Jennifer Lin improvs piano magic

Jennifer Lin performed her piano improv for a TED presentation, seen below.

“Pianist and composer Jennifer Lin gives a magical performance, talks about the process of creativity and improvises a moving solo piece based on a random sequence of notes.”

What is beautiful music? It may surprise you that I say this is not beautiful music. Very very pretty and technically “perfect,” undoubtedly. One suspects Jennifer is regurgitating pianistic tricks learned while studying the virtuosic piano repertoire.

I don’t mean to belittle what she’s accomplished — the fact that she’s working improvisationally speaks volumes, and she should be congratulated for her bravery and artistry.

However, the question remains whether one can improvise a simple melody or progression that does merit repeating…. one that was beautiful at its first inception.

What is lacking here is an understanding of emotion, how it’s expressed in music, and how it’s expressed by this note vs. that one. More on that later :)

 I was listening to my Arabesques track 09 while writing this — I’ll post that tomorrow.