Everything Piano | Piano Sheet Music

Posts Tagged ‘Popular’

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.

• Bookmark on Delicious
• Digg this post
• Recommend on Facebook
• Buzz it up
• Buzz it up
• Mixx it up
• Share via MySpace
• share via Reddit
• Share with Stumblers
• Tumblr it
• Tweet about it
• Subscribe to the comments on this post

After more than 50 posts on this blog, I noticed that I was getting the most comments on the topic of easy piano sheet music. I definitely want to put in an effort to try and make more posts about easy piano and easy sheet music.

Since I am always searching for advanced pieces, I sometimes forget how frustrating it can be for some people who search for easier pieces, only to find medium to hard pieces.

If you haven’t yet checked out 8notes.com, I would advise you too. They are one of the top free piano sheet music sites on the Internet, with thousands of easy arrangements and compositions.

In addition, I have reviewed the following five easy piano sheet music books, and they all receive my approval. In fact, many of them exceed my expectations. All of them have received at least a four or five start rating from customer reviews. If you’re looking for a great easy piano book, you can definitely find everything you need with these five books.

The Best Songs Ever – 6^th Edition (Easy Piano) by Various Artists

This easy piano book offers you 71 all-time favourite hits from various pop, Broadway, and movie genres. It includes easy piano notation, lyrics, and chord names. Here’s what someone said about this book: “I bought this for my 12 year old daughter and it is perfect. Easy music yet the arrangements sound great! We both love it. I can actually play the songs with very little formal piano training.”—Deb Taylor from PA

100 Best Loved Piano Solos – Big Note Easy Piano arranged by Robert Schultz

100 Best Loved Piano Solos include mostly pop, TV, movie, rock, and country songs with big note notation (for easy reading) and includes fingering. Brian from Spain said, “It’s what I’m looking for since I’m learning with my son again the basics. It’s good to see a variety of types of music to keep it fun.”

VH1’s 100 Greatest Songs of Rock & Roll – Easy Piano by Various Artists

This book features a collection of the best and most influential rocks songs of all time. With 100 different pieces, you get easy piano notation, lyrics, and chord names with each piece. Here’s what KP from Key West said: “Great rock classics! My 14 year old is now much more excited about playing the piano- thank you!”

21 Great Classics – Easy Piano arranged by Phillip Keveren

This piano book is great for the beginner classical pianist. Pieces included come from the Baroque and Classical Period, with fingering and introductory text. “This is a wonderful collection of classical music for the beginner! I was able to sit down and play many of the pieces after not having played for 35 years! I love this book.”—Maxine from OH

35 Christmas Songs And Carols – Easy Piano by Various Artists

Christmas is just around the corner! Just in time for you start practicing so that you can impress everyone with your holiday piano pieces. The book includes vocal melodies, piano accompaniments, lyrics, fingering, and big note notation. Teresa from NC said: “This is a wonderful book for songs to play when you are just beginning like I am. Easy to read, easy to use.”

And there you have it, folks, some of the best easy piano books with the greatest variety in music. I strongly urge you to check these out!

Elise’s Musical Tip For The Day:

If you are looking for some really simple sheet music, you can still use advanced pieces! Some arrangements (especially from the pop and contemporary genre) have an extra staff line for vocal melodies above the grand staff. These notes are meant to be sung, but you can play them as well! Just focus on those top melody notes and you can play them on the piano. I do this all them for little exercises and sometimes to improve my sight reading.

• Bookmark on Delicious
• Digg this post
• Recommend on Facebook
• Buzz it up
• Buzz it up
• Mixx it up
• Share via MySpace
• share via Reddit
• Share with Stumblers
• Tumblr it
• Tweet about it
• Subscribe to the comments on this post

I know everyone LOVES free stuff. And for piano players, free piano sheet music is like gold. Ahh yes, thank goodness for the Internet. What did people do before it? They had to actually go to a real music STORE and actually PAY MONEY for sheet music?

Pfft…

This is 2009, people. With all the piano stuff I need or want, free piano sheet music is probably right there at the top. That’s exactly why I created a page on my website for free piano sheet music. In the top picture menu, choose “Sheet Music,” and the third option is to sign up for my free sheet music subscription.

Now, there’s another blog I’d like to mention as well. For years, I’ve searched and searched, spending hours online looking for free piano sheet music. For a long time now (YEARS, I’m sure), I’ve been regularly visiting www.my-piano.blogsopt.com.

At first sight, it just looks like a regular blog. But in reality, it’s a GOLD MINE for piano players like you and me who are frustrated by searching for free sheet music. There are hundreds of links to almost anything contemporary song piece you could ever think of.

Everything is in alphabetical order, so you can just scroll down the page to the name of the artist or song title, and there you can find your favourite popular, musical, movie theme, or contemporary piano sheet music.

