Piano
Jazz Piano Lesson: Approach Patterns with George Whitty
Understanding scales, modes, and chord tone structure is critical to building a great jazz piano solo and learning how to improvise. However, restricting your playing to diatonic scale patterns is not the only method of improvisation. In fact, veering away from traditional scale structure and incorporating notes that are outside of a piece’s harmonic context will allow you to achieve that authentic “jazz sound” when performing a solo. Embracing chromaticism in your piano playing is crucial to developing your jazz vocabulary.
Jazz Piano Lesson: Approach Patterns
Understanding scales, modes, and chord tone structure is critical to building a great jazz piano solo and learning how to improvise. However, restricting your playing to diatonic scale patterns is not the only method of improvisation. In fact, veering away from traditional scale structure and incorporating notes that are outside of a piece’s harmonic context will allow you to achieve that authentic “jazz sound” when performing a solo. Embracing chromaticism in your piano playing is crucial to developing your jazz vocabulary.
Debussy/Mulan Mashup Piano Orchestra Project Update
The latest update on our "Debussy/Mulan Mashup" piano orchestra project! Thanks to everyone who participated, and for your patience as we put this all together! Final version coming soon!!
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Last day to sign up for the Cunningham Piano Online Piano Orchestra!
Check out this sample of the videos submitted so far in this 15 part mashup of Disney's theme from "Mulan" and Debussy's "Pagodes". Visit https://cunninghampiano.com/orchestra to sign up for this project!
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Join the Online Piano Orchestra Project!
Welcome to the Cunningham Piano Online Piano Orchestra Project. This is an idea we’ve been thinking about for quite some time. Pianists, of course, have the world’s greatest solo literature. We have no end of things that we can play by ourselves. When we do collaborate, it’s usually with one other person to play duets. We can have two people playing on piano or two people playing on two pianos. It’s actually quite common. Beyond that, it’s pretty rare to have more than two, three, four people playing at the same time. The only other exceptions would be when we play with other instrumentalists, when we play with string players, orchestra players, choirs and the like. But I wanted to try to do what we did with our online chorus and orchestra project about a month ago, mainly having a piece where everybody could participate, people of all different levels from absolute beginners too advanced.
Read MoreGeorge’s Video Guide to choosing an affordable digital piano
Happy Holidays, everybody!
'Tis the season to adorn your house with a nice digital piano! I took a little trip to Guitar Center, and a side-trip to Costco, to check out what's available in a sub-$500 portable digital piano. You can see my video reviews here in this movie I made, but the upshot is that I think the nicest instrument in this price range is the Yamaha P-45 at about $450, although there was another Yamaha instrument, the YPG535 that might work for you if you need more capability in an instrument, and the Williams Allegro III which, though not without its faults, comes in a good bit less expensive at $279. So if you're in the market this holiday season, check out this blog post, and happy shopping!
George
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George’s Video Guide to choosing an affordable digital piano
Happy Holidays, everybody!
'Tis the season to adorn your house with a nice digital piano! I took a little trip to Guitar Center, and a side-trip to Costco, to check out what's available in a sub-$500 portable digital piano. You can see my video reviews here in this movie I made, but the upshot is that I think the nicest instrument in this price range is the Yamaha P-45 at about $450, although there was another Yamaha instrument, the YPG535 that might work for you if you need more capability in an instrument, and the Williams Allegro III which, though not without its faults, comes in a good bit less expensive at $279. So if you're in the market this holiday season, check out this blog post, and happy shopping!
George
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ArtistWorks Student Mike Evaniuk on The Cunningham Piano Show
Mike Evaniuk is living proof that it’s never too late to learn to play the piano. After only 15 months of lessons, he gives a beautiful performance of Erik Satie’s Gymnopédie No. 3. What’s even more remarkable is his method of taking piano lessons. When Mike decided he wanted to take up the piano, he started searching for lessons on YouTube. That’s when he came across a video series called “Clair de lune from Scratch” recorded by our own Hugh Sung. The problem with YouTube lessons, Mike soon discovered, is the fact that the instruction is unidirectional - there’s no real opportunity for students to receive constructive feedback, and students are on their own to figure out if they’re applying what they’re learning correctly. That led Mike to discover Hugh’s online Popular Piano School hosted by ArtistWorks.