The Piano Man Charlie G

Merry Christmas y'all 🎄😎🎶🎹

Christmas With An Angel Christmas rap of 2023 😎🎹

Wellllll..... the bad news as of late is that the private party gets unexpectedly cancelled 😡😭 BUT somewhere and somehow the show must go on and I will be returning to Treble Makers Dueling Piano Bar and Restaurant this Saturday 12/23 solo from 6-8pm. In the meantime hope you guys enjoy the video below 👇😅😎🎹

Many things happening from now until Christmas... Treble Makers Saturday 12/16 solo 6-8pm
12/23 my first PRIVATE PARTY 🎉🎁 in South Tampa and first one during Christmas in a LONG TIME 🎄🎹😎

Coming soon live... Christmas With An Angel
Original rap song 12/22/23 😎🎹

I should have a new Christmas rap coming soon; in other news I'll be attempting to get it together with this Chopin g-minor ballade 🎹😎

This Friday (12/1) I shall be once again at Treble Makers Dueling Piano Bar solo from 6-8pm...great crowd and of course the first time in a while I get to play out during the Christmas season 🎹😎🎄

The moment you are practicing at a slower tempo and then speed it way up and then when you're feeling good about it...BAM gotta slow it down again cuz it becomes a train wreck 😭🎹😎

Working over the Copland sonata today... I feel like I have the right touch for this piece---just gotta clean up the stupid wrong notes 😡😎🎹

Returning this Saturday 11/25 to Treble Makers Dueling Piano Bar solo from 6-8pm. Yes there WILL BE more Christmas tunes 🎹😎🎄

Happy week of Thanksgiving to all my musical friends and colleagues 😁🎹😎🎉

I put up with this crap all the time in bands lol 😭😆🎹

You KNOW you have it going on when everyone conceivable is taking notice to your live video & reacting to it... sometimes you just have that effect on people w/the music you play because it makes 'em feel good 👍🎹😎

En lieu of Veteran's Day weekend I'll be pulling out the patriotic tunes and producing A LOT of thunder and lightning in the club 🎹⚡🇺🇸😎

Returning to Treble Makers this Friday and Saturday 6-8pm solo 11/10-11/11 get ready to party 🎉🥳🎹😎

Showing some improvements with the Mozart.... probably will handle Copland tomorrow 👍🎹😎

I kid you not when I say that tonight was nothing short of EXPLOSIVE. People in the dining area and the bar were hooting and hollering and this one chick was really getting into it and everytime she cheered I played the note she ended up on thus demonstrating my perfect pitch lol. I threw the whole gauntlet at them from Debussy to Scott Joplin to Hank Sr. etc and then later in my set a couple of cutie pies 😁😍 sat down at the table by the piano just to listen to me play Clair De Lune and they were cheering and clapping on that too. That's a little bit unusual for Saturday night crowd considering how rowdy they get but this time they were really zoned into what I was doing... I dunno if it was as a result of that big fundraiser event they were having where a couple of bands went on stage before my usual time and the energy sort of filtered into the dinner hours. Long and short of it... when you know you are loved and your talents are appreciated it makes you want to go the extra mile. Happy to say I made as much tonight as some weekends combined and not to mention my career high for one night on tips alone. Factor in what the restaurant pays me and then, oh yeah I gotta play in church tomorrow so overall great weekend. Hopefully I can keep having more nights like this. 😎🎹😸🎵

A celebration of life service will be held at New Life Church in Tampa 6:30pm Sunday 11/5 4my dear friend David Drew...a legendary guitarist who shall never be replaced 🎸we played some wicked tunes together 🎹😎

Meanwhile I will be returning to Treble Makers Dueling Piano Bar this Saturday 11/4 solo from 6-8pm... hopefully the dinner crowd will be nice w/o too much Halloween hangover lol🎹😎

Mozart is absolutely killing me today. Cannot play one simple passage. Either it's Halloween or this sonata hates me 😭👹

