improvising
there is no such thing as a wrong note
The Root Note
I taught myself how to play piano at 17, although my love for the piano began ten years earlier, when I first saw one at my cousin's home. At the time I wasn't allowed to touch it, and my mother ironically told me "you can't play with that." I remember the feeling of connection that I couldn't yet unlock, and the wonder of a question I could not answer. That feeling is best articulated by one of my favourite poets, Rainer Maria Rilke.
Moghul performing jazz piano improv in London Studio
“Don’t search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything.
Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.”
Rainer Maria Rilke
I held that question and that passion until I was 17 and decided to buy a midi keyboard I could connect to my laptop and begin learning from YouTube. From there my passion was fuelled and I would go to the local youth centre to use their Yamaha electric piano. My playing progressed quickly, from learning my favourite pop songs to discovering the soulful chords of jazz. I was now someone who played piano.
Today I find myself on a similar pursuit, discovering the next note in the form of jazz improv. Improv teaches you to trust that the years of experience and practice live in your body, and by passing the logical mind, the music flows further into the unknown, pleasantly taking you a little further than your perspective in that moment.
I took the lessons of jazz improv all the way to Hollywood. It taught me that the answer was already in me, even when I couldn't yet articulate it. That leaving room for the unknown allows you to explore the mystery before defining it. That some of the things I thought were great were only precursors for something greater.
That trust, the same trust I found at a youth centre Yamaha in London, is the one I bring to every room I walk into.
Press Play
I share with you my improv EP Esoteric. In these songs I played purely from emotion, with no one in mind apart from what I felt. The music is an emotional diary, a reminder of what I connected to without the influence of an audience. It’s who I am, or who I was when I recorded this. I used no tempo, no mandate, just played and recorded what connected to me.
I hope that resonance connects with you and serves as a pathway for you to re-live something that’s in you or uncover a perspective that awaits.
Share how you feel
I would love to hear your thoughts about the music and learn about how it connected with you. You may also have some critical opinions, feel free to share them too.