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Wishing You A Happy Holiday Season

Elise — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 19:21:37 +0000

Merry Christmas!

Happy Birthday To Me It's my birthday today! Here are some of the AWESOME...

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NEWS: Everything Piano Has A New Look!

Elise — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 13:29:11 +0000

What Do You Think About The New Layout?

The Everything Piano website has a completely new look! While the site has gone through some drastic changes, everything is still here, although a lot of unnecessary pages and content have been cut and slimmed down to provide for more easier navigation. My favourite feature is of course the elegant sliding menu at the top. Click on one of the photos to be brought to one of the many subpages of the website (the same pages as shown in the lower end of the sidebar).

After much work and hair-pulling, I’ve finally got everything in place. The last step was to actually write a whole bunch of 301 redirects from my old blog and pages to the new domains/sub-domains of the new site. It’s finally been completed.

Feel free to explore the new layout and check up on updated blog posts, which should be coming very soon. If you want to leave any feedback on the new layout, please do so! Leave a comment below or email me at elise @ elisemoreau.com.

Happy piano playing!

FREE Piano Sheet Music and a FREE Piano eBook! Finally, my official website is up and running! Just follow...
Plans for a Better Piano Blog Here's just a little explanation about where I plan to...

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This Is What It Looks Like After Some Serious Piano Practice Sessions

Elise — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 20:30:31 +0000

Problem Areas In Piano Practice I'm back from vacation, and I've decided that it's time...
Slow Piano Practice One bad habit of many piano players is their excitement...

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Happy Birthday To Me

Elise — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 21:51:04 +0000

Today, I am 23 years old. I can hardly believe it. I still feel like I’m a teenager or something.

I’m very excited to say that for my birthday (from my dear parental unit), I am getting a PROPER piano stand for my Yamaha P-70 Electronic Piano. It’s been ordered, but I haven’t gotten it just yet. Right now, I just have one of those “X” stands that prop up the keyboard, mostly used for concerts and stuff because it’s portable and you can heighten it if you’re standing.

Anyways, it’s hard to use while I’m sitting, because my knees can’t go under it very well with the “X” legs getting in the way. A proper stand is definitely in order. Not to mention, I finally got a proper damper pedal as well. This is what I was using before:

Damper Pedal I Use Now

Now, I have a proper damper pedal. The Yamaha FC4.

Yamaha FC4

I thought I get could all three pedals into one built-in unit, but I guess I can’t. No big deal, since the damper pedal is really the only one I really use. I used to use the soft pedal on rare occasions when I was studying for conservatory exams.

Elise’s Musical Tip For The Day:

Your birthday is a great excuse to upgrade on the music equipment. Tell your friends and family that you want new stuff! It definitely worked for me…

Damper Pedals What Exactly Do The Three Piano Pedals Do? Right pedal...
Wishing You A Happy Holiday Season Merry Christmas! Bookmark on Delicious Digg this post Recommend on...
Yamaha P-70/P-70S Digital Piano Yamaha P-70 Digital Piano I own and use the Yamaha...

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YouTube Update

Elise — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 05:33:45 +0000

Okay, so here’s just a small update. As you may have seen, I’ve got the YouTube account happenin’.

What’s that? NO piano talent videos yet? Booooo.

Well, just wait a minute now. I am WORKING ON IT. In fact, tonight I did a practice run with my camera and amazing Yamaha MIDI recorder USB-port thing for Debussy’s Clair De Lune and it went pretty well.

The only problem is, I’m a perfectionist. I want to play it perfectly. No mistakes, no fumbles, no hard hits on certain keys, perfect rhythm, perfect musicality, perfect dynamics, perfect (ugh) arpeggiate chords… it all just has to be PERFECT. Well, almost perfect, at least.

And I’m getting there. Especially since I’m using this advanced MIDI recording thing, the sound is super clear, so you can hear anything that I do wrong.

Even while it does sound pretty good, I still wish I had a grand piano. There’s nothing like the sound of a concert grand. Someday, when I have enough money (and a big enough house), I will buy a baby grand piano and everything will sound even more amazing.

Thant reminds me, I have to remind my parents to call a piano tuner to get our poor, horribly-out-of-tune console piano back it to shape. I wonder if it can be saved…

Elise’ Musical Tip For The Day:

Well, I already posted before, so this doesn’t count. Are you a night owl? Stay up all hours of the night practicing. I’ve done this on several occassions. I’ll practice right from 11pm to 3am and wonder where the time went. It’s probably not the healthiest thing to do, but at least it’s productive. Happy practicing!

