I’ve recently been playing these two instruments together. It’s not easy, and at first I found the whole endeavor incredibly frustrating. Just this week, I’ve hit a little breakthrough. I’m starting to know where my feet will land without looking down, and to play syncopated rhythms with the instruments playing against one another.
“Gotta go practice the floor piano!” I said to my mom on the phone yesterday, “You practice the floor piano more than you ever practiced the real piano,” she says. My mom’s a piano teacher. For the record, I practiced the real piano a lot growing up. But I have developed a certain addiction to the floor piano. Also, my mom plays the organ, and so she knows how much practice it takes to play an instrument with your feet and your hands.
This act will be part of the Ha Ha Da Vinci show, and it’s been bringing up an interesting question; whether the spectacle of someone dancing on a floor piano while playing the tuba is as entertaining for the audience as it is for the performer.
After all, what a performer thinks is going to knock your socks off may not make your socks go anywhere. And just because something is challenging doesn’t mean it will be wow-worthy. With that said, I’m pretty sure this tuba-piano-dancing act is going be as cool for listener/viewers as it has been for this tuba-piano-dancer herself.
Thanks for reading! Feel free to like, share, or comment on this post. Check out my latest album here, and all other projects here.