Reflections On Featuredom
I improvised on my keyboard and recorded it as a video to be enjoyed by a handful of friends on youtube. What subsequently happened was that YouTube Australia Editor Damien Estreich saw it fit to feature the video. At the time of writing close to 15,000 views have been received on it.
One person requested an mp3 of the recording, so I am making that available on this page.
breakstuff.mp3 (Right-click “Save File As…” or “Save Target As…”)
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The responses for the video were mixed, although I received much less criticism than I anticipated. And much of the criticism was quite technical in nature. You know something more constructive, at least, than “What a crap video!”
A few selections are as below.
KN0MADD (4 days ago)
I want to break that keyboard.
alephuno (3 days ago)
crap… minor scales… stuff anybody would do
Mingusandme (3 days ago)
Take your FOOT off of the pedal and it won’t sound so New Ageyish. Really…
The problem with a running gag is that whenever one person gets in on the act, EVERYONE wants to join. See below.
RandomThoughtPro07 (3 days ago)
thats not breaking anything!
zeth202 (3 days ago)
thats not breaking anything!
TOPSEXYVIDEOS (2 days ago)
thats not breaking anything!
All jokes aside, it is very curious that these messages are all IDENTICAL. Not just expressing the same sentiment, but the same characters, the same lack of apostrophe (“thats” being a contraction of “that is”), the same lowercase letters, the same exclamation mark at the end. Were they all created by the same user? Some kind of “bot”? The mind boggles.
I was bothered by my apparent lack of thoughtful replies to people who encouraged my efforts. It was fun to be antagonistic to “haters” and point out the leaps in their logic. But when someone said they enjoyed my video, the most I could manage to spit out was “Thanks for the comment.” In truth I was just in awe that people responded so passionately to it.
In the video description I explained how I felt about the video itself.
It seems a tad presumptous to file this under “music.” The truth is I don’t make the kind of music people like to listen to. It is not really that melodic. I don’t even play it for what I hear, so much as I for what I feel. The rhythm. The thumping. The pounding randomly at the keyboard. It makes me feel… weirdly, in control.
This, of itself, seemed to lead to a fascinating discussion about the purpose and meaning of music.
BarrySeroff was perhaps the greatest propopent of this discussion.
BarrySeroff (2 days ago)
You know there is quite a tradition of this stuff out there for you to find. Don’t even dare question whether it is ‘music’ or not, of course it is. I posted an improv video of myself with a drummer, its just a clip, but you may like. Go, dig deeper!
I’ve decided to include the video Barry created below, to help further illustrate his point.
DyslexicBibliophile (6 hours ago)
I’m currently doing Music at uni. the way i begin to compose is the same as you are doing. i just sit at the piano and start playing what i feel comes naturally. i then remember what sounds good and come back to that later and add onto it until eventually i have a song.i loved the static quality of your piece, almost but not quite minimalistic. it was very relaxing.
could you upload more, i’d like to hear them.
Although I have never really thought of myself as a musician, I have worked for them in the past. I was at one time the Internet Marketing Officer for Sydney based composer and musician, Charlie Chan. Much of her musical output consisted of improvised moments, recorded in her home studio. After the release of her album, “East and West,” she went on television to promote it. A TV Producer came and asked how long a piece of music titled “Paradise” went for. She looked at them wrily and replied, “Well, how long would you LIKE it to go for?”
Largely unbeknownst to me it is also “Video of the day” in the music category of the Australian site
I guess in short I would like to demonstrate that I am mostly certainly NOT a musician; that I produce music for myself, for little more than emotional and physical release. Although if people enjoy it (and from the comments I’ve received, I have to assume many do) then wonderful.
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