> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://musically-novel.ghost.io/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# Improvising with Ghosts: Bach, Jarrett, and an AI Organ
- URL: https://musically-novel.ghost.io/improvising-with-ghosts-bach-jarrett/
- Published: 2025-10-23T20:52:16.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-02T17:06:15.000Z
- Description: Of wind that burps in with pitches that move up the overtone series
- Author: PETER SALTZMAN
- Tags: improvisation, AI Art, Bach, organ, classical music, jazz, Keith Jarrett, Newsletter, #Migrated-1788368492164, #Import 2026-09-02 17:05

*The most interesting music often begins with a mistake — or at least with something unintended.*

This one began with a prompt:

> *“Wind that burps in with pitches that move up the overtone series.”*

That’s what I typed into an AI sound generator (*fadr.com*). The result didn’t exactly sound like wind, or burping, or overtone series — but it did sound vaguely like a church organ with issues.

The tone was imperfect but strangely expressive, hovering somewhere between cathedral and malfunction. I improvised on it — a slow meditation that felt like Bach, but with another 300 years of human progress and crisis added to the mix. Later, I improvised a piano part over it, not as a melody but as a response: a conversation between structure and chance.

The catch is that my recording software had misread the organ’s harmony. Or rather, it got some of the chords right and others wrong. An F7 showed up as a C minor 7th, and a C7 became a C sus. That kind of thing. So I wasn’t always sure which chords would come next when I improvised the piano part.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/7a/4b/7a4bd768-ae74-4aac-8606-8859beafad44/content/images/2026/09/e53fe83d-7849-4ab8-aeac-f9db2760a716_764x200.png)

The chord symbols above the organ track in my recording software

That uncertainty gave the piano part its tension and breath. I went in and corrected the chords so they displayed properly in the software, but every “improved” retake lost the spark. It’s not that knowledge kills discovery; it’s that sometimes the first try, when you’re still figuring it out, is the best. (And sometimes it’s the worst.)

So I kept the first take.

The video mirrors that spirit of imperfection: organ lofts rendered by AI, pianos under solitary light, visual dust breathing with the sound. Part *Magic Music Visuals*, part painterly AI hallucination — a duet of accidents and decisions.

If Bach sought divine order and Jarrett sought divine chaos, this piece lives somewhere between them — in the burping wind of the overtone series, trying to make something human out of a digital joke.

[Subscribe now](#/portal/signup)

---

🎹 More improvisations: https://improvisationsontheledge.com/  
👤 About me: https://www.petersaltzman.com/

🎼 Lessons & educational materials: https://saltzmanmusicworks.com/

🎵 More music:  
[https://petersaltzman.bandcamp.com/music](https://petersaltzman.bandcamp.com/music?ref=musically-novel.ghost.io)  
[https://soundcloud.com/saltp](https://soundcloud.com/saltp?ref=musically-novel.ghost.io)