Debussy, Doctor Gradus ad Parnassum, solo piano

[xbigd1988x]

Is this whole tone scale?

[NatiDeNut]

You are fascinating! My inbox is overflowing with great music daily. A very worthwhile subscription!

[lolokali]

awesome, just awesome. do u have the sheet music for this peace?

[smalin]

@lolokali No, but you can get it at IMSLP.

[lolokali]

@smalin thx very much :D

[4evaFanFuruba]

How I wish I could play this one day :)

[originofdespair]

Spectacular xD

[kiralogy]

aaah NEVER stop doing these! :):)

[duriandecay]

prettiest animation

[dernecati]

hello

whats your favorite title? 

[smalin]

@dernecati "Steal This Book." (It's not my favorite book, though.)

[20114D]

I've listened to a few other YT videos of this song, and I must say this one is played with the most expression and "smoothness" (connected notes)

[20114D]

@20114D And you bring the melody out beautifully

[forscyvus]

This has long been one of my favorite pieces. I bet The Snow Is Dancing also from the children's corner would make for a very good MAM video. I'd love to see it.

[ArchaicMusics]

I have a question you might not be able to answer: I'm looking for one video (it might not even be yours) that I really liked. I didn't realize that I liked it so much until a while after I watched it but all I can remember is that it was a song that was a little ugly-beautiful and the bar graphs were camouflage-greenish. Can you from the top of your head remember making one such video?

[smalin]

@ArchaicMusics It might have been:

Scriabin, Prelude, Opus 67 #2, Presto (piano solo)

[M000tube]

finally! i love the circles

[buzzwaffle]

I enjoyed this. It has terrific flow and compatibility. I like the traveling dots and curving aspect. Very nice.

[MJFpryt]

I really liked this one, expect for the last few chords. They kind of sounded out of place. Also, this is probably my favorite style you've used for piano pieces so far. Keep it up! :)

[smalin]

@MJFpryt Yeah, I feel the same way about the ending; I think the responsibility lies with both me and Debussy; the rest of the piece pretty much "plays itself" but the ending is tricky: it's harder to make it balance with the rest of the piece. It can be done ... but I didn't do it.

[MJFpryt]

@smalin Absolutely. I feel that the piece should have ended forte instead of fortissomo, and cut out the very last chord, and hold the 2nd to last chord longer. I'll add this piece to my waiting list :)

[smalin]

@MJFpryt It can be made to work, but you need to get more hyped up by the ending --- which is difficult to remember when the rest of the piece is so subdued. If you take the "ad Parnassum" in the title seriously, it makes more sense. I imagine a piano student, starting out with the daily exercises, and then wandering into meditative improvisation on the theme of the exercise, then returning to the technical work with renewed vigor, and ending with a confident "yes I can!!!" flourish.

[MJFpryt]

@smalin I see what you mean. I can't wait to start with this piece, and try it for myself.

[lapmarty]

yes but you can make that exact video with the mamm software, i mean exactly the same

[smalin]

@lapmarty No, the MAM Player does not have graphics exactly like this (similar, but not exactly the same).

[grahmdionable]

I am really impressed with the flow and texture of this "recording." i love the visual description, but for the moment i wanted to ask you about the audio. in short, I am amazed that this was accomplished through the use of midi. you're method or combination of methods has gone beyond what i thought possible.in a midi recording, you can manipulate the attack (visually) and placement of it. did you do this or does the aforementioned "composer" program do that while you instruct tempo variance?

[smalin]

@grahmdionable MIDI was only involved incidentally. I used the conductor program (which you can read about on my website under "computer-assisted performance"), but that's akin to having power steering and brakes on a car --- you still need a driver. I controlled all the timings, dynamics, articulation, etc. when I performed it, just as I would in a live performance.

[grahmdionable]

@smalin thanks for the reply. yeah, i guess there is no substitute for a good performance(as a consequence of years of practice). of my live recordings, i rarely am satisfied with them. but the fact remains that it is still midi data..so i guess i will keep working. thanks for the inspiration and looking forward to future posts. all the best.

[smalin]

@grahmdionable If you haven't, you should download my sample conductor program software (unfortunately, only the Windows version runs on current operating systems) and give it a try. You might be surprised at how good the results are.

[MisterHowe]

This is simply beautiful. I had a thought: what if (for some piece) you had the note dots and lines as usual, but also had the background color change based on the tonality at the moment? Perhaps they could appear as pastel shades instead of bold colors, so it isn't too visually overwhelming.

As always, I'm in awe of your skills, and I look forward to seeing what's next.

[smalin]

@MisterHowe The problem with your suggestion is that while color (hue) is a 1-dimensional quantity (angle on the color wheel), tonality (for western music, anyway) is 12-dimensional. You could "dumb down" tonality into a single dimension, but for my tastes, that goes in the wrong direction: I'd rather figure out a way to make the musical complexity more comprehensible than pretend that the complexity didn't exist and present a simplified summary.

[NRDistheWRD11]

How all of Debussy's Childrens' Corner?

[smalin]

@NRDistheWRD11 Some are better-suited to visualization (at least, the kind of visualization I'm able to do) than others.

[approssimoXdifetto]

I did study this one, and I remember playin it faster it was quite a psychedelic experience

[lapmarty]

i mean you wrotte the mamm player are you bullshiting?

