment and I ended up writing a message about adding jazz influences to melodic lines. I think that’s my core comment… Piano Motifs is decidedly diatonic in it’s creation of melodies and not very jazz or blues tinged.

Paulieworld

@Stochastically said:

@Paulieworld said:

Oh well, so much for my “experimental period” which ended about a half hour ago.

I got that synth right away too. This sounds great; I hope your experimental period makes a come-back.

It’s the best 4 bucks I’ve spent in a long time. Great patches. I’m working (playing) with something now that’s pretty weird. It’s based on something my wife likes to do. She likes to go out and lay in the grass on her back, and “talk to the planet”. I’ve done that a few times. It’s actually quite nice… but we’re a couple of old hippies. I think I’ll call it “Grounding”. I’ll post it in a few days. Thanks for listening and… Peace, bro.

Paulieworld

@azul3D_Apps said:
Great sounds from King of Digital, it looks like a great value. I need to free up space on my iPad. Keep the "experimental period" going!

It’s a great synth. Of course, Piano Motifs was the driving force. I hope that’s a good thing! Thanks for creating such a great program. I use it all the time. Have a beautiful day, or night, depending on where you are.

McD

FYI: This is the message I pulled together for @azul3D_Apps to better understand my comments about Piano Motifs melodies:

The “tell” seems to be 5-1-1 on the current chord.

Maybe it’s just the 5 1 interval on the chord which is very diatonic and not something a jazz musician would emphasize so that
might be my issue. Jazz players will emphasize the 3rd, 9th or 7th over the 5 or the 1. Those notes are the domain of the bass player and have a resting/final quality. For me it’s just boring.

For a more jazz players sound always use a half whole scale (the diminished scale) on any 7th chord. For example
on a G7 the soloist will play G-Ab-Bb-B-C#-D-E-F which contains G-B-D-F perfectly and the Ab-B-D-E are all active 1/2 steps below those chord tones.

I’m not sure you would want to create a jazz style but that’s pretty much how I improvise because the melodies are so emotive.
Just running scales and chord tones sounds too predictable and rarely provides a melody that lights up my brain.

When I rate pop singers it’s their natural ability to create these voice leading embellishments that turn me on… Mariah Carey for example and her mastery of the blues scale for adding emotion and drama.

When I was learning to improvise on the flute I was stuck on major scales and the bass player said “You are the whitest flute player I have ever heard.” I quickly started learning my blues scales so I could play something he would accept.

Adding a blues mode to Piano Motifs would be a real leap but something I think a lot of buyers would like. Starting with just pentatonic scales (major or minor) might be a good start. Dixieland Jazz was restricted to pentatonic scales almost exclusively and over 50 years the addition of diminished scales made the music into bebop with its intensely complex harmonic content adding most of the chromatic scale over 5th chords. Beyond the diminished scale you just need to add:

6th or 13th which came from the Dixieland pentatonic
11th which resolves nicely down to the 3rd in a 1/2 step
#5 which in the most sophisticated use case gets combined with b9 - 11 - #5 to form a b2 substitution for the 7th chord
These types of harmonic additions end up in the music of steely dan, james taylor (believe it or not) and other musicians that bring jazz harmonic ideas into pop music adding a whole new audience.

Paulieworld

@McD said:
FYI: I got a message from @azul3D_Apps about my comment and I ended up writing a message about adding jazz influences to melodic lines. I think that’s my core comment… Piano Motifs is decidedly diatonic in it’s creation of melodies and not very jazz or blues tinged.

Jazz is cool, but it’s not everything. Lately I have been digging on Ives, Cage, and of course…

Last, but not least is my dear departed friend.. Roach!!!

Paulieworld

@McD said:
FYI: This is the message I pulled together for @azul3D_Apps to better understand my comments about Piano Motifs melodies:

The “tell” seems to be 5-1-1 on the current chord.

Maybe it’s just the 5 1 interval on the chord which is very diatonic and not something a jazz musician would emphasize so that
might be my issue. Jazz players will emphasize the 3rd, 9th or 7th over the 5 or the 1. Those notes are the domain of the bass player and have a resting/final quality. For me it’s just boring.

For a more jazz players sound always use a half whole scale (the diminished scale) on any 7th chord. For example
on a G7 the soloist will play G-Ab-Bb-B-C#-D-E-F which contains G-B-D-F perfectly and the Ab-B-D-E are all active 1/2 steps below those chord tones.

I’m not sure you would want to create a jazz style but that’s pretty much how I improvise because the melodies are so emotive.
Just running scales and chord tones sounds too predictable and rarely provides a melody that lights up my brain.

When I rate pop singers it’s their natural ability to create these voice leading embellishments that turn me on… Mariah Carey for example and her mastery of the blues scale for adding emotion and drama.

When I was learning to improvise on the flute I was stuck on major scales and the bass player said “You are the whitest flute player I have ever heard.” I quickly started learning my blues scales so I could play something he would accept.

Adding a blues mode to Piano Motifs would be a real leap but something I think a lot of buyers would like. Starting with just pentatonic scales (major or minor) might be a good start. Dixieland Jazz was restricted to pentatonic scales almost exclusively and over 50 years the addition of diminished scales made the music into bebop with its intensely complex harmonic content adding most of the chromatic scale over 5th chords. Beyond the diminished scale you just need to add:

6th or 13th which came from the Dixieland pentatonic
11th which resolves nicely down to the 3rd in a 1/2 step
#5 which in the most sophisticated use case gets combined with b9 - 11 - #5 to form a b2 substitution for the 7th chord
These types of harmonic additions end up in the music of steely dan, james taylor (believe it or not) and other musicians that bring jazz harmonic ideas into pop music adding a whole new audience.

