Michael Jackson Song - 3 Piano Tutorials
Keeping Your Focus On Piano Playing
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Table of Contents
News
1. Piano Fingerings
2. The Whole Tone Scale
3. A Summery over Piano Scales
4. Piano Teacher Directory
5. Shell Voicings
Articles and Tutorials
1. Piano Tutorial - How to play "Ben" by "Michael Jackson"
2. Piano Tutorial - How to play "I'll Be There" by "Michael Jackson"/ "Mariah Carey"
3. Piano Tutorial - How to play "We Are The World" by "Michael Jackson"
4. Piano Tutorial - How to play "Happy Birthday to You" by "Stevie Wonder"
5. The First Piano Lesson (The Video) - How does the piano looks from the inside?
Pearls From the Forum and PianoTube
Coming Soon...
1. How to Sit at the Piano (The Video)
As we're in the process of creating piano videos for all of the beginner piano lessons, we'll focus on making a piano tutorial that explains how to sit at the piano, or in other words the Ten commandments for the correct piano posture.
2. Dotted Half Note (The Video)
In the coming month I'll add new free beginner piano lessons videos over the Dotted Half Note, Rests in Music and more...
3. Free Disney Piano Sheets
We sort of got stuck this month with creating lots of piano fingering exercises but as we're almost through with adding free beginners piano sheets to our complete piano lessons course, Ido will now focus on creating wonderful piano sheets over Disney themes. This is definitely something to look forward to.
Important Notices
1) Word-Of-Mouth Grows Us All. Please Pay It Forward And Spread the Word.
No matter how you do it, please spread the word... Tell your friends and family, colleagues at work, about Piano Play It. Piano Play It grows purely by word-of-mouth, allowing me to provide you the best piano lessons and piano information, to attract people just like you, and help you become the best piano player you can be.
2) A Special Note For New Piano Play It Arrivers...
Parts of this e-zine may not make sense to you. All it means is that you are not "there yet" in the process of piano playing. So skip those parts. You will re-discover that material later as you progress in piano playing when it's the right time for you, when you are ready to deal with it.
3) Piano Play It Forum is Indispensable
An absolute don't-miss, Click here to view the forum feeds
Click here for more forum info below.
A Few Words by the Author
Hi Guys, Piano Play It has been growing a lot lately and so I'd like to begin with thanking you for paying it forward and for being such an enthusiastic part of our website.
I'm proud to have such motivated students!
In this part of the E-zine I usually focus on telling a story that was meaningful during the past month, or which I thought you could find useful.
Today I'd like to tell you about my experience with Sivan.
Sivan is a student of mine at the age of 17.
She just started playing the piano a few months ago. She is very intelligent and she has a bright musical sense that can pull her forward. It's a pleasure to teach such a student.
We've been working on reading piano notes, playing chords and playing piano by ear. She's one of the people who has a talent in doing all of that pretty well.
The time has arrived and I taught Sivan about the eighth notes. Then we decided to celebrate this by playing the song "Happy Birthday".
She played all the notes correctly at once but there was one important thing she didn't pay attention to... The Tempo.
Well, don't get me wrong. Usually I recommend starting practicing a song more slowly at first but this time something else was on the line.
The tempo stated the word "Merrily".
I mentioned that to Sivan but no matter how many times she tried she couldn't find the joy in herself to put the joy into the song.
Now, being a pianist has more to it then reading piano notes. We are actors. We have to pay attention to the small details.
We have to communicate and sometimes pretend to be something we're not since we're playing a role. That can be hard sometimes.
The mood of the piece is also stated in the music tempo.
Sometimes we have to add our own interpretation to a piece.
Happy Birthday is a joyful song. I'd be playing it forte or at least mezzo forte (quite loud), and with at lease a moderate tempo (Definitely not slow).
But more than that, I have to work on myself and find the joy from the inside in order to put the joy into the melody, into the piece on the outside.
I asked Sivan to think of five good things that happened to her in the week to come and to return at the next lesson and try to play the song again after thinking about those things. It worked like magic. She played the song in such a cheerful way!
This is a great example on how a piano lesson could be so meaningful in taking your life to a different corner.
We had a talk about her not being able to experience happiness lately and how we could change that, and all of that through piano playing.
Nice ha?
After playing Happy Birthday we decided to play the song "My Favorite Things" She did so well with it. I was so proud!
Bottom line, always look for more then note reading when you play piano. Look after the nature of piece, its mood. Try to understand what it is that you're playing and what you'd like to say or communicate.
You'll realize that the other elements in music become easier.
And what's the reason a piece is written to be played in a certain manner.
Let me know how you doing with that o.k.?
I hope you found this article useful.
Dave
1. Piano Fingerings
I've been working on two important pages in the last month that focused on piano fingerings.
The first one deals with basic piano fingerings. Beginners would find that page very useful. You'll learn about the names and numbers of the fingers and how to position your hand on the piano.
