As the earth completes its yearly revolution around our nearest star, I’ve looked through my 2018 blog posts and found my 10 favorites. Here they are:
1. The Tortoise, the Hare, and the Snail
A riff on the famous tale.
2. Playing through The Real Book tune by tune
Practice suggestions for playing through a wide variety of repertoire, at whatever level you’re currently at.
3. A stride piano jazz cover of the Beatles’ “When I’m Sixty-Four”
Paul McCartney’s classic song really lends itself to a full stride piano treatment.
4. What does “I’m no good at that” really mean?
How to get past self-doubt in your piano-playing.
5. What will keep you going?
Like many musicians, I’ve failed more times than I can remember. But I never let that stop me.
6. 5 Ways to keep your piano improvisations sounding fresh
Give these a try.
7. Listening to the flow of ideas in Art Tatum’s music
Here’s a starting point to fully appreciate the virtuosic jazz piano legend.
8. 10 Ways the Miles Davis 1960s Quintet challenged our musical assumptions
Miles was a genius who can still teach us.
9. Sus is for Suspense: a pianistic bagatelle in prose
I wrote this spooky short story at Met Life Stadium during a Jets-Broncos football game. Just in time for Halloween.
10. Faking confidence at the piano in the best possible way
This may make all the difference for your piano playing.
Enjoy these ideas, put them into practice, and “let the music flow!”
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