Wonderful performance and message. Lovely support from the orchestration. It's nice to be reminded that there are still people out there that have beautiful souls and share that beauty.

Look, look again at this beauty that is around us.... Superb piano, Bravo !!! ❤️Love, 🕊️Peace, 🙏Respect

https://soundcloud.com/learningtoplay/keycurling
02/07/2022  strings
04/28/2023 fixed the low end

Keycurling by learningtoplay (The Drummer Upstairs)

Look

Window

This is soundtrack from video.  Cover of Ray Bonneville song

Funny 'Bout Love

As the old Soviet joke goes, “In the Soviet Union, we know what the future holds. It’s the past that’s always changing.”      (lyrics below, after the song description)                                             
                                                     ****************
In this small, quaint college town, the town-gown relationship, for most of the 150 plus years since the college’s founding, had been productive.  The town benefited economically,  & students appreciated the town's charm, history & heritage.   Often on sunny days, classes of students would visit the park at the downtown square, brought by their history professors to learn not only of the town's history, but also about eleven young local men lost in America's Civil War, memorialized by the modest statue of a lone soldier, who had stood like a sentry at the the park's entrance since 1905.

But times change, don't they...
                                                   ********************

More Americans died in the American Civil War than in any other war in our country's history, including each of the World Wars.  In my song, the word "Daughters" references the Daughters Of The Confederacy, a women's civic group formed in the 1890's by daughters (and wives & nieces) of men lost in that war.  The attached picture is the inscription on the base of a statue of a uniformed soldier, standing in a park in Dallas, Georgia, a small town 30 miles northwest of Atlanta.
                                                            



Lyrics....
My name is McKenzie, and Jenkins and Embry,
And eight other names you still hear in these parts,
For over a century, I stood quiet at the entry,
On East Main into Lafayette Park,
A plaque was engraved, told why I was placed,
On those gardened grounds,
In this Small American Town.

Commissioned in 1905,
By the Daughters for fathers who died,
I was erected to honor eleven so bold,
Not a single one knowing he’d never grow old,
On these boys account I’d forever stand proud,
Stand sturdy & stout,
In this Small American Town.

The kids from the college on Heritage Hill,
Would hold class in the park’s warm sunshine,
They learned of this cruel war we waged with ourselves,
How 600,000 had died,
And of eleven from here just about their age,
Small farmers & blacksmiths & craftsmen by trade,
None fought for cotton, not one owned a slave,
And they learned why the Daughters placed me on that mound,
To keep those boys’ memories around,
In this Small American Town.

But enlightened new students don’t meet in that space,
Through new glasses old wars just don’t look the same,
Now scholars say men who went off to that war,
Fought not out of duty, but hate,
I feared I’d be forgotten by Heritage Hill,
Yesterday’s soldiers, obscure battlefields,
But alas, rearranged history determined my fate,
                          **************
Wise men have long warned of changing the past,
Of purges & vengeance & iconoclasts,
Then one fateful night there was smoke rolling down from the Hill,

Quickly surrounded by torches of fire,
Cursing & spitting & rage in the air,
Rope round my shoulders, a cheer by the crowd,
I came crashing down to the ground….
                         **************
An uneasy quiet in the town since that day,
Hushed conversations about how things have changed,
But up on the Hill it’s all smiles & goodwill,
For it’s the 2nd weekend in May,
Ceremonial speeches, awards all around,
Uncles & aunts & parents in town,
To watch the sweet children who torched & burned me to the ground,
Be awarded their caps & their gowns,
In this Small American Town.

Small American Town

Guitar Dialogue(Guitar solo)

A song about the golden age of steam trains. 
A 4-Star Commended Entry in the 'Adult Contemporary' category of the UK Songwriting Contest 2023.

A train is waiting at the station, waiting to take you for a ride,
All you have to do is buy a ticket, where you're going to you decide,
Electric, diesel, inter-city express  ... and steam,
Electric, diesel, inter-city express  ... and steam,
Long time ago there was the steam age, I just about remember when that was,
Travelling with my mum on a steam train, looking back that now seems very odd,
Electric, diesel, inter-city express  ... and steam,
Electric, diesel, inter-city express  ... and steam,
You may recall the Flying Scotsman, it really was the train you couldn't beat,
Travelling up and down the west coast line, fireman generating steam and heat,
Electric, diesel, inter-city express  ... and steam,
Electric, diesel, inter-city express  ... and steam,
Riding on the Great Western Railway, it must have been quite a thrill,
Travelling through all the valleys, steaming up and down the hills,
Electric, diesel, inter-city express  ... and steam,
Electric, diesel, inter-city express  ... and steam,
They call that the golden age of steam, it's hard to do anything but agree
The trains back then caused much pollution, but they were so magnificent to see,
Electric, diesel, inter-city express  ... and steam,
Electric, diesel, inter-city express  ... and steam,
Now we have the modern trains to go on, buy your ticket on your mobile phone,
All the trains are usually quite fast now, taking people to and from their homes,
Electric, diesel, inter-city express  ... and steam,
Electric, diesel, inter-city express  ... and steam,
A train is waiting at the station, waiting to take you for a ride,
All you have to do is buy a ticket, where you're going to you decide,
Electric, diesel, inter-city express  ... and steam,
Electric, diesel, inter-city express  ... and steam,
Electric, diesel, inter-city express  ... and steam,
Electric, diesel, inter-city express  ... and steam,
Inter-city express, inter-city express.

