Chocolate Fingers
Shameful. A week until the first practice session. And it did not follow the Happy Finger Method.
But instead of being hard on myself, I now say all practice is good!
I was an hour and half early for my gig last night and had to move all my gear in a cab. The gig was a bat mitzvah - over 200 people, three flowing chocolate fountains, huge room, everything first class. I was even able to plug my set-up into the wall and use the room speaker system so that my sound was evenly distributed throughout the room instead of blasting out from the corner.
But enough of that. I brought my headphones with me, and with an hour and a half to kill, plugged them in and began practicing.
The Objective
Have your shit together so you can play solo for at least 2 hours worth. I haven't played a solo piano gig for a long time. (I didn't record anything with my piano's handy recording feaure to listen back to - I just wanted to focus on getting ready)
The Exercises
* My electronic piano comes with a handy built-in metronome, so I turned the BPM to around 60 BPM and just worked on the Hanon # 1 exercise. I gradually increased the BPM but never really past 70 or so. Followed up with some scales - just C and F. Tough at first but it got better. Practiced a variety of dyanmics: forte, legato, piano, etc.
* Then I played thru some latin timba's. I like the two hands togethers appreggio style - lots of excitement. I played to the mambo beat on the piano (a surprizingly good version)
* Tried to follow up with some songs that I had started working on a while back but this was unsatisfying so I switched to the autopilot old favorites and enjoyed myself much more.
Evaluation
I could not really do all that I have done before on the piano. A little in my defense is that, with 200 people in the room and just me, you could only play full fisted, up tempo music - just like in the good old days! I kept it bouncy and the room had a good feel. Had lots of kids dancing around and spent some time with them playing around on the keyboard (drum sounds and other cool noises).
Great reviews from the hosts backed up by a good tip on top of my fee and a promise to hire me again. The moral of the story? Practice pays!
But instead of being hard on myself, I now say all practice is good!
I was an hour and half early for my gig last night and had to move all my gear in a cab. The gig was a bat mitzvah - over 200 people, three flowing chocolate fountains, huge room, everything first class. I was even able to plug my set-up into the wall and use the room speaker system so that my sound was evenly distributed throughout the room instead of blasting out from the corner.
LET THE GOOD TIMES FLOW!
But enough of that. I brought my headphones with me, and with an hour and a half to kill, plugged them in and began practicing.
The Objective
Have your shit together so you can play solo for at least 2 hours worth. I haven't played a solo piano gig for a long time. (I didn't record anything with my piano's handy recording feaure to listen back to - I just wanted to focus on getting ready)
The Exercises
* My electronic piano comes with a handy built-in metronome, so I turned the BPM to around 60 BPM and just worked on the Hanon # 1 exercise. I gradually increased the BPM but never really past 70 or so. Followed up with some scales - just C and F. Tough at first but it got better. Practiced a variety of dyanmics: forte, legato, piano, etc.
* Then I played thru some latin timba's. I like the two hands togethers appreggio style - lots of excitement. I played to the mambo beat on the piano (a surprizingly good version)
* Tried to follow up with some songs that I had started working on a while back but this was unsatisfying so I switched to the autopilot old favorites and enjoyed myself much more.
Evaluation
I could not really do all that I have done before on the piano. A little in my defense is that, with 200 people in the room and just me, you could only play full fisted, up tempo music - just like in the good old days! I kept it bouncy and the room had a good feel. Had lots of kids dancing around and spent some time with them playing around on the keyboard (drum sounds and other cool noises).
Great reviews from the hosts backed up by a good tip on top of my fee and a promise to hire me again. The moral of the story? Practice pays!
posted by HatHead at 10:01 AM
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