Are you too good at ‘not playing guitar’ well? (Wait...what?)

Being a keyboardist in the 80’s...in high school...was awesome. So many popular songs were piano driven: Billy Joel, Journey, Chicago, etc. Others were heavy on the synth side. I found myself learning the piano parts note for note and finding the right patch on my synth so I could try and sound just like the record. Or, I could just buy the sheet music to Hill Street Blues, or Cheers and everyone would recognize that opening piano part as I played it right from the score.

Later (still the 80’s!) I started playing piano in the folk group at church. We had keyboard books for all of the music, so all I had to really do was play from the score. No sweat, right? We had guitars, flute, percussion...everything. I just stayed in the background and played my part.

I never learned guitar.

Suddenly...I found myself leading a contemporary group at church.

Suddenly...there was a LOT more church/worship music being led by guitar.


Suddenly...I had to play those songs on the piano...because there wasn’t a guitarist at every mass!!!

Suddenly...(last one, I promise) I had to learn to play the piano like a guitar.

When I started leading the music for the Life Teen program at St. Ann’s there were a lot of times I was playing alone, without a band. Many of the songs the teens liked to sing were guitar-driven, so I had to figure out how to pull off these tunes on a piano. I learned to play rhythms in the right hand while adding simple off-beats in the left to imitate guitar parts. I’ve learned to fake a lot guitar figures this way, and I’ve gotten used to doing it quite often.

While this has its benefits, it can also get you (and me!) into some bad habits. Just tonight, at rehearsal, I found myself playing the guitar intro of a song on the piano...while there were 3 acoustic guitars in the room! I literally had to force myself not to play it. I am so used to leading that I sometimes forget to ‘let go of the reins’ and let someone else drive a song. It’s better for the other musicians, it’s better for you (and me), and it’s better for the song. I’m always talking about variety, arranging, orchestration, etc.

I need to remember that part of being a good leader means sometimes you need to ‘get out the way.’

(Thanks, JT, for the post idea)