Coldplay Piano Accompaniment

Classical piano is probably the most expressive and complicated genre to learn in terms of note and harmony variation. You never know what’s coming. Arpeggiated chords? Trills? A chord attack? But that’s what makes it a great challenge!

There are those pianists who don’t focus much on advanced classical pieces and lean more toward popular or contemporary pieces. Most often, a good piano arrangement of a popular song can actually sound ten times better than the original song that you may hear on the radio. Some people find them easier to play and learn because arrangements usually take advantage of chords in the left hand that can be easily identified and used throughout the entire song while the right hand plays the melody. And unlike classical music, a popular song will almost always follow the format of intro, verse one, chorus, verse two, chorus, bridge, and chorus. This can make it a little easier because the verses and choruses will sound similar, if not exactly the same.

Learning to play popular and contemporary pieces can be even more fun if you or someone you know has a good singing voice and can sing along to the piano. This is called accompaniment piano, and it can be more difficult to master than you might think.

Even though most contemporary piano sheet books come with piano/vocal/guitar notes and lyrics, this doesn’t mean that you’ll have an easy time fitting the vocals and piano accompaniment together. To make it easier on you, here are six steps you can keep in mind when you’re learning how to play accompaniment piano.

1. Chords are primarily played in accompaniment piano, while the singer provides the melody. The piano acts as a supporting role, not the main role.

2. Be careful not to overplay, especially on an acoustic piano. Pianos are very strong instruments and can easily overpower someone’s singing voice. When you come to any sections in the passage which must be played forte (loud), make sure to limit your aggressiveness at those times.

3. You must lead the singer without making it too obvious. Playing the first note of every vocal line can help guide the singer and cue his or her vocals without sounding awkward or too obvious.

4. You can double the root note of the chords to give weight and expressive range to the chord progressions. The result is a more effective tonal foundation for the vocalist.

5. During the times that the singer isn’t singing, you can create musical fills as it relates to the melody and chords. This is basically the time that the piano accompanist should shine.

6. Make sure to maintain a good knowledge and study of chords, as they are the main tools in your repertoire for accompaniment piano. The more chords that you know, the better equipped you will be.

Elise’s Musical Tip For The Day:

For a complete course on how to learn and master accompaniment piano, check out How To Accompany. There is a 30-day moneyback guarantee, so you can give it a whirl for a month to see how it works and how you can benefit from it.

This blog post has been sponsored by your friends at www.HowToAccompany.com.

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Glee

Glee is my new favorite show. It’s one of the most successful new primetime TV shows this year and I gotta say that I’m hooked, yet slightly disappointed that they’re taking a winter break and putting it back on the air in April.

I think Glee has had so much success because it incorporates comedy, drama, and music and performance into one incredible hour-long segment with fantastically talented characters that can appeal to the younger generation (the high school characters) and even the older generation (the teacher characters). This show has a wide range of audiences, and it’s easy to see why.

Glee Songbook For Piano/Vocal/Guitar

Glee Songbook (Piano/Vocal/Guitar)

Lucky for us piano players, Glee has just come out with a brand new piano/vocal/guitar songbook with 120 pages of Glee’s best hit songs so far. The book is made up of 16 songs, including Take a Bo, Alone, Somebody to love, Walking On Sunshine, Don’t Stop Believin’, Halo, Push It, Confessions Part II, It’s My Life, Gold Digger, Keep Holding On, Rehab, No Air, and Bust Your Windows. It doesn’t say what level you should be at to start practicing with this book, but I would expect that it to be at the medium/intermediate level of piano playing.

You can search for these songs on YouTube with the word “Glee” included in the search to hear these incredible arrangements. Their most well-known one is Don’t Stop Believin’, originally sung and released by Journey back in 1981. You can listen to the Glee cast’s arrangement in the YouTube clip below.

Elise’s Musical Tip For The Day:

You might be interested in buying more than the songbook. Click on the following thumbnails to get more purchasing details on the Glee Volume One DVD Collection, Glee: The Music, Volume 1, Glee: The Music, Volume 2, and 3 official Glee movie posters!

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How Much Piano Will You Practice In 2010?

The new year (or new decade , rather) is only a couple of days away. Do you have your New Year’s resolutions set and ready to go?

