Winter always seems the ideal time for the Harry Potter books and movies.
With Harry Potter and the deadly hallows coming up soon, here's a Harry Potter music piano tutorial. I always love the music used in the films.

Inception was one of the best movies I've seen in the last couple of years.

This is the soundtrack used at the ending credits, 'Time' by Hans Zimmer.

This is the soundtrack for the second Twilight movie, New Moon.



You can find the sheet music at this link http://fouadgtadros.blogspot.com/

Here is a piano tutorial devided into 4 parts


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCwjicfmrB0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iOKH0DLjvk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NrvYGuS6Iw

There's sheet music included with the first video.



http://forpiano.com/FILES/everybody_hurts__rem.pdf

And here is a tutorial.

Although there is a large amount of people which hate this movie, I personally have always loved it. The music in this movie must have something to do with it. Tennessee is one of the soundtracks in Pearl Harbor.

It was fairly easy to find sheet music for the piano, e.g. this link, but I wasn't able to find a midi file yet.

So I learned it through a combination of sheet music and Youtube.

This version by Lew Watterson is great:



And here is a good piano tutorial on Youtube.

Today I stumbled on a fantastic piano version of "My heart will go on" by James Horner,
which was the soundtrack of Titanic.
I reckon you don't need an introduction to Titanic, as about everyone must have seen it.



This song, in combination with the story, was the reason that I first had to give up on my manliness during a movie. (Except for the lion king, but let's be fair who didn't cry when Mufasa died)

This version below is such a masterwork, with a tons of emotion in it, that I just had to post about it.



It seems a great song to learn, so I went on the lookout for a decent piano tutorial.

So here you go, you can check part 2 and 3 through the related videos
By the way, there appears to be a link to the sheet music included with the Youtube post.



Good luck if you're going for this one :)

Returning to the core of this blog, there are a lot of great pianists who publish their work via Youtube. I've composed an inspirational top 5 for you guys. This is highly subjective, and I invite you to send your own top 5 of pianists.

o Dave Thomas: coming from the UK, a real Yann Tiersen lover. In my opinion he's one of the best out there; not only with the piano but also with the accordeon.
I like about all of his videos, but the fact that I'm a Yann Tiersen fan may have something to do with it.

Video example Comptine d'été n. 3 by Yann Tiersen:



Youtube channel:

http://www.youtube.com/user/daveisthemusic

o Vika Yermolyeva (Vkgoeswild): A Dutch girl with an alternative style. The way she transcribes metal/rock songs to the piano is unique. Very gifted piano player.

Video example Aerials by System Of A Down:



Youtube channel:

http://www.youtube.com/user/vkgoeswild


o David Sides: I believe he's about the most famous piano player on Youtube. Very strong versions of mostly R&B songs, which is a bit less my style. Nevertheless, I've got a huge amount of respect for him.

Video example Viva la Vida by Coldplay:



Youtube channel:

http://www.youtube.com/user/kemlye1

o Hildale: A bit less known, but her Placebo piano covers are absolutely great. But then again, I think Placebo is great.

Video example Song to say goodbye by Placebo:



Youtube channel:

http://www.youtube.com/user/hipnoticgaze

o Iwillbot: This guy covers a very broad area of music with some songs I really really like. Another nice touch is the fact that he includes lyrics.

Video example crushcrushcrush by Paramore:



Youtube channel:

http://www.youtube.com/user/Iwillbot

In the end, I realize I watch too much instead of playing, wishing I'd be as good as they are. How pathetic :-)

If you know any other examples, feel free to share them!

A lot of people have been asking to add Kyle Landry to this list. So here goes, I especially like this improvisation of Apologize.

Forums are a fun way to share and find information.
These are the biggest and best piano forums that I know of:

1. http://www.pianoworld.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/ubb/cfrm
2. http://www.pianostreet.com/smf/index.php
3. http://www.uk-piano.org/piano-forums/index.php
4. http://www.keyboardforums.com/
5. http://www.roland-arranger.com/

Next to this top 5; I'd like to add these two:

http://www.keyboardforum.nl/ (Great forum but in Dutch)
https://www.synthesiagame.com/forum/ (Synthesia forum)

If you know any other, or you want to get your piano forum listed please let me know.

Midi files are valuable resources for piano players. For instance, they can be used with Synthesia or played directly on your digital keyboard etc.

So the question arises, where can I find MIDI files?

The list here will put you on your way, but do remind my other post about finding MIDI files.

http://pianoeducation.org/pnomusic.html
http://www.popularpianosheets.com/
http://my-piano.blogspot.com/
http://www.midisite.co.uk/
http://www.freemidi.org/
http://www.pianobleu.com/pianobar4.html
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Park/9711/midis.html
http://www.mutopiaproject.org/browse.html
http://www.cyberhymnal.org/
http://www.fortunecity.com/tinpan/clapton/9/midis2.htm
http://www.gpeters.com/lounge/practice/#Recordings
http://www.classicalmidiconnection.com/cmc/classical.html
http://www.bachcentral.com/BachCentral/index.html
http://midis.jamesbond-online.com/
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/jim.redfarn/
http://www.doctorjazz.co.uk/index.html
http://www.classicalarchives.com/
http://www.gmajormusictheory.org/Freebies/freebies.html
http://mtcn.free.fr/mtcn-traditional-music-midi-popular-song.php
http://www.vgmusic.com/
http://ingeb.org/folksonc.html

If you know any other resources, feel free to share them.