I could say that my highlight for last Saturday night's outing was towards the end of my set when I decided to go ahead and pull the trigger on leading the crowd with playing and singing the Ghostbusters theme. Yeah I got a few takers with that as far as audience participation goes. Not great but you can't blame a brother for trying 😆. It was after all a good opportunity to work on my mic skills a bit. There is a certain art that comes with learning how to balance your posture and hand position at the piano and at the same time adjusting your boom stand and all so you don't get too close to the mic and thus stand the risk of getting that "shriek" when you so much as breathe into it.... that and keeping your levels at a reasonable volume. So I think this is the first time I have ever played on a Halloween weekend professionally that I can recall other than maybe a band gig here and there. Now in the coming weeks I shall ponder how I will arrange my Christmas set list 🎶😎🎹🎄

There's that one timeless quote that I remember from back in my college years... amateurs practice until they get it right. Professionals practice until they can't get it wrong. Here it is----those who find it cute to suggest that a guy like myself doesn't need to practice ("oh but you're so good") don't think I'm gonna take it as flattery just because I might make certain pieces sound easy. Whereas the fact is the more skilled you are and likewise the more you dive into a musical score the more complex things become. So you have to obviously work even harder and be more patient with yourself through this ardous journey. 😝Yeah so... don't even THINK of trying to hint that I don't need to PRACTICE just because some things are initially less complicated to sightread than others. 🎹😎

This week I will be taking a mini-vacation from performing but come this Saturday (10/21) I will be spending the day at Howard Blake HS for the Arts in Tampa FL as an official judge for the District 9 Youth Thespian festival. Yeah man always great to be an inspiration for some of the up and coming talent in the theatre realm which in this case I will be sitting on the music theatre panel with categories like small music groups, large groups etc. wherever it is that they stick me LOL. Then I shall proceed to type in all sorts of smart and dirty comments on the judging forms---just kidding not really a points competition more like for ratings (superior, excellent, good or whatever). So I look forward to offering encouragement, feedback and hopefully inspire these students to never give up on their dreams despite what others may think of them. 😁🎹🎼

Life as a musician (or life in general) can and will have its ups and downs but it's always a good thing to maintain positive perspective. To elaborate, anytime you're tempted to compare yourself to other pianists etc. on their relative abilities or popularity, stop yourself and try to focus on what it is that you can offer to the party cuz there are always talents and strongpoints you possess that the rest of the field could only dream to have. Case in point I don't claim to be this hot shot singer or lyricist (even though I have my moments) but I do have perfect pitch and trust me when I say I use it to my fullest extent LOL. The repertoire I play....and not to mention the wide variety of genres; well for starters not everyone reads sheet music and some pianists are more of the singer-pianist type that can play somewhat musically better than average and sing better than most but would not even touch some of the stuff I do and what I have to offer I always try to give the audience the best show possible. I may play at a dueling piano bar but I am no dueling pianist...may try that later on but the point is I know what I am and what I'M NOT. At the end of the day, people will adore you or they'll pretend that they don't because those are the ones who give you a hard time because they are the ones who end up being jealous of YOU.

Working on the Aaron Copland sonata today... gonna get this beast RIGHT one way or another 🎹🎶😎

This Saturday 10/14 I return to Treble Makers Dueling Piano Bar solo from 6-8pm🎵🎶🎹

Gonna start refining my classical repertoire starting this week...at that point where it's time to start crossing the hurdles to be performance ready.🎹😎

In other news, yep you guessed right...
Friday & Saturday
10/6-10/7 6-8pm solo
Treble Makers in Wesley Chapel FL 👍🎹🎉

