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If 2015 was the trail-running year and 2016 was the injury-rehab/Hawaii year, then 2017 was the piano year.
In some future post, I'll go into my 2018 project and how it relates to what I learned by dedicating a year to the piano. Again with the age thing, I'd been considering Gladwell's theory of "10,000 hours to mastery" and how it could apply toward activities that I'd already spent a huge chunk of time on.
I decided on the piano. As a kid, I took lessons all throughout elementary school. As a teen, I completely forgot about it, but then re-learned in college. Since then, I'd play a little here-and-there, the piano going in and out of storage. I could never advance.
I wanted to expand my limited repertoire and see if the heuristics from my professional life could help.
This was the culmination of that effort:
It's a medley of songs and parts learned over the year. I call it "City of Starks & Odd Couples' Game of How Far I’ll Go to Remind You of Old Time Rock-n-Roll, But Just You Wait!"
In reverse order, this is how I got there. I recorded these as I learned (and memorized) the pieces:
If 2015 was the trail-running year and 2016 was the injury-rehab/Hawaii year, then 2017 was the piano year.
In some future post, I'll go into my 2018 project and how it relates to what I learned by dedicating a year to the piano. Again with the age thing, I'd been considering Gladwell's theory of "10,000 hours to mastery" and how it could apply toward activities that I'd already spent a huge chunk of time on.
That is, what else could I leverage from the past that'd be useful in the present?
I wanted to expand my limited repertoire and see if the heuristics from my professional life could help.
This was the culmination of that effort:
It's a medley of songs and parts learned over the year. I call it "City of Starks & Odd Couples' Game of How Far I’ll Go to Remind You of Old Time Rock-n-Roll, But Just You Wait!"
In reverse order, this is how I got there. I recorded these as I learned (and memorized) the pieces:
Advanced version of "How Far I'll Go" from Moana.
Advanced version of "City of Stars" (w/out slide jazz solo) from La La Land.
"Alexander Hamilton" from Hamilton. Around this time, by chance, the neighborhood antiques shop had an acoustic piano, free to whomever could take it. Playing it -- experiencing the acoustics and the wires vibrating through the keys -- was addicting. It felt alive!
Even though that piano was in real bad shape, I got hooked and set out to find a decent used acoustic that'd fit in our little house. We adopted this old '57 Howard spinet made by Baldwin. It came from a sweet nearby family that played it heavily over three generations!
An earlier take on "City of Stars" while still learning. (I don't normally record sessions on the acoustic for lack of good mic'ing. It's also so old that it doesn't stay in proper tune for long. But I love it like an old comfy couch. It's got character.)
A couple takes on the "Game of Thrones" theme; second take to fix the timing. Because of the song's range, I had to break out the full 88-key stage piano with hammer-weighted keys. It took some time to get re-adjusted, but it was worth it. MIDI controllers have their place. But they're not pianos.
"I'll Be Back" from Hamilton (split in two because it was originally posted on Instagram).
Easy version of "How Far I'll Go" from Moana. Yup, 2017 was heavy on Lin-Manuel Miranda.
"Old-Time Rock-n-Roll"
Note, I initially started 2017 with a 56-key MIDI controller running Reason on the laptop. At the time, I thought a lightweight 56-key controller was as much as I wanted to invest. I was leaning toward selling my heavy 88-key stage piano, and seeing if a smaller controller would do.
Here are some older songs from the repertoire:
"Cheers" television theme
"Get Here" from Oletta Adams. Although I haven't fully committed this song to memory, it is one of my favorites to play.
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