David Cunniff, Piano

12/18/2025

Day 18 of the 25 Days of Christmas. This is one of the very first songs I learned to play on the piano. My mom taught me to play "Greensleeves" back when I was 5 years old, almost immediately after we acquired our first family piano - a brand new Kimball spinet. I didn't make a video of me playing the song for this series (although rest assured, it is me playing and arranging the tune). I think the imagery in this video is striking. Although I don't own the rights to this video, and it's widely available on various free sites so I'm not too worried about using it. The baby Jesus is God Incarnate - the Good News for all creation. Even as a 5 year-old kid myself, I remember being fascinated by the baby in the manger. Baby Jesus and pianos - my 5 year-old memories.

12/17/2025

Day 17 of the 25 Days of Christmas. I literally recorded this at midnight the other day, and the video I took was not good. So I used royalty-free stock video instead to set the mood. This one starts out a little strained and dissonant. Things aren't always clear at first when it's dark. Right?

12/16/2025

Day 16 of the 25 Days of Christmas brings us a Felix Mendelssohn tune with Charles Wesley text. I play this in a simple and traditional manner. I have fond memories of pounding out this hymn on church pianos throughout my youth and adulthood. Enjoy!

12/15/2025

Day 15 of the 25 Days of Christmas. This BY FAR the most requested tune that people want me to play during the holidays. My version attempts to be faithful to the version on the actual Charlie Brown Christmas Special, which for whatever reason, Vince Guaraldi recorded specially for the animated version. No album version with these solo styles exists, to my knowledge. I'm also featured on the gourd shaker, the bass, and electronic drums for the solo breaks. Enjoy!

12/14/2025

We are back with more of the 25 Days of Christmas! Day 14 brings us a 17th century text put to 20th century music. The Sussex Carol as it's called became popular in Britain in the early 20th century. Ralph, von Williams is most credited for capturing the music, however, the tune was being sung far before he became aware of it. Look for my Volume 1 of the 25 Days of Christmas album on Spotify, Amazon, iTunes, etc. Volume 2 will be released soon!

11/29/2025

11/16/2025

With the holiday season coming up, it's the perfect time for you to put my music on your holiday playlists! And yes, Volume II will be released soon. 🙂 Look for my music on your favorite streaming platforms, or buy my album on Amazon or iTunes. Thanks for your support in sharing my music with your family and friends as well!!

09/11/2025

My tribute to 9/11 that I recorded a few years back. If you really want to go down the rabbit hole, read Henry Wallace's speech that inspired this work back in 1942. https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/henrywallacefreeworldassoc.htm

09/05/2025

I'm finally getting around to working on a project I started almost 16 years ago. I've been wanting to convert this old organ foot pedal set into MIDI foot pedals for my live rig. The electromechanical switch network is an amazing example of how we don't build things like this anymore! Each switch has three functions depending upon whether it's the first pedal pressed, whether other pedals are being pressed simultaneously, or whether a higher or a lower note is played from the first pedal that's pressed. All of that is done mechanically, ensuring that only the intended signal is sent to the analog tone generator in the main housing of the organ, to play the note it's supposed to. The consequence of this for me is an extremely counterintuitive project to sort out. I'll probably just end up ripping out all the wires and directly connecting the digital controller I bought to the individual switches. But that feels like cheating...and a show of unfaithfulness to the electromechanical engineer who went before me.

09/01/2025

It is today. Yes. Yes, it is.

08/30/2025

I've acquired a few new tools over the past year or so. In particular, I now use a digital wind controller for capturing expression and dynamics on string / orchestral parts. This is a rough mix, to be refined and released as a single or as part of an EP in the near future! Don't forget to tune in to my livestream today at 4pm Eastern! It'll be on my YouTube channel - https://www.youtube.com/