SHEET MUSIC HERE: www.gamemusicthemes.com
In this video I play on the piano one of the most representative themes of each of the games: The Sims, Starcraft, Age of Empires II and Warcraft II. Enjoy!
Performer: Gori Fater (gorifater@gmail.com)
I have a piano audition for a piano major at university. What are some tips to score a successful piano audition? Any suggestions appreciated.
I would like to learn to play a musical instrument and have been looking at keyboards as they are portable and I don’t have room for a piano.
Of the ones I’ve been interested in, some are called ‘digital piano’ others ‘keyboard’. Is there a significant difference?
Acoustic pianos have been around for about 500 years, giving the piano a long history of providing music. Despite numerous attempts to create an instrument that involved strings and a hammer, Bartolomeo Cristofori was the one who is credited with actually inventing the first acoustic piano.
The First Pianos
Cristofori built several pianos, but no one is precisely sure of when the first was created. We do know that the Medici family had one of the pianos in 1700, and evidence suggests that it was built in 1698. These early pianos were quite different from those of the modern music world, but they were a truly great invention for their time.
The difficulty with pianos was that the hammer needed to hit the wire, then return to its original place without bouncing and yet be ready to go again within moments. This was finally achieved and Cristofori managed to find a way to create this effect.
The Growing Popularity of the Piano
Despite his hard work, Cristofori was not able to make his new instrument famous. Then, in 1711, a diagram of his design was distributed and more people began to build pianos. One of them was a man named Silbermann who added the first damper pedal to enhance the sound. It was he who showed Bach his first piano, though Bach decided he didn’t like it at the time and only showed interest much later, once
the instrument was refined.
In the 18th century, the Viennese began to construct pianos. These were built differently, with dual strings for the notes, leather covered hammers and elegant wooden frames. The keys were the opposite colors of today’s pianos, with the regular keys being black and the others white. Mozart used these Viennese pianos to compose his music at the time. These are now referred to as fortepianos, to differentiate them from the modern piano.
Modernization of the Piano
As the Industrial Revolution made new technology available, it became possible to build pianos with heavier strings, made of stainless steel, for a fuller, stronger sound. The size was also amplified, making it possible to have seven or more octaves, as opposed to the original five or the fortepiano.
Broadwood was the first company to build these more complex pianos, though the Viennese piano makers quickly followed suit. It wasn’t long however, before France got involved in the creation of bigger and better pianos. In 1821, Erard began to manufacture the pianos that would be used by the likes of Chopin.
This is also the time when the double pilot action was invented by Sebastian Erard and incorporated into the grand piano, making it possible to hit a key again even if the hammer had not yet returned to its place. This mechanism is used to this day in grand pianos.
Modern Piano Innovations
The modern piano uses a soundboard and a metal frame that allows for heavier string tension resulting in stronger sound. This has allowed for string tension of up to a combined 20 tons, something that never would have been possible in the earlier wood frame pianos.
In 1826, the usual leather covered hammers were replaced with felt covered ones by Henri Pape. This allowed for more uniform sounds and the ability to experiment with different hammer types.
A few years later, in 1844, Jean Louis Boisselot introduced the sostenuto pedal which made drastic improvements to the piano sound quality. Around this time, there were experiments being done with the methods of stringing the piano. Eventually, a new method was developed that involved three strings per note and a special double level soundboard to allow for the fit of longer strings.
The piano has come a long way in the past 500 years. From a simple, soft instrument that was a novelty to a strong and very popular one, the piano has really come into its own.
recently purchased a used piano and it smells like its been in a smokers house.
Want to learn to play the piano? It is not only you who is trying to learn it rather there hundreds of others who also want to do so. The piano is by and far the most popular and admired instrument in the world. It brings out combination of many feelings from you like romance, anger, happiness, sadness and many other feelings. Piano is considered to be the most romantic of all instruments, men and women who have been playing the piano will know exactly what I mean. And if any one of you has found it difficult to learn the piano in the past, then don’t worry. We have got all you are looking for.
These five steps will help you take a plunge into the process of learning the piano.
1. First and foremost you need to get access to a piano or a keyboard. You won’t believe me when I say this; there are a few crazy people who actually think they can learn a piano by just listening to music or by just reading a book. You actually by all means need to have access to a piano to start learning to play.
