Learn to play

Well, after mastered all the basic of piano, now starts to learn plays a song. Here are some useful tutorial video for piano playing.

Tutorial video of "I am yours" by Jason Mraz



Tutorial video of "Halo" by Beyonce



Tutorial video of "1,2,3,4" by Plain White T



Link below is the websites consists of thousands of piano playing tutorial video.

http://www.purelessons.com/songs.php

With those information and video, I able to step nearer to my goal, piano playing. Although i might cannot master piano by week 13, but i will not give up and i will continue strive until i achieve my goal.^^

Wonder Piano Player

Now i want to introduce one of the greatest piano player to all of you. He is Maksim Mrvica. You know him? How much you know about him? Now is the time to know him, a wonder pianist.

Maksim Mrvica


Another BUMBLE-BEE. ^^


This is the link to album of Maksim Mrica. There are 13 songs that will make you "whoa".
http://www.last.fm/music/Maksim+Mrvica/The+Piano+Player

Basic of Piano Playing

Posture and hand position are very important. Always remember to sit with a straight back at the piano. Arm should extend straight from your elbows to the piano where your hand should rest as if holding an imaginary bubble in your palm. Your fingers should remain curved and relaxed at all times. Before learning the note names, introductory music often gives finger numbers instead of notes.
The picture below shows "C" position. The fingerings are then 1 through 5 starting with your thumb and ending with your pinky. Before trying to understand a hand position from a book it is helpful to know where middle C is. By looking at a hand position chart you can see exactly which key it is, and this key is often found almost directly under the piano label in the middle of the keyboard.

Here is a picture of a keyboard with its matching letter names. The names of the notes are A,B,C,D,E,F,G. These notes form what is called an Octave and repeat up and down the keyboard. The keyboard is divided into groups of black and white keys. The groups can be used to remember key names.

For instance, the "D" note can be found between the group of 2 black keys.

"C" is the white key directly to the left of "D" and the white key to the right of "D" is "E." Practice finding all the "D's" on the keyboard. Locate the lowest "D" and play the note names going up. D,E,F,G,A,B,C, and back at "D." Remember "D" is to think that "D" is in the "Doghouse" between the two black keys. (A funny but useful way to remember^^)Note Values

Know the Lingo

f= forte-loud; p= piano-soft; mf= mezzo forte-medium loud; pp= pianissimo-very soft; ff= fortissimo-very loud

Adagio=slow; Andante=moderately slow/walking tempo; Moderato=moderate; Allegro=fast

Here is a link to learn most of the basic of piano playing.

http://www.gopiano.com/piano_lessons/notes1.htm

How to read music?

There are 15 video related with learning basic piano chords in the link below. I did not upload them because it make this blog too crowded and untidy. ENJOY LEARNING.

http://www.ehow.com/videos-on_2692_play-basic-piano-chords.html

Fun Fact of Piano

DO YOU KNOW THAT...

- independent studies show that children who learn piano tend to do better in school. This is attributed to the discipline, eye-hand coordination, social skills building, learning a new language (music) and the pleasure derived from making your own music.

- anyone considering a career in any facet of music should consider studying the piano. Many music schools require at least one semester of piano, regardless of your major.

- the piano is known as "The King of Instruments". The piano earned this title for a number of reasons including it's tonal range ( the piano covers the full spectrum of any instrument in the orchestra from below the lowest note of the double bassoon to above the top note of the piccolo), it's ability to produce melody and accompaniment at the same time (try that on a flute) and it's broad dynamic range.

- it is the largest musical instrument (excluding the pipe organ), most versatile and one of the most interesting.

- the first practical piano with an escapement mechanism for the hammers and capable of being played softly and loudly was built in 1700 by an Italian, Bartolomeo Cristofori (1655-1731).

- the name piano is an abbreviation of Cristofori's original name for the instrument: piano et forte or soft and loud.

