My wife bought a fabulous original watercolour painting of purple poppies and she left it on the music stand of my piano. As I sat down to practice I gazed at the painting and improvised this track. It has two aspects - the present day image of poppies blowing in the wind and the associated remembrance of soldiers who died in battle.

I recorded the improvisation and practised it until I could play the left hand part without it sounding too amateurish - at the end of recording the track my left hand felt about ready to fall off!

The painting is by a wonderful artist called Anna and was bought from eBay - you can see her other works here: http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/fabulous.2008/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_ipg=&_from=

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iTunes

Legions Of Poppies [Re-recorded August 2014]

I got a new digital piano last night. It's got a completely different feel to it, much more realistic. This means that the "patterns" of notes I often play feel completely different so it's more like I've got new fingers!!!

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New Fingers [Re-Recorded October 2015]

That moment when you finally get the chance to pause for breath in the midst of complete chaos.

If you like this please consider liking my Facebook page: http://facebook.com/purplerhapsody

Image is by ORVLKS on freeimages.com (http://www.freeimages.com/photo/1254402?forcedownload=1)


Pausing For Breath [Re-Recorded October 2015]

In all things there is a dark side and a bright side... this is the bright side!!!

If you like this please consider following me on Facebook: http://facebook.com/purplerhapsody

The image is Sunlight Through Trees by Hills22 on FreeImages.com http://www.freeimages.com/photo/1439828


The Bright Side [Re-Recorded October 2015]

Life is like a river flowing in reverse. We start off our lives in the ocean, and we are immediately confronted with an infinite number of choices: should we go up the Nile, or the Amazon, or the Mississippi?  We choose one and we proceed down that path, and after a while we face another decision:  should we go up the right tributary or the left tributary? Again we make a choice and proceed. Throughout life we go through this process over and over again and our life path evolves and takes from. 

As we make these choices our future options become limited in a fashion by the choices we make today, for while we can certainly always go back down the river to test another path, it requires an increasingly greater effort to make these kind of changes once we are already far down one particular path. Eventually as our life nears competition we approach a tiny spring on a mountaintop and we have no more choices. The path is complete and the journey is over.

I believe that there is an ideal path for everyone as an individual, and that this path can perhaps be called fate or destiny. I believe that it likely preexists before and outside our lives and is perhaps created by God or the universe or whatever your particular persuasion would like to call it. 

I believe that this ideal path is the one that will bring us the most completeness and satisfaction in our lives as individuals, and at the same time, this is the path that will greatest fulfill an even larger plan or path towards a universal fate or destiny for humanity. All of our individual paths function like threads in a cosmic tapestry which represents a larger, universal plan that unfolds upon itself over the sea of time.

The interesting thing however, is that it is up to us as individuals to earnestly seek out our own ideal path, and as a consequence, our contribution to the larger tapestry. It is not something we are forced into; it is an active decision we must make and it requires effort. We must have the strength to follow it. I do not believe in "apathetic fatalism", as I would call it - "if it is meant to be, it will be". I believe it is up to us to honestly and truthfully search our hearts for our own ideal path, and then diligently go after it with vigor and passion and make it happen.

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"Autumn Rains" is the second installment in a trio of neoclassical solo piano albums composed, performed, and produced by Andrew Souter. These projects have been two decades in the making and represent a return to traditional music composition, engaging song-writing, and the pure passion of emotional story-telling. This trio represents Andrew's most personal and intimate music. It is quite literally a love project. We hope it may help you on your journey, as it has us...

"Autumn Rains" is music inspired by the spirit of Agape. It is an album dedicated to the concept of spiritual love and universal compassion clothed in the metaphor of transcendental natural beauty. It is an album that simultaneously expresses deep love for both the creator as well as the creation. It is said God gave us music so that we could pray without words. It could be added that nature was provided as an example of exactly how to do this effectively. In this spirit, Autumn Rains is a prayer of gratitude for the opportunity to learn from the natural beauty of this world, and an expression of a sense of respect for the inescapable universal equality that nature imposes. It humbly attempts to capture deep feelings of awe, granduer, idealism, and a belief in the innate goodness of the world even when we all face exceptionally hard lessons.

Andrew Souter -- The River

At the end of a fantastic day this piece of music came to me - I'm not actually sure if it's happy, sad, indifferent :-) or something else but I like it!

The mood for this came upon me while sitting on the couch, I felt an urge to go to the piano and play, and 5 minutes later... here it was. All I've done is practice it a little before recording the final version.

I hope you enjoy - and if you do please consider liking my Facebook page: http://facebook.com/purplerhapsody

Image is called "Sunset" and is by Johan Rodríguez on FreeImages.com (http://www.freeimages.com/photo/sunset-1356289)

End Of The Day [Re-Recorded October 2015]

Hollow Knight OST - Dirtmouth

The first snow starts to fall... tiny flakes drifting down. They melt at first but soon start to form a thin layer of white. The snow falls heavier and faster... forming a thicker, more substantial, layer of snow...

The world is white - winter is here.

If you like this please consider liking my Facebook page: https://fb.me/purplerhapsody

Image is by Franque de Win - https://www.freeimages.com/photo/classical-lantern-covered-with-snow-1348240

First Snow [Solo Piano]

After months of stress (work related) I finally found space to breathe... 

If you like this, please consider liking my Facebook page: https://fb.me/purplerhapsody

Photo by Tenzin Senge: https://www.freeimages.com/photo/slayer-mudra-1439432

Breathe [Solo Piano]

This came to me while I was just about to start practising for a recital I'm performing at in a couple of weeks. I sat at the piano, in a very good, relaxed state of mind and just as I was about to start practising this idea came to me.

This recording is the 3rd play through of the track - it came to me all in one go, I played it a second time, and then I turned on my PC and recorded it, exactly as it was played the first time.

I hope you enjoy it!

The image is "sunflower" by Gabriella Fabri (http://www.sxc.hu/profile/duchesssa)

Bliss

Found this song on SoundCloud, and when I listened to it, I had to learn it.  All my piano playing is completely by ear.  No lessons, no sheet music.

"Before the Dawn" by Denis Kulikov - (Jeff Vainio Piano Cover)

Thanks to everyone for your views and comments!  Mostly all of my Piano songs here on Soundcloud, are also in video form on YouTube. 

I started playing piano at 15 years old.  Everything I do on the piano is by ear and memory only.  I have never had a piano lesson and I can't read sheet music - even to this day. I never play a song that is exactly note-for-note, and I don't even know what key I am playing a song in.  Lately, I have been learning my new material by watching other people's piano videos on YouTube, and specifically watching where their fingers go. 

I tend to learn a new song in 5-10 minutes if I know the song well. My range of music is very spread out across many types of music - Rock & Metal, New Age, Top 40 songs, some Country, and some Movie/TV theme songs.    

Since I am also a huge Rock and Metal fan, I also taught myself drums on a Roland vDrums TD 15 electronic drum set.  I  find a drumless song on YouTube and add my live drum solo on top of them.  
Playing piano and drums is not my job - just hobbies in my free time.

Check out my new Album of original songs on Youtube music, Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon music, and other major music platforms.

"Before the Dawn" by Denis Kulikov - (Jeff Vainio Piano Cover)

Jeff Vainio

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