So I have been underway with practicing Mozart's D-Major sonata (K311) and from the jump let me just remind everyone as if you don't already know.... anyone who says that Mozart's music is easy to play is a real special kind of delusional 😜🙀. Not to compare myself with other pianists but the learning process never ends, so it never fails to learn a thing or two from guys that have played 25-30 years longer than you have lol. It takes a lot of patience and time....so on YouTube I found a recording of the above mentioned sonata played by the legendary Daniel Barenboim and I'm thinking---man, I gotta ton of work to do still if I EVER want to even think about performing this entire piece in public. This guy; he is sailing and buzzsawing away at scale passages and trills that would put most guys to absolute shame.... not to mention the way he really attacks those staccato melodic lines, some of which involve crossing right over left etc. Ironically the way he approached the second movement which is slower and more deliberate made me realize I was playing a little bit TOO FAST. But geez I'm having issues just playing this piece slow with the metronome even though I can fly at short spurts. All it takes is one fi*****ng screw up and then it can potentially become a train wreck. Speed is certainly not everything because you want to make it beautiful. Makes me look back at some of the pieces I played in college wondering how in tarnation I made it this far. Well as long as I'm alive and breathing, with ten fingers I'll hopefully get this masterpiece to a level that represents someone who actually got degrees at one of the most prestigious music conservatories in the universe. 😎🎉🎹

This weekend was action packed with cheers, hoots and hollers along with this one kid like 10-11 that came back like four or five times requesting tunes and throwing money in the jar 🤣🤣🤣..then his dad requested Journey so I played the one song of theirs that I knew which was "Don't Stop Believing". I actually think I'm getting better with my renditions of Brown Eyed Girl and the Dukes of Hazzard theme because they're pretty well received and I actually think I heard a YEEE HAW from the bar. 😜🥳 So for the next few days I will be shuffling my deck maybe add one or two more classical pieces... once I learn some lyrics I'll probably try singing again lol. All in all a very productive set and a fine way to conclude a rather hectic and tumultuous week. 🎹😎

An oldie but goodie 🎹😎😁🎇

Maple Leaf Rag (Scott Joplin cover) Not perfect note for note but for anyone who has played ragtime or stride piano, the fun part really comes with nailing all the chord changes and holding ont...

This week: Wed 9/20 WEDDING at New Life Church Tampa

Sat 9/23 6-8pm solo at Treble Makers in Wesley Chapel 🎹😎🎵

Normally I wouldn't get as personal on this page; and needless to say I get greeted and complimented by those whom look at my playing and creativity as being some kind of superhuman. Then you have without saying those who hate on you and give you a hard time for one reason or another. I can confidently say that as both a working musician and a human being the struggle is real either way you look at it. For someone who is goal oriented like me I always strive to find ways to take it further in the coming week than the last week. Overall I have to say I am quite pleased with where I am and the progress made especially this past summer going into fall in terms of being consistently booked....basically every weekend whether it be one night or that special occasion where I get to entertain the dinner crowds in a back to back. Some of you may think----if he's so great then why is he playing at the same club every weekend? FYI I have played a couple of weddings and some band stuff; and I don't presume to give you my entire history and background in the same post lol. I try to look at it as, well if there are no complaints from customers or servers and the owner continues to invite me back week after week, then evidently someone out there still appreciates what I bring to the table and therefore must be doing something RIGHT. Now I'm going to be honest and say that there is still progress to be made musically and other areas; thus it can be a bit disappointing when I don't get tipped as much on some nights as others even if I do get paid afterwards... sometimes I get cheered and clapped by those whom will pretty much turn around and just walk right past the jar several times on the way to the bathroom and then walk out without even looking at me like I don't exist.... just for highlighting one example. Likewise different people enjoy different things. I already know I'm not the greatest singer in the world but I never thought of that as a hindrance because I have always been able to get over just with what I can do with my two hands (for all whom do appreciate that); yes I do try to interact with the crowd the best way I can. Thanks to all of you and may God bless those who continue to come out and give me the opportunity and energy to entertain with the hopes of putting multiple smiles on faces and making someone's rough day/week that much brighter 😎🎹😁.

I give you----Love Reborn.... the ultimate tone poem miniature experience 😎🎹

Love Reborn A relatively short solo piano diddy with the idea of a diamante style poem in mind.... starts and ends with a cadenza and highlights the rollercoaster journe...