Today,,, I Play Piano

Hello guys... How are you all doing??? It's been a down time for me as I've not been visited by rusty (I just learned the name today lol)... I'm now,,, and for a while I was bothered I wasn't doing something right... Today I found that everyone is experiencing the same thing... I hope it's not a permanent situation... But I also feel the managers of the site should warm us first... And if it's an unforeseen circumstance,,, I feel they should notify us when it happens... I may be taking out of pure ignorance though... If that's the case,,, please feel free to educate me in the comments,,, and I sincerely apologize for my ignorance...

To today's post...

I've been very broke for a while,,, so needless to say I'm desperate at this point... I found my way into a music group where gigs are announced... There has been no guitar gig,,, so I had to take a piano gig yesterday... The style I thing I was going to play is not my style at all... I thought it was going to be the usual church style,,, but I was really wrong... They are going to be doing the usual traditional style... I'm in serious trouble... Apart from that,,, they are seriously underpaying me... Transport and renting a piano have taking all the payment... What's left after is a little under $2... I had to take it because I was really broke,,, and I was hoping when there were better gigs in the future,,, I'll be called...

My going there is not totally hopeless though... Sure I'm going to flop big time because it's not my style... But I've got a bunch of stuff going for me...

First,,, I'm very good with progression... I got what is called relative pitch at age 12... For those that don't know,,, relative pitch is the ability to identify other pitch,,, once a reference note,,, or a tonal centre is identified for one... So,,, I can tell if a chord is major or minor,,, I can tell the distance between two notes... I can identify the intervals... Major third,,, major second,,, perfect forth,,, fifth,,, seventh,,,etc... My ears are kind of advanced in relative pitch,,, so I can even do the complex chords like finished sevenths,,, and related movements... I can easily identify what scale is used,,, and immediately replicate the notes or a riff I hear in a scale... So at the very least,,, coming up with a good progression for a song in real time is small business for me... This always has to count...

Next,,, my separation is not too bad... Even on the guitar,,, I'm about to sound like two guitars... On a piano,,, it feels more native... It's kind of a piano thing... I'm not perfect on the piano because I've always been too broke to get one,,, but I could still separate a little if not as perfectly as on the guitar... Again,,, for those who don't get me,,, separation is what I call the ability to play two distinct lines on your instrument with both hands in the case of the Piano... So you would sound like a bass guitar for instance and a lead guitar,,, or a bass and rythm,,, or a rythm and a lead... It's a cool truck to have up your sleeves...

Also,,, I could appear very confident at times... It doesn't sound like a piano skill,,, but trust me,,, this is pro stuff... Even when you make an obvious mistake,,, one look at you,,, and they think to themselves,,, "nah he's only improvising"... At times,,, you could be improvising,,, but if you don't like confident enough,,, they would shout at you from the stage... A lot of times the difference between "wooooooo" ,,, "wooowww",,, and "booooo"is usually confidence,,, or the lack of it... Trust me,,, this is even better than separation...

The last thing I have up my sleeves is experience... This again is very underrated... You cannot overemphasize experience and the role it has to play... Depending on what I meet,,, experience could make me look anyhow I think it's best I look... For example,,, in my country,,, the sound is always bad due to poverty that prevents them from buying good instruments,,, and illiteracy on the part of the "sound engineers"... From going out a couple times,,, I've seen people get to a place,,, do a fast finger thingy on their instruments and frown,,, then refuse to play... The whole world would come to beg them to play,,, and they'll grudgingly and sulkingly agree... Now,,, you begged someone to play when he didn't want to,,, I dare you to criticize him when he's finally playing... I dare you... In fact,,, when he makes a mistake,,, you'd pretend to be digging him... And you won't even think he's bag... You'd also just blame what he blames... "The sound" lol... And the truth is you can't see him as bad coz of his first display when trying out the sound... But even I could do a bunch of impressive stuff... It's playing the genre in Austin that is hard... I don't hope to have to resort to that,,, but there are a few other tricks that experience would bring to play once a weather the situation...