Sometimes I think it’s kind of funny how most people mark January 1^st as the beginning of a “new and better year.” You don’t really need a new year to achieve any certain goals, but I guess it gives a lot of people a clean-and-fresh-start type of feeling.

The problem with New Year’s resolutions is that people make ridiculously huge goals to achieve, but don’t make any real plan or mini goals to get there. Quitting smoking, getting into shape, and improving school grades are great goals, but they also take a lot of work and lot of time. Most end up falling off the wagon and never getting back up again.

I’ve done this. Since I stopped musical conservatory training, I’ve been not-so-great with making time for piano practice. After all, playing the piano is really just a hobby I do now. My worst habit is learning one or two pages of a piece without learning the rest. I probably have 10-15 pieces that I could play without their ending because I never stuck around to learn the rest. I always get bored and move onto another piece or get side-tracked and distracted by something else that reduces my practice time.

It’s time to set things straight. Here a few guidelines that you and I can both take to make it a better year for piano practice.

Make time to practice. There are only 24 hours in a day and almost everyone struggles to get everything done before the day is over. You don’t have to spend hours practicing the piano. In fact, you don’t even have to spend one hour, or half an hour. Spaced repetition is the best practice method. Long periods of practice are unproductive because the brain starts to tire and get bored after a while, thus resulting in less effective practicing. Try spending at least 15 – 20 minutes a day practicing. Maybe break that down into 5-minute sections of three or four pieces that you are working on.

Start off small. So, you want to tackle a piece that is 27 pages long? You’ll get there, passage by passage. Don’t rush it. Make it your goal to play one entire line within one week. Make a second goal to learn one an entire page by the end of the month. Mini goals like this will make the task seem less daunting.

Play it 10 times repeatedly. As Chopin once said, “Simplicity is the final achievement. After one has played a vast quantity of notes and more notes, it is simplicity that emerges as the crowning reward of art.” Take one bar or one passage, and play it 10 to 15 times. Repetition forces your hands and fingers to get used to the positioning and forces your brain to memorize the passage. By the 10^th repetition, you’ll probably notice that you can play the passage faster and more easily. Yes, it can be tedious, but it is necessary.

Use the metronome. Ah yes, the dreaded metronome. We all love that terrible little device that sends a piercing clicking noise through our ears and literally forces us to know the truth about our playing in conjunction with timing. Don’t avoid it. Use it. Lucky for you, practicing with a metronome for long periods of time messes up your personal sense of timing, so remember to keep metronome practice short. Read my post about how to effectively practice with a metronome here.

YouTube It. If you want to learn a specific piece, do a search on YouTube and you can listen to various interpretations. There are even thousands of tutorials that people make to help you learn. You can watch a person play and study the hand and finger movements as often as you want. Listening to a certain piece repeatedly is very helpful when you practice because your brain automatically develops a framework for what the finished piece should sound like, and then you can add your own artistic components to make the performance your very own.

Elise’s Musical Tip For The Day:

2010 is going to be a big year for everyone. I know how hard it is to force yourself to sit down and groan through the repetitive and tedious movements of a certain passage, but it must be done to achieve what you want. Take these tips with a grain of salt and remember how good it feels once you’ve completed and mastered a piece.

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Staccato Notation

By its simplest definition, staccato is the execution of play in which the finger is instantly bounced off the key, producing a very brief sound with absolutely no sustain. Basically, it’s a very swift and quick “plunk” of the piano key or keys.

Playing staccato ensures that the backcheck is not engaged and the damper cuts off the piano’s sound immediately after the key is pressed. There are two music notations to denote staccato, the normal (dot) and hard (triangle). For normal staccato, the jack is released, while in hard staccato, the finger moves up and down much more quickly and leaves the key before the jack is released.

So, when playing in normal staccato, the key drop is generally about half way down, while in hard staccato, the key drop is usually less than half way down. The damper returns to the strings more rapidly, thus resulting in a shorter note duration. Since the backcheck is not engaged, the hammer can actually bounce and make repetitions seem very tricky depending on speed of playing.

In staccato, there is no sustain. Play the staccato notes as if they all include rests after each of them.

