After several years of watching my musician friends have all the fun, last year I set a goal of playing the piano at an open mic or jam session. I had taught myself chord theory, resumed piano lessons, and even had my digital piano by then. If this sounds familiar, you may have read 'My 2018 Music Goal, Part I."

The good news is I
jammed a bunch of times!

And, even better, I can get the piano in and out of my car and into a venue by myself, even if it's really awkward. That was a big relief. However, with the deep snow we have now, I can't wheel the piano through it and it's too heavy to carry far. (I'm thinking of writing a tongue-in-cheek letter to the case manufacturer about snow tires!) But the last place I jammed was in a church where I could use its piano and that's great too.

Now onto the new goal:

This year, I'm going to sing and
play the piano at an open mic.

I really thought I would do that last year but sometimes circumstances get in the way. After getting my piano case, chair, and amp/monitor, I thought I was set. Then our Legion closed its open mic and jam for the summer. By the time it reopened, I had injured my hand and by the time my hand was mostly better, the open mic closed permanently. By then, I had been looking for another regular venue that could handle a piano.

The jams went better although I barely played at the first one when I couldn't hear my own piano and couldn't follow the musicians who mostly all played by ear. That's when I borrowed the amp/monitor and started getting songs of my own.

Next, I joined a jam of mostly newer guitar players. Having lyrics and chords on a big computer monitor was useful if you were located where you could see them. Everyone sang too, which helped. It let me figure out what to do with the piano, and when a song is bouncy, it's tough to play piano and sing. I know Elton John makes it look easy, but trust me on this one. This group often made use of capos to keep their chords simple, and, believe me, I'm not singing if I'm trying to translate chords in my head! I still play at this jam occasionally. I will tell you that I still don't know what I am doing but the feedback is "the piano sounds great. Can you turn it up?"

The most recent jam was a new one at a church. On the first night, we were figuring out its format and I could see it was a mixture of experience levels. This means people that want lyrics and chords and others who have been playing by ear for decades. It was notable for having violins, a mandolin, an accordian, the piano and guitars and it was my best jam yet, as I figured out my place amongst the other instruments.

What next?

I started dabbling with the blues for its more predictable chord progressions and eventually switched my piano lessons to focus on them. I really want to become proficient at playing by ear and predictable chord progressions will help.

Every month, there is a blues night hosted by friends. I have already gone once to check it out. Similar to my former regular open mic and jam, you can go up individually, as a group, or the hosts will play with you. They even asked if I would like them to back me up while I sing. Hmmm... singing, and I really need to figure out proper microphone technique.

In a discussion about the piano and jamming, one of the the hosts suggested playing along with recorded music. So now that my hand is much better, I have switched back to playing my digital piano and that will work. Oddly, my acoustic one has the lighter touch of my two pianos but it's no good for accompanying recordings since it isn't tuned to concert pitch.

This is a good strategy. It forces me to determine the key, and listen to the bass line to figure out chords. Just as importantly, he said, I must learn to listen and I will figure out if I have something to add to the music and even learn when not to play, one of those things that is not intuitive when you're starting out.

In fact, the piano's role has been a mystery to me because it can do almost everything AND easily dominate other instruments. In a jam of guitar players, it made sense for me to be the bass and keep time, but as soon as there is a drummer, bass player, and singer... well, a little lost, I asked for suggestions on what to play and was told to listen to horn players. The on/off right hand of blues players works here too. It's not to say there won't be more pianocentric pieces but learning to play nicely with others at jams is important.

Meanwhile, my piano skills are improving and I'm getting a real blues education. I'm figuring out what kinds of blues I like and what blues piano players I might follow. And it seems there is magic happening because I get chords, licks and turnarounds popping into my head that I'm starting to play. All good. Wish me luck!

Images

All photos are from Pixabay.

@kansuze