Piano practice whilst young improves brain’s musical capacity

Swedish scientists have performed a study on the brains of eight concert pianists in their thirties who started practicing the piano as children, and found that the pyramidal tract—which helps in the transmitting of signals between the brain and the pianist’s fingers—is “more structured in pianists than in non-musicians”.

Childhood is the best time in life to boost the brain’s “white matter”.

Read the full article: Piano power

Piano chords and scales online

If you ever struggle to remember the notes, intervals and fingering of musical chords and scales on keyboard instruments, then the Piano Room could be your online answer.

With a clear and uncluttered layout, it’s possible to select a large variety of chords with any root note, or a number of scales, from the ordinary to the exotic.

It’s not possible to see chords with a different inversion, but this isn’t a major flaw.

If your PC has MIDI capability, you can play the individual notes and complete chord with a variety of General MIDI sounds.

The lower window gives detailed information about the chord, such as alternative names, the note intervals, half-steps, and actual notes.

The keyboard image, showing dots for the chords and scales in real time, is clear.

A simple site that does exactly what it’s supposed to. Recommended.

What is a synthesiser?

A selection of definitions from the web on what a synthesiser (synthesizer) is:

• An electronic instrument often played with a keyboard and producing complex sounds, such as those of various other instruments.
• An electronic musical instrument which produces audio signal either by the direct manipulation of an electrical signal (”analog”) or by using mathematical functions to alter a stream of numbers (”digital”).
• A musical instrument that can generate audio WAVEFORMS electronically and modulate them to create new audio waveforms.
• A musical instrument that generates sound electronically and is designed according to certain principles developed by Robert Moog and others in the 1960s. A synthesizer is distinguished from an electronic piano or electronic organ by the fact that its sounds can be programmed by the user, and from a sampler by the fact that the sampler allows the user to make digital recordings of external sound sources.
• Electronic instrument that produces a wide variety of sounds by combining sound generators and sound modifiers in one package with a unified control system.
• An electronic music device that allows the control of the pitch, timing and tone of one or more signals.
• An electronic apparatus with a keyboard capable of duplicating the sounds of many musical instruments, popular among Post-Modernist composers and musicians.
• An electronic device that can generate and modify sounds electronically as in “synthesizer programming” in music (as used by the group Emerson, Lake, and Palmer).
• A synthesizer (spelling var. synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument designed to produce artificially generated sound, using techniques such as additive, subtractive, FM, physical modelling synthesis, or phase modulation to create sounds.

History and Introduction to Synthesizers

These resources are useful as a starting point for history and information about synthesizers:

• Wikipedia entry on Synthesizers
• Thomas Kolb’s Introduction to Synthesizers

Piano teacher student relationships vital to encouraging play from the heart

Billie Filleman, a piano teacher of many years, says that trying to ‘bypass the heart’ during the teaching of music and piano proficiency can lead to frustration for both teacher and student.

“The skill of music can be taught to anyone capable of learning. But to play music so it comes from who a person is . . . well, I don’t know any way to communicate that except through relationship,” she said.

She argues that the most gifted chidlren are also often the least disciplined. Her own experience bears this out:

“I flew by the seat of my pants my whole life, but music was the place where there was no satisfaction because it wasn’t an inside-out learning situation,” she said.

Read the full article: When gauging students, piano teacher plays it by ear

Taking jazz piano beyond the charted boundaries

New York is crawling with knockout jazz pianists, so why all the emphasis on Jason Moran and Brad Mehldau? It could be because they each start with jazz as home base, but play every note with one eye fixed on an outside turf not already mapped, surveyed and cataloged by jazz aesthetics. These aren’t necessarily spaces with signs on them - “hip-hop” or “classical” or “Latin” or whatever. They are personal, and they grow out of improvisational gestures. Many who like jazz, but are not of it - a growing number - have responded almost intuitively.

Read the full article: Taking Jazz Piano Beyond the Charted Boundaries

Yamaha Announces Distribution Agreement With Arturia

Will distribute and market virtual synthesizer software products in US

Yamaha Corporation of America has reached an agreement with leading virtual software synthesizer manufacturer Arturia to assume distribution and marketing of Arturia products in the United States, effective July 1, 2005.