I, myself, have experienced problems executing staccato at relatively quick speeds. This happens with many piano players, usually because it is being played at the wrong frequency where the hammer bounces the wrong way. Changing the speed and the amount of key drop will help optimize the sound staccato and correct execution.

Considering the fact that I’ve talked a lot about key drops and hammers, you should know that it really helps to understand how a piano works to learn how to play staccato correctly. Staccato can be divided into three groups depending on how it is played:

Finger Staccato. This is played by holding the hand and arm still, using the finger to press the key in a pull motion.

Wrist Staccato. This is played with a very neutral motion. The hand neither pulls nor thrusts, and is mostly played with a flick of the wrist, or wrist action.

Arm Staccato. This is played using a thrusting motion, with the upper arm executing the motion.

As you progress from finger staccato toward wrist staccato and arm staccato, you’ll likely discover a number of new things. Working toward wrist and arm staccato adds more mass behind your fingers. Therefore, using finger staccato will give you the ability to produce the lightest staccato, and is mostly used for single notes, or notes played pianissimo. Obviously, arm staccato allows you to use the heaviest touch and is useful four passages that use a number of notes and/or chords and which are generally played forte. Wrist staccato lies there somewhere in between.

Elise’s Musical Tip For The Day:

Some music teachers frown upon the use of some staccato plays (specifically, wrist staccato), but it is generally very useful to become familiar with all three types. Changing between the three types of staccato can help reduce fatigue during a long piece. Body movement plays an integral part in playing in staccato, and you must learn to use the weight of your body to execute the sound, while remaining relaxed at the same time so as not to produce stress over the course of playing the passage or composition. To vary the speed of staccato you must remember that staccato repetition is controlled by the amount of up and down motions. Therefore, the smaller the motion, the faster the rate of repetition.

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Happy Holidays!

Can you believe that it’s already December 12^th? There are only twelve more days of Christmas shopping, decorating, caroling, egg nogging, cooking, and ugly sweater partying. I may be a little late on delivering the best Christmas sheet music considering that there are less than two weeks until the big day, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t get started and even be extra prepared for next year.

I’m usually pretty bad with practicing Christmas music and I always have been. I procrastinate like crazy and before I know it, it’s December 23^rd and I’ve only learned the first page of the piece. If I get my piano playing butt into gear, I’ll be able to finish a specific piece soon, which I’ll post to YouTube (hopefully).

I’ve been a recurring member of Virtual Sheet Music for a long time, and when it comes to holiday sheet music, they have the best to offer. I would suggest going with Virtual Sheet Music as opposed to Sheet Music Plus when it comes to Christmas music. They have better deals and more variety, especially for the advanced players.

And despite the annoying Christmas carols that we often find ourselves surrounded by in malls, grocery stores, and at the dentist, the piano arrangements offered by Virtual Sheet Music are delicately composed to include a wide variety of beautiful chords and harmonies. They sound absolutely amazing.

Christmas Carols (Easy Piano)

Christmas Carols (Easy Piano)

For the beginner piano player, this book offers three amazing Christmas carol collections of 13 pieces each, for a total of 39 pieces. These collections include almost every holiday carol you could think of, and come with lyrics and chords. These collections are ready for download in PDF format, with the option to download the MIDI and mp3 files as well. Even if you’re not going to be the one playing these pieces, they make a great gift for a friend or family member!

Christmas Variations (Advanced Piano)

Christmas Variations (Advanced Piano)

For the advanced pianist, this collection is like a holiday dream come true. I downloaded this collection for free as a member back in November, and I was blown away. I’ve learned the first two pages of Carol of the Bells so far. What truly makes Virtual Sheet Music stand out is their inclusion of MIDI and mp3 files. You can listen to the exact piece before you buy it and even use it to help your piano playing.

Elise’s Musical Tip For The Day:

Virtual Sheet Music is one of the best sheet music websites because of their high quality sheet music scores and their membership alternative. I would typically not recommend buying each collection separately (even though this is an option). You can join as a member for $37.50 per year and gain free access to their entire library of sheet music and audio files. You can download as many files as you want, as often as you want. And if you’re not satisfied with your experience, they do have a return policy. So, what are you waiting for? Click here to become a member of Virtual Sheet Music.

