Relaxing Piano Music by Guy Faux - "The Autumn Cafe" - Free Sheet Music Download.

The Autumn Cafe is one of my favorite original compositions. I wrote it at a time when I relied solely on inspiration.

A well known composer once said that inspiration is for amateurs. He also went on to say that professional composers discipline themselves to compose whether they are inspired or not.

When I was younger I used to compose only when I was inspired.

Now when I sit down at the piano I have a process. Sometimes it starts with a chord. Others times I hear a few notes in the melody.

After I’ve played that first chord and those first few notes of the melody together a few times, I stop and listen.

Where is the melody leading me? What’s the next chord?

If I can’t hear it, then I play that first chord and those first few melody notes again.

In time, if I’m persistent and don’t give up, the next few notes will come. This is my writing process. There’s more to it than that, but that’s how I begin the whole writing process.

I don’t rely on inspiration like I did 40 years ago. The thing about inspiration is, you never know when it’s going to show up or how long it’s going to stick around, which is why I have to discipline myself to sit down and compose at regularly scheduled times.

When I wrote the Autumn Cafe, my goal was to use as few chords as possible.

In fact, the Intro and Verse parts use just 2 chords; the B and F# major chords.

The Chorus, which is only 4 measures, uses the G#m, which is the relative minor to B major, and the F# major chords. I throw a 9th in the left hand broken chord here and there, but for the most part, the Chorus consists of 2 chords.

I splurged for the Bridge and used 3 chords; E, F# and G#m.

As for the video, I used a few video clips, but the majority are still photos from stock photo houses.

istockphotos and shutterstock have some of the best and largest inventories to choose from.

As for my piano sounds, I tend to use 3 or 4 different virtual pianos.

The Synthogy Ivory Concert Grand Pianos are my favorites. Out of all the presets, the Ostinato American is my go to sound.

I like to layer that with the Juneau Pad Synth, which gives me a very soft texture in the background. It also fills in a few of the gaps. It’s subtle, but you’d know it if it wasn’t there.

Of course, I wish I could record on a real Steinway Grand Piano, but when you don’t have access to the real thing, a virtual instrument is the next best choice.

I use Studio One Digital Audio Workstation for all my recording needs. In addition, I use the Pro EQ plugin to boost the mid and highs.

Studio One comes equipped with quite a few plugins to get the exact sound that I want. Fortunately, Synthogy has created a great concert grand piano sound. They’ve done most of the work for me.

Just a few small tweaks of the EQ and my piano sound is complete — which gives me more time to focus on composing.

Thanks for watching - Guy