Greg Pane
Pianist / Keyboardist / Composer
(Showy instrumental music with some surprises!)
About Me
Greg developed perfect pitch and the ability to play the piano, compose and improvise music quite suddenly-like at the age of 5, when he started mocking a player piano his parents had bought. Since then, he developed this ability to a professional level. His performance style is best described as very “full and reaching out to pull you in” as if a large band or orchestra is playing. His repertoire is wide ranging and unique in its scope and reach. Greg’s ability to compose music in a wide variety of styles and instantly be able to improvise, brings an additional feature to his music services.
Hello and welcome to my website! I am glad you are here! I hope you have fun exploring my website! As you consider me for a music performance, throw out the ideas of elevator music, a classical only protégé, or a rock band keyboardist who is seen but never heard. Those and other stereotypes are not me! However, if you are looking for someone who will play the piano to its fullest, or play the heart out of a digital electrical keyboard, then we have a match. Counter to present-day stereotypes, my instrumental music is best received and appreciated as foreground entertainment, though I certainly can perform background music when needed. I will consider most any type of event, even types of events or venues I have never played for! I am also constantly adding music to my repertoire and can compose and improvise for your event as well.
You can hire me to perform some of the world's finest and most beautiful music either on your piano OR I can do the performance on my wonderful digital piano keyboard with various supportive instrument sounds, along with a fabulous sound system that takes up little space.
I invite you to further explore the unique way my music came about and my vision for music in the rest of the About Me Sections.
ABOUT ME: GREG’S VISION FOR HIS MUSIC
My vision for music has evolved into a very purposeful usage of music with strong melodic content. Melody, especially strong melody, is the key to great lasting music for purposes of celebrating, spiritually uplifting, commemorating, or describing action, scenes, or situations. It is the very heart and soul of music! It is what you hum, sing or whistle. Melody is the driving force in music. Imagine a sheet of music without notes or a song without anything but a beat and you will get the picture. Music cannot exist without melody just like candy cannot exist without sweetness. I, like many people, am attracted to music that has strong melodies. What I do is take these strong melodies and perform them as “reach out and grab you” instrumental arrangements on piano and keyboards. This includes familiar music as well as music that is not normally associated with piano or instrumental arrangements!
Music is supposed to uplift people, and even promote healing where needed. One should walk away from a music listening experience with not only a good mood, but a good purpose. As you read through my playlists, you will see a lot of the music that has not only influenced my music repertoire, but my compositional styles. As you will be able to tell, these musical influences on me are very diverse. I consider my music and the way it came about as a gift of God. Therefore, it is my calling to use it in a way that brings goodness to the world. I am thankful for the music!" PSALM 95:2
ABOUT ME: HOW I LEARNED – The Sudden Gifting
There was a sign of things to come when at the age of 4, Greg was seen by his sister shaking a can opener to the “beat” of the automatic dishwasher sound in the family kitchen. A year later at the age of 5, after his family had just moved to Livermore, California, His parents bought a player piano to have for family entertainment. One day, his sister witnessed Greg playing music on the piano without any player roll in and recognizing it as a song from a recently played piano roll. Greg recalls: “I specifically remember one of my parents coming home from work and my sister yelling, ‘hey mom, dad, Greg is playing the piano with no player roll in!” As Greg’s parents and siblings gathered in amazement, they saw and heard him playing songs quite advanced for his age, and seemed as though he was “mocking” the music played on the player piano rolls!
As the days rolled on, and as Greg’s parents realized that he indeed experienced a sudden gifting of music talent, they decided to approach him about lessons. Greg recalls his mother asking him if he wanted piano lessons. “I was asked, never forced to take lessons or play the piano. This is especially important at such a young age. I never felt my parents were trying to live a music dream riding on my talent. They realized I had suddenly become gifted and they were giving me the option to explore it. To this day I continue pursing my music and constantly continue to expand it because I love it and it is really what I do best! If I was forced to take lessons as a kid, I like many others, would not have ever wanted to pursue it and develop it. Human nature does not take kindly to being forced to do anything. My parents weren’t perfect, no one is. But this way of approaching me about piano lessons, and leaving it up to me, was one of the best things they ever did! Because of this, I am a professional freelance musician today, and love it!”
