Michi, composed and played by Keiko Abe for 4 mallet marimba

[snaredman1]

I love the improvisation she does within the actual piece

[thornhark]

Whats with every mallet being different??? .....i think ill do that now!

[beaverteeth92]

Can someone please send me the sheet music to this? I'm deciding whether or not to do this for a recital.

[louisrk]

What. A boss.

[westlacson1]

You know, having to learn this piece for S&E, I gotta say, she performs it WAY differently than how she writes it. I mean, the first part with the 4132 combination in the low octave is pretty much nonexistent in her version, but all over the place in the written solo.

Granted, her version here beats the heck out of mine, and it's amazing, but just saying. It's WAY different than how she wrote it.

[Klaus126]

@westlacson1 Well yea man, if you look closely to the footnotes in the music, it says that you can improvise freely in the key up to where the first theme enters. Which is what she is doing here. Don't worry, it took me a while before I figured out what she was up to too!

[westlacson1]

@Klaus126 No, no, I knew that. I did the same thing, like just sorta making up notes in that same vein that fit the character of the piece, but I thought you were supposed to do it around the little combination thing, not just ignore it all together. But I guess she wrote it, so she can pretty much do what she wants, haha.

[leonard03]

@westlacson1 thats because alot of it was actually left to be ad lib.

[singerguy93]

@westlacson1 The entire piece was written to be an improv. She will never perform it the same one twice. The printed version is just written that way. That's why if you look at the very beginning it says "if the player wishes, he may improvise from the beginning to the star in the same style and mode as what is written" so you can do whatever you want as long as it relates to whats written pretty much. same thing goes to the end.

[westlacson1]

@singerguy93 Haha, I know, dude. I improv-ed at the beginning too. Her improv just had way more balls than mine, and that's why I was so surprised. I'd just never heard it played anything close to that way.

[singerguy93]

@westlacson1 Haha. Yeah. There's some that are realllllyyy long and drawn out but they're really cool. hahah. I just recorded this for my instructor at my lesson today and my recording ended up being around 11 minutes long because the beginning was so long.

[khriz0909]

@westlacson1 In the score at the bottom it says that you can improvise the beginning however you wish with the notes she gives you.

[oxysean]

@westlacson1 listen to evelyn glennie's version. it's really creative and virtuostic. plus she studied with keiko abe for a few months one on one.

[Conn210]

The sound quality on this camera is horrible. It's a shame cause this is the only vid of keiko playing this piece.

[wolfmarimba]

But it's a 12 years old recording, and I think it's not bad actually! And her performance is unique and just perfect!

[m0410450]

thanks for uploading this