How to use improvisation to write a piano song

Author - Daren Kay

PR trailer for The Brightonians – a novel by piano student, Daren Kay. Directed by Dan Turvil. Voiced by Hugh Ross. Soundtrack composed and played by the author himself.

Hello. My name is Daren Kay and I’m a writer. Not of music. Of stories. But, when I needed music for a little film that I commissioned to build excitement for the launch of my debut novel, I realised the solution was right at the end of my fingertips. Quite literally!

I began learning to play piano in 2015. But it wasn’t until I left my job as Creative Director at a digital ad agency in London that things really took off. Now studying for my Grade 5, I’m at that level where sheet music is no longer just dots and lines, and the name of scales and chords doesn’t sound like an alien language. But write my own music? That wasn’t something I’d attempted before.

So where did I start?

Over the last few months, I’ve used a number of apps and platforms - Lumen 5, AdobeSpark, iMovie - to create moving images. And while all of them come with soundtrack options, for this project, I really wanted to draw on my own skills. I had a piano and my phone – all I needed was an idea of the sound I wanted to create. 

Who or what was my inspiration?

In a word. Seagulls. Like the one on the front cover of my book, seagulls are a big presence in Brighton. In both senses of the word! Not only are our gulls larger than most, but they are everywhere! I call them Mother Nature’s CCTV cameras. Always watching, always listening (yes, they do have ears!). In my novel, the seagull (I call him Charles de Gull) is the voice of Brighton itself. And in the short publicity film, his is the voice you hear.

Chords and melody

While the music is improvised and I wrote nothing down, I did have a relatively clear idea that I wanted the chords to be in a major key – comfortable on the ear and grounding to the listener. With that in mind, I stuck to a few basic triads in my left hand, allowing my right hand a little more freedom. Anyone familiar with the ha-ha-ha cackle of a seagull will know that they are not the most tuneful of birds, so, striking the odd concordant note would be quite in keeping with the dulcet sounds of our chip-stealing feathery friends!

Novelist Daren Kay’s piano music for the Brightonians

Don’t forget the sea!

The shriek of the gull may be the prevailing sound of Brighton - with the occasional siren, skateboard and general traffic noise thrown in for good measure. However,  romantically speaking at least, we like to associate seaside towns with the gentle splish-splash of a bit of light paddling. This I achieved with the trill I added towards the end. It’s something I’d come across in a piece I’d learned for Grade 3, which also evoked the sound of water. 

What role does the piano play in the novel itself?

Perhaps the most significant way that learning to play piano has influenced my novel is that Izzy and Ken, two main characters in the story, live on the same road that the Director of PLUK, Kevin Matthews, used to live when he was a Brightonian. His home, situated opposite Brighton’s historic cemetery, certainly gave me plenty of time to absorb the sights and sounds of this part of Brighton as I was waiting to go in for my lesson each week. Indeed, at one point Ken was called Kevin! Though that is where the similarity ends. Ken is a philosophy lecturer and in his mid 50s. The story itself is about the bitter rivalry and social one-upmanship that fuels the lives of a group of socialites that includes Izzy and Ken. Already vying for supremacy of their circle, when a 50-year-old letter belonging to a local drag queen turns up out of the blue, their sparring is catapulted to increasingly ridiculous new heights.

Part mystery. Part comedy. It’s a gentle read that I think is reflected in the music that I improvised for the trailer. 

The Brightonians is available via the usual online retailers and can be ordered at all good bookshops. And if you happen to live in Brighton & Hove, there is a limited number of signed copies available at City Books, Paxton & Glew, the Museum and Nice ‘n’ Naughty (which features in the book). For more information about the story, news, reviews and blogs – please visit www.darenkay.com

If you want to know more about learning to play the piano, contact PLUK today to book a free piano lesson.