Elise’s Musical Tip For The Day:

Check out those two links! The one from my own website, and the one from My Piano Contemporary Piano Sheet Music. I’m thinking of also doing some research on how to find free piano sheet music for beginners. Most of the free piano sheet music here being offered is for piano players who have advanced past the beginner stage. I will definitely be looking into this quite soon I’m sure.

• Bookmark on Delicious
• Digg this post
• Recommend on Facebook
• Buzz it up
• Buzz it up
• Mixx it up
• Share via MySpace
• share via Reddit
• Share with Stumblers
• Tumblr it
• Tweet about it
• Subscribe to the comments on this post

I’ve been playing the piano for 15 years now, and I’ve also spent a lot of time searching all over the internet for specific sheet music that I can find for free. For a lot of musicians, I think this is a pretty common trend. Usually, we know it’s somewhere out there on the internet (even though it probably shouldn’t be because of copyright protection), but we just have trouble finding it.

For this reason, I’m the works of creating a nice, big, long list of popular and classical piano pieces, along with the corresponding hyperlink that will take you directly to the free piano sheet music. I’ve found a terrific resource that has hundreds and hundreds of free sheet music, and I thought that I should probably share this with everyone.

I’m still working on it, so it’s not quite done yet, but I’m estimating that the list will include approximately 250 to 300 piano pieces. I think that’s a lot. When I’m done, I’ll probably put it in PDF file format and then, when my official website is all done, you’ll be able to just type in your name and email address and the list will be sent directly to you email. Instant access to hundreds of free piano sheets!

I think this is a pretty good idea, and I’m pretty proud of myself for coming up with this. I really hope that it will help a lot of piano players out, and save a lot of time from searching for hours all over the internet for free piano sheet music.

Once I’m done, the place to sign up for my free piano sheet music list is going to be located at www.elisemoreau.com/free-piano-sheet-music. (Don’t try going there right now because the page does not exist right now.) I’m also going to create a link caption on this blog that links directly to there.

So, when will this be done? I’m hoping within the next week, and even possibly the next few days.

Elise’s Musical Tip For The Day:

Stop searching for free piano sheet music, because I have found a solution! And check back here for my update of when my free piano sheet music list will be up!

• Bookmark on Delicious
• Digg this post
• Recommend on Facebook
• Buzz it up
• Buzz it up
• Mixx it up
• Share via MySpace
• share via Reddit
• Share with Stumblers
• Tumblr it
• Tweet about it
• Subscribe to the comments on this post

I’m going to share with you a video I found a few months ago, of two extremely talented musicians. It’s a pretty popular video, all over Google and YouTube. Pianist John Schmidt is my hero. Not to mention, piano and cello harmonies are my favourite. Both instruments complement each other so incredibly beautifully, and you’ll be amazed at the sound that comes from these two instruments when they’re played together.

Not only that, but I never thought I’d ever be such a big fan of music from Taylor Swift, nor Coldplay. Incredibly, piano arrangements of popular songs can sound a hundred times more amazing than the original pop song.

I love how the Cellist (Steven Sharp Nellson) really establishes beat of the piece, moves into more of a harmonization between both instruments. The bridge of “Love Story” is delivered beautifully, before returning to the original chorus and structure of the song, and then the piece almost builds up a sort of climax, as the piano delivers an amazing and extravagant set of chord progressions while the cello plays one of the corresponding chorus melodies.

With the common rhythm aspects between the two songs (Viva La Vida by Coldplay and Love Story by Taylor Swift), the entire performance drifts smoothly into the second song (Viva La Vida). I’m more of a fan of the Love Story arrangement because I feel like its more creative in comparison to the original song and the melodies and bass are more distinct in relation to when they move into the Coldplay song.

Also, as they move into Viva La Vida, they decided to add the whole sort of lyrical verse, “Ohhhh ohhhhh ohhhh ohhhh oh,” and so on. There are also some other instruments that I can hear in background, such as such more percussion and even perhaps other string instruments.

All in all, this is an absolute masterpiece, a true work of art. I’ve watched it over and over again because I just can’t get enough of it. I have been teaching myself some Talyor Swift arrangements on the piano (Love Story and also Teardrops on My Guitar) but they are not ready at all, unfortunately. I’m thinking of purchasing the piano sheet music from John Schmidt’s website, but I’m afraid it won’t sound nearly as good without the harmonization of the cello.

Elise’S Musical Tip For The Day:

Watch this video! I hope it inspires you in some sort of musical and artistic way. Sometimes, I just completey adore popular arrangements. If they are built with a lot of variations and chord progressions, they usually sound extraordinary.

• Bookmark on Delicious
• Digg this post
• Recommend on Facebook
• Buzz it up
• Buzz it up
• Mixx it up
• Share via MySpace
• share via Reddit
• Share with Stumblers
• Tumblr it
• Tweet about it
• Subscribe to the comments on this post