Midnight livestream of baroque piano improvisations

[@girurerumu]

I’m very glad the algorithm brought me to you. The melodies, rhythm and overall music you produce is exactly what I look for when I decide to hear Bach. Please keep posting more videos and who knows a concerto for piano!

[@yukiehms462]

The new bach

[@NatMustaine]

Im suffering severe anxiety and this helps and soothes a lot, thank you.

[@Borogrove]

Woah I’m honored that my little impros can hopefully help provide a bit of solace from anxiety! Best wishes, and many thanks 🙏 🙂!

[@kingfire111]

24:49 is my favorite section. Your control of the left-hand rhythms and accents is outstanding. At 25:20, I love the quote of the little fugue in g minor.

[@musicbymartinalkhalili]

This touched my heart and soul! Extremely beautiful filled with passion, energy and creativity! Many thanks for sharing this

[@Borogrove]

Many thanks Martin! (And for your email as well, I'll send you a reply shortly, just want to have time to write a decent answer :-) Have a wonderful day!

[@musicbymartinalkhalili]

​@@Borogrove Thank you very much and please don't feel an urgency to answer me if you are busy! I'm not expecting anything :)

[@anonimoalfin]

​@@Borogrove I hope you're doing well and past those health issues. I'm new to your channel. Very impressive videos. As a harpsichordist, I must say your improv skills are absolutely spectacular and out of this world. You can improvise with such ease, elegance and emotion, just like it was in the past until the 19th century. Curiously enough, skills like improvation and ornamentation are not encouraged as much as they should in formal, traditional, professional instruction, like in conservatoires, academies or even Early Music faculties and departments, if you can believe it. You find it more in Jazz departments, but still. It'd be nice if you could make perhaps a Q&A vid, speaking a bit of your own musical education process since childhood to KZbin, and pehaps share some step-by-step exercises, processes and musical habits to develop improvisation skills.

[@StanislavOstrovskyi-y9g]

I am sitting on the banks of the Dnieper River here in Ukraine and listening to your improvisations. And now I think about this: that when Bach improvised, he looked at the world as a philosopher, and you are probably on about the same vibration and it is felt in your music, and it helps to forget about the rockets flying overhead and all that madness that is happening with us. Thank you!

[@branislavpopkonstantinovic6990]

BEAUTIFUL !!! GREAT !!! MANY, MANY THANKS !!!

[@darrenshearer1730]

I loved that! It’s amazing how the expression and phrasing of improvised music is so much deeper than just performing something a Baroque composer wrote.

[@johannpetersen3637]

Congratulations, excellent and very baroque

[@mrsmokpiano]

Man, it is a very touching improvisation. I admire baroque music. You a very good!

[@miguelmatamoro]

beautiful!

[@Borogrove]

Thank you Miguel :-)

[@giladeilat6134]

I strive to play like you. A true inspiration

[@Miguel-zp9yp]

Just amazing! Is a great pleasure to listen to your improvisations, thank you!

[@Borogrove]

You're more than welcome Miguel! Many thanks for listening!

[@r.d.service8256]

Great! Wonderful! God bless you

[@martinezjc95]

listen he's cooking some baroque right there and there

[@eroceanos]

Awsome! You are a great artist and teacher. Thanks.

[@ZapataCarratala]

Amazing as usual! Keep it up!

[@improvy]

Your video makes me super motivated! So much respect to you and I am so expacting how you will improve in improvisation skill in future! Have a good day!

[@yagzdagabak4459]

You're such an inspiration to me. Thank you! Amazing as always. How the hell are you not more recognized?! Also, I know it must be a lot of work but keep the blog posts coming, what you're trying to do with music & category theory has always been a dream project of mine and seeing someone actually take it on is just awesome beyond words. Also, as I am turkish, and "music theory" here contains a lot of microtonal notes; do you have in mind only classical music, or do you intend to extend the project to contain the set of all possible music theories?

[@Borogrove]

A million thanks for your very kind words and for encouraging me to continue the blog posts! You are very right, I need to get back to them, life always gets in the way, but I *absolutely* want to continue the series :-) I'm also very happy and interested to see more people in the micro niche of mathematics/computer-science/art haha ;-) Turkish music is just immensely beautiful and there is an enormous amount of complexity in theory for the many more scales and microtonal aspects of it. I am always very interested in "non-classical" (with classical just being the arbitrary western point of view) theory; but I really need to delve into it and do some research of my own as I know far too little about different theories (or even different ways of approaching just the western theory). Also, rhythmically there is very interesting things; You can take a look at this paper if you want which shows hows the euclidean algorithm relates to various things, including rhythms (and especially rhythms in 5, 7, 11etc.. which are more common in non-western music :-) citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.72.1340&rep=rep1&type=pdf Many thanks again!