Inter-City Express

Inter-City Express (Graham Williams)

Although quite simple to record, it took me a few weeks to write down a text and sing it over this beautiful guitar piece from Neno J. I used the original title as an inspiration for the text.

Circle of Circles 

Planets move in the dome of stars in surprising ways.
Sometimes forward, sometimes backward  in the celestial orb.

Since perfect circles are the only way of gods,
Ptolemy used circles within circles 
to explain those planetary retrogressions.
That was such a powerful idea 
that Fourier would later use.
Indeed, any periodic smooth motion
can be described by a large enough set of epicycles.

And yet, it all became history, 
thanks to Copernic, Kepler and Newton.
The epicycles were cast out from heaven
by the Occam's razor curse.
And I'm trying to learn the sobering lesson:
Everything gets simpler 
when we don't place ourselves in the center.

Your perfect circles, woman, are the chosen shape of gods.
But will the Fast Fourier Transform ever explain your beauty?

I watch you move in this world of scars in surprising ways.
But what is forward and what is backward in this oblivious maze?

Circle Of Circles JFC (Over Neno J. Guitar Piece)

Aiming for a clear and natural sound.  Completely improvised.

Milllennia True

I fall in love with my Muse and my Piano over and over again. They are faithful and generous lovers whose gifts never cease so long as i Listen Deeply to what's emerging out of the silence. 😊

So... may you enJoy the fruit of today's improvisation. And while war, famine, refugees, and injustice of all kinds are rife in the world, let's not ever forget the Beauty and common decency that are also all around us. 💖

© Gary Courtland-Miles 2023
℗ Gary Courtland-Miles 2023

Played on my Kawai ES7 Stage Piano
Mastered by Anomon

Photo by Bing Ai : Pianist on a Pink Cloud

And All The Beauty Too

Unwavering Devotion

Original Improvisation E♭-> Cm 87bpm 20240505 - 4

There's no doubt about it, Music animates my Soul, and as an enthusiastic student of Life and a passionate Improvisational Pianist &  Composer,  as far as I'm concerned,  our lives would be impoverished without it ! :)  Composing is all about 'Sharing the Joy, Passion and Angst' we experience in Life, as well as connecting up with Musicians and 'Creatives' worldwide. This makes it even more wonderful!  That willingness to engage in whatever way makes SC an ever-expanding Movable Feast that nourishes and inspires on so many levels. 

Music Communicates the Emotional and Informational Content and Context of Heart, Mind, Spirit, and Soul. And 'Letting it Flow' is 'Where Its At' as I hear it!  

Over the past few years since becoming part of the SoundCloud Family, my 'Joy in and Passion for' Creative Musical Expression has increased exponentially as has my appreciation of all the wonderfully passionate Musicians and Creatives worldwide who have devoted themselves to Letting It Take Form! 

Here's a bit of a bio, if anyone is interested.  

Somehow, my MUSE got my attention at a tender age. About the time I was completing my Royal Conservatory training. 

My memory being poorer than most, I began improvising in the passages I had forgotten. And while the audience seemed unaware, my teacher chastised me indulgently, saying, "it appears I have a budding composer on my hands"!  And thus began my Odyssey into the wonderful Vibrational world of Sound!:-) In-deed, I have been an ardent, attentive and appreciative acolyte of my Muse ever since. 

During the early 1970s I had the pleasure and honour of a three year friendship and Master Class with the then Octogenarian Composer Manoah Leide-Tedesco , one of Tone Poem giant Richard Strauss` favorite pupils and friend of Maurice Ravel and other 20th century composers such as Stravinsky (whose music he helped popularize). Since then, whether Improvising, listening, studying composition or devoting myself wholly to the visual arts for years at a time, I have been deeply aware that sharing my musical insights , teaching, and or mentoring young aficionados came with the territory!   I love it, although I am afraid that as my consciousness expands...that I know less and less each year! :-)  

The Tonal Oasis called SoundCloud is a fine and wondrous place in oh so many ways.  And with your support and appreciation, I de-Light to share my music with an ever widening audience. I call what i upload ' Sound-Seeds'.  Most of these 'bed tracks' call out to be fleshed out by passionate soloists who somehow Resonate with my Soundz and Ideas.  So please drop me a line, as i am most interested in letting them bear more fruit through collaboration, interpretation, re-mixing or use in other media.    

And on a personal Note, a Huge Thank-You to each and all who listen, inJoy, and Re-Post onwards what finds it's way thru me! :) Bless y'all.  It's my Joy to simply 'Let' the Creative Spirit find expression through this instrument of Body, Mind, and Heart!  I hope you will find some peace, joy, and rest, in at least some of my improvisations, compositions, or soundz. 

Insofar as playing, and composing  ... as you continue on in Your journey into  the infinite 'Cave of Wonders' we call Music, I wish you all the very best in all Your creative endeavours. 

So Be Kind to yourSelves and one another. Be Audacious, Ready to Play, and above all, share the Joy of being able to express whatever you're feeling. 

In-deed, may The Muse continue to 'Sing on and Play on' through each of us !   For this is one way this 'ol world is lifted up, and Changed for the better - note by note, and smile by smile .  

 Yes, may we simply Let our Creativity flow forth without concern for results.
                                   Peace

                                    Gary *+*

Banner Pic- BLUE SKIES ON PLUTO
                       Pluto's atmosphere as seen recently by Horizon Spacecraft

And All The Beauty Too

Anomon

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