Preparing for a masterclass

[Kanthos]

Next week, I'm going to a keyboard masterclass with Jordan Rudess from Dream Theater. While I'm really pumped about it, I'm also starting to really freak out, mainly because I'm not quite sure what I'm supposed to do. I've never been to a masterclass of any kind before, plus I suspect that this one will be different than the typical masterclass that university music students might have, mainly because Jordan's big strengths over your average piano teacher are in sound design, synth programming, creative use of gear, and so on.

I have a few good questions I want to ask, but I'm unsure about the playing component of it. My understanding is that usually in a masterclass, I'd play something and get critiqued on it, while the comment I got from the person at the music store setting up the class was different:

"The Master class will be JR with up to 15- 20 people playing with him. Its an opportunity to play, jam, and ask specific music questions with him. He will conduct the class and cover whatever topics the class wants to get answered"

Should I prepare something to play in general (probably a jazz tune; classical seems out of place, and background keyboard parts like I'd play in a band wouldn't really show too much), or should I think of things I could play that would highlight my questions? Or am I just overthinking things?

[Gario]

Should I prepare something to play in general (probably a jazz tune; classical seems out of place, and background keyboard parts like I'd play in a band wouldn't really show too much), or should I think of things I could play that would highlight my questions? Or am I just overthinking things?

If you have some burning questions you could try playing something that highlights your questions, as long as you understand that you may miss something that you didn't know about and the person could have pointed out if you weren't as focused.

Both approaches are fairly reasonable - hey, you could ask the question before you play, then play something general and find out if he has anything else to say about your technique. Any of these are fine - you'll learn from him in any case so relax and enjoy your time in the master class.

[Kanthos]

Well, my main question is related to posture and how I'm carrying myself: I'm working hard to get rid of tendonitis and want to hear, from someone who plays as intensely as he does, what changes I can make that would help, and also what kind of physical warmups he does (I already have a good idea of his on-keyboard warmup routine from his Keyboard Madness DVD). Everything else I can think of to ask is related to gear, sound design, and other things that don't really need a demo anyway.

Thanks for the advice; I'll hopefully be less stressed about it by Thursday