PianoMother.com: Blog Posts

Greensleeves Holiday Piano Lesson

Thu, 30 Dec 2021 00:00:00 EST

The year 2021 is wrapping up as we speak. I am writing to you from the beautiful city of Seattle, now blanketed in white snow.

Although these past 22+ months have had its bumps and lumps along the way, progress has been made, and I am so thankful for the advancement in medical technology. I continue to marvel at the effort and goodwill of citizens globally as we battle this resistant virus. I am also grateful for our friends and family despite the challenges we face in meeting one another face to face.

I wish you and your family a blessed 2022 New Year. As we march toward this new year, please enjoy the following Holiday video tutorial, “Greensleeves.” This lesson is perfect for beginner and intermediate players and features three left hand techniques that will get you up and ready to play any song with a special twist.

If you want to slow down the video, you can change the video playback speed by clicking the Settings icon at the bottom of the video when it plays.

Give Thanks Piano

Thu, 25 Nov 2021 00:00:00 EST

As the year comes to a close, let us give thanks for the many blessings in our lives. While this past year may have been difficult for many of us, it is good to remember and express gratitude for the good things in our lives.

This Thanksgiving, I would like to share with you the song "Give Thanks (with a Grateful Heart)" by Henry Smith. Smith, in 1978, wrote the song after experiencing many difficulties in his life, particularly when finding work. Like Smith during the time of the song's conception, this past year may have been difficult for many of us, but, as the song title suggests, let us "[g]ive thanks with a grateful heart." Let us express gratitude for the many things we have been blessed with--our loved ones, our friends, the food we have on our tables, and the shelter over our heads. Have a blessed Thanksgiving!

We Wish You A Merry Christmas Piano Tutorial

Sun, 29 Nov 2020 00:00:00 EST

In this video tutorial, I use the popular Christmas song, We Wish You A Merry Christmas, to demonstrate how to practice a new song. I have listed the guidelines below.

Sections - Break the song into a few sections before you start practicing. Practice one section at a time.
Fingering - Look at the first few measures. In this case, I start with a G note and play it with the thumb of my right hand. The 3rd measure has D and E notes. So I will play them with the 4th and 5th fingers of my right hand.
Rhythm - Clap out the rhythm. I start with the 3rd beat in this case.
Right hand and left hand - Practice the song with your right hand and left hand separately. After you become comfortable with each one of the hands, practice the section with both hands.

There are also a few Don'ts:

Don't write letters on sheet music if you want to improve your sight reading skills.
Don't practice the whole song in a day. Practice 2-4 measures at one time.
Don't cross over your fingers to play higher notes. Move your hand to the right instead.

Hope these tips will help you practice new songs more effectively in the future. Here is the sheet music of the song. Feel free to leave your comment in the comment area.

101-Year-Old Pianist

Thu, 3 Sep 2020 00:00:00 EST

A love of music-making can surpass almost any difficulties. Take Antonio Cadenas, for example. He's someone who's suffered immensely under the affliction of both Alzheimer's Disease and time, but has managed to eke out some incredible tunes on the piano. It's truly amazing what a man who's just recently entered his hundred-and-first year of life can do on an instrument. In the video, you can see Antonio wonderfully perform Lagrimas y sonrisas, by Juan D’Arienzo.

You can witness just how powerful of an experience making music is. Antonio's life and talent is simply a true testament to piano-playing and music-making. I'm truly thankful to be able to hear and see this venerable man share his musical talent. Thank you, Antonio. If you'd also like to share the joy of music like this admirable elder, why don't you check out our courses below!

Piano Lessons on DVD

Digital Downloadable Piano Lessons

How to Improve Piano Playing Skills

Tue, 21 Apr 2020 00:00:00 EST

Introduction

How to find practice time

How to practice hand (fingers) coordination

How to improve music notes reading

How to improve music rhythm

How to analyze the music

What a Wonderful World Piano

Mon, 30 Mar 2020 00:00:00 EST

What a Wonderful World is a jazz song written by Bob Thiele and George David Weiss. It was first recorded by Louis Armstrong in 1967.

"It ain’t the world that’s so bad but what we’re doin’ to it. And all I’m saying is, see, what a wonderful world it would be if only we’d give it a chance." - Louis Armstrong

To learn to play the song and download the sheet music, click here.

Merry Christmas 2018

Sun, 23 Dec 2018 00:00:00 EST

As we say goodbye to 2018 and hello to 2019, I'd like to share a video with you: a Christmas video featuring Elton John created by John Lewis & Partners . I hope you enjoy this beautiful video as much as I do. Let’s keep making beautiful music during this holiday season.

