How to Find Out How Old a Piano Is

We hear this question quite often from people who are looking to sell their piano or from those who are just plain curious.  In this eHow video, Greene Music technician Russell Berkley will show you how to find out how old your piano is.

Where Can I Find Sheet Music or Music Books?

 

 

If you’re looking for piano sheet music or music books try these stores in your area or shop online.

San Diego County

Bertrand’s Music – www.bertrandsmusic.com (Rancho Penasquitos & Carmel Valley)
Guitar Center - www.guitarcenter.com (La Mesa & San Marcos)
Harper’s Music Store – www.harpersmusicstore.com (Chula Vista)
La Jolla Music – www.lajollamusic.com (La Jolla)
Music Central – www.musiccentralsd.com (Clairemont & Mira Mesa)
Ozzie’s Music – www.ozziesmusic.com (Poway)

Online

Alfred Publishing – www.alfredpublishing.com
Guitar Center – www.guitarcenter.com
Hal Leonard – www.halleonard.com
JW Pepper – www.jwpepper.com
Mr. Musical Notes – www.mrnotes.com
Old Town Music – www.oldtownmusic.com
Sheet Music Plus – www.sheetmusicplus.com

Do you know of a good store to buy music?  Let us know.

Which Digital Piano is Best?

In this article, Classical pianist and Sony recording artist Simone Dinnerstein gives her 2 cents on some of the most competitive digital pianos in the market.  Click here to read.

 

Playground Sessions – A New Way to Learn Piano

Playground Sessions is a software platform co-created by music legend Quincy Jones.  The software is designed to teach piano lessons in a fun and engaging way using using your computer and piano.  The  music store offers wide variety of classical, pop, rock, or R & B songs.  Learn popular songs from artists such as David Guetta, Michael Jackson, Beethoven, Bach, Ray Charles, and many more.  Most songs are divided into three learning levels - Rookie, Intermediate, and Advanced.

Also available in the music store is the Bootcamp Library where students can purchase lessons on music theory, ear training, rhythm, notation, and keyboard skills.  The step by step video tutorials led by David Sides are available 24/7 and allow students to learn at their own pace.  During your lesson, you’ll get instant feedback so you’ll know which notes you’ve hit correctly or incorrectly and which sections still need some practice.  Students are awarded scores and badges for accomplishments in their lessons such as note and rhythmic accuracy, mastering a section in Bootcamp, or for making progress in a particular genre.

For the true rockstar experience, Playground Sessions has an accompaniment feature that allows you to play with a band, record your own performance, and share it with your friends.  For more information on Playground Sessions, visit their website www.playgroundsessions.com.

Elton John Live Around the World

In celebration of Yamaha’s 125th Anniversary, Sir Elton John is scheduled to perform at the 2013 NAMM Show in Anaheim, CA using Yamaha’s RemoteLive technology.  His performance will be streamed live on Friday, January 25 at 9:30pm PST to Yamaha Disklavier owners all around the world.

This amazing technology allows Disklavier owners to watch the performance live while their piano duplicates the exact keystroke and pedaling the musician is playing.  Click here to sign up to be a RemoteLive beta-tester.

If you need help setting up RemoteLive in your home, please call (858) 586-7000 or send us a note!

 

New Steinway Selection Room Unveiled

Read about the new Steinway selection room suite which was named after beloved master piano technician, Dirk Dickten.

Click here to read article

Wounded Warrior Project

See how music has made a difference in this veteran’s life.

Click here to watch video

6 Ways to Enjoy Your Piano in a Busy World

“My kids are too busy to practice piano, and I can’t find time for myself, either.”

Tip 1: Adults find that piano playing is very relaxing, not a chore or obligation as they might remember it from childhood. A terrific time to play is right after you’ve accomplished your very last task of the day; dishes are done, teeth brushed, pajamas on, perhaps the next thing you’d normally be doing is turning off the lights. What a stress-free time to make some music! You just might go to sleep humming a favorite song – a soundtrack for your dreams.

Tip 2: Kids already have more than enough tasks, chores, and obligations in their busy lives today. Music can be a vacation from obligation as well as a brain-and-skill-building activity. Preparation for lessons should happen on a regular schedule; on the same days of the week at the same time. Eventually it becomes a normal routine that is part of everyday life like brushing teeth. Some families have told us that kids do very well playing in the mornings for 10 or 15-minutes, and doing another session later in the day.

Tip 3: Both kids and adults who only touch the piano to work are in danger of building up some resentment; imagine if a certain table or desk in the home was only ever used to pay bills, do homework, or take phone solicitations – you’d never voluntarily go near it! Go to the piano to play games, create your own music, sing songs, celebrate birthdays and holidays, and have fun!

