Tune for Tuesday for Week of 10/28/2014: "Ghostbusters" by Ray Parker, Jr.

 

"Ray Parker, Jr. - Ghostbusters" (Watch on YouTube)

This week's rather timely Tune for Tuesday, "Ghostbusters" by Ray Parker Jr., is not only the awesome theme song for a great movie, but this song happens to have a special place in my heart. When I was a senior in high school, I decided that I wanted to try learning how to play this on the piano, and initially thought I could get it down by Halloween. Turned out to be a LOT harder than I originally expected. Even deciding not to try and memorize the piece and instead just play off of the sheet music, it was still incredibly challenging to reach the point where I felt comfortable with it. There was even a section of the song that I chose not to repeat when playing in an attempt to make things even easier on myself. In the end, I had been working on this song up until it was around the time of my high school graduation. But when I decided to play this as one of two songs at a piano recital, from the moment I started playing the opening chords for the audience, it became clear that my efforts had more than paid off. Not only was I singing along with the lyrics, but without even realizing it, I even repeated the section I had earlier decided to only play once through. As an added treat, my piano teacher surprised me by bringing a double-sided sign he had made so that when I got to the parts of the song where it goes "Who ya gonna call? GHOSTBUSTERS!", the audience could chime in. I did a better job playing this piece at that recital than any of the times I had practiced it, and several witnesses agreed with me. The result was a wonderful and joyous performance I'll never forget.