New List of Rep / Cover Songs

I did a thing - I created a booklet containing a list of songs and classical repetoire that I'm willing to comfortably play in public. It's a miniature project I started only about a week ago, and still very much in draft form.

After a lifetime of arranging music for the piano, I've come up with a list of well over 150 songs, not including classical repetoire.

I've sorted it by genre, and have a good selection of music including Oldies / Motown, Classic Rock, 80s Music, Alt Rock / Pop, Classical, and more...

I've done this for a few reasons:

• To change the way I interact with audiences
  Instead of simply guessing, or asking people if they have any requests, I can now offer something tangible, and hope my range is extensive enough for them to pick something they'd really like to hear.

• To ensure that I play a wider variety of music
  I imagine it's quite common - but while I may have learned a lot of material, I often go through phases where I play the same 10-12 songs in rotation, and only occasionally swapping them out. Sometimes it's simply challenging to remember what I know, so it's just easier to default to what most easily comes to mind.

  With a list in-hand, I never know what someone else is going to choose - or at the very least, I have the list in front of me and have "something different" stare me right in the face.

• Enforce discipline to keep more music at a higher, more consistent standard

  All of my covers are arranged by ear - none written down, and therefore don't get the same level of attention or practice that classical repetoire does. In many cases, this is fine - but songs can become a bit rusty if I haven't played them in a while. This way, by keeping everything more "current" - selections I include on the list hopefully won't stray too far from a reasonable standard.

So I've basically become a human piano karaoke machine.... and so far, it's been quite an interesting experience. I'm often quite surpirsed what people select - and by who!

While I have a physical booklet, I've uploaded the list to my website.

This is completely a labour of love, and a living document.

If you're a local in Sydney, come find me at the QVB and pick a piece or two. Or, have a look through the list and let me know if there's something you'd really like to hear that should be added to it.

As always, these performances are powered by coffee.