
A Podcast That Deconstructs the Story Inside of the Music

“Improvisations on The Ledge is a must for musicians, composers, music fans, artists, and indeed anyone with an interest in and appreciation for organic music and creative expression in their purest forms.”
Rebecca Cullen
Stereo Stickman
IOTL is a kind of performance art. In each episode, Saltzman tackles a particular subject—a genre, music trends, problems creative musicians face—and the riffs on it with both words and improvised piano music.
Peter draws on his extensive background and knowledge in multiple genres: jazz, classical, pop, and more. But IOTL is not a lecture; it’s a creative deep dive into the soul of music.
Improvisations on the Ledge is not just about music. It is music.
Episodes:
IOTL Season Two About to Launch
It’s been a LONG wait, but season two is just about ready to launch. With an exciting new format and several new features, it will be well worth the wait! Coming April 15th…or thereabouts.
IOTL #28: A Variation on Theme and Variations
What if I came up with a theme in the morning, then improvised variations throughout the day? What would that add up to? Call it a variation on the theme and variations idea, but in the form of a diary of a single day in the life of Peter Saltzman.
IOTL #27: What Not To Think When Improvising
Do you ever think about what you’re thinking about? Of course you do, and I often think about what I’m thinking about when improvising. But when I pose this question to the great French pianist-composer Jean-Michel Pilc in this episode, his answer is sort of along the lines of…a kind of nothing. Sort of.
IOTL #26: The Improvised Sonata
For years I’ve had this thought that I should be able to improvise a full 4-movement piano sonata. Is this just another example of me being completely out of touch with my times? Well yes. But that doesn’t mean it won’t work.
IOTL Short #6: And a Plane Flew By
...Or how musical order insists on materializing out of seemingly random occurrences... A random musical thought occurs while parking the car, which circuitously leads me to a final chord at precisely the moment when a plane flies by in the same exact key. I don’t...
IOTL #25: Improvisations with Play-by-Play Analysis!
Yes, that’s right, improvisations with sports-style play-by-play analysis—including instant replay! (Where else but on IOTL..) It may seem like a sacrilege of sorts to do an analysis of my own improvisations, thus robbing of some supposedly idealize pure, unfettered...
IOTL #24: Venting in Two-Part Inventions
Is it possible to make beautiful music with just two intertwining melodies? Bach did. Can I?
IOTL Short #5: Just the Piano, Ma’am
It’s Friday, so in honor of Joe Friday from Dragnet I give you these three unrelated (both to each other and the TV show) improvisations. Back next week with a full episode…
IOTL #23: Originality vs. Perfection
You can create nearly perfectly executed music in this world—as long as it’s not original.
#IOTL 22—Improvising Classical Music: Is That a Thing?
Back in the day, the great classical composers were brilliant improvisers. Are they still? Is it even possible?
IOTL #21: A Minimal Take on Minimalism
To be brief: I never much cared for minimalism until I minimally did.
IOTL #20: Giant Steps (Small Thinking)
In which I do battle with the almost perfect symmetry in John Coltrane’s “Giant Steps” to try to create something a little messy and asymmetrical.