Redefining My Practicing Style

My brother and I have our first paid piano/cajón gig coming up. I don't know about him, but I've had to rewire my brain in my approach to this type of gig.

Typically, for solo background music gigs, I would put together a set list to cover the time that I was hired to play. I'd carefully select which songs to group with each other. However, in recent gigs, I've found that sometimes, I have to throw that list out the window and fake it because I what I prepared doesn't match the rhythm and flow of the crowd.

This time, we have picked a bunch of songs, hours more than required. We both have a tendency to gravitate to the ballads (easy to fake). This time, our set list is jam packed with faster tunes. This has presented me with Challenge #1: finding the time to get these faster songs into my fingers - in between teaching, writing and trying to keep up with my studio operations.

We've agreed to earmark a few starting songs and then we'll choose what's next based upon the energy in the room. No problemo.

We are taking turns on the piano and cajón. That's been fun. By far, it's a lot easier to prepare the percussion part: learn a pop groove: CHECK! Learn a rock groove: CHECK! Learn a polka/klezmer groove: CHECK! Learn a tango/Latin groove: CHECK! Listen carefully and have fun.

As a soloist, we subconsciously take more time or speed up in tricky spots. We cheat with our timing. Pianists are as guilty as everyone else. As much as we teachers would like to say that we don't, we do. We all do.

However, when playing in an ensemble, it's much more critical to play in time. Not only that, but to play in the style of the piece. Therein lies Challenge #2 & #3 for me. I get hesitant when I'm not confident in the chords and/or melody. It's human nature. Nor do I have all these styles firmly in my fingertips like my friends who gig regularly do (I'll get there, though!).

To beat that out of me, I've been playing along to Youtube recordings of some of the songs and just hammering out the chord changes. Once those are secure, I start to improvise. Once that's not too shabby, I look at the melody. That's different from the standard, "Learn Part A hands separately then hands together," line we tell our students.

The other approach I've taken is to work on specific musical styles. I heard from a fellow musician that another colleague achieved great success in mastering swing by just practicing swing - and only swing - every day for hours.

Now the gig is just around the corner, so I don't have the time to fully explore this approach. I'll keep the basic boogie, Latin, pop and rock grooves already under my fingers (more or less). I did add a tango groove and klezmer rhythms as the client has asked specifically for these styles.

Once the gig is behind me though, I will explore this in full force. My plan is to spend X weeks on one style - for all the instruments I play (piano, cajón, voice, melodica and conducting). Once that's coming along, I'll add another, and another.

It's a different practice approach for one who is classically trained. It is something that my friends who gig regularly have already mastered. It's going to be a fun project.

More Exercises for Music through the Ages Exploration

This is becoming more and more enjoyable as the days go by. I stumbled upon a new approach towards the end of the week for the Music through the Ages Exploration: comparing and contrasting the evolution of a genre through the decades.

Angie, a high school student, decided to explore pop at her lesson. She picked Kalafina, a Japanese band formed in 2007. She contrasted and compared that to ABBA, the 70s pop/disco group from Sweden. Finally, we came back to North America with Celine Dion, the pop sensation from the 80s - today. We had a great discussion about music texture, timbre and compared and contrasted pop not just from the 70s to today, but from one continent to the next.

Today, some of my students explored Bee Gees, ABBA, Madonna, Michael Jackson, Lady Gaga, Elise Estrada, UVERWorld, The Eagles, Billy Ray Cyrus, Miley Cyrus and Merle Haggard. Regardless whether it was young Mia or elementary student Emma, we were able to have intelligent conversations on:

• instrumentation/timbre: My students dutifully reported that country music still uses primarily voice, guitar and percussion and that there are more crossover artists these days. Those crossover artists have more electronic music sounds and "sugar pop" drum grooves. They added that pop/rock has gone more electronic.

• the development of the music videos: They express a great appreciation for Michael Jackson's and Madonna's pioneering contributions.

• the evolution of dance in live performances: "They just stood there and sang in the 70s. There's more dancing and acting now."

• the deterioration of melodic shape, dynamic contrast and rhythmic variance: Some were quick to notice that the melodies are getting flatter and that the rhythms are getting more basic. Ostinato seems to be the modus operandi. As for dynamics, "everything's louder", "it's just one level" and "they yell more" were popular comments.

As for me, I'm happy to report that I sill know the lyrics to Billie Jean, Material Girl, Dancing Queen and most of Desperado.

[October 29, 2009 update] My singing teacher recently said that today's country is yesterday's rock.