Piano for dummies is the book I received shortly after I started playing the piano.

This book gives you a basic frame to work with.
It starts from the very basics, buying a piano and music theory, until an intermediate level.
It's well written , with an occasional joke now and then to brighten things up.
That's why I recommend it to everyone who feels he needs a guiding frame while learning by themselves.


At the store it was rather pricey(I think about 30€), but I think this is worth it.
Especially when you realize how pricey taking lessons at a piano teacher can be.
If you're interested, a tip is to look into a part of the book at books.google.com.

This choice of piano for dummies is strictly personal.
If you feel there's a book out there which is better, please let me know via the comments form.

However, it is introductory so when you've finished this book you'll have to switch to method books like e.g. Alfred's Basic and All in One Adult Piano Courses.

A less structured alternative is to just pick songs of your own liking to practice with.
In the end it's all about practicing, and that can give you a hard time.
That's why I personally prefer to pick songs of my own which I like more, to keep the morale high.

You can do so via sheet music, practicing software like Synthesia or video tutorials.

In my pillar post about how to find sheet music I talked about sheet music listings.

These are websites that collect sheet music for you to download.
As it would be impossible to check all of them, I can not be held responsible for their content.

This list is mainly classical, so it should all be legal.

o http://imslp.org/wiki/Category:Composers 28.500 Scores
o http://www.free-scores.com/centre-uk.php?CATEGORIE=70 12.000 Scores
o http://sheetmusic.library.sc.edu/Default.asp 10.000 Scores
o http://www.free-scores.com/free-sheet-music.php 12.500 Scores
o http://www.cpdl.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page 10.000 Scores
o http://8notes.com/
o http://www.rowy.net/bladmuziek.html

I will post some great resources on modern sheet music soon, but do keep my previous post in mind as it remains the best method in my opinion.

One of the main questions that always return about Synthesia the piano hero game [Read more about Synthesia], is how to connect it to your piano or keyboard.

This is not an obligation: if your piano is connected to your computer then Synthesia reads from it and scores your playing. If not, Synthesia lets you follow along on your own without scoring. Of course, with scoring is a lot more fun and it can figure as a guide for your piano learning process.

So to connect, obviously, you will need a cable. But to know which cable, you should check the back of your piano/keyboard and PC. I've added prices and images so you can easily compare which is the best option for you.


There are three main options that I'm aware of:

1. USB to USB connection




2. Midi plug to USB (adapter)




3. Midi to soundcard




If you still have questions, please let me know :-)

In my previous blog posts I've talked about Synthesia, learning to play by ear, Youtube
and sheet music as my personal toolkit.

This is my personal method when I learn a new song:

1. I listen to the original song for a few times (Learn and play by ear).
2. I study the sheet music to help me understand the song.
3. I use Synthesia to help me out on the keys and notes.
4. I use Youtube tutorials to guide me through the fingering positions.
5. I use sheet music and/or Synthesia to practice the song.

You can read about these methods in the respective posts I made.


However, this post is about some handy tools which can help you with Youtube piano tutorials.


When I learn a new song,
It's quite irritating to watch a video again and again on Youtube.
It's bad for my bandwith, and the Youtube player isn't very accurate in timing.
That's why I use software to download the videos to my hard disk.

o Personally I use Realplayer to snag my videos from the web.
o Or you can download one of the several Firefox plugins.
o Another handy plugin is this improved Youtube search plugin.

Good luck, and feel free to ask your questions if you have any!

The top 5 resources for sheet music


The internet is full of people begging for free sheet music.
Someone who posts a piano tutorial on Youtube usually gets stalked.
Searching for sheet music yourself really isn't that hard as it seems.
This first post about finding sheet music should help you to get on your way.

1. Google


Although many people work with Google on a daily basis,
they simply have no idea what a powerful tool it can be.
It's likewise for finding sheet music with Google;
in 90% of the cases I can easily find sheet music through Google.
Just use "nameofthesong.pdf" and you should find something somewhere.

Even a search at Google images can provide some quality results.

If you want to know more about Google syntaxes or search operators follow this link.



There are tons of blogs and sites offering free sheet music.
Some examples are :

o http://my-piano.blogspot.com/
o http://pianomusicsheet.blogspot.com/
o http://www.8notes.com/

I'll provide a more extensive list later on. Feel free to share them through comments though.

3. Scribd


Scribd is a free document sharing site. Luckily for you and me, there are quite a lot of sheet music PDF files.

For example, I found the sheet music of one of my favorite songs here:

Sheet music for Comptine d'un autre été - from Amelie Poulain by Yann Tiersen

So just do a search on http://www.scribd.com/ and you'll probably get some good results.

4. Software

If you weren't able to find sheet music through the previous resources, here's another great idea.

In my previous post about Synthesia, the piano hero game, I talked about other software that feeds itself on MIDI files.

Well, if you've been able to get a MIDI file but not the sheet music this is a great resource.
There are several free programs available that will generate sheet music from MIDI files, and MIDI files from sheet music.



Examples are:

o Musescore (I recommend this one)
o Notation
o Rosegarden
o Sibelius
o Finale notepad

If you've forgotten how to get MIDI files, check my previous post on how to find midi files.




5. Buying

Of course the last, and probably less attractive option is to buy sheet music from sites like Amazon.



I reckon these resources should get you on your way for now, good luck!
If you have any questions, feel free to ask them and I'll respond as quickly as possible.