A rare opportunity for us pianists

In the old days, if you wanted to play piano for an audience, you had to get someone’s approval. You had to convince a nightclub owner to hire you, or audition for a concert series.

But now, all you have to do is create a YouTube page and post a video of your playing. It’s not exactly the same as playing in front of a live audience, but taken on its own terms it can help us in many ways.

First, the very act of playing piano on video will give you an energy boost and help you play better over time. And secondly, it can get your talents out into the world.

One way to view this is to simply make a project to post a video of your playing each week. Don’t worry who sees it or even if anyone sees it. Do it for yourself and watch your playing improve over the next year or so.

The other way is to use it as a way to develop a particular talent. Do you have a good sense of humor? Then create a humorous piano video each week for a year. Again, it doesn’t matter so much how good each one is at first. The goal is to get better and the fact of knowing it’s going on YouTube will give your creative juices a burst of high-octane energy.

Here’s a “humorous” piano video I made:
The REAL difference between pianists and guitar players

Or, you can dive into a particular style of playing each week for a year. If nothing else, you’ll probably wind up practicing more if you know you’ll have to make a video each week!

In fact, I’m doing this myself, by playing a jazz tune from The Real Book each week. By going through the book in sequential order, I’ve given myself a 400-week project!

Donna Lee: Journey Through The Real Book #100

The opportunity to easily share videos and audios to a potentially wide audience is a “first” in the history of the world, so please take full advantage of it. (And who knows…. it may not exist in the future.) Do it for yourself and if someone else enjoys it too, so much for the better!

Enjoy the journey, and “let the music flow!”
Ron

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