ABOUT ME: THE DISCOVERY OF PERFECT PITCH
Around the age of 6, Greg’s parents signed him up to get piano lessons to develop his talent at the Curtis School of Music in Livermore, Ca. (no longer there). Within a couple of lessons, Greg’s teacher, Don Curtis, noticed that Greg was not able to concentrate on sheet music because once he heard how a song went, his mind was distracted with a rapidly growing ability to instantly recall music he just heard. It was like night and day. Great ear and memory ability, but concentration on written notes was not good.
Not too long after Don Curtis discovered this about Greg, he approached his parents and asked them if he could forego the standard way of teaching music through sight reading, and instead teach Greg the notes by ear, which included music theory, chords, harmony, piano key identification and positioning and, playing and developing his own compositions. Don Curtis saw in Greg, the ability to learn much faster this way, and boy was he right! “I owe so much thanks to Don for going against standard teaching methods and catering his teaching to my learning style! Music is an audio art form, first and foremost. Just like words, it had to be sounded before ever assigned symbols in writing. Therefore, I know I play the natural way."
Don Curtis was a piano salesmen and showman, as well as piano instructor. "What he did for me was priceless! Within weeks of his teaching, the only technical teaching in my life I ever excelled instantly at, and at the ripe old age of 6, I was able to know what key any music I heard was in, instantly identify notes, chords, and relational chords upon hearing them, and started composing songs.” Greg’s very first composition was “Blend Band” – a march in the advanced key of A-flat major. Greg remembers Don Curtis telling him he could picture him leading a band in a parade performing this song.
Greg recalls: “God used Don Curits in a big way in my life. I am SOOO grateful! There were not many teachers like him. He constantly encouraged me and had me play in his regular recitals in front of other students and parents, and had me play live Christmas music on the piano over a mic’d system in downtown Livermore when I was about 8 years old. This was a thrill! One of the best memories of my childhood is when Don had me play for the Sunol Country Club Christmas Banquet when I was around 8. I remember playing “Hello Dolly,” and some music from “The Nutcracker Suite” and getting a standing ovation and calls for an encore! People were offering me their elegant deserts as I walked down the middle isle to go to and from the stage! The hall and stage seemed huge, especially being a little kid at the time. But what a thrill for a young kid!”
One more very important thing about Don Curtis: “After a while during the early ear training phase of his teaching, he noticed I was sometimes guessing a half step off from the real notes. He asked to come hear my piano at home. Upon doing so he noticed that the piano I played at home, was about a half step low. He had been able to tell this by bringing a middle c tuning fork. He then told me that his pianos at his studio are new and tuned to the correct modern A-440 pitch. From then on, we had our piano at home tuned to the modern pitch and I never made a mistake again in guessing notes at the lessons. What a great thing that Don Curtis did, by correcting this. It meant the difference between me having developed perfect pitch and being in error by a half step, which is a lot in music! I am so thankful for him in the early days of the development of my music talent!”
ABOUT ME: SIGHT READING
Greg had concentration problems at times as a kid and sight reading was not natural for him, despite his intense music talent. Eventually he did grasp being able to identify notes at first site but like he explains, “knowing how to identify notes on sheet music is quite different than sitting down and instantly playing 10 stacked notes in the exact timing as written. That is a different talent than I have and I do admire it.” His best teacher for sight reading was an elderly lady named Babe Farley. She had been a performer earlier in life and she was the only teacher that Greg was able to really get any significant sightreading success under. He was able to play a couple Scott Joplin rags from exact notes and a few other complicated things, but to this day, he does not know how she was able to do that with him. “Perhaps because she had been a performer herself, she was able to understand people who play by ear, and since my ear ability was far advanced, that was a lot to understand. So perhaps I tried harder for her and because she had a positive demeanor towards me, even my mistakes, I concentrated harder.” This was years later in his high school days long after Greg’s perfect pitch ability and piano playing had advanced. “I was able to concentrate better on site reading at that age than when I was younger. Still, I knew that sight reading was not going to be a strength of mine in music and ultimately was not worried about that! Why worry when I could already play at a higher level than most sheet music is written at.”
