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When I was a student in music school, every teacher and professor I ever had always said the same thing: every instrumentalist must know how to sing. I hope that the video attached to this post qualifies as a partial fulfillment of their requirements.

I say “partial fulfillment”, because there’s a second part to that mandate: every musician should be able to play more than one instrument. Currently, I can pick away at a piano - block chords, one-handed melodies, basic comping skills - but I’m not at all “performance ready”. So, I have recently decided to practice playing keyboards more over the coming months. My ultimate goal is to play a whole concert alone with just my keyboard. That will be the unit of measure by which I can quantify my proficiency.

Guitar is another instrument that I’d like to eventually learn. It’s such a beautiful instrument, and like the piano, it can be used as both a solo and a supporting instrument (typically, the violin alone is strictly a solo-only instrument, unless you’re playing a Bach partita or something). But, guitar will just have to wait for now, at least until I feel good about my keyboard skills.

This all relates to my main goal of being the best musician that I can be, all around. I always want to be in a position of learning something new with every day. And with all the amazing people I meet on a regular basis, I definitely am always learning new musical skills!

One person I’m really learning a lot from lately is DJ Johnny Juice. He’s seriously a killer musician. You can probably assume from his title of “DJ” that he’s got incredible scratching and mixing skills, but calling him just a DJ wouldn’t be right. The guy really knows his music.

Juice is someone that is exemplifying the lessons that all those teachers told me about when I was younger. He can sing, he can play (not just tables, but also drums and percussion), and he can write. Oh yeah, he can produce, too. Juice pretty much does it all.

I’m very excited to say that I’ll be going back to New York City next week to work with Juice on a couple projects, as well as perform with Juice at an event at Pace University on the 21st. It’s going to be awesome! Of course, I’ll be recording video whenever I can, so you’ll be able to see footage of the trip on my site soon.

There are so many amazing and exciting things coming up, and I hope that you’ll be able to join me in celebrating them. First, if you’re going to be in the Los Angeles area on Thursday, February 28th, please join me in celebrating my birthday at my show at Temple Bar in Santa Monica. It’s going to be my very first headlining gig! The show will feature my full band, and we’ll be playing some of the new stuff you’ve seen online over the past couple months (as well as some super secret stuff we’ve been working on), and we’ll play some of your old favorites, too. It’s going to be a solid show, and I hope to see you there!

Also, inka one and I will be playing at Playboy’s Rock the Rabbit Festival in Cabo San Lucas in March. This will actually be my very first “spring break experience”, so I’m very much looking forward to it.

There’s plenty more news on the way. Check back here next week for more of the latest! In the meantime, feel free to follow my random thoughts on Twitter.

Hoping that you are all safe and in good company,
pd

P.S. This week’s video features a cover version of Amel Larrieux’s “Get Up” - arranged and performed by Ken Belcher and Paul Dateh.

P.P.S. This week’s video is dedicated to anyone that might be feeling down. If you’re going through a tough time, don’t worry. Keep your head up, because things will always get better.