Monthly Livestream #43!

Thanks everyone for tuning in to today's livestream! Here's the recording.

I started off with a few tunes: "Chelsea Bridge" by Billy Strayhorn, which I've had on my mind from two incredible solo piano recordings I've been enjoying recently: "Borrowed Roses" by Gonzalo Rubalcaba, and "The Peaceful Side of Jazz" featuring Billy himself on the piano.

Then had a request for "So What" - which I would never think to play solo piano! Was fun, and then led to a discussion of different things to try over tunes with one or few chords. (For more on playing lines this way, check out: "Playing Lines")

Then we went a lot of places! Here's all of the talking points/questions:

- about my own practice habits/routines, which I was happy to elaborate on. Basically I've thought of my practicing in four different categories, which all lead towards the same goal of "being a better pianist".

- about being prepared for a gig: routines/strategies for being ready the day of. I have a few practical things I like to know in order to reduce my nerves.

- about comping in 3/4 over Bluesette, which I demonstrated a bit. It's important to practice comping by yourself! (For more on comping, check out "All About Comping")

- about learning tunes for a gig, which I have a very useful trick for: write out your own chart for any tunes you are trying to learn! And generally if you learn quickly, you forget quickly, so try to learn music as far in advance as possible and let long term memory work its magic.

- about improvising LH arpeggios, similar to the ones I used on the last recording of "You Must Believe in Spring". This led to a discussion of piano technique in general, and a breakdown of some myths in piano playing.

- about playing over the barline, like Bill Evans mentions in his fantastic interview with Marian McPartland. Demonstrated the power of dotted quarters over "Solar". (For more about this Bill Evans line I mention, check out "A cool Bill Evans line")

- about keeping time when playing solo or duo. (for the best rhythm exercise ever "My favorite rhythm exercise, from Ari Hoenig")

- about how studying classical music has been useful in my playing

We covered a lot of ground today - thank you again for the all of the great questions! Always my best from Brooklyn, and see you all next month,

Glenn