So as far as sightreading goes, because of his ear ability and early understanding of basic chords and their relationships, Greg can instantly identify what key a song is in on sheet music by reading the key signature, and because of his early theory teaching and ear ability, instantly be able to tell you the key’s related major or minor key, and knows the circle of fifths and fourths, which ironically, is a major part of written music training that his ear ability helps him understand so vividly.
ABOUT ME: GREG’S REPERTOIRE DEVELOPMENT
Much of Greg’s early repertoire was based on American fox trots and pop music from the early 1900’s through the 1920’s because that was predominantly the music that was in the piano roll collection for his parents’ player piano. He and his family played these rolls often while his music ear / memory ability was forming as a young child. This is where he developed a fullness to his playing and using full octaves, often in both hands. That is typical of fox trot music on the player rolls. "Shine", "Hello Dolly" and "That Old Gang of Mine" are examples of these type of songs Greg was learning from player rolls between age 5 and 8!
Next, Greg started learning classical music, waltzes, ballads and even some great world music tunes off the player rolls. By the age of 9, Greg had learned several pieces of "The Nutcracker" by Tchaikovsky. Classical waltz pieces he learned are "Southern Nights Waltz" and "California Nights Waltz" by Lee Roberts, and "The Grand Canyon of Arizona Waltzes" by Redewill. There are no known recordings of these waltzes anywhere but the player rolls, and Greg most likely is the only person playing this music, that he learned at the age of 10. "These arrangements of classical music and waltzes on the piano rolls are fantastic and unlike anything you would ever see or hear today! The piano is used in all its' glorious fullness! I don't understand the obscurity of such beautiful pieces of music! In Particular, "The Grand Canyon of Arizona Waltzes" is a beautiful composition of several rich waltz melodies, each one building on another and making the Grand Canyon come alive in anyone's mind that is hearing it. It is over 10 minutes long and is one of the most difficult pieces of music to play, fingering wise! It is very joyous and that makes it worth it! Friends of mine have repeatedly made this a song request at social gatherings. Part of my vision for music is to revive music like this on the piano, make people aware of it, and perform it wherever and whenever I can!"
The rest of Greg's repertoire learned from player rolls includes such international songs ("world music") as the French song, "La Mattchiche" ("The Woman") which was used in the movie "Around the World in 80 Days", "Valencia", and the wonderful Irish ballad "River Shannon Moon".
Now it was on to learning songs directly off TV, Radio, Movies, and other sources The influences were now starting to add up. Greg credits the movie "2001 A Space Odyssey" from 1968, as a major reason he started playing romantic era classical music. The Blue Danube, by Johann Strauss Jr., was used as a major part of the movie score in that epic film. "I could not get that beautiful music out of my head. I asked my dad what that music was at the age of 7. Once he told me, I went and learned Strauss waltzes, overtures, and anything with that romantic era melodic style." Since then, Greg has learned Beethoven's 5th Symphony, though it was written for an entire orchestra. He has learned other great classical pieces including a rare, but beautiful piece, Piano Concerto #2 by Bortkievich. His mother was a librarian who brought home tons of 33 LP records from a fire. From this collection, he learned this and many other classical pieces. Odd how things work out: If it wasn't for that fire, Greg never would have been exposed to this piece of great music, therefore never learning it.
