This well-known traditional carol, which is often called Deck the Halls, needs no introduction. The free sheet music can be downloaded below (underneath the video) or via the Sheet Music page.
In this arrangement, both hands stay in position most of the time. But watch out for the right hand thumb-under in bar 11. Notice that all the notes in bars 11-12 can be found in the middle of the 2-octave scale of G major.
Here’s a spooky piece which has been specially written for animatedpiano.com . The free PDF sheet music can be downloaded below (underneath the video) or via the Sheet Music page. Goblins and Ghosts! is a staccato study which will need careful counting. Remember that the spaces between the notes are just as important as the notes themselves!
If you enjoy Goblins and Ghosts!, why not make a video of yourself playing it and upload it to YouTube? For extra effect you could dress up in a Halloween costume! But don’t worry if you’re not able to learn it in time for Halloween, it would be good at any time of the year.
Do you wish you had a piano scale book that could play each scale to you, show you the notes on the keyboard and help you to prepare the fingering? If so, we think you’ll like the new series of scale videos from animatedpiano.com! This video introduces them and shows some examples.
The complete list of scale videos can be found on this page: Scales, chords and exercises. It will be updated when new videos are available.
In these difficult times, musicians are having to find unusual ways to perform. Here’s a recent recital given by concert pianist Mariam Batsashvili, from her home. The recital includes pieces by Chopin, Liszt and Paderewski, with spoken introductions to each piece. Watch and enjoy!
And here’s another stay-at-home concert from Mariam Batsashvili. More Chopin and Liszt, and a sonata by Haydn.
Wait, there’s more! This third recital features a selection of works by Liszt.
Andrew Lloyd Webber is currently self-isolating as a precaution against coronavirus. He has decided to make some videos of himself playing some of his songs on the piano. Here is a selection:
(Watch carefully at 0:41…)
This piece can be played as a solo or as a duet part for Jingle Bells (level A0, featured in the previous post). It may look a bit complicated, but don’t panic! Just remember that fingers 2 and 3 of each hand are on black keys. The only exception is in bar 7, where the right hand plays D natural.
Here is the sheet music and the video:
Here is the teacher reference sheet for Jingle Bells (level A0) and One-horse Open Sleigh (level A3):
What, yet another version of Jingle Bells for easy piano? Yes, but this one’s a bit different. It’s a very simple ‘pre-notation’ arrangement, which is centered around Middle C. Hand positions are shown in the video.
A companion piece, ‘One-horse Open Sleigh’, is coming up in the next post, together with a teacher reference sheet for both pieces.
This next video tells you exactly what it says in the title. You may find this fun to watch even if you already know how to number your fingers.
The first of our original videos is an animated version of a piano note chart. As the letter names appear on the chart, the notes are played on the piano. Towards the end of the video (after 2:12), the full chart will stay visible for several seconds. Pause the screen at this point if you would like to study the chart.
William Byrd (c1540 – 1623) was one of the leading composers of the English Renaissance. The Carman’s Whistle is his setting of a popular tune from the time of Elizabeth I. Note that the performer in this video is reading the music in a very 21st-century way – from an iPad!
Here’s an arrangement of a Prelude (originally for solo violin) by J.S. Bach. It’s played on a replica of a clavichord from 1670.
Larger clavichords can be used to perform many piano pieces from the early Classical era (Mozart and Haydn, for example). Here’s Mozart’s Rondo Alla Turca (Rondo in Turkish style):
Hearing late 19th-century piano music played on a clavichord is unusual, to say the least. However, here’s a clavichord performance of Grieg’s Wedding Day At Troldhaugen, from book 8 of Lyric Pieces (1896). The performer has had to adapt the music slightly, due to the clavichord’s short keyboard range and lack of sustaining pedal. Even so, it’s surprisingly effective.
For comparison, here’s Wedding Day At Troldhaugen again, but this time played on the piano. In this recording (audio only), Leif Ove Andsnes plays a Steinway piano which was owned by Grieg (see http://griegmuseum.no/en/about-troldhaugen).
