Practice Room One was recorded in 2020, during my time teaching in the Visual and Performing Arts (VPA) Department at Merrimack College. At the time, the VPA department had two soundproof practice rooms attached to the VPA teaching and office spaces. Each practice room was equipped with a full-size grand piano. Between classes, meetings, and grading, I would occasionally take an office break and play or practice a few songs on these pianos. This particular recording was initially made in response to a call for works for a themed virtual exhibition of student and faculty work, curated by Associate Professor of Theatre Kathleen Sills.
The style of this track is largely inspired by improvisational works by the American jazz pianist and composer Keith Jarrett.1 I was first introduced to Jarrett’s work as an undergraduate student in art school, when one of my instructors prompted us to listen to Jarrett’s work with our eyes closed. While listening to tracks from several of Jarrett’s solo concerts, the instructor asked us to generate abstract, responsive, expressive, gestural marks in pencil. In a somewhat abstract way, we were being asked to interpret what we heard and translate it visually. We were then asked to use that visual language to generate an integrated set of three mock album covers using principles of montage.2|3
Years later, while informally studying piano, I attempted to learn Jarrett’s famous solo piano improvised rendition4 of Over the Rainbow, which was first performed in Tokyo in 1984.5 After acquiring a copy of a transcribed score, my brother Jeff and I turned learning this piece into an informal competition. As best I can recall, Jeff won this competition hands down.
Compositionally, Practice Room One centers on an expressive, repeating chord progression or “motif” in the mid-to-lower register of the piano. That motif serves as the anchor. With this “anchor” in place, melodic lines ascend and descend into the higher and lower registers of the piano. This is akin to adding light and shadow to a visual composition. While a professional pianist would likely denounce my overreliance on the sustain pedal, the practice room seemed to cater to the blended quality of the chords. Along these lines, at Merrimack, I taught a course titled “Introduction to Visual and Performing Arts,” in which I attempted to explore notions of composition across multiple modalities and medium, and media.
Like some of Jarrett’s improvised pieces, this one is played at a slow, fluid tempo (rubato),6 meaning the timing naturally stretches and compresses with the emotional phrasing rather than sticking to a rigid beat. The final composition might be categorized as ambient-neoclassical.
Media
Footnotes
- “Keith Jarrett.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 10 July 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_Jarrett. ↩︎
- “Montage (filmmaking).” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 6 June 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montage_(filmmaking). ↩︎
- “Sound collage.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 16 July 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_collage. ↩︎
- Jarrett, Keith. “Over the Rainbow (Tokyo 1984) [Restored].” YouTube, uploaded by Music Video Vault, 29 Aug 2018, https://youtu.be/AyLQGDIrGcI. ↩︎
- Jarrett also performed “Over the Rainbow” in 1995 at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan. This version appears as the final encore on his live solo album La Scala (released in 1997). A performance of “Over the Rainbow” also took place during Jarrett’s solo concert at Carnegie Hall on January 29, 2009. This researcher was in attendance for this last performance. ↩︎
- “Tempo rubato.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 27 June 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tempo_rubato. ↩︎