In the summer of 1971, Greg's parents took him to see the epic big screen comedy movie, "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" at the drive in theater. This movie had a profound effect on Greg and his music. "This movie in it's full big screen 3+ hour presentation, was by far the best movie I had ever seen! So many stars, such great live stunt work, non-stop action, and the best movie score, hands down, in my humble and biased opinion! Ernest Gold, the music score composer, is shamefully underrecognized for his great movie scores and how wildly his composing style was adaptable to so many types of movies. He composed the music to "Exodus", "Ship of Fools", and the 1969 Golden Globe Winner - "The Secret of Santa Vittoria", all with fantastically different scores for very different films. I took to his music instantly at age 10 after seeing "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World", learned to play a lot of the score music, and learned Ernest Gold's music from these other movies as well. Whenever I would see he wrote the music to a movie, I would want to see that movie." Greg went on to learn a lot of music from many movies spanning the 1940's to present day, and is always learning more.
During the 1970's Greg became fascinated with local TV news themes and would play some of this stuff over and over, often driving family members crazy with it. "The 70's and early 80's was an era where there was some catchy music used for newscasts openings and closings. Sometimes the closing music would last a few minutes in those days."
Also, during the 70's, Greg was forming an affinity for country music. "When I started hearing Olivia Newton John sing "If You Love Me, Let Me Know" on country radio stations, it quickly became one of my favorite songs! I paid attention to Country Music from then on! Learning this song was therefore the beginning of Greg's wide ranging country music repertoire. "The 1970's through the 1990's was an era when so much melodic country music was coming out. It profoundly affected my composing style and expanded greatly on my repertoire. I think the 1990's were to country music what the 1980's was to rock music, a total renaissance! Those eras of Country and Rock are now being more widely recognized as amongst the best! These were the two most passionate, melodic, highly diverse eras that broke all kinds of genre stereotypes, especially in country!"
During the 1970's, Greg also started noticing the great music being put out by the pop group ABBA. From then on, he has built his ABBA repertoire up so much, he devotes a special section to it on his repertoire playlists. (Take a look at them on this site!)
Songs Greg had heard late at night on his brother's transistor radio in the late 60's and early 70's started to pop into Greg's mind as well, often many years later. "I had all these melodies coming to me of stuff I had heard years before. I could suddenly play the main part of them, upon the memory of them surfacing in my mind. This combined with hearing pop / rock stations on wherever the radio was on, was starting to have an enormous effect on building my repertoire." This included songs like "Baby Love's Lovin" by White Plains, Bridge Over Troubled Waters" by Simon & Garfunkel, "Bad Moon Arisin" by Clarence Clearwater Revival, etc.
Hearing and learning songs off the radio became more prominent for Greg from the mid 70's through the 90's. He learned a big variety of country tunes from Patty Loveless, Suzy Bogguss, Mary Chapin-Carpenter, George Strait, Clay Walker, and many others.
"I really wasn't a rock person but started slowly building my pop/rock repertoire, and like many people, had a delayed reaction to realizing how great a lot of the 1980's pop /rock was with it's passionate singing and deeply rich, memorable melodies." Therefore, Greg built his 80's repertoire up considerably in recent years, as well as added 1990's to present day pop/rock, albeit more selectively, to his repertoire. "I want to make sure the songs stand alone as something that would be enjoyable to play on the piano. So, it must have a catchy melody, and pass my test for music that is highly presentable as instrumental entertainment. The 1980's was by far the best most melodic, energetic, passionate, pop/rock music era ever in my totally biased opinion. Many agree, even people not yet alive in the 1980's! Much of that era passes this test with flying colors!"
The 1980's into the early 2000's was an era where Greg learned a lot of Faith-based music. "Christian music became multi-faceted during these years. Everything from old hymns, to easy listening, folk, all out rock, heavy metal, and pop was being played at the churches, church events and church groups I was involved with or attending. Therefore, I started learning a bunch of this music. Many of the hymns from childhood were easy because I had heard them before, and boy is their room for improvisation on this music! The contemporary worship music is stuff I learned while serving on worship team bands. These were all very rich experiences that also had the benefit of growing my repertoire."