[@michaelsolomon6594]

Sublime playing there

[@Fellow_Traveller1985]

Your music is excellent late night working on computer music. Keep it up!

[@MiskoKatua]

Hi Borogrove, indeed it's a 'looooong' video, but I watched & listened to it in one go! ;-) Very good job! Most classical music piano teachers don't know how to improvise although they can play very good.

[@Seenall]

It's a been a long time since these streams. If you are busy then so be it, but if you lack motivation, perhaps you could do a improvisation theme where you take themes/motifs/subjects from the chat to develop on?

[@engrudoserio6397]

Boro, eres un Jedi de las improvisaciones barrocas, y espero que tu fuerza siempre nos siga acompañando.

[@Borogrove]

¡Muchas gracias! :-)

[@alaadhiya]

Do you by any chance give private lessons? I’m very interested in taking some, i can improvise in a classical style but i have no idea how to do baroque style improvisations and I would like to learn❤️

[@adinbaalbek8693]

Bin letztens auf dich gestoßen in einem Livestream auf Reddit und war der, der dich gefragt hat eine Fuge zu improvisieren auf der Melodie C D Eb D F Eb D C. Freilich, unbewusst ein kurzes Fragment vom Halo Theme, wie du erkanntest, aber gewiss ohne den dorischen Kram... Wie dem auch sei, ich wollte meinen Respekt noch mal hier ausdrücken, einfach einzigartig gut deine Improvisationsart, es hat sehr Spaß gemacht zuzuhören, bin sehr gespannt deine Musik weiter zu verfolgen.

[@Borogrove]

Vielen Dank

[@bernardnoe4424]

Hi Borogrove It’s great to see one of your Improvisation session in a more global point of view. You’re impressiv as always and you encourage me to start improvise. By the way I would it very interesting to know the steps of progress you went threw by learning improvisation, how were your first impros, the problems you had a the beginning, etc. To know a bit more how you achieved this level of improvisation you have now. Otherviews do you know Gabriela Montero ? She is the only person that I know who can improvise in more or less any style, she’s astonishing. All the best

[@Borogrove]

I agree, I have seen a few videos of Gabriela Montera and she seems amazing! I'd be delighted to go to a live concert one of these days :-) It's not so much that I had problems since improvising is an enjoyable process, the difficult thing is finding stuff to improvise that is both challenging enough to make you progress and enjoyable enough to keep improvising! It all comes with time and improvising a lot, but it's very tricky because there is not a good way to "see" the progress you make as you go along. There is no "mistakes" to be made or no ELO (like in chess) for improvisation so you don't know that you are improving, but if you are improvising you are improving ;-)

[@alegerminiasi7859]

Bravissimissimo ❤

[@Suikevrije]

i think you can do it because you are humble, God bless you que le Christ roi notre Dieu te garde

[@Borogrove]

Best of thanks! It’s always important to stay humble and see where we can improve! 😊 Merci encore :)

[@ErwanKLP]

Toujours très impressionnant... bravo !

[@Borogrove]

Merci beaucoup ☺️🙏!

[@timotheospetros]

Borogrove is the greatest composer alive today.

[@sosimusic8773]

Absolutely magnificent playing! You inspire me to get back to baroque improv and upload to my channel again. I'd like to ask you, what are your thoughts on improvising in distant keys? I see that you stick to the usual keys (d, a, g, e, etc...). Also, do you recommend improv with a metronome for practice? (lol @ 38:24 I totally understand that feeling)

[@Borogrove]

Hello! Great question and sorry I took so long to reply! Yes I usually stick to the “easy keys” but that’s not a great habit. In fact it’s great practice to try weirder keys (although they may not have been used much in baroque times because of uneven temperaments, we can make the best out of equal temperament haha 😆). The reason weird keys are great is actually pretty funny: in harder keys you’ll make more mistakes, and mistakes are *great* to discover new stuff and break out of the automaticisms. As to the metronome well… that’s a very intriguing idea! I’ve never really tried myself but it could *really* work! I’m a huuuuuuge proponent in focusing on good rhythms (in all impros but especially baroque) so the metronome could really help in making those rhythms well defined! I guess I’ll have to try the metronome myself :) Many thanks for the great comment!

[@SimFlyDream_videos]

Thank you so much for this. Do you have a LinkedIn ?

[@Borogrove]

Sadly I don’t have a linked in :( but I was thinking on making some more socials like Facebook/LinkedIn… Many thanks for the comment! I’ll take a look at LinkedIn in any case 🙂

[@letspiano3076]

16:40!

[@erik878]

Hi Borogrove, I have gone to composing again instead of improvising, writing a 1 man opera on solo guitar i do the singing too so i can perform it anywhere, i will be famouse that way. Hey you look like Mendelssohns portrait I think. I look a little like old bach without a wig

[@letspiano3076]

It's been quite some time, how are you doing? How to hear from you some time soom! A bientot!