- a new piano should be tuned four times the first year, with the change of seasons, and at least twice a year after that.

- there are over 10 MILLION pianos in American homes, businesses, and institutions!

- Johann Behrent built the first piano in America at Philadelphia in 1775 under the name "Piano Forte".

- the term Grand was first used in 1777.

- Abraham Lincoln used Chickering Grand while at the White House.

- Piano Row in New York included the headquarters of such fine pianos as Steinway, Steck, Behning, Bradbury, Sohmer and many others.

- the first patent issued to H. Steinway, New York, was May 5, 1857. 2007 was the 160th Anniversary of the famous Steinway Pianos!

- the founder of the European famous piano company Petrov, Antonin Petrov went to Vienna to learn how to build grand pianos in 1857.

- the Petrov company built the first concert grand piano in 1864.

- Yamaha, established in 1887 was the first piano manufacturer in Japan.

- Petrov together with the significant American manufacturer Steinway & Sons opened a subsidiary in London in 1928.

- during the past 100 years there have been approximately 5000 Brands of pianos placed on the market. Most are still on display in homes or elsewhere.

- that there are currently over 50 Brand Names of pianos.

- pianos are made of thousands of pieces of wood glued together to form various parts of the playing mechanism as well as the cabinet. Felt, buckskin, paper, steel, iron, copper, and other materials are also used.

- the average medium size piano has about 230 strings, each string having about 165 pounds of tension, with the combined pull of all strings equaling approximately 18 tons!

- the term "Tickle the Ivorys" refers to playing the ivory keys of the piano, however, ivory has not been used to make piano keys since about the 1950's (they are plastic now).

- a standard keyboard has 88 keys.

- the worlds largest piano is a Challen Concert Grand. This piano is 11 feet long, has a total string tension of over 30 tons and weighs more than a ton!

- Piano Sizes
Concert Grand - 8' 11" and weighs about 1400 Pounds
Half Concert Grand - 7'4"
Parlour Grand 6'8"
Drawing Room Grand - 6'4"
Professional Grand - 6'
Living Room Grand - 5'10"
Baby Grand - 5'8"
Upright - 51" and up
Vertical - 36" - 51"
Studio - 44" or taller
Console to 42"
Spinet - 36" to 38"

- over the years there have been many attempts at "improving" the piano. One such experiment was to replace some of the wooden action parts with plastic. It didn't work, they cracked with age.

- there were many other ideas that tried and failed including the Jensen piano which had 2 keyboards, a vertical grand, one that had a keyboard that was more like a typewriter and much more.

We know that piano has 88 keys, so how many white keys and black keys are there?
-52 white; 36 black. There are 13 white keys to every 9 black keys.

Famous Pianist

There have been many pianists in the 500 years since the piano was invented. However, the majority of them were mediocre, some were good and a very few were absolutely stunning. Many of those who made it to this list began their musical training at a very young age which allowed them to perfect their talent early on. This article will take a look at a handful of the most amazing pianists ever.