The ability to learn by ear /memory allows Greg to learn music that is not readily available to the public in either recorded or written form. Such is the case with the large amount of music that has been written for National Football League telecasts. "From the very first time I heard "Heavy Action", which is the widely known theme used for Monday Night Football for many years, I became very interested in music used for football broadcasts. I not only heard great music like the main themes that CBS television used in the 80's to present day, I heard great music on highlight shows for the NFL at large and for local highlight shows & segments like "49ers Defensive Highlights" showing great players from the 49ers defense pummeling their opponent."
"The NFL music is much more widely varied in style than people realize, is highly emotionally charged, and is riveting! Much of it would make great dance music! There are even some sentimental ballads for the reflective moments of the game! I just wish there were concerts being put on with all this great NFL Music. The next best thing of course, is playing it myself. This alone, makes me thankful I can learn them by ear, from the internet, etc. The NFL has a gold mine here in this music and they do not even know it. If this writing facilitates anyone's interest in seeing if we can get a concert together with this music, please let me know! Meanwhile I play a lot of this music on piano and keyboards, and in my biased opinion, this music is some of the best music the world has ever known! It should be out there and getting performed! Music from NFL shows and telecasts proves that instrumental music can take a foreground seat in the arena of music entertainment. Try watching a football highlight show without it and you will see and hear what I mean!"
Over time, Greg noticed a connection between the melodic music he was attracted to learning and playing, and the spiritual disposition of audiences that just heard him play it. He attributes this important aspect of his music to his faith, and therefore, the forming of his vision for music. “To be able to lift people up through music using a variety of genres, and incorporating rich, captivating melodies, and do so as showy instrumental music featuring broken stereotypes of what and how a piano player or keyboardist performs, is well, so fulfilling and fun, that it takes special people to know how deep this runs. Just think if someone can give you a deep part of themselves without saying anything, and that you benefit by simply receiving it and hearing it, well that is gold! There is healing, uplifting and fun in music when music is intended for that. That is what my music is all about!”
“I remember our dogs coming and sitting quietly and being at peace while playing all kinds of music on the family piano as a kid. Our dogs were big barkers and often misbehaved so this was something!” If it can happen to a dog, it certainly happens to people. “I played at a particular Farmers’ Market a couple times and could not believe that almost every person that passed by where I was performing not only said kind words about the music, but were clearly uplifted and joyous. It is so good to be a part of that when many parts of society are tearing people down instead."
"Please take the time to indulge yourself in my song playlists on this site. There are over 850 songs there, and I am always learning and composing more. In the Discography Section, you can listen to a couple of songs off each of my 5 CD albums for free.
Thanks for making it this far on my site! You can read my statement of Faith in the last part of this "About Me" section. I promise it is much shorter!"
GREG PANE
ABOUT ME: STATEMENT OF FAITH
“Since God gave me my music gifting, my responsibility is to acknowledge it, develop my gifting in various ways, and most of all, dedicate all my performances to Him. I believe John 3:16 and that if it wasn’t for Christ, I would never have been blessed with the gift of music. Therefore, I must acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and profess my Faith in Almighty God. He is the author of this music vision! I am simply the performer. There simply is no man-made institution that could ever have come up with this music vision or how my ability to play music and compose came about. I testify that when I was 5 years old, I suddenly went up to the player piano my parents had bought, and just started playing a song that I recently heard from a player roll on the piano myself without a piano roll in the piano at the time. This was a sudden blessing! I thank the Lord God for it!
As you read this, if you are not a believer in God, I hope you will consider it. If you are a believer, I hope you are further encouraged and uplifted by the story of my music. "
Greg Pane