How Does A Piano Work? This is sort of like a science lesson. A lot...

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Plans for a Better Piano Blog

Elise — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 15:04:52 +0000

Well, after 15 successful posts all about various topics of piano and music in general, I think it’s time for a little update on where I plan to go further with this blog.

I’m currently in the works of constructing my official website and I hope to get it up and running quite soon, possibly in the next couple of weeks. The site is going to include a section called “My Stuff” where I hope to list, rank, describe all the resources I use to play piano, such as my Yamaha keyboard, my metronome, my sheet music, my piano books, my piano recording software, and other things I use.

Additionally, I’m still working on getting a YouTube account up so that I can start recording myself on the piano and sharing it with you through my website, and I’ll be posting those videos on my blog as well. I’m hoping to also record myself and post videos about certain aspects of piano technique, piano improvisations, and piano tutorials.

If I had my way, I would quit my day job and practice piano all day long, every day. This is how much I love music, I love the feeling of moving my fingers across the keys, and I love the sound that comes out of my piano. The feeling in indescribable, I go into a state of complete blissfulness. I want nothing more than to share my love of playing piano with the world.

Elise’s Musical Tip For The Day:

Today’s tip may seem simple to say in a few words, but still many people don’t follow it… Never give up. Playing piano is an art that takes a lot of time to achieve. Procrastinating is no good either. Every time I sit down to practice, I struggle, even though I have been playing for 15 years. And yet, without struggling, there is no success. I will continue to struggle, and I will get better; so will you. Persistence is the key to your success in playing piano. I hope you take my advice with seriousness, as I had only realized the seriousness of it given by my own piano teacher when I stopped taking piano lessons five years ago.

NOTE: I am away on vacation for the next week and I may not have access to the Internet. And, oh, how I shall miss my piano. Nevertheless, if I can try to steal someone’s wireless connection, I will try to post everyday. If I can’t, I will be back to posting regularly on Friday, August 7^th, 2009.

In Cottage Country Without My Piano I've been reading a lot these past couple days while...

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Allow Me To Introduce Myself

Elise — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 01:59:49 +0000

Welcome to my very first post on my very own blog! I’ve been meaning to start this blog for a while now. I think writing about my learning experiences with music and hopefully interacting with others through comments or other means of communication will really inspire me (and others as well).

Firstly, I will give a short introduction of myself. Even though there is an About Me tab on this blog, I find it proper to at least tell you a few things about myself considering the fact that this is my very first post to this blog.

My name is Elise and I am 22 years old. I live in the suburbs of Toronto, Ontario. I just finished my Bachelor of Commerce degree at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology this past spring and now I am working at a web-hosting company as a billing representative.

Did that sound enough like a cover letter for a resume? I think it did. Now onto some more personal stuff. Music? I play music!

I started training classically for piano at the age of 8 and stopped at the age of 18, right before I moved away to university. The highest certificate I achieved was my grade 7 practical examination with Conservatory Canada.

I used to absolutely hate training professionally for piano. I hated the technique, chords, scales, and all that other fingering stuff that sounded horrible and practically crippled my fingers. Over past 5 or so years that I stopped training professionally, I realized that I truly do have a strong passion for music and piano… just not the technique that goes with it.

Although I don’t like to admit it, I know for a fact that training all those years and perfecting my fingering technique has definitely helped my ability to learn songs and pieces.

Ever see someone try to play a few notes on the piano and their hands and fingers are just so stiff that they can barely stretch one note over? Yep. That’s where finger technique comes into play. It’s horrible to learn, but definitely worth it.

So, I plan on adding a few things to this blog and also plan on getting my main website (www.elisemoreau.com) up and ready to view. I plan on filming myself playing a few pieces and putting them in the Videos tab. I also have a ton of music I’ve collected over the years, and I think it would be great to share some of that music for free (the non-copyrighted sheet music, that is). I’ll be looking to put that underneath the Sheet Music tab, of course.

Please stay tuned for very frequent updates (I’m trying for daily postings here) and more development with the blog tabs and my main website in general. I was just so eager to start blogging, so here I am with my first post! Also, I’ll leave you with a little musical hint for the day to end each post nicely J.

Elise’s Musical Tip For The Day:

Getting back to my reference to stiff hands… Relax! When you’re playing the piano, try to touch the keys very lightly and gently. If you’re feeling stiff or frustrated or your mind is somewhere else, it’s best to leave the piano and find something to do to calm your mind (take a bubble bath, go for a walk, listen to soothing music, etc.). When you feel relaxed enough, come back to your piano. A relaxed hand is a much more effective hand!

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