Tag Archives: piano

William and Mary piano class offers fellowship for vets

Posted by MaryO on

piano-dream

 

Rebecca Davy paced through her class Saturday, giving instructions to each student sitting at their keyboards.

This was no computer exercise though. “Keep your fingers super glued to those notes. Where’s E? Where’s G? Where’s C?,” she said. “You need to know where your fingers are mentally on the keyboard.”

In Ewell Hall on the College of William and Mary’s campus, Davy has been giving piano lessons to military veterans through a collaboration with the Armed Services Arts Partnership.

The program partners colleges and veterans to help them build communities and fellowships centered around the arts. The program, which is free for veterans whose applications are accepted, provides instruction in courses like writing, stand-up comedy, guitar and piano.

Armed Services Arts Partnership was founded by Sam Pressler, who attended W&M.

Pressler founded the group seeking to use comedy as a way to allow veterans to express themselves after he lost a relative to suicide and learned later about the high rate of suicide among military veterans.

“A single class soon blossomed into communities around writing, music, and comedy, and with such proof of concept and demand, he formed a nonprofit to scale the model to other communities located in areas with high military populations,” said Megan Brew, director of operations for Armed Services Arts Partnership, which is based in Arlington.

“I’ve done so many things. I work with veterans as a transition counselor, and a lot of our soldiers are leaving the service with mental health issues,” said Willie Burston, who attends the piano group. Burston himself is a retired Army veteran.

“Something like this will keep them focused on positive things,” he said. Burston said he also joined the group for a simpler reason. He enjoys singing in church and has aspirations to one day play some of the instrumental music. His favorite songs are hymns such as “Amazing Grace.”

“I came from a family of ministers and pastors and musicians, but I can’t play.”

On Saturday, he sat patiently as Davy taught him the beginning of “The Can-Can” by Jacques Offenbach.

“I heard about this from the VA hospital. My doctor said this would be good for you,” said Anita Jones Chow Yuk, a retired Navy Commander. She had aspirations to learn a musical instrument earlier in life but never received the encouragement she needed.

“I think it’s a great opportunity to help them find a teacher,” Davy said. “I wasn’t about to let the class not happen,” she said.

From http://www.vagazette.com/news/va-vg-jcc-vet-piano-lesson-20151013,0,1449853.story

Simply Piano Teaches You Piano, Listens And Corrects Your Mistakes

Posted by MaryO on

Simply-Piano

 

iOS: Learning to play the piano can be difficult, and even moreso if you don’t have someone there to help you fix your errors and learn good tempo. Simply Piano can do both of those things, and all it takes is your iPhone or iPad. Best of all, it’s free.

Like many “piano-learning” apps, Simply Piano teaches you various pieces of music by essentially displaying sheet music in front of you to play, guiding you to the right keys on your piano or keyboard, and showing you the right order in which to press them and when — that’s all great, and not terribly unique, even if it works well. Where the app shines however is its listening feature. Simply put the phone down near the keyboard, and Simply Piano will “listen” to you play.

As you play, the app identifies what you’re playing and gives you feedback on how to improve. Maybe you need to pick up the tempo, or maybe you missed a few notes here or there — whatever it is, the app can give you a few tips, and encourages you to try again, all while it listens and tries to help.

Simply Piano is free, and available now. It comes bundled with a ton of songs to learn (including classical and pop songs you’ll probably recognise), and is geared to all skill levels — and keyboard types, so you don’t need a fancy piano just to use the app, any keyboard will do. Hit the link below to try it out.

Simply Piano (Free) [iTunes App Store via JoyTunes]

From http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2015/10/simply-piano-teaches-you-piano-listens-and-corrects-your-mistakes/

 

Keyboard Conversations® with Jeffrey Siegel: Chopin and Grieg – A Musical Friendship

Posted by MaryO on

steinway-new

Get tickets now!

  • October 25, 2015 at 7:00 pm

George Mason Concert Hall

In his second concert of the season, Jeffrey Siegel presents music of two of the most popular composers of the Romantic era in a performance of engaging melodies and nationalistic pride! Edvard Grieg was known as “the Chopin of the North” and put Norway on the classical music map in the same way Chopin celebrated his Polish heritage and homeland.

