My New Piano Playing Friend

[TheDirt]

I recently met a guy who plays piano, specifically the blues. He is so awesome... what he can do by himself is so amazing... first off, it's not physically possible to play like that on the guitar because the seperation of high and low pitches, and secondly the kinds of riffs, runs, and chords he does seem impossible to play on guitar. I almost want to quit and play piano.

The guitar did redeem itself, however. We were jamming on a typical 12 bar trading solos and he said that my playing is awesome and he wishes he could play piano like I play guitar... crazy, since what I was thinking is that I wish I could play guitar like he plays piano. I guess each instrument has is pros and cons.

Oh yeah, one other thing. This guy's friend owns a bar, and they have a different type of open mic than normal. They have a spare guitar and piano and anyone can go up and solo along to the house band which plays backup. I think it's a great idea, and I've really enjoyed it. Anyone know of similar places?

[BarHook]

thats so funny i was thinking that this week; what i just realised on the piano is, with guitars, when you are using modes the chords in the background really light up the song, when playing by yourself you cant do this but on the paino you have two hands so you can have two things going on at once.

[Azrael]

Different instruments are cool. You get so many different ideas. For example when you wtire a song or sumthing try to write the guitarlines on the piano and vice versa - you´ll be amazed by how different your ideas will be. its the same with bass and guitar or any other instrument.

however.. me now trying to play guitar and keys at once.. left hand tapping on guitar (playing powerchords) and right hand pianoplaying (we have no keyboarder, so i guess thats the only possible solution) *L*

[u10ajf]

Piano's a wonderful instrument. I especially love stuff like Rachmaninov and Chopin. I regard there being an axis on which instruments lie, on the one hand is the violin which, having no premade notes and requiring both hands to produce the tone (bow as much as fretting hand)is exquisitely expressive but it's hard to play multiple notes or to do so independently. At the other extreme is the piano where notes are premade (you just have to press the keys) but has a many notes immediately available and tremendous potential for separation of melodic parts.
In between lies the electric guitar. Guitar's a great instrument, not only are our notes premade but there's plenty of scope to manipulate them too ,wah, volume control, bends, whammy bar even e-bow if you want it.
Yet there are people out there who can sound like pianists, have you heard of Stanley Baxter? He's a jazz guitar/ex pianist, he taps out big chords and all sorts of crazy stuff, he used to be a pianist.