[smalin]

@lapmarty Sure, I wrote it.  Who else?

[lapmarty]

@smalin i dont know, i taught you meant for you only, anyway good job then, im gonna use it sometime

[smalin]

@lapmarty I wrote the MAM Player, but it's not the software I used to make the video (which I also wrote).

[joseramon1402]

Very good!

[cockatoo777]

1080P is simply awesome!

[IT0LU]

You should do Prokofiev's diabolique.

[smalin]

@IT0LU Sorry, there are copyright issues with his music.

[jking6155]

Bravo smalin, you have done it again. I love your videos.

[CrossbowManD]

Do you have any plans to eventuly do Bach's Inventions or Mozart's Requiem Mass?

[smalin]

@CrossbowManD Bach inventions, probably not (unless I invent some new kind of visualization that would be especially good for them); Mozart Requiem, probably a movement or two, but probably not the whole thing.

[CrossbowManD]

@smalin If you have not already chosen a performance for the Requiem i would recomend The Acadamy of St. Martin in the Fields they do a great job. oh and thanks for the feed back it really adds to your wonderful videos

[smalin]

@CrossbowManD The choice of recording will probably be based in large part on finding one that I can license inexpensively.

[gramps2matt]

Steven, Youtube's placement of pop up ads on videos should be banned on all of yours. What a way to destroy the mood of them. I start watching then notice that dreaded yellow dot on the time bar and know I'm gonna have to click off an ad very soon. It's frustrating because it often blocks your graphics and ruins my appreciation of them. Here's to all the ones lucky enough to get by without the ads. But still ALL your vids are AWESOME!

[smalin]

@gramps2matt The reason there are ads on my videos is that I get paid for allowing them to be there. If you can find me a better way of making money on my videos, I'm all ears.

[ForteV2]

@gramps2matt What I do is to advance to the part where the ad pops, close it and then return. Sure it gets tired soon if you are watching a whole lot of them, but it's fine if you are only watching a few.

Also, add them to your playlist and let them go as a background, hence you won't see the adds. Lastly, get an ad blocker.

[Inexor]

Very, very lovely. Your talents are always amazing and appreciated!

[tcybutterfly]

nannymac47 is spot on

one more look at the email and a bed time video - what a gift!

thanks once again!

[waddledeetakeover]

Do you perform all these solo piano pieces?

[smalin]

@waddledeetakeover No, not all, just some.

[Zwangsworkaholic]

@smalin but as it seems the majority of pianos solos is performed by you, is that right?

[smalin]

@Zwangsworkaholic If I can play a piece myself, and feel like doing a video of it, and there's no reason to use somebody else's performance instead of my own, then I'll perform it and use my recording, so there are likely more by me than by others --- but I haven't counted.

[prettysmilen]

YOU ARE AMAZING.

[nannymac47]

Ahhh I was on my way to bed and now I am very thankful for looking at my email just one more time before retiring. I am in the perfect frame of mind for restful sleep now. Thank you and good night.

[miiwiiplay]

Excellent performance -the melodic line was always clear and not muddied under the rush of arpeggios as is so often done. Bravo!

[pgurugp]

debussy mmmmmm

[TheVailTom]

One great choice, again! Even though I've even played this, the video shows me things I hadn't noticed before (but should have!). A real treat. Can't wait for Snow is Dancing (of course I do know you have a long to-do list!). Thanks.

[EternallyConfuzled]

I would absolutely love it if you did George Gershwin's "Lullaby"

[smalin]

@EternallyConfuzled  Sorry, I don't have permission to use Gershwin's music.

[lhrmeonom]

@smalin How do you record the music? Do you use a keyboard or record you playing on a full size piano?

[smalin]

@lhrmeonom The audio is created by the Synthogy software, so I just click the "record" button in that, and then play (from a Yamaha digital piano keyboard), using my conductor program software (see my web site for details under "Computer-Assisted Performance").

[RHT769]

Thank you for uploading this. My grandfather used to play this when I was little. So when I got old enough to learn how to play the piano, I learned it. Now it always reminds me of him. So peaceful.

[SumWunGye]

Wow these videos look so intricate! How many visual options are there? I can't imagine this being easy to tweak (on our end (or yours!))

[singingresources]

love your work! would love to see this done with some choral repertoire. my choir is currently working on mozart's requiem... it would be awesome to be able to work with a score like this! fond regards from Brighton!

[smalin]

@singingresources I will probably do some movements of Mozart's Requiem eventually.

[amadeus5889]

Aww, I love "Children's Corner". Thanks for putting this up.

[lapmarty]

what is thegraphical software rendition?it takes the midi files right?

[smalin]

@lapmarty Yes, that's right.

[lapmarty]

@smalin yes but what is the software use where do i find this?

[smalin]

@lapmarty It's something I wrote myself, for my own use.

[lapmarty]

@smalin i just download this, you mean you wrotte the mmx player?????

[amonkey98]

Beautiful, nothing more needs to be said

[WolfieWolfFilms]

coool

[Palm3950]

This style seemed incredibly smooth and enjoyable to watch and listen to. Thank you.

[darkalleyheroes]

I really like this new style

[MrClose2theEdge]

first view ha. but seriously lovely.