I just got my first gig.
the local university is having a series of fund-raising concerts to raise money for purchasing a grand piano, and i had talked to the piano teacher at the school, who organizes these, to see about playing one of these concerts. she asked for a recording of my playing, and i made one on my mediocre digital recorder. she just called me to tell me they are planning to have me perform january next year.
it doesn't pay, but these concerts have some professional musicians who donate their time for them. they normally have classical musicians performing at these, but i think some jazz will be a nice change of pace. the concerts are free, with donations accepted. the piano instructor doesn't do jazz, but she said she ran my recording by one of her friends who does jazz piano, so this is really my first professional feeback i have gotten on my playing.
this is a small town (18,000 people), and none of the restaurants that do music have a piano, so performance opportunities have been sparse. up until now, i have just been doing volunteer playing at a senior center, a senior apartments, and a nursing home. i have been going almost every weekday during my lunch hour and this forms a large part of my 'practice time'. what spurred me to try for something more was when one of the employees at the nursing home, who is really into jazz, commented that my improvising was sounding really good now.
the nearest bigger town is santa fe, where i believe there are more musicians than opportunities, but maybe later something will turn up. my next goal is to play at our county fair, where they do pay musicians to perform. they regularly have jazz musicians at this, performing in a small room in one of the historic buildings which has a nice grand piano. i am not going to rush this, though, since i think i need to get better before doing this.
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Jazz Piano Notebook Series
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