[@NatMustaine]

🖤🖤🖤

[@VolodiaLukianov]

O M G…

[@kingfire111]

34:40

[@4Lights.5Liights]

I suspect you upgraded your recording microphone; the sound is much improved.

[@Suikevrije]

pensez vous que si j'étudie bien vos vidéo j'arriverais a jouer comme cela alors que je ne connais pas le solfège ? carj e suis passionné de baroque et j'improvise deja du piano "pop" et je m'émoustille de vous entendre et d'en faire de meme si le sort me le permet

[@Borogrove]

Beaucoup plus important que mes vidéos est le fait de pratiquer régulièrement l’improvisation, donc si tu improvise déjà c’est suuuuuuuper! (Et déjà beaucoup plus que beaucoup de gens :) Du coup continue à improviser dans les styles que tu aimes et aussi ça aide de travailler des pièces dans ces styles.. tout vient avec l’expérience! Le solfège est toujours intéressant et utile mais pas du tout “requis” pour pouvoir improviser!

[@letspiano3076]

2:56 🔥

[@classicalroach]

Okay franz

[@JSBach-pd4yg]

Wow now sounds better, is there reverb effect?

[@Borogrove]

Yes! I’m using my digital harpsichord as a midi controller plugged to my pc with a daw and digital instruments; I actually wanted to use much more complex (electronic) sounds too but my laptop can’t handle the synthesis and streaming at the same time haha 😅. Still will strive to improve setup :) Many thanks for the feedback!

[@MonkeyBars1]

Much better setup sir! The video is totally on point now, awesome work. You've overdone the reverb though. Take it down around 4.5dB in my opinion.

[@MonkeyBars1]

11:00 nice fugue subject!!

[@Borogrove]

@@MonkeyBars1 Many thanks for the feedback! Yeah I completely agree.. I controlled the reverb through some of the few controls on my roland C30, and I turn it down at some points in the video haha.. It just goes to show how difficult it is to record a piano when just playing one of the stock sounds of Ableton via a midi controller and some reverb + compressor sounds better than me trying to record my piano hahah ;-) (Still I won't give up on trying to properly mic my piano ;-) I also really want to use different (electronic) sounds and use the fact that I get the midi inputs in videos (I could have a go at programming some fun little visualizations if I get some time ;-) but my little laptop has trouble with encoding for the livestream + synthesis at the same time ;-)

[@VolodiaLukianov]

Я был бы согласен жить в углу за инструментом, чтоб каждый день слышать эту музыку...

[@erik878]

Well I uploaded my opera in four parts my most recent uploads you should listen to it, though it is beyond the realm of professionalism it has great dignity

[@MonkeyBars1]

So gorgeous. I challenge any baroque improviser to do better. Any takers out there?? 7.5 billion people there has to be one... but I haven't heard them yet

[@MonkeyBars1]

Your music feeds my soul, brother! I wonder how many other professional musicians are among your followers on YT

[@Borogrove]

@@MonkeyBars1 Many thanks Gabriel!

[@欺软怕硬]

I think Nicola Canzano makes fewer mistakes.

[@MonkeyBars1]

@Divergent Integral Is that the Cedarville guy? Just checked out a few of his videos and can say for certain he is not on Borogrove's level.

[@MonkeyBars1]

@@欺软怕硬 It's not all about "mistakes" of course I could only find one improv from that guy on KZbin and it does sound very good. Where else can I hear some? The rest of his channel is instructional.

[@bernardnoe4424]

While listening to you I’m just thinking that if you would allow you to do more mistakes you would then maybe discover interesting things coming from these. Maybe you just don’t publish your more experimental impros.

[@Borogrove]

Bernard you are *absolutely* right. Let me underline (and thank you!) the fact that *mistakes are a very desirable thing when improvising* :-) Of course there should be a balance between mistakes and the flow of improvisation, but mistakes are essential to discovering new things. I have various ways of experimenting, but you are right, everything I publish is still very much on the side of "production" rather than "experimentation" (Although with impro the line is still a bit blurred). This was also a livestream, so if I do something fully experimental then.. people leave haha so I had a bit of a push to keep playing "presentable" stuff, but there are absolutely moments where I just play a few things and listen to sounds, try to find new chords, play with rhythms etc... Also, I love experimenting with different sounds (electronic sounds) but here I couldn't do complex synthesis and recording at the same time, I need to buy a new more powerful computer ;-) Thank you again for the great observation, and YES to everyone reading this, mistakes are the water of life of improvisation :-)

[@bernardnoe4424]

@@Borogrove Thank you a lot for your answers, it’s so cool to have a real exchange with people we follow on KZbin. I hope your channel will grow more with the time, it deserves way more attention than what it has for the moment. But it also makes the link between you and the followers deeper which is cool 😀👍.