CRICKETS PREPARED PIANO

Working with the people at Soundiron, I recorded a samples collection of preparations on my old upright piano. The intention was to come up with preparations farther afield from the groundbreaking and well known techniques of John Cage and followers. You can read more here about the preparations. The set-up for one of then can be seen in the photos on this page, and another can be heard in this page’s sound clip. The one in the sound clip involves a secondary string of lightweight monofilament nylon tied around the main strings at one end and free at the other. It’s played by pinching the monofilament between rosined fingers, pulling and letting it slip through to create a friction vibration which activates the main strings. (You can also see another instrument dedicated to this kind of secondary-string friction here.)

At the time of this writing the Crickets Prepared Piano sample library has not yet been released. I’ll try to remember to update this page when it is. Meanwhile, you can see Soundiron’s collection of my instruments here. The name “Crickets Prepared Piano” comes from the fact that I did the recordings on a series of summer evenings with distant cricket chirping faintly coloring the sound.