This delightful program features Chopin’s exhilirating [sic] Polonaises, Op. 22 and a group of his soulful Mazurkas, as well as Grieg’s zesty Norwegian Dances, and his heartbreaking, narrative Ballade. Part artist, part educator, and part entertainer, Jeffrey Siegel has enchanted Center audiences for nearly a quarter century with his brilliant artistry, massive pianotechnique, and a remarkable gift for making the audience a part of the classical music experience. “Siegel lit the stage…piano playing to delight the ears.” (San Diego Evening Tribune)

In addition to the remaining two Keyboard Conversations performances at the Center for the Arts, Mr. Siegel will also be performing at the Hylton Performing Arts Center in Manassas on March 6, 2016. Take a look.

$40, $34, $24. 2 Free Student Tickets Available with Mason ID on October 13, 2015

Get Tickets

October 4 ~ Today in Music

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today

• 1812 ~ Fanny Perisiani, Italian coloratura soprano

• 1881 ~ The player piano was invented by Edward Leveaux of Sussex, England, who received a patent for it this day. There were many player piano inventions going on throughout the world during this time. Leveaux happened to be the lucky chap who received the patent England was handing out.

• 1929 ~ Leroy Van Dyke, Singer

• 1939 ~ A barber from Canonsburg (near Pittsburgh), PA, who had quite a singing voice, recorded That Old Gang of Mine with the Ted Weems Orchestra. That singer was the feature of the Weems band for many years before going solo as a radio, TV and stage star. You know him as ‘The Incomparable Mr. C.’, Perry Como. His string of hits for RCA Victor spans four decades. He was an NBC mainstay for years and years.

• 1943 ~ Is You is or is You Ain’t My Baby? was the musical question by Louis Jordan and His Tympany Five on this day on Decca Records.

• 1947 ~ James Fielder, Bass with these groups: Buffalo Springfield, Mothers of Invention and Blood, Sweat & Tears

• 1948 ~ Gordon MacRae hosted the premiere of a radio classic. The Railroad Hour debuted on ABC radio. The theme song was I’ve Been Working on the Railroad and the show was sponsored by….America’s Railroads.

• 1949 ~ John Aler, American tenor

• 1959 – Chris Lowe, Keyboards with Pet Shop Boys

• 1966 ~ It was, indeed, a Sunny Day for singer Bobby Hebb, who received a shiny gold record award for his song.

• 1967 ~ Woody (Woodrow Wilson) Guthrie passed away

• 1970 ~ Janis Joplin died from a drug overdose. She was 27. Joplin, known for her passionate, bluesy, vocal style, was the lead singer of Big Brother and the Holding Company. She became a superstar with hits like, Down on Me, Pearl (her nickname) and Every Little Piece of My Heart; but Me and Bobby McGee was her only certified top 40 hit. The Bette Midler movie, The Rose, was based on Joplin’s life.

• 1999 ~ Art Farmer passed away

• 2000 ~ International diplomat and Newport Music Festival director David Meredith Evans died at the age of 64.

• 2001 ~ Irmgard Farden Aluli, considered the most prolific female Hawaiian composer since Queen Liliuokalani, died after suffering complications from colon cancer surgery. She was 89. Aluli, affectionately nicknamed “Aunty”, became the first living member to be inducted into the Hawaiian Music Hall of Fame in 1998. In August, the Prince Kuhio Hawaiian Civic Club honored her as a cultural living treasure. She wrote more than 200 songs, including Boy from Laupahoehoe and E maliu Mai. Aluli began performing publicly after graduating from St. Andrew’s Priory in 1929. She was a member of the Annie Kerr Trio in the 1930s. In the late 1960s, Aluli, her daughters and a niece formed the group Puamana.

• 2001 ~ Jazz guitarist John Collins, who played with Nat King Cole for over a decade, died at the age of 83. Collins was born in Montgomery, Ala., and grew up in Chicago. His mother, Georgia Gorham, was a pianist and bandleader. Collins briefly played clarinet before switching to guitar and moving to New York, where he played with prominent jazzmen such as pianist Art Tatum. Collins accompanied singer Billie Holiday and saxophonist Lester Young in the 1940s and played in bands led by Benny Carter and Fletcher Henderson. He served in the Army during World War II, and played in Army bands. Esquire magazine gave Collins its New Star award as best guitarist of 1947, his lone jazz poll honor. Collins’ 14-year association with Cole began in 1951, when he replaced guitarist Oscar Moore. Collins played with Cole until the latter’s death in 1965. Collins went on to tour Europe with his own group. He played occasionally around Southern California in the 1990s but worked mainly as a private teacher.

