I feel pretty confident in saying this...without youtube, I wouldn't be able to make a living as a pianist. For any job, I'm given sheet music to learn within a certain amount of time. As a ballet accompanist, often these come from famous ballets like  Sleeping Beauty  and  Raymonda . Other times, people request specific songs for their wedding or special occasion. I'm able to simply type in the title of the song in the search box, and up pops link after link to any and all versions ever recorded of the song in question. Playing primarily by ear, all those tricky rhythms I can't figure out from the sheet music make perfect sense when I hear it. I cringe to think how much money I would be spending if I had to pay for each song I needed to listen to, or worse, live in the days when we had to BUY a whole CD for 1 song! Oh, was I  ever  that young?! Just as easy and effortless, I can then open up a new tab, and search for the chords of a song. About 90% of the work...

I got another life lesson while running the other day. Hills. They can either kill your morale, or light a fire under you. I might not be the fastest or strongest runner, but I don't often let a hill get the best of me. Yet I've felt myself slowing down in other ways lately. There are so many obstacles in my path. Haven't I worked and sweat enough? I've become accustomed to the comfortable pace of 2 steady piano jobs (which I'm  more  than grateful for), but my original goal when moving here, was to song write and record. A process which is proving to be more time consuming and complicated than I would have ever imagined. Just when I think I see the finish line, another hill arises in my path.  That's when I'm reminded of the old saying (and excuse the cliche) it's not the destination, but the journey that's important. And so with each step, I admire the view around me and appreciate more than ever those miles stones that I pass along the way.  Ch...

Last night, I played a show at Gizzi's Cafe in New York. I had a great time, seeing old friends and meeting some new ones. With my  album nearly complete , I am always looking for more places to play my music, and fortunately was invited to return to Gizzi's. Here's a video from last night. Enjoy!

http://www.bernardsinn.com/ Remember a  few days ago , when I was feeling completely dejected and deflated from an audition gone bad? It was for a steady gig that paid well and I would be  perfect  for. But I didn't have that confident feeling when I left, like everything went perfect and they would call me immediately,  begging  me to take the position. I went home and thought,  I shouda done this. If only I had played that. Oh, I'll NEVER get the job now! Well I got the job. And now I must eat my words. I wonder if they'd be good sauteed in butter? When will I ever learn? Don't make automatic  bad  assumptions about myself! Positive thinking, uplifting thoughts, not self-loathing and putting down! Hello?! Isn't that what I try and write about every day? Why can't I take a piece of my own advice? So I have a new opportunity to do just that. My first day is Wednesday. I will be prepared, practiced, and confident. The job is exactly what I...

Last night, I experienced the very epitome of my love/hate relationship with New York City: A paying gig! = Love In Brooklyn = Hate (it's not a bad place, just far away) Three hour set = Love Crawling through traffic at snail pace = HATE! It was an uncharacteristically slow night at this small, Caribbean restaurant where I was invited to play for "Jazz Night." I still gave it everything I had though. And my favorite patrons of the evening were 2 young sisters, whose eyes I felt on me with each song I played. I got the sense that one of the sisters wanted to approach and talk to me. I tried to seem as friendly as possible so that she would have the courage to, but she never did. I was beyond flattered however, when each adorable girl took turns putting a tip into my jar. I gave them the very best smile I could and played my hardest until they left.  Love. ~~ http://www.youtube.com/bethsmusicvideos http://www.youtube.com/elizabethgrimes83

I was invited to play at Soule Restaurant in Brooklyn for their weekly "Jazz Night." The evening consisted of me playing and/or singing for 3 hours during the dinner rush. It had been a while since I performed for that long. My favorite kind of gig though, is playing my little keyboard off in a corner somewhere while people are half paying attention to me/half eating their supper. It's just such a relaxed atmosphere where I have the freedom to choose whatever I feeling like playing or singing.  This is a video of "Bei Mir Bist Du Shon." I played this about an hour into my set and it was the first number that people applauded for, which caught me off guard at the end of the song! It was a great evening and I ended up having a lot of support from friends who came out for the occasion. That was such a comfort to me since Eddie (my faithful fan) couldn't make it that night. Enjoy the video!

I sang for a room full of people today in a small, dark room. They were people from my past - long, and not so long ago - and one I've never even met. I'm in my final and most challenging phase of recording my album of original songs with Modern Vintage Recordings. Vocal tracking has intimidated me since the beginning of this project. For most of the tracks, we recorded all the music and instruments, and when that was complete, I recorded my vocals inside an intimate booth with a microphone and headphones. When doing this, you may be surprised to learn that we rarely track an entire song from start to finish. Instead, we do the verse a few times, then the chorus, and so on. This way, we can re-do any particular section as many times as necessary to get it  perfect . And there is so much to get perfect when recording vocals; tone, pitch, breath, pronunciation, volume. It's quite exhausting. But on one track, we decided to record a simple piano and vocal, live in the studio...