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This program is designed to provide general information with regards
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to the subject matters covered. This information is given with
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the understanding that neither the hosts, guests, sponsors, or station
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are engaged in rendering any specific and personal medical, financial,
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legal counseling, professional service, or any advice. You should seek
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the services of competent professionals before applying or trying any
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suggested ideas.
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Hi, welcome to the Sound of Gold. I'm glad you're
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here with us today, And if you've been with us before,
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you know, if you're new to us, My show is
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basically focused on music musicians, music teachers, music schools, and
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music venues. There is a lot of talent in our
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communities and I am wanting, I am that voice to
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kind of spot shine the light on a lot of
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our community talent and bring them forth and share their
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talents with you.
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And I don't know, if you're a musician, you know
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kind of what it takes, and if you're not a musician,
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or even if you're a new musician that you're stepping
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into this world of wanting to perform and meet like
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minded musicians. It's a discipline, it's a discipline to practice,
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it's a discipline to advance. It's a discipline to.
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Just make it a continual part of your life, and
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it's a good thing.
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It becomes a lifestyle, and again that is a good thing.
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I think anything we believe in, anything.
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We commit to and we grow with, just improves our
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daily lives and our daily attitudes and just a greater
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appreciation for our existence as human beings. There's so much
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that we can do. And if you are a musician
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or stepping into that world, you are sharing your sound
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with us through an instrument or through your voice. Today,
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I have a special guest with me and she is
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not only a friend, she is also in our local
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music community. She is a piano player, she is a singer,
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and she's I've seen her play out in bands. I've
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seen her play at open mic and Ellen Vargas. I
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would love to share the stage with you. How are
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you today, I'm good and great.
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Thank you very much. Thank you for having me today.
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Yes, and thank you for making the time. I know
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you juggle a busy schedule and there's so much I
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haven't seen you in a while. I know you've been
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out of town. I know you've been recording. I know
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You've been doing lots of different things, and gosh, where
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to start?
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I guess you know what I would love to know,
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and I know the audience would love to know, Like,
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what has brought you to where you are? Let's just
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focus on the music part. What has inspired you?
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Where did you start your journey when it came to
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playing piano and singing?
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Well, I started playing piano when I was very young,
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and usually when you're around five or six, that's when
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you start piano lessons.
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So I started out with classical music.
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And that's really my roots, reading the music note for note,
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knowing all the technical stuff about piano and about music,
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and what kia song is in, not just the note
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it starts in, but the note it resolves in. What
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were the flats, the sharps, that kind of thing. So
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I played classical music and studied it for many years,
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and then I became a teenager, and that's when I
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rebelled and I found out I could be playing music.
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I actually, like, I'm going to show you my first
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music book. Okay, it's been duct taped together so many times, got.
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A paper clip, Yes, he just have fallen out.
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But I found out I could actually play music I enjoy,
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and because I know I how to read music, I
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would read the music and learn it note for note
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and imagine, oh my gosh, I'm Billy Joel up here,
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even though I'm just in my living room. And I
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also discovered Elton John. That was also my one of
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my first books. You can see that's that's in tatters.
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So I got the next one of Elton John, which
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is a much more comprehensive book, but it also is
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losing a few pages as well.
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So that's the way I started out.
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And then I went to college and just for the
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fun of it, I took a jazz piano class.
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Fun and it was we were.
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In a room with a Grammy Award winning jazz pianist,
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and everyone came in with their instruments, not just piano,
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but guitar, bass, guitar, trumpet, and the instructor would write
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the chords up on the chalkboard and then we'd all
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just start to play and we take turn soloing, and
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I thought, oh my god.
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This is so fun.
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I feel like I'm really playing and I'm not actually
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even reading music. Freed me a lot to be able
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to just play spontaneously.
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After that, and.
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Now I do blues and jam banding and rock and
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roll and Christian music, Jewish music, anything people want me
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to play.
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I feel like I can pretty much play it all now.
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So how is your transition like from reading music to
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being like in a group accompanying other musicians. How was
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it like your brain like turned off? Or was it
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did you use your ear just to play along? How
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is that? Is that something you can describe?
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Well, it's kind of a combination of all of it.
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A lot of the bands that I've played with here
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in town, they.
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Don't tend to use sheet music.
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They tend to use like ultimate guitar, which only shows
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you the chords. So you look the chords, then you
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listen to the song, and then for more detail and clarification,
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then maybe I'll pull up the sheet music if they
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want me to do a solo or bring in the
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intro or the outro or whichever part, and I want
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to play it note for note because like songs, like piano,
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man has to be perfect, so that has to be
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note for notes. So I will then blend all of
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those different parts of playing into learning a song.
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So when you play no, are you with a new
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band now? Or are you still playing with THEA.
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I'm no longer playing with THEA.