Based in Grenoble, France, Arturia is known for developing some of the industry���s most realistic-sounding virtual recreations of vintage analog and classic synthesizers, including the Yamaha CS80 and ARP 2600. The company���s Moog Modular V and minimoog V are the only software synthesizers to be officially endorsed by Dr. Bob Moog.

All products use Arturia���s proprietary TAE modeling engine, which allows accurate recreation of sounds, tonal characteristics and graphic user interfaces unique to each of these sought-after vintage instruments. Arturia software synthesizers are also compatible with VST, AU, MAS, RTAS, DXi and other established plug-in formats.

TimewARP 2600 perfected in software

Way Out Ware has perfected the software synth version of the ARP 2600, called the TimewARP 2600.

They’ve created a remarkable digital simulation of the 2600’s fat analog sound while keeping all of the original control features.

Plus, some new goodies have been added, making the TimewARP 2600 even better than the real thing!

Digital technology audio software restores old piano recordings

Zenph Studios, Inc., a tiny North Carolina software company, has created a 21st-century player piano by using computer technology that digitizes old recordings and feeds that information to a real piano in a real hall, allowing it to replicate the original performance down to the action on the pedals and the touch of each of the pianist’s fingers on individual keys. That new performance is then recorded in stereo or surround sound, creating a rendition that is true to the original performance but one that is actually brand new.

Read the full article (registration required): Digital technology brings old piano recordings to life

Native Instruments to release Akoustik Piano

AKOUSTIK PIANO fuses the sampled sound, expressiveness and playability of three of the most reputable grand pianos – the Steinway D™, Bechstein D 280™ and Boesendorfer 290 Imperial™ – as well as the charismatic Steingraeber 130™ vintage upright piano into one application. AKOUSTIK PIANO covers the entire range of piano sounds and styles, transfusing the sonic characteristics and subtle tonal nuances of all four into your computer – the perfect complement for studios, rehearsal rooms, schools, stages and clubs.

Features include:

• captures the full body and feel of the original instruments
• latest recording technology as well as a specially developed microphone setup was used for all 4 pianos
• uniquely warm, transparent and flexible sound
• plays and responds exactly as real pianos do
• keys were sampled at varying velocities and great care was taken to capture the entire sustain and release phases
• brand new Layer Morphing Technology generates a seamless dynamic gradient
• first-class integrated convolution module, allowing highly authentic spatial characteristics to be added to the sound
• Interfaces: Stand-alone, Audio Units‚Ñ¢, RTAS‚Ñ¢, VST¬Æ, DXi‚Ñ¢, Core Audio‚Ñ¢, DirectSound‚Ñ¢
• Highly efficient sample engine based on KONTAKT 2, including Direct from Disk
• Adjustable mechanical noises of pedals and keys
• Keyboard velocity curve allowing response to be adjusted for different master keyboards
• System minimum requirements: Mac OS 10.3, G4 800 MHz, 512 MB RAM or Windows XP, Pentium 1 GHz / Athlon XP 1.4 GHz, 512 MB RAM, DVD Drive, 17 GB free hard disk space

Visit the product page: Native Instruments: Akoustik Piano

Music for Airports by Bang On A Can

Brian Eno’s Music for Airports became a cult classic since its conception in 1978, and New York’s ‘Bang On A Can‘ decided to create a version that could be performed live.

The idea to do ”Music for Airports” came from Michael Gordon, one of Bang on a Can’s composers.

”Eno’s music was carefully crafted, but his intention was to create something that would remain in the background,” Gordon said. ”In that respect, he failed — the music is more interesting than that.”

MIT’s Evan Ziporyn, composer and clarinetist, recalled that after the first live performance, in New York’s Lincoln Center, someone came up to him and said he had listened to the album every night for three years.

Artists in other fields were particularly attracted to the record. Composer David Lang remembered, ”It was on the heavy rotation list in every painter’s studio — you could listen to it and still keep working.”

Read the full article: Background music brought to the fore

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