Posted by: Mark79100
I learned a major lesson on tonight's event - 03/14/18 10:26 PM
Actually, I should have learned my lesson 40 years ago. So here's the way it happened.
I'm playing a gig back in the 80's and thinking what a hot shot I am with my improvising. Gigs are all going alright, but someone said to me the following: (paraphrase) "we love to hear you play, but often we can't figure out what you're playing." That translated to......when you're doing a "sing-a-long" type song, you're all over the place with the melody....you're hard to follow.
Fast forward to 2-3 months ago on the SynthZone. Zuki posted his video playing Jobim. I'm sitting there listening and really enjoying the music. Why? Because he's playing the song exactly as it's written (and playing it very nicely)....no extra notes to throw me off...to keep me from enjoying the melody in my mind. I've been thinking about that for a while now since I watched it.
Sure enough, I'm giving a piano performance tonight and hitting my audience with everything in my repertoire, and hitting them hard. One song after another, and sandwiching the "sing-a-long" songs in there with the "flash" songs. At the end, a lady said to me "I hope I don't hurt your feelings. You're a great pianist, but.......when you play simple "sing-a-long" tunes, we don't know what you're playing so we can sing along (i.e. I improvise too much when I shouldn't be......one should improvise on songs like Brazil or Granada, etc, but NOT the "sing-a-longs"....they have to be played as one-note melody lines, EXACTLY as written).
I think I finally learned to get my ego out of the way and play to the people.
I'm playing a gig back in the 80's and thinking what a hot shot I am with my improvising. Gigs are all going alright, but someone said to me the following: (paraphrase) "we love to hear you play, but often we can't figure out what you're playing." That translated to......when you're doing a "sing-a-long" type song, you're all over the place with the melody....you're hard to follow.
Fast forward to 2-3 months ago on the SynthZone. Zuki posted his video playing Jobim. I'm sitting there listening and really enjoying the music. Why? Because he's playing the song exactly as it's written (and playing it very nicely)....no extra notes to throw me off...to keep me from enjoying the melody in my mind. I've been thinking about that for a while now since I watched it.
Sure enough, I'm giving a piano performance tonight and hitting my audience with everything in my repertoire, and hitting them hard. One song after another, and sandwiching the "sing-a-long" songs in there with the "flash" songs. At the end, a lady said to me "I hope I don't hurt your feelings. You're a great pianist, but.......when you play simple "sing-a-long" tunes, we don't know what you're playing so we can sing along (i.e. I improvise too much when I shouldn't be......one should improvise on songs like Brazil or Granada, etc, but NOT the "sing-a-longs"....they have to be played as one-note melody lines, EXACTLY as written).
I think I finally learned to get my ego out of the way and play to the people.