A Piano in the Cantina

I seem to be writing a series. I think this is the last one in it. It is definitely the third in the trilogy. So, apparently, last week, Han Solo was frozen in carbonite, and this week, Leia will defrost him. Do you think the microwave defrost setting will help? 

Cheerful music for your listening pleasure: No video, just music. (This piece is actually rather difficult to play, by the way. Lots of odd rhythms and jumps. I've been practicing it, and it's beginning to come together.)

Anyway, I seem to have gotten slightly off track. But only slightly: remember that Star Wars can tell us a lot about music and singing. (So, I'll really be working to bring in this particular analogy before I'm done!)

If singers want to be taken seriously as musicians, they need to learn to play the piano. If all you want to do is sing more effectively at Karaoke night, then you probably don't need to add piano to your list of skills. Just about everybody else, though, needs a nodding acquaintance with the piano.

Why? 

Wow, that's a really broad question, with a lot of answers. Let's see how many reasons I can come up with.

• How can you be sure if you're singing the right note if you cannot check it on the piano?
• Only the piano teaches you how to play both staves: treble and bass clefs. (Some harps do, also, but, no offence to harpists out there, it's really not going to help you with singing)
• Piano teaches pitches in a way far more objective than voice. (Middle C is ALWAYS in the same place!)
• In a pinch, you can always accompany yourself. (And those tight situations happen a lot!)
• Piano teaches the mechanics of music; theory, chord structure in a way that is more effective than voice. (It's hard to teach chords when you only sing one note at a time. Not impossible, but hard.)
• Piano playing has been linked to better scores for student in schools.
• Piano playing has also been linked to increasing the memory-retention of Alzheimer's patients.
• Piano playing is good for your hands. It builds muscles and dexterity. I'm all-but ambidexterous, and you'll find that a lot of pianists are. (Leading to more whole-brain thinking!)
• And think what this manual dexterity will do for your video game scores! Playing video games is now linked to better laparoscopic surgery skills in doctors. So playing the piano could help your daughter or son become a surgeon!!!!! (No really, it could. Honest...)

And that list only took a few minutes. I'm sure I could come up with more reasons if I really worked on it. (But I wanted to get this to you today, not sometime next year.)

So, my point here is that while voice is my primary instrument, I also spent years studying the piano. And, yes, I also spent years playing the guitar, but I didn't learn how to read guitar music, either standard notation or TAB, until I had been playing for decades. I was quite happy playing chords, without really studying the form of the music. In piano, that comes with the territory.

When I was a music major, I discovered something interesting. The singers were, as a whole, looked down upon by everyone else. The band or orchestra players had great rhythmic sense, and great intonation, but no idea how to perform. Meaning absolutely NO stage-presence. And they didn't know the first thing about interpreting a piece. Everything that they had done had been in ensembles, with the director ordering the interpretation. 

Pianists and singers were the ones who knew something about interpretation and performance. But, some of the singers could barely read music. And some of the pianists only knew about solo performing. The ones with the best musical training had played both a band or orchestra instrument, and piano, and could sing. I only knew one girl who fit that criteria. Out of hundreds of music students there was one. So, the rest of us floundered on something. 

But, I also discovered that my years of piano training really set me above most of the other singers (yes, years: I started piano when I was 5 or 6 and at that point, I was 23). The instrumentalists gained a bit of respect for me, and even some of the professors began to take me a little more seriously when they learned that I was proficient on the piano. And I began to look down a little at the poor singers who really didn't have a clue.

But, pianos are expensive! Yes, they are. And sadly, the days of everyone having a piano in the parlor have gone out of fashion. People rarely have a parlor anymore, either. But, if a piano is out of the question, there's no reason that a keyboard isn't. And, no offence to my friends who are actually pianists (I just play the piano, I am not a pianist), but not every piano student needs a piano. A decent keyboard will do for many, and especially if you're just out to play well enough to make sure you're on the right note. But, beware, piano playing can become addictive, you may find that somewhere down the road you need a better keyboard, and eventually you may long for a real 7 ft concert grand piano. And then you'll have to buy and new house to put it in. And that will mean that you'll need a new job, and . . . if you give a moose a muffin. . .  For right now, you'll be fine with a keyboard.

And who knows, maybe someday, you'll be able to pull a piece out of the carbonite freeze, defrost it, and find that now that you know a little more, it really wasn't that hard. With a little work, it'll start to come together. Like Han Solo at the Cantina. 

And yes, Han shot first!