I know many of our members' recordings are used for other people's pet projects, like background music in films, book readings, videos, etc... I know this because I have quite a few times given out contact information to someone looking to ask permission to use a certain member's recording. I know some of my music is 'out there' too and in fact just last night another 'project' was completed using my recording. I'm not saying this to brag, lot of you have your music on these types of projects too. But I have a couple things to say that may help you in your ongoing piano-recording endeavor.

1. A Polish man contacted me yesterday asking to use one of my Chopin mazurka recordings for his photography project. I said, "sure", until he told me which one. It is a recording that I knew had a couple mistakes in it (he is not a musician and did not detect the slips) and I had been meaning to re-record it for a long time, but just never got around to it. Now, this recording with errors was about to be launched in other places on the Internet, and I didn't want that to happen. So last night I re-recorded the mazurka, sent it to him, and he replaced it in his project and now it's all good.

2. The point of this is to remind all of you to be careful when submitting your recordings - make sure you are totally satisfied with them because you never know how often or where that recording may end up. I know I'm preaching to the choir here - most of you members' recordings are so nice and sound so good, but I have many that need to be redone and I wish I had just waited to get a better-quality recording before putting the piece up in the first place.

3. If you're interested, here is the link to the man's photo project in which he used my recording: http://www.jaroszewski-fotografia.com/m ... 0.flv.html
What I think is interesting about the photos he uses (all of which are photos of Chopin's home in Żelazowa Wola), besides that they are about Chopin, is this one particular piano about halfway through the film. It's an upright piano where the sound board extends way up high to allow for the longer strings which would mean a better sound, right? I've never seen a piano like this before. Wonder how it sounds?

OOOOHHH!!

I love that house. I want to live there.

Beautiful playing Monica and it went so well with the pictures.

The piano to which you are referring is called a "Giraffe Piano". The giraffe piano was invented in Vienna and first appeared around 1798. You can Google (Bing, Yahoo or whatever you Chicago type people do) "giraffe piano" and some sites will actually appear.

Scott

I know, I like that house too! The rooms are so roomy! And bright! No wonder little Frederic was happy there.

Giraffe piano - wow, I had not heard or seen one of those until today. They are so strange-looking! But I wonder why they didn't catch on? They have longer strings so they must sound better than a standard upright, right? Hmmm....

Hi Monica, first of all the mazurka is beautifully played and it's no wonder that a Polish artist, of all possible peoples, realized its intrinsic value. As far as people using PS recordings in their projects, it's important to ask who, why, and how the recording will be used. He used it in a professional manner with honorable intentions, and didn't exploit it on Youtube on a stupid project, where the end result can be a free-for-all...

I think your case is a welcome exception. At least the person asked your permission. The Chopin mazurka fits the application perfectly - a beautiful and artistic tribute to Chopin and his home in Poland. It was very educational, I loved it. I watched and listened to it several times. However, when people use the music to misrepresent it for something else, usually in vain, that's when it can get dicey (for me at least). Congratulations, you're creating positive missionaries all around the world and touching the hearts of people that count... A truly a fantastic recording!

Well, I seem to fall in the 'etc...' category. One of my recordings - Joplin's Original Rags - has ended up as background music in an online video game! Can you imagine that? I was contacted by the game's creator, Tom Sennett, when the project was in still in beta but now it's all over the net, free for anyone to play.
The game is called "When the bomb goes off" and you got only 5 seconds to complete a task before the world is blown to pieces! You can find it here:
http://www.wherecouldtom.be
There is more fun stuff there also, the guy has done an amazing job, design-wise.
You can also play it here (it's a faster link I think):
http://www.kongregate.com/games/CoolMoo ... b-goes-off

@George (and Scott - forgot to say this earlier) - thanks for the nice compliments on my playing, but this mazurka is one of the easier ones so really anybody can play it.

@George - I understand what you're saying about our recordings going into some 'shady' places. One member not long ago directed us to a site that has several members' recordings but also some porn! ( Chris probably remembers that! ) Also, I find it strange that there are so many internet sites that the only thing they do is constantly add mp3's and applying every kind of tag possible.


@Pantelis - your music in that game - great! I loved that. And now because of you I have just spent the last 15 minutes getting blown up about a hundred times! (that's a hard game!)

Oh yeah, I would remember a good bit of porn
Though seriously, I'm not sure I remember what that was. Can't have been very good, or I'd have bookmarked it.

That's a good recording indeed, the middle section a bit too brisk and bright to my taste, but otherwise very good.

Thank you.

And that other site was not good! All I remember is a blonde with big you-know-whats doing something on a horse. Disgusting....

Ah yikes. That's almost as sick as child porn. No I don't remember that at all.

Like what Pantelis said about having his recordings in 'etc...places', I have another 'etc...' place now, too. Somebody from a financial company based in Pennsylvania (birthplace of Samuel Barber) asked me today if I would give my permission for them to use one of my Barber recordings for their 'on-hold' music. You know, when you call some place and get put on hold - the music you have to hear while you wait on the phone? I think that's so funny! And I'm pretty sure the person asking me is not a pianist because if he was, then he'd know that my playing of the Barber piece gets a little dicey in the middle parts.

I never expected when clicking this thread that I would learn anything about Chris's porn preferences.

Not from a horse's point of view!

Err... Recording Stuff.. let's uh, talk about that. Please.

Too funny!

Listen, John, I warned you that we here on the forum are all adults. Even though you are very young, innocent, and impressionable, it is not your place to reprimand any of us here. Comprende?

We keep getting off on the wrong foot >.>. I was not trying to reprimand anybody and I'm not easily influenced. I would try to change the subject from bestiality if I were 4 or 5 years older, though I really was only making a joke. I respect your authority, though, and I suppose I'll just try to stay out of any threads like uh, this, in the future Sorry I continue to cause trouble!

Edit: Took out ridiculously long quote