The most important part of this page, maybe, is the concept behind playing the piano by switching hand positions. Oh, and did I mention the video on this issue?
Click here to go to the Basic Piano Fingering.
For more advanced piano players who are frustrated with the fact they never succeed to play the correct fingerings I've made this page over advanced piano fingerings containing info on the different cross overs and unders, performing jumps and stretching fingers. Ido, my partner made some fantastic piano exercises based on these issues.
Click here to go to the Advanced Piano Fingerings.
2. The Whole Tone Scale
The whole tone scale is a scale made only out of whole tones.
In the next page I'm showing you how to form the scale and more important, I give examples from the literature that will show you how beautifully this scale can be used.
Click here to view the Whole Tone Scale page.
3. A Summery on Piano Scales
Sometimes we need these one in all pages.
There are so many piano scales around that I thought it would be wise to help you with this great summery to clearify this important issue.
Click here to view the Summery on Piano Scales.
4. A Piano Teacher Directory
Although I'm trying hard to provide you with so much information on piano playing I must admit that I can't replace a private piano teacher.
The relationship between a private teacher and a student inspires and allows giving individual attention to the student.
The internet is limited when speaking of correcting your hand posture since I can't really see what you're doing, right?
Therefore I decided to look around for a company that makes sure you'll find a great private teacher nearby your neighborhood.
And guess what? I did find it!
If you live in the U.S.A you should really check out Take-Lessons
and start following private piano lessons along with studying piano through Piano Play It.
Click here to find a Private Piano Teacher.
5. Shell Voicings
Shell voicing is a terrific way to spread chords over two hands.
If until today we played the bass with the left hand and the chords with the right hand (when playing piano chords) Today we'll learn to allow the left hand to play an extra note and create an interesting open sound that will outstand you!
Click here to read and play the Shell Voicing.
1. How to play "Ben" by "Michael Jackson"
When I heard that Michael Jackson passed away I was completely shocked. I guess I always dreamed I'd see him live again.
I'm a real Michael Jackson fan.
Through the years Michael Jackson was going through a lot but I never forgot how I used to imitate his movements and some of my dancing and singing manners are still influenced by him.
Therefore, this month was dedicated to creating three piano tutorials over Michael Jackson Songs.
The first one is "Ben". If you never saw M.J singing this song with his orange clothes you should really check it out in Youtube. He's amazing.
This ballade is great since we're going to learn to play open position chords which are chords that are spread over two hands on the piano.
Click here to watch the piano tutorial of "Ben" by "Michael Jackson".
2. A Piano Tutorial on How Play "I'll Be There" by "Michael Jackson" / "Mariah Carey"
This is another Michael Jackson Song from his early period with the Jackson Five. I first heard it when Mariah Carey performed it in her unplugged.
It's a beutiful song and I'm sure you'll enjoy playing it with the nice intro in the beginning.
Click here to play "I'll Be There by "Michael Jackson" / "Mariah Carey".
3. Piano Tutorial - How to play "We Are The World" by "Michael Jackson"
Last but not Least, here's a piano tutorial on how to play "We Are The World" sang by the super group arranged in the 80's by Michael Jackson to help stopping starvation in Africa.
This song is straight for beginners and I just know this catchy melody will be stuck in your head forever.
Click here to watch this piano tutorial on how to play "We Are The World" by "Michael Jackson" on piano
4. Piano Tutorial - How to play "Happy Birthday to You" by "Stevie Wonder"
Moving from Michael Jackson to Stevie Wonder is a natural natural thing to do.
Both sang in the Motown Company, both performed great solos in "We Are the World" and more important both of them are my true idols.
I was looking for a song that will be easy to play, with lots of joy and handy in birthday parties. I didn't have to think twice.
Happy birthday to ya! Ha-ppy Birthday to Ya!
Click here to play "Happy Birthday" by "Stevie Wonder" on piano.
5. Piano Tutorial - How to play "We Are the Champions" by "Queen"
"We are the champions" is a great piano song. The Harmony is so interesting, the 6/8 rhythm is fresh and to hear Freddie Mercury sing... Simply to die! :)
You can learn a lot from this piano tutorial. Give it a try.
Click here to play "We Are the Champions" by "Queen" on piano.
Scan the "string of pearls" for subjects of interest. Visit those and skip the rest. Don't worry about missing anything if you are pressed for time. We convert pearls of enduring value into articles in the different sections, which we announce in later E-zines.
Wish List & Work in Progress at Piano Play It!
Imminent...
1. Piano Chords Video Lessons
2. Free Video Games Piano Sheets
3. Piano Stuff Section
Comments? Ideas? Feedback? I'd love to hear from you. Just reply to this e-zine and tell me what you think.
See you next month!
Dave
www.piano-play-it.com
Written by David Yzhaki, M.D.
Founder & Chairman of the Board
PianoPlayIt.Com
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