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beethoven

Piano Music Books – A Guide To Selecting The Right Ones

by Tania Gleaves on December 19, 2011

There are probably hundreds of thousands of piano music books available and this number is enough to overwhelm anyone! Fortunately, most of them are organized in various categories to make their selections fairly easy. The following describes some of those categories while disregarding for a moment the cost, language, or locality of where they may be used.

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By Composer

Finding piano music books by composer is always an option and finding music in this category will strengthen your appreciation of the artist behind the music. There are hundreds to choose from and they range from the most popular to the virtually unknown. The following is a list of the more popular composers:

William Byrd
Giovanni Gabrieli
Heinrich Schutz
Henry Purcell
Antonio Vivaldi
Johan Sebastian Bach
George Frideric Handel
Franz Joseph Haydn
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Franz Schubert
Ludwig van Beethoven
Frederic Chopin
Robert Schumann
Franz Liszt
Johann Strauss II
Johannes Brahms
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Richard Wagner
Claude Debussy
Richard Strauss
George Gershwin
Igor Stravinsky

By Skill

By convention, piano music books are also categorized by skill:

Beginner – appropriate for the pianist who is learning about basic music notation, scales, tempo, basic rhythms, scores, and simple melodies for example.

Intermediate – appropriate for the pianist who is learning about chords, dynamics, articulation, cadence, and music variation for example.

Advanced – appropriate for the pianist who is learning about playing solo or as part of a duet, in addition to other complicated aspects of piano composition.

By Genre

Piano music books categorized by genre really shed insight into why classical piano music was written and what external forces in history influenced the way that it was composed. The major genres that we have are the Middle Ages and Renaissance, the Baroque Era, the Classical Era, the Romantic Era, and the Twentieth Century. One of the problems in appreciating classical music (as well as any other form of art) is failing to appreciate the time in which it was created and the societal pressures that influenced its development. Yet it’s really amazing to see how that appreciation transforms into a deep respect the moment that its history is understood.

Since each one of us plays the piano for different reasons, we can select our materials according to our own motives. Whether the motives are technical, historical, or out of sheer admiration, we now have an ample supply of materials that can help shape our experience with playing the piano into one that is uniquely our own. In the absence of such choice, we are left alone to dictation and a situation that breeds conformity instead of creativity.

Click Here And Learn From The Best Piano Music Books!

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Beethoven Piano Music – The Story of “Ode to Joy”

by Tania Gleaves on November 18, 2011

Beethoven piano music is known to anyone who has ever taken piano lessons. Ludwig von Beethoven changed the world of music with his compositions for orchestra and piano.

Born in 1770, the German composer first learned music from his father, who was exacting and hard.

Rumor has it that sometimes Beethoven’s dad would come home after a long night of drinking with his friend and get Beethoven up, forcing him to practice the piano the rest of the night!  (That’s no way to raise kids or learn piano!)

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Anyway, Beethoven obviously learned what his dad wanted him to learn, because when he was only 16, he had a chance to play for the famous composer, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Mozart was one of the first that got to know Beethoven piano music and predicted that the young German would “astonish the world” with his talent.

Mozart was certainly right!

Beethoven really lived a tragic life, though. His hearing began to fail while he was still in his twenties. It must have been heartbreaking to be losing his hearing when he had such an obvious passion for music.

The result was that he became depressed and morose in personality as he grew older, and even contemplated taking his own life.

In order to communicate with people, Beethoven kept books in which he and his acquaintances wrote down their conversations. These records are still used to help musicians get a feel for how the composer intended for his music to be played.

“Ode to Joy”

One piece of Beethoven piano music that has been loved by many down through the years is his “Ode to Joy”. This song is from the final movement of his beautiful ninth symphony.

The tune has been familiar for a century or more as a Christian hymn entitled “Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee”. The words of the hymn were written by Henry van Dyke.

Then in the peace and love days of the early Seventies, the Spanish singer, Miguel Rios, released a version called “Song of Joy” that spoke of a coming day of harmony and peace among all of mankind. It’s certainly a shame that almost 40 years later, we don’t seem to be much closer to seeing that day. Let the dream live on, though!

The song, “Ode to Joy”, is often included in beginner piano courses, because it is a fairly simple tune.

It’s also useful because it is so familiar. A beginner should know how the tune should sound so they can hear if they are playing it right.

Well known songs need to be included in the lessons, instead of just random notes thrown together for practice purposes. It will make the lessons more enjoyable for the learner, and make you sound like you know what you are doing early in your piano course.

Classical music will never really go out of style. The rhythm and meter of a song like “Ode to Joy” has a timeless beauty and appeal.  It truly is one of the most beloved Beethoven piano music compositions of all.

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Classical Piano Music – Still King in the World of Piano

November 13, 2011

Classical piano music is an enigma in a world full of techno-laden pop slop. A capsule of a bygone era, the music style lives on with ferocious tenacity. The legacy lives on. Generally speaking the age of this style of music spans between 1750 and 1820. During this time master composers such as Bach, Beethoven, [...]

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