Archive for Videos

Hiromi Uehara: Amarone in Jazz-Verona-12 October 2010

// November 25th, 2010 // No Comments » // News, Uncategorized, Videos

Interview with  Hiromi Uehara and with Pepe Gasparini  at Amarone in Jazz 2010

Some time ago we went to  Verona in order to talk with a young and talented artist: the japanese pianist Hiromi Uehara, that performed a piano solo concert at the Palazzo della Gran Guardia during the festival Amarone in jazz, the only italian live .

We chatted a little with  Pepe Gasparini, a musician and the festival’s artistic director, who illustrated during the interview the ends of this cultural project and told us about his musical vision, and  the Centro Studi Musicali di Verona  ( he is the president) with great enthusiasm. The result of this passion and effort is evident in the amazing good achievements and  in festival’s atmosphere. You can listen to what he told by this short video interview.

The climax of the event was, obviously, Hiromi Uehara performance, a young musician whose artistic talent and figure attracted our attention:  a genius of the piano, she began to study at the age of 6, attending the  Yamaha School of Music al Berklee College of Music di Boston. Today she is 31 and has played with Chik Corea or in a Philharmonic orchestra, important steps for an important musician like she has proved to be. The live performance didn’t deceived. In addition to recent compositions from her last piano solo project “Place to be”, Hiromi played pieces from old LPs and we could notice her extraordinary technical ability and deep empathetic approach to the instrument. We saw her smiling, crying, nodding…as the notes were something coming from her deepest soul.

Hiromi Uehara al pianoforte

Visionary, acrobatic, with waterfalls of notes that seem not to stop and, suddendly,  move to introspection, Hiromi  tells us her emotional world.. a world that is not abstract but comes from the observation of the little things of everyday life: flights , towns, pictures taken randomly ,  hotels,  impressions, a world that her sensitivity transforms into an original and rich musical language.

Here it is the interview with Hiromi… follow her because she will success..

Download the interview Hiromi Uehara

Giulio Cinelli – Michele Guerrini – Paola Parri

Lou Reed- Perfect Day (piano sheet)

// August 31st, 2010 // No Comments » // medium difficulty pieces, Videos

Venice in August. It’s a strange thing. I don’t know what do you think about but, to me, venice is a perfect winter city. Its architecture, its grey, its water, its history create an tired old-fashioned atmosphere. It’s like the last weak breaths of dying memory… and Lou Reed is a good soundtrack for it.

The message is clear: simplicity. Every single movement, action we make in our everyday life could be special.The crucial point is to be able to live without stress but giving value to everything around us. The beauty of “Perfect Day” is its lyrics, short little sentences full of  love.

“You made me forget myself

I thought I was someone else

Someone good”

“You” is Shelley,one of the most important women in Lou Reed’s life since his adolescence and to whom he dedicated many beautiful songs like: I’ll be your mirror..  their relationship had to live through several difficoult moments and at a certain point all was over. But nothing ended. Lou and Shelley began to meet secretly and a new fresh wind was around them and their little happy events….

But love is a secret and I have told too much… forgive me and watch this amazing  video.

Here you can download the piano sheet.

Mozart K238 (piano sheet)

// August 10th, 2010 // No Comments » // medium difficulty pieces, Videos

Mozart’s sonatas are beautiful stop! Unfortunately, few people understand and appreciate them.

For example, how can you feel indifferent about the sonata n.12? but, apart from the most famous ones, there is a lot as interesting as this. Look at Sonata n.5 which is  K 283 in G major. It is one of the first sonatas that you approach when you study Mozart. I remember when i did a test some time ago, I decided to play it and it was a great success!!. The problem is that you have to understand and interpret  Mozart’s sonatas with technical “gelidity”. SOmetimes the trick to play them well is to stop your creativity.  It’s not Chopin :) (more…)

Pink Floyd- Us and Them

// August 7th, 2010 // No Comments » // medium difficulty pieces, Videos

Video Us and Them

Please, make me a favour.
Before you read this post, watch the video and let you feel relaxed and loved by the cheerful colours of this song.

No words can explain, it’s a classical problem with peope like Pink Floyd. Oh God! It seems like the music comes out from the pc  to hug you like a sweet wind..
Us And Them is a song by the British prog band Pink Floyd from their famous album of 1973 The Dark Side of the Moon.
Lyrics are by Roger Waters and the music by Richard Wright.

The words are a proclaim against all wars of all times. It deals with those conflicts in poor third world countries where children and “new” slaves die without reason, while fat generals give orders, live and let die..

It’s a long song, and, even though it is rock, it has a slow rhythm: long organ chords melt up with a soft acoustic guitar and the piano to create the image of a peaceful place. We are all hypnotized!!
After the instrumental opening, Gilmour’s voice  begins to sing among long pauses.
This quiet situation comes to an end at the moment of the refrain  ( a great merit to the guitar that paints a distorted sense of tension).From this moment the notes become higher…
The piano solo by Richard Wright introduces  Dick Parry  and his immortal sax solo (my favourite in all Pink Floyd discography!!).
At the end of the song the last sad words “For the want of the price of tea and a slice The old man died” .

According to you, What does these words mean??

Perhaps… that a tea or a slice cost a human life?? Do we have breakfast “thanks” to the death of poor people?’

I would like to know your personal opinion… ;)

In the meanwhile…Here you can download the piano sheet.

“Us and them, and in the end we’re only ordinary man.”
White , Black,  where is the difference?

