Tag: Chicago Piano lessons

  • 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…

  • Always busy.

    One of the normal question about the music business is: What do musicians actually do? Usually people will assume two things: play or teach. Now, although we’re not far off, it’s not exactly like that either. So, in the interest of furthering human knowledge in particular and the fate of the universe in general, here…

  • Teaching young ones

    I hear all sorts of thing about the young kids these days. They’re impossible to deal with, they don’t care about anything, they don’t want to do anything else but be on their phone, they are arrogant, selfish and their parents are way too indulgent. Maybe I am missing something but I do not encounter…

  • Coming back to it.

    I’ve been through some difficult times. So much so that it has stopped me from practicing. Oh, I am not crying on my sorry fate, I am not a survivor who went through a trauma so deep that my dreams will be nightmares for the rest of my days. I’ve got some light traumas, and…

  • Overwhelmed by greatness.

    I was on Tidal and looking at a Beethoven Sonata, the “Pathetique” one. I said looking because before I would have to press play on any given interpretation I had to chose one. And there lays the problem: too many great ones. I then proceeded to go on YouTube to be guided by a specialist…

  • My piano.

    Today is the day when my piano gets tuned. I can hear the tuner, Randy, doing his work right above my head. As I listen, I always wonder if I could have done his job. The answer comes pretty quickly: no! It seems impossibly difficult to hear the minute little difference between the tones. So,…