2. Take up piano lessons. There are many different forms through which you can take up piano lessons and the more forms you combine to learn your lessons, the better you get in your playing skills. If you really want to learn the piano very well then sign up for classes with a piano teacher, purchase many different piano books, sign up for online piano lessons, purchase instructional CD’s and DVD’s and also look for others (preferably pianist and musicians) who can give you tips on how to play well. The more number of methods you put together and learn the better your skills and technique gets.
3. Take a lot of advice from experts. Focus while you play and learn on the areas they tell you to. The method your teacher and books follow may be a bit different, but always listen to what they say; they actually know how to play the piano really well. Do what they tell you, it will actually help you improve your skills.
4. Practicing the piano should be the first priority for you. And no matter how much you study or how many classes you take, you are not going to learn the piano unless you practice for at least 10 minutes a day. And remember to always begin your practice with a warm up session and then move into the actual practice.
5. Always take time to learn music well, I would suggest you to go one measure at a time. Never as a beginner will you be expected to play a classical piece from start to end. You could actually only play classical pieces only after hundreds of hours of practice. In the mean time you will be expected to take it slow and learn each piece measure by measure. And once you are kind of perfect with the composition you could move to the next composition. And always practice the ones you have learnt at lest once a week to keep improving your skills and to help retain what you have learnt.
What’s the best piano you’ve ever played on? What’s the worst? Can the quality of pianos that are used for composing and performing seriously affect your musical output? Here are some thoughts.
Two of the most remarkable pianos ever built are the nine foot Steinway and the nine-and-a-half foot Bosendorfer. The Bosendorfer is more of a conversation piece because of its additional low notes, used for extra resonance when playing the sustain pedal. Both brands are of the highest quality, and produce a sound and key action second to none.
There are so many quality brands these days that deserve honorable mention. Heintzman pianos are generally gems and Yamaha are producing wonderful instruments. I could go on, but I’d rather talk about lousy pianos. It’s more fun.
Terrifying pianos are just another name for poorly maintained pianos. Although these types of pianos can be found virtually anywhere, occasionally they are found in schools and in retirement homes. What a shame!
A bad piano in a school supplies students with a lesser music education. Musical demonstrations by an instructor are out of tune and private piano tutoring is a disastrous effort on such instruments.
Retirement homes with bad pianos are truly a tragic circumstance. Just because residents in a home are retired, doesn’t mean that the poor piano has to retire from a life of tuning and maintenance. Yours truly encountered one such piano in a retirement home in Baltimore, Maryland. The year was 1988, and it was the year that I came closest to breaking a finger. While playing a Chopin study (opus. 10 no. 8), my right hand third finger actually got stuck in between two black notes!
Ouch! One of the black keys was too close to the adjacent black key, either through poor construction or through some sort or warping process over time (probably the latter). The otherwise happy Chopin Etude must have had a painful emotional feel to it from about the midway point of the composition until its conclusion. Thankfully, this was the last piece on the program. Suffice to say, there were no encores.
Here’s another gem of a piano. When first arriving at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore, I was invited to a house of a friend. After dinner, I was asked by our charming host to perform on their piano for the three couples that were also invited to dinner. On this occasion, I decided to play the Chopin Barcarolle. To my great surprise, the piano was out of tune by more than a semitone. To a composer with perfect pitch, this is a death sentence.
Before going on, no implication was intended in labeling Baltimore and the surrounding areas with an infestation of bad pianos. Two bad pianos in one state is nothing more than an unfortunate coincidence.
From the above past experiences, it can be concluded that badly maintained pianos can most definitely have a negative impact on performers. However, can the quality of a piano actually improve ones output? After all, it can be argued that music comes from within and that true emotion will not be subdued, regardless of the instrument that one is composing or performing on.
In the practical world, good equipment is always an asset. If a piano delivers a quality, singing tone, it becomes addictive to play. That, alone, is an extremely positive consideration. Any composer or performer that has incentive to remain at their instrument for greater lengths of time is bound to produce positive results.
Another point to consider is that a singing tone makes ones soul sing. Any performer or composer that is brought to a state of singing is in a very positive creative place.
As a final thought, a well maintained piano makes for a happy performer, composer and piano. The better the instrument is, the better the chance of a successful emergence of profoundly moving performances and compositions from performers and composers respectively.