Tonight I had my first ever performance where I improvised an accompaniment for myself while singing! I am so happy!
Last month someone contacted me to ask me to play and sing for a conference in February where the Montana governor and the Montana Ambassadors would be present. They asked me to prepare one classical piece on the piano, and then to play or sing one piece that was kind of "Montana-y" (something not classical and possibly country-western).
Since I haven't really sung any country music before, I called my mom to ask for her help finding something to sing. The next day she found a song on Youtube that Dan Seals and Marie Osmond sang as a duet, called "Meet Me in Montana". It seemed perfect, so I immediately went online to order the sheet music.
Alas, to my dismay, I could not find the sheet music anywhere. It was not available for download or mail-order - and when I did a little more researching I found that the sheet music was in fact, not available anywhere from any publisher, or even from the library of congress.
So, I found some guitar tabs for the song online, which had the basic chords lined out. I tried playing around with it a little bit, but was really nervous and didn't feel ready to improvise for myself at the conference. I decided the best thing would be to find a guitarist who could come and accompany me... So I asked around at school - about six or seven different guitarists, and none of them were available to play for me tonight!! (I guess the guitarists at SFCM have just as busy a schedule as I do!). I really wanted to perform THAT song though, so I decided I would have to face my fear and play for myself.
I worked on it a lot, and yesterday I still thought it was still sounding pretty bad... my melodic improvisation in my right hand was haphazard and disorganized.
But then this morning at my piano lesson with Paul, he had me play and sing it for him, and I decided to try it from memory. To my relief, it actually went quite well. I found that under the pressure of performing it for him I simplified things quite a bit, and in so doing my playing sounded much more under control. That gave me the confidence to decide to go ahead and perform it without the chords or words in front of me tonight at the conference.
So I did - and the audience loved it! Several people, including the governor, told me after my performance that my song moved them to tears!
I am soooo happy about that. Only a year ago such a thing would have been impossible for me - I would not have been able to hear the chord changes well enough and I would have messed up a million times.
I plan to keep doing more and more improvising - and I will keep improving at it. I want to improvise and play classical music and sing all combined at my performances... I really enjoy it and it makes me feel complete. I love life!!!
Last month someone contacted me to ask me to play and sing for a conference in February where the Montana governor and the Montana Ambassadors would be present. They asked me to prepare one classical piece on the piano, and then to play or sing one piece that was kind of "Montana-y" (something not classical and possibly country-western).
Since I haven't really sung any country music before, I called my mom to ask for her help finding something to sing. The next day she found a song on Youtube that Dan Seals and Marie Osmond sang as a duet, called "Meet Me in Montana". It seemed perfect, so I immediately went online to order the sheet music.
Alas, to my dismay, I could not find the sheet music anywhere. It was not available for download or mail-order - and when I did a little more researching I found that the sheet music was in fact, not available anywhere from any publisher, or even from the library of congress.
So, I found some guitar tabs for the song online, which had the basic chords lined out. I tried playing around with it a little bit, but was really nervous and didn't feel ready to improvise for myself at the conference. I decided the best thing would be to find a guitarist who could come and accompany me... So I asked around at school - about six or seven different guitarists, and none of them were available to play for me tonight!! (I guess the guitarists at SFCM have just as busy a schedule as I do!). I really wanted to perform THAT song though, so I decided I would have to face my fear and play for myself.
I worked on it a lot, and yesterday I still thought it was still sounding pretty bad... my melodic improvisation in my right hand was haphazard and disorganized.
But then this morning at my piano lesson with Paul, he had me play and sing it for him, and I decided to try it from memory. To my relief, it actually went quite well. I found that under the pressure of performing it for him I simplified things quite a bit, and in so doing my playing sounded much more under control. That gave me the confidence to decide to go ahead and perform it without the chords or words in front of me tonight at the conference.
So I did - and the audience loved it! Several people, including the governor, told me after my performance that my song moved them to tears!
I am soooo happy about that. Only a year ago such a thing would have been impossible for me - I would not have been able to hear the chord changes well enough and I would have messed up a million times.
I plan to keep doing more and more improvising - and I will keep improving at it. I want to improvise and play classical music and sing all combined at my performances... I really enjoy it and it makes me feel complete. I love life!!!
Now I want to hear it. You should make a recording of it!!
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