1. Sergei Rachmaninoff. Known for having the largest hands of all the most famous pianists, Rachmaninoff was able to span up to 14 notes at a time and he made use of this ability in his compositions, Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, 8 Preludes, and others.
2. Josef Hoffman. This young prodigy began performing piano concerts at the tender age of six and at 12, he was the first recorded musician, working with Thomas Edison to create the first musical recordings.
3. Ludwig Van Beethoven. This young German composer and pianist was famous for his talent on the piano and the fact that he continued to both play and compose after losing his hearing at the age of 26.
4. Vladimir Horowitz. Perhaps one of the best known pianists of the 20th century, Horowitz studied under Felix Blumenfeld and Sergei Tarnowsky. He is well known for his ability to play strong pieces creatively rather than simply banging away on the keys.
5. Fredric Chopin. Chopin is often one of the first composers that young piano students play. He was also a child prodigy, often compared to Mozart. Steeped in the world of music from a young age, he was already playing and trying to compose at the age of six.
6. Wolfgang Mozart. One of the most famous child prodigies, Mozart was playing piano at age three and by five, he had begun to compose songs which were written down by his devoted father. He went on to give concerts from a very young age.
7. Franz Liszt. A virtuoso pianist, this Hungarian began his career at a fairly young age, though little information is available during this period of his life. It is known that not only was he an excellent pianist, he could also play several other instruments, including the cello.
8. Walter Wilhelm Gieseking. Gieseking was unique in that he supposedly never practiced on a piano. Instead, he would sit for hours in complete silence, playing the songs in his mind. Mostly self-taught, the pianist would then perform the piece flawlessly.
9. Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli. A more recent pianist, Michelangeli honed his talent to perfection, producing recordings that were nearly perfect even when unedited. He was notorious for randomly canceling concerts and for his intense focus on the tiny details of the music, often forgetting the big picture.
10. Alfred Cortot. Well known for his amazing recordings and variations of the likes of Chopin, Brahms, Liszt, and many other famous composers. He also added his own variations and twists to the most common of compositions, turning them into something unique and special.

Any list of the greatest pianists is going to be somewhat subjective. Each person has their own preference and there are plenty of great pianists who simply didn't fit onto this list of the top ten. However, you can be sure that the ones who did make it here are truly great pianists and definitely worth listening to when you have the chance. Many of them dedicated their lives to their music and some died while still playing and recording it.

In my opinion, the most popular and well-known pianist is Ludwig Van Beethoven and Wolfgang Mozart. Here are some information of these two pianist.


Ludwig Van Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven was baptised on December 17th 1770 at Bonn. His family originated from Brabant, in Belgium. His father was musician at the Court of Bonn, with a definite weakness for drink. His mother was always described as a gentle, retiring woman, with a warm heart. Beethoven referred to her as his "best friend". The Beethoven family consisted of seven children, but only the three boys survived, of whom Beethoven was the eldest.
The story of Beethoven.
http://www.lvbeethoven.com/Bio/BiographyLudwig.html

Contribution of Beethoven to music.

All of his music was influential and important to the history of music. It is hard to name one thing or the most important as there are many individual contributions from Beethoven.

1. Counterpoint - After Bach, fugal writing took a back seat to the melody and accompaniment style we see in Mozart and Haydn. Yes, Mozart and Haydn did compose a few fugues, but nothing significant. However, Beethoven's admiration of Bach late in life signified one the last of his compositional styles. He started to study Bach's fugues and began incorporating fugues in his music. The last movement of Op.110, and in Op.111. He incorporated fugues in his last string quartets. He was able to turn fugues into program music which is a key component of Romantic music. Following the German tradition, composers like Brahms and Wagner incorporated fugues in their music due to what Beethoven did. As well, Liszt saw how virtuosic a fugue could be after learning what Beethoven did. He took the virtuosic fugue to another level as apparent in the Totentanz.

2. Sonata Allegro Form - A major and very significant contribution is expanding the Sonata from 3 movements to 4 movements. This was done in Sonatas for all instruments. With Mozart and Haydn, the classical sonata had 3 movements - fast slow fast. A derivative of the trio sonata tempo scheme from the baroque era. Beethoven decided add an additional movement and the slow 2nd movement. Usually a scherzo and trio or minuet and trio, the third movement is very dance like and borrows from the Baroque era. This is significant because Romantic composers elevated the sonata by swapping the 2nd and 3rd movements in the Romantic sonata. The 2nd movement in a romantic sonata is a scherzo and trio, while the slow movement is now the 3rd. Of course there are exceptions but this was the general take.

3. Program music - The most significant difference between Romantic and Classical music is the movement of program music. Up until Beethoven, very little music was programmatic and was called absolute. Beethoven, beginning with the Eroica Symphony and Pastoral Symphony started composing music with programmatic titles and themes. This greatly influenced Berlioz who eventually composed Symphonie Fantastisque. His later piano sonatas were thought to be influenced by literature. Validity of this is often argued.

