Piano tutorials

Harry Potter theme piano tutorial

2010-11-01T09:59:00.003+01:00

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 - Time by Hans Zimmer piano tutorial

2010-10-03T13:23:00.003+02:00

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.

The Meadow - new moon soundtrack - Alexandre Desplat

2009-12-05T09:45:00.002+01:00

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

REM - Everybody hurts

2009-09-19T11:51:00.001+02:00

There's sheet music included with the first video.

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

And here is a tutorial.

Pearl harbor: Tennessee

2009-09-01T09:21:00.003+02:00

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.

Titanic: My heart will go on Piano Solo

2009-05-19T19:13:00.011+02:00

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 :)

My Youtube top 5 pianists

2009-05-13T16:26:00.013+02:00

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.

The top 5 piano forums

2009-05-09T11:19:00.007+02:00

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.

Extensive free Midi files list

2009-05-08T18:12:00.006+02:00

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.

The best piano for starters book

2009-05-04T18:17:00.009+02:00

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.

First sheet music list

2009-05-03T10:49:00.007+02:00

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.

Connect Synthesia the piano hero game to your piano

2009-05-01T19:49:00.012+02:00

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 :-)

First piano tutorials recap

2009-04-25T22:06:00.017+02:00

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!

How to find sheet music

2009-04-21T19:20:00.030+02:00

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.

New layout

2009-04-15T10:00:00.005+02:00

I'm currently working on the new layout, which is going rather slow due to my lack of photoshop skills.
Please don't pay too much attention to it just yet :-)

However, if you have any remarks about it feel free to comment on this post!
I'd love any feedback as the layout should be adapted to your opinion.

The content remains open though!

Thank you very much for your patience.

xnapoleonx

Learn to play the piano by ear

2009-04-13T20:12:00.011+02:00

When you check out comments at Youtube piano tutorials, a lot of people are asking the creator for sheet music. In many of those cases, the author says he learned the song by ear in a minimum of time.

So what exactly is “learning by ear” – apart from the obvious. Said in one line, it is the valuable ability to play a piece of music by listening to it. You don’t need sheet music, and it is a great way to understand song and chord structure.

Playing by ear consists of three main skills:

o Your tonal memory to recall music you hear
o Your ears and fingers to reproduce the music
o Using "melody contour" (the "shape" of the tune), "chord structure" (how to form the chords on the keyboard to match the tune), and "chord progressions" (the path chords take as they move through a song).

The first two are the easiest, the last one obviously the hardest.

So how do you learn and train this skill? Well, there are quite a few books and sites dedicated to this, but most of them need payment.
For the chord structure and progression I recommend getting a book about it. There are inexpensive handheld books available for this.
Learning to distinguish the melody is the hardest part in the beginning.
One of the best free resources I’ve found so far to help you out is http://www.trainear.com/.

This site contains a video tutorial explaining the concept, and most of all software guiding you through and helping you to train on learning songs by ear.

How to find MIDI files

2009-04-06T12:44:00.015+02:00

In my post about Synthesia I mentioned that all you need is a MIDI file.

So what exactly is a MIDI file? MIDI is an acronym for Musical Instrument Digital Interface. Basically, it's a simple file format for digitalizing music. Back in the old days, when MP3's didn't exist yet this was used to listen to.

As we're used to MP3 quality, MIDI sounds a little rough. Though it is what feeds Synthesia, and other musical programs, for example software which transfers a MIDI file to sheet music. But I'll come back to that at another day.

So, how do you find these MIDI files?

Option one

Well, the first way is to download it directly from public websites. Depending on the website and song you either have to pay for it, or it's free.

Some great free resources are:

o http://www.mutopiaproject.org/ Mostly classical songs.
o http://www.vgmusic.com/ Video game music.
o http://www.8notes.com/

I'll post a more extensive list about this soon.

Option two

The second way is to use Google. Just use this syntax: "yoursongname.mid".

You may have to try out different names, or use the * syntax etc. This can involve some searching but you'll find something most of the times. If you don't, you can always contact me for tips.

I find most of my MIDI music this way. Just watch out with your source. This can involve illegal results: which is your own responsibility as with all downloading.

Option three

Downloading MIDI packs through torrents etc. As with option two, this is a grey zone. Some of these packs are legal, some are illegal.

If anyone has another source for searching for MIDI music, please feel free to share!