Wish you and your family a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Carol of the Bells Piano - Ostinato Pattern

Tue, 23 Oct 2018 00:00:00 EST

As we approach Christmas season, I was inspired to remake a Christmas video lesson that I shot a few years ago. This lesson features a popular Christmas carol, Carol of the Bells. Originally a Ukrainian song, this carol was composed in 1914. The carol has since been arranged and performed in many different genres such as jazz, classical, rock, pop, etc.

A familiar feature of this song was the repeating 4-notes ostinato. The musical term, ostinato, is a phrase that repeats itself. The original ostinato term is derived from Italian word: stubborn. You can watch the following video and hear for yourself what ostinato means. One thing to notice is that I was able to also use a repeating pattern for the left-hand as well. As a result, you are seeing ostinato on both right and left hands.

This is also an interesting carol to experiment with improvisation. In fact, the more you experiment with this song, the more you will get the hang of it. I am having a lot of fun improvising with the right-hand melody using G minor scale. See for yourself on how you can get better at playing the ostinatos and improvising.

I also challenge you to learn this song without any sheet music – you can do it!

Ballade Pour Adeline - Richard Clayderman

Sun, 7 Oct 2018 00:00:00 EST

I am excited to share that I attended a piano concert featuring Richard Clayderman at Benaroya Hall in Seattle, Washington during his USA tour. It was a beautiful experience as I was able to watch the pianist I grew up loving play wonderful music I loved and still enjoy.

If you, too, grew up listening to piano music in Asia, chances are you have heard of Richard Clayderman, a popular French pianist. A few of his famous piano pieces include Ballade Pour Adeline, Mariage D’amour, Nostalgy, and many more. His music is considered standard repertoire for pianists who enjoy playing modern ballad music.

Although many pianists do not consider Clayderman’s music to be difficult to play in comparison to the classical music of Chopin or Liszt, his music still adequately fits in the intermediate to early-advanced skill range.

While I too grew up learning classical music, I did not find classical music particularly exciting to play. When I was a teenager, my piano-playing friends and I gathered in groups, each playing individual pieces; I overheard someone played Ballade Pour Adeline by Richard Clayderman and for the first time I fell in love with his music. Soon after, I asked my piano teacher to teach me Clayderman’s songs. Before I knew it, I was practicing his music for many hours, growing increasingly more passionate about this sentimental ballad music type. It was to the point where I started to arrange and improvise on music.

I realize there are many genres of piano music and therefore it is important to experiment with different styles of music to become truly interested and passionate about piano playing. Therefore, I feel especially fortunate to have heard Richard Clayderman’s music at a young age. His music helped me appreciate modern ballad music and contributing to my hours of piano practice. It also made me interested in exploring different improvisational styles. Yes, his music may not be technically challenging, but they are certainly beautiful and pleasant to one’s ear. Even now, I can still play many of his music by memory. The melody and harmony of his music are well arranged and composed, making it very easy to memorize.

If you have not heard of his music, I encourage you to check this video below; I specially recorded his Ballad Pour Adeline. Sheet Music of Ballad Pour Adeline is also available.

Beyond the Sea (La Mer) Piano

Thu, 13 Sep 2018 00:00:00 EST

I had a chance to visit Paris this Summer and couldn’t help but fall in love with the city of lights. Paris reminded me of a few beautiful romantic songs composed by some well-known musicians: “Clair De Lune” by Debussy, “Rhapsody in Blue“ by Gershwin, and “La Mar” by Charles Trenet. Some of you may have heard of the romantic French song “La Mer"; this song has since been re-arranged into many modern arrangements. The version that captured my heart is the love song called “Beyond the Sea” by Bobby Darin. As you may notice in the video below, I apply the I-vi-ii-V (1-6-2-5) chord progressions when I improvise with the tune.

The 1-6-4-5 chord progression and the 1-4-5 chord progression are two of the most popular chord progressions. Take a look at some popular guitar songs—you will see that these two chord progressions cover almost 70% of the song compositions. Should you be interested in the 1-6-4-5 chord progression technique, I discussed it in an earlier video clip - How to Compose a Song. Another song that utilizes this chord progression technique is “Heart and Soul."

Subsequently, many songs also appear to have use a slight variation of these two chord progressions; for example: 1-6-2-5 (I-vi-ii-V) or 2-5-1 (ii-V-I).

Chord progression is a big topic to cover. We will touch on this in future blog articles.

I challenge you to arrange this music on your own using the simple 1-6-2-5 chord progression in the key of C major (C – A min – D min – G7). Let me know your experience in playing with these chord progression techniques. You can send me your video or leave a comment below.

As a side note, Debussy also composed a musical piece called la mer (available both in orchestral and four hands piano format).