Alan Thompson Interview
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LP: Is that how arranging works? How do you put the songs together?
Alan: Well, as far as my part is concerned, I work on creating a good melody and counter-melody. In the marching band, the trumpet had a lot of counter melody. The clarinets and flutes had the main melody and then the trumpets had all the counter-melody.
With my part I just play the main melody with the right hand then take the left hand and try to figure out different harmonies for the bottom part. Sometimes, I find two songs that sound great together, so we work that in. It takes at least two hours to figure out exactly what I’m going to do and another two hours to get comfortable with it.
LP: Does Rod pretty much arrange the left hand?
Alan: Yeah, he does his own left hand. He creates the rhythms and dresses it up. He puts all the tenths in it and all the fancy chords to make it sound good. He does his own part and I do my own part. If he hears something he doesn’t like, he helps me out; you know gives me ideas of what the chord structure should be or how it should sound.
LP: How do you two pick which songs to play?
Alan: Well for the first 18 songs, up to the one we’re learning now (Someone to Watch Over Me), it just kind of came to us. There wasn’t any real planning. We just picked from the most popular songs out there on the market.
LP: Do you have a favorite of the ones that you know
Alan: Favorite? It’s a Small World!
LP: Really? Why It’s a Small World?
Alan: First of all, I love attention from the crowd. I like when people come up and smile. Their mouths wide open, like they can’t believe what’s happening. I never knew I could play this fast, or play even close to what Rod does. It’s amazing to me too.
Sometimes when playing the piano, I have this image of myself playing while I’m playing and I can’t believe I’m doing it. Sometimes I miss a note because I’m thinking to myself “am I actually doing this? There is no way.”
It’s A Small World is a fast song, a cute song. I like all the cute songs. It’s one of the most impressive songs we do.
LP: Certainly. It’s different. I remember when Coke Corner was under refurbishment and you two were on Center Street.... I was across Main Street and could hear it echoing across. It was just such an incredible sound floating across that little alleyway there.
Alan: When you have four hands on the keyboard it almost sounds like an orchestra. It can sound like a twenty piece band playing just one piano. That is what is so unique. It’s got a huge sound.
LP: So you’re about to release a CD and you’re only twenty...
Alan: Twenty-one years old. I turned 21 June 2nd
LP: Twenty-one and you’re actually going into the recording studio and working stuff out? What is that like?
Alan: When I first entered the recording studio, I didn’t know how picky you have to be to actually get a good take. Every note has to be right. You can play 2000 notes in one song. If one note isn’t right, the melody isn’t right, or a beat is just a little off-a half second off-you gotta stop, erase that take, and start over.
LP: Do you pretty much know when it’s wrong? Do you stop right away?
Alan: Oh yeah, If one of us hears something, like if I feel that Rod made a mistake, or Rod feels that I made a mistake, he’ll just stop me and say, you messed up we got to start over. It’s no big deal, Just erase it and re-record. It’s a lesson in choosiness. Creating that good sound that the public likes to hear.
LP: What is the funniest thing that ever happened with you and Rod while playing the piano?
Alan: Funniest thing? There are so many. I have no idea which one to pick out. Here’s one as far as recording in the studio is concerned. We spent seven hours going over the Maple Leaf Rag. We must have done at least 200 takes. We would finish the intro and have to start over, or something else would go wrong. The last twelve takes were the most frustrating. The first eleven of the twelve, I played it perfect; we got all the way to the end, and I missed the last note. In every single one of those songs, I would miss one note, and because of that one note we had to start over. Rod’s part was perfect; my part was perfect, all the way up to the very end where I screwed it up and we had to start over. We were laughing so hard we couldn’t play for 15 minutes. It was a lot of fun.
It’s a frustrating process to learn all the songs. You must have the patience to persevere. If you mess up-you start over, just keep doing it. But the trick is, you never give up. Always take the frustration into the positive aspect, keep going, keep practicing. That helps.