Fairfax Symphony Orchestra: Sean Chen, piano

Posted by MaryO on

Piano 6

October 24, 2015 at 8:00 pm

George Mason Concert Hall

Sibelius: Valse Triste and Scene with Cranes
Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 2
-Sean Chen, piano
Sibelius: Symphony No. 2

Hailed as a charismatic rising star, pianist Sean Chen won over fans and critics at the 2013 Van Cliburn Piano Competition as the Crystal Award winner with “an exceptional ability to connect with an audience combined with an easy virtuosity” (Huffington Post). Chen is the first American to earn a Cliburn award since 1997, just months after being named the 2013 Christel DeHaan Classical Fellow of the American Pianists Association.

“It was a muscular, impassioned performance, and you felt that he is an artist with something to say.” – Cincinnati Enquirer

$58, $46, $34. 1 Free Student Ticket Available with Mason ID on October 13, 2015

Get Tickets

A grand piano for a good cause

Posted by MaryO on

Piano 6

 

From Singapore: Classical music radio station Symphony 92.4FM is putting up a piano designed by Steinway & Sons for auction, and proceeds will go to the President’s Challenge 2015.

The President’s Challenge supports close to 100 charity organisations such as Boys’ Town, Cerebal Palsy Alliance Singapore, Lions Home for The Elders, and Guide Dogs Association of the Blind.

The Boston GP-163PE Grand Piano is valued at S$44,800, with a minimum bid of S$10,000. The silent auction will end on Sep 30 at 11.59pm.

Corporations are welcome to particpate, and the successful bidder can also choose to donate the piano to a beneficiary.

Visit www.toggle.sg/symphony924auction for more details and to take part.

September 18 ~ Today in Music History

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today

 

• 1763 ~ An instrument named the spinet was mentioned in The Boston Gazette newspaper on this day. John Harris made the spinet, a small upright piano with a three to four octave range. There is no verifiable evidence to support the rumor that a man named Spinetti made the first spinet.

• 1809 ~ The Theatre Royal at Covent Garden re-opened after being destroyed by fire the year before. The Theatre Royal at Covent Garden began in Bow Street in 1732. It was designed by E.M. Barry in classical style. He also built for the theatre’s management the Floral Hall next door in glass and iron, meant to be a straightforward rival to the Bedford’s flower market. Both of Barry’s buildings are now part of the rebuilt Royal Opera House at Covent Garden complex.

• 1838 ~ Emil Scaria, Austrian bass-baritone

• 1910 ~ Josef Tal, Polish-born Israeli composer and pianist

• 1917 ~ The Honolulu Ad Club registered a patent for the ukulele.

• 1927 ~ The Columbia Broadcasting System was born on this day, although its rival, NBC, had been on the air for some time. The Tiffany Network, as CBS was called, broadcast an opera, The King’s Henchman, as its first program. William S. Paley put the network together, purchasing a chain of 16 failing radio stations. The controlling interest cost between $250,000 and $450,000. The following year, the 27-year-old Paley became President of CBS. It only took one more year for him to profit 2.35 million dollars as the network grew to over 70 stations. In 1978 Paley received the First Annual ATAS (Academy of Television Arts and Sciences) Governor’s Award as Chairman of the Board of CBS.

• 1929 ~ Teddi King, Singer

• 1933 ~ Jimmie Rodgers, Singer

• 1939 ~ Frankie (Frances) Avalon (Avellone), American rock-and-roll singer

• 1947 ~ Country singers Ernest Tubb and Roy Acuff performed at Carnegie Hall in New York City. It was the first country show for the NYC venue.

• 1948 ~ The Original Amateur Hour returned to radio on ABC, two years after the passing of the program’s originator and host, Major Bowes. Bowes brought new star talent into living rooms for 13 years. Ted Mack, the new host, had also started a TV run with The Original Amateur Hour on the DuMont network in January of 1948.

• 1949 ~ Kerry Livgren, Guitar, keyboards with Kansas

• 1952 ~ Dee Dee Ramone (Douglas Colvin), Drummer with The Ramones

• 1955 ~ What had been The Toast of the Town on CBS Television (since 1948) became The Ed Sullivan Show. This “rilly big shew” remained a mainstay of Sunday night television until June 6, 1971. Sullivan was a newspaper columnist/critic before and during the early years of this pioneering TV show.