4. Development of Orchestra - Beethoven had a significant role in expanding the size of an orchestra. The classical orchestra was quite small, about 40 members. Beethoven's Symphonies and orchestral works asked for up to 70 members. Because of this the sheer size of sound created when playing was dramatic and exciting. He went back to the Baroque era and early renaissance by adding choirs to his Orchestral works i.e. Symphony #9 and Choral Fantasy for piano, choir and orchestra. He was very innovative with orchestral works and wrote the triple concerto for piano trio and orchestra. The choir aspect of symphonies influenced Mendelssohn's Elijah, the Brahms Requiem and Alto Rhapsody, and Mahler's Symphonies.These are just a few ideas. One could write tons on just the piano trios, or the piano sonatas, or the violin sonatas, or the operas, or the string quartets. There is no single contribution that changed the landscape. Simply put, Beethoven changed every genre with his output.

Ludwig van Beethoven with his music.





Wolfgang Mozart

On January 27th, 1756, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born to Leopold. Mozart, the young boy showed talent from the beginning of his life. Wolfgang had a sister, Maria Anna (nickname: Nannerl), who was also musically talented.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart never attended a proper school, which was customary for children of that time. Instead, he was taught by his father who was a respectable man in Salzburg. Leopold held many professions such as concertmaster for the court orchestra of the Archbishop of Salzburg; violinist, composer and author.
By the age of six, Mozart had become an accomplished performer on the clavier, violin, and organ. The child was also highly skilled in sight-reading and improvisation. Five sets of piano pieces (including the famed twelve variations on the tune "Twinkle Twinkle" which actually started out with a French name) were composed by Mozart when he was six years old and are still frequently played.
When Wolfgang was six, and his sister was ten years of age, they were taken by their father to Munich and Vienna to play a series of concerts. In 1763, Leopold Mozart took a leave from his position at Salzburg court to take his family on an extended tour of Western Europe. Wolfgang and his sister performed in the major musical centers, including Stuttgart, Mannheim, Mainz, Frankfurt, Brussels, Paris, London, and Amsterdam. The family did not return to Salzburg until 1766. During these touring years, Wolfgang began to compose longer pieces with more structure and skill in them, completing his first symphony at the age of nine, and publishing his first sonatas in the same year.
In 1769, Wolfgang and his father left the rest of the family to tour Italy for more than a year. Spending sufficient time in Rome, Milan, Florence, Naples, and Bologna, Wolfgang got to experience to full essence the taste of another culture. During these years, Wolfgang completed an opera; Ro di Ponto, which was celebrated in Italy.

Contribution of Mozart to music.

Mozart is one of the greatest musicians who ever lived. He wrote music faster than any other musician in history. To play all of Mozart's music in a row would take 202 hours!

Mozart was masterful at the keyboard, but most of all his compositions were innovative. He broke the rules wherever he saw fit. Listen to his Symphony No 40, its supposed to open as a Minuet but the melody is so synchopated it hardly sounds like a minuet let alone being danceable by kings and queens. He added a Coda to it which was unheard of in the Symphony (Minuet) form. He was a total maverick. He absorbed all the styles and forms of his time, and used them in his compositions at a very high level. In particular he took the piano concerto to new heights. Along with Haydn and Beethoven, he wrote symphonies, concertos and chamber works that have been viewed as exemplary ever since-"Classical". He is considered one of the greatest of all opera composers for his subtle characterization, psychological insights and theatrical flair. He contributed perfect music. It's as easy as ABC to say and it's excruciatingly painful to accept because it makes everybody else look like pipsqueaks (including Ravel, Debussy, Beethoven, Salieri, Bach's sons, Chopin, Liszt, etc...basically everybody except for Bach).

What is a piano?

