Hey guys
Here’s another addition to my pianist portfolio which I have attached to a dedicated page on my newsletter [image below].
As my work with instrumental piano covers is an entirely separate venture to my original musical endeavours, I needed another name to share them under that could also double as a YouTube channel name. I came up with ‘One Man & A Piano’ as I think it sums up exactly what I am trying to do as a musician. I mostly work solo for many reasons that I won’t get into here. I also value music that is simple and performed without the crutch of too much technology and production magic. ‘One musician, one guitar’ is essentially my favourite genre because I adore an artist who can move the audience just on their own without all the special effects of modern technology. I am trying to echo that here with my piano work.
As this venture is entirely centred around performing covers, I cannot monetise the videos here or on my YouTube channel for copyright reasons. But you can still support me as a musician and writer and help me make more videos by becoming a paid subscriber to this Substack. I have set it at the lowest possible price here in the UK, £3.50 per month (less than $5) and intend to keep it at that price as long as humanly possible.
As with the previous songs in 4/4 that I have released on this page, this one was the result of my extensive practice regime with a new left hand arpeggio I am learning; 1, 5, 11, 5. I have been trying to learn this to a high standard in the last 6 months or so to improve my playing in common time (4/4) as I have spent years playing only block chords or octaves with the left hand and it always made my playing sound dull, amateurish and childishly simple.
As time progresses and I get a better handle on the method, I will be venturing into more expressive, varied and nuanced methods of left hand playing but for now I am concentrating on nailing this one. I want to be able to play it perfectly across all keys so I can instantly adopt any song in 4/4 into my repertoire. The versatility of this method is why I am focussing on it and I have already found it useful in collaborations with other musicians and artists.
That’s also why the songs I have been covering are such well known Pop songs… I am aiming to maximise my employability as a performer, and the vast majority of music performance work in the cash strapped UK centres around contemporary music that the majority of audience members are familiar with.
The song is ‘Titanium’ by the French electronic artist David Guetta and features the Australian singer/songwriter Sia on vocals. It featured on David Guetta’s fifth studio album NOTHING BUT THE BEAT which was published by Virgin and EMI records and was released as a single in 2011.
Thanks for listening - Pete Brennan (One Man & A Piano)
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