1 September 2008, #4. "Crane" - 3m16s

Let us continue through these outtakes, these aborted takes. This one gets its overdone reverb effect from the magical middle pedal of the piano, the one that's rarely used. It is called the sostenuto pedal, it keeps raised any damper that is already raised when the pedal is depressed. This means you can sustain some notes while keeping others dry. However, I prefer to use it in a subtler manner.

If a key is played softly enough, the hammer does not strike the strings, but the damper is lifted. So the strings are left ready to vibrate. When other strings in the piano are played, the wonderful phenomenon of sympathetic resonance causes some of the open strings to quietly vibrate. Only the closely related notes will ring sympathetically. That is, if I strike a C, the others C's will ring, as will some G's (not as loudly) and a few E's (quieter still). (It's a little more complicated than that, but I don't need to get all technical on you...)

I like to prepare the lowest and/or highest registers of the piano, the ones that I rarely play in, and let them be the resonators. That is what you hear in these next two recordings.

Crane I - 2m37s

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Recorded on September 1st, 2008, at Magic Closet Studios, in Portland, OR.

Crane II - 39s

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Recorded on September 1st, 2008, at Magic Closet Studios, in Portland, OR.