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Twilight

If you haven’t heard about the latest Twilight obsession, then you must be living under a rock. You don’t have to be one of the fans to know that the story’s focus is vampires, or that everyone is obsessed with the vampire character, “Edward Cullen.”

Last year, I bought the first book and got through about half of it before getting very bored with it. If I were 12 years old, I probably would have been way into it. After the first motion picture came out, I rented the movie “Twilight” with some friends and was not impressed. And just recently I went to go see the second movie of the series (New Moon) last week in theatres with one of my Twilight-obsessed friends.

Surprisingly, I loved it! I was surprised by my liking of the second movie, as opposed to my disgust by the first movie. I guess Twilight was too dry and boring for me and I thought the acting was terrible. New Moon had a better storyline and more action. I’m also a sucker for romance, and I completely fell in love/lust with the werewolf character, Jacob. Is it so wrong that he’s only 17? Probably.

Anyways, if you’re a Twilight fan, I’ve got just the thing for you. That’s right, original piano sheet music from the motion picture soundtrack of Twilight!

Twilight (Piano/Vocal/Guitar)

Twilight (Piano/Vocal/Guitar)

This book offers you some different things as compared to the piano solo book. First of all, it includes all lyrics and guitar chords in addition to piano scores. The book is 72 pages, including 11 songs that are slightly different than those offered above. Bella’s Lullaby is included, along with the hit singles Decode by Paramore and Go All the Way (Into the Twilight) by Perry Farrell, as well as songs from Muse, Linkin Park, Collective Soul, Mute Math and others, plus Never Think by British actor Robert Pattinson, who plays the movie’s male lead.

Twilight - The Score (Piano Solo)

Twilight – The Score (Piano Solo)

This 32-page book includes original intermediate to advanced piano arrangements from the Twilight movie. The arrangements make up 11 unique pieces, including Dinner with His Family, Edward at Her Bed, I Dreamt of Edward, I Would Be the Meal, In Place of Someone You Love, The Lion Fell in Love with the Lamb, Phascination Phase, Stuck Here like Mom, Tracking, and Who Are They?

Twilight - The Score (Easy Piano)

Twilight – The Score (Easy Piano)

If you’re not quite up to the level of intermediate or advanced piano playing, there’s the option to still enjoy the Twilight soundtrack pieces as a beginner piano player. These easy piano arrangements make up the 40-page book of 11 pieces, including Bella’s Lullaby, Dinner With His Family, Edward At Her Bed, I Dreamt Of Edward, I Would Be The Meal, In Place Of Someone You Love, Phascination Phase, Stuck Here Like Mom, The Lion Fell In Love With The Lamb, Tracking, and Who Are They?

Elise’s Musical Tip For The Day:

If you are a Twilight fan, you’ll probably have a lot of fun with this music. I personally recommend the first book (Twilight for Piano/Vocal/Guitar) since it has gotten amazing testimonials and a five-star rating. I’ll be looking out for the piano sheet music for the New Moon soundtrack. I’ll be sure to post reviews on it as soon as it comes out.

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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!

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La Leçon De Piano (The Piano Lesson) By Marguerite Gérard (1761–1837)

Musical training during a very young age can be strikingly rewarding. In fact, most babies who are frequently exposed to perfectly tuned piano sounds and music have a tendency to automatically develop what is called “perfect pitch,” which is the ability to identify a musical note without any given reference.

This may seem unthinkable, but there is actually nothing extraordinary about this. Nobody can be born with the perfect pitch ability because it is a skill that is 100% learned.

Piano training is most effective when it is reinforced at a relatively young age. Children can begin learning when they are as young as three or four years old.

Exposing infants and toddlers (typically from birth) to classical music is very beneficial from a musical standpoint, because classical music involves the highest musical content out of all different types of music. Classical music is characterized by more complex components.

In comparison to classical music, certain types of contemporary music can hinder a child’s musical development. This is due to the fact that some forms of music over-emphasize detracting aspects like loudness or music structures that are too simplistic, which under-stimulates the brain.

An individual does not have to be especially “gifted” in order to play the piano well, which is why enrolling any child in piano lessons at an early age can be beneficial. Many people think that forcing their child into piano lessons at a younger age will result in their child being unable to sit still or concentrate on piano practice and technique.

