Tag: Chicago piano instruction

  • Fears

    I have been playing the drums since I was 16 years old. Just about 40 years ago. I’ve been teaching since my days in Paris in 1989. I started in Chicago in 91. I remember, at the time, in order to get a bit of advertisement going you had to put an ad in the…

  • The product.

    There is a mystery in the music business. It goes like this: how does one make a living at it? That’s a big question. Today I’ll talk about performing. Specifically, having a band and wanting to earn money gigging. I can give you one component that’s really important: the quality of the band. If you…

  • Filling up 8 hours.

    I remember I was practicing a lot at Berklee College of Music. Like, really, a lot. 10, 12 hours a day. I Always had to rush in the late evening to make sure I wouldn’t miss the last train to get to my girlfriend. It was right then that I printed the drum set into…

  • Seasons

    There is a book called: YEAR OF WONDER: Classical Music for Every Day. This book is just that: one tune for each day of the year. These are classical pieces. I don’t like all the tunes proposed, but I must say I also discovered some beautiful/intriguing masterpieces (I’m looking at you Hildegard of Bingen of…

  • The wait.

    Jamming is not easy because jamming is an art. Especially if you’re holding the drums. You have to keep the band in check and make sure that the whole thing is not a mess while you keep the groove. But you also have to channel the energy. That’s the last part I want to talk…

  • Sleep

    I usually do not write this kind of blog, the kind that’s personal, the kind that hits a bit too close to home. In this case, I’ll make an exception, though, as sometimes it is better to talk about the occasional obstacle that a pro musician will encounter. Who knows? Might help. Here we go.…

  • Those arpeggios.

    In piano playing you get two very famous exercises in technique. One is the scale and the second is the arpeggio. Now, the scales are fairly easy. Yes, any scale is easy. The fingers have little to cover at a time, the thumb do not twist in awkward ways and you get a lot of…

  • The fun.

    I play and teach drums and piano. Now, you say, of course, that’s what the name Sol Garnier is attached to on the internet. Yes, that’s true, but there is much more than that… for the student. I get to play piano with the drummers and drums with the pianists. I don’t do it every…

  • Self employed.

    What does it take to be a musician? Many things. And some of those things are mysterious, like what skills you need on the instrument, or which person you need to know to succeed. But some can be answered in a more mundane way by saying that being a musician requires a lot of the…

  • The legend.

    There is this story that Steve Vai tells about an extraordinary player. The musician is talking about is Vinnie Colaiuta, drummer or unsurpassed skills that started his career with Frank Zappa, where Steve Vai met him. Steve Vai states that he wanted to develop sight reading and worked very hard at it. But he couldn’t…