Piano,a musical instrument with keyboard, a large musical instrument consisting of a keyboard fixed to a wooden case containing metal wires stretched across a frame. It is played by pressing the keys, each of which is attached to a small hammer that strikes one or more of the wires to sound a note.

Picture below show some major parts of a piano.

A piano consists of few major parts, there are piano keys, hammers, pedals, strings, dampers and soundboard. I will give you all some brief introduction about these few major parts of a piano.

1. Piano keys

The piano parts most of us recognize in a piano are the keys. Most modern-day pianos have 88 keys. Some older instruments have 85 keys.
Only a small part of a piano key is visible from the outside and it extends deep inside the instrument so that the piano action can be initiated. On vertical pianos the smaller the piano generally the shorter the key, which can lead to leverage problems. In order to obtain the depth to which a key must be pressed down this leverage problem at the key can translate into problems with the geometry of the action. Better pianos have extra piano parts in the form of key weights made of lead inserted into the keys which influence how well a piano action works. Better pianos will have each key individually weighted so that the touch across the keyboard is completely consistent from note to note.

2. Hammers

The piano is a percussion instrument. While we think of drums or a marimba being struck by hammers it is generally thought that the piano is a string instrument because of the strings. However, these strings are hit by hammers and not bowed to produce the sound.Initially pianos used leather covered wooden hammers; presently, felt hammers are used and a hammer consists of a wooden molding covered with one or two and even three layers of compressed wool felt which vary in density.
The hardness of piano hammers affects the sound quality or tone. While hard hammers can produce sharp and clear tones, some would consider them perhaps hard and noisy. Softer hammers can produce more mellow or even dull tone. This is because hard hammers excite high frequency modes of a piano string’s vibration whereas the soft hammers are unable to do so.

3. Pedals

The typical piano these days has 3 pedals – the Right Pedal, Middle Pedal and the Left Pedal which are part of another system of piano parts known as the trapwork.
Right Pedal – Also known as the Damper Pedal or Sustain Pedal is the most frequently used of the three pedals - many piano players never using the other two. Depressing the right pedal lifts the dampers from the piano strings; as a result, all the strings continue to vibrate irrespective of the note being played. When the pedal is returned to rest, the dampers do likewise.
Middle Pedal – Also known as the Sostenuto pedal, this pedal selectively sustains notes on a grand piano while all other sounds are stopped. In the vertical, this pedal tends to be a mute feature so that the piano is played extremely soft. This is so you don't disturb your neighbours - or perhaps your family.
Some uprights and most baby grands make use of a bass sustain in place of the Sostenuto pedal. While these uses for the middle pedal are fairly common now, manufacturers are known to have made rather innovative uses of the middle pedal such as a bar that would come down in front of the hammers in uprights. This bar would have pieces of leather in front of each hammer with a piece of metal inside. The sound produced would be a rinky tinky sound that was available in many pianos in the first years of the 20th century.
Left Pedal – Invented by Cristofori, the inventor of the piano. The left pedal shifts the keyboard so that all of the piano parts of the action, including the hammers, are able to strike only one or two strings for each note. Originally, the pedal was intended to strike only one string and was named the 'una corda’ pedal, which is Italian for ‘one string’.

4. Strings

There are approximately 250 very strong steel wire 'strings' in a piano and it is the vibration of these steel wires that generates the sound. The thickness of the strings changes from the bottom to the top of the piano, but for each note (bass notes have 1 or 2 strings, the tenor two or 3 strings, and the treble 3 strings) they must be very consistent in thickness. Variations greater than 0.0003 inches (0.0076 mm) will give tonal distortion as well as drive your piano technician nuts.
Piano strings are made of high quality steel so they can endure years of high tension, blows and bending. The bass strings have their steel core wrapped in copper in order to lower the pitch.

5. Damper

The dampers are the piano’s mechanism for stopping piano strings from vibrating. A damper is actually a small felted block that rests on a piano string in the grand or is held against the string in the upright by a spring to stop its vibration as soon as the key is released by the pianist.