Quite honestly, you will never know whether you child grows up to choose the piano or not, until they actually grow up. My sister (age 5) and I (age 8 ) were enrolled in piano lessons at the same time. My sister never truly developed the passion needed for piano persistence and she quit a few years later. I, on the other hand, kept on going to participate in competitions and conservatory examinations. Our difference in age had nothing to do with it (the fact that I was older). It was simply an outcome of trial and error by my parents who decided to enroll the both of us in piano lessons. I never went forward in ballet, gymnastics, curling, or soccer… but piano, I did.

Younger children can also benefit from piano lessons because there is no need to force them to practice for long hours on end. While practice makes perfect, it’s unwise to force a child to practice for long periods of time.

Many famous pianists have recommended practice sessions of less than an hour.

Not only is this beneficial for musical improvement, but it is also easier to keep a child focused on practicing over a half hour-long practice period, as opposed to a two hour-long practice period.

As a final note, advancement in piano practice is highly dependent on the ability to eventually memorize musical compositions.

In piano, it’s recommended that one should memorize as many pieces as possible before the age of 20.

Why? Pieces learned during earlier ages are almost never forgotten. Again, even if they are forgotten, they can be picked up again quickly. Pieces learned after the age of 40 actually require a lot more effort for memorization and maintenance.

Elise’s Musical Tip For The Day:

Learning the piano should never seem like a daunting or overwhelming task for a young child. The child should be given the opportunity to explore and learn at their own pace. The right piano teacher will be able to observe and guide young children throughout the learning process to help keep them interested in fun, musical exercises, while also rewarding them as they grow to achieve certain goals in music.

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Ragtime!

Ragtime is an incredibly upbeat, jazzed-up, feel-good musical genre that was most popular between 1897 and 1918. It began as dance music in the red-light districts of several American cities lie St. Louis and New Orleans, even years before ragtime music was published as popular piano sheet music.

Known as the “King of Rag,” Scott Joplin became famous after his publication of “Maple Leaf Rag” in 1899. Maple Leaf Rag was a heavy influence on subsequent ragtime composers and their publications for years and years afterward because of the piece’s melody and harmonic progressions.

Here is my very own interpretation of Scott Joplin’s Maple Leaf Rag.

Advanced Piano

Scott Joplin: Collected Piano Works

If you are interested in stepping into the ragtime genre, there is no better composer to study than Scott Joplin. I recommend Scott Joplin: Collected Piano Works for a complete collection of Joplin’s greatest works, including rags, marches, and waltzes. This piano sheet music book has received a 5-star rating and is meant for those players who are in the early advanced stage of playing.

Medium Piano

Ragtime Favourites by Scott Joplin – Piano Accompaniment

For those who are not quite advanced, but past the beginner stage, there are several arranged Joplin pieces to fit your level. Ragtime Favourites by Scott Joplin – Piano Accompaniment is meant for the medium-level piano player. It includes 36 pages of amazing rags that are not too difficult, but not too easy for those who need the challenge.

Easy Piano

Joplin’s Greatest Rags For Easy Piano

Now, what if you’re just a beginner? You can still enjoy learning ragtime pieces. In my earlier piano days, I learned several easy ragtime pieces that were specifically arranged to for beginner piano players, with the same great sound of the original composition. If you’re looking for easy ragtime music, I really recommend Joplin’s Greatest Rags For Easy Piano. You don’t have to be an expert pianist to tackle these pieces.


The original publication of Maple Leaf Rag (which I played in the YouTube video) is a grade 9-level piece. When I first started learning this piece, I was studying for my grade 7 conservatory exam. This just goes to show that when you really want something, and you really discipline yourself to study the piece and practice often, you can achieve anything. Luckily, I was prepared with enough technical expertise and training to go beyond my grade-level to learn how to play this piece.

Elise’s Musical Tip For The Day:

Don’t be intimidated by the fast-paced movements and detached notes of the ragtime genre. If you are really interested in learning ragtime pieces, look at it as if it were a magnificent challenge, and don’t let anything hold you back. Focus on the easy or medium level Joplin pieces if you are not ready to tackle the original advanced compositions. You’ll be happy you did! Ragtime is one of the best genres of music that can help you feel happy, perky, and really good about yourself.

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