Last night, I played at the café/bar in Epiphany Center for the Arts in Chicago. It was a great opportunity for me to practice my vocal stamina and piano chops. I split the time up into 3 sets which featured original music and an eclectic mix of covers. I recorded audio and video of my performance so I could watch it back and figure out ways to improve.

 

I should have done a better job sequencing the setlists, because I ended up playing 7 of my best originals at the start of the first set, which was the same time that the bar opened their doors. So nobody was there yet. By the time a decent crowd had amassed, I was pretty deep into covers and more obscure originals. Oh well.

 

I was impressed with my vocal endurance throughout the performance. I felt confident and I noticed that my voice is feeling less and less strained. It’s really motivating to be able to see the progress I’ve made so far as a singer.

 

Some personal highlights:

— It was my first time performing “I Hope We Work Out” on the Wurlitzer. I thought that sounded nice.

— I incorporated a “band creator”/looper pedal with some pre-recorded loops for a dozen or so songs in my set. It added some excitement and variation to an otherwise entirely solo keyboard and vocal set. Shout out to Stephen Loggia for getting me that pedal.

— I covered two different pop songs called “Angel” back to back.

— I had a lot of fun covering “You’ve Got A Friend”.

— I performed a bolero for the first time in my life (“Sabor a Mí”). Thanks to Dra. Jácome for helping me learn the pronunciation!

— I debuted a few older original songs that I’d never performed before: “It’s Time To Go Easy On Myself” (2019), “Twenty-Two” (2018), and “That’s What You Are” (2021).

— I also debuted my new song “Real Love Is Better”, which I wrote just a week ago!

 

You can listen to my performance on YouTube: Part 1, Part 2