Mikes Music Room – Music Articles

posted:


My husband wants to learn how to play the theme song to Phantom of the Opera with his new keyboard I got him for Christmas. He wants to use the pipe organ simulated sound program and play it just like the real thing. Can someone find the sheet music to play this for me please in electric keyboard pipe organ sound format if possible? Or tell me how to convert the piano to pipe organ?

Thanks, Nikki

Organ and Keyboard Sheet Music

If you’re merely playing a song from beginning to end, over and over, you may not be using your piano practice time as efficiently as you might.

There are several unwritten rules that professional classical pianists use to maximize practice time, and you might do well to find out about them, regardless of the style of music you play.

You can adjust these practicing techniques to suit your personal style. If you use these ideas you’ll soon find that your playing becomes polished more quickly.

These ideas apply to learning and practicing any style of music, not just classical piano. I use them with children of all ages and abilities, with great success.

The first rule is to practice only the hard parts you don’t know, at first. A general rule of thumb is that the hard parts should sound as good as the easy parts, and until they do, don’t waste your time enjoying the easy parts.

Invest your time in solving the difficult problems first. Pay these dues and many an “impossible” piece will be yours, and fun to play. Have a strategy for learning the piece.

The second rule is to play the difficult parts slowly and with hands separate for as long as it takes for each passage to be perfectly memorized and fluid, even if it is very slow. If you’re looking at a page of sheet music during a hard spot, you defeat the whole purpose of learning the passage.

The purpose of piano practice is to CALMLY observe your hands and pay attention to where your fingers go, and see where the patterns of keys are.

Memorize first. Enjoy later.

The third rule is to divide the piece into sections and attempt to achieve a basic continuity from one large passage to another. In other words, all transitions between musical ideas must be rehearsed and thought out, so that they appear effortless and logical, instead of bumpy and at the mercy of various difficulties.

Even small piano pieces benefit from this approach.

Larger pieces, such as Schubert’s Wanderer Fantasy or Liszt’s massive B minor Sonata, are all but impossible to master without a similar approach, unless you’re Liszt himself.

And there are pianists who have achieved that Lisztian, astronomical level of sight-reading, believe me. But I’m not one, and you’re not likely to be one, either, with all due respect.

For us mortal pianists, the Rules of Piano Practice must be followed if you want to learn difficult material quickly.

by John Aschenbrenner Copyright 2008 Walden Pond Press

John Aschenbrenner is a leading children’s music educator and book publisher, and the author of numerous fun piano method books in the series PIANO BY NUMBER for kids. You can see the PIANO BY NUMBER series of books at http://www.pianoiseasy.com Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=John_Aschenbrenner

cat posted:


Is there anywhere on the web where you can take free piano lessons with lots of videos and demonstrations either with sheet music or by ear? I hope to take actual piano lessons again in the future but im so busy and low on cash i wont till after i graduate from college and i just want to get back into it and start practicing again so i can at least become a beginner again. I took lessons about three years ago and only remeber how to do scales. I forgot everything!!! Can you help me? Is there anywhere online where i can catch up again for free?

piano keyboard lessons

You want to learn to play a keyboard or maybe your partner or your children want to learn and you need to buy a keyboard but where do you start.

If you follow my recommendations, buying your first keyboard will be an easier experience. Prices for keyboards range from about £100.00 to £5000.00 or more. In this article, we will deal with keyboards that are more than adequate for beginners. As a beginner, there is no point in spending thousands of pounds on a keyboard because you will not be able to use the more advanced features that are included on these keyboards because you can’t play yet.

Before you go and buy your keyboard, you should consider
that the keyboard you buy is going to be the first of many or the first and last keyboard you ever buy.

So the first thing you need to think about is budget. For a beginners keyboard I would personally not spend more than £500.00 but would be looking in £100.00 to £300.00 range. Obviously, you need to set your own budget within this range. When you have set your budget, you need to decide where you are going to buy your keyboard.

I would defiantly recommend buying a keyboard from a music shop. I know you can find cheaper keyboards on the internet from various mail order companies and eBay but there are many advantages to buying from your local music shop. The first advantage being that you can hear and see the keyboard you are about to buy. Also generally, the sales staff in these shops know what they are talking about and can play the instruments and show you how they work. Many music shops can also offer keyboard lessons and provide sheet music to get you started.

When choosing your keyboard, it’s important you like the look of it and like the sound of it. There are various manufacturers to choose from, the main ones being Yamaha, Casio and Roland. Many musicians have there own preferences as to which make they prefer, including myself, however, I would urge you to make your own mind up, after all you have got to look at it and listen to it.

So to recap:

Set your budget.

Buy from your local music shop.

Make sure you like what you see and hear.

In part two I will tell you what keyboard features you should expect for your money and maybe some features you don’t need.