Exercises n.55-56-57 Beyer op.101 Lesson n.35

// August 3rd, 2010 // No Comments » // Beyer, Lessons, Videos

Beyer is becoming more and more difficult!!. Exercises n. 52-53-54 have introduced new obstacles, like the bass clef!!. Now, in this new compositions we have to study the bass clef for the left hand, even in a gradual way. Ine each ex. the same notes are proposed both for bass clef that  treble clef. So, it would easier to understand the differences between the two ways of reading, and, as the study goes on, to get used to the bass clef  that in the totality of piano sheets in linked to left hand.

Well, now let’s concentrate!

Ex. 55 uses the notes the  5 notes  from C to G for the right hand , at the contrary, the left hand mutates its positions several times, in particular in the changes from the bass clef to treble clef and vice versa. You will have to move your left hand!!.

Ex.56. Right hand is positioned from G to D, the same for left hand. The important thing is the (more…)

COLDPLAY-YELLOW (Piano sheet)

// July 28th, 2010 // No Comments » // medium difficulty pieces, Videos

Coldplay is not only Viva la Vida, their last work. They are a world famous band and they have managed to reach the success  enchanting millions of fans: It all began in november 1999.
There was a debut album to complete and all the passion and the dreams of a new hopeful band that spent  the new Year’s Day to write the last words of 2 songs: “Yellow” ed “Everything’s Not Lost”.
The first single  was “Shiver”,released in march 2000, that “won” the 35th position in the British charts. At the same time the band started to be object of interest by MTV.
Some months later,in June, the first tour started  and “Yellow” came out.The song gained the  4th position in Great Britain and was the real goal of the band.
Unfortunately, the album, Parachutes, released in july 2000, was not critically  acclaimed because of the clear similarities of the band’s sound with Radiohead style. BUT…..even though, according to the marketing sector album’s sales would have been around 40.000 items,  they reached 1,6 mln. only in Great Britain!!
Once conquered Europe, Coldplay were ready to sail for the USA.
Coldpaly were invited to many famous american talk shows like: Saturday Night Live, Late Night with Conan O’Brien e The Late Show with David Letterman (probably the craziest and the most original)…

Talking about Yellow: it’s not just a metaphor of love..the girl the singer loves is described through the beauty of the stars… there is another interpratation, more melancholic and pessimistic… the yellow is the colour of the skin..the colour of the disease the woman suffers from… she’s anorexic.. and the song is a symbol of the fight against this bad nightmare.

The videoclip was filmed close to  Swanage, in England, a famous place for its beautiful beach.

You can find here the  piano sheet of the song and, here, the link for the video.

Last year  Coldplay was accused of having copied the instrumental part of their new success VIva la Vida from the famous american guitarhero Joe Satriani.
At Grammy Award 2009 Coldplay confirm their greatness winning 3 awards: year’s song, best rock album and best  live pop group performance.

Albeniz-Godowsky’s Tango (piano sheet)

// July 25th, 2010 // 2 Comments » // hard pieces, Videos

Albeniz’s tango is an explosion of feelings: rhythm and sensuality lead our dreams to the sun and the heart of Spain. This is the perfect summary of a genial , (more…)

Exercises n.52-53-54 Betyer Op.101 Lesson n.34

// July 25th, 2010 // No Comments » // Beyer, Lessons, Videos

I hope you don’t think Beyer is easy. I know that the last exercises were not very complex to deal with. But now it’s time to face the n. 52-53 and the troublemaker n. 54.
N.52 has the original element to be in  6/8 time. In the lesson about simple and compound times,we have talked about  6/8 without going deep into it.. The 6/8 time is divided in  2 beats or movements, composed of  6 eights. In each movement we will have to play 3 notes of an eight:the rhythmic reading of the left hand, for example, is (ta-ta-ta) (ta-ta-ta). (in the case of 4/4 the corresponding figure would be the triplet). The important thing would be to play the three notes of the left hand each time the metronome beats. Essential is to play it SLOWLY.

N.53 is short but quite hard, in particular for the left hand that has to drop after the 4th beat in G to the middle C from the standard position . The right hand has no tricks or technical problems.

N.54 will give you an hard time. Apart the movements of the left hand, the right in the final bar makes a change of an octave…  and the  bass clef is introduced.

The bass clef  is represented graphically by an inverted  6  (originally the F, the F of FA) with 2 i is used to indicate the lowest notes and simplify the reading. (more…)

With or without you- U2 (piano sheet)

// July 11th, 2010 // No Comments » // easy pieces, Videos

With Or Without you is a famous song by U2, released in 1987 and included in the lp The Joshua Tree.Completely out of the stereotypes of the ’80s, the song talks about the painful end of a love story.According to another interpretation it would describe the relationship between Bono (the former singer) and religion.However it’s pointless to underline that it still remains a great song. (more…)

Vecchio Frack- Domenico Modugno (piano sheet)

// July 11th, 2010 // 2 Comments » // easy pieces, Videos


“Nella notte, mentre tutti dormono, solo un uomo cammina per le strade è un uomo in frack…” (in the night, while the people are sleeping, alone a man walks in the streets, a man in tails)

I must be honest: I asked to write about this song. I wanted to be myself to spread the wish to listen to it again and again, paying attention to the beauty of  this song’s words. I wanted to talk to you what this song has represented for me and for all the people who love Modugno.

“Vecchio frack” was written in 1955 by Domenico Modugno, perhaps the best among his masterworks. The song is surrounded by a deep melancholy from the beginning ’till the end.

I was 5, perhaps 4 and like any other “restless” child I didn’t want to go to bed. (more…)