On Music
A few days ago I took a walk/bicycle ride with Justin and Lauren.
Well the soon-to-be-engaged couple is already thinking ahead.
Wedding talk is exciting.
But I have no intention of becoming the intrusive sister-in-law before they actually get married.
So I'm backing off. Making comments from a distance. Trying, at times, to be a voice of reason.
My brother, like myself, is a keyboardist.
But take my talent and times it by 10, and you have JGN.
Justin has a true gift. He can pick up nearly anything by looking at a few chords and listening.
It comes almost effortlessly.
His fills and solos are insanely complicated and intricate.
He can play well the genres with which he is well accustomed.
More impressively, he can fake the others so that you think he was trained, at one point, in them.
And that's the mark of a great musician.
Justin and Lauren disagree on how long he should play the piano, in his cover band, at their wedding.
"You'll need to hire a keyboardist for at least part of the night."
"Why?" he asked. "We agreed that I was going to play."
"One and a half sets was the agreement," she explained.
I love Lauren. She totally jumped into the musician's world when she started dating my brother.
She uses the musician's lingo and even helps him book gigs.
"Then Sam will play the rest," he said.
I almost fell off my bicycle.
He was serious.
My brother: the musician I equate to the talent of some of the best keyboardists of the modern era would have me fill-in at his very own wedding.
Hehe. The moment only lasted so long.
"No, Justin!" Lauren said. "I'm not having the groom play, followed by my sister-in-law with the band. It will be a circus. We're all supposed to be together. We'll have to hire someone."
She's right, I knew. I wouldn't want to play at his wedding. I'd be stressing too much about doing it right and not messing up well known songs in front of my entire family.
Meanwhile, I'll continue to beat myself up musically. Cause that's how I operate.
If you constantly show off, if you don't practice even the songs you THINK you know, and if by some misfortune, think for one second that you are God's gift to musical creation...
YOU GET NOWHERE.
Why?
There is always someone better.
You think you're a great piano player? Well what about the classically trained 5 year old?
He might not play Billy Joel or Ben Folds. But can you play Chopin?
The piano has so many modes and languages, says Ben Folds.
EVEN BEN FOLDS says that he's only comfortable in the language he has created for himself.
You can constantly learn. You can constantly improve. You can constantly evolve.
Music is work.
Above all, it is passion.
Well the soon-to-be-engaged couple is already thinking ahead.
Wedding talk is exciting.
But I have no intention of becoming the intrusive sister-in-law before they actually get married.
So I'm backing off. Making comments from a distance. Trying, at times, to be a voice of reason.
My brother, like myself, is a keyboardist.
But take my talent and times it by 10, and you have JGN.
Justin has a true gift. He can pick up nearly anything by looking at a few chords and listening.
It comes almost effortlessly.
His fills and solos are insanely complicated and intricate.
He can play well the genres with which he is well accustomed.
More impressively, he can fake the others so that you think he was trained, at one point, in them.
And that's the mark of a great musician.
Justin and Lauren disagree on how long he should play the piano, in his cover band, at their wedding.
"You'll need to hire a keyboardist for at least part of the night."
"Why?" he asked. "We agreed that I was going to play."
"One and a half sets was the agreement," she explained.
I love Lauren. She totally jumped into the musician's world when she started dating my brother.
She uses the musician's lingo and even helps him book gigs.
"Then Sam will play the rest," he said.
I almost fell off my bicycle.
He was serious.
My brother: the musician I equate to the talent of some of the best keyboardists of the modern era would have me fill-in at his very own wedding.
Hehe. The moment only lasted so long.
"No, Justin!" Lauren said. "I'm not having the groom play, followed by my sister-in-law with the band. It will be a circus. We're all supposed to be together. We'll have to hire someone."
She's right, I knew. I wouldn't want to play at his wedding. I'd be stressing too much about doing it right and not messing up well known songs in front of my entire family.
Meanwhile, I'll continue to beat myself up musically. Cause that's how I operate.
If you constantly show off, if you don't practice even the songs you THINK you know, and if by some misfortune, think for one second that you are God's gift to musical creation...
YOU GET NOWHERE.
Why?
There is always someone better.
You think you're a great piano player? Well what about the classically trained 5 year old?
He might not play Billy Joel or Ben Folds. But can you play Chopin?
The piano has so many modes and languages, says Ben Folds.
EVEN BEN FOLDS says that he's only comfortable in the language he has created for himself.
You can constantly learn. You can constantly improve. You can constantly evolve.
Music is work.
Above all, it is passion.