I’m retired and living in Mexico, having fun, exploring new things, catching up on long-dormant hobbies. Large expat community here. Lots of bands with mixtures of local and expat musicians. The main genre for years has been 50’s-60’s rock-and-roll. Elvis, Orbison, etc. Very, very white, and a bit before my time. Nothing, and I mean *nothing* I ever listened to in high school gets played here, except for the occasional Skynyrd tune, at least until recently. And then Thomas came to town.
So now he’s got a few guys he gigs with regularly. 70’s soul/funk mostly. HIS gigs I go out of my way to see. We start talking and I try helping out with some sound issues now and then. And somehow my past music experience comes up, and he finds out I was thinking about getting a keyboard again and boom. He wants me. I try explaining that all of my experience was with school band, mainly percussion, but that I also had piano lessons along the way. Brief stints w/ a school jazz band. Lots of individual jamming to chords. Five years as praise and worship leader for a small-ish church. Another brief stint as keys for a Stevie Ray cover band. I explain that I’m really a hack. I pound out chords, but I suck at improv. I tell him not to even think about throwing solos my way.
Somehow this does not discourage him. He seems to think this is exactly what he wants to add to a band. And until we get some actual brass players I have to play those parts too. So here I am, with a new midi controller and an iPad, working on the set lists, scrambling for sound patches and chord charts. So hi! I’ll be posting some specific questions shortly...
So now he’s got a few guys he gigs with regularly. 70’s soul/funk mostly. HIS gigs I go out of my way to see. We start talking and I try helping out with some sound issues now and then. And somehow my past music experience comes up, and he finds out I was thinking about getting a keyboard again and boom. He wants me. I try explaining that all of my experience was with school band, mainly percussion, but that I also had piano lessons along the way. Brief stints w/ a school jazz band. Lots of individual jamming to chords. Five years as praise and worship leader for a small-ish church. Another brief stint as keys for a Stevie Ray cover band. I explain that I’m really a hack. I pound out chords, but I suck at improv. I tell him not to even think about throwing solos my way.
Somehow this does not discourage him. He seems to think this is exactly what he wants to add to a band. And until we get some actual brass players I have to play those parts too. So here I am, with a new midi controller and an iPad, working on the set lists, scrambling for sound patches and chord charts. So hi! I’ll be posting some specific questions shortly...
