The Piano Is Important

The piano is a very useful tool for writing songs. After many years of playing just the guitar, I finally realized I needed to learn the piano so I could become a better songwriter. In my early 30's I had a friend I played a lot of tennis with who was a very good piano player & I asked him one day if he would be able to teach me how to play piano, FAST! He assured me that this would be possible if I put in the time. For the next two years that was ALL I DID. Take piano lessons and practice. Obsessively!! I finally got to the point where I actually was able to utilize this instrument as a songwriting tool and that was great. Problem was now being able to perform these piano songs 'live. Hardly any venues furnish a piano for performers and hauling an electric keyboard around & setting it up is difficult.....so what I was finding was I had a handful of piano songs that I had written that were never getting heard outside of my music room. Now... I am by no means a good piano player, but I do use it a fair amount for songwriting and am starting to find the odd place with a piano I can use to play a song or two. I want to feel comfortable performing with the piano as I do the guitar and I'm starting to, gradually. I find myself being drawn to this opportunity wherever & whenever it presents itself. Distance is no object. I'll go way out of my way to be able to play a couple of my songs in the set on a  piano along with the guitar songs. Being able to move around between these two instruments is important.....

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