Don’t over analyze it. Just let ‘er rip. Go postal. Channel Roach.

McD

I kept wondering… is this guy going to talk (and later yell) over the whole piece? And digging into the “notes” for the video I realized it’s Scriabin’s Poetry. Poetry has no place over music in my world… sorry. It diminished the experience of the music.
I’m just not a word guy unless the words are carefully crafted to align with a melody or drive home the rhythm of the groove.

Lungbrush gets closer to adding words to enhance a rhythmic groove so it’s more in my wheelhouse.

McD

@Paulieworld said:

@McD said:
FYI: This is the message I pulled together for @azul3D_Apps to better understand my comments about Piano Motifs melodies:

The “tell” seems to be 5-1-1 on the current chord.

Maybe it’s just the 5 1 interval on the chord which is very diatonic and not something a jazz musician would emphasize so that
might be my issue. Jazz players will emphasize the 3rd, 9th or 7th over the 5 or the 1. Those notes are the domain of the bass player and have a resting/final quality. For me it’s just boring.

For a more jazz players sound always use a half whole scale (the diminished scale) on any 7th chord. For example
on a G7 the soloist will play G-Ab-Bb-B-C#-D-E-F which contains G-B-D-F perfectly and the Ab-B-D-E are all active 1/2 steps below those chord tones.

I’m not sure you would want to create a jazz style but that’s pretty much how I improvise because the melodies are so emotive.
Just running scales and chord tones sounds too predictable and rarely provides a melody that lights up my brain.

When I rate pop singers it’s their natural ability to create these voice leading embellishments that turn me on… Mariah Carey for example and her mastery of the blues scale for adding emotion and drama.

When I was learning to improvise on the flute I was stuck on major scales and the bass player said “You are the whitest flute player I have ever heard.” I quickly started learning my blues scales so I could play something he would accept.

Adding a blues mode to Piano Motifs would be a real leap but something I think a lot of buyers would like. Starting with just pentatonic scales (major or minor) might be a good start. Dixieland Jazz was restricted to pentatonic scales almost exclusively and over 50 years the addition of diminished scales made the music into bebop with its intensely complex harmonic content adding most of the chromatic scale over 5th chords. Beyond the diminished scale you just need to add:

6th or 13th which came from the Dixieland pentatonic
11th which resolves nicely down to the 3rd in a 1/2 step
#5 which in the most sophisticated use case gets combined with b9 - 11 - #5 to form a b2 substitution for the 7th chord
These types of harmonic additions end up in the music of steely dan, james taylor (believe it or not) and other musicians that bring jazz harmonic ideas into pop music adding a whole new audience.

Don’t over analyze it. Just let ‘er rip. Go postal. Channel Roach.

I do that too on occasion. Not quite as in your face as roach but I throw away the music theory and write some chaos.

AnalogMatthew

Really cool, ethereal jam! I dig it. Thanks for tagging me

Paulieworld

@McD said:

@Paulieworld said:

@McD said:
FYI: This is the message I pulled together for @azul3D_Apps to better understand my comments about Piano Motifs melodies:

The “tell” seems to be 5-1-1 on the current chord.

Maybe it’s just the 5 1 interval on the chord which is very diatonic and not something a jazz musician would emphasize so that
might be my issue. Jazz players will emphasize the 3rd, 9th or 7th over the 5 or the 1. Those notes are the domain of the bass player and have a resting/final quality. For me it’s just boring.

For a more jazz players sound always use a half whole scale (the diminished scale) on any 7th chord. For example
on a G7 the soloist will play G-Ab-Bb-B-C#-D-E-F which contains G-B-D-F perfectly and the Ab-B-D-E are all active 1/2 steps below those chord tones.

I’m not sure you would want to create a jazz style but that’s pretty much how I improvise because the melodies are so emotive.
Just running scales and chord tones sounds too predictable and rarely provides a melody that lights up my brain.

When I rate pop singers it’s their natural ability to create these voice leading embellishments that turn me on… Mariah Carey for example and her mastery of the blues scale for adding emotion and drama.

When I was learning to improvise on the flute I was stuck on major scales and the bass player said “You are the whitest flute player I have ever heard.” I quickly started learning my blues scales so I could play something he would accept.

Adding a blues mode to Piano Motifs would be a real leap but something I think a lot of buyers would like. Starting with just pentatonic scales (major or minor) might be a good start. Dixieland Jazz was restricted to pentatonic scales almost exclusively and over 50 years the addition of diminished scales made the music into bebop with its intensely complex harmonic content adding most of the chromatic scale over 5th chords. Beyond the diminished scale you just need to add:

6th or 13th which came from the Dixieland pentatonic
11th which resolves nicely down to the 3rd in a 1/2 step
#5 which in the most sophisticated use case gets combined with b9 - 11 - #5 to form a b2 substitution for the 7th chord
These types of harmonic additions end up in the music of steely dan, james taylor (believe it or not) and other musicians that bring jazz harmonic ideas into pop music adding a whole new audience.

Don’t over analyze it. Just let ‘er rip. Go postal. Channel Roach.

I do that too on occasion. Not quite as in your face as roach but I throw away the music theory and write some chaos.

Don’t let his stage persona fool you. He was a kind and gentle soul. He left behind a wife and four kids. I didn’t go to many of their gigs because I didn’t really fit in with that crowd, but we hung out after. He will be missed.

https://legacy.suntimes.com/us/obituaries/chicagosuntimes/name/troy-coates-obituary?id=9475825

Paulieworld

@AnalogMatthew said:
Really cool, ethereal jam! I dig it. Thanks for tagging me

No, thank you!!! I’m playing with this as we speak (or text). Great work.

McD

All the AudioKit synths are wonderful creations. And @AnalogMatthew had a hand in all of them I think.