| LearnJazzPiano.com archives: An interesting gig situation | |
| Scot -- 02/02/2005, 14:26:57 -- #10922 | |
| I thought I'd share this becauase it might be one of the few times I'm nervous on a gig. On friday I'm going to be playing at a place where there is a restaurant on the main floor and upstairs is a smaller area they rent out for parties and things. A nice little Baldwin grand piano. Downstairs they have a very nice medium sized Steinway. The only problem with this gig is that Walt Wagner is the guy who plays downstairs on mon, thurs, and yes, fridays. This will be the first time I actually play live in front of this guy. Walt is one of longest running piano influences. When I was a teenager, I bugged him for lessons at every opportunity, but he did not want to teach. So I had to get his stuff by listening to his playing instead of hearing him talk about it, which in fact is probably the better way to do it. Anyway, so for the first time ever this piano idol of mine is going to be within heckling distance of me while I'm on a solo gig! We'll see where I'm at mentally as far as whether or not I can relax and play My Stuff, or if I'm going to slip into old habits and "play careful" when I'm around pianists I respect. | |
| Scot -- 02/02/2005, 14:27:58 -- #10923 | |
| BTW- he has a new solo piano CD with free samples of the tunes. We talked about it a bit in the CD Review area: http://www.learnjazzpiano.com/citadel/scotcit.mvc?action=forum&sub=display_thread&id=9753 | |
| Scot -- 02/02/2005, 14:28:34 -- #10924 | |
| Never mind- that link doesn't work for some reason, so don't click on it. | |
| Dr. Whack -- 02/02/2005, 16:05:55 -- #10926 | |
| Well...I'm glad to hear that happesn to other folks too:) There are only a couple of pianists that make me feel that way - and they are local (or at least used to be) There must be something about camparing yourself to players that are in or from your territory...hmmm...I prbably wouldn;'t get as nervous playing in front of Oscar Peterson, because he seems so godlike (no comparison) A couple of my contemproraries are Jay Oliver and Ray Kennedy - I always get the jitters if I have to play around those guys...I used to do a gig with Ray's brother Tom - tlak about feeling like an idiot! I just kept thinking "he must really think I suck!!" But it was Ray who told me once, right before he got the John Pizzarelli gig, that he finally reached the point where he doesn't give a **** - which meant he was finally comfortable with himself... Once when I was about 18 I was touring universities with the St. Louis Jazz Quartet. I remember saying how nervous I weas about being represented as an expert to college students my own age. The singer, Jeanne Trevor said "I used to feel that way, but then I realised all I can do is what I can do" - so simple, but so true... Easier said than done, but just do your thang...you'll be great! | |
| Dr. Whack -- 02/02/2005, 16:06:59 -- #10927 | |
| damn typos!!! yuck! | |
| Dr. Whack -- 02/02/2005, 18:50:31 -- #10931 | |
| another thought that occured to me...I've heard people that are better than me and people that are not as good as me, niether of which really matters ha - who cares? not me, not them:) | |
| signal11 -- 02/02/2005, 21:59:28 -- #10935 | |
| Someone once told me "the audience doesn't know what you don't know. So, play what you do know and don't worry about the rest of it." Seems like a pretty good attitude to me. | |
| Billy -- 02/02/2005, 22:32:25 -- #10937 | |
| Im still nervous in front of people. You would think that after alittle more than a year of playing in front of the 60+ youth of my church every wednesday that i would get used to it. Its not nearly as bad as it used to be, but its getting better. The worst though, is playing infront of some of the other musicians i respect. I always get all self consious and play very simple instead of just letting loose. | |
| Dr. Whack -- 02/02/2005, 22:46:54 -- #10938 | |
| I've been playing for 40 years and given the right situation I can still come un-glued - hehe | |
| Dr. Mike -- 02/03/2005, 03:19:59 -- #10941 | |
| Sounds like the time I had to play with Dave Mckenna in the audience... to my mind the greatest solo pianist ever with the exception of Art Tatum and maybe a couple others. But I made it because I had talked to him enough to know he was a super nice guy and if there was any way he could have kind thoughts about my playing those would be the thoughts he would have. He is no critic. To know this about him helped play for him. So my advice to you Scot is to consider talking to Walt Wagner for a while before you play... you will probally find out he is human just like you and me and that will make it easier to play for him. | |
| Scot -- 02/03/2005, 14:12:06 -- #10951 | |
| I'm not too worried about playing in front of him, it's just one of those things- I've been good friends with walt for over 15 years but he's never heard me play live. I'm not going to have a playing breakdown or anything :) It will be nice to see where I'm at as far as playing in front of people I have a deep respect for as players (and people) though. It will be a great night because when Walt takes a break he can come up and listen to me, and when I take break, I'll go downstairs and listen to Walt :) Bottom line for me or anyone else in this situation is to make sure I don't play "careful" or play what I think people want to hear. I just have to play my stuff and call it good, which is what I'll be doing. | |
| Barry -- 02/04/2005, 05:56:59 -- #10978 | |
| Sound like it will be a great experience Scot. Let is know how it goes.... | |
| Dr. Whack -- 02/07/2005, 10:58:01 -- #11047 | |
| Well....how was it?? | |
| Scot -- 02/09/2005, 12:51:27 -- #11086 | |
| Ok, sorry to get back to late on this, I've been slammed this weekend. Sometimes when I play, I don't take a break unless I feel like it. Some venues require certain set times, but this place doesn't care, and I was playing for a party anyway. So Walt is playing downstairs, I'm playing upstairs, and we both decide to take our first break after three hours. I'm downstairs looking around for him when he shows up coming down the back stair way cause he went upstairs (secretly mind you!) to check out what I was doing while at the same time I went downstairs to see what was going on. None the less, I figured he had been "ear" spying just outside the door to the place I was playing, so I was really on top of my game that night. Now this place knows how to treat musicians- $100/hour :) | |
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