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Can you give us an idea of what they are? Thanks!

I am working on my first "real" Song. Dock of the bay.
Basically my left hand is doing a rythem of Dotted quater note/eigth not/half note, repeating through the verse in each chord. My right hand is just plaing the melody.
I am also playing up one octave.
I try to add chord notes under the melody, but it seems to not really fit for this song.
Not bad for my first attempt, but I want to fill it out more.
Any suggestions?

The above method seemed a bit much, so I chaned it to just adding the chord to the first downbeat per measure on the right hand, and arpeggiating the chord on the left hand in a rhythmic patter. This sounds better. This is way harder than I thought.
How's everyone else doing?

Hello everyone! It has been a busy few weeks.

Thought of all of you last week—I had quite possibly the world's best cocktail piano gig in Berlin. The client flew me in for the job---a one hour event for a bunch of VIPs (ambassadors, ex-presidents, etc.) All of that was fine—a party is a party— but what made the gig so wonderful for me was the fabulous piano (1960 Steinway D, recently refurbished). There were 400 people at the party, but the acoustics were such that I could hear myself through the whole event, even though the guests were babbling and chattering like crazy.

Lots of gigs this past week, including many Valentine's Day events. Busy! Big difference from last year. I do believe the improvement in the economy is finally trickling down to musicians. At least here in Germany that seems to be the case.

Recording a new CD next week, so I am in practice mode, both on the gig and here at home. Added a few new pieces to the cocktail line-up!

What music are all of you working on?

Wondering how many of you will be playing "My Funny Valentine" this evening? People in Germany generally do not recognize this song, but I play it anyway, just on principle!

I learned "Let Me Call You Sweetheart (I Can't Remember Your Name)" - well, that second part was added by my brother - for two senior gigs tomorrow - an Alzheimer's unit and an adult day care center. If I get lucky they'll waltz

I have a 45-minute set at a fundraiser in two weeks, too. Yikes! I've been doing 45-minute sets for a year and a half, but this is a bigger deal.

No real cocktail piano yet here. But "Let Me Call You Sweetheart" isn't strictly from the sheet, and I'm hoping to do a tune a month with more and more improvisation.

There's hope for us rank amateurs yet

Cathy

Good luck, Cathy! This is how to learn the trade--one gig at a time!

This is a nice little corner of the PW forum.. can I join? I usually lurk on the technician's forum with all the old men

My romantic song of the week is "it's been a long, long time." I love that old song. It takes me about 15 minutes to learn/memorize a tune but about a month or two of diligently remembering to throw it into my repertoire to keep it!

Piano Girl RMG, you were on Marian McPartland's show? Wow! I will have to see if that is amongst my collected podcasts

Hi Tea Girl—
Welcome to Let's Talk Cocktail Piano. No need to lurk, just jump right in. I like those guys over on the Tech Forum. I've been known to lurk there myself.

Sounds about right—15 minutes to memorize, two months to work it into the rotation. Although I sometimes go the other way around. I am so crazy about the new piece that I play it way too often. Then I get tired of it and have to remember to work it into the line-up. Whatever works, right?

Here is a link to my show with Ms. McPartland:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=100033265

Marian is my hero. She loves cocktail pianists. She gets it.

@ Piano Girl RMG

Yes, if I get excited about a tune I will play it at the very start and then then end of my gig since the people have usually changed over by then! If anyone noticed, I could just say 'it was a request!' lol.

I loved the piano jazz episode! Thanks for the link. I can't wait to read the book.

If you are ever interested, I believe I know of a certain 6* cruise line that loves to have special guests like you on for a week to play a few featured shows and talk about your book!

I am now working on Friends and lovers, But Glori Loring and Carl Anderson.
SInce I am new to this, the arrangements are taking time, but man is it fun!

To help my memory, after I practice, I enter my arangements of the measures I practiced into Finale Notepad. This helps with memory, and helps me remember my arangement, incase I forgot what I did the next day. Also, helps me see if it sounds right.

Thanks for the tips, They really help.

Now I just started to learn ear training, hopefully this will help me further.

FIFTEEN MINUTES TO MEMORIZE? ...A NEW PIECE?

...why am I bothering?

Beat me to it cruiser for me it's the other way around - two months to memorize, 15 minutes to work it into the rotation - and I often do that part before it's ready It would *never* be ready if I didn't just do it.

May be why I'm not a pro - tho I sure have fun. Yikes! A 45 minute set coming up in a couple of hours, and I bet I bobble my latest!

Oh well -

But I found this to be really good information - I don't feel quite so slow.

Cathy

I no longer play gigs, but I still have an 'exercise' that I love to do because its still challenging and satisfying, and great training for playing solo all evening in a bar or lounge. I wonder if any of you do something similar. I sit down at the piano, pick a well known composer, or musical, or vocalist, or part of the world or other topic(like say westerns) then try to play as many songs as I can associated with that topic without stopping, making them flow together and trying to give each one a suitable arrangement. Other than maybe the first tune, I dont plan what I am going to play, but try to do it all on the fly. You have to think while you play, plan what's next, hear how you are going to slip into it, all without stopping. You really learn how to develop those little harmonic in-fills and key changers that buy you time without anyone noticing that you are really trying to think what's next. It can get difficult after the second or third song, but its tremendous training for playing by ear, arranging on the fly, and quick recall. Sometimes I astonish myself at how good it all comes out and sometimes I get lost and have to stop, but either way its fun.
Mike

Ooo, Mike, another project! Just what I needed - as if I'm not overwhelmed with projects right now. But what a great thing to aspire to!

And now I'm out the door - let's see if I can remember a dozen pieces -

Cathy

Cathy, you can do it! Just remember, when you think the song is over, play another two choruses. Stretch it out. It may sound long to you, but the audience won't mind.

Mike, I do this ALL the time. This little exercise of yours sums up my professional life. Lots of fun! Good idea for aspiring cocktail pianists . . . or working ones.

I do that too.. sometimes I will pick an old broadway show and try and play as many songs as possible from it that I can. Even if I don't know it I will try and make my way through slowly. I feel like an absolute geek trying to make my way through the entire score of "my fair lady" but it makes me happy.. not sure if anyone in the room notices the connection between the songs or not!

Sometimes I will be thinking about what to play next and be looking around the room for an inspiring idea that will help me remember what songs I know. Despite my efforts it doesn't usually work out for me. "Palm plant? no... Green.. no.. ceiling fan? no.. chandelier?... nope.." Then I just pick a key and try and play whatever song I associate with that key.

And there's always the alphabet game...

It's not like memorizing a whole classical piece with a million notes in the right order..

This is just going though a song, to which you probably already have the melody in your head, and confirming what you already know, figuring out what you don't know (what chord does it go to there, how does that B section end) and then running what you don't know over at high speed (maybe not warp speed but certainly not performance speed) The point is just to get the melody and chord progression down so that you can go to the gig and play it like a lead sheet from your head

If I was to learn a proper rag, which I have been meaning to for months now, it would be a different story!

Well, I played 13 pretty nice tunes and flubbed faked my way thru two more Improvisation at its, um, most necessary. It's a good thing I don't have much ego involved in this! I got applause on several tunes, so I didn't bore them entirely to death. But I also got a request for - Mozart. Oh dear. Oh dear oh dear. I might have to take my baby Mozart book and read from it next time

The neatest part, tho, was that someone had left a hymn book open on the piano, with one of my favorite old Baptist hymns looking at me, so I sat down and played it first. A little luck there.

Robin, sorry to hear you were sick. Hope you're feeling better just in time, as you say, to go back to work.

Cathy