Synthesia: piano learning game

2009-04-04T14:56:00.020+02:00

Most of you have probably heard of Guitar Hero.
This is a popular game that simulates you playing a guitar.
So what's the use of this for you as a piano player?

Well, there is a game called Synthesia which is quite like Guitar Hero, but adapted to the piano.
In fact it was even called Piano Hero, until legal issues forced a name change.
The big benefit compared to Guitar Hero is that you can actually play with your keyboard or digital piano.

All you need is a MIDI or USB cable to connect to the computer.
You can download the basic version of this game for free. The full version is for sale.

So how does Synthesia work?
Basically, you can play any song you like with it.
All you need is a file with a "MIDI" extension and Synthesia will generate the song.

The keys and notes you need to play will appear on screen.
You can select whether you want to play together (with sound or without) or only lefthand/righthand.

I personally think it's a fun method of learning to play the piano.
Especially for those of us which are unable to read sheet music.

Here is a review explaining how it works:

Synthesia: the piano hero game.

You can download Synthesia via this link: link

So basically, you can play any song you want through Synthesia, as long as you can find a MIDI file.
So how do you get those MIDI files?
Well, there are quite some MIDI files of classical music available for free.
If you want modern music you'll have to do some research. To help you out, I made a basic post on how to find MIDI files

Setting a goal

2009-04-02T21:22:00.008+02:00

In my previous post about Youtube I discussed Youtube videos as a medium for motivation. Setting some kind of goal will help you to persist when practice is hard.

Of course, this is very personal. My goal when I started out was to be able to play this version of Lux aeternae by Clint Mansell in about a year:

Being honest, at this point I’m far, o so very very far from my goal. I'll probably have to revise my goal to something which takes a bit less experience.
But who knows, maybe someday I'll be able to post my own video on this blog.

So set a goal, but don't be disappointed when things take more practice than you've expected. Just keep on practicing and keep your goal ahead!

Youtube: a great piano tutorial resource

2009-03-31T20:50:00.012+02:00

My first post in a series about free piano tutorial methods is about Youtube.

Youtube supplies a treasure of videos made by both amateur and professional users. For you and I, that means two things. Seeing some of the best piano players play your favorite songs can be a great motivation and inspiration. Observing the best is a great way to learn a song. Next to that, there are a lot of wonderful people putting time and effort in the creation of song tutorials. So just type in a song you want to play followed by 'piano cover' or 'piano tutorial', and you'll find tons of good resources.

One of my favorite songs, played by Dave Thomas followed by an example of a tutorial:

Dave Thomas, Rue des cascades

Rue des cascades, tutorial

Is the ability to read sheet music a must to play the piano?

2009-03-30T21:58:00.010+02:00

Not being able to read sheet music, or a strong aversion from learning musicology is one of the main reasons which holds people back from playing the piano.

Though it is perfectly possible to play the piano without being able to read sheet music (I can't myself), some theoretical knowledge of music is very important. It makes it a lot easier to learn and understand a song.

So before I'll devote myself to blogging about methods to learn and play by ear, my advice is to go through a concise musical theory course.

For example, musictheory.net offers free step by step lessons divided into topics. Going through this might take you some days, but it will make things a lot easier for you in the future.

What your parents never told you about your position

2009-03-28T12:33:00.002+01:00

Probably the most important video link I'll ever post.

Playing the piano is all about practice and persistence, the ideal recipe for injuries. That is why a well thought over position has to become a natural thing to you. This prevents severe injuries (cfr. Carpal tunnel syndrome).
If you don't pay attention to it, you might get yourself into this one:

Doesn't seem very appealing to me. So before you start, think about this one!

Play the Piano - Hand and Body Position

By monkeysee: http://www.monkeysee.com/play/1722-play-the-piano-hand-and-body-position

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2009-03-27T11:04:00.000+01:00

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2009-03-25T12:52:00.000+01:00

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Welcome to piano tutorials, thank you for finding me!

2008-10-10T11:49:00.000+02:00

Piano tutorials is a piano blog providing resources for beginning and intermediate piano players.

You can expect piano tutorials, software reviews, sheet music, MIDI links and so on.

If you frequently have the same problem as I do, forgetting about a site after finding it, you can make your life easier by subscribing and spreading the word through the "add this" button on the bottom right of this post. Or simply add it to StumbleUpon through my cake on the right. :)

Above all, piano tutorials is a forum for beginning piano players. So feel free to leave your thoughts, questions and shouts through the comments forms.

Have fun!