11 Feb 2008, #5a. "Neal Conan" - 8m48s

This is another attempt to play only chords takes me two minutes in, where I find a tonality to explore, and leave the chords behind for melody. And what comes out? A Christmas carol! It sounds very New Englandy to me, with a little Writer's Almanac thrown in (in keeping with the NPR theme, though I didn't know it at the time!).

I have to break up the saccharine nature, and start with a Lydian idea, and keep moving my hands apart (harmonically) until I get to a very interesting C major against A flat major. That is explored for a while, and then I drop into a bit of a groove in A flat, with a few (purposefully) wrong notes. Again, I follow the wrong notes away with my right hand, keeping a serene ostinato in A flat in my left.

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