Victor Borge - "Until they invented THE CRACKS!"

Why teach (learn) music?

Greater Pasco Youth Symphony Spring Recital

This is a neat event!  It would encourage any young musician to see others here.

Hooked on Classics

Something for everyone!  A medley of the world's favorite classics.  In the version he taught me years ago, Dave Clark altered the Beethoven 5th and added in the Rhapsody in Blue theme.  We did it as an adaptation, using what was written note wise, and the chord symbols given.  Always fun!

Piano Classics Volumes I and II - Intermediate pieces reference

I went through the two volumes of this wonderful and affordable Piano Classics collection, searching for intermediate and advanced pieces to teach.

Volume 1                   

Albeniz Malaguena

Bach

Four Pieces for The Little Notebook

Prelude No. 1 from the The Well-Tempered Clavier

Air from the Suite in D Major

Beethoven: Fur Elise

Moonlight Sonata mvt. 1

Rondo A Capriccio  - Rage over  op. 129

6 Variations from the opera La Molinara

Hungarian Dance No. 5  -  Brahms

Chopin:

Valse Op 64 No. 2

Nocturne Op. 72 no. 1

Nocturne in E Flat Op 9 No. 2

Prelude OP. 28  No. 6

Valse Op. 64 No. 1

Le Coucou  Daquin 

Nocturne Field  in Bb

Rondino in C Diabelli

Poem in Bb Fibich  d. 1900

Anitra’s Dance pg 1  Grieg

Gavotte in D  F.  Gossec Classical Era

A` Alfredo G. Faria Playera  Granados

Air And Variations Handel in E 

The Harmonious Black smith from Suite No. 5

Haydn Sonata in D Major

Joplin The Cascades

The Music Box O. 32  liadov

To a Wild Rose MacDowell

Alla Turca?

Sonata K 545  Mozart in C

Fantasy in D minor k 397

Barcarolle from the Tales of Hoffman  J. Offenbach

Peter and The wolf   Prokofieff

La Tambourin  Rameau

Song of India  Korsakov

Italian Song  Op 39 No. 15  Tchaikovsky

Serenade   DUET    Schubert

Moment Musical  op 94  No 3  Schubert

Soldier’s March Schumann  & :

Marche Militiare

The Happy Farmer from Album of the Young

Traumeri

(DUET)

The Beautiful Blue Danube

Vol 2

Prelude No. 2 from 12 Little Preludes

2 pt Invention No. 8

2 pt Invention No. 4

Sonatina No. 1 in G Major

Sonatina No. 2 in  F Major

Sonata Pathetique  2^nd Mvt. Adagio

Prelude in E m  Chopin  op 28  No. 4

Raindrop Prelude

Prelude in C minor

Polonaise Militaire Op.40 No.1

Largo New World Symphony Dvorak

The Dying Poet Gottschalk Meditation

Passacaille  Handel in Gm

Sarabande  Handel

Surprise Symphony Andante Haydn.

An Alexis Hummel

Flower Song   (pre-Lieb) Op. 39 Lange

Merry Widow waltz Lehar

Confidence

Op 19 no. 4  Consolation Mendelssohn

 Venetian Boat Song  No. 2  Op 30, No. 6

12 Variations  265k  Ah! Vous dirai-je , maman

 Minuet from Don Juan  Mozart

Sonata in A k. 331  Mozart

Dance of the Hours from La Giaconda  Amilcare Ponchielli

Minuet in A Minor  Purcell

The Young Prince and Young Princess  Korsakov

Melody in F  Op. 3, No. 1  Anton 

Romance  OP. 44, No. 1   Rubinstein

Trois Gymnope’dies  erik Satie

Pastoral Scarlatti in G

Knight Rupert  Album for the Young Schuman

 

Advanced (Level 5- 8 )

Clair de LuneFinlandia Sibelius

Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy, 

Waltz of the Flowers & 

“June”  Barcarolle -  Tchaikovsky

The Skater’s Waltz  - Waldteufel

And many more which I haven't listed.

Favorite Virtuosic Piano Literature

My top favorite virtuosic pieces that I have learned or want to learn:
Bach 's Gigue in G major (French Suite No 5)
Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody #2
Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue
John Novacek's Full Stride Ahead 
Joplin's Maple Leaf Rag
Transcription of Handel's Arrival of the Queen of Sheba
Chopin's 'Minute' Waltz in Db
Lecuona's Malaguena
Khorsakav's Flight of the Bumblebee
Whitewater Chopsticks, by Calvin Jones
 Aquarium from The Carnival of the Animals - Camille Saint-Saëns

(others I am forgetting, of course)

and this :


Beethoven "Moonlight" Sonata op 27 # 2 Mov 3

Events: Week of Apr. 29 - May 5

Florida Orchestra:  Pops in the Park

Thu, May 3, 2012 at 7:30 PM
Curtis Hixon Park, Tampa   FREE!!!

Pack a picnic basket and enjoy a free Pops in the Park Concert under the stars with The Florida Orchestra  for a program of fun and familiar favorites

Fun Piano Duets

Duets are fun and a great way to learn to play with others, a skill that can often be lost to pianists.   Of course, any piece can be made into a duet - divide here, add a little there.    I would love to do a recital with Whitewater Chopsticks made into a duet.  Here is one arrangement.  Although I would probably arrange it for four hands instead of two pianos.

Two years of "Piano Ensemble" in college consisted almost entirely of playing with the other pianists in duets and trios.  Here are a few  of the pieces I learned and watched in class.

Brahm's Hungarian Dance no. 5

Buy at: http://www.virtualsheetmusic.com/score/Hungarian1H.html

Free copy - The first ever published version - more difficult:
http://conquest.imslp.info/files/imglnks/usimg/9/92/IMSLP205870-PMLP16016-Brahms_-_Hungarian_Dances__14___2P_ed.Simrock_.pdf

The Bercuese from Faure's Dolly Suite is a charming beginning duet for intermediate players, and is also available on Virtual Sheet Music.  IMSLP or other printable classical score providers might have it for free. 
Here is the Bercuese:

Also, listen to the world's most famous duet playing pianists, the Lebeque Sisters:

And for some real inspiration, listen to the Five Browns.

Arrival of the Queen of Sheba

This past Sunday, I played one of my favorite pieces, Arrival of the Queen of Sheba,

by Handel, transcription for piano solo, as postlude for Sunday worship.  I wanted to do it on organ, a much neglected instrument these days, as fewer and fewer learn to play it.  It has well been named the Queen of the instruments, only topped by the voice.  This piece lends itself well to organ, though the score was not written for it.  I am not trained in organ, but, as G. K. Chesterton said, "if something is worth doing, it's worth doing badly" (rather than not at all!)  It went off alright, and there were some very happy listeners who thanked me afterward.    Here is the score.  It is truly one of the most pristine pieces ever written.

Theme from the film Amelie

 I was practicing in the rooms at the USF School of Music one evening when I heard this.  I asked the girl playing it what it was, and found the sheet music on scribd and noteflight (also adding it to my youtube playlist). 

I find a lot of sheet music on Noteflight.  It requires registration to search it for music people have written/transcribed/arranged, but it's no hassle.  So register and search if you like, but for ease, here is the sheet music, courtesy of http://m-piano.blogspot.com.