6. Soundboard

The soundboard of a piano amplifies the vibrations of the piano strings, transmitting it to the air. Most soundboards are made of spruce which is straight grained and light providing good vibrational quality. There are some inexpensive pianos that the soundboards are made of mahogany.
The big sheet of wood you see behind the upright piano is the soundboard. On the grand, the soundboard can be seen underneath the strings and harp or cast iron plate.
The thrill given by the deftness of the pianist heartily thank the many minds and hearts behind the mechanical marvel that is a piano. Unless the thousands of piano parts work together well, the music quality will suffer.

A video that introduce some parts of a piano.

History of Piano

How much you know about a piano? What about the history of piano? Piano originated around the year 1700 in Florence, Italy. Florence is the capital city of Tuscany, a central region of Italy, and the birthplace of the Italian Renaissance.
In 1709, the “pianoforte” was first revealed as the invention of an Italian harpsichord maker named Bartolomeo Cristofori. Cristofori based his new design on the wooden frame of a harpsichord and implemented a unique keyboarding mechanism that was similar to that of a clavichord.

Cristofori, Inventor of the Piano

http://www.bestpianolessons.com/piano-history/inventor-of-piano-cristofori.html

Since its inception, the instrument we know today as the piano has had many innovators over the past 300 years who have shaped its functionality, appearance and sound. But even this does not tell the complete story of piano history, whose origins trace back to the first air-powered and stringed instruments developed and used in ancient civilizations.

In the period lasting from about 1790 to 1860, the Mozart-era piano underwent tremendous changes that led to the modern form of the instrument. The link below will give you all some idea about the deveploment of piano.

Take This Musical Journey Back to the 15th Century and Meet the Original Piano Keyboard Family

Modern pianos come in two basic configurations: the grand piano and the upright piano.

GRAND PIANO

Grand pianos are was built since sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Around 1700, Bartolomeo Cristofori experimented with creating a harpsichord that could play music more expressively, and devised an action that struck the strings with hammers, differing from harpsichords that plucked the strings with quills.

To know more about the history of grand piano, click the link below.

http://www.bestpianolessons.com/piano-history/grand-piano-history.html

A Grand Piano

Upright/Vertical Piano

The first attempts to create a vertical piano were between 1735 and 1745. Italian Domenico Del Mela designed a vertical piano in 1739 using a simple action design.

Link for the history of vertical piano:

http://www.bestpianolessons.com/piano-history/vertical-piano-history.html

A Vertical Piano

My Personal Development Plan

Before the coming to my personal development plan, I want to tell the reason why this blog create for. One of the reason is I want to write down my process in realizing my goal. With this blog, I can keep my goal and plan in progress. I can share my experiences here with the others.

I set my goal as to learn playing on the piano because piano is the most romantic and beautiful muscical instrument. In my opinion, piano is the best instrument for solo performance. The music from a piano have a special resonant frequency that can attract others easily. Hence, I decided to learn playing on the piano. My plan to learn piano will be explained clearly by the Smart formula below.

My Personal Development Plan

Specific

I plan to learn how to play the piano from my secondary school friends. I also plan to join the piano club if I can pass the interview on 8 May. No music, no life, I strongly agree with it and I will try to enrich my life with music.

Measurable

It is quite challenging for me to play piano because I never learn it before. But I will determine to learn it with heart and soul and never give up. I must be able to play a song on the piano by week 13.

Achievable

I can go to the piano room at least twice per week to practice if I am able to join the piano club. If I can’t manage to join the club, I will go to my friend’s house to learn and practice at least once per week. I will to learn the basic of playing piano within 1 month and can play a song by week 13.

Relevant

I can spend my free time playing on the piano in school or at home. Playing the piano can also enrich my free time. Instead of wasting my time doing un-beneficial thing, I can play on the piano in my leisure time.

Time referenced