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I am playing occasionally out with her husband RAF, although
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I am also doing like some solo gigs, especially during
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the Christmas holiday. I tend to get even busier little
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private events as a soloist. And I don't mind being
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a sit in pianist for any band that doesn't currently
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have a piano player. I can probably sit in and
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learn their repertoire pretty quickly.
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And what would be the best way to reach you
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for listeners that might want to connect with you?
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Well, I mean I have a Gmail address. If you
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want me to give that right now, sure, it would
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be my name, Ellen Vargas DMD at gmail dot com.
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And I have a little promo sheet that I do
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that I give out and that I have posted at
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like different music stores and places like that.
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Okay, so what I styles of music I like to do.
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And I also have a YouTube channel, so as you know,
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I go out and do open mics and I try
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to gather recordings almost every time I go out, so
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I have something to put into the YouTube channel, just
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examples of this is what I play, this is how
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it's done. If you like that that would be great,
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so they can contact me and and and uh, I
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think Gmail is the best way.
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And then YouTube it's just Ellen Vargas.
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Yes, yes, I don't know if they need the other
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part of the.
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Address where it says at Ellen Vargas dash G three X.
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That might be just how I get in to you know,
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alter My and ad.
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But yes, that would be it.
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So so let me ask you. So, okay, you you're
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a classic. You're classically trained, all right. So for musicians
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that are maybe are just starting out right or there's
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you know, stepping into this world of wanting to accompany
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other musicians and maybe they've been classically trained or maybe
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they've been self taught, how do you go about let's say,
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playing with RAF's bands. Right, I've heard you play, you
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sound wonderful and when you when you play, how do
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you distinguish from reading a chord chart? How do you
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distinguish from that from reading like Billy Joel's melody and
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playing it right? So I can read music, right, I can,
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I can play and I understand the court chart, but
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how do you incorporate it so that it's your accompanying
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other musicians and not like on your own. Does that
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make sense?
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Oh, it absolutely does, because for most of my life
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I played piano by myself and had to play the melody,
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the bass and maybe even sing and do it all
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by myself. And when I started playing with others, I
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had to learn how to play with others and behave
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and actually hold back and do more of the left
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hand chord playing in the bass and then just keep
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the right hand really simple unless they want me to
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pull out a solo and then yeah, then I'm going
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to go crazy and go do.
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My soloing thing.
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But when there's a singer, I don't like to overlap
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and do what they're doing with their voice. They say,
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it's that's not the way it's done. When there's a singer,
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they're gonna do that melody.
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And that.
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Song, while I just kind of have to stay in
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the back and be an acognomist. And it takes a
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lot of willpower because I'm someone who wants to take
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off and solo and jazz it up and go to
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all nuts on the piano, but when you play with
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a group, you need to behave and know.
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Your place and hold back.
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So yeah, it's taken a lot of willpower and reteaching
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of myself. I did not start playing with others until
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just recently when I started with THEA. One day, her
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husband and my husband they were like, Oh, my wife
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plays piano. Oh, your wife plays guitar. Oh, they should
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meet each other. I walked in her house and from
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note one I knew we were going to have a
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good time. She first of all, she has this gorgeous steinway.
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Yes she does.
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And I sit at the piano.
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She had the same book on her piano that I
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had on my book on my piano at that same moment,
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the Carol King Tapestry.
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Album, and I said, oh my god.
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And a week later we had a gig and it
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never stopped from then on. So from then, at that moment,
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I had to learn how to play with other people
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and hadn't done it ever and over fifty years, always
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just playing by myself.
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Right, So that's wonderful. And I yes, the sign way
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she has is beautiful because I've played on it too.
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I know you we're friends, right, But that's much more.
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What I love about you, Ellen is that there is
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so much depth to you, like you just like you're
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just not like your regular piano player, like you have
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so much like you're so intelligent, and you well and
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you I know some you know, work with your husband
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a little bit and help him, and you know you
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have kids and then you you have a life that
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you know that you keep going and.
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You know.
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We're human, right, So yeah, to share with the audience,
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like being a performer, it's not like you're like born
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into it. It takes.
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It takes a practice, it takes a work, it takes
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a focus, it takes a discipline.
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And last week my guest was Tia not THEA and
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we see that off this and I know you listen
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to the show, Yes I did, and it's so important
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to express again to my to the audience as well
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that you know, it's not the struggle, it's a juggle,
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but it's knowing how to be disciplined and knowing how
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to juggle all the parts without losing losing pieces of
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it or losing the ball here and there, or maybe
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they don't fit. But but tell me a little bit
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or tell us a little bit about like how that
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works for you, How do you get in practice time,
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how do you make it work? Like with everything else
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you have going on in your life, Well.
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You have to prioritize certain things.
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You have to get your work done, and then it's
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then you can have your fun time, which is actually