Tag: piano

Open Mic Adventures CLIX: “Dido’s Lament”

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Want to play the sax like yours portly?  Read my ultimate guide to getting started for under $350.

Years ago, my dear mom found a copy of The Usborne Book of Piano Classics (that’s an Amazon Affiliate link; I receive a portion of any purchases made through that link, at no additional cost to you) at a book sale and picked it up for me.  I have used that book countless times over the years for gigs, piano lessons, practice, arranging, etc.  My High School and Middle School Music Ensembles have performed arrangements based on those in the book many times at the annual South Carolina Independent School Association Music Festival.

While it consists of piano arrangements of famous pieces from the Baroque, Classical, and Romantic periods, I often play the pieces on saxophone.  I found myself pulling the book out in preparation for a gig this past Sunday (a wedding proposal—the client’s girlfriend said yes!), and came upon a melancholy piece from the Baroque composer Henry Purcell, “When I am laid in earth,” perhaps better known as “Dido’s Lament.”  It’s from Purcell’s opera Dido and Aeneas.

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Open Mic Adventures CXLIX: “All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name”

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Following the assassination of Charlie Kirk, I was not sure how to process the tragedy.  I sat down at piano and decided to play some hymns.

As I flipped through my Cokesbury Worship Hymnal, I came upon “All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name” and decided to play it.  The horrible assassination had already awoken thousands to Christ, and social media was abuzz with posts noting that individuals and/or their family members had a.) planned to attend to church on Sunday; b.) had purchased or planned to purchase and read Bibles; and c.) accepted Christ.  It was clear that a powerful national revival was breaking out.

It was also a powerful reminder of how Christ Uses even the most wicked events to His Good.  There is power in Jesus’ Name!

As such, I decided to add my voice to the outpouring of prayers for peace and salvation, and shared this brief piano performance of the piece.

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Open Mic Adventures CXLVI: Cover of Loverboy’s “Working for the Weekend”

The Portly Politico2 Comments

Yours portly hasn’t uploaded any original compositions to YouTube lately, nor have I actually been to an open mic night in many, many months.  But I have been enjoying playing covers of tunes on my grandmother’s old Kimbrell console piano, which I had moved to my house this summer.

My High School Music Ensemble is working on Loverboy’s “Working for the Weekend,” so I decided to take some time to attempt my own, abbreviated piano cover of the classic ode to the weekend.

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SubscribeStar Saturday: Tales of a Hedge Pianist: Playing Piano at the Methodist Church

The Portly Politico2 Comments

Today’s post is a SubscribeStar Saturday exclusive.  To read the full post, subscribe to my SubscribeStar page for $1 a month or more.  For a full rundown of everything your subscription gets, click here.

An old United Methodist Church in a small town about fifty minutes from my home enlisted me to serve as their fill-in pianist this summer at $150 per Sunday morning service.  As I’ve had major expenses related to my car, the wedding, and income taxes, I jumped at the opportunity to play piano for this church.

Their regular guy is a child prodigy who is on a tour of Europe, playing and learning piano from the masters.  This L’il Mozart (he’s seventeen, I think) has been in Salzburg, Austria, at the birthplace of Mozart.  It sounds like something lifted right out of the nineteenth century.  Kudos to him.

His success on the piano has translated into some extra cash for yours portly.  It’s also been an excellent opportunity to hone my skills.  For the most part, the music is mostly hymns, many of which I already know, or with which I possess a passing familiarity.  The choral anthem, played during offertory, is usually something a bit more challenging, but I’ve managed to get by fine.

The title of this post suggests that I’ve had some wild adventures or encountered out-of-the-ordinary things, but it’s all been quite tame.  No choir floozies throwing themselves at me; no old codgers angrily denouncing my Pentecostal-style piano playing; no invitations to Methodist secret societies engaging in weird masquerade balls.

The life of a musician—especially one who is forty and well past his choir floozy days (thank God for that—and for Dr. Fiancée!)—is rarely as glamorous as the movies and rockumentaries and mockumentaries make them out to be.  But it is, nonetheless, filled with worthwhile and, very often, amusing experiences.

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Phone it in Friday XCVII: YouTube Roundup LCVII: Roll Trilogy

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Over the course of the last two years I’ve composed a ton of music.  I treat composing the way the Native Americans treated the mighty bison:  I don’t waste anything.  That means I probably release a lot of “filler” tunes, but I find that pieces I think of as throwaways compositions are sometimes the most popular.

I do not know if the pieces shared today fall into that category.  But for whatever reason, I like writing pieces with “Roll” in title.  These are always based, in part, on food.

The first of these was “Orange Roll,” an odd little piece in 5/4 time.  The “Orange” comes from the fact I used an orange pen to compose it; the “Roll” came from the rolling feel of the melody.

Later, I wrote “Tomato Roll,” a clarinet duet in 5/8 time.  I wrote the piece mainly because I spent way too much time drawing a detailed tomato in MS Paint as a way to illustrate a concept to my Economics students during a couple of days of online learning.

Finally, I recently composed “Crunchy Roll,” which is a bass guitar in 3/4 and 4/4, but with lots of odd timing.

But enough of my yakkin’—let’s boogie!

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