"Rise" Solo Piano Ballad

[David Baay]

Hi All,

Long time, no visit. I acquired a Yamaha G3 grand piano last year, and have not spent much time with the DAW since. Just having way too much fun playing, and marveling at the expressiveness and presence of this amazing instrument after playing digitals for 30 years!

I've not yet endeavored to record the Yamaha (it's downstairs, far from my desktop DAW), so what I'm sharing here was recorded from a Roland RD-700NX. I mostly did this just to capture the MIDI before I forget how to play it as sometimes happens when I improvise something and then don't get back to it for a while. 

Like most of my stuff, this will probably evolve over time to have  a distinct intro, more variations in chord voicing and rhythm, and maybe a proper'bridge' section, but I think it stands up pretty well as is.

Double points if you can hear the MIDI editing 'cheat'.  ;^)

Cheers,

Dave

Edited September 11, 2019 by David Baay

[Old Joad]

Lovely tune, thanks for posting it I enjoyed that.☮️

[Canopus]

Absolutely beautiful.

[amiller]

Finally got it to play for me.  Yes indeed, very nice.

Edited August 6, 2019 by amiller

[Larry Shelby]

Nice Dave!

[David Baay]

Thanks, gents. Glad you enjoyed it. 

[Grem]

Yes David, I really like this. And I am not even looking for the 'cheat'!! I enjoy this too much. But what I really like and appreciate about it David, is you didn't comp the heck out of it. What I am listening to sounds like I'm right there in the room with you. Really good work.

 

[Hidden Symmetry]

I enjoyed this. A well written song usually writes itself. One can easily hear a melody without one being there. Great job.

[David Baay]

15 minutes ago, Hidden Symmetry said:

A well written song usually writes itself.

So true. When listening to good ones years later I often think, 'Where'd that come from?' The muse wrote it, not me. 

[David Baay]

48 minutes ago, Grem said:

But what I really like and appreciate about it David, is you didn't comp the heck out of it.

Thanks, Michael. Yeah, I usually don't compress solo piano much, especially if it's a 'sensitive' piece like this. Sometimes I'll knock down the highest MIDI velocities to make a little headroom, and then I'll push the whole thing no more than 3dB into a limiter, and that's it. 

[AndyB01]

6 hours ago, Hidden Symmetry said:

One can easily hear a melody without one being there. Great job.

Exactly this - I can hear the tune inside the accompaniment and I always think that's a sign of great compositional skill.

You simply have to put some lyrics to this some day

Really beautiful work

Andy

[David Baay]

1 hour ago, AndyB01 said:

You simply have to put some lyrics to this some day

Thanks, Andy.  An instrumental melody is more likely as I don't really write lyrics or sing much. My wife is always threatening promising to write lyrics to various of my compositions; I'll keep working on her.

[kennywtelejazz]

Hi David ,

I enjoyed listening to your song Rise . Love all the cycles of chord changes and the subtle use of tonal / key modulations  .

Your song highlights and showcases your great touch and playing dynamics ..

You certainly compose and write some really good Music .

You sound great,

 

Kenny

[David Baay]

Thanks for the kind words,  Kenny. Glad you liked it, and happy to see you still knocking around here, yourself.  I plan to be posting some more stuff periodically so stay tuned, and if you hear something you can't resist soloing over, let me know. ;^)

Dave

[mettelus]

Very nice piece Dave. I saw the "MIDI editing cheat" comment, but when started listening it became a "who cares?" for me.

On 8/5/2019 at 2:58 PM, David Baay said:

I acquired a Yamaha G3 grand piano last year, and have not spent much time with the DAW since.

This quote gave me a smile. I have a classmate who used to play keyboards, got married, and then a grand piano. She has had zero interest in DAWs or mic'ing it... she just plays (20 years and counting...).

[Grem]

3 hours ago, mettelus said:

play keyboards, got married, and then a grand piano. She has had zero interest in DAWs or mic'ing it... she just plays

That's my wife. And we just got her a G3 last year after playing on uprights at home her whole life.

[David Baay]

2 hours ago, Grem said:

That's my wife. And we just got her a G3 last year after playing on uprights at home her whole life.

That's great. If she's half as tickled as I am about mine, I'm happy for her.  There's nothing like having a long-deferred dream come true. Gotta thank my wife for this one.  I let it go all those years partly because I didn't have the the proper space for one, partly because I liked the light touch, always-perfect tuning, portability and recordability of digitals,  and partly because of a misconception about how much I would have to spend to get a decent grand. It was my wife who really wanted to hear me play a real piano, and who found the G3 for half the going rate (which is surprisingly reasonable already), and who cleared out a third of the living room to make way for it.

[Grem]

9 minutes ago, David Baay said:

There's nothing like having a long-deferred dream come true

That's what it was for my wife. Space, money, kept the only good pianos she played on at the recitals halls. Once a year! And me having more than one great guitar, and more than one great amp, I really felt bad. 'cause I know what it's like to play on good instruments all the time, I wanted her to have that same experience.

[thegaltieribrothers]

Hi David,

Nice track and an enjoyable listen.

Thanks for sharing.

Good Job!

regards

paul

[bjornpdx]

David
Since I'm always midi correcting my playing I thought I could spot the "cheat" you mentioned. Nope.
Superb composition. You have a really nice touch which demonstrates the importance of dynamics in a performance.