(Originally posted in Audition Room... they make way more sense here.)

Given theme in F major
Improvisation in F major

Given theme in no key whatsoever
Improvisation in no key whatsoever

Nine years ago I was a disgruntled college freshman who had just gotten a digital piano. Instead of going to my crappy classes with my crappy attitude, I improvised a lot. (Always had, but then even more than usual.) A couple pals got wind of this and decided to challenge me by giving me starting material that was either in some hilariously non-classical style or else simply nonsensical. As given, the F major theme sounds like cheesy pop material; my challenge was to make it sound respectable. The "no key" theme bears a tenuous (at best) relation to tonality; my challenge was to make something musical from it.

I wouldn't call them amazing, but I do think they're pretty good, and I definitely wouldn't be able to approach anything of their quality now without doing a whole lot of work first! (And that's exactly why I was able to do them at the time...)

Anyway, maybe someone from this educated crowd will enjoy (parts of) these recordings, and if any of you have comments, they'd be greatly appreciated.

- Amitai

Nobody, really? Well, you're missing out! :-p

The "no key" one is pretty amusing -- upon listening to the newly minted recording immediately afterward, my challenger and I shared a good several laughs at the ways in which I managed to harmonize his obnoxious creation. And the other one is just pleasant listening.

Come on, folks, this is a rare chance to hear early, unedited brain-dumps from an up-and-coming composer!

They are not too bad. But respectively they should remain improvs. At least the mathematics made sense, there was a rhythm and there were dynamics. So no worries there.

That's all I can say because I am limited in composition.