• 1957 ~ The Big Record, hosted by ‘the singing rage’, Miss Patti Page, debuted on CBS-TV. The Big Record was a live musical showcase featuring established artists singing their big songs. The Big Record lasted one big season.

• 1962 ~ Joanne Catherall, Singer with Human League

• 1967 ~ Ricky Bell, Singer with New Edition

• 1969 ~ Tiptoeing through late night TV, Tiny Tim announced his engagement to Miss Vicki Budinger. Johnny Carson, host of The Tonight Show, was so enthralled with the falsetto voiced singer that he invited the couple to get married on the show. They did on December 17, 1969 and TV history was made.

• 1970 ~ Rock radio mourned the loss of rock music legend, Jimi Hendrix. He died at age 27 of an overdose of sleeping pills. His Purple Haze and Foxy Lady became anthems for a generation at war in Vietnam.

• 1997 ~ Jimmy Witherspoon passed away

Another App from JoyTunes

Posted by MaryO on

Simply-Piano

 

Simply Piano helps you learn piano step by step, no previous knowledge required. It works with any piano or keyboard. Simply Piano is meant to teach people with little to no previous experience how to play songs and read music.

Run the app as you play and it provides real-time feedback as you progress through lessons. Just place your iPhone (or iPad) on your piano (or use your MIDI keyboard) and play, your iPhone will immediately recognize what you are playing!

The app slowly progresses from learning a few notes at a time to simple (and later, more complex) songs.

The app doesn’t let you skip ahead between lessons to maximize their effect. But not everyone has to start at square one. If you have some prior experience, you can indicate that the first time you use the app and it adjusts accordingly.

 

Free: iOS (I had to search for “Joytunes”)

IMAGE: JOYTUNES

From 2014: Manuscript of Mozart’s Piano Sonata K331 Discovered in Budapest

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mozart-sonata-k331

 

The manuscript of Mozart’s A major piano sonata K331 has recently been discovered in Budapest. Having spent the majority of its life in the Budapest’s National Széchényi Library for decades, the coveted manuscript was rediscovered by Haydn scholar Balazs Mikusi.

“When I first laid eyes upon the manuscript, the handwriting already looked suspiciously ‘Mozartish’,” said Mikusi, who is the head of the music collection at National Szechenyi Library. “Then I started reading the notes, and realised it is the famous A Major sonata … My heart rate shot up.”

The piece was composed in 1783 and contains Mozart’s most popular jam, “Turkish March,” which has become a piano lesson staple all over the world.

Although, unfortunately, Mikusi can’t say how or when these pages found their way to Hungary; they reveal subtle differences from the published editions of the sonata. The key variances are seen in the phrasing, dynamics and occasionally the notes themselves.

“It is very rare that a Mozart manuscript pops up. Moreover the A Major Sonata had no known manuscript, so it is a really big discovery,” he said.

The library has only released teasing images of the manuscript, nothing more.

 

From Manuscript of Mozart’s Piano Sonata K331 Discovered in Budapest’s National Széchényi Library : Classical : Classicalite.

The whole sonata:

 

How Do We Know If Children Are Ready To Begin Music Lessons?

Posted by MaryO on

child-piano

 

These days, there is much pressure for parents to begin their children in activities from an early age.  We know that children tend to pick up new skills easily and we want for them to have an opportunity to become experts at these new skills.  We also see curiosity, desire and eagerness to learn in our children and want to capitalize on that.

Music lessons are no exception.  We often get calls asking the question, “When is the best time to enroll my child in piano lessons?”  The answer to that is a tricky one, and varies for each child.  The right age for one may not be the right age for another.  Here are a few questions to ask yourself if you are considering enrolling your child in music lessons:

1.   Does my child have an attention span to sit still for chunks of time and listen to instruction?

Many teachers today are very creative in using off-bench activities during lessons and have a plethora of activities to make lessons fun and engaging.  However, the fact remains that your child will need to sit at the piano for some periods of time during the lesson.  It is important that your child have the attention span to do this.

Read more at  How do we know if children are ready to begin music lessons? « Piano Pedagogy @ The New School for Music Study.