Note from Brad – "Finding Gabriel" Solo Piano
Hi everyone. I’d like to share the piano part for the title track of my new record, Finding Gabriel, for pianists, other musicians and anyone else curious. I wrote it as a piano solo piece, recorded that first, and then built everything else on top of it. What’s on the PDF here is on the track on the record, even if it’s often submerged by the other stuff. In the music I didn't mark any pedal except one spot and used it as sparingly as possible. You can get a lot from “finger-pedaling” – holding onto some of those melody notes marked with tenuto; others are actually asked to be held. It’s nice to keep the pedaling spare to articulate the figuration a bit. I put minimal dynamics, just a few tempi markings as I perceived it solo, and some articulation marks. I began it partially as an etude for myself to work on finger strength a bit, and to try to get rhythmic evenness, melodic clarity, and dynamic control in groups of five 16th notes, like in bars 153-156.
Also, I’d like to share the audio of the piano alone before we layered stuff on top of it, recorded on the Steinway C at Bunker Studios, to hear it as a stand-alone piece. Maybe some piano players would like to play it?
Hope you enjoy! Thanks, Brad
Listen and download the audio track and PDF file: