The Ashtanga Diva

As a kid, there were three things I absolutely hated doing:

1. Waiting. Still do, as a grownup.
2. Sitting still. Quite obvious, per #1.
3. Playing the piano.

Let me correct #3. It wasn’t actually the playing part that I’d hated. It was the learning part. Hated sitting still, hated the tedium of finger exercises, hated the patience required to learn a piece.

So it is quite ironic that two nights ago, there I was, patiently and repeatedly trying to learn the keyboard part to The Cure’s Just Like Heaven, playing the song over and over and over again NDH practically vomited on the amp he’d gotten so sick of the song. (Note to self: headphones.) And then last night, there I was again behind the piano AND with a band, no less! No doubt both my long-deceased parents were looking down from the heavens with their jaws to the floor and then afterwards they were both cupping their hands to their mouths and yelling , “See? We told you playing the piano would be a good thing! WE TOLD YOU!”

Ma and daddy, you were right. It was GREAT fun. Thank you for insisting on those early rudimentary lessons. Twenty-eight years later I’m superduper rusty, and I’m struggling to read notes like a Kindergartener stumbling through Goodnight Moon, but for some reason (old age, no doubt), I’ve developed the patience(!) and the ability to sit still(!) that’s required of playing the piano.

So yes, my audition with the guys went fairly well last night. I’m on what I’ve called Band Buzz, which is surprisingly similar to Dance Buzz, but with more ringing in the ears and less shortness of breath.

Now NDH has asked me if I could try and learn Journey’s Don’t Stop Believin’. The bad news on that is, as the guys warned me, it’s such a well-known song probably half the room will know how to play the piano intro, so there’s no room for mistakes. The good news is that I’ve looked at the sheet music, and, well, I think I’m willing to dive into it.

Wish me luck, willya? I’m going to take inspiration from the song and well, I won’t stop believing.

Rock on.

TONIGHT: First practice with The Cheap Dates.

SONG STATUS:

• In Between Days by The Cure: OKAY thanks to übersimplification of keyboard arrangement.
• Don’t Change by INXS: OKAY thanks to NDH’s help and relative ease of original keyboard arrangement.
• Just Like Heaven by The Cure: KICKING MY ASS. Lots of different parts to this. There’s synth, then there’s piano, and there’s a FREAKING solo.

Man, this is hard work! Not that I’m complaining. I actually love it. Pretty cool, all this music-making. Just wish I had better skillz. But I’m tempering my dismay at my lack of technique by ruminating about my outfit onstage. Right now I’m thinking leather vest and hot pants, no? If I don’t sound like a rocker, I can at least look like one. Heh.

Wish me luck tonight.

Over the years, I’ve discovered a couple of truisms about working with untrained dancers:

1. The less skill/experience a dancer has, the more rehearsal time she usually needs. But conversely…
2. The less skill/experience a dancer has, the less rehearsal time she usually wants.

I bring this up because I’m about to embark on a new performance experience where *I* will be the untrained newbie and will need the most rehearsaltime. NDH’s rock band has asked me to play keys for three songs for an upcoming gig that’s a mere thirteen days away. But unlike untrained dancers, I know I have no skill and therefore I know I need more practice. And yep, I want more practice.

As a dancer and choreographer, I know the amount of sweat, blood—and, most important—the amount of repetition it takes to successfully stage a piece. You can’t just learn a dance until you’re bored with it; you have to learn it until you’re sick of it, until the opening bars to the accompanying music make you wanna run away and scream for your sanity. And there’s more to performing a piece than just the actual dancing. You have to rehearse it until you get the timing of the background video just synchronized, and the emissions of the smoke machines just right, and the lighting effects perfect, and the costumes to not rip during a particularly energetic part.

Same with musical performances. There’s listening to the other instruments and knowing the lyrics cold and memorizing when the drum fills come in and when the guitar solo enters. I’ve never played with a band before (and I’m not counting the time I sang “I Will Survive” during Live Band Karaoke), so yeah, I need all the practice I can get. Unfortunately, practices for NDH’s band are a lot less Nazi than my dance rehearsals, with a lot less yelling and a lot more drinking allowed. It is rock after all. They play a song twice, maybe three times, before they wrap it and move on to the next song. I may need more repetitions than that. Just sayin.

Here’s hoping the band doesn’t beat me up for asking them to play “Don’t Change” for the 25th time. But if all else fails, I think I know what to do: I’ll just watch out for the changes and try to keep up.