Insight into a Piano Composition - Part 1

A few months ago a thought had come into my mind which just wouldn't leave me.

What happened is that I had this urge to go back to playing the piano, an instrument that I gave up when I was 17, almost three decades ago.

I remember going to my music lesson every week, practicing scales, working on two or three pieces that I would have to perform in front of a jury and all the stress about it.

From an early age I learned to read music notation and many aspects of music theory. I learned fingering techniques and perform famous classical pieces the way their composers intended to (supposedly).

One thing that I didn't learn was to love music for what it should be: a mean of self-expression and freedom of the mind.
I eventually did what most people do when an activity is devoid of enjoyment. I gave up.

Fast forward 26 years later and I stumbled on a few YouTube videos from guys who played the way I could only dream of. They could improvise, knew about chord progressions, play by ear, play and sing together. All things which I could not do after more than 10 years of learning the instrument.

This opened my eyes. I realized that the Internet was now available, full of fantastic materials for whoever decides to put their heart into trying something new and achieving things they didn't think they could do previously.

I got the belief that playing the piano could be a great way to relax after a busy day.
I watched a lot of videos about the basics of harmony, voicing, chords and chord progression.

I dabbed at playing different styles of music: ballads, jazz, boogie woogie and so on. I soon realized that the problem with all the teaching resources available on the Internet is that it is hard to keep focus on one or two things only. Instead I kept trying something for a few days, something else for another few days and so on. With the end result that after a couple of months I hadn't learned much of anything specifically.

This brought me to the new idea that maybe I could create a new piece of music myself.

I listened to original piano compositions on YouTube and I felt that maybe I could give it a shot. After a few weeks of work on the piano and the computer I completed my first composition. It is called "When We Were Young" and this is what the next couple of posts will be about.

I will share with you some of the ideas behind the composition, how I came to choosing the key, the theme and the structure of the piece.

I hope that this might inspire other pianists with little experience to work on their own composition.

The following is the final result:

When We Were Young

Next part soon to follow...

Olivier (@irelandscape)