Keys

I am trying to learn a song to play on the piano as I sing it. I've done this before - I even played keyboards and did lead vocals for a band I was in - but not for a while, and this one is particularly tricky with the rhythm in the verses. Oddly enough, I find it much easier to play it with a metronome than without, but that's not really the point.

The point is, the keyboard is a tricky instrument. And it doesn't get any respect. And since I know you wouldn't be satisfied with less than the full story, here it is.

I was in the shower, thinking about songs I like to walk to (still to be posted). One of them is Perry Mason, by Ozzy... it's crushingly heavy but soooooooo melodic, and it just grooves. I don't listen to a lot of Ozzy, but when I do, I almost always love it. Anyways, I remember seeing him at the Saddledome ages ago with Brock and Korey. It was a cool show... I think we were three of only about 20 people in the place who weren't stoned and didn't really fit in that well in terms of appearance, but he rocked. *resisting the urge to turn this into a concert review*

Anyways, as much as he wants to be the heavy-metal guy, Ozzy has a lot of keyboard in some of his stuff, and, from our box, we could not only see Ozzy, the guitar player, drummer, and bassist (don't remember who was playing guitar then - not Zakk; the bass player was that huge guy who's now with Metallica; drummer was Mike Bordin or something from Faith No More, in case you were curious). We could see the keyboard player, rocking away - BESIDE THE STAGE. He was playing, he was loving it, but they didn't even put him on the stage. What's the dealio with that?

That, in turn, made me think of a Yngwie Malmstein, who, as I'm sure you know, is a Swedish guitar virtuoso... heavily influenced by fast metal and classical, and more than a little strange. Anyways, I remember a show of one of his concerts in which the chain-smoking keyboard player is playing from on top of his keyboard, laying under it, standing beside it... at one point, Yngwie even chases him around and around it, while both are playing about 100 miles an hour. That guy knew how to be part of the show.

So I say all that to say this: this post is dedicated to the keyboard players I have worked with and enjoyed. Darren, Heidi, Jerry, Kristy, Nathan, Andrea... you guys rock, and don't let the guitar players tell you otherwise.