Listening...

The exquisite Tampa Oratorio Society is performing this choral work by Faure in March, so I decided to go listen.  Quite amazing!

Hymn Conceptions by Daniel Joiner

By a friend from USF School of Music

"Hymn Conceptions" presents the timeless hymns of the Christian tradition in a variety of new musical settings for solo piano, including Jazz, Blues, Gospel, Irish, Bossa Nova, and Classical.

Genre: Spiritual: Instrumental Gospel

Something I Like on Facebook!

How and Where to Look for a Piano, Part 2

I wanted to follow up my previous post with sharing this website:

piano adoption.com  

Thanks to Music Matters Blog for posting this!

Ran Across the Chinese Piano House

The Piano House in An Hui Province, China, is a showroom for city planners to show off their plans for the Shannan district in Huainan City.

Yes, we musicians do enjoy seeing our instruments displayed in all sorts of ways... in paintings, logos, stationary, and here, architecture.  Instruments endear themselves to their users, becoming beautiful tools.  In general, that is true of all tools - computers, knitting needles, the pen, watering cans, and easels.  All these become venerable subjects of art because the sight of our beloved tools makes us happy.

No End to the Funnies

Q. What's the hardest part of learning/teaching piano?

Correct Answer: Rhythm. (Usually)

Little Love *Notes*

My husband sent this to me, saying, "I think this about my favorite musician every day! ♥" 

I love my biggest fan! 

The Prepared Piano!!

It was in the early 1900s that pianists started experimenting with drumming the lid, plucking and so on.  As the experimentation moved up the academic ladder, the term "prepared piano" was applied to when items were inserted in the strings to alter the sound.  This is basically what is done here, without insertions, just using lots of hands and loads of creativity!  Fun stuff and great performing - basically the Piano Guys' hallmark.







I looked up prepared piano on wikipedia, and the article gave a number of early examples of ways piano makers added sounds to the piano.  Here was my favorite:

Turkish stop

Around the turn of the nineteenth century, Turkish music was so popular that piano manufacturers made special pianos with a Turkish stop, also called the military or Janissary stop. The player would press a pedal that caused a bell to ring and/or a padded hammer to strike the soundboard in imitation of a bass drum. The Turkish stop was popular for playing the famous Mozart Rondo alla Turca, K 331.

How and Where to Look for a Piano, Part 1

[Note: I forgot this post and left it unpublished from almost a year ago, but the information is still great!]

Looking for a piano?  These resources may help:

 Finding Your Piano - Types and Brands  

Guide to Buying a Piano

  I came across this since I've been looking for a piano in hopes of keeping it at the Homeschool Resource Center in Brandon.  My piano (an antique Henry F. Miller Grand) is wonderful, and I should tell the story of how I got it sometime.  It was a word-of-mouth sale. The owner told piano teachers in her area she was selling.

The most important advice you need to know about buying used is: have a trusted piano technician check it out before buying.  Factor this cost before buying.

Where to look for a piano:

Ebay.com

Ebay Classifieds

CraigsList.org

Ask churches - many have pianos gathering dust in spare rooms.
Ask piano teachers.
Find used piano distributors, either in the phone book or through new piano distributors.