Piano

4 pianos + 8 hands = WOW!

 

What happens when you put together four retired music teachers with a love of piano music? You get the Two By Fours! These four friends enjoy exploring repertoire for this unique combination and playing concerts throughout the area. They started out playing on two pianos (two players per piano), but believe it or not, this is the very first time they have been able to play all together on four beautiful GRAND pianos!
Featuring pianists John F. Bednar Jr., Joan V. Johnson, Bruce W. Tonkin, and Robin Ward.
Visit http://cunninghampianoshow.com to subscribe for updates on new episodes!

 

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Piano

Episode 1 of The Cunningham Piano Show

 

I'm thrilled to announce the launch of The Cunningham Piano Show, a weekly web TV series that will feature pianists of all ages and genres sharing their stories, music, and favorite pianos! My guest in this inaugural episode is a fantastic Russian-American pianist, Svetlana Smolina. She performs works by Rachmaninoff and Bizet/Horowitz on a gorgeous Yamaha CF6 7' grand piano.

 

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Piano

New Section: Electric Piano & Keyboard Concepts

This is a new section added to the learning section where George is going to cover some key concepts when playing jazz piano in a digital setting such as a keyboard or electric piano. 

In this first lesson on Funk Soloing, George lays out some ideas to help you effectively solo with taste and an understanding of the different mechanics of using this style of sound in a band setting.

The Fender Rhodes electric piano sound is the focus of this lesson. How to effectively paint your ideas in this style tone and how to best fit it into the context of a band. As with the last lesson, this one has backing tracks in all 12 keys to help you practice improvising the techniques demonstrated.

The familar sound of the Hammond B3 organ is deconstructed in this lesson. George will share his ideas and demonstrate the best and most tasteful use of organ sounds in jazz improv. This lesson also features a footpedal overlay so you can see how the volume and use of vibrato and/or the Leslie is integrated to bring the sound to life. 

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Piano

How Playing The Piano Super-Charges Your Brain

I came across this terrific article on how pianists' brains are truly unique, giving them almost "super-human" abilities to process complex decision functions and tap into extraordinary creative capabilities. So how's that for a super-bonus for learning to play the piano? Now you know why you feel so special here! :)

http://mic.com/articles/91329/science-shows-how-piano-players-brains-are-actually-different-from-everybody-elses#.H2ybPWPKK

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Piano

Jazz Piano with George Whitty: Making Jazz Chords

In this video, ArtistWorks jazz piano teacher George Whitty shows you how to make that “classic jazz sound” on piano using some simple chord modifications. If you already know some piano basics, this is a great way to incorporate jazz harmony in your playing. Using some basic triads you may already know, we can put them to good use here and get some really nice jazz colors with just some basic chord types. Read More

Piano

Updated: Piano Presets Added!

A while back, George wrote a blog titled "The Best Digital Piano Sound" and mentioned several piano presets that were available. We're pleased to announce that these settings are now available for download from the jazz piano site. In the Leaning Channel, click on Study Materials and look for the "Additional Study Materials" section. Scroll all the way to the bottom of the list and you'll find the zip file for ArtistWorks Piano Presets. You can also use the search box above the "Additional Study Materials" to quickly find the presets. Enjoy!

 

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Piano

My Pianoteq Settings

Pianoteq is one of the very best virtual piano programs out there, and it's the sound of the piano that I use for all of my Video Exchange Responses. Several students have been asking for my personal settings, so here you go! Now you can make your digital keyboards sound just like my own Pianoteq Piano!

 

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Piano

Best Digital Piano Sound

I have been in the trenches with digital pianos since I bought my first Ensoniq Mirage in, I think, 1986.  It featured a whopping FOUR SECONDS of memory and had some screwy little 8-bit floating point sampling scheme.  It was kind of awful, but Mitch Forman sure played the crap out of it!  Things evolved;  in the ‘90s I played the Emu Proformance piano module, which was actually really great for what it was:  a 2 megabyte (approximately 12 seconds of stereo samples, I think) module that played pretty well.  Then came the Gigapiano, this giant 650 meg piano sample in Gigastudio, the big PC-based sampler;  couldn’t play jazz on it but boy did it sound like a Thomas Newman score with the sustain pedal down. 
 
I was never a fan of the Ivory pianos until they released the Italian Grand;  I heard it at the NAMM show and bought it on the spot. Read More
Piano

Jazz Piano Music: 8 Great Song to Learn

click here for free samples of our jazz piano lessons with George Whitty!

As I travel around the world doing jazz piano clinics and workshops, one question I’m often asked is: “what tunes should I learn?”

That’s a really broad question. I’d like to narrow it down to 8 jazz piano tunes that are a big part of the standard repertoire you might encounter at a gig or a jam session, and also are tunes that I’ve most enjoyed sitting down and playing over the years, inspired by some killer performances of said tunes that sort of launched me off. 

SO in no particular order, here are 8 jazz piano tunes I get a huge kick out of playing, along with the performance that inspired me to learn them and gave me something to shoot for. Usually there’s something cool about the harmony that propels the tune forward, and a really well-turned melody that’s got something unusual about it:

"Someday My Prince Will Come"

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Piano
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