Tip 4: Playing music a little every day is more important than how long you practice. If you’ve committed to yourself or your teacher that you’ll play for 30 minutes, it can be tempting to not play at all if you only have 5 or 10 minutes. Getting into a routine of sitting at the piano for just a few minutes is guaranteed to lead to longer sessions.

Tip 5: Even a 5-minute session at the piano can be divided up into two parts: Something I play really well and never get tired of, and Something I want to improve. Any improvement gives you a feeling of accomplishment, and will either motivate you to stay at the piano a little longer, or come back to the piano later with renewed enthusiasm. One student said she gained some extra time looking at herself in mirrors a little less each day. Another said that if he found himself aimlessly web or channel-surfing, he’d run to the piano for a few minutes.

Tip 6: For both adults and children, the piano is a fantastic place to express how you feel; to “take it out on the piano”.  Did you have to take out the garbage when it was really your brother’s turn? Won a soccer match? Spilled coffee all over yourself at an important meeting? Got an “A” on your test?  Banging out some happy (or sad) chords on the piano just might calm you down (or help you celebrate!).

Written by Ken Schoenwetter

Steinway and Daimler-Benz

The story of the Steinway piano dynasty is fairly well known; not so the connection between Steinway and Daimler-Benz. In 1886 the first car, powered by a fast running combustion engine, left the workshop of Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz, to stutter down the cobblestone streets of Germany. This event initiated the era of the “internal combustion engine”.

On October 6, 1888, a contract was signed between William Steinway of Steinway & Sons in New York and Gottlieb Daimler. The two men had become acquainted through Wilhelm Maybach who, during the World’s Fair in Philadelphia, visited his brother, an employee of Steinway. This contract provided for the manufacture of Daimler engines and products in America and the result of the contract was the “Daimler Motor Company” in New York. The site of the Steinway piano factory on Long Island, New York, offered sufficient space for the production facilities, especially for the installation of engines into boats.  After William Steinway’s death in 1896, his heirs decided to focus on pianos and sold their shares to General Electric.

In 1905, the company introduced the American-built 35 HP car named “Mercedes.”  The price of that vehicle ($7500) was over six times that of a new Steinway 9-foot model “D”, and in today’s dollars is about $500,000.00.  The “Maybach” lived on as a German ultra-luxury car brand with recent models containing polished wooden interior components supplied by Steinway & Sons.

Written by Ken Schoenwetter

References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Steinway
http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2011/08/steinway-and-daimler-the-grand-partnership-and-the-half-million-dollar-mercedes/
http://legendarysteinway.com/2011/10/02/steinway-mercedes-what-is-the-connection-2/
http://www.seriouswheels.com/cars/top-American-Mercedes-45-hp.htm

Are Uprights Better Than Grands?

“I heard that an upright piano is better than a baby grand.”  We’ve heard this, too, but never from an actual pianist, teacher, or music professional!  The upright piano is a popular option for people who live in an apartment or condo.  Most are mass-produced in much  larger numbers, and some low to mid-range quality uprights cost less than baby grands. These are legitimate reasons to buy one!  However, the design of upright pianos and baby grands are radically different, affecting not only the ease of playing, but the way the sound reaches your ears.

The first thing that you might notice is that the key on the upright piano is much shorter. When we have a child try the pianos out, they instantly notice that the keys on the upright feel heavier, particularly at the back of the key, and less balanced. Also, the baby grand piano has a mechanism for repetition that is missing in the upright. If you play a note on the upright piano and try to repeat it softly, or too quickly, there is no sound!  The baby grand is easier to play; the keys require less strength in the hands and arms, and there is much more control of volume and expression.

Sound reaches our ears from two sources, the vibration of the wooden soundboard, and the vibration of the strings. The soundboard of the upright piano is on the back a few inches from a wall. The sound does not come to us directly, but from inside the case, and bouncing off of the wall behind the piano. We get almost no sense of the vibration of the strings at all, and the sound can be described as “enclosed” or “muffled”. The baby grand piano is “open”, and the waves of sound coming off of the soundboard and string resonance come to our ears directly and intimately. It’s hard to describe, but the player feels more connected to the music.  Of course, the exception to all of this is when a poorly made or badly maintained baby grand is compared to a high-quality upright in good tune – we would take the upright every time!

As for the space requirement of the baby grand, don’t make up your mind until you’ve tried putting a piano template on the floor – a 5′ x 5′ small grand piano takes up less room than you think! Call us at (858)586-7000 or send us a note if you’d like to see whether a baby grand piano will fit in your room.

Written by Ken Schoenwetter

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