Busy Week

Well I'm finally back in NYC after spending over a week at my "audition" down South. The original audition was only for the first weekend, but they asked me to stay a second weekend to continue the process. The answer to the question everyone seems to ask is, No, I didn't get exactly what I wanted. They didn't offer me a real job. I was told I still need more time for preparation and training. Well, that's why I went down there in the first place. I was applying for a "training" position as a dueling pianist. I think my presence there helped the club owner and the other two pianists define what they were really looking for, which was not a trainee at all, but rather an "A" player to replace the guy that left. This is all fine. I was treated very well by the club, the owner, and the other pianists. They paid me a nominal fee for my training and housed me. I was responsible for all travel.

Meanwhile, after having been immersed in the world of Dueling Pianos for the past 9 days, I am as motivated as ever to continue my practicing. I currently have 230 rock songs that I know, so I will now change my focus from adding new songs to memorizing and mastering the ones I know. Everyone I speak with tells me I should work to get "off book". OK. Message received, loud and clear. Even though I have always believed I have a really shitty memory, I'm motivated, so I will do this. I already have about 20 songs under my belt.

It was very cool being up on stage in a real venue with several hundred people paying attention. And I have always been very nervous about being on a stage like that, but this week i discovered that it wasn't all that scary, and even though I was unsure of how well I would do each time I got on stage (that due to all the critisism I was getting all week) I found that I wasn't nervous. I managed an attitude that I would either do well or I wouldn't but either way I would learn. And that is unusual for me. I have always been terrified of doing badly on stage. And when I was up there, I found myself much more focused than ever been, even though everything was unfamiliar and I was juggling so many things at once.

One cool number the other pianists did was Sweet Child of Mine. One of the pianists got in costume as Axel Rose, jumped up on top of the two grand pianos and played electric guitar. They had special lighting, and we were working with a drummer. It sounded amazing. Meanwhile, the bar manager poured Bacardi 151 on top of the pianos, at the guitarist's feet and lit them so there were flames shooting up. He then used the rest of the 151 to blow fire out of his mouth in front of the pianos...it was quite spectacular.